Hello all. I apologize for the long post but I wanted to include as much detail as possible so others could help.
My boyfriend and I have owned our cat, Domino, for two years now. When we adopted him he was potty trained, as was one of my requirements to owning a cat as I don't have much experience in house training cats. He's a beautiful cat that is funny, energetic and gets along very well with our dog. The only problem with the cat is that he refuses to use the litter box the majority of the time and has accidents, both poop and pee, all over the house. When this problem first surfaced shortly after we adopted him we chalked it up to a new environment and the stress of getting used to all the changes in his daily life. As he settled in things got better for a very short time and then the problem would continue. We took him to the vet to determine if his accidents were him trying to tell us something was wrong, but the vet gave him a clean bill of health. Since then we have bought more litter boxes and placed them where the problem areas were only for him to start going were the litter boxes used to be, we would then move them back only to have him start going in the first area again. We clean out his litter boxes and even refresh the litter in them and wash out the boxes with bleach, as I read that the cats love the smell and it encourages them to use the box more often. We've tried different types of litter as well, with no success. At one point we even adopted another cat because it was suggested that it might encourage him to shape up, but this only made the problem worse. Someone else suggested that we buy him more things to call his own and he would stop trying to mark everything else, and this only gave him more things to have accidents on/in. All through this we've taken him to the vet over and over and have found nothing medically wrong. We haven't moved and we try to keep the house on a stable schedule because we have been worried he has been stressed out but since no major changes have happened in a really long time I don't believe this is the case. We tried teaching him not to climb on our furniture in hopes that keeping him off of it would stop the problem, but that has also not worked. We also have deep cleaned everything he has gone on with enzyme cleaners (we've tried many different kinds) and deep cleaning vacuums but nothing has stopped him from continuing his problem. Over the last year or so I've been retraining him to use the litter box by moving him to a single room hat has food, water, toys and a litter box. This seems to be what works the best, but he only continue the good behavior for a few weeks, longest a month, before he's having accidents all over the house. The last time we did this though, he started going right next to his food. He even climbed up on his favorite chair that we leave in there with him, went on the chair and then laid in it until he moved and we noticed it.
In the two years that we've owned this cat he has destroyed floors, carpets, furniture (including family heirlooms passed down to me from my great grandfather) and stereos with his behavior. At this point I don't know what to do. We've been trying to ease him into being an outdoor cat but he hasn't taken well to it at all. Both my boyfriend and I would also rather he remain an indoor cat as we live next to two busy streets and all our neighbors have dogs that they allow to roam freely about the neighborhood. We've talked about allowing someone else to adopt our cat from us, but even though he has this problem, we still love him and it breaks our heart to think of giving him away. I feel like I have tried everything I know of to do, and I'm desperate for ideas or if someone else has had a cat with an issue like this please let me know what you've tried and what did/did not work. Thank you!
My boyfriend and I have owned our cat, Domino, for two years now. When we adopted him he was potty trained, as was one of my requirements to owning a cat as I don't have much experience in house training cats. He's a beautiful cat that is funny, energetic and gets along very well with our dog. The only problem with the cat is that he refuses to use the litter box the majority of the time and has accidents, both poop and pee, all over the house. When this problem first surfaced shortly after we adopted him we chalked it up to a new environment and the stress of getting used to all the changes in his daily life. As he settled in things got better for a very short time and then the problem would continue. We took him to the vet to determine if his accidents were him trying to tell us something was wrong, but the vet gave him a clean bill of health. Since then we have bought more litter boxes and placed them where the problem areas were only for him to start going were the litter boxes used to be, we would then move them back only to have him start going in the first area again. We clean out his litter boxes and even refresh the litter in them and wash out the boxes with bleach, as I read that the cats love the smell and it encourages them to use the box more often. We've tried different types of litter as well, with no success. At one point we even adopted another cat because it was suggested that it might encourage him to shape up, but this only made the problem worse. Someone else suggested that we buy him more things to call his own and he would stop trying to mark everything else, and this only gave him more things to have accidents on/in. All through this we've taken him to the vet over and over and have found nothing medically wrong. We haven't moved and we try to keep the house on a stable schedule because we have been worried he has been stressed out but since no major changes have happened in a really long time I don't believe this is the case. We tried teaching him not to climb on our furniture in hopes that keeping him off of it would stop the problem, but that has also not worked. We also have deep cleaned everything he has gone on with enzyme cleaners (we've tried many different kinds) and deep cleaning vacuums but nothing has stopped him from continuing his problem. Over the last year or so I've been retraining him to use the litter box by moving him to a single room hat has food, water, toys and a litter box. This seems to be what works the best, but he only continue the good behavior for a few weeks, longest a month, before he's having accidents all over the house. The last time we did this though, he started going right next to his food. He even climbed up on his favorite chair that we leave in there with him, went on the chair and then laid in it until he moved and we noticed it.
In the two years that we've owned this cat he has destroyed floors, carpets, furniture (including family heirlooms passed down to me from my great grandfather) and stereos with his behavior. At this point I don't know what to do. We've been trying to ease him into being an outdoor cat but he hasn't taken well to it at all. Both my boyfriend and I would also rather he remain an indoor cat as we live next to two busy streets and all our neighbors have dogs that they allow to roam freely about the neighborhood. We've talked about allowing someone else to adopt our cat from us, but even though he has this problem, we still love him and it breaks our heart to think of giving him away. I feel like I have tried everything I know of to do, and I'm desperate for ideas or if someone else has had a cat with an issue like this please let me know what you've tried and what did/did not work. Thank you!
