We recently added a new cat to our household (both of our cats were rescued from the local shelter). We had one older male resident cat that we introduced our new, younger female cat to, and we kept the new cat in her own room for a while before allowing the two to interact. The new cat (Joy) is smaller and easily frightened. Our old cat (Leo) is a big, dumb placid type. (Joy is 2 years old and weighs 6 pounds, Leo is 7 years old and weighs 15 pounds). The two cats aren't thrilled with each other, and Joy will often try to swat Leo with no apparent provocation. Leo puts up with quite a bit from Joy, usually responding with nothing more than a "Huh?" (or more likely, a "Duh..") expression. Sometimes she'll swat aggressively enough that he swats back at her. He generally doesn't display aggressive behavior towards her, even though he's the resident cat and we'd expect him to be a bit territorial. They've actually gotten to the point recently where they can be within three feet of each other without freaking out. (Leo's always been to that point - it's Joy that has made the most progress).
Joy came from the shelter with a couple of behavioral problems. She loves to scratch things, but I've managed to train her to a sisal post quite well (with prompt squirting when she tries the couch, and prompt play rewards when she uses the post - she's not super-interested in food rewards). She's been using the post exclusively for a while now. The shelter said that she was a returned adoption because of frequent diarrhea. We took her to the vet, who said she's healthy, and haven't seen any diarrhea from her ourselves. The problem we ARE having with Joy is peeing on things she shouldn't. Generally her target areas have been places that we sleep (so we've had to change the bedding on both our own and our daughter's beds a couple of times). She has also peed on a particular chair (I got up once, and she got right into the chair and peed on it). Fortunately the cushions are removable and easier to clean than most chairs would be. For now, the chair is disassembled, and the doors to our bedrooms are closed at all times.
I don't think this is a general litter box problem, as she uses the litter box frequently and consistently otherwise. We have three litter boxes (one for each cat, plus one) out in the garage that are cleaned frequently, and they access through a cat door. We left the cats alone for a day this weekend, and they had free range of the downstairs (not the bedrooms, which had closed doors). We didn't find any problems, but Joy got into Sarah's bedroom when we came home and promptly peed on her bed again.
We're pretty sure Joy is the main perpetrator here - although we suspect Leo is responsible for at least one incident near his favorite teddy bear.
As I'm getting tired of spot treating and laundering things - anybody have any suggestions? The overall incidence of this behavior has gone down over time, but since it happened again last night when she had access to the bedrooms, I'm worried. (Joy's in my lap attempting to look very cute. Sorry, girl... ya gotta quit PEEING on stuff!)
Joy came from the shelter with a couple of behavioral problems. She loves to scratch things, but I've managed to train her to a sisal post quite well (with prompt squirting when she tries the couch, and prompt play rewards when she uses the post - she's not super-interested in food rewards). She's been using the post exclusively for a while now. The shelter said that she was a returned adoption because of frequent diarrhea. We took her to the vet, who said she's healthy, and haven't seen any diarrhea from her ourselves. The problem we ARE having with Joy is peeing on things she shouldn't. Generally her target areas have been places that we sleep (so we've had to change the bedding on both our own and our daughter's beds a couple of times). She has also peed on a particular chair (I got up once, and she got right into the chair and peed on it). Fortunately the cushions are removable and easier to clean than most chairs would be. For now, the chair is disassembled, and the doors to our bedrooms are closed at all times.
I don't think this is a general litter box problem, as she uses the litter box frequently and consistently otherwise. We have three litter boxes (one for each cat, plus one) out in the garage that are cleaned frequently, and they access through a cat door. We left the cats alone for a day this weekend, and they had free range of the downstairs (not the bedrooms, which had closed doors). We didn't find any problems, but Joy got into Sarah's bedroom when we came home and promptly peed on her bed again.
We're pretty sure Joy is the main perpetrator here - although we suspect Leo is responsible for at least one incident near his favorite teddy bear.
As I'm getting tired of spot treating and laundering things - anybody have any suggestions? The overall incidence of this behavior has gone down over time, but since it happened again last night when she had access to the bedrooms, I'm worried. (Joy's in my lap attempting to look very cute. Sorry, girl... ya gotta quit PEEING on stuff!)