Greetings. I'm new here and could use some advice. We adopted 3.5 year old Frankie on 10/5/18 from the humane society. He was so cute and hubby, daughter and I took an instant liking to him and adopted him pretty much on the spot after visiting with him for 5 minutes. The information said that the previous family brought him back because he was having accidents but that he hadn't had any while at the humane society.
It's been rocky since we brought him home. We had one box in the basement and another on our main floor. His second morning with us he peed and pooped on my favorite chair. I wondered if the boxes we had (that several previous cats had used) were too small. He's very long and weighs 16 lbs but is only slightly overweight. It seemed he liked the bigger box that I got him as he used it successfully for nearly 4 days. Then we took him to our vet the next day as that is what the humane society advised. I think we traumatized him by putting him in a carrier. My guess is that he associated that with being brought back to the humane society as we are his third family. Previous family only had him 1.5 years. After the vet visit last weekend he was pooping while racing around the house for several days but peeing in the box. His fecal sample came back negative, btw. But I should point out that he had giardia when he arrived at the humane society and he was treated for that. I wondered if he had that parasite at his previous home and those people just decided not to deal with his litter box issues instead of finding out if he had a medical issue.
Hubby then brought one of the boxes into the kitchen so that he didn't have far to go after he ate/drank. That was last Thursday and he successfully used that box as well as the one in the basement!!! Until last night.
The only thing that was different about yesterday is that we had our chimney inspected/cleaned and hubby said that Frankie hung out in the living room with the chimney guy while he worked. When I got home I found a poop in the box in the basement so yay!!!
Enter last night about 11:30 pm......when he was racing through the house again. He darted onto my bed and since I still don't trust him completely I caught him peeing and then found a couple of poops on the bed as well as a couple on the floor in his path. I stripped the bed and slept on the couch
We had been advised(by the humane society's behavior people) to isolate him in one room of our house and then slowly introduce him to the rest of the house. Except that the day after I got this advice was when he started using the box regularly so we decided to not isolate him. We also started giving him treats after he used the box(per the behavior guy) so we felt so much better about adopting Frankie!!!
Until last night. Was he upset about the fact that a stranger was in our house and that's why he lost control? Do we start over and isolate him in a room? It's not even been three weeks and I'm exhausted. But he's such a sweetheart and very loving........when he's not defecating/peeing outside his box........
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
It's been rocky since we brought him home. We had one box in the basement and another on our main floor. His second morning with us he peed and pooped on my favorite chair. I wondered if the boxes we had (that several previous cats had used) were too small. He's very long and weighs 16 lbs but is only slightly overweight. It seemed he liked the bigger box that I got him as he used it successfully for nearly 4 days. Then we took him to our vet the next day as that is what the humane society advised. I think we traumatized him by putting him in a carrier. My guess is that he associated that with being brought back to the humane society as we are his third family. Previous family only had him 1.5 years. After the vet visit last weekend he was pooping while racing around the house for several days but peeing in the box. His fecal sample came back negative, btw. But I should point out that he had giardia when he arrived at the humane society and he was treated for that. I wondered if he had that parasite at his previous home and those people just decided not to deal with his litter box issues instead of finding out if he had a medical issue.
Hubby then brought one of the boxes into the kitchen so that he didn't have far to go after he ate/drank. That was last Thursday and he successfully used that box as well as the one in the basement!!! Until last night.
The only thing that was different about yesterday is that we had our chimney inspected/cleaned and hubby said that Frankie hung out in the living room with the chimney guy while he worked. When I got home I found a poop in the box in the basement so yay!!!
Enter last night about 11:30 pm......when he was racing through the house again. He darted onto my bed and since I still don't trust him completely I caught him peeing and then found a couple of poops on the bed as well as a couple on the floor in his path. I stripped the bed and slept on the couch
We had been advised(by the humane society's behavior people) to isolate him in one room of our house and then slowly introduce him to the rest of the house. Except that the day after I got this advice was when he started using the box regularly so we decided to not isolate him. We also started giving him treats after he used the box(per the behavior guy) so we felt so much better about adopting Frankie!!!
Until last night. Was he upset about the fact that a stranger was in our house and that's why he lost control? Do we start over and isolate him in a room? It's not even been three weeks and I'm exhausted. But he's such a sweetheart and very loving........when he's not defecating/peeing outside his box........
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.