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- May 26, 2015
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I know this is a long post, but I'm in serious need of help and want to give all the details I can give to make sure people know our situation and can help us better. So, if you have the time, please read it in full! If you don't want to, the short version is this: One of our three cats (all fixed and have had no serious issue with in the past) has urinated 4 times on our new couch that we got a week ago. I've tried many things and don't know what to do about it. No UTI, the litter boxes are cleaned daily, and the litter type is the same it has been for 3 years with no issues. She does it once each night in the middle of the night even with plastic on the couch. I'm 25 weeks pregnant and I'm afraid she'll also urinate on the new baby furniture once we get it. Help?
Hey everyone! This is my first post, so pardon me if I'm doing this wrong. I'm seriously desperate and I'm at risk at losing one of my three furbabies.. I've looked up what to do on many, many websites and I'm out of ideas. I'm relying on you guys to help me.
First off, I have three cats. Two females that are sisters (Abby and Lucy) and one male (Charles). All are around 3-3.5 years old and we (my husband and I) have had them since they were 3 months old. They're all three fixed. We've never had a serious problem with any of the cats. Abby, within the first week of us bringing her into our home, urinated on our couch a couple of times. We covered it with a couch cover and she stopped. Over the next 3 years of us having her, she would occasionally urinate on things we've left in the floor -- clothes piles, towels, the welcome mat.. But it doesn't happen very often at all, maybe once every 3-4 months. We Googled info on it and it and what we came up with is that they like to urinate on things that are soft and will absorb the urine and cause no splash back, and to just keep the clothing picked up. So we have, and it hasn't been an issue.
We purchased a sofa (I say purchased, and what I meant is began our leasing of said sofa) a week ago. The sofa is a microfiber sectional with sewn in cushions. Our main worry was our cat Lucy scratching on the couch, but never once did it cross our minds that Abby would pee on it. After a couple of days, we woke up one morning and caught Abby peeing on it. We blotted up the urine and cleaned it with white vinegar and baking soda a total of three times over the next few days to make sure to get the smell out. In the meantime we covered the couch (while we were out or sleeping) in the clear plastic that the couch came in. We figured it would deter her, since urinating on it would cause splash back, or at the very least help protect the couch if she were to urinate again. It seemed to work as she didn't go for a few days.
Saturday, we went out of town (for the entire day) to visit family and also pick up some spray that my mother-in-law had luck with. Rug Doctor Urine Eliminator with new enzyme action! We got home late, so after being home for maybe an hour, we covered the couch in the plastic before bedtime. We woke to urine pooled in the plastic over the same spot. we lifted the plastic and realize that Abby had gotten under it and urinated in the same spot. We immediately blotted it and soaked it with the Rug Doctor spray, following the instructions to keep a damp towel over the area for 24 hours.. (We've also tried putting aluminum foil on the couch as a deterrent and they go crazy playing on it, so that doesn't work).
And, here's where it gets fun. We covered the sofa in plastic again that night (cutting off and throwing away all the plastic that had urine on it), and woke up to a puddle of urine in the plastic on a different part of the couch. Luckily the plastic saved our couch in this situation. Then, last night, we wanted to try something new. So, we covered the entirety of our couch in two different bed comforters. Both are ones that I, my husband, and all three cats have slept on. My logic was that if she's peeing on the sofa because it smells new and out of place, maybe putting down something on the couch that smells like our home and all of us will make her feel like she doesn't have to "claim" it. Also, she's never urinated on our bed or our comforters.
I wanted to "up" it a little and try something else as well. I read somewhere that someone had luck with feeding their cat where it was urinating and that they stopped going there because they wouldn't urinate where they ate. So, we watched her eat out of her usual bowl while on the couch before we went to bed, and we left a bowl of hard food there. And for good measure, put another one on the opposite end of the couch. We woke up this morning to urine in a third new spot of the couch. It had soaked through the comforter easily, so we used the last bit of our Rug Doctor spray on that spot this morning which currently has a damp towel over it.
Here's a drawing to show where she's went so far:
I love these cats like children and never want to get rid of them. I want to be their forever home. I just don't know what else to do. I'm 25 weeks pregnant, and it's not good for me to be sitting around cat urine all day. Also, I have bad anxiety to begin with and Abby doing this is causing me so much stress and anxiety that I'm crying (over her ruining our couch, not knowing what to do, and the thought of having to re-home her) and having chest pains (also not good for the little one). I hear that change can make things like this worse, and there's going to be a lot of change in our home over the next few months. We're doing some serious spring cleaning and rearranging the entire place, basically. Then we're going to be bringing in new baby furniture (which now I know is at risk of being urinated on) and in 3 1/2 months we're going to have a crying newborn (which they have never experienced before) in the home.
Can anyone please help? Why is she urinating on the couch SPECIFICALLY and only while we're asleep. What can we do (besides locking her in a separate room at night) to keep her from urinating on the couch?
Hey everyone! This is my first post, so pardon me if I'm doing this wrong. I'm seriously desperate and I'm at risk at losing one of my three furbabies.. I've looked up what to do on many, many websites and I'm out of ideas. I'm relying on you guys to help me.
First off, I have three cats. Two females that are sisters (Abby and Lucy) and one male (Charles). All are around 3-3.5 years old and we (my husband and I) have had them since they were 3 months old. They're all three fixed. We've never had a serious problem with any of the cats. Abby, within the first week of us bringing her into our home, urinated on our couch a couple of times. We covered it with a couch cover and she stopped. Over the next 3 years of us having her, she would occasionally urinate on things we've left in the floor -- clothes piles, towels, the welcome mat.. But it doesn't happen very often at all, maybe once every 3-4 months. We Googled info on it and it and what we came up with is that they like to urinate on things that are soft and will absorb the urine and cause no splash back, and to just keep the clothing picked up. So we have, and it hasn't been an issue.
We purchased a sofa (I say purchased, and what I meant is began our leasing of said sofa) a week ago. The sofa is a microfiber sectional with sewn in cushions. Our main worry was our cat Lucy scratching on the couch, but never once did it cross our minds that Abby would pee on it. After a couple of days, we woke up one morning and caught Abby peeing on it. We blotted up the urine and cleaned it with white vinegar and baking soda a total of three times over the next few days to make sure to get the smell out. In the meantime we covered the couch (while we were out or sleeping) in the clear plastic that the couch came in. We figured it would deter her, since urinating on it would cause splash back, or at the very least help protect the couch if she were to urinate again. It seemed to work as she didn't go for a few days.
Saturday, we went out of town (for the entire day) to visit family and also pick up some spray that my mother-in-law had luck with. Rug Doctor Urine Eliminator with new enzyme action! We got home late, so after being home for maybe an hour, we covered the couch in the plastic before bedtime. We woke to urine pooled in the plastic over the same spot. we lifted the plastic and realize that Abby had gotten under it and urinated in the same spot. We immediately blotted it and soaked it with the Rug Doctor spray, following the instructions to keep a damp towel over the area for 24 hours.. (We've also tried putting aluminum foil on the couch as a deterrent and they go crazy playing on it, so that doesn't work).
And, here's where it gets fun. We covered the sofa in plastic again that night (cutting off and throwing away all the plastic that had urine on it), and woke up to a puddle of urine in the plastic on a different part of the couch. Luckily the plastic saved our couch in this situation. Then, last night, we wanted to try something new. So, we covered the entirety of our couch in two different bed comforters. Both are ones that I, my husband, and all three cats have slept on. My logic was that if she's peeing on the sofa because it smells new and out of place, maybe putting down something on the couch that smells like our home and all of us will make her feel like she doesn't have to "claim" it. Also, she's never urinated on our bed or our comforters.
I wanted to "up" it a little and try something else as well. I read somewhere that someone had luck with feeding their cat where it was urinating and that they stopped going there because they wouldn't urinate where they ate. So, we watched her eat out of her usual bowl while on the couch before we went to bed, and we left a bowl of hard food there. And for good measure, put another one on the opposite end of the couch. We woke up this morning to urine in a third new spot of the couch. It had soaked through the comforter easily, so we used the last bit of our Rug Doctor spray on that spot this morning which currently has a damp towel over it.
Here's a drawing to show where she's went so far:
I love these cats like children and never want to get rid of them. I want to be their forever home. I just don't know what else to do. I'm 25 weeks pregnant, and it's not good for me to be sitting around cat urine all day. Also, I have bad anxiety to begin with and Abby doing this is causing me so much stress and anxiety that I'm crying (over her ruining our couch, not knowing what to do, and the thought of having to re-home her) and having chest pains (also not good for the little one). I hear that change can make things like this worse, and there's going to be a lot of change in our home over the next few months. We're doing some serious spring cleaning and rearranging the entire place, basically. Then we're going to be bringing in new baby furniture (which now I know is at risk of being urinated on) and in 3 1/2 months we're going to have a crying newborn (which they have never experienced before) in the home.
Can anyone please help? Why is she urinating on the couch SPECIFICALLY and only while we're asleep. What can we do (besides locking her in a separate room at night) to keep her from urinating on the couch?