Cat drama never ends, does it*.
We have 3 cats. And 6 litter boxes. We dump and scrub the litter boxes each week, and scoop the poos daily. 2 litter boxes are elevated for Birdie, the rest are on the floor for Darwin & Bonkers. You would think 6 would be enough. Nope! Recently [past couple weeks] Darwin has started using Birdie’s elevated box in the upstairs hall, the one I made a privacy panel for:
He likes it because he can stand on his back feet, rest his paws on top of the privacy panel, and get better leverage. Or something… I only have one pic of him in action:
You can see Birdie on the floor looking up at him like “WTH dude?”
So Miss Birdie, in response, started boycotting her litter box and peeing [and poo’ing…] on the upstairs hall platforms instead. Both the one leading to the litter box & the one she’s sleeping on in the below picture:
I kept saying to hubby “the upstairs hall smells like cat pee” but he couldn’t smell it. Eventually I figured out what was going on. I immediately moved the bookcase into the bedroom so the books wouldn’t get ruined [thankfully they didn’t, and thankfully it looks good in there]:
Then I scrubbed the upstairs hall floor, walls, & platforms while hubby washed the platform rugs. Yuk! We put the freshly washed rugs back on the platforms and sometime overnight she peed on them again *sigh*. That’s when I started to realize this was a real problem. No actually I realized it was a big problem last Thursday evening when I put a brand new, lime green IKEA rug down on the platform and Birdie immediately squatted and started to pee on it, right in front of me. GAH!!!
Backing up slightly: I took last Thursday off from work and went to IKEA with my parents. I bought 10 more Toftbo bath rugs [in lime green this time] for the cat platforms. For the past 2 years we’ve been using mostly grey ones so I decided they needed a colorful makeover. When I first got home I put the whole stack on the girl cave floor. Birdie jumped right up on them but then Darwin came in for a sniff & she got very annoyed and jumped to the windowsill platform, giving him the cold shoulder:
So this past weekend I set up a SEVENTH litter box, on my art desk in the girl cave. I had to put my computer into storage again [which is OK since I have my new laptop now] and set up a new green IKEA rug and a litter box for her:
She LOVES it! She started using the litter box immediately, and has decided the green rug is another nice spot to hang out:
Now I’m just hoping Darwin doesn’t decide to start using the new litter box…!
* I know that crazy cat people like myself tend to go way overboard with cat stuff, so I apologize to the non cat people out there who are like “wtf, seriously?”
Good sleuthing. Good psychoanalysis. I, too, am partial to my own bathroom. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
I think it’s a girl thing 🙂 Boys are gross.
Only dogs have owners,
cat have personnel.
Nur Hunde haben Besitzer,
Katzen haben Personal.
Liebe Grüsse
HA HA HA it is true!
Liebe Grüsse
This is a story I can really relate to!! Cats always have so much angst. Our Lacy has litter box aversion problems, so we’re always mopping up her puddles (which, “fortunately,” are always on the hard floor). Our cats all go outside, but most of them can spend the day outdoors and yet they come inside to use the box. So glad that Birdie likes her private box in the girl cave! Darwin, stay out!!
cats are very funny creatures! so opinionated and stubborn sometimes! it always helps when accidents happen on the hardwood. whenever ours start doing the dry heaving thing before the “explosive vomit experience” we always try to run them over to the hardwood if they’re on the carpet.
It’s crazy that you have so many, and the cats are still peeing other places. The picture of Darwin and his funny pose did make me smile, though. I hope Birdie will be satisfied with her new box.
so far so good! he jumped up on the art table yesterday after work and sniffed the new litter box while Birdie watched him like a hawk from the floor. thankfully he left without using it…
what a dilemma …. you need a good cat shrink or perhaps a marriage counselor for Birdie and Darwin!
The vet did suggest kitty Prozac for Birdie since she overgrooms her stomach [always has, ever since she spent a year at the shelter poor thing].
She’s a gorgeous cat who’s overcome the traumatic life she had before you two adopted her. No wonder she has a few hang-ups.
exactly 🙂 for the most part she’s a very happy girl. she even purrs at the vet! she had her annual checkup last week and the vet said “now Birdie, i can’t hear your heart if you keep purring that loud”. it was adorable 🙂 which is the complete opposite of jim’s experience taking Darwin last month – the vet said “Darwin, if you keep growling like that, how am I ever going to hear your heart?”