Regular readers know that since we moved to our new home we’ve been working on getting our cat Samantha integrated back into the whole household with the dogs. Luke has had aggression issues with her so we want to be very cautious before letting the two of them interact freely. That is a work in progress and I think we’re pretty ready to move things more forward there.
However, there’s another problem that we haven’t been able to figure out: her kitty litter. At the old house we had a pantry in our basement with a cat door built in, and her kitty litter was in that room. Our new home is a ranch style with an antique cape home on the end, there are just two small rooms in the upstairs. Sam’s “wing” of the house includes my office with a bathroom off it, and those two upstairs rooms. There is a baby gate to the office to keep the dogs out.
When we first moved in we had her kitty litter in the bathroom until we could get the upstairs cleaned out and organized. The bathroom is not that big, so keeping it in there was not ideal. There is decent sized entryway on that old end of the house, at the bottom of the stairs and we moved her kitty litter there to start with.
When we were having some work done on that end of the house, and contractors were going in and out of that door, we moved her kitty litter upstairs, where she had to stay when the workers were here. The truth is Samantha loves that upstairs area and mostly only comes downstairs to the office at meal and snack times anyway, or to visit with me when I’m working in there.
She did the same thing at our old house – she hung out in our master bathroom mostly. The issue we had with her there was that our master was on the top floor and she had to go down two flights of stairs to get to her kitty litter. Only sometimes she didn’t, and she used our master shower as her bathroom (mostly just to pee)!
We had come to the conclusion that either going down all of those stairs was an issue for her, or the fact that the dogs sometimes harassed her when she came out of the pantry after using the kitty litter was the issue. I was actually pretty sure it was the latter, or just sheer laziness.
Back to now: It worked out great for us having her kitty litter upstairs. We had it in the room we are using for an exercise room, and we can tuck it into a cubby/corner up there. The new kitty litter we use does not smell and is not dusty so that is not an issue. The little pellets do track a lot though, and I have to sweep the office daily when it’s downstairs. I wanted to keep the kitty litter upstairs only and at first that worked. Then all of the sudden she started peeing on the floor downstairs, so ultimately we moved one kitty litter back down. She still uses the upstairs one at times too though.
Why do I call her the contrary cat? At the old house she seemed to be too lazy to go downstairs to the kitty litter. At the new house, she hangs out upstairs, and went downstairs to pee on the floor when her kitty litter was up there! This has nothing to do with the dogs because they are only ever in the office when she is upstairs and we have the door closed.
We are getting a brand new front door put in that entryway (the old one is rotting), and Sam is kind of sloppy when it comes to using her kitty litter. Even with this box with the high sides, she still often misses! It’s because she does not squat to pee, she stands straight up! Here is what we have going now:
We would like that area free to go in and out of, and we don’t want her peeing on the new door and trim, but we just don’t know where else to put it where she’ll consistently use it!
We have already ruled out health issues as far as this goes, back when it all started at the old house. She is healthy as a horse, other than hyperthyroid which is controlled by meds. Sam has had joint issues in the past, and she can’t jump like she used to. I wondered if her not squatting could have to do with joint problems, so we’re going to start her on a joint supplement to see if that helps. But I still prefer the kitty litter upstairs. We had even tried feeding her up there in her room, but that didn’t make a difference either. She’d still come down and pee on the floor.
I’m looking for any advice or suggestions any of you cat families out there might have. Sam is not unhappy; she’s always been a loner anyway. When given the choice, she’s often upstairs hiding out. She has toys and all kinds of stuff up there and in the office too. She has her favorite scratcher/bed in the office, and upstairs she likes to sleep under the futon. We’re in the office plenty, and we’re upstairs with her even more now. Hubby got his exercise equipment moved in and I’m storing Luke’s nose work supplies up there so we’re both up there often. When the dogs are outside, I bring her into the kitchen/living area with me and she is usually back down in her rooms after just a few minutes of nosing around.
We need to have her kitty litter away from the dogs. The gates we use have a cat door option in them but our beagle Cricket can fit through that cat door! We can fix that somehow, but we still just don’t know where to put it. If it has to stay in the front entryway, so be it. Keeping Sam happy is more important to me than material things, but if we could come up with another place for it, that would be great. Honestly, I just don’t understand why she doesn’t always use it upstairs when that’s where she spends most of her time!
Once the new front door is in, and one window that needs to be replaced upstairs is in, all which will hopefully be happening soon, I want to be done with gates, except for one needed to keep the dogs out of wherever her kitty litter ends up. I think that might be the last thing we need done in order to finally feel 100% settled into our new home!
Any ideas, insight, or experience with this would be much appreciated; please share in the comments section below.
Sorry no can help. We still have issues with Nestle now and again. She used to be so good and I am not sure what changed with her except maybe age. Now my vet did tell me that littler box issues are sometimes stress which could be with your move. We tried the Feliway cat pheromones but our vet said that sometimes cats need meds to calm them.
I would have thought stress, except she did the same thing at the old house, so I don’t think so. Though I do worry she’s unhappy that she is still stuck in one part of the house; but again, she’s always been a loner so I don’t really think that either.
I honestly just think she’s lazy and if she’s hanging out downstairs she doesn’t want to go all the way back up when she has to pee! LOL
Our vets (I spoke to several at our practice) are of the opinion that cats can become stressed for no apparent reason. My opinion is that there is probably something going on that the vets have not yet discovered. (My sis had a cat with litter box issues who eventually developed diabetes, but for a few years prior to that, all tests were clear.)
Goodness what a dilemma. My first guess is that moving the litter boxes around so much is why she used the first floor. Rhette loves to stay out on the back porch all the time and mom thinks its to avoid us dogs but when he wants he goes anywhere. Have you thought about contacting Pet Safe about a self-scooping litter box, and I think I told you about one other brand too. Good luck, cats! Love Dolly
Hi Y’all!
My Humans haven’t had a cat in a long time, so we’re really no help. I’ll keep my paws crossed for y’all.
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
I hate to say it but cats are so fussy and we deal with this all the time cats with behavioral litter box problems. Since you ruled out medical problems you have to now figure out what it is that she likes. I’ll see if I can dig up some sites and information on fixing behavioral problems. You might get her feliway diffuser or collar that helps cats with behavior problems.
Wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t. A friend of mine from jr.-high days had a cat back then who had trained himself to use the peeps’ toilet. I got a big kick out of that as a kid.
Sending love and happy thoughts…..
One of my friends had a cat that used the toilet too – unbelievable!
Thanks, we’ll get it figured out somehow, or in the end Miss Sam will have to have her way and keep her litter box where we don’t want it! LOL
Oh dear, Jan-that’s all I can say! After reading all of the comments, it’s beginning to sound like a solution will be very hard to find, if it can even be achieved!
It was interesting to see though all the issues people have had-wow, I don’t remember so many issues with other cats in the past, but you know what, now that I think about it, like with Sam we had for 15 yrs-he was an outdoor cat so we really only used litter in the winter, and I recall no issues. A few cats way in the past before that-well, too long ago to remember I think, and didn’t really have many kitties for very long, before Sam, unfortunately. So now I will tell you that I am having problems with Nina at this very time-she is peeing somewhere downstairs again (remember the futon issues a couple years back?), in the last few weeks or months, and today was really bad when I got home, but I can’t even find for sure where she is going. At least it’s downstairs I guess, huh, but the smell permeates to upstairs some, yeah-very bad! I think I finally narrowed it down the other day to the shop side of the downstairs. I keep thinking with her it is stress that I am gone here and there overnight-the last week was of course the worst, I was gone 4 nights out of 8-but I just don’t know that this is the reason? I was worried about a medical issue (but she seems so fine in every other way), and I also have to make her a vet appt in Sept for her annual checkup, so thought I would surely be mentioning that then. Ugh! Hoping you can find something that will work out of the suggestions here though-wishing you good luck for sure!!
I think we always had kitty litter even when the cats were outdoor cats, or at least for a while we did. I remember we had issues with Bones going in odd places too though. Then, of course, Conrad, but his was all due to his age.
Sorry to hear you’re having problems with Nina too! Her litter box is downstairs, right? Maybe you can find a solution for her in the comments here? I think that Cat Attract litter might be a possibility. And if it’s possibly stress with Nina, maybe the Feliway that people mentioned?
Not sure I can help. Read some of the comments, I personally think Feliway is a scam. Our vet has it in their offices (ok Cody doesn’t get stressed much at the Vet anyway), but I see NO difference in him when he is there with the Feliway in the room. I have never used Cat Attract so can’t speak to that. Reading the post I got a little confused as to where the litter actually is. If Sam is having discomfort, I would have TWO boxes (if that is feasible), one upstairs and one downstairs.
I have a litter cabinet in my bathroom that Cody shares with me. It is completely enclosed except the door part has a hole that he can see out of. Maybe she would like something like that? This might sound dumb but is her litter pan old? It might be bothering her.
As the Island Cats said, Cats are often hard to figure out. The important thing is all health problems have been ruled out.
Right now there are two boxes – one upstairs and one down (I know that was confusing – sorry!). She uses both of them. The one downstairs is an older one, but the one upstairs is pretty new.
We’re going to try putting both boxes upstairs and see what happens. If that doesn’t work we’ll either try the Cat Attract or get a cabinet.
We also suggest trying Cat Attract litter. Maybe there’s something about the upstairs box that she’s not liking. Try moving the downstairs box upstairs and see what happens.
Honestly, us cats are hard to figure out sometimes.
I think that is what we are going to try. She does use the upstairs box sometimes though! And I think we’ll put BOTH boxes upstairs and see if that works. If not, then the Cat Attract will be the next thing we try!
You’re right, you cats are definitely tough! 🙂
I am glad you ruled out health issues, so I would also suggest Cat Attract, but you didn’t hear that from me MOL!
I can only think of Feliway plug-ins and spray to make her feel more relaxed. I won some BlogPaws swag recently and it had a cool thing for families with cats and dogs. It goes on the door so it will only open a little for a cat to go through, not a dog. If you want it, I would be happy to send it to you just email me your address at pilch92@aol.com
Thank you, Ellen! I’m not sure yet if we’d have use for the thing for the door, but I will be in touch once we figure it all out and I know for sure.
OMDoodle – wish I could help. I don’t have a car nor a clue 🙁 I can send happy thoughts….
We’ll take the happy thoughts – can’t hurt! 🙂
We switched to Cat Attract litter which has really made a huge difference in how often Soth uses his box. He still pees on the floor (or the air vents–ugh!) when he gets angry when I won’t let him outside–and of course that’s by the back door in the kitchen and I just can’t bring myself to put a litter box in the kitchen! When Soth’s problems first started, I put out three boxes with three different types of litter (recycled paper, his usual clay, and maybe walnut?) and monitored them to see which he liked best and it wasn’t the one that we’d been using (which is the one I preferred, of course!), so maybe Sam wants a different kind of litter? Since we’re still struggling with litter box issues, though, I don’t have much else to suggest! Good luck!
She seems to be fine with the litter, because we had the same stuff in both boxes, upstairs and down and she does use both. We still might try that Cat Attract litter though.
Mom won’t let me go in the guest bathroom because she’s afraid I’ll realize the litterbox in the tub has “snacks”. She seems to think keeping it in the tub no one uses is a pretty good way of corralling the mess, though.
I did consider putting it in the tub – she used to like to go into the tub! I’m just not sure what we would do then when we have company? Not that we have a lot, but we do have some. The door to that room would be tough to put a gate on though to keep the dogs out, it’s not really a normal door and opens out in the room (office) right into another doorway!
Our friends kitty wanted a new brand of kitty litter which worked
Lily & Edward
I hate to say this, but cat urine is the worst! We battled it years ago with our male cat. He ruined our floor and it had to be replaced. I have no answers. : (
It IS the worst – there is something extra strong smelling about it, I don’t know why!
The litter mess is always a big issue. One of our cats likes to pee over the box too, but we don’t know which one it is. If you have the space, how about putting the cat box in a larger box of some type? That would keep the pee and a lot of the litter in the larger box area. I know Mom did that with a set of cats years ago. It was a large plastic container. She cut the side down towards the front for entry to the actual cat box and there were several inches of space around the entire cat box. Of course, you need a larger space for this, but it eliminated the urine on stuff outside the box. Cat boxes are a tough thing.
That is a great idea, but I’m just not sure if we do have enough space there. I think we’ll know better once the new door is in what we’ll actually have. I know they make some that look like furniture too, and the box can go inside it. I may see if I can find something like that, that isn’t too expensive. At least it will look nicer; though it probably won’t be as easy to keep clean.
I sadly have no idea, butt I learnt from my bff that cats often make decisions we humans can not understand…. their cat only used the litterbox what was in the bathroom only when one of the humans used the toilet the same time…. the cat was not a girl, so they couldn’t say it was this typical girl-thing we often see at human girls… it’s still miracle…