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Our cat and the new puppy...(sorry it's a bit long)
Hello everyone! I am new to this community, although I have been reading posts for a while....
My husband & I have a beautiful calico tabby cat who's about a year old named Zoe, and just recently adopted a catahoula/lab puppy from the SPCA about a month ago named Pepper. She is now about 16 weeks. Needless to say, our house is very lively right now!
It took a few days for Zoe to adjust to her new house mate, but after the 1st week they were laying on the floor next to each other. Zoe & Pepper even take turns chasing each other around the house - which DH & I try to stop as quickly as it starts (not always an easy feat!) Starting about about a week or so ago, Zoe has started taking over some of Peppers belongings, ie - her bed, food, and water dish. Zoe has stopped blocking the food, but still enjoys the bed.
Now her new thing is to leave "presents" on our leather sofa. She has pooped on the couch 4 separate times. We have cleaned it as best as possibly, and now have a blanket over the cusions. She has never had litter issues before. I feel like this is probably due to the puppy. DH & I have agreed that we need to show her extra love & try to keep Pepper as calm as possible around Zoe. We also will be calling our vet to rule out an infection or something else that could be causing this behavior.
My question is, should we be doing anything else? I am so sad that Zoe is upset. Also, does anyone have experience cleaning leather couches? I successfully got the stains out, but now there is a little discoloring around the area. Thank you for reading my post :-)
Re: Our cat and the new puppy...(sorry it's a bit long)
Make sure that the cat has somewhere to go where the puppy can't follow. Maybe baby-gate a room so the cat can jump over to get away from the dog. Cats also can feel more comfortable in cat trees and other vertical space.
You can also try Feliway spray or diffuser, to make the cat feel more comfortable.
Ditto on the cat tree and feliaway. Both are very good options. And the "having a room to herself"
In regards to the bed - does she have her own bed somewhere? If not - I would try getting her one and when she's in the dog's pick her up and move her to her own.
I don't really have any advice on the pooping, you can use cat attract litter in her box and natures miracle (on the couch) when cleaning up her messes. Check to make sure the Nature's Miracle can be used on the fabric of your couch.
Thank you for the replies! I have been researching the feliaway & the cat tree is a great idea. We do have the stairs blocked off for the puppy, but Zoe is able to go up and down the stairs freely.
Zoe does not have a bed anywhere, because she never showed interest in one. She's just always slept on the guest bed during the day & at the foot of our bed at night. I will have to find her one, and hope she wil use it. I'm pretty sure she's using the puppy's bed as a way of marking her territory!
One of our cats is obsessed with the dog bed and it is his way of being an *** and telling the dog MINE. We have a couple and our dogs don't use them so I kind of let it go.