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so fed up with my cat!
I don't know if some of you remember, but a while back (1-1.5 years?) I posted about my cat Elwood, and how he'll poo on the laundry floor when something displeases him. Anyway, we started letting him roam outside during the day and the pooing stopped, so we figured that was that. Well, lately it's started up again.
It's absolutely NOT physical - it's completely behavioral. He has clean litter and we've even replaced the litter box, so it's not like it's a stinky old tray filled with cat crap that he doesn't want to use (and the laundry's tile floor gets cleaned with bleach to make sure there's no cat pee scent to attract him) - he simply expresses his displeasure with us by pooing outside of it. I can say with absolute certainty that he behaves this way when he doesn't get something he wants fast enough - it's very clear cause and effect.
If we don't feed him as fast as he thinks we should, he poos on the floor. If we don't let him go outside when he wants to (even if it's 11pm - we don't let them go out at night because they're black cats with NO street sense), he poos on the floor. If he's outside and we don't let him inside as fast as he thinks we should, he will come indoors and then poo on the floor. Are you starting to get the idea? Lately he's also decided that pooing isn't enough, and now when he gets annoyed he will sometimes poo outside the litter box AND pee in a laundry basket (yes, IN a basket - luckily they've always been empty so far).
I am seriously at the end of my rope with this damn cat. I LOVE him but I cannot keep doing this. Our sons are going to be crawling around the house all too soon and I cannot have them suddenly plowing into a fresh steaming pile of cat crap that Elwood left because his breakfast was delivered 30 seconds too late by his reckoning. And I can't spend my entire day following a damn cat around the house so I can instantly satisfy his every whim.
Please give me your suggestions!
P.S. No, we cannot take him to an animal behavioral specialist - they might exist somewhere in Australia, but there aren't any in my area, and the vets only deal with physical problems. Just thought I'd throw that out there since I've seen it suggested as a solution before. 
Re: so fed up with my cat!
| Olowalu, Maui ~ August 6, 2008 |
| Family of 4 ~ April 2, 2011 |
| Family of 5 - October 24, 2012 |
omg lisa lmfao-okay i know its not funny but it reminds me of one of our old family cats. he was the best cat in the world but when i went off to college (he was most attached to me) he got angry and stressed and he expressed his displeasure by pooing and peeing (yes peeing) on my parent's beautiful antique carpets and the brand new guccied out designer sofas-it was a nightmare. finally we had to build a wooden gate to block him out of the living room and my parents consulted with two pet psychics/shrinks and we switched his litter-oy cats.
have you read the cat who cried for help? perhaps you can do an e-mail consult with that vet?
sorry wish i had some better suggestions for you.
Alix, that's kind of the weird thing - if something major happened (like we moved or whatever) then I'd understand his behavior, but it's not related to anything big (I'm convinced it has nothing to do with the babies). It really is very clear cause and effect of just him not getting his way about something, which is why it annoys me so much.
I'm curious, how did the wooden gate keep him out of the living room? Was it like a baby gate? Just wondering because I've briefly considered something like this for other areas of the house but then realized our cats could easily jump over them lol.
I hadn't even heard of this - off to google, thank you!
We used the baby gate trick when we were remodeling our house. We bought two and stacked one on top of the other. It worked like a charm. And our cat is a jumper. The only time he would try to escape was at night. I'm guessing he was bored or knew that we were passed out enough that he could get away with it.
Instead of pooping, our cat retaliates by attacking us. Hard core attacking us. When we moved to our new house, he attacked me so badly that I ended up in Urgent Care and was on antibiotics for weeks. He's a big cat (part Maine ***) and he knows it. What got him to stop attacking us was our version of putting him in the corner. Into the a dark bathroom he would go, door closed, and we'd ignore his cries for 15 minutes or so. We repeated this tactic over and over whenever he misbehaved, whether it was biting, pulling raw chicken off the counter, whining early in the morning to be fed...he knows we're the boss now and if he is out of line, he gets no attention whatsoever. This worked for us. It might not for everyone but it's worth a shot. It kinda sounds like Elwood knows he calls the shots - it's time for you to dominate him and show him you're in charge.
GL!
haha that kitty timeout idea is interesting
i can't remember but did this start before the boys were born? before you were PG? i wonder if those changes upset him
and honestly, i hate to say it but i have had a veterinary behaviorist tell me that they had to work with some families and try like 10+ different types of litter before settling on the one that the cat preferred!!! also different types of boxes, too.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
He did it both before I was PG, before they were born, and after they were born - there are periods of time between the bouts of pooing, but they don't seem directly linked to any particular event (for example, he recently started up again and nothing has changed - the babies have been around for ages, we haven't moved house, etc.).
This is definitely his favorite kind of litter - when we change it out, he'll go and dig around in it even if he doesn't have to pee (weird, I know - he just really likes it!).