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4034. alistairconnor - 12/5/2007 12:51:48 PM Well, Petit Tom has plenty of excuses.
He never knew his father, for one thing. And his mother rejected him at an early age (as soon as she worked out that the humans preferred him to her).
We'll have to discuss it with his social worker, but as I pointed out to my girlfriend, you've taken responsibility for him, you can't just turn him out in the street, he's not able to fend for himself. And his previous owner has no obligation to take him back, and is unlikely to be willing to, so we'll just have to make the best of a bad job, and try to cure him of his nasty habits...
... just like me, in short. 4035. judithathome - 12/5/2007 4:34:41 PM By training, I mean at age 8 weeks or a little earlier, grasping their paw with your fingers and outting said paw in the litter box and moving it in a "pawing the dirt" fashion one or two times.
That's all you need to do. Harley is a FERAL cat, for cripes' sake, and she was trained to the litter box instantly in that manner. Has never gone "potty" anywhere else in the house AT ALL. 4036. wabbit - 12/5/2007 4:52:24 PM Arky is right, you'll have to do some heavy duty cleaning wherever he's left you a gift.
I'd suggest a covered litter box, but Petit Tom sounds quite shameless and not the least bit desirous of privacy. Also, never clean up after him while he's watching. Sounds silly, I know, but many cats (and dogs) will quickly figure out that it doesn't matter where they do their business, because you will be along shortly to deal with it.
It could be that PT is just spreading himself around the house, making it his own, and will stop soon, or maybe he's just a dirty little bugger. Quelle suprise he was offered to you if this was happening at the ex's house. Perhaps he was expected to be an indoor/outdoor cat.
I would try confining him to one room (a smallish room, if possible) with his food and water on one side and the litter box on the other. For weeks, if necessary, until he gets the idea. You'll want to do this in a room where his litter box can be from now until the end of time, because if you move it, he may go back to that spot anyway.
I trust you've had him neutered? 4037. arkymalarky - 12/6/2007 12:38:55 AM Maybe the ex trained him? 4038. arkymalarky - 12/6/2007 12:50:42 AM That's all you need to do. Harley is a FERAL cat, for cripes' sake, and she was trained to the litter box instantly in that manner. Has never gone "potty" anywhere else in the house AT ALL.
Right, and they will generally use a litter box naturally without accidents. That he doesn't is a bad sign. We had one that didn't that I almost forgot about, but that's because I didn't live home at the time and it became an outdoor-only cat in short order after they got it because they couldn't get it to go in a litter box.
BTW, others may have done this for cats they want to convert to outside, but my parents have had several outdoor cats who ran in the house every chance they got, and since they fed them all canned catfood, they'd get them out from under the bed by hitting the electric can opener. Funny to watch them come running out of hiding every time. 4039. alistairconnor - 12/7/2007 3:06:57 PM Tom seems to be making remarkable progress. Perhaps he overheard us talking about sending him to boarding school (he's now called Cookie, by the way. I was against the change -- it's confusing enough for him to have to change his family name, but his given name too...)
He is using his litter box, which is in the kitchen (I was against this location, but my opinion counts for less than nothing -- I have been convicted of jealousy by a jury of my peers.) 4040. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:24:41 PM Just make sure they keep the litter box cleared out...I have a little slotted scoop that I use about 3 or 4 times a day to keep Harley's cleaned out. (Bag the little nuggets in plastic bags...don't ever flush them or the little that adheres to them will stop up your plumbing.) Change the whole litter out once a week. And we used to use a plastic litter box but my friend turned me on to these disposable ones, with litter already in them...you toss the whole thing once a week and they never absorb the odors like plastic has a tendency to do. My hadn't but as soon as he mentioned that, I started imagining it soon would!
Well, after buying 3 of the disposable ones, we discoved Harley hated the litter that came in them...it was "rockier" and I guess disturbed her tender little paws. Plus, the disposers were very shallow so she tossed litter like confetti onto the floor A LOT. So we hit upon a fantastic solution: disposable aluminum turkey roasting pans with her favorite "beach sand consistancy" litter that has baking soda in it! The pans are so durable, deep, and non-odor absorbing that we can go two weeks with one so less waste. She is happy, and we are happy, too. 4041. alistairconnor - 12/9/2007 3:34:12 PM Yes we are adepts of the little slotted scoop... those little nuggets are so beautiful, with the crunchy-looking bits of white litter, that they look like some regional chocolate speciality from Voisin... "Crottes du Périgord", $35 a kilo. 4042. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:36:18 PM The reasons for scooping out during the day are one, no chances of odor but mostly, two: you don't want a cat walking or scratching over and over in its poop & pee and then getting on every surface of you countertops and tables and being played with by your girls.
I thought everyone scooped multiple times a day until this poster on my forum said her cat had tossed a "turd" out into the hallway and asked jokingly if he was trying to ask for a litter change. I asked her how often she cleaned it and was appalled to hear "once a week, maybe"...and she has two cats! She said she HATES to clean the litter box...well, who doesn't? But people can walk into my house and not wrinkle their noses and ask how many cats we have whereas I'm sure they couldn't do that at hers.
We have Harley's box in the bathroom and I doubt anyone could tell it was there unless they happened upon her in mid-poop. If you keep it tidied up, you shouldn't be able to tell a cat lives with you until you see the actual cat standing there.
And by the way, congratulations to Petit Tom/Cookie on finally getting the hang of it! 4043. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:38:50 PM those little nuggets are so beautiful, with the crunchy-looking bits of white litter, that they look like some regional chocolate speciality from Voisin... "Crottes du Périgord", $35 a kilo.
Ha! I always think of Chocolate Nonpareils.
4044. wabbit - 12/9/2007 6:35:42 PM I've recommended these litter boxes here before - I have two of them and they're great. They do take up a bit of space, but they're worth having. To clean, roll them slowly, bang on the bottom with your hand, roll them back and empty the bin, then tip them back again a bit past flat to distribute the remaining clean litter. Easy peasy, takes about a minute. I have covered buckets left over from litter purchases that I use for collecting the waste, and when they get about half full, they get dumped.
medium size Omega Paw litter box
large size Omega Paw litter box 4045. judithathome - 12/10/2007 1:12:40 AM Ha...the first link went to...The Mote. At times, it might feel like a litter box but I doubt that's what you meant!
We couldn't fit even a small one of those in our bathroom, unfortunately. They look pretty cool, though! 4046. jexster - 12/10/2007 2:31:06 AM Swimming cat
4047. wabbit - 12/10/2007 5:42:28 PM Hmmm, careless careless me. Here is the correct link for the medium size Omega Paw litter box.
Sorry about that. 4048. wabbit - 12/10/2007 5:45:57 PM Cute tub kitteh. None of mine like swimming, afaik, but one has no qualms about being wet. She'll stand out in the rain (or snow) and not mind it one bit. She has a very thick coat. 4049. concerned - 12/10/2007 9:40:43 PM Actually, looks like the cat is walking around in the water. 4050. judithathome - 12/10/2007 10:00:11 PM I'd love to try that with Harley! Maybe dip her in first and soap her up and then set her loose to rinse off. I have given her two baths...in the kitchen sink, with the sprayer hose, but I fear those days are gone forever now.
I am opposed to declawing cats and certainly she's too old now to have it done but there days around here that I wish I had gone ahead and had it done when she was spayed. She's fast and deadly with those things.
However, in her favor, she HAS stopped attacking our feet in the mornings. 4051. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:05:21 PM Well, I've had the new heat pump (an Econar, made in Minnesota where they know what winter *really* means) running in my house for about a month now.
It definitely seems to be a better built unit than the Waterfurnace. For instance, the air heat exchange assembly is twice as deep, and the difference in air temperature is readily noticeable since it doesn't have to blow the air as hard to transfer the heat, so is quieter as well.
An additional piece of good luck appears to be that the earth loop that was installed (after I spent $11,000 having it backfilled so it wouldn't freeze up in the winter) has not been a problem. This means I don't probably have to spend another 25 grand having new wells dug and loops installed.
I paid for a 10 year full warranty on the Econar, and hopefully I won't have to take advantage of it. But time will tell.
In the meantime, I am proceeding with a lawsuit against Watefurnace. Their argument that the problem is the earth loop has obviously been discredited (see above), although they were also responsible for that defective installation that required my shelling out $11,000 to correct. So my primary goal is to recover all my out of pocket costs (well in excess of $40,000) that Waterfurnace forced me to spend to keep a working geothermal system in place. So much for Waterfurnace's '10 year full warranty'. 4052. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:08:19 PM And btw, if a cat ever shits or pisses in a part of your house he'll do it over and over in that same spot. So it will be interesting to see if y'all can break him of that. Wabbit knows more about that sort of thing than anybody, though, afaik.
An instant cure is to cover that spot with a big piece of furniture. Make sure you completely clean the odor up first, of course. After six months or so, if you remove the furniture, chances are good that the cat will have lost interest in using that spot, especially if some sort of feline repellent is then placed there.
4053. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:24:27 PM I once had a bigtime problem where I once lived with one of my cats who had regularly pishitted (new word, hey!) in a finished basement on a carpet. It was so bad, the whole room smelled like the inside of a cat's asshole. (I can tell jexster's getting excited here.) I was able to totally resolve the situation by buying several bottles of enzyme pet odor remover, mixing it with a good strong disinfecting cleaner and several gallons of water and literally saturating the whole basement carpet with this mixture.
After a few days, I rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned the whole thing. The result: pet odor totally gone, (no mildew odor either, even though it took almost two weeks to totally dry) and best of all, the cat didn't seem to have any interest in using the basement carpet as a toilet any more.
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