How do I fix this cat? (1 Viewer)

Eeyore

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Tuesday morning I dropped off a bunch of soft cat, and dog, food at the local humane society (Meowschwitz).

I'm too busy for a dog. It's common for me to be gone for 24-36 hours at a time. I don't have anything against cats so I asked to see what they have.

They had cats in general population and they had some in solitary confinement. I went to the solitary cats and asked to see their most difficult to adopt out.

They opened the cage of an estimated, 13 year old cat. They said that they won't adopt him out to anybody with kids, or other pets, and that he's slow to warm up to people. He liked me so I had them box him up. They had named him Emerald. That's a stripper's name so I changed it to (The Big) Lemeowski, or "Dude."

I got him home and set up a litter box in the basement and some food and water. We spent an hour with him crawling on me and then I headed to work and meetings. I got home 23 hours later.

I found 3 pooh piles in the dining room and nothing in the litter box. I haven't been successful finding urine. He had to pee right?

I got him a water fountain and set that up in the kitchen and put the food in the dining room.

Then I got another litter box and put that in one of my bathrooms. We went to sleep with no incidents. I left for another meeting and got home about 5 hours later. 5 more pooh piles but urine in the upstairs litter box.

When I was checking the basement box he stood at the top of the stairs and yelled at me. I went back upstairs and we ate. I went back downstairs for laundry and he stood at the top of the stairs and he yelled at me the whole time. Maybe he's afraid of the basement?

I brought that box upstairs. We'll see. I'm tired of cleaning the floor. He's an awesome cat and he deserves better than dying in Meowschwitz so I'm not going to take him back but I need to fix this.

Any suggestions?
 
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Moving the litter box is a good first step. He may need more than one litter box, perhaps, or maybe he's actually ill, or maybe he isn't particularly fond of the litter itself. It could also be stress from a change in scenery, or maybe he's just scared to be alone (he's doing it when you're not right there, or around).

First and foremost, if he doesn't respond to a change in the litter box location (moving it out the basement), bring him to a vet. There could be something wrong with him.

Also, he may now poop in the same location, over and over again. He will pick up his own poop scent and think it's now okay to go there. You might need to clean up that area with a enzymatic cleaner.
 
Man, I don’t know about that one. I have been around cats most of my life and while they do weird sheet sometimes, they have always sheet in the box.
 
Did the kommandant reveal why The Dude was in stir to begin with? Maybe this is recidivist behavior.

If that's not the reason, have a stern meown-to-meown and talk things out.
 
Did you physically set him in the litter box? I've always heard you need to do that. Not sure if it's true or a wives tale but I've always done it. Short of that there's a reason it's called a CATapult......pult him.
 
Moving the litter box is a good first step. He may need more than one litter box, perhaps, or maybe he's actually ill, or maybe he isn't particularly fond of the litter itself. It could also be stress from a change in scenery, or maybe he's just scared to be alone (he's doing it when you're not right there, or around).

First and foremost, if he doesn't respond to a change in the litter box location (moving it out the basement), bring him to a vet. There could be something wrong with him.

Also, he may now poop in the same location, over and over again. He will pick up his own poop scent and think it's now okay to go there. You might need to clean up that area with a enzymatic cleaner.
Thanks. I have some Bubba's enzymatic cleaner and a blacklight on the way.

I forgot to mention that the box that he hasn't used has the litter from Meowschwitz and the litter that he has used is the litter that I used for my ex's cats. Now the both boxes are upstairs I'm going to monitor the unused box. If it doesn't get used I'll switch litter.
 
Did you physically set him in the litter box? I've always heard you need to do that. Not sure if it's true or a wives tale but I've always done it. Short of that there's a reason it's called a CATapult......pult him.
Haven't put him in it. I'll see what happens between tonight and when I get home tomorrow. I think that a big part of this is that this is a new place for him. Hopefully, he'll relax.
 
Your first mistake was getting a cat. Any cat.
I never cared for them before the ex's cats. They weren't as friendly as this guy but it was nice to have them around. Maybe that was because they were the only living things in the house that were happy to see me? I think that if all cats had his personality they would be more accepted.
 
Did the kommandant reveal why The Dude was in stir to begin with? Maybe this is recidivist behavior.

If that's not the reason, have a stern meown-to-meown and talk things out.
They told me that he was picked up as a stray and that nobody ever came looking for him.

He's front declawed. That tells me that he was a pet. He's so clingy that I doubt that he was abused. He's so old that I doubt that he wasn't box trained.
 

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