# Cats...WWYD?



## bex1984 (12 July 2013)

I've posted about my oddball, awkward, neurotic cats before - last time because their poo was stinking out the house and you guys fixed that for me by suggesting different food, so I'm hoping you may be able to help me again now because I am nearing the end of my tether.

Background is that they are now about 12 years old, 2 rescue cats - mainly house cats, reliant on a litter tray and so neurotic they mostly don't leave their 'bedroom' during daylight. They can't have access to living room, bedrooms or any soft furnishings because they wee on them. BUT they are the sweetest, friendliest cats you could ever meet and they are happy in their tiny, weird world.

Unfortunately this week they have weed in our hallway (thanks to another cat spraying on the outside of our front door) and I know now they've started, the are likely to carry on.

My job has been restructured and I now work from home and their bedroom has had to become my office. They are leaving hair everywhere (my job makes this really difficult - I often work with people with allergies so cannot have bits of hair on paperwork etc) and they are sick (hairballs) A LOT. It is only a matter of time until they vom in my work computer/phone printer 

Tonight I went upstairs to run a bath for my 1 year old daughter - litter tray is in bathroom. They'd missed the litter tray - cat wee all over bathroom floor. Cleared that up and cleared out litter tray. Then discovered enormous pile of sick on my work chair (which belongs to work) so had to clean that up to.

Add to all of this that my little girl took her first steps today and it is hitting me how hard it is going to get keeping her away from the litter tray etc once she is walking.

We can't even put a stairgate at the top of our stairs because the cats can't jump over it to get downstairs to their food and it would stress them out.

So - what would you do? I feel like the worst person in the world but I'm contemplating having them PTS


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## Tickles (12 July 2013)

For contemplating it: no. For doing it...

There are other options to think about first.

Can the cats be 'moved' to e.g. the kitchen/back hall if you have one and given a flap to a run (aviary stylee) in the garden? That way I'm thinking they only have access to washable indoor floors and are in a space where you'd be supervising your little one very closely anyway.

At 12 you're unlikely to know anything nice will happen to them if they go to a rescue place... but you could try re-homing them yourself perhaps if you have a network of animal-friendly types e.g. from your yard to ask around?


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## bex1984 (12 July 2013)

If I moved them to the kitchen/utility room - they'd spend all their time on the surfaces plus I'd have to put their litter tray down there and once baby is walking around that's going to be impossible.

I don't want them to go to a rehoming centre because I don't think they'd ever leave  

And I worry that if I rehomed them somewhere I'd send up with them back because they'd start weeing all over their new home...

But much easier to contemplate PTS than actually do it...I don't know if I actually could...


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## mulledwhine (12 July 2013)

You need to get rid off all the smell ( vodka works a treat , but what a waste  but worth it )

Scrub until you can't scrub anymore , then scrub some more 

Get new litter trays, basically get rid of anything that may harbour the smell of the other car and your own cats markings


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## bex1984 (12 July 2013)

Scrubbed, treated with odour remover etc. (Believe me, I have been doing this for the last nearly 10 years!). We moved 18 months ago, and managed to last until now with no indoor weeing  OH is talking about replacing the floor where it happened.


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## SusieT (12 July 2013)

have you had any vet investigations done?


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## bex1984 (12 July 2013)

Never any major investigations, although have discussed all of this with various vers several times in the past. We tried for years to get them trained off a litter tray (we managed it once, then we moved and a local tom cat caused chaos) - in the end the vet's advice was to give up and accept that they pretty much needed to be house cats and this did improve things a bit. 

It's just they way they are and we've always just about been able to manage but adding a toddler and the working from home situation is making things difficult now.


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## Tickles (12 July 2013)

Litter tray with lid? Harder for toddler to stand in/cats to accidentally go over side...


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## SusieT (12 July 2013)

ok have they had urine samples and blood samples analysed to check for infection or stones?


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## Gluttonforpunishment (12 July 2013)

Cats would have to go if it was me, hugely unhygienic and a real health risk to your daughter. If they cannot be rehomed then PTS. Unfortunate situation and I feel for you but a child's health has to come first.


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## bex1984 (12 July 2013)

No they haven't SusieT - would something like that go on for so many years? (and would it be likely bearing in mind they haven't actually weed inappropriately for 18 months)? I've always assumed it was behavioural.

Tickles - we did used to have one of them but I don't think it will fit in the gap the litter tray is in now. And it didn't work that well for them because they are HUGE cats.
But might be worth revisiting with a toddler as it would make it harder for her to access. Obviously she's not unsupervised in the bathroom anyway at the moment, but she doesn't keep still so I have to put her in her cot to run her bath and she cries because I've left her


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## SusieT (12 July 2013)

If you have cats urinating inappropriately i.e. beside litter tray, spraying etc. you can have crystals causing it-and you can test a urine sample in a very straightforward way to test fo rinfection, crystals etc. and vomiting could just be hairballs or could be sub optimal kidneys. I'd get them checked before pts.


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## jalapeno (12 July 2013)

There are many fates worse than pts. If moving them will hamper their quality of life and keeping them where they are will affect you...... I think you already know what to do.


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## Jnhuk (13 July 2013)

Why don't you ask your local Cat's Protection League for help rather than vets? They be able to help in other ways than just offering re-homing advice

Have you tried a fellway diffuser to help with their behaviours?

I have adopted aged cats from CPL - it is harder for them to get a home but it is not impossible


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## 4x4 (13 July 2013)

Can't they live in the shed? Mine do!


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## bex1984 (13 July 2013)

I'm considering the shed. Have you kitted yours out 4x4? Not sure how we'd get power in for the cat flap? Is it okay when really hot or cold?


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## Highlands (13 July 2013)

My cat flaps battery based


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## MagicMelon (13 July 2013)

Sorry but I do think its very unfair of you to consider putting these cats to sleep.  If you really don't like them, which it sounds like you don't - then try your hardest to rehome them!  Other people may well have much more luck with them and give them a far nicer life.  Its not their fault that the conditions you provide doesn't seem to suit them. It sounds like they're rather unhappy with you right now considering they aren't using the litter tray normally, have you ever actually taught them about a litter tray?  If they're using it all the time then they need to see a vet!  Don't just fob it off as "behavioural".  My mum used to work for the CPL so I've seen plenty of cats come to us and then out for rehoming, they always get used to a litter tray, even the semi-feral ones.

To say they have to go because of your daughter IMO is again, not right.  You simply need to adjust your home.  My cats for example, have all their things in our utility room (food, water and their cat litter box which I made out of a big plastic storage box with a hole cut in the side (mainly because they used to occassionally pee over the edge of a standard litter tray).  To give them access but to keep my toddler (and dog) away, we cut a (neat!) hole beside the door into the utility room so they can go in and out as they please.  Because they were taught to use their litter tray, they have never had an accident.  If your cats are throwing up a lot, then again look at their health or food!  

To be honest though it sounds like you have made up your mind, so rehome them.  There will be someone out there who will take 2 12yr olds especially if you say you're going to put them down - my mum has literally today taken on a 14yr old cat because the owners allergies had got so bad, she was also considering PTS.


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## MagicMelon (13 July 2013)

jalapeno said:



			There are many fates worse than pts. If moving them will hamper their quality of life and keeping them where they are will affect you...... I think you already know what to do.
		
Click to expand...

I think thats a selfish view.  When you choose to take on a pet, it is your responsibility to give them a good life.  If your situation changes, why on earth should the animals life then be ended?!  Very selfish if you ask me.  Am fed up with people saying there's worse than being PTS, all OP needs to do is find a decent home for the cats - cats are adaptable and these ones sound unhappy where they are anyway.  Some people seem to always assume the animal will end up in bad hands so its "kinder" to put them down, rubbish - just check the home!


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## bex1984 (13 July 2013)

I do love them - I'm just struggling to live with them. We're getting to the point where we've adapted pretty much everything we can adapt in the house for them - we moved 18 months ago and their needs were a major consideration but things change and we didn't anticipate me working from home. 

We could advertise them privately - but I'd have to be honest about them and then who would have them? So that leaves me with the thought of sending them to a rescue centre and I worry they'd be there forever. 

There's no good answer to this. My mum loves them to bits, has had cats all her life but she won't take them because of how they are. I could ask yo if they could go there but I think girl cat would have a nervous breakdown. 

I took them on ad rescues - fully committed to having them for life. We have arranged 2 houses around them, thrown away countless items of furniture, replaced floors, spent a fortune on feliwaytthe and posh cat food and all manner of cat flaps, litter trays etc and I feel like I'm running out of things I can do to make this work. 

Sorry - long post!


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## bex1984 (13 July 2013)

Just to add - we did manage to train them off the litter tray when we first had them but girl cat had a few nasty encounters with local cats which terrified her. She got massively stressed about the outside world and on vet's advice we accepted she needs a litter tray and it needs to be close to where she spends all her time and away from external doors - so it's in our upstairs bathroom.


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