B*stard Cat Trick

I think I've mentioned before that Cleo has a 'problem'. She pretty much
prefers anything to her box. Her favourite spots are carpet and plastic, she
even peed in her water dish once. She was taking Amitriptyline at one time,
which helped some, but made her sleep 24 hours a day. So she gets locked in
the Utility room at night and when we're out. This was effective for a while
and she started using her boxes again, but she slowly slipped back into her
old habits. Even with the old carpet in this room, this still got to be a
problem again.

So I decided to wall off the Utility room to make it smaller. This would
give us less area to clean and I'd read that retraining cats to litter
requires a small room. The wall is just some 2x2s covered in plastic
sheeting with a zipper glued to the plastic to give us access. This was
working real well and Cleo was 100% good for about two weeks. But then she
saw me open the zipper and go into the closed off portion of the room. The
very next night she had learned to open the zipper and was back to peeing in
her old spots. Talk about an evil genius.

PS.
She has been to the vet several times.
She is not in any pain.
She pees normally about twice a day.
Her boxes are cleaned and emptied regularly.
She does have aggression issues (people and cats), which is probably why the
Amitriptyline helped.
We believe she may have been raised outside by someone's indoor/outdoor
female. DAGS

Bill Stock wrote:
I think I've mentioned before that Cleo has a 'problem'. She pretty much
prefers anything to her box. Her favourite spots are carpet and plastic, she
even peed in her water dish once. She was taking Amitriptyline at one time,
which helped some, but made her sleep 24 hours a day. So she gets locked in
the Utility room at night and when we're out. This was effective for a while
and she started using her boxes again, but she slowly slipped back into her
old habits. Even with the old carpet in this room, this still got to be a
problem again.

So I decided to wall off the Utility room to make it smaller. This would
give us less area to clean and I'd read that retraining cats to litter
requires a small room. The wall is just some 2x2s covered in plastic
sheeting with a zipper glued to the plastic to give us access. This was
working real well and Cleo was 100% good for about two weeks. But then she
saw me open the zipper and go into the closed off portion of the room. The
very next night she had learned to open the zipper and was back to peeing in
her old spots. Talk about an evil genius.

PS.
She has been to the vet several times.
She is not in any pain.
She pees normally about twice a day.
Her boxes are cleaned and emptied regularly.
She does have aggression issues (people and cats), which is probably why the
Amitriptyline helped.
We believe she may have been raised outside by someone's indoor/outdoor
female. DAGS

You asked me once about Clomicalm. Did you try it? It also made Rusty
slept a lot. But now
that he has been off it for over a year, he still sleeps a lot. I
figure it is from old age.

My vet's cat has a similar problem with aggresion and inappropriate
peeing. I guess such cats mark their territories this way.

I also read that there is a Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract Cat Litter
developed by a vet to train or re-train
cats to use the litter box. I saw it at the PetSmart website. I haven't
used it myself.


Winnie

"Winnie" wrote in message
oups.com...

Bill Stock wrote:
I think I've mentioned before that Cleo has a 'problem'. She pretty much
prefers anything to her box. Her favourite spots are carpet and plastic,
she
even peed in her water dish once. She was taking Amitriptyline at one
time,
which helped some, but made her sleep 24 hours a day. So she gets locked
in
the Utility room at night and when we're out. This was effective for a
while
and she started using her boxes again, but she slowly slipped back into
her
old habits. Even with the old carpet in this room, this still got to be a
problem again.

So I decided to wall off the Utility room to make it smaller. This would
give us less area to clean and I'd read that retraining cats to litter
requires a small room. The wall is just some 2x2s covered in plastic
sheeting with a zipper glued to the plastic to give us access. This was
working real well and Cleo was 100% good for about two weeks. But then
she
saw me open the zipper and go into the closed off portion of the room.
The
very next night she had learned to open the zipper and was back to peeing
in
her old spots. Talk about an evil genius.

PS.
She has been to the vet several times.
She is not in any pain.
She pees normally about twice a day.
Her boxes are cleaned and emptied regularly.
She does have aggression issues (people and cats), which is probably why
the
Amitriptyline helped.
We believe she may have been raised outside by someone's indoor/outdoor
female. DAGS

You asked me once about Clomicalm. Did you try it? It also made Rusty
slept a lot. But now
that he has been off it for over a year, he still sleeps a lot. I
figure it is from old age.

Cleo's fairly active without the Amitriptyline. This was the vet's choice
over Clomicalm. The other option is hormones, but I understand they can
cause Cancer.

My vet's cat has a similar problem with aggresion and inappropriate
peeing. I guess such cats mark their territories this way.

We think it's a combination of territory (she hates Smokey), her early
training and a loose screw or two. She's a Calico. She has some respect for
Cali (another Calico), as she won't put up with her crap.

I also read that there is a Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract Cat Litter
developed by a vet to train or re-train
cats to use the litter box. I saw it at the PetSmart website. I haven't
used it myself.

Thanks, this may be an option, we found that Puppy training pads in her box
helped for a while.

Winnie

Bill Stock wrote:

So I decided to wall off the Utility room to make it smaller. This would
give us less area to clean and I'd read that retraining cats to litter
requires a small room. The wall is just some 2x2s covered in plastic
sheeting with a zipper glued to the plastic to give us access. This was
working real well and Cleo was 100% good for about two weeks. But then she
saw me open the zipper and go into the closed off portion of the room. The
very next night she had learned to open the zipper and was back to peeing in
her old spots. Talk about an evil genius.

Oh my god! That cat needs maximum security! I know cats can learn from each
other, but usually they're learning from cats doing *cat things*. Cleo learned
from a human, doing a human thing, and she figured out how to reproduce your
actions, even without opposable thumbs.

I hope she's nicer than Nox, Bandit and KFC.

Good luck re-training her. I haven't dealt with this, so I have no suggestions.

Joyce

wrote in message
...
Bill Stock wrote:

So I decided to wall off the Utility room to make it smaller. This would
give us less area to clean and I'd read that retraining cats to litter
requires a small room. The wall is just some 2x2s covered in plastic
sheeting with a zipper glued to the plastic to give us access. This was
working real well and Cleo was 100% good for about two weeks. But then
she
saw me open the zipper and go into the closed off portion of the room.
The
very next night she had learned to open the zipper and was back to
peeing in
her old spots. Talk about an evil genius.

Oh my god! That cat needs maximum security! I know cats can learn from
each
other, but usually they're learning from cats doing *cat things*. Cleo
learned
from a human, doing a human thing, and she figured out how to reproduce
your
actions, even without opposable thumbs.

She's likely using that little ski-jump nose to get under the zipper, but
who knows.

I hope she's nicer than Nox, Bandit and KFC.

Cleo's a strange one, although she came from outside she has no desire to
venture outside at all. Her first impulse is to bite you if you annoy her,
but she is VERY needy. The vet calls her cat-tankerous.

Good luck re-training her. I haven't dealt with this, so I have no
suggestions.

Fortunately the other two have no interest in being copy cats.

Joyce

Bill Stock wrote:

So I decided to wall off the Utility room to make it smaller. This would
give us less area to clean and I'd read that retraining cats to litter
requires a small room. The wall is just some 2x2s covered in plastic
sheeting with a zipper glued to the plastic to give us access. This was
working real well and Cleo was 100% good for about two weeks. But then she
saw me open the zipper and go into the closed off portion of the room. The
very next night she had learned to open the zipper and was back to peeing in
her old spots. Talk about an evil genius.

That was certainly smart of her. Purrs that you find a way to steer her
back to the litterbox.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

For what it's worth, the sleep-all-day effect of Amitriptyline does
wear off. I've been taking it for 17 years now.
I hope you can get this 'problem' fixed. One thing I used to do with a
cat who had the problem is put a paper plate of food *on* the spots
where she peed (after cleaning it up, of course). Cats don't like
their input and output in the same place. It helped a little.

Jane
- owned and operated by Princess Rita


Bill Stock wrote:
I think I've mentioned before that Cleo has a 'problem'. She pretty much
prefers anything to her box. Her favourite spots are carpet and plastic, she
even peed in her water dish once. She was taking Amitriptyline at one time,
which helped some, but made her sleep 24 hours a day. So she gets locked in
the Utility room at night and when we're out. This was effective for a while
and she started using her boxes again, but she slowly slipped back into her
old habits. Even with the old carpet in this room, this still got to be a
problem again.