Let's Talk Inappropriate Urination (Part 1)

If Stubbs were to go to a support group, his opening line would be "Hello, my name is Stubbs, and I pee outside the box."

It all started rather slowly and innocently. I had Stubbs for over a year and a half the first time this happened. I went away for the weekend, and when I returned, he had peed all over his new kitty bed. No big deal. I realized, in hindsight, that I had probably not been keeping his litter box as clean as I should.

There were no other incidents for about 6 more months. By this time I had moved to a new apartment that Stubbs never quite seemed to feel at home in. It was on the first floor, as opposed to my two previous apartments (one of which was on the 2nd floor, and the other on the 3rd), with a lot of street and foot traffic, which I think make him anxious.

But I digress. The fact is, that I tried to change him to a new litter, because I was sick of stepping in litter dust everytime I walked in and out of my bedroom, and I switched it too fast. I tried mixing it half and half, which he did fine with, but I naively thought that meant he would be fine if I just refilled it with all new litter. Wrong. He took one look at the litter box and promptly peed on my duffel bag.

OK, again, this was my mistake. Being a pet owner is all about learning through trial and error. So I went back to the old litter and stuck to it.

His major offenses started a few months after that, in the summertime. I was still teaching at that time, but was off for summer vacation. I had a part time job (at a Veterinary Office), but did not have to get up at the ungodly hour that I had to get up at when I was dealing with the hour commute that I had to school. Stubbs, however, did not understand this, nor did he care to understand. It was 5 AM, he wanted to be fed, and he wanted his mommy time. For several days, I got up at 5 to appease him, and to save my mattress from the destructive nature of his claws. On the third or fourth day, I had had enough. I shut the door. For the first time since I had him, I shut the door. He cried for a few minutes, and then went away. VICTORY WAS MINE! or so I thought....

I got up to discover that Stubbs had taken his anger out on the dishrag that I had left on the counter, in the form of a good dousing with urine.

And for some reason, this was the straw that broke the camels back, or the dishrag that broke the cat's back, however you like to look at it. Stubbs went on a two week long peeing rampage, that I still shudder to remember. Any piece of cloth that was left laying on the floor or counter may as well have been put in his litter box. Or maybe it would have been better off in his litter box, because he was certainly spending more time peeing out of it than in.

Again, in hindsight, I was going into this blind. Silly me, I kept leaving things around for him to pee on. For instance, I kept repeatedly throwing dishrags in the same spot on the counter. Now I know that this was a huge mistake. Always, always, always, if you can, remove the stimulus. I rearranged a few things on my counters, got in the habit of hanging the dishrag where it belonged, and he stopped going on dishrags on the counter.

But he did not stop peeing on other things that he was not supposed to pee on, so I took him to the vet, wondering if he, perhaps, have a urinary tract infection, knowing in my heart that he didn't, and that he was truly just being a big pill. And my heart was right.

At the same time as this was going on, Stubbs was also acting very needy. When I was home, he was constantly at my heels, crying for attention. After talking it over with the vet, we decided that perhaps he was lonely and he needed a friend. So, I got Annabelle.

Did the arrival of little Annabelle cure Stubbs of his inappropriate urination? Find out in the next installment of "Let's Talk Inappropriate Urination...."