Overwhelmed... any advice? (kittens, feline, smells, dog)
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Hi all, new poster here, hoping someone, anyone, can give some good advice about what to do to help my current situation.
So here's the scoop.
I have moved to a new place. Prior to my moving in here, there were five cats--two of which belonged to a (now-ex) roommate and who were, to put it mildly, waste-machines who plied their skill all over the house (and were also constant instigators of fights and other skirmishes which resulted in territory peeing by the other three). The roommate in question not only failed to clean up after them, but was also a hoarder of things like old electronics, and boxes, boxes, boxes... there were tiny paths through these piles of garbage and nothing more; piles that were, in the house term, thoroughly "catted" (meaning peed on).
Now before anyone says anything, the reason the other folks in the house didn't keep up with it, well... it's complicated in ways I won't go into but I will say that they are disabled and the deal was that the ex-roommate would keep up the house in exchange for room and board. Clearly he failed at doing this, and because the other roommates are such tolerant and kind-hearted folks, they put up with it for FAR longer than I think most people would have.
This is where I come in.
It was finally decided that ex-roommate was going to become well, the ex-roommate and I would move in instead. Prior to this decision I had already begun the process of trying to get the house cleaned up, at least as far as the hoard was concerned; and once the roommate was gone, he took his two cats with him and I thought "now we can start to address the very real issue of every room in this house having been thoroughly catted".
Only... no.
No more than three days after the roommate and his two cats left? The other roommates agreed to take in two foster cats that belonged to someone they knew that was getting evicted and couldn't take them with her. So for three whole days, the house was sort of sane and down to a manageable number of cats.
And I hoped.... oh, how I hoped... that the fosters would be able to fit in with the existing three. But of course, my hopes were dashed against the rocks.
One of the fosters is just... well, I have no other way to describe him aside from big and dumb. He doesn't seem to understand that when the other cats run away hissing, that is not an invitation to chase and play. As a result one of the existing cats has become so anxious she will not stay on the floor. At all. She plays a perpetual game of "the floor is LAVA" and will stay up on the railing over the stairs for most of the day.
The other foster, there is just no kind way to put it, is just a total feline-antisocial jerk. She will actively seek out any of the other cats--even the big dumb one at times, and they are siblings that have been together for about 10 years--and hiss and fight and instigate fights. One of the permanent cats in particular she constantly stalks and attacks--so there is constant, CONSTANT cat fighting going on.
And the best part? The peeing. Oh, the peeing. No longer is it relegated "simply" to mostly the front and back doors and any towel or bit of clothing dared to be left on the floor for any time. Oh no. Now the jerk-cat is getting into territory wars with her favorite stalkee and they are BOTH peeing everywhere, big-dumb-cat is (even though he is neutered) spraying things that have both been peed on and NOT peed on already, the-floor-is-lava cat is peeing on the landing, and we have a "mystery pooper" who is dumping loads into closets, in my hallway (I have a room in the basement), ON THE BANNISTER UPSTAIRS and even on the windowsills.
Twice I've even come out into the kitchen to find pee puddles on the STOVE.
And guess whose job it is to clean up? Yep, you guessed it, *ME*.
And I'm at my wits' end already. Because I just don't know what to do.
My room downstairs is now a zero-tolerance no-cat zone 100% of the time, because the one time I let big-dumb-cat in (he's usually just a big lovable lump of fur that is more dog than cat) he walked over and sprayed my chair within the first 20 seconds of entry in here--that was the first time we realized he was part of the peeing problem too. The rest of the house, the house I have worked so hard to clean up and am still working to clean up, is being thoroughly peed on again by these cats.
I know that it would be much better if the fosters were gone but apparently "that isn't an option" at the moment, and the person they are "fostering" for is...well lets just say the chances of her getting her act together anytime soon to be able to find a place that she can take her cats back to is about nil. The fact that I am cleaning up areas of the house that have not seen daylight in literal years--areas of the house that were once kitty havens under the cardboard hoard--means that they are steadily losing all their (thoroughly peed in) hiding places.
We've bought Feliway, and it's been plugged in in several places on the top floor for several days--and we see no change. I finally convinced them to buy a (really big) cat tree for these guys so they have their own place to play and hide and scratch and all that, but it's not here yet and I have my doubts about how much difference it will make...
.... help? Help a bewildered roommate who doesn't want to spend every waking moment of every day on alert to make sure she isn't going to step in pee or poop when she goes out of her bedroom and who also doesn't want to spend her entire residency here having to clean up urine and fecal matter several several times a week (and would be more if the back bedrooms/offices were actually more easily humanly accessible than they are right now)?
Only been here a month and I already am popping Xanax like candy.
Hi all, new poster here, hoping someone, anyone, can give some good advice about what to do to help my current situation.
So here's the scoop.
I have moved to a new place. Prior to my moving in here, there were five cats--two of which belonged to a (now-ex) roommate and who were, to put it mildly, waste-machines who plied their skill all over the house (and were also constant instigators of fights and other skirmishes which resulted in territory peeing by the other three). The roommate in question not only failed to clean up after them, but was also a hoarder of things like old electronics, and boxes, boxes, boxes... there were tiny paths through these piles of garbage and nothing more; piles that were, in the house term, thoroughly "catted" (meaning peed on).
Now before anyone says anything, the reason the other folks in the house didn't keep up with it, well... it's complicated in ways I won't go into but I will say that they are disabled and the deal was that the ex-roommate would keep up the house in exchange for room and board. Clearly he failed at doing this, and because the other roommates are such tolerant and kind-hearted folks, they put up with it for FAR longer than I think most people would have.
This is where I come in.
It was finally decided that ex-roommate was going to become well, the ex-roommate and I would move in instead. Prior to this decision I had already begun the process of trying to get the house cleaned up, at least as far as the hoard was concerned; and once the roommate was gone, he took his two cats with him and I thought "now we can start to address the very real issue of every room in this house having been thoroughly catted".
Only... no.
No more than three days after the roommate and his two cats left? The other roommates agreed to take in two foster cats that belonged to someone they knew that was getting evicted and couldn't take them with her. So for three whole days, the house was sort of sane and down to a manageable number of cats.
And I hoped.... oh, how I hoped... that the fosters would be able to fit in with the existing three. But of course, my hopes were dashed against the rocks.
One of the fosters is just... well, I have no other way to describe him aside from big and dumb. He doesn't seem to understand that when the other cats run away hissing, that is not an invitation to chase and play. As a result one of the existing cats has become so anxious she will not stay on the floor. At all. She plays a perpetual game of "the floor is LAVA" and will stay up on the railing over the stairs for most of the day.
The other foster, there is just no kind way to put it, is just a total feline-antisocial jerk. She will actively seek out any of the other cats--even the big dumb one at times, and they are siblings that have been together for about 10 years--and hiss and fight and instigate fights. One of the permanent cats in particular she constantly stalks and attacks--so there is constant, CONSTANT cat fighting going on.
And the best part? The peeing. Oh, the peeing. No longer is it relegated "simply" to mostly the front and back doors and any towel or bit of clothing dared to be left on the floor for any time. Oh no. Now the jerk-cat is getting into territory wars with her favorite stalkee and they are BOTH peeing everywhere, big-dumb-cat is (even though he is neutered) spraying things that have both been peed on and NOT peed on already, the-floor-is-lava cat is peeing on the landing, and we have a "mystery pooper" who is dumping loads into closets, in my hallway (I have a room in the basement), ON THE BANNISTER UPSTAIRS and even on the windowsills.
Twice I've even come out into the kitchen to find pee puddles on the STOVE.
And guess whose job it is to clean up? Yep, you guessed it, *ME*.
And I'm at my wits' end already. Because I just don't know what to do.
My room downstairs is now a zero-tolerance no-cat zone 100% of the time, because the one time I let big-dumb-cat in (he's usually just a big lovable lump of fur that is more dog than cat) he walked over and sprayed my chair within the first 20 seconds of entry in here--that was the first time we realized he was part of the peeing problem too. The rest of the house, the house I have worked so hard to clean up and am still working to clean up, is being thoroughly peed on again by these cats.
I know that it would be much better if the fosters were gone but apparently "that isn't an option" at the moment, and the person they are "fostering" for is...well lets just say the chances of her getting her act together anytime soon to be able to find a place that she can take her cats back to is about nil. The fact that I am cleaning up areas of the house that have not seen daylight in literal years--areas of the house that were once kitty havens under the cardboard hoard--means that they are steadily losing all their (thoroughly peed in) hiding places.
We've bought Feliway, and it's been plugged in in several places on the top floor for several days--and we see no change. I finally convinced them to buy a (really big) cat tree for these guys so they have their own place to play and hide and scratch and all that, but it's not here yet and I have my doubts about how much difference it will make...
.... help? Help a bewildered roommate who doesn't want to spend every waking moment of every day on alert to make sure she isn't going to step in pee or poop when she goes out of her bedroom and who also doesn't want to spend her entire residency here having to clean up urine and fecal matter several several times a week (and would be more if the back bedrooms/offices were actually more easily humanly accessible than they are right now)?
Only been here a month and I already am popping Xanax like candy.
What to do? I'd be looking for somewhere else to live, that situation sounds intolerable to me. I didnt bat an eye when one our kittens needing surgery ($2k !!) after swallowing some cooking string but peeing/pooping aould be a deal breaker for me.
Move was the first thing that came to my mind as well.
And don't take anything that has been pee'd on with you.
Start fresh. I'm afraid that it will be the only way.
Since it's not your house, and not your cats either, have to agree with just getting out.
I mean, there's no way to stop this without an extremely THOROUGH cleaning and purging of all stuff that has any smell of cat urine. Their sense of smell is something like 16x more sensitive. They can still smell it even if you can't. And then you have training the cats for litter boxes. If there are unneutered males in the mix that isn't helping either.
There are steps that can be taken but it will take a lot of work. If these were your cats you were trying to keep, that would be one thing. With this? There's got to be another place to live, I have to think. I can't imagine why the rest of them want to live that way either. Crazy stuff. But you can leave that to be their problem and not yours. Time to get out. I hope that is an option for you.
I unfortunately don't have any better ideas than what has already been stated here. Unless I'm vastly misunderstanding your post, you don't even have any ownership involvement in these cats, at all. You are under zero obligation to let these irresponsible cat-guardians and their problematic animal companions ruin your life like this. You should get out as soon as humanly possible.
Normally when people bring up situations with problem cats, I refer to "What would Jackson Galaxy do?" (Animal Planet show "My Cat From Hell") But I'm not even sure what his answer to this would be, I've only ever seen him address situations with one or two cats, not five.
My only other point of advice is, don't let this experience spoil your opinion of cat ownership forever. I was also in a bad situation with roommate types having too many animals and those animals causing lots of problems. Once I left that life behind, it was 12 YEARS before I would consent to get another pet. Now while I don't regret waiting until I was really ready, I definitely had a tendency to overthink and self-doubt myself into a corner whenever I contemplated wanting to get a cat, which I wanted to. I was convined I had to cat-proof my home to a degree about as bad as baby-proofing a home. I anticipated problems that weren't really problems. I finally took the leap, and now I'm like, "You know...this really isn't THAT big a deal. Having a cat doesn't mean rearranging your whole universe." But yeah, point is I knee-jerk reacted strongly away from animal ownership after my bad time. I hope that doesn't happen to you.
Good luck! And don't OD on Xanax for crying out loud!
Wow. I have to agree with the others.
A gradual introduction of the new cats to the others would have been better, and normally I'd say go back to square one, contain the new cats separately, and introduce the newbies gradually. But this sounds like such utter chaos, I don't see how that will help. You would need a lot more controlled environment, with predictability, without all the smells... it's hard to know where to even start with this. I hope moving out is an option. And like the poster above, I hope this doesn't turn you against cats! Under better circumstances, they're wonderful creatures.
Do these cats have CLEAN litterpans to use? Are there enough litterpans for all the cats? Are they neutered?
Additionally: If only the males are "fixed" that's not good enough. Spaying the females might cut down on the psycho aggressive behaviors and other issues, too.
But again...I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to put in the kind of extensive work it's gonna take to get this problem under control. At minimum:
-All cats fixed, vetted, and healthy.
-Multiple litter boxes (at least 2 if not 3 IMO) that are scooped EVERY day, possibly twice daily, and kept clean.
-The entire home scrubbed down and disinfected, odors removed (gonna be hard to do, lots of work and possibly a considerable $$ investment for products.) I'd confine the cats and go room to room.
-Cats confined to rooms, separated, re-trained to good litterbox habits, and gradually re-introduced to one another in controlled settings. Some of them might just be plain incompatible.
And honestly even then I wonder if they might all reach a point where everyone is behaving themselves.
Also, some of them would probably be the kind that the aforementioned cat behaviorist would recommend walking outside, providing an outdoor enclosure for, something like that (I say this because you mentioned peeing/spraying on doors. This is territorial behavior.)
I still say you should leave, and the main reason for that is that your friends brought these other person's "foster" cats into the house, and there is no other "option" in their minds besides keeping them there...they went from a very bad, nasty situation to another. And they expect you to just deal with it when these are not your cats. I think that you've got a bad arrangement with irresponsible people, and there will only be more problems until you leave. Better to do it sooner than later.
This is not a cat problem - this is a people problem. Until you "fix" the people you live with, unfortunately you don't have a prayer at fixing the cats you live with.
It's quite obvious these cats are stressed due to their living environment - you are too This is how cats who are stressed behave. They need a clean, stimulating, stress free and stable environment. With new people, new animals coming and going and with the living conditions you are describing - this is absolutely how you can expect your feline housemates to react.
Only they can't go online and ask for help or take a Xanax or vent to their friends. Instead, they pee on your stuff, scream and chase each other and poop on your floor to vent and voice their displeasure.
I hate not to be able to be more positive, but this is simply the truth. Until the owners of the cats and the house you are in want to be responsible for them and the home, nothing is going to change. It sound like the cats and the tidiness of the house depend on whatever the new live -in is willing to do. Truthfully your living conditions sound completely unsanitary and I wouldn't live there - but that's just me. I wouldn't expect that cats to live there either. If what you are describing is accurate - I wouldn't expect anyone to live there.
Kittymom4 hit the nail on the head.....this is a people problem (and not directed at you but at the others in the home)!!
The 2 fosters should have been isolated from the rest from the beginning. Then gradual introductions. If you cannot move out would it be possible for you to take the 2 fosters into the basement with you? I know you said you tried it but the one sprayed. It seems you are doing most of the caring for all of them so either way you would still be cleaning up after them. I really think in time the two fosters would come around. They are (as well as the other cats) stressed to the max due to all the changes in their life and this new home environment is causing even more stress. They need a "safe" place where they can learn to trust again.
And please know that I would never expect you to assume responsibility however I don't know all the details of the living arrangements and if you have no other options then I was just offering advice on what I think might help long term since you seem to be the only caring responsible person in the household! I wish you and these kitties the best!
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This is how cats who are stressed behave. They need a clean, stimulating, stress free and stable environment. With new people, new animals coming and going and with the living conditions you are describing - this is absolutely how you can expect your feline housemates to react. 
