cat – H.G. Bells

September 28, 2014July 16, 2015

How To: Stop Your Cat From Peeing on the Carpet

Pet post ahead.

I just went through the ordeal of getting a cat to cease urinating on my carpet. The question comes up often in the Pets subreddit, so I thought I’d share my method (which seems to be working, about a week after my solution!).

So when someone asks “How do I get my cat to stop peeing on my carpet?” this is what I will now tell them.

I *just* went through this. I know how frustrating it can be! Like, bring-you-to-tears frustrating.

It’s a lengthy guide, but hopefully it has everything you need to know in it. BTW be prepared to shell out some dough to solve this problem. Bonus: you only have to solve it once, and then you and your cat are sitting pretty.

If you are having this problem, stop and do this before you read onwards: Take your cat to the vet. Tell them what’s going on and make sure it’s not a medical issue. $30 exam can save you a world of trouble and bring peace of mind.

And as I said, the solution to this problem is not cheap. I’ve just spent about a hundred bucks on everything I needed to do this. But you know what? It’s part of having a cat. If only every major problem in my life could be solved with a hundred bucks. Man. So you’ve been warned.

Onwards!

FOR ME, it was a combination of two things happening:

1) the cat smells the pee in the carpet and instinctually wants to keep peeing there. You can’t fight instinct, but you can learn to work with it.

2) the cat had problems using the litter box.

For #1, here’s what I did (and it’s only been a week, but it seems to be working, ie no cat pee on the carpet since!). You have to get the cat pee out of the carpet. And not just like, “oh it’s much better” like you have to make it your muffin lovin’ mission in life to make sure that carpet it cleaner than when it came of the factory production line.

To do this:

Step one is make sure there are good litter box options FIRST before you do anything to the carpet. If you start messing with the carpet and there’s no where for the cat to go, guess what buddy you’re just going to have another patch of carpet with pee on it to deal with.

The Happy-Feline-Making Litter Box Equation: # of Cats + 1 = # of Litter Boxes Needed. For me, this means 3 litter boxes (2 cats). I live in a small apartment and having three litter boxes is a drag. What makes it worth it? That I have two happy kitties who PEE IN THEM and not on my floor haha.

Make sure the boxes are not near each other. Make sure to clean them every day. (My litter box life changed when I got a Litter Locker so I cannot recommend them highly enough!)

Take all the litter out of the boxes, WASH THEM, dry them, and put fresh, new litter in them. Just start from scratch basically. If your litter box is old, you may need to replace it.

My three litter boxes are different designs, so the kitties have some options.

So now that there are several clean litter boxes to choose from, let’s get down to the business of that patch of carpet. It’s going to take some time, so hunker down and know that you are an amazing pet owner for even attempting to solve this extremely difficult problem. Bask in the knowledge that your hard work will pay off and your cat might even understand how dedicated you are to trying to make a good environment for it to thrive in.

I know, a cat- appreciating you? Seems farfetched, but it’s happening to me right now so I know it can happen toooo yooooouuuu!!!

Let’s get to it.

There’s no way around this: you’re going to get your hands dirty and it’s going to smell bad. Get over it son, because you are awesome and your life is about to get better.

You have a carpet cleaner, right? Get one. Best $50 you can spend when you have pets that make messes (the same cat has stomach issues and pukes randomly).

Get the pet stain and oder remover solution that goes with said carpet cleaner.

1) Saturate the carpet with the as-directed diluted solution, and use the carpet cleaner to suck it up. Do this several, several times. Like fill that tank up with that gross looking water (and flush it down the toilet!) as many times as you can stand. Around the whole area. Go big or go home. Put on a podcast and just sit there cleaning.

2) Wait for it to dry. Put a fan blowing over the area to help deter the cat from going there. Put a towel over it, or some tin foil. You do not want any cats going on the area until you have become Master of Carpet Cleaning.

3) Once it’s dry, put some carpet cleaning powder on there. Use a bristly brush to work it in there. I used the whole damn bottle of the powder, one half, then the other.

As per instructions, wait for it to do it’s thing, then vacuum it up. (I did this twice. HG don’t mess around.)

Now for the important part, the part which will make or break this whole shebang.

4) Get an enzymatic cleaner. They have simple instructions on the bottle, but let me tell you, none of them worked until I did all that other junk I just told you. Use it as per directions, which for me meant emptying half the bottle onto the carpet. Let it sit and do its work. (This takes a whole morning. Bask in the knowledge of how awesome you are for trying to fix this. Bask in it while you wait.) Then use the carpet cleaner to suck it up. Then I emptied the other half the bottle on the carpet and let it *dry* as per directions. This took a few days (again with the towels/tin foil and a fan on it!).

Vacuum the whole area.

There’s still a residue of that powder cleaner/deodorizer on mine, and I think I’d recommend putting a little sprinkling of something like that on the whole area.

You should now have 1) a patch of carpet that is much cleaner than any other in your house and 2) zero urine smell there.

Now: watch your cat.

If your cat is “looking for a place to pee” clean the litter box in front of your cat. Show them that it’s clean.

*Do not put your cat in the litter box!* This causes stress, and associates the litter box with being stressed.

When your cat goes near the litter box, give them treats. Make the litter box such a happy area- like entice them there and pet them and give them treats, so it is a safe place. You want them to associate the litter boxes with truly good things so they love being around it.

If your cat shows interest in the pee carpet area: don’t freak out. Just watch them. They’re used to going there right? They’re going to want to smell it a bunch. They need to scope it out.

This is when it will all be decided: can your cat smell any urine there still?

Hopefully not. Hopefully it’s as clean as the day it was made, and now it doesn’t force the cat’s little cat brain to think of it as the place they pee.

Praise your cat when they leave the pee carpet area. Give them treats. If they head to the litter box: leave them alone! Give them some space. When they use the litter box and jump out baby you’re in the clear! Give them so many treats and love and play with them.

You did it.

Keep on associating the litter boxes with good stuff for a while.

Generally play with your cat more.

Build them some cat shelves if you can (you have WALLS, right? Then you have room for cat shelves!). Your cat needs options to feel safe, and high up perches can help accomplish this.

(I had to put my ‘problem’ cat up on the shelves for the first three times, but now she lives on them and loves them and is generally happier).

I also recommend getting Feliway: my problem cat has been much, MUCH better since I got the diffuser.

A bit about how that works: you know how cats rub their faces on your legs, on your furniture, on everything? They’re rubbing the ‘territory’ pheromone on stuff, to mark their home as a safe place.

Feliway is that very pheromone (it’s not specific to an individual cat apparently) and it saturates the air with it. So now your whole house should smell like a safe and wonderful place. It really did wonders for my previously skittish and pretty terrible cat. She’s happy and friendly now.

OK so that covered the bases I think.

To recap:

1) Good, clean litter box options.

2) Clean the heck out of that carpet so no urine remains.

3) Reward the behaviour you want to see.

4) Feliway.

5) Cat shelves.

6) Bask in the knowledge of your awesomeness.

Got it? Good luck. I understand how frustrated you are right now if you are reading this, but know that it is a solvable problem. Good on you for trying. I hope you and you cat are better off after you undertake this task!

*Edit on March 29th 2015*

Full disclosure: my cat relapsed. Even after all that work, she started peeing on that spot again. I had to clean the heck out of it and try something in addition to all that. It seems to be working. I cleaned with this enzyme cleaner and then used some carpet freshener powder. THEN I got this “SHOO!” deterrent so she wouldn’t want to smell the area at all. I spray that stuff on there every day. Hopefully this will do the trick to keep her from wanting to smell it! I will update if any further problems occur. As I have learned, it may take more than one shot to fix this problem. Good luck!

*Edit on July 16th 2015*

I’ve been in the clear since my last edit. I do occasionally sprinkle a pet odor eliminator powder on the area just to be sure that it’s not something she wants to smell and start the cycle all over again.

Heidi out.

May 10, 2014

Revisions, and Lemon

Well hello there dear readers!

I’ve been waiting to hear back from several agents who have the full manuscript. That’s right folks, multiple full requests! From brilliant agents! I am over the moon.

An agent I would really love to work with got back to me saying that they like the project (with praise about my premise and prose!), but that the intensity of the narrative didn’t match the intensity of the premise.

Well! You know what? They are right. Shoot.

I spent yesterday thinking about how to go about fixing that, and wrote 3,400 words on how to do so. Not 3,400 words of writing; a 3,400 word plan. I went through each chapter and broke down what I thought was missing, and what could be added to kick it up a notch.

The major element I was missing :JEOPARDY (anticipated pain or loss). My main issue was that my characters were not aware of the jeopardy they were in, so they could not anticipate the pain or loss. Can’t have that.

I have a good game plan. Hopefully, with hard work, I can have a revised draft back to that agent in two weeks. (It’s a lot to do- we’ll see if I can get it done in such a short time.)

In non-writing mnews, I got a kitten!

You know my cat Echo, right?

Well, we wanted to get a friend for her (grumpy as she is). We took a lot of time to do the proper introductions, over several days. After nearly two weeks, the kitties are cohabiting the apartment together pretty peaceably!

Everyone, meet Lemon.

She’s pretty sweet. TONS of kitten energy which we have to harness via playtime or she will get super frustrated. She’s going to be medium-haired, with a LONG haired tail! She’s a real sweetie with a tough streak.

So that’s what’s been going on with me!

I’ll make a writerly update about revising a manuscript once I’ve gone through the process. Fun fun fun!

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

March 31, 2014

Kitty, Wild Gears, Rejection

First a video of my kitty playing! She’s rather subdued when she reaches the end of her “running around” phase of playing. When she moves into her “rolling around” phase, I really enjoy playing with her and her mouse toy this way. Cutest!

Next up is some art my mom made with Aaron’s Wild Gears! Holy smokes she’s been crankin’ ’em out.

Here’s a link to the full album.

My favourite piece of hers:

Intricate!

Photo of his newly-opened gear sheet, by Scott Bleackley:

And in writing news, I’m hearing back from literary agents. The consensus is very positive- I’m getting a lot of “Great idea!” type comments, but so far all of them don’t feel like they’re the right agent to champion my manuscript. *crosses fingers* One of them has got to be the one. I’ll keep looking. I submit to really cool people, and it’s sometimes hard to tell if they’ll be into what I got goin’ on, but I’ve got to get it right one of these times!

Tonight: Ink Club! I’ll spend the night researching several more literary agents I’d like to submit to.

This involves reading interviews they’ve done, looking up what people on Absolute Write Water Cooler have to say about them, and looking up their past sales. It takes time, but it lets me know if I think they’d be a match for me and my work.

I’ll keep you posted, of course. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Heidi out.

January 13, 2014

How I Stopped My Cat From Scratching My Couch by Doing This ONE WEIRD THING!

Thanks a lot, internet ads. It’s hard to espouse a single-action fix now because it sounds so hokey.

But seriously, I managed to get my cat to stop scratching my couch by doing, literally, one thing.

This one thing after a string of failed one things, of course, but if you keep looking for something after you’ve found it, things wouldn’t be in the last place you looked.

I’ve had this cat, Echo, for years. She’s been a real fixer-upper of a cat. Lots of bad habits, lots of strange behaviour. My husband and I have worked patiently and gently with her, and she’s turning into a lovely little kitty.

One thing she just hasn’t been able to get, is do not scratch the couch. Or this chair. Or anything that is not your scratching post.

Her thought patterns were this:

Can I scratch this? —-> Do I want to scratch it? —-> Scratch it!

But no no no, I have only just now, in the past week, realized that this is wrong.

I tried all the solutions of course. Cat treats (she has a messed up stomach, and won’t touch anything that isn’t her brand of dry cat food. Right? What kind of cat doesn’t like cat treats!), three different kinds of scratching posts, natural wood, changing locations and heights, cat nip, tin-foil deterrent (seriously, our home started to look like bad sci-fi from the 70’s; half of the surfaces from the hip down were covered in tin foil).

ETC ETC ETC.

Basically nothing worked.

Until I had (another) go at reading up on cat psychology.

I read a passing remark about how cats are territorial, and that scratching is an act of claiming something for oneself.

*Palm smack on forehead here*

Because what had I been doing was stopping her when she scratched something ‘bad’ and moving her to her scratching post. Sometimes I would scratch it to show her.

Basically, I was claiming her scratching post as MINE all the time.

The ONE thing I changed was this: I scratch everything she’s not allowed to scratch.

It started simply; stopping her from scratching the couch, and then myself scratching the couch, while maintaining eye contact and saying firmly “This is mine.” over and over again. I swear I’m not crazy. Know how I know? Because in ONE day, she began scratching her scratching post, and only her scratching post.

I don’t ever touch her scratching post. That’s hers. But I make a show of scratching the things “that are mine” so she knows not to scratch them.

Hahaha, as I am penning this, she just had a go of scratching my computer chair, so we’re not 100% there yet, but I did the thing, scratching it myself, and now she’s sleeping on it across the living room. I think she wants the chair as her own and that was a go at ‘claiming’ it. This will be ongoing, but we’ve had a breakthrough, for sure.

She has nice, good, long scratches at her post. She’s done this most when other people are in our home, and I seem ultra-crazy at how happy I am that she’s doing it.

“OH YOU GUYS SH SH LOOK look at her scratching her post! Isn’t it wonderful! Oh Echo you are the best kitty in the world!” Haha and then she’ll scratch it later and be like “I am the best kitty in the world, look at this awesome thing that only I am allowed to scratch.”

OK but seriously, I am super happy.

If you’ve tried everything and nothing is working, try scratching your things. Don’t touch the kitty’s scratch-thing, but make a show of scratching your furniture. Be calm and stern, and be consistent. I would say ignore them when they scratch their post, or coo at them softly if they like that sort of thing and it doesn’t disrupt them.

I hope it works as well for you as it did for me!

Writing is going well. Writing retreat coming up for the first two weeks of February.

Until next time, dear readers, thanks for stopping by.

-Heidi

June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

The Ramifications of Creating a New Life Form and a Silly Video of a Cat

Yesterday, I went to a broadcast of a play. Last year, I went to National Theatre’s production of “Frankenstein” and was delighted to see they were rebroadcasting it. So I got tickets for me and my friends and we went to see Frankenstein, as directed by a the wonderful Danny Boyle.

I came at it from a whole nother angle; I recently started a new book, one that deals with genetic engineering and the many interesting quandaries that arrise because of our tendency to do things because we can. I was much more in tune to Frankenstein’s monster this go around; I realized I had been approaching my story from a human-centric viewpoint. Silly author…

So as I was getting into that groove, my brain did a funny thing. It started replaying this video of a cat. And it was funny. And it almost made me laugh out loud at several, completely inappropriate points during the broadcast.

I managed to get back on track… it was a strange deviation. Perhaps it was some failsafe, activated when not being attracted to Frankenstein’s monster is impossible. Because Benedict Cumberbatch.

All that aside, it was a fantastic production. Really visceral, really physical. It was tremendous.

And then still, there’s this.

April 3, 2012May 18, 2012

Cat Nicknames Level Up

When I got my cat, I called her many things. Sometimes I even called her by her actual name, but mostly not.

I’ve decided to document this interesting, and ongoing, change in nicknames for my cat. This will possibly lower your opinion of my intelligence. Well, to this, as with many situations in life, there is an XKCD.

XKCD on Cat Proximity.

I also should mention my attitude towards names.

In lore, names are an extremely powerful thing. Lots of magic has to do with knowing the True Name of someone, or some thing. The Name of the Wind, Rumpelstiltskin, The Hobbit, The Dresden Files; the list goes on and on. I employed this interesting trope in my second novel, Trook Hunters, and was excited at the results it yielded.