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I recently graduated from nursing school and moved into my older parent's very large house with my fiancee and our cat, in order to take care of my ailing parents and to shore up my own finances. My cat is a neutered female orange mackerel tabby named "Veepers" who is about 8 years old and weighs 17 pounds. Indoor, very shy but very aggressive towards other cats. I've owned her for about 2 years and attempted to introduce her to outside but she won't leave beyond 20 feet of the door, although she is fascinated by it and did non-lethally catch a bird once. She has always overgroomed herself due to anxiety and frequently has bald patches on her stomach but still loves belly rubs. She was a rescue cat from a household that contained 3 very aggressive and loud Chihuahua dogs, although she got along with the smallest of them. My parents own a 15 year-old dog named "Ricky" who is an 8 pound black & white Rat Terrier and who was also a rescue. He was crated for most of his life alongside his brother (who died last year from lymphoma) and used as a breeding dog so he was never potty-trained and his vocal cords were cut so he cannot bark. He was adopted around 4 years ago but my parents have severe health problems and limited mobility so they did not have the ability to properly walk him, leading to him continuing his behavior of peeing/pooping inside. My fiancee and I take him for walks daily but he often still pees/poops in the house. My parents' house is massive, has 3 floors with 6 bedrooms, so we've set up shop on the second floor in a series of 4 interconnected bedrooms that we've converted into a makeshift apartment on the other side of the house. The bedroom at the very end is a relatively open space with clothes racks ringing the sides and it contains the litter box and food for Veepers. These bedrooms were almost always shut and locked in the years preceding my move-in. In the past week, Ricky has begun walking into the rooms to explore it and he is very curious about the cat. As he cannot bark and is smaller than her, Veepers even approached him and meowed in his face without using any aggressive body language. Likewise, Veepers has begun to tentatively explore the 1st floor at night although she runs back upstairs if a human approaches. Although they tolerate each others' presence, Ricky has begun peeing and pooping in Veepers' food/litter room, far away from his usual spots in the house. Veepers, in return, has begun peeing on luggage items and blankets in the same room, and after recently changing her litter there were far less dirty spots than usual. I can't keep the doors shut because if I keep Veepers shut in or shut out of our rooms, she will absolutely scratch the poo poo out of the door and rip the carpet up next to it screaming to get in/out. She is terrified of being shut out of her safe space but also terrified of confinement to it. Additionally, my parents are both hoarders and their house is extremely cluttered, and I'm wondering if this affects the behavior of the animals. My questions are these: 1) What's the best way to get cat pee out of items? 2) What's the best way to get dog pee out of the carpet? 3) How can I stop this pissing contest? 4) Is there any other advice you can impart to make me a better steward of my animals? I am very open-minded and willing to listen to any criticisms, solutions, etc.
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Aug 17, 2018 06:24
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:18 |
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I'm not an expert on this, but I imagine if you preemptively piss on everything they'll both recognize your authority and back off.
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Aug 18, 2018 13:31
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