March Shop Hop

The March Shop Hop is now going on - if you still haven't participated in an online Shop Hop, you are missing out on lots of fun! Go to http://www.fabshophop.com/ and sign up now! Visit Feline Drive (www.felinedrive.com) to see what's new for Spring - check out the gorgeous new Cat Tales fabric wallhanging and pillow panels that features cats in the garden!

Uh Oh, Does Your Kitty Have This Bad Habit?

Have you ever seen kitty back up to a vertical surface such as a wall, tread his back feet, partially close his eyes, and then hold his rapidly twitching tail high and SPRAY the surface with urine?! Argh! If you haven't actually seen kitty do this, you can still become aware of his spraying from the foul odor the urine leaves (it must smell good to kitty, but is particularly malodorous to humans!) or the oily yellow/brown residue that's left. Why on earth is your otherwise happy and healthy cat making such a mess in your home?

Urine spraying is a normal communication technique for cats that's most often seen in unneutered males, but females can also spray urine. The urine leaves a message for other cats - conveying information such as individual identity, reproductive status, and perhaps even the cat's mood at the time the urine was sprayed. Once neutered or spayed, about 90% of cats who were sprayers will stop the behavior. But what happens if you happen to have one of the 10%?

Let me introduce you to Honeycat. Honeycat was trapped by us in an urban neighborhood as a kitten along with his mom and four siblings. While MommaCat seemed genuinely relieved to no longer have to fend for herself and her litter on the city streets, she maintained a cautious eye on the humans who now had her fate in their hands. In contrast, her five kittens were just bursting with curiosity and energy and already had us wrapped around their little paws.

On only the third day in their new environment, I accidentally left the door to the 2nd floor balcony open and in five minutes, all five kittens had quickly found this tantalizing escape route and had disappeared. Nowhere in sight, I started to panic, when the tree along the balcony started to rustle. It took me a minute before I could see the five little kitten faces peering out here and there from among the leaves of the tree, and I swear, they were all little smiling faces. They were having a ball climbing out on the branches, exploring, playing. For a moment my panic subsided and all I could feel was the absolute joy those crazy care-free kittens had brought into my life. Then my panic returned when I wondered how in the world I would get these guys to come safely back inside. No need to worry though, not one of them ever descended to the ground, and they all just bounced back onto the balcony and into the house when they were ready.

Imagine how hard it was for me, several days later, to get the cat carriers out to take these little guys to the shelter, even though I knew they would quickly find good homes (a no-kill shelter in Morristown, NJ called St. Hubert's, which has a very high placement rate - http://www.sthuberts.org/). Getting five bouncy kittens into carriers is no easy task! With each one wriggling out like we were playing a great game, it was more like putting 25 greased pigs in the carriers, not just five furry kittens! Honeycat was particularly talented at this game, and after escaping several times, he headed for the bed, got up in to the box springs, and made it clear he was not coming out and he was not getting into that carrier. So, I went off with the four of them, figuring I would get Honeycat the next day. Well, the happy thing is that all four were adopted within two days (two kittens to each of two families) and since I sat with them both days and personally met the adopters, my sadness at seeing them go was tempered by the knowledge that they would have good homes and were going off in pairs.

Now, of course, we all know Honeycat never made it back to the shelter. I had a feeling that any kitty who worked that hard at avoiding being put into the carrier must have a pretty darn good reason for not wanting to go, and boy was I right about that! True to his name, this sweet, honey-colored kitten just made my heart melt. He just wants attention, some cuddling, to be able to follow you from room to room where he will settle down for a nap, content to be near. I soon learned though that as a sensitive kitty, he had developed a nervous habit that did not disappear when he was neutered, a habit that helped him alleviate his fears, but made living in the house impossible - of course, he is a sprayer. What to do about this??!!

First thing to do if your kitty is spraying is to get a vet to check him/her out to eliminate the possibility of lower urinary tract disease. With Honeycat, there was no underlying illness to explain the spraying. So, next, I tried "environmental management," to make the house as friendly and comfortable and calming to him as possible. I increased the number of litter boxes in the house, tried various brands of litter, made sure the boxes were scooped on at least a daily basis as well as washed weekly, bought three more kitty climbers to provide lots of cozy hiding places to nap, located food and water in several places throughout the house, and immedidately cleaned up any sprayed urine with an enzymatic cleaner. I should also mention that in order to keep the furniture from being destroyed, everything was covered with thick blankets and throws that I could easily throw in the washer. And his favorite spraying spots, like the dryer, had a large piece of cardboard in front of it. The result of all these efforts? Honeycat seemed to reduce his spraying a bit, but I knew I had not yet beaten this thing when he actually sprayed ME one evening.

So, it was on to "pheromone therapy." Feliway, also called Comfort Zone, is an interesting product that is available from the vet or through some pet supply stores. It is odorless to us, but sprayed on kitty's favorite spraying places is supposed to send the signal that "this is a place I don't need to spray anymore". I know that's not the scientific explanation, but with cats, I'm not sure the scientific explanation will make any more sense than that anyhow. I went all out with the pheromones, and did the spraying of the favorite spots (much like a cat, there I was going through the house selecting items to spray - honestly, I did not see the appeal, it was too much work!). I also got the Diffuser, which is a small bottle that plugs into an electrical outlet and slowly diffuses the pheromone throughout the room. Again, I did seem to see a little less spraying by Honeycat, but it still didn't stop the behavior completely.

The next option, which arguably, should have been the first, was to remove the other cats from his environment, which in my case meant Honeycat now had his own rooms in the house away from the other cats. I did notice he seemed calmer, but he now concentrated his spraying on the doors to the other areas where he knew the other cats lived. Sigh...

So, finally, back to the vet to get some medicine - feline valium, that is, to help calm him. This had the best impact on his spraying, it really cut down the number of times he would spray from several times per day to just one or two times per week. But he became Zombie Cat! Not that he slept more, what cat can possibly sleep more, but when awake he was always kind of zoned out... less watching the birds outside and more staring at the walls, if you could picture that.

At the end of my options, I was beginning to understand why urine spraying and litter box problems are the major reason people abandon their pets at shelters. Much as I love cats, it is not a pleasant existence to share your home with a sprayer, and I knew it was getting to the point where Honeycat was going to have to spend more time outside and be restricted to a single room in the house when inside. Thank goodness he never made it to the shelter, because I know he would have very likely been returned by the adopters. (I do know that his siblings never developed this bad habit and are all still happily living with their adopted families.)

Then one evening I was watching a show on TV about people who breed cats, and heard the most interesting thing! Breeders typically confine their breeding males to cages, allowing them out to exercise often, but in order to avoid their common habit of spraying, they fit them with "stud pants" before letting them loose in the house. Stud pants? Did I hear that right? I looked up and sure enough, there was Sir Bleven III, a fuzzy white persian, sitting on the family couch, handsomely sporting his stud pants as if it were perfectly normal. Stud pants!! OK, where can I get these? What will Honeycat think? So, I did what I always do when I want to know the answer to something, google it!

And there they were... CastlePaws Designs (http://www.castlepaws.net/)... doggie diapers, belly bands, overalls, suspenders, dresses, and yes, stud pants! With plenty of photos of handsomely attired cats and dogs modeling the products! The photo on the right is taken from the CastlePaws website.

After consulting with Pam, the store owner and designer, I decided to go with overalls for my first purchase, in case Honeycat turned out to be as good as wriggling out of them as he was at wriggling out of my grasp to get into the carrier. Each day I impatiently checked the mailbox, until finally, several days later, there was the envelope from CastlePaws, and I went running up the driveway calling for Honeycat! Pam had selected a very masculine royal blue and black "flames" fabric that I instantly liked but I can't say the same for Honeycat. At first I thought we'd have a repeat of the carrier episode, but with a little struggling and with a can of real tuna to capture his attention, before he knew what was happening, there he was in his stud pants! Once the tuna was gone, he promptly fell over, wondering why his backside felt a little strange I am sure. The good news is that after several days, we already have a routine and a clear understanding that coming into the house means having to get the pants put on and that appears to be a small price to pay in exchange for the run of the house. I don't leave the pants on him for more than a couple hours in case there is cause to use the litter box, and remove them once I have seen him spray. I'm going to place another order with Pam at Castle Paws for several pairs of stud pants, so I always have a clean pair. It's also possible to use a panty liner in them for quick clean up, but I haven't tried that yet!

And so that is my story about the bad habit of spraying, which thanks to cat breeders and that TV show and Pam at Castle Paws, we have a very happy ending (no pun intended) for sweet Honeycat and all of my furniture!