Well, the worst has happened

[silverthorne]

So. We're a month into being a two-cat household. We went from everyone being too scared to deal with anyone to Ula ruling the bedroom and Foot ruling the living room, to Foot ruling everything, but Ula still hanging out in clear sight in the bedroom, to Foot being a bully and Ula coming out when she knows Foot is 'elsewhere'. We'd also (supposedly) graduated to at least being able to having both litterboxes in the bathroom.

To...this morning.

I'm up two hours early. Why?

Because after the morning feeding (even on weekends, I bow to the furry alarm clock and make sure everyone is fed before I go back to sleep for a few hours), I woke up to Ula meowing in distress.

And in the process of taking a dump in her favorite cat bed that followed her from her foster home next to the window (away from the bedroom door). :(

So I did what any owner would do; approached her carefully, gently picked her up, poo-in-process and all, and got her to the litterbox. Where she tried to finish what she started (I thought she managed it).

Of course, once she made for the bedroom again, I started cleaning up (I'd managed to transport both her and poo, for the most part, to the box, before anything detached. TMI is that one did escape right before we passed the carperted zone and got to the box. I...stepped in that, *gag* and that's most of what I had to clean up).

Anyway, after that, I wisely went to check on her and make sure she didn't pee anywhere as well. And that's when I caught her pooing on top of her favorite cardboard scratching strip. At this point, I also noticed the pee on the floor there. :(

I went and retrieved 'her' box, set it where it used to be in the bedroom, gently put Ula in it, cleaned up the second spot with some non-toxic citrus cleaner, threw out the scratching strip, and locked her in. As a note, she did finish her business before hopping out and going back under the bed. Or at least I'm hoing she finished.

In short, it appears Ula was not using the box as often as I thought when it was in the bathroom. And it also appears Foot's bullying may be too much for her.

So...now what? What can be done? I'm not willing to give up, but this is the first time I've had this much problem with one cat being so meek that things like this are happening. It's out of my range, and I need advice.

Comments

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I asked blemt and she said:

blemt1974: good first step [locking her in her own space for now]
blemt1974: step 2, bleach out that litter box, place it in room sans litter.
blemt1974: next take a rag and rub it on kitty. then rub rag on litter box. that's going to transfer kitty 2's scent to the new box.
blemt1974: then fill said box 1/3 with litter
blemt1974: big thing is to get her comfortable with the litter box. then focus on the reintro
blemt1974: there's also a great plugin that can help
blemt1974: called Feliway

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

*nods* Tell him/her thank you. I got the Feliway, both spray and plug in, over two weeks ago. It's not really helping with the aggression issues.

The girls are seperated now, though, so we're back to 'day one' as it were. Litter boxes are due to be cleaned anyway, so I'll just add the extra step. :)

Thanks.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

She suggests this link:

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/aggression.html

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Thanks once again. I see a few things I hadn't been doing the first time. :)