Cat Trouble
This is Octavia (named for Octavia Butler). Masheka and I adopted her from a rescue group in our neighborhood a month ago. (Previously she was in line for euthanasia at Animal Care and Control). She's cute and little and orange and tailless (she's a Manx) and she loves to purr, climb the scratching post, bat mice around, hop around like a little cat-bunny, etc. She is way too freaking sweet and loving and adorable.
Unfortunately, she also likes to pee in odd places (rugs, towels, the bathtub, our BED), and she has the stinkiest litter box I have ever encountered. We clean it out every day (sometimes as soon as she uses it) and use the most absorbent baking-soda-packed litter possible, but it just STINKS. And she keeps hissing at poor little Riley, who only wants to be friends and keeps following her around in a really hopeful and curious way. This is all very frustrating because the whole reason we adopted her was so that Riley would have someone to hang out with in the living room during the day, but instead tiny 6-pound Octavia chases him around and swats at him.
Octavia is not the first cat I have had with a pee problem. Before I got my other cat, Riley, I briefly borrowed my parents' cat Mombi. But Mombi insisted on peeing on my bed EVERY DAY AS I LEFT FOR WORK, and she would not be deterred by plastic tarps or sheeting or any of the millions of other sprays and enzymatic cleaners or tactics I tried. Plus she just didn't like me, so back she went to my parents house (from which she promptly ran away).
There is nothing like the stress of continually dousing rugs and comforters and towels with Nature's Miracle and soaking them in the tub and then dragging them to the laundry and... ARGH. We've tried many tactics--we changed the brand of litter, which helped some, but not enough. We leave the bathtub and bathroom sinks filled with water so she won't pee in the them. We keep her in the bathroom when we're at work (for now, until she adjusts--but I HATE leaving her in there). We keep Riley out of her litter box and away from her food.
We've spent tons of $$$ on different brands of litter, bottles of Nature's Miracle, a new litter box... and of course... the vet! We even had a difficult moment (after she pooped on a throw rug) that we started to consider that we might have to bring her back to the rescue group.
Today I took her to the vet to eliminate the possibility of a urinary infection. She got poked and prodded and tested, and it turns out she has ear mites. So after $60 worth of ear mite meds and $45 for the visit and who knows how much for the urine tests, the vet bill was a whopping $211. OUCH.
I really really really really hope we can fix this. We love this cat and we'll try anything, because we're already really attached to her and feel responsible for her. I just hope we can get her back on track, because if she doesn't stop all this crazy peeing, we might have to give her back to the rescue group. This is so depressing.