fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3604 ]

[ SECRET POST #3604 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3604 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 52 secrets from Secret Submission Post #515.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I live in a studio apartment with my two cats. I have two litter boxes for them, one in the living room and one in a closet.

One of my cats, Tobias, has a history of peeing outside the litter box if my other cat has recently used it. (I've taken him to the vet twice over this issue, and there's nothing medically wrong with him -- it's a behavioral problem.) About two weeks ago, right before leaving for work, I discovered he peed outside of the litter box in the living room. I cleaned it up and poured Nature's Miracle (enzymatic cat pee cleaner) over it and then left for work. When I returned at night, I found he had peed there again, so I cleaned it up again and soaked the area with NM...and so the saga began.

Long story short, he peed outside the litter box again today, so tonight I ripped up the carpet in the corner under the litter box and found the pee had soaked into the padding underneath. With a fluorescent lamp I found about a 4'x6' area of old and new pee. I sopped up as much liquid as I could with bath towels (goodbye to them) and then poured NM into a spray bottle and sprayed the hell out of the padding, the underside of the carpet, and the top side of the carpet. I was able to get the area Tobias had just used soaking wet with cleaner, but I didn't have enough to spray the entire area with that much product.

My concerns now are:

1) how do I get the padding and carpet to dry thoroughly overnight? Right now I have the wet carpet draped over some cardboard boxes on top of the padding to let some air circulate under there, and I just realized right this moment that I should have flipped the wet carpet over the other way, putting the boxes on top of the dry carpet areas, so that the padding is completely exposed to the air goddammit brb

2) how do I keep Tobias away from the area overnight without having to close him up in the bathroom? (He will go nuts in there trying to get out.) There are no doors or enclosed areas in my apartment and he's a giant cat who can leap up on a 6' wall from the ground in one try -- there is nothing in my apartment I can use to block the area off which will keep him out. I'm contemplating taking tomorrow off from work, staying up all night to make sure he keeps away, and then renting a carpet steam cleaner from Home Depot tomorrow morning to go back over the padding and carpet one more time. Does this sound crazy?

3) how do I make sure I've gotten the pee and the smell completely out, to a cat's sensitive nose? The fluorescent lamp isn't that great of a test. What if I go through this whole bloody struggle only for him to pee on the carpet again ??????? I WILL ROAST THAT CAT FOR MY SUPPER AND FEAST ON HIS FLESH

4) should I just suck it up and notify my landlord and ask for the carpet and padding to be replaced? It's a really big room (something like 23'x13'), and it will probably cost a lot to replace the whole thing, and I would have to move all the furniture to the other area of my apartment which is probably too small to accommodate it all and my couch is ridiculously heavy and too big to fit throughasldja; fka;df ;sj asjfssśssss. Let's consider this the nuclear option and I'm a pacifist.

The Disaster Zone:

The Guilty Party:

Ugh, I have a cat who peed over the outside of the litterbox all the time b/c she was too stupid to squat. I cleaned up pee forever, so you have my sympathies (and covered boxes were even worse, before anyone asks, because the pee would go down the wall of the box and get into the cracks, and you have to take the whole thing outside and scrub dried pee from between the seams).

So, the drying. I'm afraid I don't have much advice for that, other than get a fan. If you don't have one, I don't know. A Vornado worked super well for me when drying out carpet from a hot water tank flood.

As for keeping him away from the area, that's trickier. Do you think he'll go over there and pee if the box isn't there? Also, if it smells like HIS pee, it may not be a problem. If it's behavioral, he's only going to pee where the box is, and only if the other cat has peed. Move the box to somewhere else in the living room for the night?

For later, if you don't want to keep cleaning up pee, do something that's going to be ugly ass but functional, like putting a shower curtain liner under the box. It will catch the pee the next time he does it. I've even seen people talk about using the bottom of an unused animal crate to set a litter box in, or things for lining the backs of small trucks or SUVs. It looks terrible, but it creates a functional plastic barrier to contain the pee.

And I also have to recommend Scoe10X as an enzyme for removing bodily fluids. It's semi-pricey, but it gets the job done. It's made to DRENCH an area. Like, no spray bottles. You mix it up, put it in a cup, and then pour all of it onto the spot. Do not sop it up and let is stand to dry.

OMG thank you so much for all this info.

I actually do have a fan and a Vornado! I'll direct them at this corner overnight. I had been using an outdoor floor mat underneath the litter box (the kind that are very thin with solid rubber vinyl bottoms), but it wasn't that large and Tobias was peeing just over the edge of it onto the wall-to-wall carpe. I have an extra shower curtain and the other day I ordered a small room divider to hide the litter box behind, so I'll use that from now on.

I'm pretty sure he will try to pee there tonight if he can smell his scent, because he's been doing it off and on for the past two weeks. I think he just thinks that's a good place to pee now, although this morning (or yesterday?) I watched him pee in the litter box (and gave him lots of praise afterwards!). I just remembered that I had a little Cat Attract litter left, and I've added that to the litter box in the closet, so hopefully that lures him away. I'm just worried that I didn't soak the area thoroughly or I missed some spots. :(

Thanks for the Scoe10X tip -- do you have to order it online?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Scoe10X can only be ordered from their website. www.scoe10x.com. I wouldn't bother with the spray bottle kit or anything, just get the smallest bottle you can buy (I think it's still 30 or 40 $$). But it's concentrate. And you must follow the directions to the letter. Mix with lukewarm water, let stand for 20 minutes, then drench the area and let dry.

But you might not need it if your enzyme cleaner does the job. One thing about Scoe10X is that it has the tendency to 'release' stains. Which means it's getting it all out, but means double work. There was a horrible stain on the carpet from god knows what when my mom bought a house, but she didn't want to replace the carpet yet. She used carpet cleaners, carpet shampooer, etc, got the stain out a little, then used the Scoe10X and it came back worse because it was 'released' to the surface. But then with more carpet cleaner, the stain came completely out after that.

I just ordered a small bottle that will make a gallon of product, and it should get here in 2-4 days. Thanks for the rec! The reviews and the hardcore stern instructions on the site have filled me with hope that it will work! :)

Also, you still might want to put a towel between the littler box and the shower curtain. This keeps you from having to sop up pee, or from having to try and wipe off the bottom of the box if the pee runs right next to it, or the pee from running everywhere (especially if he has general side he pees on). Then you can just change the towel and the shower curtains still keeps the pee from seeping through to your carpet.

One more thing that might help in the future is to have an extra litter pan. In fact, I think feline behaviorists recommend this if you have multiple cats--one pan for each cat, and one extra.

Tobias looks so adorable, I want to kiss him on the M between his ears...Naughty kitty!

Aw, I kissed him for you. :) He is a total sweetheart and the sweetest, softest cat I have ever known. Here he is sleeping next to me now like a little angel:

I've thought about getting an extra pan, but my apartment is really small and I don't know where else I could fit one. Unless I could put two right next to each other -- would that work?

I have three litter boxes (three cats) side by side in the basement - they use all three. So if you can fit two side by side, do it. Also - clean as often as possible. Also - go and get some heavy-duty plastic (the kind you put over windows in winter, a big roll doesn't cost much) and put it down under the litter boxes and up the walls a little way on three sides, if possible.

Of course, only once the carpet is dry and as smell-free as possible.

I used to have to do this with a (fixed) cat who *stood up to pee*, every time, even though he started in a squat. It was that or have pee down the wall and a puddle *constantly*.

Good luck!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3604 ]

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help

Re: Cat pee cleanup help