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We have a lovley black neutered tom who moved in with us after a prolonged period of street life.
Hungry and half frozen he stopped by to let us know that he had graciously decided to enjoy a prolonged visit.
he has been with us for about 2 years and is a wonderful gentelman....except (evil background music) when he is irritated.
I cannot decide if he just got lucky when it came to making his point, or is an evil genius.
At night or if we step out of the room for a few moments he pees on the burners of the stove.
You can imagion the reaction when you get up and turn the kettel on for morning tea. A horrenous cloud
of lung petrifying odor fills the whole house. Chemical warfare at its most postent.
I have dealt with many bad habbits of cats but this is unique to say the least.
Burner covers are of little use, he somehow lifts depostis and returns them so that , in my bleary a.m. state, I am caught unaware...but not for long.
I have even tried leaving my heavy cast iron skillet out on the burners. All I can say is the problem was at least in a contained space.
Tends to put one off fried food, let me tell ya.
any thoughts?
Hungry and half frozen he stopped by to let us know that he had graciously decided to enjoy a prolonged visit.
he has been with us for about 2 years and is a wonderful gentelman....except (evil background music) when he is irritated.
I cannot decide if he just got lucky when it came to making his point, or is an evil genius.
At night or if we step out of the room for a few moments he pees on the burners of the stove.
You can imagion the reaction when you get up and turn the kettel on for morning tea. A horrenous cloud
of lung petrifying odor fills the whole house. Chemical warfare at its most postent.
I have dealt with many bad habbits of cats but this is unique to say the least.
Burner covers are of little use, he somehow lifts depostis and returns them so that , in my bleary a.m. state, I am caught unaware...but not for long.
I have even tried leaving my heavy cast iron skillet out on the burners. All I can say is the problem was at least in a contained space.
Tends to put one off fried food, let me tell ya.
any thoughts?
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 7:10 AMWhat a pisser! That is one of the most unusual feline behavior problems I've ever heard. Wow. I can think of one solution -- it's not simple but it would absolutely work. Everytime you leave the room, find the cat and take him with you. If you're going to the bathroom, take him in the bathroom with you. If you're going to bed, put him outside or lock him in the bedroom with you or place him in a carrier for the night. In fact, I'd leave a carrier handy to use for whenever you needed to leave this . If he only does this when he's left alone in the kitchen, don't leave him alone in the kitchen -- at least not for a while. If this becomes a habit, a game for him, it's going to be even harder to stop.
What are his patterns? What time of day does he generally do this? Who is home? What else is happening in the house? Do other animals share your home? How do they get along with this cat? How much play and exercise does this cat get?
For most cats with urination issues, I encourage people to take the cat (especially male cats) to the vet and rule out any urinary tract infections or crystals in the urine. I also encourage one litter box per cat, cleaned daily. Try a variety of litters to find the one your cat likes best.
For your stove, I'd go ahead and replace the burners now and clean the whole thing very thoroughly -- first with soap and water, then with a mixture of white vinegar and water. Remember to clean under the stove top also. You may need to do down the outsides of the stove as well. Then I would cover each burner with a large piece of aluminum foil. Cats do not like to walk on aluminum foil and that would be something that's easy to take off and replace while you cook. It's also not flammable. It could be a good deterent while you're looking for other solutions.
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 3:16 PMI also recommend trying this oder remover kit that comes highly recommended.
www.justrite.com/
I can't think of the name of it, but there is supposed to be some kind of product that you plug into a wall that is supposed to have the odor that causes cats to feel calm and relaxed. I recommend AGAINST getting a SCAT-MAT for the floor of the kitchen for one major reason: You know where he is peeing! If you frighten or punish him for peeing on the stove, then he will move to a place where he won't be found easily. Do check the whole house. I mean get down and smell the bases of your chairs and couches, smell your mattress (nose deep), smell corners. A cat who sprays will spray everywhere if given the chance. If you find his spots (because believe it or not I didn't smell the back of the couch at all, and when I got on all fours and dug into it, oh boy did I notice it then!), then you can deoderize those spots with special formulaes, like the one above. Getting rid of all the smelly spots will help to alleviate some of the problems.
Get a good comfortable kennel, preferably one with a little ledge and such, that can be his privat spot. He can do whatever he wants in it, and don't bug him when he is in it. This is where you can place him when you leave the room, and at night, and if you leave it open all day, then he is comfortable to go in and out of it. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 9:19 PMOther than the stove trick, he is an angel. He is fastidious about the cat box, lovable, and cuddly.
As for punishing him, it's kind of tricky. As we cant catch him at it any punishment would probably confuse him.
To disuade the cats, and dog from doing not so good things I find the squirt gun to be great, but you have to be in line of sight.
In the mean while, I clean, I try to be understanding, and I will wait. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Fri, August 18, 2006 - 7:41 PMJust to be clear, I am not recommending punishing your cat. That would be a very bad idea. It would make things worse. I am suggesting attending to his patterns and not giving him the opportunity to do this again. If he's going to the same place again and again, that place holds some draw for him. If you can understand his pattern, you can divert him from it until he develops a new, healthier pattern. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Sat, August 19, 2006 - 8:34 AMI second that! Dang cats, heheheh.
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 3:36 PMI'm curious. Is there a window near this stove? If so, can he see out from his perch upon the stove? Perhaps this situated was started because of something sited through that window and perhaps adding shades would help. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 9:15 PMNope, much to my not so muted complaints, there is neither window, nor proper lighting near the stove.
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, August 17, 2006 - 9:11 PMI can honestly say I have the cleanest stove in town. Every inch is scrubbed and sanitized.
He doesn.t do it everytime we leave or go about our day. It only happens when he is ticked off.
Such things like changing the flavor of cat food, or a biggie is bath day. A trip to the vet will earn us quite a lot of punnishment.
As for leaving him alone in the kitchen, the living room and kitchen are one big room. I really hate to lock him up as we have other cats and a dog, they would tease him pleanty.
I adore the big guy and unlike his previous owners, I wont abandon him. I am sure we will work through it.
Thanks for the thoughts. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Fri, August 18, 2006 - 12:14 PMwell there you have it. it sounds mostly like retaliation. if you know where the problem comes from, you will be better able to correct it. good luck! -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Fri, August 18, 2006 - 3:09 PMElf, I highly stress again the importance of NOT punishing a cat for pee issues. Cats are not like dogs in this area. If you punish a cat for its urinating issues, then he will find a place you don't see. Cats already loathe going in the same spot, which is why you see strays peeing all over the place. We are placing them in an unnatural environment asking them to use a litter box. They also, typically, prefer privacy when going, so they will find places to hide if they feel they will be disturbed during their duties. Please do not punish a cat who is being naughty with the toilet! This is not the same kind of issue as knocking over the garbage or jumping on the kitchen counter. Also, are you 100% sure that it is HIM doing it, and not another cat? For the longest time I thought I knew which cat was crawling into my clothes hamper and marking, and lo I was wrong on two counts. It turned out to be my uppity princess instead of the either of the males. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Sun, September 3, 2006 - 2:48 PMI do not punish the cats for bad behavior.
It doesnt work and REAlly annoys the cat.
We use a heading them off at the pass kind of method. The problem is how to head him off.
And yes we do know who it is.
We have 4 cats. It began before #4 came to us
And Cat # 1 is too old to jump on the couch let alone a stove. She just waits till someone comes by to bully into picking her up when she wants on something.
Cat #2 had to go to hospital some time back and this caused my big beautiful black cat to be beyond angry.
He felt abandoned and the stove was by necessity squeeky clean for the entire time. And I was just a tad miffy....ok grumpy is the actuality.
If he wasn't so darned loveable, cute and just wonderful....I think I would have spent 3 days yelling at him every time he came into the room.
But he is all of those things and he did have a hard life before he came to us.
His last people abandoned him( how can you abandon a declawed cat and expect him to survive? Big jerks) When we found him
he was chewed on by other strays and mostly starved.
Despite his one HORRIBLE habbit. he is a love, and dont worry I have lots of cleaning products to attend to the problem with.
Maybe someday I''ll find the answer.
thanks for all your ideas. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Mon, September 4, 2006 - 8:12 AMside note:
I think declawing should be made illegal. I also think unlicensed breeding of cats (and to some extent dogs) should be illegal. I have many reasons for this. The declawing should be self-evident. I have had so much trouble convincing people to NOT declaw their cat when they stupidly mention it to me, ME of all freakin people! I need a magic pill or something to put just the right words into my mouth to convince people they are WRONG WRONG WRONG to declaw their cat. I even tried showing them pictures of torn apart cats (from the vet) from cat fights because the declawed cats couldn't defend themselves..........."oh we NEVER let our cat out!"
okay, tangential rant over. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Tue, September 5, 2006 - 12:06 AMWe once had a cat who did that. We had to cover all the burners with pot lids.
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Tue, September 5, 2006 - 5:35 AMI agree on the declaw issue especially now days when they have those claw cover things. I have an older cat at home and her claws dont always retract like they are supposed to so my mom got the claw covers so she doesnt get stuck on things and for the most part they work really well. When I was a kid we went to a wildlife sancuary where they had a mountain lion that someone had as a pet and declawed. Since the animals are so heavy te bones begin to deteriorate with age and he was walking on his forlimbs, talk about painful to watch. They said they would have to put him to sleep way before his time because eventually the pain would get to bad for him to walk. Talk about making an impression on a kid! So I am anti-declawing as well!
Was woekn up in the middle of the night for work so I am in a ranting kind of mood =-) -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Tue, September 5, 2006 - 1:11 PMworst thing about claws is kitten claws. They so tiny!! You can't really trim them, since the quick goes almost to the tip of those little buggers. Easiest thing for me was a pair of baby fingernail clippers and I clipped the bitty bitty tippy tip ends of them. You have to be oh so careful or just not allow them on carpet.
Unless of course you have a video camera and a twisted sense of humor, hehhehehehe. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Tue, September 5, 2006 - 6:48 PMWe refer to them as the proactive cockelburrs.
They come hunting you.
Ive never had much luck in controling their clingablity. I suggest small rolling cat balls. they make good distractions. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Tue, September 5, 2006 - 8:08 PM
I belonged to a siamese cat who'd let me trim her claws,she'd save them up until they were razor sharpe.. .choose
her battle and then woe to who ever pissed her off.BLOOD. then she'd peacefully let me trim them,hoping i'd forget she had
them or the temper to use them.she was a crafty wild thing who smelled like flowers and loved as hard as she hated.she lived over 23 years and ruled over everything,dog,human whatever. she left a tooth in a vet once,found a different vet who worshiped her (cat genius) BUT back to pee problem any time one of my cats had odd pee behavior that cat had an illness.bladder infection or stones,so to be safe maybe get a check up for your kitty. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Wed, October 18, 2006 - 10:37 AMBeen there arlready. I have the best vet in the world and the vet just loved him.
Not many cats get all happy when they see the vet and he was all head butts and buzzes.
He can turn on the charm like you wouldn't believe.
I did get a warning about him gaining weight. We are being more careful of his diet.
He just lets us know when he is mad at us...I guess it does make turning on the morning kettle a bit more adventurous.
But I wouldn't part with this guy for the world.
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Wed, October 18, 2006 - 6:20 PMditto.......the only time I've had cats with any kind of pee issue it turned out to be a bladder infection or kidney stones ---- some medical problem.
my "perfect" cat ---- she NEVER ever did anything naughty -- suddenly she started peeing on a certain chair. eventually, when I was cleaning it up (again!), I noticed that there was blood in her urine --- she had a bladder infection.
I have, however, seen retaliation pooping with cats --- when we got our first dog, the cat (who had been the queen of the house until then), apparently decided that my husband was to blame, and she pooped IN his slipper, which was beside the bed ready for him to just sliiiide into when he got up. niiiiiiice!
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, November 23, 2006 - 10:01 AMjust curious.....does your cat have some condition that necessitates a bath? I have had cats for almost 40 years and they bath themselves, so I have always been curious about why people bathe cats. I have one extra large cat who occasionally needs a back -end cleaning b/c she is too fat to get back there to clean. I have found this easy enough to do with baby wipes and then I shave the area lightly.
I brought in a 4th cat to our house, who had been used to being fed on the counter always, so she constantly got up there and would end up peeing/spraying on the electrical outlet over the counter. Cool air whipped in the outlet and I thought that might cause it....maybe air is coming in the burners?? Although, it might just have been a marking behavior since she was used to being fed on the counter. Maybe your cat had previously been fed on the counter???
The plug in item mentioned before, I think it is called Feliway, which releases phermones??? or something to supposedly calm the cats so they won't misbehave never worked for me. We had a large open kitchen, so maybe it would work in smaller closed off rooms.
good luck !! natalie -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Thu, November 23, 2006 - 1:58 PMI have heard a lot of this Feliway product. A phermone releasing plug-in, cool! This would definately fall under the category of behavioral research. Researching cats is almost impossible, as they are so varied and the multiple breeds have different general attitudes. One might have to study just one breed at a time, but getting a control group would be hard.
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Wed, October 18, 2006 - 5:51 PMOne of my ex-boyfriends is a harmonica player. The first time my dog and I slept over my dog took a huge dump on his harmonica case. The guy was very understanding about it. I wonder what it is about the stove burners? Maybe another cat peed there in the past? -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Sun, October 22, 2006 - 4:26 PMI am sure that it is stress. Our dog of 15 years passed on this week and (scuse the expession) IT hit the burners.
He is quite upset, we all are and they(all four cats) have all let me know about their pain.
Lock up the laundry and cover the stove...I hope everything will calm down in a week or two. Heck one of them keeps crawing into the closets and howling for her. Let me tell you this is a wierd sound at 2 am.
I didn't think they much cared for the dog, but her passing has been quite the upset.
It makes me just that much more aware how attached we all get to those who share our lives. -
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Re: Evil genius or demented
Tue, October 24, 2006 - 1:27 PMElf, I'm so sorry about your dog! Hearing how the cats are grieving, that is so sad, it brought tears to my eyes. Please keep us informed on how they are doing!
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