OT - Pet Frustration

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2006
OT - Pet Frustration
8
Thu, 03-16-2006 - 4:42pm

My sob story for this week:

Shortly after saying goodbye to my beloved yellow lab (the best dog on the planet) in December, my DS and DD started in on me about getting a new pet. They wanted cats. I am okay with cats, in fact, I love cats. I love most animals actually, and enjoy having pets.

Anyway, we'd thought we do a really great thing and adopt a pair of adult cats from a local no-kill shelter that needed homes. Two months ago we went down there and two cats, a male and a female, ended up picking US out, instead of the other way around. They resided in the same room, shared food, a litter box, etc., We paid the adoption fees, bought food, litter and box, toys, beds, etc. and took them home.

To make a long short, I took the cats back to the shelter today. They were piddling EVERYWHERE, mostly downstairs in between the times they were thoughtful enough to use the litter box. One of them, I'm not sure which, decided pooping on the carpet was a good way to show it's appreciation for our rescuing them as well. I even went out and bought one of those expensive self-cleaning litter boxes. While they were quite fascinated with it from afar, they still felt the carpet was a superior place to take care of their business.

So now, I have a house that stinks to high heaven of cat urine, (I have used more than three gallons of Nature's Miracle spraying the carpet; so far to little avail) an expensive litter box, and no cats.

My DS is so upset; he went straight up to his room with his headphones on and closed the door. DD doesn't know yet. Taking those cats back to the shelter was almost as hard as saying goodbye to my dog. I sure tried to make it work, but a house that smells like cat urine is hardly a liveable home.

Anyway, it's a sad thing and I feel terrible.

Julie

 

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-06-2005
Thu, 03-16-2006 - 7:16pm
Hugs to you , I feel your pain, we have 5 kids and four dogs. My daughter wants a pet of her own! I don't know what gets cat urine out. We have chow chow dogs , so cats are out of the question! take a break from the pet action, and the right animal will come along and adopt your family! k-
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-07-2005
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 1:14am

Oh, I feel so bad for you. I love cats myself.

I'm not totally sure of the name, but I think it's called Skunk Off, ever heard of it? It can be mixed in when steam cleaning the carpets. I've also used potpourrie (sp?) carpet powder. Dump lots of it (and I mean dump plenty of it in the specific places they went), leave it for a day or 2 then vacuum up.

I don't recall where you live, but opening the windows helps, too! Luckily, here in Texas mine have been opened almost nonstop for 2 to 3 weeks. Weird winter.

Good luck,
zz

Avatar for jupiterfit
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-12-2003
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 6:31am
We had the same experience when we had three cats. Two were strays and one was from an animal shelter. The peeing was just driving me crazy! Don't leave anything canvas around (such as a gym bag) they seem to like peeing on that. There is a product called Feliway which is a cat hormone that supposedly calms them and keeps them from peeing. It is quite expensive, but it does seem to help. I got mine on eBay; it is less expensive there. For us it didn't totally eliminate the problem but it got better. It is a diffuser you plug in. It may help in your case since they are just trying to get used to their new surroundings and may feel stressed. Are the cats from the same litter? From what I understand, if they are, there will be less peeing. Good luck!
Debbie
Debbie
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 7:57am
i'm so sorry.... i am not a 'pet person' anymore and i don't particularly like cats, but i did grow up with a pet (dog) and i know how much people/kids get attached to the animal, and how it becomes a member of the family. it hurts...
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2006
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 10:45am

The ladies at the shelter were not happy with me when I brought the cats back. I do feel like I let them, and the cats down. It is a non-profit, no-kill shelter so the cats will stay there until someone else adpots them.

I wasn't aware of this until now, but black lights will show exactly where urine stains are.

DH brought one home and went through the house with it. The carpet in the den lit up like a Christmas tree. It positively glowed, there was so much urine soaked into it. To make matters worse, I had tried shampooing the carpet in there last week, and all I did apparently, was drag the urine throught the carpet. When DH turned the blacklight on in there, we could see a beautiful, florescent crosshatch pattern of urine stains in the carpet.

We had always said we would replace the carpet throughout the house when we said goodbye to the dog. Looks like it's going to have to happen soon, because it's going to take a miracle to get the urine stains and odor out of the carpet in that room.

In the meantime, I keep spraying and the odor does seem to be receding -- just a little bit.

 

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-21-2005
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 11:38am

Oh Julie, that is so sad! I'm a dog/cat lover and I can only imagine how hard that was - not to mention dealing with DS's reaction.

There is stuff on the market to take the smell away. Call your local pet store or - better yet - a cleaning service. It will be well worth the money.

You tried to do a good thing, but you did the right thing in the end. When you get brave again, start with kittens!

How did dd react?

jt

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2006
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 11:54am

Thanks, jt. We've already decided that when we can think about pets again (did I mention DS is already asking?) it'll be two kittens from the same litter. Preferably same sex kittens too.

DD didn't seem to be too upset. 'Her' cat peed on her school sweater (which she left laying on the floor) earlier this week and she was not happy. Plus, with her being away from home so much and not having the opportunity to spend much time with the cats, she really wasn't quite as attached to them as DS and I were.

I do have some stuff from the pet store I've been spraying on the carpet -- by the gallon. Maybe now that there won't be any fresh peeing, it will start to work.

In the meantime, I'm wearing one of those painters' masks while I do my housework. jk! But it's a great idea ...

 

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Fri, 03-17-2006 - 1:29pm

Julie,
I share your frustration with cats. I'm different, though - I have to confess I don't particularly like cats, I'm much more a dog person. We do have one cat, though, whom literally came to our door one night several years ago when my oldest ds was coming home from a birthday party. She was a kitten then, just adorable and when we couldn't find her owner we kept her.

At the time we lived on a busy street and made her an "indoor cat" for almost a year. She ruined no less than 2 couches (fortunately old ones, at the time I didn't have any nice furniture because I also had young children) before she became a "outdoor cat" busy street and all. Interestingly enough, after spending a year indoors she never went far from the perimeter of our house. Now we live on a much quieter street but she basically has her home in dh's garage - he built her one of those "cat apartment posts". She basically sleeps all day. Once in a while she decides to grace us with her presence.

The smell of a cat's urine, imo is almost impossible to get rid of. We wound up throwing out the two couches - never could get the smell out. Maybe someone here has a solution to getting rid of the smell.

Sorry you have to go through this right after losing your lab. ]]