Please help. Getting to my wits end here.
Back story - almost exactly a year ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. 3-4 year old female, that had been a stray cat, adopted once, then returned when she didn’t like the kids at that home. She was fully litter trained and I never had any problems.
About 3 months ago, an old roommate asked if I could take her cat because her BF’s dogs were making the cat’s life miserable. I had offered when I first moved out that if this cat needed a home ever, to let me know, so I took her too. This is a slightly older cat, about 7, but I’ve known her since she was a very young kitten, and she and my dog have always been good buddies.
When she first moved in, all of a sudden there was cat pee everywhere. On my bed - I know was cat number 2 because I locked her in my room the first day I left everyone alone, but her litter box (brought from her previous home) was in there with her. But there was also pee on any and all of the area rugs I had. Can’t say for sure which cat that was. Replaced the mattress, got rid of all the rugs, no problems. I figured some of this was acting out either from cat 1 at having an intruder in the house, or cat 2 for another change of scenery.
Until about 3 weeks ago or so. I’ve been waking up to cat pee in the kitchen by the back door, which is about 2’ from the litter box. Frequently, after I clean up the puddle and go about my morning business, I come back to cat turds now by the door. I can’t be certain which cat is doing this. There has also been a couple instances of a cat peeing ON THE STOVE. This I know is cat 1, because cat 2 doesn’t get on the counters like cat 1 does. I don’t use my stove, so I now have the whole thing covered in aluminum foil, which has prevented the peeing on the stove, but not the climbing on the counters. It’s also just gross and I don’t want it to keep happening.
I have now moved both litter boxes into the kitchen area next to each other, each with a puppy training pad in front of it. Someone continues to pee on the pee pad and not in the litter boxes. The boxes are clean. They have been dumped and scrubbed to see if that helps. One box has a lid with a front entrance - this one has “normal” litter, the dust type. The other box is open, and has pellets with a drain that has a tray and pad underneath to collect the pee (this is the one that came with cat 2).
I have SCRUBBED the floors and surrounding areas, and fortunately the house doesn’t smell like cat pee now, but I don’t want one or both of them to continue to pee on the training pads either! I’ve always had cats growing up, and I can NEVER remember this consistent peeing on hard surfaces. My mom was always after me to keep laundry picked up so cats didn’t pee on that, but that isn’t the problem here. Does anyone have any suggestions or help?! I just don’t know what switch flipped in the last few weeks, and why whoever is doing this can at least go on the pads but not put themselves in the litter boxes. Also, there haven’t been any cat poops outside of the litter boxes since I put the pads down, so they’re still going in to poop. What else can I do?
