Hi All,
I have a bit of a sad tale to tell but am looking for help, so thought I'd give this a try!

My husband and I recently adopted a 3 year old spayed Bengal named Khara (our first Bengal). She had been surrendered to a breeder (who had adopted her at 8 weeks -- a bit confusing but the person we purchased the cat from was not her original owner) around Thanksgiving last year from her owner, who could no longer stand the fact that she marked on her bed and the couch --- more than once, it sounds like. We adopted her in May and within a week post-quarantine, she peed on a guest bed and a couch.

This surprised me a bit, as my husband and I both work from home and had been spending a lot of time with her, exercising her and giving her lots of attention. We used the same kind of litter in her box (and provided an open, large box) as the breeder and she only had one small accident when she first arrived, which might have been due to her being in a car/crate for 6+ hours that day. She appeared somewhat confident, friendly and loving. She did seem more afraid at night, but as I did not see anything outside, I couldn't be sure what might have caused her concern. She is not allowed outside, so is completely safe inside.

Upon asking further questions from the breeder who we purchased her from, we found out that Khara's mother had a litter of 9 babies and ate 6 of them. Our cat was sold/given to this breeder because her owner feared for her life (if left with her mother). The breeder took care of her (and spayed her at 11 weeks) and raised her before selling her to a person who had another cat and a dog --- for obvious reasons, our cat doesn't LIKE any other animals. In addition, she also has a history of UTI when living with her most recent owner, which doesn't surprise me if she was stressed (and was obese when surrendered). We were hoping that this was the root cause of her peeing outside the box but now I am guessing that her early trauma may had something to do with it.

We have the name of a good cat behaviorist in our area. Wondering if anyone else has heard of this before or if they have a cat that has gone through this kind of ordeal early in their life? My guess is that patience will win the day here. Another factor may be that we do live in the country and we have seen stray cats/neighbor dogs + other wildlife -- which may be a factor in her being stressed/afraid. She is very loving with us and appears confident when we are around.

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. We have taken her to the vet and although she came to us with a slight herpes eye infection, there is no sign of a UTI problem at present.

Thank you for taking the time to help us with our girl! We want to provide the best home for her, where she will be happy for the remainder of her life!

Khara, Lisa and Tom

Bless Khara, she does sound like she has had a very difficult start to life. There are so many reasons why she could be peeing or marking. It sounds like she has had health issues too so they, of course, need to be ruled out first. We have a rescue 6yr old male who peed and marked when he arrived last October. It took three months to stop it happening. You are totally right in saying patience will win the day as it won't get better overnight. We put a litter tray where Oscar peed and we ended up with a lot of litter trays (down to three now). We used feliway plug ins and also cleaned the pee areas with an enzymatic cleaner. We also bought the biggest litter trays we could find. We use covered but only as Oscar finishes peeing standing up!!! It's trial and error to find the litter trays and litter that Khara will like. I also put a little bowl of biscuits where he peed if you could not put a litter tray there as they don't like to pee near where they eat. The whole territory issue; if there are other animals distressing her and causing her to spray or mark, needs to be sorted too. There are others on this forum who are so experienced with matters like that and will help you. Good luck and i'm so glad Khara is with her new and patient loving family now.

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Melissa

UK
Oscar - Rescue (Rascal!!!) Bengal

It's difficult for us humans to know and understand what a cat goes through and a kitty that gets tossed from home to home can be traumatized. Spraying is to mark territory! Raiden marks all the bushes on our walks, but he does not mark in the house, surprisingly enough. Once any medical condition has been ruled out, usually when a cat decides to pee outside the litter box, its stress related. How does Khara hold her tail when she walks around your home? Is it held up high or does it hang down low? High said "I'm confident." (This is from Jackson Galaxy.) Confidence is everything to an animal. Your biggest problem is probably going to be the other cats and dogs in the area. She obviously does not like either one of them and she can smell them a mile away. You might want to expand her horizons and see if she will walk on a harness and leash and take her for daily walks to explore that outside world and see that it's not really as scary as she perceives. Naturally, you do not want to rush her on anything. Patience is a virtue here. She definitely needs a lot of reassurance and love. Lots of pets and kitty kisses and hugs. I think, with time, she can become a really happy kitty. Keep us informed.

I'm not sure why it surprised you that a cat who was recently rehomed for peeing on a couch and a bed, peed on your couch and bed. But regardless, I think you should probably do some sleuthing before calling the behaviorist. I think the main reasons why a cat would pee outside the litterbox is:

a. she has (or has had) a medical problem which caused him to develop an aversion to the litterbox (i.e., it hurts to pee there so she's trying to find someplace that doesn't hurt)
b. she doesn't like the litterbox you've provided and thinks it is inappropriate in some way
c. she is feeling territorially challenged in some way and is marking her territory
d. there aren't enough litterboxes (the convenience factor)

You mentioned that she's had a UTI. You should probably get that checked out by the vet. If that's the case, then you'd need to control that problem to have any chance of solving this.

How many litterboxes does she have? And where are they in relation to where she's peed outside the box? You may need more boxes, and you may need to experiment with other litter combinations. Most of the time it's a good idea to use the same type they had before, but if they had peeing problems before, perhaps that is actually a negative. There is one (I think it's called cat-attract or some such) that is made for these sorts of situations. Also, make note of what the state of the litterbox was when the peeing happened. Some cats want separate boxes for pee and poo. Some cats are so fastidious that if a box is soiled at all, they will reject it the next time they need to use it.

The more, different, and cleaner boxes are obviously the easiest and cheapest things to try, but if there is an underlying medical condition affecting this, it probably won't help.

If it's a case of her being insecure, feliway is a thing you should at least try. It's also made largely for this purpose.

If you strike out with the above, then yea, by all means call the behaviorist. Good luck, have patience, you knew what you were getting into when you got this cat.

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The little monsters 3

Thanks everyone! We appreciate your kind words and suggestions.

Khara has been to the vet last week and mercifully does not have a UTI. She does seem to have weepy eyes (which she came to us with), which was diagnosed as Herpes during the first vet visit. We're treating that with probiotics and lysine. I suppose she could also suffer from allergies??

To answer a couple questions posed, we now have her in her "cat cave" -- the guest bathroom by our master bedroom, where we have made a solid and safe platform on top of the tub for her to reach a high window to see outside and we've expanded her territory to include my office and our master bedroom. We generally are in the office or the bedroom while she is out and about and for the most part, she seems confident (tail up). I can tell she's a bit tentative about what's going on outside, so that might take some time. I forgot to mention that when we moved in (Nov 2014), we had a neutered male who passed early in 2015. I did have the carpets cleaned before we adopted Khara but of course it is impossible to get every bit of his scent off of everything in the house. The couch that she peed on was a newer couch, which he was never on and I had completely washed the covers on the guest bed. Still, she may smell him.

Each room has a cat box (all a little different in style and two without liners) and a Feliway plug-in. She uses them all and I keep them clean, without being TOO clean. She does seem to be in the boxes a lot and drinks quite a bit of water -- might be because it's warm here and she's an active/nervous (at times) little girl. The breeder had her on dry food when she came here (1/2 cup once a day), so I want to gradually get her on wet (or a combo) -- as I know it is very important to have her well hydrated and I have noticed that she sometimes has quite large BM. We do feed her twice a day (morning + evening), as we personally felt once a day was too much food at one time.

So, that's our story. We do plan on working together, to have a happy kitty, so again, appreciate your time helping us sort things out.

Best,
Khara, Lisa and Tom

I had a beautiful blue point years ago that I got from a breeder. He had herpes in his eyes. At times of stress it would be very bad. I was referred to a feline ophthalmologist and he gave him special eye drops to help him through the outbreaks. I only had the one cat but I imagine it could be contagious.

Thanks for the info. So I'm a bit confused though. She is staying in the bathroom but her territory to include the master bedroom and office. How does that work? Is the door to the bathroom kept open and she is in there by choice? Or is she locked in there? In what room is the bedroom and couch that were peed on?

It may be that if she doesn't feel that, that territory is "hers" (like in a room that she is seldom allowed in) that she is simply "staking a claim", and saying "I belong in here".

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The little monsters 3

Sorry for the confusion!

So, the breeder brought her to us and suggested that we keep her in quarantine for a week. My husband had prepared the "Cat Cave" for her in the guest bathroom. She only had one incident during that time on a brand new cat bed and that was when she had just arrived at our home, after a 6+ hour car ride in a crate. After a week, Khara was allowed out into the house and was sleeping with us. We now realise, that this was probably too much, too soon.

She did absolutely fine for a week and used her litter box. After a week, I completely cleaned out the box (up until that point, I had cleaned out the box each day to keep it somewhat clean), including the liner. Two days later, she peed on the pillows of the guest bed. At that point, we closed that room off to her. She still was allowed to roam the house. Note: we were using the litter that the breeder suggested which was EZ Equine, a bedding for horses, which turned to dust when she peed -- so, it was impossible for me to clean, as it did not clump.

Another week went by, with no incidents. She was sleeping up on a cabinet in the main living area, out of sight of any of the windows. I was careful NOT to clean out the box completely per the advice of the breeder. One night right before bed, I noticed her slinking in to her Cat Cave but didn't really think much about it. She wasn't running...just down low to the ground, ears back. I mentioned it to my husband and we went to bed. The next morning, I noticed the throw pillows on the couch had both been peed on. Maybe she was hit with a pillow or chased with a pillow some time or maybe something outside scared her. In addition, I am not 100% sure this was the first time she peed on the couch.

At any rate, at that point, we put her back in the Cat Cave and thought of options. My husband has a very heavy/tall screen. We placed it between the double-doors to our Master Bedroom and we can close off my office door. So, now she has an opportunity to be in our bedroom and/or my office without getting out into the rest of the house. She seems to do well with the arrangement so far and has not had any accidents. I do try and keep an eye on her, while letting her have some space. At night, we put her back in the Cat Cave and she is happy and content. My husband plays with her about 2 hours per day and if she is restless, I play with her. She has definitely not been ignored and has not been so since she arrived. At the moment, I am in my office and she's in her Cat Cave, with the door open, on her tree.

Based on what I now know of her past and what I can tell after a brief month of having her, she is insecure and has had bad experiences with both cats and dogs (and probably people). She definitely is more restless and very alert when near windows. I have, on rare occasions, seen the neighbor's old lab on our front porch and our motion light has gone on at night, so there may be cats (or something else) prowling around out there. My husband has seen a deer in the back yard and we've both seen cats on occasion. I also recently ran across coyote poop in the neighborhood (but not in our yard) -- so, that's a possibility, I suppose. We don't really want to share all the nice things out of our yard (bunnies, birds, etc.), so we're hoping that she can somehow realize that she is safe inside. I would consider taking her out on a leash but she HATES the harness.

I hope this clears some of the confusion up! Thanks again for taking the time to help and send along suggestions!

Any time a cat's ears flatten and they slink, something is amiss somewhere. If there are other animals around your yard, you've got to block her sight to them. She doesn't like them and doesn't feel secure when they come around. I'd change cat litters and see if that helps. Cats prefer a clean litter box. Clumping litters help a lot. You've got to get her back to using the boxes exclusively. We don't know what she's gone through previously and stress and trauma can take their toll on a kitty. You'll need a lot of time and patience and continue observing her behavior as that can tell you a lot.

Thanks again everyone for your encouragement. I wanted to share a picture of our girl, Khara. Here she is with "her couch" and one of "her pillows".

She's beautiful and appears happy in the picture.