Dear Sinéad and Siouxsie:
I have a question that has been on our family's mind lately. Our youngest kitty, Pandora keeps pooping on our rug in the living room. She doesn't do it every day, but it's often enough to upset us. We have taken her to the vet and nothing's wrong there, and we have talked to an animal communicator and nothing seems to help. What is bothering her (I think) is almost a year ago we got two ferrets. True, it's a bit cramped, but there is enough love in our hearts for all. We have tried getting them separate litter boxes, keeping them away from her, but nothing works. The ferrets are usually in their cage, which she loves to watch, and they come out for a few hours each day.

I know Pandora is quite temperamental--for example, when I went to Dallas for a short vacation, she dug out some of my clothes and pooped on them! I'm just not sure what to do. Help!!

--Tarah

Sinéad: Well, Tarah, there does seem to be a lot going on in your house these days. It's no wonder that little Pandora seems to be acting out. But fear not; there are some things you can do to keep her pooping problem at bay.

Siouxsie: It wouldn't surprise me if territory is an issue. We cats do have very strog feelings about our territory, and if you introduced your ferrets after Pandora had made herself at home in your house, she almost certainly sees them as intruders--even if she does like playing with them and looking at them!

Sinéad: Does Pandora always poop in the same place? If so, what's so special about this place? Is it in a hidden corner, or is it right in the middle of a "traffic lane" so that people can't help but see it? Get down on your hands and knees and look at the view from the place where she poops--that way you'll get a cat's eye view of the world from that location. You may find that there are drafts, or a mouse hole, or even a plug-in air freshener, near that area. You may find that she has a really good view of your back porch because there's a sliding glass door nearby, and perhaps something that she sees out there inspires her to do some territory-marking in the form of a fecal deposit.

Siouxsie: When Mama tried to adopt another cat (Mifanwi, the Stripey Bandit of Doom), we had one too many animals in our small apartment. Sinead reacted by starting to poop under the dining room table.

Sinéad: Yeah, because you and Mifanwi ganged up on me and beat me up whenever I went near the Litterbox Room!

Siouxsie: Oh, stop being such a crybaby! The point I was trying to make is that an unplanned invasion can cause bad bathroom behavior. Both the stress and the foreign smell can make a cat uneasy.

Sinéad: You will need to neutralize the odor of Pandora's former scent mark or marks on the rug. If you clean the rug and a tiny trace of the odor still remains, Pandora will feel the need to "freshen up" that mark so everybody knows the rug is her territory. Commercially available pet odor neutralizers can help; you can find them at pet stores or in the animal care section of a department or grocery store.

Siouxsie: If the rug Pandora poops on is an area rug, try removing the rug entirely and see if she still poops in the same spot. If she does, it's because she's reacting to something in her current environment.

Sinéad: If it's a wall-to-wall carpet and it was there before you moved into your house, there's a good chance that some other animal had peed or pooped on the spot that Pandora is currently marking. The stress of adding a pair of ferrets to an already small territory may have caused Pandora to mark on the old spot as a form of "displacement" behavior. In other words, she knows that you don't want her to hurt the ferrets, and probably the ferrets can take care of themselves quite well in any battles, so Pandora is channeling that stress into a behavior that she can manage. Marking on an old animal odor instead of tangling with the ferrets would be an understandable result.

Siouxsie:You can use the pet odor neutralizer on wall-to-wall carpeting, too. There's also a great homemade remedy to remove cat urine smells from rugs, furniture, wood, and so on. Mama, will you tell her about that remedy thing?

JaneA: Sure, Siouxsie. You can see cat urine with a black light fluorescent light. When seen in black light, cat urine that has been sprayed on walls shows up as a yellowish splatter and drips. Clean and deodorize it by spraying the area with a mist of vinegar. Spray the mist of vinegar on the walls wherever the urine shows and let it dissolve. Also spray around the baseboards and let it drip into the carpet just like the urine likely did. Don't saturate the carpet, though. Repeat a few times as necessary to get the carpet just wet enough to penetrate. You can also use a cloth rag saturated in a bucket of vinegar. Dab it on spots the light reveals on walls, floors and the carpet. I don't know if dog urine shows up under black light, but vinegar is pretty harmless, so it couldn't hurt to try it.

Sinéad: Another question: When the ferrets come out and play, where do they play? Does their play spot have any relationship to where Pandora is pooping? If so, that may be part of the problem. We hear that ferrets have pretty strong scents of their own, and if the ferrets' smell is getting in "her" territory, she would understsandably want to overwrite their smell with her own.

Siouxsie: A lot of people think that cats poop, urinate, vomit, etc., on clothes or beds because they're being temperamental or vindictive. That's really not the case. Cats are not vindictive by nature; however, they're also not afraid to show you that they're feeling stressed or upset. Any non-medically-caused litterbox behavior problems are generally the result of a cat that doesn't know how else to handle its stress. When you went away on your vacation, for example, Pandora probably dug out your clothes not to poop on them as an act of revenge, but as a source of comfort while you were gone. She pooped on them as a displacement behavior, or maybe even because she didn't want to leave the comfort of your clothes and your smell even though she had to relieve herself.

Sinéad: You may also be able to stop the pooping on the rug by placing a heavy piece of furniture or large potted plant right on top of the area where she usually does her business (after you've cleaned it, of course). An ottoman or a trunk would work quite well. Basically, the furniture you want is something that doesn't leave Pandora room to get under it and continue to mark the spot and is heavy enough that she won't be able to move it.

Siouxsie: If none of these things help, then your final option is to move to another house and make sure that Pandora and the ferrets each have their own separate territories, and that neither has to intrude on the other's space. Also make sure that Pandora has a litterbox of her own, and the ferrets have a litterbox of their own, and that the two never get mixed up.

JaneA: If you do move and you end up taking Pandora's pooping rug to your new house with you, have it cleaned first.

Sinéad: We hope this helps you, Tarah, and that Pandora can start feeling safe enough that she doesn't need to mark her territory with items that belong in the litterbox.

Got a question? Need some advice? E-mail Sinéad and Siouxsie at advice@paws-and-effect.com. None of the advice in this column is meant to be a substitute for regular veterinary care.