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tweetybaby2005

Wisdom from cat experts please...

I am new to the forum. Our old domestic short hair cat (16 yo) passed away. My heart aches so bad that I can't even control my tears. I really miss having a cat at home even though my Sheltie dog is giving me plenty of love. My DH said no more cat because our old cat pee'd every where during his last few weeks with us and the smell was horrible. I tried my best to clean them up. DH also said if we get another cat/kitty that the new cat will just continue to pee on the carpet/old spots where the old cat did. Is this true? Is there anything I could do to prevent this (peeing in the previous cat's old "accident" spots)?

Thank you for providing your feedback.

Comments (6)

  • laurief_gw
    13 years ago

    Welcome to the Pet Forum. I am so sorry for your recent loss.

    There's no reason why you have to deprive yourself of feline companionship. The first thing you need to do is buy a good, enzymatic cleaner to remove the urine odors. Normal house and floor cleaning products won't do it. Go to a pet store or online pet supply website and look for urine odor eliminators. I have had good luck with the Simple Solution line of products, though there are many others available, as well. Be sure to follow label instructions exactly for best results. Multiple treatments may be necessary to completely remove urine stains and odors.

    Buy a black light, too. That will help you locate the urine stains in your home so that you can treat them with the odor remover. Urine stains glow under black light in a dark room.

    Once you have thoroughly treated all urine stains and removed their odors, you shouldn't have any problem with future cats soiling in the same places. That said, female cats are less likely to overmark urine scents than are males, so you might want to consider adopting a female this time around.

    If your DH continues to be resistant to the idea of adopting a new cat, maybe you can talk him into allowing you to foster a cat with the option to adopt once the cat shows him that there won't be any problems with inappropriate soiling. I'm sure you can find a shelter or rescue in your area that would be happy to make such an arrangement with you.

    Laurie

  • socks
    13 years ago

    Good ideas, Laurie! Hope you can get another kitty, tweety, because there are so many that need homes.

  • Lily316
    13 years ago

    Ditto what Laurie said. She covered it all. I had an older cat who peed all the time. She has since died ,and there have been no incidents since, and I have five indoor cats.

  • quasifish
    13 years ago

    I'm so sorry about your kitty.

    We once lived in a rental that obviously had some animal marked areas. None of our animals ever marked in those areas, as bad as they smelled.

    Laurie's advice is very good. Another deodorizing technique that we used after an enzyme cleaner, was to work copious amounts of baking soda into those areas (once they were visably clean and dry) and let it sit for several days before vacuuming it up. That was one of the most effective things we found, and cheap too. In some areas we did this multiple times until the smell was gone. I'm guessing/hoping that our rental situation was much worse than what you are dealing with.

    Are you sure your DH is saying no because of this, or maybe he is a lot more affected by the loss than you realize? After our dog and one of our cats died, my DH was steadfast that we needed to wait until our last of the 3 (who we still have) passed away, and take at least a short break from having pets. Ten months later when an opportunity to take a kitten who needed a home came up, he was the first one to jump at it. It sounds like your loss was quite recent, so maybe he needs time to grieve/adjust in his own way?

  • tweetybaby2005 (KS 6b)
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you all for the great advise. I did use Odoban and it has enzymes. I followed the instruction and cleaned up the area. There was a corner where DH tore up the carpet and used Kilz to paint the floor and wall area. There is no smell in this area. It was a recent lost. Our kitty crossed the rainbow bridge 2+ months ago. DH doesn't seem too grief-stricken to me but it could be that he is grieving silently. I will give him some time before adopting another kitty if he is OK with it.

  • stir_fryi SE Mich
    13 years ago

    Our old cat was a sprayer and we replaced all the carpet and used Kilz on the walls and sub floor.

    No problems with cat #2 but it was six years between them.