Cat lovers I need your help

So a brief history; My ex husband's cat is 13 and was born and lived in the same house for 13 years. My ex went to Thailand this summer and asked me very nicely if I would have his cat or should he have him put down!!!

So the cat came to my house and settled in very nicely, eating, sleeping generally being a cat. Then my ex came back and said that I might as well keep the cat because he was going to live in Thailand. He came to my house, saw the cat (had a cup of tea) and went home. The cat became very distressed, stopped eating and was continuously agitated.

I forced my ex to take him to the vet where she said that the cat was stressed and gave him some sedatives. The cat went home with my ex and all was well UNTIL... Last week my ex left for good for Thailand and brought the cat to my house and here we come to my problem:

This cat which is perfectly house trained is weeing and pooing all over the house!!! There is a litter tray that he uses when he wants to, he can get outside but no he wants to wee and poo in the house!

Now I have the unenviable task every evening when I get home from work to go on a hunt the poo expedition by sniffing every corner of every room until I find the unwanted present. The wee I inevitably find when I walk barefoot in it!!!

Do any of you have any advice on how I can stop this. Of course I am never at home when he does this so I can't catch him in the act and this is starting to seriously p*** me off (no word play intended!)

 

I clean the litter box everyday and he knows where it is I have seen him in it, he just wants to drive me mad at the moment pooing in the corners and weeing in the bathroom

 

When the cat lived with my ex he had 24 hour access to the garden, in my house he does use the litter box when I am at home but still manages to mess in the corners when he is alone.

This is not a question of not knowing where the litter box is, or it not being clean this is disturbed unhappy behaviour on his part and I don't know what to do for him. I don't really want to put him on medication, I would rather wipe up the mess I think.

 

I know what the problem is, he is unhappy, he wants to be back in his old house with his 'dad'. This cat is my ex's cat not mine. This is a cat who sulked for 3 weeks when my ex came back from a trip to Egypt, who turned his back and stalked out of the room when my ex came in just to show his displeasure at being left.

This is a very unhappy sensitive cat who is missing his dad and doesn't understand why he has to come an live with me, my dog and my daughter's kitten who is constantly bugging him. If you can imagine a grumpy old man who hates kids then turn it into a cat you have just about got the character of this cat.

I am at a total loss for what to do to help him overcome his sense of loss and disorientation and this need of his to mess in the house to show me that he is unhappy, I know he is unhappy he doesn't have to wee everywhere!!!

 

Well if I am brutally honest I wouldn't want to keep one either but my ex didn't give me much of a choice, it was he who bought our daughter her kitten knowing that she was coming to live with me!!! Give me a dog anyday of the week, but that is not the problem here, it is what can I do to stop the cat weeing everywhere... apart from tying a knot in his willy and sticking a cork up his backside which I can't imagine would make him feel happy and loved!

 

I will give it a try if all else fails but what I didn't say is that this cat is extremly fussy, he doesn't eat dried food and will only eat tinned food the instant it comes out of the tin, half an hour later and it is too late he would rather starve to death than have to eat 'stale' food. So now I buy expensive sachets which he eats all in one go because of course once the tin is opened he doesn't like eating the second half of the tin. He did once actually stop eating all together when we tried to force him to finish the food in his bowl and lost a dramatic amount of weight so I won't be doing that one again.

For heavens sake he is worse than a spoil child!!! The tying of the knot and the cork are looking increasingly attractive to me. :dry:

Thank you Corny anyway for your help, I have tried the tin foil thing, he just wees next to it. He really is just a naughty child acting out because he is upset! Grrrrr damned cats! God I am just glad that the kids are handling this better than the cat!

 

Thank you Jim I could kiss you. I will go to the pet shop tomorrow (shops are closed here in France on Mondays!) and see if they have some. It sounds exactly like the thing he needs to help him calm down and feel happier (!)(!)(!)

I'll let you know if it works :icon_bigg