Poop Bandit

[telophase]

WE HAVE CAUGHT THE CULPRIT RED-HANDEDPAWED!





I have chosen the picture in which his hind paw is obscuring the poop from the camera because oh come on. Anyway, here isw Sora, scratching the BARE FLOOR in an instinctive attempt to cover the poop he has left behind juuuuust barely within camera range.

Now on to the harder part of the issue, which is trying to figure out WHY. I think we can rule out crystals in his urine because (a) he's left no pee behind on any of these incidents and (b) they're being fed special anti-crystal food. It's probably not that he wants a cleaner box, because it was very recently cleaned. It may be a territorial thing, or he just may not like the box in its current placement.

It might be significant that the other box, which is in the spare bedroom, has had no similar incidents.

Comments

[movingfinger]

At least it's only one of them and the other hasn't started retaliating. What can you do about it, though? (We've only had it happen when illness was an issue.)

[emceeaich]

Knowing whodunit is a good start. I think we're going to get a non-creepy dropcam substitute to figure out who the mystery pooper is.

Read her the Miranda warning

[cynthia1960]

The kitty in emceeaich's user pic in the comment above is our mystery pooper, Yukino. Now we have to stop the wench.

[telophase]

If it's simply a territorial dispute...dunno. We may try putting a Feliway dispenser in the room and see if that helps, but I'm skeptical since it hasn't seemed to change their behavior in other areas of the house. (What got them to cooperate and both peacefully occupy our bed without being at each other's throats is microwaveable heating pads, as the pleasure of a warm butt overrides each one's desire to see that the other cat is exiled.)

[telophase]

We're about to head off to Japan for three weeks, so we'll probably not do anything to disrupt their routines as they'll be freaked out enough by the petsitter. But once we come back...maybe Feliway in the laundry room, or maybe just moving the litterbox out to the spot that Sora likes to christen. Moving the box worked for him before when he had crystals, and associated the box with pain, and quit using it in favor of an area near the front door. We put the box out there and over the course of a month or so moved it slowly back to its proper spot, and he went with it. But I suspect it's a territorial dispute, which will probably be harder to handle.

Re: Read her the Miranda warning

[telophase]

Yup, that's the problem. XD Oh well, after Japan we can start thinking about it. I don't want to disrupt their lives EVEN MORE than the petsitter is going to do!

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

Is it really so surprising that it's Sora? *g*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Not really! He is the one who's expressed his feelings trhough bodily functions before! Including the memorable time when, shortly after Toby and I moved in together, SOMEBODY peed on Toby's pillow!