Woeful Wensday

TBT:   I am having some real problems with the Shelter pair!

Taz has always peed high.  So I bought litterboxes with high removable sides.

He doesn't like that.  He wants to pee far!  Every time he pees it is like marking territory.  He raises his butt, his tail shakes, he is trying to pee far.  Yesterday, I saw him start to pee, and I guess he could tell it was still hitting the litterbox sides.  So he raised his butt higher and got his pee over the top anyway!  It seemed very deliberate.

OK, I can sort of deal with that in the basement litterboxes (always clean).  

But he has become dedicated to peeing on the bed.  It was once a month at first, then once a week, now it is every day.  I don't understand the cause.  He can be outside for an hour and pees in a litterbox as soon as he comes in.  OK, maybe that is the only place he thinks he should pee.

But lately, he wants to pee on the bed.  It has gotten to every day now.  Even a waterproof sheet has to be cleaned.  I has a "urine destroyer spray" I use.  I blot it with old dishtowels after 15 minutes as the instructions require.  

But I can't stop him from peeing on the bed.  Damn, he peed on ME once while I was asleep.  So he really can't be allowed in the bedroom anymore (I have to keep the door closed).  But which means the other Mews can't get into the bedroom either.  

Lori very much wants to sleep next to me at night and Marley likes to sleep in a corner of the bed.  And lately, Binq has been visiting briefly at night which I think is good socialization for her.  But if I leave the door open for them, Taz comes and pees on the bed.

Worse, I caught Binq imitating Taz.  I saw her pee on the bed twice recently.  While she is slowly getting socialized to spending time with me on the TV chair, this new peeing problem of hers (infrequent, but about once a week now) is distressing.

I'm going to be honest here.  I regret adopting them.  Taz was great the from the first week.  Binq took longer but is getting closer.  But the peeing problem is becoming too much.  They are both about 4 years old.  I don't think I can take this for another 12 years.

When they are good, they are very good.  Both love me.  But (forgive me) I am beginning to realize that cats given to a Shelter were given up for reasons.  Maybe Taz was surrendered for the peeing problem.  Binq is a real clawer, but with heavy jeans, I can (mostly) live with that.  But if she is joining Taz in the bed-peeing, I can't live with that.

I am getting to the point where I might have to return them to the Shelter.  I so very much don't want to do that.  But Taz is really making my daily life miserable.

Knowing what I know now, i would never have gone to the Shelter in the first place.  Lori was so happy with Laz before he suddenly started attacking her, I thought a young orange/white male would be like Skeeter to LC and Marley to all the Mews now.  I was wrong.

Lori was happy with Marley.  I should have just left things at that.  What do you do when you make a mistake?

So what do I do now?  I spent so many decades with happy cats who all got along and caused no problems.  Was I just lucky for decades and finding out that a calm multiple cat household is rare?  Am I expecting too much from cats who came from a Shelter.

Nothing has gone right since Laz went nuts again Spring/Summer of 2023.  Everything I've done with cats since then seems to have gone all wrong.

I really need some help here.