Maggie was an unhappy cat. Suffering from a medical problem that necessitated lying down to eliminate, she discovered one day that her owner Suzi Moore of Tacoma, Wash., forgot to clean the litterbox.
An alternative beckoned: a soft area rug covering the hardwood floor. Maggie seemed delighted with the new facilities; Moore was not.
“In Maggie’s case, the dirty litterbox created a preference for another location,” says Moore, a professional dog trainer who lectures on animal behavioral problems, including litterbox avoidance. “Even though I cleaned the box right away, Maggie decided it was easier to go somewhere else.”
As one of the top 10 reasons people surrender their cats to shelters, house soiling can damage floors, carpeting and worse: the bonds between pets and owners.
The good news? Knowing what prompts a cat to shun the litterbox and implementing some surprisingly simple solutions can bring Kitty back to the box.
**For the full article, check out the September 2007 issue of CAT FANCY.**