Cat is angry because a stray cat gave birth in our house

by Marcey
(Check, VA)

I know my old female cat, Banquo is angry because a stray cat came and gave birth in our house--we make sure the new cat never crosses paths with Banquo, but she is aware that she and the kittens exist.

Banquo has a cat door that leads to a beautiful meadow. She always has food and water inside, and has full access to my daughter's room-bed, perches--whatever she wants.

She started peeing on my daughter's bed regularly, and now, upon my daughter's return after having gone to visit friends for the week, Banquo is taking sarcastic, screw you dumps right on the floor in front of anyone who is in the room.

She is angry, vindictive and a real little poop. What do we do to control her nasty and spiteful ways? This is a really loved and respected cat--but we can't keep sleeping and living in her angry pee and poo. Any ideas?

My thoughts: I'm sorry to hear your cat is having problems. Assuming Banquo is in excellent health and her problem is not caused by a medical condition...

I try to be careful about assigning human qualities to cats in distress. Some people will say that cats do things out of anger or spite, but that takes reasoning.

As Dr. Marty Becker says, "I'm here to tell you that cats aren't spiteful." They do get stressed, though, and that is what often causes house soiling.

You're making sure the two cats never cross paths, which is good. But... it sounds like Banquo is behaving this way because she's feeling stressed by the presence of an invader, or rather multiple invaders, in her territory.

The pregnancy and birth of the kittens obviously complicate things. Normally, you'd isolate the newcomer upon arrival. Then, you'd slowly introduce the two cats through scent swapping and all those baby steps we've all read about so often (and I've written about a number of times).

In fact, one of our readers wrote about what happens when cat-to-cat introductions go wrong. You might want to have a look at that as well as my response, where I outline how to do proper introductions.

If you separate the cats first, and then do a slow introduction process, it might allow them to become acquainted without placing too much stress on Banquo. This assumes the new cat has been health checked.

You might first need to isolate Banquo and do some litter box retraining, away from any other distractions. You can also try adding Dr. Elsey's Ultra Litter Attractant to the litter box, and using Bach's Rescue Remedy for pets or Feliway as a calming agent.

There is always the chance that your kitty will not accept the newcomers, but you won't know until you try.

I hope that helps and please let us know how it goes.
-Kurt