I’m going to ask you to open your hearts and share this with anyone that you know that has a cat or is in anyway attached to a shelter or works with cats. I’m going to start the explanation and then at the end of the blog post I’m going to give you a link where you can go to listen to me explain the whole process.
‘Minou’ Oil Paint on Canvas, 24″ x 30″ by Christine Kowal
This is a painting of my cat Minou. She died at age 24 and did pee and poo outside of the litter box when she felt I wasn’t changing the litter box often enough. And she was most probably right. Who likes changing the litter box? But it’s got to be done.
She would also pee in the dog bowl if I wasn’t paying attention and the litter box got to messy for her. The dogs didn’t really mind, I always washed the bowls but it drove me nuts.
Well Start With How We Communicate With Our Animals
When we can get rid of the chatter in our head and feel or access the stillness within that underlies everything, now we are connected to God/Consciousness/ that which created everything and is a part of us, and is part of all living things.
This is the place the Animals and the Natural World live from. The Animals are my Greatest Teachers. That is because they live from that centre, that is their access point in all of their actions and understanding.
‘We Are All Connected And We Are One With God/Consciousness, Mixed media on paper, by Christine Kowal
And I’ll qualify that with when Animals live with humans and I include myself in this.
We want our Animals to act a certain way and that can cause them to digress because we give them no choice. But as a whole when we don’t stop them or teach them different behaviour, Animals always operate from the Love inside of them.
We were walking outside today on a trail. It was Beautiful.
One of the fastest ways to bring yourself back to that still place inside of you is to go for a walk on a trail. Don’t take any devices with you or if you do put them in your pocket.
Walking with your Animals in these places can help you understand the stillness.
Don’t drag them along or make them hurry. Stop and see what they are looking at, what kind of feeling are you getting from them? When you’re looking at them, did a picture or thought just pop into your head? That could be them sending you a message but you have to be in that quiet still place or you have to put yourself there, then you will get their messages.
Basically you have to stop thinking, still your mind, and beneath your thinking is where we all communicate from in truth and silence.
One Of The Main Reasons Cats End Up In Shelters and Are Euthanized Is For Peeing and Pooing Outside of Their Litter Box
‘My Spanish Cat’ Part of my Toronto Cat Series, mixed media on paper by Christine Kowal
One of the most disturbing things for me in the human/animal world is that the majority of cats taken to shelters for peeing and pooing outside of their litter box are eventually euthanized.
I had a client many years ago that I did a Family Pet Portrait for. The cat was at the vet and scheduled to be euthanized. I asked the woman some questions and it was very clear why the cat had started peeing outside of her litter box. It would have taken three to four weeks to resolve the problem.
The woman’s husband didn’t care, wasn’t interested. The very expensive rugs had just been cleaned and he didn’t want them soiled again.
So let’s make this an easy fix. Because it is.
‘Cat In The Window’ Part of my Toronto Cat Series, mixed media on paper, by Christine Kowal
Cats pee and poo outside of their litter box when something is bothering them and they are trying to get your attention. So the first two basic things to check for:
‘Cat In Front of Craven Rd. Fence’ Part of my Toronto Cat Series, mixed media on paper, by Christine Kowal
One. Their litter box is dirty or stinky.
If you use de- clumping litter and all you ever do is scoop the litter, it can get very stinky or dirty. Some cats can’t take it so every once in a while you need to dump all of it out and start over again. Put your nose to the litter box, how does it smell to you? Remember cats and dogs sense of smell is about 300X’s greater than yours.
Number two. Did you change their food, or did their food change?
‘Cat in The Garden’ Part of the Toronto Cat Series, mixed media on paper by Christine Kowal
Is your cat acting differently with their food either being overly finicky, not wanting it, or eating voraciously, wanting more food. If you’ve changed their food. It could be the new foods not working for their body or they don’t like it. Cats are very smart if they won’t or are hardly eating their food it may not be right for their body.
If they’re eating voraciously and still seem to be hungry, it’s lacking something they need, often protein. Whatever it is, it is not the right cat food for them.
I had a client whose cat started peeing and posing outside of the litter box. She was using the same cat food but the company had made some changes to the recipe so her cat was gobbling what seemed to be the same food he had always eaten but now he was always starving and looking for food. They’d slightly changed the packaging so she called them to see if t hey’d changed the cat food and they had.
If you have an old can, the ingredient list will also tell you. And remember the order of the ingredient list matters. So if protein used to be the first ingredient on the list and now it’s fourth, or even second or third, that’s a completely different cat food.
There are other reasons cats pee and poo outside of their litter box , and there is a solution. Explained in the video below. Click on the link