In need of kitty litter training advice.

My boyfriend and I have had our 3 yr. old cat now for a almost three weeks.

We love her. She is beautiful, sweet, fun and loving. I want to keep her forever.

However, we are all of a sudden within the past couple of days having problems with her peeing on our furniture. She has officially peed on our couch and bed twice.

She won't go on the couch if we put tin foil on it, but who wants to always have tin foil on their couch and not be able to sit on it?

Scrubbing the couch after these accidents and trying to get the strong pee stain out is not picnic either.

It's like having a child that pees the bed. We love her, but it's hard not to get frustrated with her and wonder why all of a sudden she is doing this.

I talked to the breeder and we found out that she has done this before. This is something I would have liked to have been told when I asked if there was anything I needed to know about her. Now I am attached to her and want to keep her and have to make a decision to see if we can break her of this habit.

We don't want to have to deal with this forever.

We took her to the vet and he said this could be a fixation with urinating on soft or squishy surfaces and she may never be broken of the habit. If this is the case, we may have to take her back. We can't have her peeing all over everything all the time.

She was supposed to bring me joy. I understand animals are not perfect. I know they can have accidents, but if we can't prevent her from going on our furniture, that's not a good thing.

The vet said there is a slight chance she had some white blood cells that could mean she has a bladder infection. We bought her medicine for this, and have only given it to her one day so far.

So I guess there is a chance that we just need more time for it to work in her system, and then maybe she will stop going on the furniture.

But we have to keep our bedroom door shut now.

It's probably for the best since my b/f is has pet allergies, and even though he doesn't have a reaction to her, we read that it is best to keep them out of the bedroom.

But it's different that she literally can't go in there because if she does she will pee on the bed.

I was so upset at the idea of possibly have to return her that I felt sick last night and couldn't sleep.

I am waiting to hear back from the breeder to see if there is honestly a chance that she might be able to be broken of this habit, but from everything we have read about this on the internet, it doesn't seem likely to happen.

Next time we might have to consider getting a kitten who can be shaped to fit into our lifestyle.

I wanted to get her a month sooner when she was supposed to be available for us to bring her home, but they waited to schedule her spay, therein causing us to have to wait a month for her hormone levels to drop so my b/f wouldn't have an allergic reaction to her.

We got her so close to Thanksgiving, that there is a chance the stress from driving her back and fourth from Pittsburg, to my mom's to our apt, then back to my moms and back home again over Thanksgiving break, she may have become so stressed that it has caused her to have this problem.

I just don't get why she didn't do it when we first brought her home?

My b/f believes it is because she is more comfortable here now, but I don't know if people really can pin point why cats do this.

It could be a bladder infection, it could be stress, it could be a soft material fixation. Either way, our cat is urinating in our house and I thought this was something that wouldn't happen if she was supposed to have been litter trained and spayed.

I had heard many stories about how hard it is to have an older cat adjust to a new living situation, but I just thought that mean they wouldn't be very friendly at first, not that they would have potty problems.

We have tried to spray a "No-Stress" spray which is the generic for a more expensive brand called "Rescue Remedy" where the natural herbal scents are supposed to be calming for cats and prevent them from wanting to go outside of the litter box, but we have sprayed it multiple times everyday and she has had accidents since. We also used it in her carrier on the ride home after Thanksgiving weekend, and she cried the entire two hour car ride.

That was the worst car ride we have had with her. She was much better the day we brought her home. Maybe she was in shock then?

Tomorrow we are going to the pet store to buy a spray that is supposed to keep them off furniture, which might prevent her from getting on it to have an accident in the first place. The only thing is, I don't think these are accidents. I think she is doing it on purpose.

She doesn't act mad at us. She follows us around the house, plays with us, eats well, and sits on our lap. She is always purring and lays around like she isn't stressed at all. So, I'm not sure what the culprit might be.

There is also another spray we are going to try before we would consider giving her back, and it is supposed to put attracting scent pheromones around her litter box to make her want to use it.

But besides that, we are not sure what else we can do if she simply likes going on squishy surfaces like our bed and couch. We might have to consider getting a couch cover, and some stronger cleaner.

The smell of cat pee is not easily removed. So if anyone has any good cleaning products that they have tried and liked, please let me know.

If anyone has heard of this happening before, or has any experience with it, let me know what the result was.

If you were in our situation, what would you do?

I love her so much and the thought of having to take her back makes me sick and breaks my heart, but I don't know if we can break her of this habit and we are not willing to live with an animal that we paid a lot of money for because of her hyper allergenic problems, only to have her ruin our furniture.

Maybe writing my research paper will get my mind of this for a while.

I have a paper I have to finish tonight, a final exam to write and finish tomorrow, and then sunday through tuesday I am studying for my last finals. I can't wait to go home and see my friends over x-mas break, but I am hoping I will not have to return our cat at that time.

If you click on the comment button below, you can leave me a message.

I would really appreciate any help I can get with this situation.

Giving her back is our last resort.

Final Fall Quarter

Before I started this school year, I thought I was going to graduate in the spring.

I met with my advisor a few weeks ago to make sure I was on track to graduate and had all of my classes planned out.

Unfortunately, two of the classes I had been planning to take my senior are no longer being taught because one professor quit, and the other is so ill they can't teach right now.

So, I may not be able to graduate by Spring after all.

I can't tell you how bummed I am about this. I am 26. I'm ready to be done. I want my degree. I want a big girl job, I want to be able to enjoy my life and not feel guilty when I am not using every moment I am not in class spent on reading, studying or doing homework. I want to be able to come home from work, and just relax, watch a show on hulu, talk with my b/f, hang out with friends or family, and not feel that guilt feeling in my gut that I should be home working on something for school.

Most people in my classes are much younger than me but for a couple of older adult students.

I'm just at a different place in my life than most of them.

I'm not a big drinker or anything, but some of them are not even old enough to drink!

They just make me feel old and out of touch. Many of them are so fresh out of High School that I feel so rusty is so many subjects. It's really frustrating.

The people who sit around me have an influence on me too, and I hate that.

In almost all of my classes you get participation points for giving answers and opinions in class, but I only seem able to do it if the people around me do it too.

I need to be more brave and care about myself because 1) those people won't matter after my class is over, or I'm out of school. 2) My grade is more important to my future than what some random strangers think about me that I will never speak to again once we no longer have classes together. But yet, I care.

I want to sound smart when I answer a question in class, and sometimes I am afraid to speak because I will be wrong, and that's mostly in my spanish class because I should have studied more over the summer.

I guess that's the thing that's really bothering me now. I wish I would have applied myself more when I was younger.

I have this habit of memorizing things in the short term and forgetting them later. Not very helpful once you get to College.

But all I can do now is study as hard as I can to make up for lost time.

So for finals next week and completing my papers this week, I am scheduling a plan of attack. After this post, I spend the rest of the night working on my research paper, and maybe throw a few spanish flash cards in there in between. Tomorrow, I will finish my research paper and take it to the writing center for editing before I turn it in. If I get far enough tonight, I might even take my paper in tomorrow for editing. Why not right?

Thursday I have a presentation for my research paper, so that's why I want to be done if possible by then. I was given an extension so I can use some alternate research that I had trouble locating before that I find pertinent to my topic. I am writing about Virginia Woolf and Three Guineas.  I have to say it's hard to feel motivated today when  I only got 4 hours of sleep last night.

It takes me to be extremely tired in the morning to be willing to skip a day of washing my hair. I'll get to that more in a future post. Possibly after finals.

My weekend will be spent reading over old material, studying flash cards, and preparing writing my essays. Then my long awaited x-mas break. I can't wait!

It will be so nice to finally spend some guilt free time with my friends and family!

There is a chance I may go to a study abroad seminar next week to see if I can complete my remaining english credits through a study abroad program.

No better way to be brave than to travel all by myself. Not sure what my options are, but I should find out next week!

I hope you are keeping up with your healthy living! I am putting Yoga on my to do list today to keep my work out going and get some much need stress relief!

Visiting my Dad on Thanksgiving.

Progress Report

Today is the day after, the day after Thanksgiving. I have been too busy spending time with family and friends to write a Thanksgiving post, so I have a minute before I begin working on my Virginia Woolf research paper that I should have written about two weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about my goals for studying and living a healthy lifestyle. Here's how I am doing.

Procrastination-

-Would it be cliché if I said I will do better tomorrow? Ha.

-I have been studying for thins earlier. (Better grades are my reward!) ((Of course they are!))

-I still resort to cleaning my entire apartment before sitting down to study or start working on homework or my reading. (So that's the key to having a clean apt.?)

-My new cat has forced me to keep up on the dishes more because she has jumped up on the counter and cats will basically become ill if they have any people food at all.

-I am still in my pajamas and it's 11:16a.m. Hmm I never rush getting ready on the weekends because I have to rush every morning to get ready for school.

I will give myself a NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.

Goals? Well, I only have two weeks left in Fall quarter, so I will set new goals to start now, and take with me into Winter quarter. They are....

1. Complete homework assignments as soon as I get home from school.

Consequence of not doing so- Staying up too late, being too tired to remember what I read for complete my homework well, causing in lower grades and having trouble concentrating in my classes the next day because I stayed up too late getting things done the night before.

This is the biggest habit I need to break!

Exercise-


-So far this work, I only worked out three days. I was hoping for 5 days, but that is still far better than I have been doing, which is one day if I'm lucky.

-I actually brought work out clothes home with me this time which makes it much easier to work out. However I forgot my shoes and socks. (Yes I have work out socks.)

Goal: Always write a list of things to bring home with me so I have everything with me. Pack using the list, and include work out clothes so I can keep up when I come home for the weekends.

Consequence: I will not feel as good if I stop working out, and the hard work I have been doing will go down the drain. (Oh and my body gets stiff when I don't work out.)

-Keep up with the 5 days a week goal.

This week I:

-Did the Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 2x.

-Improvised when I forgot the DVD at home and did a dance work out instead. (I sweat way more!)

-Found out I did well on my last spanish test because I studied more than last time. (Imagine that!)

-Kept my weight right where I want it to be.

Goal: Tone more by sticking to the 5x a week work outs.

Overall, I get a big NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. However, I am making big progress. I worked out the morning of Thanksgiving because I knew I would eat a ton.

I was given advice that sharing my goals on my blog would be a way to hold myself accountable and have to stick to them. So I'm going to give this a try. I have to say that it has made me want to work out more this week. Now if I could only start all of my assignments sooner. This research paper I have to complete by tuesday is stressing me out! Sigh.

Now, I have to start writing my research paper and work on my final project for my spanish class. I can't wait for Christmas break!

P.S. I enjoy writing my blog to be read by others. SO please don't be shy, leave me a comment! What are your goals for the rest of the month? Next few months? Share your work out stories and goals. I would love to hear what helps you stay on track!

P.P.S. I am looking to change my blog name. Any suggestions?

Eating our 3rd Thanksgiving dinner. 

Oh the foods that burn my heart.

http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/features/top-10-heartburn-foods?page=3