Beyond Adoption

Before
-- Feb. 2009 --
Dear Fancy Cats:

I am not sure if my situation applies, but I am pretty desperate at this time and am hoping you can either help or make suggestions. I will give the short version and then if you would like more details/info I can provide that as well.

I have a cat who is 10 years old and has had urination issues her entire life. As a kitten the issues were purely medical, but now the vets have not been able to find anything wrong with her and are attributing her bad behavior to well, bad behavior.

I have done research, tried everything I can think of, and taken any suggestions, even weird ones, so far nothing is working. There are a lot of factors that could be affecting her behavior and I am in desperate need of a behaviorist, however I have priced them out in my area and I simply cannot afford the services.

I am having to keep her locked in a bathroom while I am at work . Both myself and my cat are suffering from our situation and I strongly beleive the best situation is to give her away to someone who can better suite her needs (someone with better finances and time).

My problem is, who is going to want a cat who is 10 years old with a urination problem and who has a bad leg (she was hit by a car about 2 years ago)?

I absolutely adore the cat, but I do not have the means to fix my problem. Is this something you could help me with or can make any suggestions?

Sincerely frustrated,
Stephanie

After
-- Dec. 2009 --
Dear Fancy Cats:

Almost a year ago, you and I had a 2 hour phone conversation about my cat skittles and you even mailed me some information about options for her bad behavior. When you and I talked I was at the point of having her put down because I did not have the means or a solution to solve the problem.

I just wanted to give you an update and so far what is a happy ending. After talking to you about the solutions, I tried several that seem to have helped out tremendously.

One was the litter addative called littermate, you pour it into the litter, which helped with the odor both for myself and for Skittles.

The other suggestion was to switch vets to a veterinarian who would be willing to prescribe kitty prozac (as my previous one refused to). Skittles has been on the medicine for 6 months now and has only had maybe 3 accidents since then, when normally it was everytime I left her out alone.

We also gave away 1 cat who was causing a lot of stress, and have completely isolated Skittles to one room in the house and do not allow her any contact with the remaining cat.

Although slightly lethargic at times due to the medicine, I have noticed she is so much calmer and more relaxed all the time without too much side effect. Before it seemed like she was one stressed out kitty.

We are both so much happier and she may continue to have the occasional accident but at least it is more under control and now we can both relax a lot.

I appreciate all the time you had spent with me that day because if it weren't for you I would probably have had to have Skittles put down because I had tried absolutely every suggestion out there to get her to stop peeing (which she's been doing her entire life) and even my vet had slim hopes of resolving the behavior.

Thanks to you Skittles is now a happy healthy 12 year old and I am again a happy pet owner.

Please continue to do what you do as you have touched my life and will hopefully continue to help others as well.

Sincerely,
Stephanie