Kitty question

Question
Hello. We adopted a Ferrel kitty about 2 months ago. She was between 6 and 8 weeks old at the time, and seemed to adapt to our family very well. We have a 4 year old daughter, who she loves dearly, and a 7 month old little girl. We've been having some behavior issues of late. Specifically she has gone to the bathroom on our bed several times. Each time I felt comfortable that I'd figured out the problem, such as my husband wore cologne that he doesn't usually wear and that night she peed ON HIM while we were sleeping. I also just discovered that she's been going to the bathroom in my baby's room, and last night the baby couldn't sleep so I brought her to bed with me. This morning the cat peed on my side of the bed. I know stress can cause this behavior, as can territorial issues. The only thing I can think of that may be causing her stress is that we are trying to introduce her to our dog, who has been sleeping inside at night, but that's been going on for weeks now and she hasn't appeared stressed and has continued using her litter box just fine. Also, she was acting sick for a few days recently, stopped eating for a day, but I've been up around the clock monitoring her eating/drinking/potty habits, offering her various food until I've found something she likes and will eat. She seems to be much better now, eating her normal food, although she's not quite her normal playful self. She is drinking fine and eating some, and has both peed and pooped normally in her litter box. Any suggestions? Should I worry that she's jealous of my baby? One other thing I should note, that I only just realized, is that she likes to sleep in all of the baby's things, such as her bouncer, highchair and bassinet, which the baby only uses to sit up in while I'm doing laundry, so I'm not terribly worried about her safety.

Answer
Krystal,

Given her age (approximately 4 - 4.5 months of age). I would guess she had a mild season. Some cats do not reach puberty until they are two years of age and some as early as 3-4 months of age. You may have one very precocious kitty.  I would get her spayed.  At age 4 months, most vets will spay a female kitten.  I expect that her untoward behavior lasted about 3-7 days about the amount of time a mild season would last.

In addition, I am giving you a link to a fabulous series of articles on feline litter box problems:

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/pointe/9352/litterboxhelp.html


I do not think any of the usual causes of such behaviors would apply since it was accompanied by other symptoms of seasoning (acting sick, being off her feed, etc.) and only lasted a few days.

Please let me know what you find.

Best regards... Norm.