14 year old cat

Question
We are a family of five (my husband,son,daughter, granddaughter and myself - all adults except for my 6 month old granddaughter). About three weeks ago Nikki our cat started to poop behind our granddaughters swing which is in our living room. About the same time our 15 yr. old shepherd started to get sick. During the past three weeks Nikki continued to do this off and on but mostly at night. This past Friday we lost Libby and since then Nikki has pooped both in her box and in the spot by the swing on a daily basis. While the two had been separated for a couple of years, this past two years they have been back together. Could this be Nikki's way of reacting to Libby being sick and now gone or is she just being stubborn and doing this to make me upset? What can I do to correct this? I was told that by spraying vinegar water on the spot would help? Thanks for any and all help!!

Answer
Patricia,

I would like to start off by letting you know that cats don't eliminate in places that we would rather they didn't to be stubborn or to upset us. My first recommendation would be that you take Nikki to the vet and have her thoroughly examined including blood and urine tests to be sure that there are no obvious health issues. If the vet can't find any medical reason to explain the issue then it is likely behavioral in nature. I would suggest that Nikki be spayed if this hasn't been done already as intact cats tend to use urine and feces to mark their territory more frequently than cats who have been spayed or neutered. If Nikki is already spayed I would recommend that you keep her indoors as that is the simplest approach to curbing the behavior. If you opt to keep Nikki as an indoor/outdoor cat you could try placing a bowl of food in the areas that she most frequently targets to poop in as cats don't like to use the toilet in an area that has food. I realize that your main concern about this approach would be that the food that has the potential to attract stray cats and wild animals that cat food would appeal to. In order to prevent this from becoming an issue I would recommend that you only place the food there prior to Nikki going outdoors in the yard and bring it back in when you bring her in. You could also try an outdoor cat repellant although some simply don't work, some repel more humans than cats and the one issue with all of them no matter how well they work is that they need to be reapplied frequently. Applying a cat repellant properly outside is time consuming and has the potential to get very pricey so it wouldn't be high on my list of recommendations. You could try using dried hot pepper flakes to discourage Nikki from going into that area. In my experience regular hot peppers (the kind that many people enjoy sprinkled onto pasta) are fairly cheap when bought in bulk, but again they have the disadvantage of having to be replaced when it rains. The thing that I like about using dried hot peppers is that they aren't toxic to pets, wildlife or children, they won't harm your lawn and they have the added bonus of keeping some bugs out of the area. There wouldn't be any reason for too much concern if your granddaughter were to pick one of the hot peppers up and eat it, she would not be likely to do it again, but the remedy for the discomfort caused by eating the peppers is a simple glass of milk (not water as many folks believe because it simply doesn't take away the burning sensation). Spraying vinegar on the spot will likely just damage your lawn. I hope that you have found this information helpful. If you have any further questions or concerns, or you would simply like to send an update my way, please don't hesitate to contact me again.