male cats and urinating problems

Question
Hello - I'm writing regarding our two male cats.  The first is a male stray that wandered into our backyard - we assumed he was around 6 months or so.  Our 2nd male Ragdoll that we had a deposit on at the time that Henry (the stray) came to us, he is currently 5 months old.  We are having two problems with them.  First - Sammy, the Ragdoll, has been urinating in our laundry room - even after catching him and placing in the litter box, he bolts to the laundry room to finish what he started.  We hate to add a litter box to our laundry room, because its next to the kitchen and there isn't much space either, but we're thinking we may have no other choice.  Is there some other alternative to correcting this behavior or is he 'marking' by doing this?  He's actually pooped back there twice too, but the the urinating is more of a problem.  We have an automatic litter box that is ckd/cleaned daily, although he isn't very good at covering up in that box as he was in the reg. box we had set out for his first few wks at home - but he was using it just fine w/out the 'accidents' for at least 3 wks before he started this.

Our 2nd problem is with Henry, the male cat we took in.  We assume he's around 8 months old or so now.  We never did have a screening done to find out an estimate from our vet.  Neither cat is altered, but we are planning that in another week.  They are indoor-only cats, and not being an experienced cat owner, I assumed that because they were both male I didn't have to stress getting him altered and wait until Sammy was old enough and could just take them in at the same time.  Henry has been 'mounting' Sammy, biting his neck and assuming the position to mate with him.  I'm completely at a loss of what to do about that.  Is this something that having them neutered will take care of or is there something else that needs to be done?  I appreciate your time!

Answer
Teresa,

Neutering both cats will probably go a long way to fixing the problem.  It usually takes a few weeks for all the hormones to work there way out of the cats' systems.  Sammy is old enough now to be neutered.

It was not clear from your question whether Sammy's bathroom habits went bad before or right after you got Henry.

I am providing a link to an excellent article on bad bathroom habits in cats, written by a vet.

http://www.netcat.org/housesoiling.html


Also, to help with the cleaning, you should be using an enzyme based cleaner specifically for pet odors and pet stains, available at most pet supermarkets or farm stores.

It is also possible that Sammy is frightened by the automated litter box.  Finally, given the fact that there are two cats, it is possible Henry will not let Sammy use the main litter pan, so a litter pan in the laundry room might be an option until they are both fixed.

BTW, a small ozone generator in the laundry room will dissipate any litter pan odor.

Best regards... Norm.