Major kitten problems with new puppy

Question
My 12-month-old kitten is causing me severe
anxiety!  We brought our new puppy home
4 weeks ago, and lately our kitten has been
urinating outside of the litter box.  The accidents have mostly been in my daughter's
bedroom...a couple of times she actually
urinated right on the bed!  

What perplexes me is that the urinating started
about 1 1/2 weeks ago.  She's certainly not
FOND of the dog by any stretch of the imagination, but I was beginning to think that
she was starting to get used to the pup being
around.  

I'm restricting the kitten from my daughter's
bedroom, but just this morning she urinated
right in front of the closed door.  I don't
know what else to do!  Is she mad at us,
"marking" her territory, or what?

I sincerely appreciate your expert advice!
Thank you in advance.
Cheryl

Answer
Hello Cheryl!

Well, I have to say that you have a bit of a difficult situation on your hands.  It's quite the small percentage of pairings of dogs and cats that actually work out with both parties happy (the cat and the dog, that is).  In fact, I would estimate that percentage to be about 2%, to be perfectly honest.

Yes, I would say that your girl is trying to communicate unhappiness with having the puppy around.  If you think about it, dogs have very basic disagreements, mostly having to do with private space/time.  Cats MUST have their own space and their own time alone.  Dogs see absolutely NO need for it.  Therefore, you very quickly encounter the dog constantly crowding the other, and the kitty very quickly becoming quite frustrated, and sometimes flat-out angry, about the whole situation.

The best thing you can do is create some space for your kitty that is all hers, and has all her necessities in it (food, water, litterbox, toys, etc).  The best would be a space that has a lot of your things in it, and has a magnetic cat door in the door (that only opens for the animal wearing the corresponding collar).  This way she can enter alone and have her own space, and have all of her things "guarded", so to speak.

Basically, she's feeling crowded and uncomfortable, and probably a bit angry or resentful toward her humans for bringing this slobbering, space-crowding beast (in her eyes) into her household, which she worked so hard to make her own.  Does that make sense?

So, try doing the above.  I know it's frustrating, and probably annoying to have to put a cat door in like this, but if she's going to be comfortable and stop trying to tell you how upset she is by urinating outside her box, you're going to have to give her back her own space in a way that she can also leave that space as she chooses.

Let me know how things go, ok?

Hugs to you all!  :o)

Rosie*