by Sam Mazzotta
Dear Paws4Pets: We adopted a 2-year-old spayed female cat. “Trudy” has a problem when she pees in her litter box. She tends to spray over the top of the box. Someone suggested a covered cat box, so I found two at garage sales. She still pees to the back, and the pee drips down the back of the box where it clips on. Why is she doing this? I use litter she likes. Is this just a habit, or should I take her to the vet and get checked out? We really don’t want to take her back just because of this. She is so sweet. Is there anything else we can do? — Linda D.
Dear Linda: It’s always worth a trip to the veterinarian just to rule out any health problems. If Trudy checks out OK, there may not be much else to do after that. I’ve seen cats before that sprayed over the top of their litter boxes. In one case it was a dominant male in a three-cat household that clearly wanted everyone to know this was his box. He refused to use a covered box and would pee outside of the one that was installed, so his owner put the old box back and built a splashguard — cardboard wrapped with foil — that drained back into the litter box. That cat loved spraying on the splash-guard all the more because of the sound of water hitting the tinfoil. Trudy does not appear to have this problem. She’s not refusing her litter box, which is very good. Don’t take her back because of this minor issue. If the veterinarian doesn’t find anything wrong, continue to rinse the litter box top after every cleaning, and perhaps rig a splash-guard system that prevents the urine from collecting in the rim.
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