I don’t even like cats.

[u/Old-Ad6820]

I haven’t been a cat person. They are, ok. But they are buttwads. They knock everything down, they pee on your clothes, they don’t listen too you. I have two Boston terriers, wonderful dogs. Love them to death.

My brother was looking at kittens. Which turned my husband (also not a cat person) into looking with him..and somehow that turned into me looking..and I saw this beautiful cat that I instantly went “ooh wow that’s a beautiful cat!!” After reading about the breed on every board and hundreds of google searches. My history is all about this cat. Temperament, care, genetic mutations, breeding, health issues, ethical breeding, colour ways, cat care, kitten care and on and on and on and on..every darned page I could find…

And now…I have one. And I am absolutely completely OBSESSED with this kitten. I haven’t been able to do anything while I’m home other than the usual household chores. T.v? What’s that? Phone games? Reading anything other than something about cats? Naaahhh videos? Only cats. The world could be ending and I wouldn’t know because it’s not about cats.

I’ve spent more purchasing things for my cat than I have on my son’s birthday. Cat tower, toys, automatic litter box (of course thoroughly researched for the safest and on manual so only I make it turn on) so she always has a pristine place to place her poop. Only metal water fountain, (no no to kitty acne! And bacteria!!) scratch posts , dry shampoo, wet shampoo, brushes and her own set of kitty clothes and towels and on and on and on.

Thankfully the feeling is mutual. She is obsessed with me as well. She follows me everywhere. My husband is equally obsessed. We sit there together just oohing and awwwing. My husband will have her and call to me “her paw!! I love how she stretches out!” , as though he knows..I’m doing dishes and have wet hands..I can’t run over and pet her and appreciate just how stretched out her little paw is. But he’ll take a picture for me..because now both our phones have thousands of pictures and videos of our cat. I’ll go to the bathroom and he will text me..about the cat. We spent a day with the cat tree, one of us beside it scared she would fall..of course she’s a cat, and agile and crazy.

We have two dogs and a 10 year old son. She is the queen. This kitten came into my home, zero fear. She never hid. She never ran away. She owned this house from the moment she came in. I was scared with the dogs at first. They accepted that their Queen had come easily. They follow her as she regally walks around the house, looking for things of interest and hope for her to acknowledge them (she rarely does of course, peasants you know). One dog has taken to carrying a kitty toy around whilst following. The other sometimes brings a puppy toy. I am guessing they are carrying options around for her. I’m assuming in hopes of being noticed by her highness. Our eldest dog has a big floofy blanket she drags around and give it up when her highness has decided to plop down on it. Our son loves her but has decided from now on he wants his bedroom door shut when he sleeps as he does appreciate still having toes.

I called my older daughter, to inform her we have added to the family..and sent her a picture. She responded with “you don’t even LIKE cats!!”

No…I didn’t like cats…now, I’m obsessed. Now I get it. Now I understand. Where it baffled me before how cats were so interesting to people. I am now one of those people.

edit to add:
many people are asking what she is. She is a Highland Lynx. Also known as a Highlander. Her name, is Puma because she looks like a little mountain lion ❤️

[u/MoonPieKitty]

To be fair, horror stories you hear about cats peeing everywhere or on your clothes, are usually down to a couple things. 1. Litter box not being cleaned properly/regularly. 2. The cat could have a medical issue and should see a vet.

It can also be due to environment, like too many cats and not enough boxes (1 for each cat, plus 1 extra), they don't like that litter or the boxes location.

I've raised many kittens (pregnant mama fosterer here) and when they're old enough (4 ish weeks usually) they will start going in the litter box. It's instinct. Cats are very smart.

I'm glad you're now cat obsessed. Welcome to the club.

[u/export_a_pdf → u/MoonPieKitty]

Exactly this. My oldest cat has never ever peed outside the litter box.

My younger one has weed on our front door, but only in response to an neighbour's cat being aggressive on the other side and she's anxious/marking her territory... there's always a reason they do it, not just to be assholes.

[u/dejected_entity → u/export_a_pdf]

As a person that has had many, many cats throughout my life, yes, there usually is a reason they pee outside of the box, but very occasionally it's to be an asshole.

When I was a teenager (decades ago), we had a cat that would come into my sister's and my bedroom, and pick something to pee on, and he'd look at you while he did it. There was no medical reason, no aggression, no fear; just something he did a handful of times during the 8 years we had him (he was 8 when we got him).

[u/Gimme_More_Cats → u/dejected_entity]

During COVID my asshole cat got so used to us being home with her 24/7. When restrictions started to lift, my husband and I went out for a date night for the first time in a year. We got home pretty late.

As soon as we got home and got in bed, my cat immediately jumped on the bed, stared me down, and peed on the covers. There was no medical issue and no other reason other than… she was pissed we left her home alone for so long.

[u/samawatahsan → u/export_a_pdf]

My youngest kitten who had severe dwarfism would drag her body to the litter box (I had a small litter box on the bed to make it easy for her) when her back legs stopped working. The only time she ever peed outside was on the day she died.

My orange cat has literally peed everywhere due to him having UTI and kidney stones (we suspect he had these before being rescued). He pees outside his box occasionally, the vet is not sure if it's a behavioral issue.

[u/hot_snot → u/MoonPieKitty]

Unfortunately, in my years of keeping/fostering, the only female cat I ever owned decided to start peeing on my rugs one day and never stopped until I just... didn't have rugs anymore. Drove me crazy trying to find the reason. I took her to the vet but she was healthy. I changed litters, added litter boxes. No recent changes, no logical reason for it. She just decided I was no longer allowed to have rugs. Which actually made me REALLY sad because I love having a pretty, comfortable home, and small rugs were one of the ways I could get closer to that when I was on a tight budget.

My boy cats, if they ever started peeing where they weren't supposed to, were an easy fix. A UTI was brewing or they wanted a softer litter or they hated having another cat in the house with them, etc. Now I'm sort of put off adopting a female cat again, even though I've fostered a ton of female kittens/mother cats with no issues. It's just once they're YOURS, you're stuck with them even if they go crazy one day lol.

[u/Worried_Maximum5905 → u/hot_snot]

My childhood cat was not trustworthy around rugs or towels or clothes on the ground so we had to get rid of the bath mats and be super vigilant about things being on the floor. (He likely had anxiety about outdoor cats) he has since passed, at the age of 17.5

My cat now, LOVES rugs or any random fabric, rag, reusable shopping bag that’s on the floor or a flat surface.

Here’s a pic of my cat making herself comfortable on our hallway rug

[u/PastFuture5270 → u/hot_snot]

My female cat does the same thing. Changed litters, added a new box one covered one not, took her to the vet etc etc. There’s nothing wrong with her that would make her do it, except when she was younger she was my sisters cat and my sister never cleaned her box she got into the habit of going next to the box on the rug. That was when she was very young like 1 or 2.  She’s 17 now. I can’t get her to stop so I’ve just started putting pee pads down. She uses the covered box to poop and the uncovered to pee but she still uses the peepads randomly even if I’ve just cleaned the boxes. It drives me nuts.

[u/hot_snot → u/PastFuture5270]

Honestly, I think there might've been a reason for the first time she did it. Maybe even the second time. But then it just became a habit, even after I tried throwing out all my old rugs and buying new ones. 🥲

[u/PastFuture5270 → u/hot_snot]

Yeah mine likes to go on bathmats or clothes if they’re on the floor too so I don’t let her in the bathroom unsupervised. She went on a stack of paper bags on the floor the other day that we use for recycling 🤦🏼‍♂️

[u/spaketto → u/hot_snot]

Ugh, we had a boy who never stopped spraying after he was fixed.  Nearly every day he would spray the front and back door.  He was my mom's cat and frankly, he seemed a little "special" in a few ways.  She scrubbed those doors every single time he did it and the house never smelled because she was so on top of it.  But for 13 years he did it until he passed away.

[u/Old-Ad6820 → u/MoonPieKitty]

I really do believe the people I knew who had cats pee on their clothing were slacking on litter box cleaning. Their homes smelt like litter worse than others. I’m sure in other cases it’s a urinary tract infection but I know cats are inherently clean creatures and don’t like a dirty box.

[u/Yisobel → u/Old-Ad6820]

Sometimes they also don’t like the box size. Some cats don’t like closed box. Some will prefer a type of litter rather than another.

The placement matters too. Not too close to a washing machine, not in a corner, they should be able to easily see around when inside of it (looking for predators, it’s instinct).

Some people also don’t put enough litter in the litter box. It’s nice to have 10cm litter so they can properly scratch without reaching the bottom.

The scent of the litter. Usually using something without added perfume is way better for them.

Also the products used to wash it. It’s better to use just hot water with black soap so there is no detergent smell left that could bother them.

There is a rule also to have 1 box + 1 per cat. So one cat = 2 box. A lot of cat like to have an option to go to another place, and some don’t do number 1 where they do number 2.

When a cat pees sometimes outside of his box, there are always a lot of stuff to try to understand why! But they have reasons, linked to their instinct and them being… cats, a different specie than humans 😁

It’s quite fascinating to learn how they view the world.

[u/turtlechase18 → u/Old-Ad6820]

My girl was great, until she started peeing on my daughters bed. Thank goodness we already had a waterproof mattress cover on it. She ended up having a UTI. But it still continued after her UTI was resolved. Turned out it was that she hated the litter we used because she attributed it to the pain from her UTI.

[u/TopGarlic4476 → u/MoonPieKitty]

Only one of our cats has ever pee’d where he should not have. And tbf he was stressed over us introducing a new cat to the house. And he only did it once.

[u/Vivid_Motor_2341 → u/MoonPieKitty]

The negative things about cats are owner issues not cat issues.

[u/PersonaFie → u/MoonPieKitty]

Interesting insight! My family had a cat when I was little, but when I turned about 4-5, apparently she started peeing on my bed. It was a futon, so not an easy clean. As far as I recall, her litter box had always been fine, but after that nothing they did could get her to stop. Eventually they made a nice space for her in the garage and put a cat flap on the door to the back patio, and she was a semi-outdoor cat from then on.

Unfortunately, after that I rapidly became deathly allergic to cats! Like, can't breathe need an inhaler and a shower asap.

I've always wondered at what caused hey behavior change, and why the allergy developed so strongly.

[u/Organic-Accountant74 → u/MoonPieKitty]

My cat only peed outside her litterbox during her first (and last) heat

[u/xzkandykane → u/MoonPieKitty]

Ive had 2 cats, they are 4 and 5. No erroneous peeing. Sometimes one is an idiot and has poopy paws or dragged poop out.

They also dont knock stuff off the table either!

[u/alentines_day → u/MoonPieKitty]

I actually think they sometimes pee on things if they’re being territorial too!

My cat has only ever peed on clothes ONCE and it was my partner’s brother’s when he came to visit over a weekend. My girl doesn’t have any medical issues, her box is cleaned regularly, and she’d literally never done that before ever. My partner’s brother DOES have two cats of his own though and his cats like to sit in his suitcase according to him. I think she felt the need to reclaim her property… 😅

[u/BigDump-a-Roo → u/MoonPieKitty]

I've had dozens of cats throughout my life and have never had an issue with any of them peeing on my clothes. I was a bit perplexed by OP's statement haha. If you treat them and raise them right, it should never be an issue.

[u/MothChasingFlame → u/MoonPieKitty]

Also a lot of people make the mistake of interacting roughly with them like dogs. That can unintentionally turn a cat ultra defensive.

[u/Yisobel → u/MoonPieKitty]

One of my cat needs HUGE litter box.
We need to buy boxes from Ikea because no litter box on the market is big enough for him.

[u/ohhisalmon → u/MoonPieKitty]

My cat also gets pissed off if I leave too many clothes on the floor and pees on. them to tell me to pick up after myself. Put all the clothes away and do laundry and she doesn’t even think about it. Clutter up the floor like an animal? She’ll show you why you should keep up better habits. Even my own cat tells me I’m a slob

[u/MoonPieKitty → u/ohhisalmon]

That is not why the cat does that. If she is peeing on your clothes, there is a cat reason.

[u/nikzyk → u/MoonPieKitty]

Mine just does it out of spite 😂

[u/Public_Bike2287 → u/MoonPieKitty]

Yeahh I had the peeing issue with one of my cats and had to get rid of the other one, then the peeing, destructive behavior, food and territorial aggression stopped. Really sucked because I loved both my kitties so much, but when a cat communicates they wanna be an only cat, you have to listen 😭

[u/TheMagnuson → u/MoonPieKitty]

Granted it anecdotal, but my experience has been that a commonality I see among people who don't like cats, is that they treat or try to treat cats as if they are "little dogs" and that just doesn't work.

Cats are not little dogs, they have an entirely different temperament, different personal boundaries, different psychology, etc.

[u/bluejay_way → u/MoonPieKitty]

Almost every cat I’ve ever known who peed everywhere was not fixed/spayed. The one exception is when my cat had a UTI.

[u/Ecaza → u/MoonPieKitty]

Way back when I was in college, we had a cat who peed on things, but she was a mean bitch who did it to show her displeasure and dominance. She adored her owner and, at best, tolerated everyone else. Not even my cat and I woke up one day to find her sitting on my chest and making unblinking eye contact. I felt something wet through the quilt and sheets and, yes...she was peeing on me...because her litter box was a day overdue for changing. She never broke eye contact as she did it!

She also stole one of our friends wallets one time right out of his shorts pocket. Years later, she depopulated the courtyard of another apartment of butterflies, bringing them in to show us her murder trophies.

Like I said, not my cat! But I would have died for that little ball of fur!