whenever I have this small flufy rug out, my cat quot;who is fixedquot; tries to sneak in when I'm not there and piss on it. He knows he is not supposed to do that because he won't try to do that when I am in the room. I have to put the rug up to where he cant get to it or he'll piss on it.
I have the same problem with the bathroom rug. I think there is something very pleasing about the padded area for urination. Keep the rug up for now. Keep your litter box very clean and accessible. Establish the habit of only using the box for a while. Then try the rug down again. Also keep the rug very clean. Any odor of dirt or moisture will attract him. Good luck.
Yes, cats don't know any better and yes, the cat litter might be full or dirty. When our cat first started doing that on our carpet, I checked the litter box. Yes, it was dirty indeed. Cats can smell 10X better than we can. Imagine you going to a truck stop restroom to go to the bathroom that has not been cleaned in two or three days...eeewwww... I clean the litter box everyday and wash it once a week. They have not pissed on my carpet ever since. Hope this helps...
He might be peeing there because his litter box is full or hard to get to. He may also have a urinary tract infection as cats will pee in conspicuous areas seemingly to let you know some thing's up. You might want to try soaking the spot on the rug with vinegar, then washing it soap to get out the vinegar smell. Vinegar is pretty good at getting out the smell of pee.
Your cat thinks the rug is a litter tray. Next time he wees on the rug make him sniff it and then put him in his litter tray immediately. Do not wait even 10 minutes because that is too late and by then he will have forgotten why you are rubbing his face in his own wee. Keep doing this until he gets the message.
My cats were doing that to the bathroom rugs for a long time - I don't know why they started, and I don't know why they stopped. I tried keeping the bathroom door shut so they couldn't zoom in there to pee, but that didn't work too well. I kept it shut for about two months before the constant cleaning and air-freshner buying for annoying, and the instant I opened it back up, the cats started peeing in there again. They are almost a year now, and they stopped about three months ago. They too would sneak in - they never did it when my fiance and I were home/looking at them. Only when we got distracted and weren't paying attention to where the cats were. I, sadly, have started to think that it began after I declawed them and the rug just felt better on their little paws. I didn't think about it at first, but I've recently started to attribute the habit to that procedure. Is he declawed? If not, it could be because he did it once when his litter box was not quite up to his par and now he won't stop because he can smell his scent on it and really thinks he is supposed to pee there. Try giving it a good clean (someone else suggested what to use) and see if that helps. Good luck...
