This week of Renovations with Pets, it’s about the toll it can play not only on the humans, but the stress it causes to the pets.
Up until now renovations have gone rather smoothly. The weather for this time of year has been exceptionally co-operative and in addition to the usual renovation mess, we haven’t had to deal with snow and wet being dragged throughout the house as supplies and workers come in and out.
As much as I’ve looked forward to the upgrades to my home, I’ve been concerned about how the pets in the house would handle the commotion and upset to their daily routine. This past week, Edie the pug and I have been secluded to one small room because the rest of the house has been taken over in one form or another.
Our cat Lloyd has made himself quite content taking up refuge in my bedroom. I think he likes the idea of having the entire room to himself – not far from his kitty litter box in my bathroom and most importantly, close and quick access to his food dish 🙂
Lloyd loving the luxury of the human bed
My cat Lily, who I thought was handling the disruption well, gave me cause for concern mid last week. Never one to ever miss her litter box, I was alerted by our workers that a “present” had been left in the basement. At first I was shocked, but that quickly changed to concern. Who had done it? Was it Lloyd? Was it Lily? Was this a one off? Or was there a medical issue I should be concerned about? I have written recently about cats urinating outside the litter box and how this can be cause for concern, but what about pooping outside the litter box?
The litter box accident happened in the exact location where the boxes had been kept prior to renovations. Maybe one of the cats had a rush call? Maybe they got stuck down the basement and couldn’t make it to the new location? The next day no present had been left, so I thought we were good. This was not the case the day after. Another litter box mishap. Being the pet parent that I am, all sorts of thoughts ran through my mind.
Although I had my suspicions as to which cat was doing this (Lily), I couldn’t be 100% sure, so I figured this is as good as time as any to get them in for their annual check up.
Getting ready for the vet
Cats loaded up in their carriers and into the car, off to the vet I go. I must say that I am very fortunate that other than Lily “singing” to me in the car, they are both very co-operative about going into the carriers.
Lloyd and Lily waiting for their vet check-up
After an examination, and discussing with my vet what has been going on in our household over the past 5 weeks, and the fact that the mishap was in the exact location the litter box would have been, she felt that the mishap was stressed related. Going to prove that humans are not the only ones effected by the disruption and chaos going on during renovations.
To alleviate any further stress on Lily, we placed her litter box back downstairs where it was prior to renovations, and another upstairs so Lily and Lloyd could “go” when and where they felt most comfortable. Since doing this, I’m happy to say we have had no further litter box mishaps.
