What Do You Do When There's Doo In Your Shoe

Andrea invited her new boyfriend over to her house for dinner. At the end of the evening he discovered--the hard way--that her cat had peed in his shoe. He didn't even know she had a cat. It doesn't take an animal whisperer to know what the cat was trying to say. "Hit the road, Jack--and here's a little gift to remember me by." Other cat communication can be harder to figure out, but your friends at Cat Furniture have sniffed out some ideas for you. Cats use smells the way humans use gestures. Their sense of smell is so acute that their world can be turned upside down by changes we don't even notice. We think they're crazy; they think we're clueless. Have you ever brought a cat home from the vet, feeling sorry for the poor beast after all those needles and tail-end thermometers, only to have your other cat attack it when you get it home? You can't tell, but your cat came home smelling like a stranger. Worse, even: smelling like "Dr. Rectal." A 3-week-old kitten won't recognize his own mother if he can't smell her, even if he's looking right at her. If your cat is acting "irrationally," follow your nose: did you bathe your other pets? Change your deodorant? Burn incense? Shampoo your carpet? To a cat, that's the same as if your entire family suddenly started speaking Czech.

Cats have scent glands on their tail, feet, nose and cheeks, and may rub those parts on your leg, your shoe, or your refrigerator to mark them as his. When you pet a new cat and he immediately starts licking his fur, you're apt to be offended. But Tabby isn't cleaning off your touch. He's tasting you. It's a kitty business card. "That's mine. I'm yours." To a cat, "I'm yours" and "You're mine" are the same. It's the Big We.

But sometimes the Big We turns into the Big Wee. To a cat, urine is the ultimate scent. Cats reserve this Gatling gun for major territory invasions, much like we use the atom bomb. If your cat pees on something, he's not trying to be naughty; more likely he's terrified. Through that lens you can see that swatting him for it is exactly the wrong thing to do.

The right thing to do is soothe your cat with daily petting and attention, and lots of chat. A secure cat doesn't sweat the small stuff. When you get new cat furniture (or any furniture), rub something of your cat's on it, like his bedding or favorite cat toy, so it smells a little familiar. Something with your scent works too. Remember the Big We.

So what did Andrea do? She was about to teach her boyfriend to bring a cat treat with him every time he visited, to win over the cat. But before Andrea got the chance to try it, she spotted her new beau flirting with another woman. The problem, she decided, wasn't that her cat was peeing in his shoe, but that she didn't listen to what the cat was trying to tell her.