My poor little boy is just not himself. His weeing might be back to normal, but this morning he sprayed again
He sprayed about 3 weeks ago after hurting a claw. I think the problem weeing and all the spraying may be related to that incident.
A brief(ish) history. Jaffa sprayed for the first time about 18 months ago. Both occasions occured in the morning when I was at home and when he was having a bit of a scuffle with Mosi. First occasion he was cornered so sprayed the wardrobe, and about a week later a similar thing happened and he sprayed some cardboard boxes in the hall. Between then and a few weeks ago, no spraying.
There has always been a bit of tension between Jaffa and Mosi as they both dominant cats and Mosi is a cheeky so and so as well. Mosi does jump on Jaffa a fair bit (mostly in play and he's easily distracted and tends to play the submissive cat) which often results in a hiss and Jaffa getting a bit p'd off (excuse the pun). Other times it will just turn into a play session. In general, Jaffa isn't stressed out by Mosi's presence and displayes relaxed and confident body language most of the time. Even seconds after a disagreement they will be in close proximity without any sign of tension from Jaffa. The extent to which Mosi picks on Jaffa does vary - seems to go through phases of being annoying and then phases when they get on fine. Jaffa seems fine with Mosi the cat, it's just the behaviour he doesn't like. I do wonder whether Mosi senses that Jaffa isn't himself and is picking on him more because of that.
About 3 weeks ago we had the claw incident. I don't know what happened but a laundry basket Jaffa was using as a bed was on the floor when I came in from work and he had hurt his claw. I don't know whether Mosi was involved, but whatever happened it probably scared Jaffa and the following morning he sprayed the wardrobe door. Since then, there have been no incidents until last friday when he had the problem weeing. We don't know the cause of that because his urine hasn't been tested, but he's on antibiotics and metacam now and I'm guessing it was likely stress related. Then this morning, he sprayed the wardrobe again.
Putting my amatuer cat psychology hat on, I suspect that the little lad was feeling a bit more stressed as a result of the basket incident, and now everything that happens - such as Mosi jumping on him, fireworks, trip to vets - is just making him that bit more on edge. What does worry me though is that both the recent incidents occurred at about 6am in the morning when I was in bed. The first time I was actually asleep and was woken by Jaffa whining. I heard him gradually in the back of my mind when I wasn't fully awake and then I woke up and realised the noise was Jaffa. I got up almost straight away and discovered he had sprayed the wardrobe. Mosi was asleep in bed under the duvet with me. This morning was very similar. I woke up and discovered it was about 5.50am (alarm set for 6am). I didn't put the light on, but Mosi came up to me for a cuddle and then we had a game of bed mice. In the dark, I could just about make out that Jaffa wasn't on the bed, so I called his name a couple of times so that he could have a cuddle too. He didn't come but I eventually heard that unmistakeable sound of a cat weeing. I got up, and sure enough - he'd sprayed the wardrobe. It almost seems like he's jealous of Mosi and attention seeking. Could that be possible? Am I being anthropomorphic here in thinking that he might consciously spray to get my attention? He's never sprayed when I've been out of the house.
Sorry this has been a bit long. I hate to think of my little boy being upset. Any ideas? I bought some feliway spray after the last spryaing incident (used that when I first got Mosi and for about 18 months afterwards but then stopped using it - I can't remember whether that was before or after the first spraying incident) . I used to use a plug in but haven't been able to get a new refill for that yet.
