Cats and kids and pee'ing-UPDATE #6

[Freedom]

I am posting this question for a friend.

She has 2 cats, 10 years old. Up to now, they have been indoor only.

She has 3 children. Te youngest, a boy, is 2 and a half. The cats (one or both, it is not clear) have started peeing on this boy's things, constantly. They have been to the vet, 3 months back, no UTIs or any other health issues showed up.

Her husband wants to put the cats outdoors.

She is wondering if she should rehome the cats.

There are 2 litterboxes, scooped every other night. The boxes are cleaned weekly.

The boy is only permitted to interact with the cats when supervised. He is a bit rough with them and parents stop him right away.

Anyone have any suggestions??? How to get these 2 cats to get along with the "baby" in the family?

She is going to be checking this thread, may even join PT. I gave my opnion on putting 10 year olds outdoors: DON'T!

[Laura's Babies]

I am with you on not putting 10 year olds out of the house. They will not understand why they are out there... to many things can happen to them outside.

First thing she needs to do is keep them apart as much as possiable. Do not force the kitties on the baby and do not force the baby on them. Something is going on and she will just have to watch really close to see what it is but keeping them apart seems like what needs to be done right now. Give the kitties a "safe zone" they can go to where they know no one will bother them and make sure they have free access to it at all times.

Amy has her kennel and she knows when she is in there, NO hand is allowed to reach in there, nothing will bother her in there and that is where she runs when little kids come in that scare her. They are not allowed to go near her in there so she can feel safe. Give the kitties a safety zone to go to when they are afraid where nobody can mess with them, and be consistant.

[Sevaede]

Keep the door to the childs room shut? Keep the things picked up?

[Catty1]

I think the cats having somewhere they know is their 'safe space' will help a lot.

Another idea is to install a cat door that leads into an outside enclosure(and back again!). Ideally, this would have a comfy "house" for them.

They can be quite inexpensive to build. They should have a roof or covered top, as kitties can climb!

A Google search on outdoor cat enclosures will give you some examples. There is a pic of a homemade on in post 8 of the following thread:

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...Cat+enclosures

[Freedom]

He he, Kelly joined and started another thread, same issue. See here:

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=134449

[Freedom]

So this is the message I received today from Kelly:

Alright so I woke up this morning to find that the cats had pooped on my
living room chair and in the kitchen. They have access to the litter box at
night and the boys room is shut at night and during the day when we aren't
home now. So why would they be pooping on our furniture now.
My husband is all done with them and we don't have the money to bring them
to the vet to see if anything is wrong. What do we do now?
Kelly