Lullaby Music

OK, here's the deal, I live with roomates, all totaled we have 7 cats and one small dog living in the house. The dog is male, with no testicles. The cats are primarily female, with one male kitten, the kittens were born OCT, 13, 2006. There are three, two females, one male, all unspayed/neutered. We have three adult cats, two spayed one in heat. and one adolescent female who was recently spayed. The problem is that they keep defecating and urinating all over the house. This includes not only the floor, but on clothing, furniture, and even my bed! with so many animals in the house, it's impossible to discern who's doing it. We have one LitterMaid cat box, and It's kept clean and filled with fresh litter. I don't know what to do!!! I've tried spanking, squirting, yelling, cayenne pepper in the places where they do it, putting them outside, and shampooing the areas of carpet where they soil. HELP!!!

The short of it is that you have too many pets in the house, unless it's a very large house. With cats, for every cat you have, you increase the chances of inappropriate elimination by 10%, so with 7 cats, there is a 70% chance that one or more won't use the litter box. Having one in heat only compounds the situation, because her hormones are telling her to advertise her condition by urinating everywhere, and even neutered/spayed cats will respond by leaving their scent, too. Leaving dirty clothes on the floor, esp dirty underwear, also makes them want to mark to add their scent to yours– they see it as you leaving your urine scent there. I doubt your litter box is kept as clean as you think it is, because with 7 cats using it, it receives at least 21 deposits a day, maybe 30 or more. You need to have at LEAST one litter box per cat (some people recommend 3 litter boxes for every two cats), so you should have at least 8 or 9 boxes, and they should all be cleaned at least once a day. With only one box, sometimes cats will pick on other cats when they use it, so they start to avoid it. It can also get pretty stinky pretty fast, even if it is self cleaning. I've had pretty good success with Cat Attract, available as premixed litter, or as a powder you mix with any other brand. The powder is more economical for the number of cats you have. Be sure you deodorize any soiled areas with a product made for that purpose, like Nature's Miracle. Lastly, be sure you are feeding a high quality food like Purina ONE, ProPlan, Nutro or Blue Diamond so that your cats' urinary tracts are healthy– even a little irritation causes litter box avoidance. Punishment doesn't work, because it's normal behavior for cats, so you have to find ways to make them want to use the litter box. Good Luck!!