And now, a list of suspects...

We've narrowed down the suspects in the couch fiasco to two...

Charlie - newkitty, and prime suspect, though with possible mitigation of fault:



Possible Aliases: Chuck, Trouble, and Scrawny

Max - our first cat, and likely prime motivation for the couch incident, as he's rather a bully sometimes:



Possible Aliases: Maxo, Maxmo, Chubs, and Bucko

It would, however, appear that these two are much like teenaged brothers. When there was only one litterbox, it was a point of territorial contention. Max, being both larger and stronger and the "more established" cat, seemed to cause Charlie enough stress that he'd avoid the catbox and preferred the couch. However, now that there are TWO boxes, they don't have to fight over them...

So they both use either box interchangeably.

Much like their food bowls.

Do not ask me to explain cats.

and it's only tuesday....

So I"m sitting around this morning in a terry bathrobe and a pair of panties, having woken up late and feeling lazy on my day off, and I sit on the couch to see what's on TV...

[sniff] [sniffsniff]

something smells funny.

So now here's me, not wearing much in the way of clothing, crawling around on my hands and knees in the living room sniffing things

[sniff] nothing. [sniffsniff] nothing. hmm... [sniff] vague something - maybe the couch? [sniff] nope. [sniff] not there. [sticks nose in between couch cushions] [warm and wet] eeeeeeeeeeeeew.

I begin to dismember the couch. throw pillows? fine. blankets? fine. back seat cushion thingies? fine. pull off one of the seat cushions.... not fine. so one of the cats has been peeing in the couch, between the two seat cushions near the back of the couch... and not just like little oops pee. like pee stains all the way through the sofa bed. the more i dug, the worse it got. No idea which cat, either.

So I look at my little 8oz bottle of kitty enzyme stuff... and I look at the totally dismembered couch... sit down on the floor and have a good cry. and then go to petco.

I've now cleaned and neutralized everything in the damn couch that had pee on it and everything else too; the couch cushion covers got handwashed in the tub (don't ever do that if you don't want to be grossed out. couch cushions get NARSTY), the cushions themselves have been soaked in stuff, the sofabed matterss is soaked, I have it pulled open and spewed all over the living room with a box fan blowing on it to help it dry. I set up a second cat box, and Charlie was in it and peed IMMEDIATELY - like - i almost couldn't get the box put together. He's been in a better mood since then too. so I'm guessing it was territory stuff.

From what I can tell, the couch covers smell of orange and woolite. The mattress smells like orange and vinegar. the cushions may have to get treated again, because they're still too wet to tell. The living room looks like a tornado hit it, and I just finally got a shower for the day.

It's been a long day.