DUMB CAT: ANTI-MARKING SPRAY TO KEEP CATS AWAY

We made the mistake of going away for a few days. Actually it wasn’t a mistake and it wasn’t even fun. We had to go out of town for a few days for work. Because we were driving, we took the dogs. Because we were staying with a friend with 3 dogs of her own, we left the cats. We thought it best to not stick the cats in a car for 8 hours only to have them live with 5 dogs for 5 days and stick them back in the car for another 8 hours. Somehow that just seemed cruel.

We hired a pet sitter to come over for 45 minutes twice a day to hang out with the cats, feed them, clean their box and throw little paper balls around for them to chase. When we returned we realized that she had actually spent an average of 2 hours per visit, spending a total of almost four hours per day with our felines for the duration of the 5 day absence.

Apparently, this was not enough time for our kids and they got pissed. So they did. Upon our return, we discovered that the cats had decided to pee on the carpet by the front door. Now mind you, this behavior had nothing to do with illness or a dirty box as is often the case. No this was simply because Muffin is a little bit of a brat and Nugget jumped on the pissing bandwagon, because apparently peeing where you aren’t supposed to is good fun.

At first we tried some grocery store product that didn’t work. Then we went to Petco for the real deal. We got Dumb Cat. I think the initial purchase was based on the name alone, but the reality is that the concept of the product made sense. It is an “enzyme and bacterial spray [that] breaks down stains, [and] permanently removes odors and pheromones.” Theoretically.

We got it home, cut out the carpet pad, dried off the concrete underneath, and gave it a go. The instructions stated that we were supposed saturate the area with the product, block the section off from the cat(s) for a few days to a week while it was drying so that the enzymes could do their thing, and the cat pee smell would be completely eliminated. We followed the first instruction perfectly. We saturated the carpet with the Dumb Cat. The problem was with the second instruction. The space we were living in was 600 sq ft, so to block off the space from the cats we would have eliminated about half of the dining area. Not such a great idea.

Perhaps this is why the cats didn’t understand that they were not supposed to go back to that corner to relieve themselves. Perhaps it is because the enzymes never had a chance to fully perform their enzymatic-magic. Perhaps we just have, as the product states, really dumb cats. Whatever the reason, we couldn’t seem to stop the cats from peeing on that particular spot. We literally did try everything we could think of including putting furniture on top of the pee-spot.

One of the biggest problems, I will readily admit, is the fact that we couldn’t block the space off from use. The size of the apartment and the way the room was configured just didn’t allow for such a thing. Thus there was no way the carpet was going to fully dry out, with or without the Dumb Cat enzymes. The other problem was the absurd humidity in northern VA in June. For anyone who hasn’t spent time there during the early summer months, please take note. It sucks. It sucks less then spending time there in the late summer months, and sucks much less than spending time in SC in the early summer months, but if you are in any way opposed to stifling heat and oppressing humidity, don’t go there at that time of year. You’ll hate it.

The not-blocking of the area, coupled with the humidity, prevented the pee spot from drying which prevented the enzymes from doing their thing which prevented the cats from NOT peeing in the evil pee corner.

We eventually left the apartment for a few days and after reapplying the Dumb Cat and cranking the air conditioning, the area did finally dry. Apparently the enzymes did their thing and upon our return the cats did not immediacy return to their evil peeing ways. I said they didn’t immediately return to their evil ways, which implied that they did return to their ways eventually. It only took about 5 days and they were back in the corner having themselves a little pee party. So does Dumb Cat work? I can’t really say for certain. If you live in a normal sized space (as opposed to one the size of a cedar closet) where you can actually follow the directions properly the first time, it might work. Although, I don’t have 100% confidence in my assessment, but I do have about 70% confidence.

Really, when your cat pees somewhere it’s not supposed to, what harm is there in trying every single product on the market? I suppose there are additional variables that need to be considered, such as how stubborn your cat is, whether it has a bladder infection and what gender it is. I guess there’s a product out there for everyone. Even with the improper application, Dumb Cat worked better than some products and worse than others. If you have a peeing cat, I’d say it’s worth trying, because as I said, what harm is there in trying every single product on the market? Anything is better than feeling like you live in a litter box.