When I adopted Imp, I had never owned a cat before. I've always loved them, and I've heard tons of stories about them, and I've always wanted them. Well, each day I learn something new about cats that no one ever told me about.

When Imp first came home, I took him into my room and my roommate and I gave him lots of attention. He was purring, but looking around with thos big yellow eyes of his. Then he took off under my bed and wedged himself way in the back. My roommate said this was normal since it's his first day. So I set up the food and water dish, and the litter box under my bathroom sink. The litter pearls were reccommended to me by my coworker, so I filled the litter box with them. After a few hours, Imp peeked his head out tenatively. I picked him up and had to pull a bit to keep him from running back under the bed, and I put him in his litter box, so he would know where it is. As soon as I let go, ZING! He was back under the bed. He stayed there the rest of the evening.

In the middle of the night, I heard a soft thump in my closet. I dismissed it when I heard a quiet, "Mroowww?" I jumped out of bed, turned on the light and opened the sliding door to my closet. I had left it open and Imp had gone in to investigate and apparently couldn't figure out how to get out. Poor thing! He took one look at me, and ran back to his safety spot, under the bed. In the next few days I saw he was using his box, and eating his crunchies but he still was extremely skittish. Suddenly, I noticed his box had remained empty for more than a day. Um, if he wasn't using the box, where was he "relieving" himself? I sniffed all over the apartment but couldn't smell anything. My roommate had been gone a few days, so I sniffed her room too, and found nothing. After the next day of seeing nothing in the box, I started to get worried. I called the cat adoption place and Imp's foster mother. They didn't know what the problem was either. I was afraid something was really wrong, but Imp acted fine. But everything that goes "in" has to come "out", but the question was, "WHERE?"

My roommate then came home after five days and I was telling her how concerned I was. I was in her room as she was unpacking her things, telling her how his litterbox hadn't been used in days. She didn't know what the problem was either. Then she drew back her comforter on her bed and we both shrieked.

On her bedsheets were five "solid" gifts, and from the smell, it as obvious there were several "wet" gifts, too. My roommate and I looked at each other, and started laughing hysterically. Imp, the sly kitten, had managed to bury ALL of his business under her comforter. No wonder I couldn't smell it! In between laughs and tearing eyes, I helped her clean up the mess and strip the bedsheets. Then I proceeded to scrounge all my pockets and purses for quarters so she could wash her sheets the next day, and then I emptied an whole bottle of Nature's Miracle on her mattress. Imp, meanwhile, sat in my room, watching us curiously. So my roommate spent the night on the couch and we shut her bedroom door. The next morning I washed her sheets and went to the store to buy more Nature's Miracle and a lot of Febreeze. She came home from work, we remade the bed, and though it was the end of it. Now that's she's home, he wouldn't pee there again, would he?

Boy were we wrong.

I woke up the next morning to find my roommate on the couch again. So I wash her sheets again and try very hard to get the smell out. That evening we went to bed, this time with my roommate's door shut.

About 5 AM, I hear scratching from my roommate's bathroom. This wakes me up immediately, and I run to her bathroom just in time to see Imp leaving. My roommate's pink bath rug is now folded over in a bunch, and there's a fresh urine smell in the air. I chase Imp back into my room and shut my door. About 9 AM, I hear my roommate doing her morning routine, and then I hear tinkling water coming from INSIDE MY ROOM. I look over and Imp is standing on my bag of dirty laundry, and he's scratching. Oh, no............

I jump up, and Imp runs away, leaving a fresh set gifts(both solid and wet) on my bag of dirty laundry. That was the final straw.

I called up his foster mother and asked her what kind of litter Imp was used to. She told me he was used to wheat litter. So I head to the nearest pet store and buy wheat litter. I dump out the litter pearls, fill the box with wheat litter and set Imp in it so he would know there was new litter. Then I went to wash my laundry. (at least he went on my dirty laundry)

So now he has litter he is familiar with. Problem solved?

I wake up the next morning to find my roommate on the couch AGAIN. Imp peed on her bed when I went to sleep, and when my roommate wasn't back from work yet. *sigh* So I wash her sheets yet AGAIN, and by this time i'm scrubbing the mattress with a cloth. I shut my bedroom door at night so Imp can't get into her room or her bathroom.

I wake up to tinkling water sounds, and see Imp on my laundry bag again. At this point, I didn't know what else to do. Then I remembered my roommate saying that cats tend to pee in the same spot, hence the repeated peeing on her bed and my laundry bag. Hmmmmmmmmmmm........

So I take the litter box out of the bathroom, and put it on the floor in my bedroom where the laundry bag usually lies. In the middle of the night I hear scratching, so I sit up and see Imp scratching and using the box. Aha!!! Success!!!!

But I didn't want the litter box to be in my bedroom, so what was I going to do? I knew that Imp finally recognized the box as the place where he's SUPPOSED to go, now the trick was to get the litter box back in the bathroom. So the next time he used it, I cleaned it and then put the box back, about a foot closer to the bathroom. I waited to see if he would still use the box, and miraculously, he did! So over a period of days, bit by bit I would move the box, until I finally got it back to its original spot.

Imp hasn't touched my roommate's bed since. I can't say the same for my stuff. Apparently one day the litter box was not clean enough for his standards so he decided to relieve himself on my laundry bag AND a pile of clean clothes to get my attention. I definitely got the message.

Copyright © Kristi Chong, 2003