Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

Ugh so my couch was purchased in May, it's not that old, it's microfiber. My cats are destroying it. I'm really fed up with the cats but I love them so much, this is so hard :(

My one cat has crystals in her urine. The vet said that they were tiny, hardly there and not causing her pain but she is leaking a tiny amount of urine every where that she sits. It's like a quarter size circle of urine. I am doing everything that the told me to do and that I researched... new food, no dry food, a water fountain, adding water to the wet food just to get in extra water, clean box everyday. It's getting a little better, we just tried a new wet food this weekend so we will see but my couch smells like urine where she lays. I try keeping her off but it's impossible when we are sleeping. Is there anyway to get the couch cleaned so the smell goes away?

Also, they scratch the cr ap out of the couch, no amount of yelling, chasing them away, using the spray bottle works, nothing. I could spray them until they are dripping wet and literally 5 minutes later they will be back scratching it again. When we clip their nails they scratch MORE to sharpen them up. They destroyed my dining room chairs that have caning on the seats.

The one with the crystals does most of the scratching. She's the "bad" one, she is a tortie and I heard that it is just their nature to be bad lol. I am at my wits end though. She is 2.5 and not getting better. We have had her since she was 5 weeks, has always been bad. She climbs on top of the fridge, she destroys the paper towels that are up high, climbing on counter tops to get them. There is fur on the stove when I wake up....GROSS! She jumps on top of the dining room table..also gross esp since she is leaking. She jumps on my dressers in my bedroom in the middle of the night...we can't kept the door shut because 1. we have an old heating system in our old home that has one huge vent in the floor...like subway grate size...to heat the whole house so all doors need to be kept open and 2. the doors are all orignial solid wood, never painted and the older cat will scratch with his huge 6 toes at the wood until you open the door. We rent, I can't have them destroying the home and even if it was our home, I wouldn't want the doors destroyed anyway. So when the tortie jumps on the dresser this one time she jumped on the tall one and used her back claws to help her up and scratched up the sides of the dresser, my antique dresser that was my dads grandmothers.

I have tried aluminum foil on the bottom the doors to stop the scratching, they don't care, the scratch at the foil until it's gone and in pieces all over the house then they have a door to scratch at. Spray bottle, they don't care. They know they are bad, when I walk in the room and they are on the table they have a look of shock on their face and run away.

Re: Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

Do you have a scratching post/tower for them? Maybe if they had somewhere official to scratch, they would leave the furniture alone?

Do you have a blanket on the couch where the one cat leaks? A blanket is easier to clean than a couch. We did that for our dog in his last few months. He would leak constantly, but with blankets, we could wash them every day or two.

Re: Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

Can you put a big garage bag around the cushion where she sits? Then put a old blanket over it. Like a previous poster said you can easily wash the blanket. We had to do this when my MIL had become incotinent (sp)and sometime it would leak onto the couch.

Re: Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

I know vinegar gets the cat pee smell out when you wash it in the washing machine.

Re: Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

I have seen those couch protectors in Target Ads and stuff like that .... maybe something like that will help?

Lemme see if I can get an image!

It is tricky because I feel like dogs are trainable, but...are cats as easily trainable as dogs are? I guess some must be!

Something like this

Re: Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

Your tortie sounds like she learned a lot of bad habits. 2 1/2 years of bad habits that she will have to unlearn. You're going to have to be on top of her. Kitties are sly. You need to be consistent. No kitty on the counters or table. No exceptions. Water spray. Every time. 250 times a day. A stern "NO!" Pick her up and scoop her off. Day after day...week after week. She will get it. They also sell a spray...some kind of anti-cat spray that you can spray on your couch. When they go to scratch on your furniture, spray with water, with a stern "NO!". Move the scratching post directly in front of where they like to scratch. Put a scratching mat right in front of the couch. Put catnip on it. Just like housebreaking a puppy, training takes commitment and WORK. EXHAUSTING WORK. Our cousins made a scratching post but covering a plywood board with padded decorative upholstery (to match their room) and nailed it to an entrance way. Rubbed cat nip on it and encouraged them to scratch on it (actually put their claws into it and gave treats after they scratched it). cats WILL work for treats! It wont happen overnight but it will happen! Dont give up on them!

Re: Anyway to get cat pee smell out of a couch and also a I can't stand my cats anymore vent

Ditto everything that has been said, but I'd like to add a few things.

I have a tortie, too and I know what you mean! It took a while, but she knows what is right and wrong. The one thing that she won't do is stop being annoying if she wants food. She gets fed in the morning and the evening- even if she has food in her dish. She just likes the act of being fed. If it isn't on time, I swear she must have a deal with me other cat where they run ALL over and wreak havoc. Then I feed her and she stops. Sometimes she just does bad things if she has a lot of energy.

There is a point to this. How much do you play with her? They can be very high energy and I find when she starts acting like this, it's because I haven't played with her enough that day. I then play with her and wear her out.

Maybe try that in addition to what has been suggested?

Message edited 12/8/2011 5:06:31 AM.