My partner and I were out of town for a few days on a work trip, and left our two cats home alone. Automatic feeder and a water fountain, so they were good while we were gone. Unfortunately, we came home to find out that part of our living room ceiling had collapsed because of a leak from the tenant above us. Both cats are uninjured, but understandably very cautious of that room.
One of the two is worse off than the other. Aurora is the younger of the two, at a little under two and a half. Her older brother is about two mons older. She's absolutely terrified of the majority of our house. She basically refuses to leave the bedroom, spending most of her time either on the windowsill or under the bed. She'll go into the kitchen to eat meals, but not to drink water or use the litter box. We have another litter box in the office (which is directly attached to the bedroom), but she won't go into that room either.
We brought in a dish of water to the bedroom, which solved the issue of her not drinking. But she's decided that peeing on our clothing and furniture is better than leaving the bedroom to use the litter box. She peed on her favourite chair that's been temporarily moved to the bedroom, and then just sat in the pee. We're nervous about moving a litter box to the bedroom, since it will be another change and we're concerned about reinforcing her fear.
Obviously we aren't punishing her for this (other than a bath to get the pee off her legs), since she isn't doing it on purpose. She's just scared! But we're concerned - this is the first time she's peed outside the litter box except for the very first night we got her. She's generally a bit of a scaredy cat, but usually holding her and giving her pets calms her down enough to face her fear. But right now she's jumping at every noise, even just footsteps, and starts shaking if you bring her anywhere near the living room while holding her - including into the kitchen or office, where the food, water, and litter boxes are.
How can we help her, while minimizing the amount of furniture that gets peed on?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/cfzcis/cat_ptsd/
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