Certified cat behavioral consultant Marilyn Krieger recently
received a flustered phone call from a couple in Redwood City,
Calif: One of the couple’s two cats had started spraying urine
around the perimeter doors and windows of their home. The two
cats had always lived together peacefully. The owners were
wondering what was provoking the male to mark its territory in
such a smelly manner. After visiting the family, Krieger learned
that the couple had recently started feeding stray feral cats
right outside their home. They said the male cat would get very
upset when the feral cats arrived. He could see them out the
window. “Cats spray for a variety of reasons,” Krieger says. “In
this case, it could be a way of telling the world and the other
outside cats, ‘Hey, I’m here. Stay out. This is where I live.
You don’t belong here.’” Cats use a variety of methods to mark
people, things and territory with their scent. Spraying and
scratching are two such scent-marking ways that are the most
difficult for pet owners t