Automatic Litterbox Central

question for any parents out there (of humans, not cats):

have your cats ever shown disdain towards the baby?

Ok, the situation is this:
we went out of town for a little over a week (leaving our automatic litter box to take care of litter, and a neighbor to take care of checkin in on the cats). When we returned, all appeared to be well. We changed our litter tray and started unpacking. In the midst of restocking our bedroom, I found that a certain cat peed in the corner of the baby's crib. now there is a cat pee stain on that sheet, naught to be removed.

Survey - is this a sign of a) a dirty tray and cats looking for another 'box' or b) a sign of hatred for the new baby?

I just CANNOT decide! Opinions - feel free to chime in.

-j

I'd guess B. Jealousy, not necessarily 'hatred'. I had a cat once that peed on all my boyfriends clothes, nothing else. They can be moody little buggers.

I would suspect a combination of "how dare you go away and leave me alone" and "who is this new attention grabber" -- think I'll christen their crib and get mommy's attention.

Bgd6

... see, and its HARD to try and think with the kitty-loving brain when I make that kind of discovery. Rather than thinking, "Oooohhh, poor kitty must feel neglected. Lets spend some time together while baby is napping," - I want to chase and shake my cat(s) (and I say 'cat(s)' - because who can ever really tell who made the 'bad mess' when you own more than one cat. they always all act guilty, and half of them dont know why).

But there is one thing that is certain - their message was received, loud and clear.
Momma isnt going on vacation again soon, and ... well, this baby is sticking around so not much they can do about that!

I'd vote for a) dirty tray. I've never had both kinds of babies at the same time, but I've sure had the same kind of messages about the litter box! Probably also a good measure of "WHERE'S MOM!"

i'd suspect the latter but think it tended to be the former.

i've had both babies at the same time and i didn't have those issues. i have had kitties then babies and babies then kitties...both ways and i havne't had jealousy issues like that. opposite in fact. they LOVE the baby and will happily sleep on the baby's face! keeping my black cat (miss kitty) off hte baby is impossible. she loved my 3 y.o. too. would curl up next to him and purr in his ear. wake a perfectly good sleeping baby. drove me nuts!

anyway, keep an eye on it. get a new mattress, throw out the sheet.. havne't found any way to really get the smell of cat pee out. it's something else! whoa.. anyway, good luck. be sure to spend time w/ them both and they're cats. they'll adjust. or they'll leave. had a cat that did that too. just decided one day that was it. fuond himself a sugar daddy and moved out. he would be gone for a week at a time or so and then one day.. that was it. came back fat, sniffed dinner (canned, not raw) and walked out. and i'd spent 6 months getting him converted to raw too but there was a new baby coming and i couldn't do the raw b/c i was doing it my way instead of hte easy way..couldn't handle it. i guess he dind't like that and didn't like the new baby. did canned for a year after the baby came too.