🚀 go-pugleaf

I know this question has invariably come up in this group before, but
I just started reading it today.  Please mail replies to me and I *will*
summarize them to the net:
---------------------------
I have two cats, a male and a female, both about 8.5 months old.  For
economic reasons, the 3 of us are forced to share a one-bedroom apartment
until my lease runs out in August, when I intend to buy/rent a house.

In the meantime, I am having 4 major problems:

1) Litter box.  Both these guys are excellently trained to the box, but I
can change the litter in the afternoon and by the next morning the whole
apartment smells.  Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated --
if you have cats you probably know that no deodorizors will help (although
good incense seems to do better than anything).  Would it help if I had
one/both of them fixed?  I've run through every brand of litter known to
man/beast -- nothing works; my best experience so far is with Kitty Litter
brand.  They are both still on Purina Kitten Chow, which I'm sure is ultra-
loaded with protein -- a bad thing for me since protein breaks down into
ammonia in the body.  Would a dietary change help?

2) Spraying.  I guess this is what he is doing -- the male started a month
ago to "mark his territory" by urinating in obscure areas of the living room.
To my knowledge (and boy, you have instant knowledge when you open the door
of the apartment!), he has only done this twice; but I'm quite sure that
won't be the end.  I really hate to have him fixed for no reason, as he is
already playful but basically docile (he doesn't really use his claws and
teeth even when really excited while playing/fighting), and I don't want to
turn him into a fat, boring old man before he is one year old.

3) Scratching post.  I bought one of these oddities (carpet-covered variety,
you know the type) at the local pet store when my babies were very young.
They used it as a base from which to pull a Snoopy-style vulture routine,
then pounce on each other.  They never once scratched it.  Now that they are
too big to perch on it, it sits in the middle of the living room floor while
they gleefully attack my $300 ottoman.  For some reason they haven't yet
realized that the easy chair and sofa of the same group are much more
expensive, but I'm sure they'll figure it out sooner or later.  I have an
old fake-wicker clothes hamper that I really don't care about in front
of the ottoman, but it is rapidly disappearing in shreds and doing wonders
for the appearance of my apartment at the same time.  Any scratching-post
suggestions?  The male discovered my speaker covers last night, and for that
he will die -- only you can save him!

4) The house won't solve this one, but my job requires me to go the New Jersey
[:-(] fairly often for around 3 days at a time, sometimes 4.  Except when I
get lucky like next week and get to go to Minneapolis [:-(  :-(].  Has anyone
had any experience with automatic feeders/waterers so I don't have to leave
tons of food and water out?  The male is in fantastic shape, but the female
is a butterball -- a real tubbo.  I have the feeling that if there isn't a huge
pile of food *in the bowl* that maybe she'll cut down a bit -- I tried this
when I was home for a long period and it seemed to work.  She never cleaned
out the bowl but she did eat less.

Sorry this turned out to be so long, but this is my first experience with
indoor cats and the pet stores in town have been no help whatsoever.  Any
help would be greatly appreciated!

P.S.: Thanks in advance from Sam and Kodi, too!
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
			...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj