Former Feral peeing in our bed.
So… I’ve got an issue. We adopted a Feral Kitten (now named Fern) in December when she showed up on our front porch. The vet said she was about 10 weeks old when we found her. We started by containing her to her own room for the first couple of months before gradually introducing her to the rest of the house. We would go in and hang out and play with her throughout the day (all of us, husband, and 2 kids 7 &11.) We used a Feliway diffuser since day one and she never had an issue using the litter box.
She took to us well and became affectionate with us, but there has always been a limit before she would become spicy which we would always respect. We took socialization at her pace. We also started gradually introducing our dog who is around 15 lbs and 3-4 years old (also a rescue, very attached to us.) They were very interested in each other and would play. There were never really any issues with their interactions. She would always tell us/him when she was done but often tried to get him to play with her. Also, it became pretty clear in the last month of or so that my husband is very much her human. She likes the rest of us ok, but he is her favorite. (He’s also the only one of us who is actually allergic 🤣.)
Over the course of this time we also had her fixed and got her all of her shots. She had a persistent case of Giardia which we finally got under control. Her last vet visit was just about 3 weeks ago. During this time in her room she never peed on the bed in that room. We started letting her have full run of the house. Gradually at first but then eventually all day and all night except for feeding times. She started sleeping on our bed near my husband. The dog sleeps on my side.
About 2 weeks ago she peed on our bed in the middle of the night randomly. I got up to pee, and she peed in my spot. We thought it was a random one off thing because we’d tried moving her litter box, so we changed the sheets put the litter box back in its original spot and figured that was it. The next day it happened again and I caught her in the act. I realized the Feliway Diffuser was empty so we replaced it. She slept back in her room for a couple of nights. Someone suggested that we put her blanket on our bed and that she could be marking her territory because our bed smells like us and the dog who sleeps on there, but not her. So we tried that and let her back into our room. Things were good for about a week. Until a few days ago.
Over the last few days she has peed 3 times in our bed, always on my side of the bed. I think it’s territorial marking at this point. She was just at the vet and has had no signs of a UTI. We have the Pretty Litter stuff and there has been no abnormal pees. We are washing our bedding daily, so at this point we can’t keep going this way. Has anyone experienced this? I keep joking that she is mad at me because I sleep next to her man, but maybe there is something to that? Any thoughts on how we can get her to stop or do we just kick her out of the bedroom for good?