About three months after I moved into my new house, Simone developed a problem. Veterinarians call it "inappropriate elimination" or "urinary marking behavior". I call it "peeing on the carpet" or "naughty potty". Simone would engage in this undesirable behavior roughly once every seven to ten days.

I took her to the vet - a urinalysis showed that she didn't have a bladder infection. The vet prescribed a behavior modifying drug called Amitriptyline. This did not completely solve the problem and I did not like the effect it had on her, so I stopped administering it after about six weeks. Yelling at Simone didn't solve the problem, either, so I ended up just putting up with it.

A year later (about three months after I acquired my five new feral cats), the problem got worse - MUCH worse. She started doing the naughty potty twice a day, and she started doing it all over the place (on the kitchen counter, on the stove, on my books, in the middle of the floor)! By that time, I had switched veterinarians, so I took her in for a new urinalysis (and also blood tests), which all came back negative - once again indicating that the problem is a behavioral problem, not a physical/medical problem.

My vet referred me to a "board-certified animal behaviorist" (a.k.a. "kitty shrink"). The kitty shrink came to my house to study the "environment" which Simone is living in. She wanted to be able to see Simone and the way Simone interacts with the other cats. It turns out that Simone was the only cat to come out to see her - all the others stayed hidden under beds and sofas until the kitty shrink left.

The kitty shrink said that I was doing all of the "right" things - lots of litter boxes (eleven!) spread out in several locations (four), multiple feeding locations, and play areas with multiple cat condos to perch on at multiple heights.

She had about four or five different behavior modification drugs that she could prescribe for Simone (all of which are really "people" drugs, with reduced dosages appropriate for smaller animals). She decided we should try Prozac. After about two days, the naughty potty problem completely went away! And, as far as I can tell, Simone is experiencing no side effects.