When my friend’s cat Peekaboo began urinating throughout the house, medical causes had already been ruled out. The situation became emotionally overwhelming, and Peekaboo came to live with me.
What I expected to be an act of helping someone else turned into one of the biggest lessons of my life as a cat mom. This Diary of a Cat mom podcast episode shares that journey—and what changed when I stopped focusing on changing Peekaboo and started changing how I responded.
Diary of a Cat Mom is a gentle, diary-style cat podcast about everyday life with cats—created especially for cat moms 35+ in multi‑cat homes who see their cats as family.
Quick Summary
If your cat urinates everywhere, the first step is always to have your veterinarian rule out medical conditions. Once health issues have been excluded, your cat may be reacting to stress, changes in the environment, or other emotional triggers. In this cat podcast episode, I share my personal experience caring for Peekaboo, a rescue cat who urinated throughout the house despite being medically healthy. By observing her behavior and making changes to help her feel safer, I gradually discovered what was contributing to her stress and saw meaningful improvement over time.
Watch this Diary of a Cat Mom Video
If you’d like to experience this diary entry as a video, you can also watch the My Cat Urinates Everywhere podcast episode on Vimeo.
Sometimes seeing the quiet moments adds another layer to the reflection.
Table of Contents
You’ll Hear In This Cat Podcast Episode
- Why Peekaboo came to live with me
- How constant cleaning affected my emotions
- The realization that changed my perspective
- Why creating a separate safe space helped Peekaboo
- The importance of patience and observation
- How caring for Peekaboo changed me
Key Takeaways
- Medical causes should always be ruled out first.
- Caring for a cat with behavioral challenges can affect your emotional wellbeing.
- Regulating your own reactions can improve daily life for both you and your cat.
- Observing patterns may reveal environmental stressors.
- Every cat responds differently, and patience is an important part of caregiving.
Timestamps & Chapters
00:00 My Cat Urinates Everywhere
00:34 Why Peekaboo Came to Live With Me
01:27 When I Started Feeling Overwhelmed
02:06 If I Cannot Change Her, I Need to Change
02:51 Learning to Regulate My Own Emotions
03:24 Discovering What Was Triggering Peekaboo
03:52 Creating Her Own Safe Space
04:20 What Peekaboo Ultimately Taught Me
What Helped My Cats in the Past
Every cat is different, but these are some of the things that helped Peekaboo in my experience:
- Creating a separate room where she couldn’t smell the other cats.
- Giving her dedicated food bowls, water bowls, bed, and cat tree.
- Changing my clothes before spending time with her to reduce the scent of my other cats.
- Staying calm instead of reacting with frustration.
- Observing her behavior over time to better understand what triggered her stress.
Thank you for listening.
And thank you for caring about cats the way you do.
Resources for Cat Parents
Everything I use and trust for my cats is here: https://diaryofacatmom.com/cat-care-resources/
About the Diary of a Cat Mom Host
Dagmar Gatell is the creator and host of Diary of a Cat Mom, sharing real-life experiences, care insights, and emotional moments from life with cats.
Created especially for cat moms 35+ in multi‑cat homes, these long‑form stories are a soft place to land on the hard and beautiful days of life with cats.
Gentle Note
Diary of a Cat Mom is a personal storytelling and reflection cat podcast. Everything shared is based on my own life and experiences with my cats.
This podcast is created for connection, comfort, and companionship. This content is not veterinary advice and not meant to replace professional veterinary advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Every cat is unique. If you have concerns about your pet’s health or wellbeing, please contact your trusted veterinarian.
Most of all, please remember:
You’re not alone on this journey. We’re learning, loving, and growing together — one paw print at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I assume my cat is behaving out of spite?
No. Before assuming a behavioral cause, it’s important to work with your veterinarian to rule out medical conditions. Peekaboo had already been medically evaluated before I focused on environmental changes.
Why did creating a separate room help Peekaboo?
From my observations, Peekaboo became much calmer when she no longer smelled my other cats and had a quiet space that felt like her own.
Did the problem disappear completely?
No. Peekaboo still occasionally urinated outside the litter box, but it happened much less often after changes were made to her environment.
What was the biggest lesson from this experience?
Realizing that I couldn’t always change my cat—but I could change how I responded.
Conclusion
Looking back, Peekaboo taught me much more than how to manage a difficult situation. She reminded me that caring for our cats sometimes asks us to become calmer, more patient, and more observant ourselves. While every cat’s situation is unique, this experience changed the way I approach caregiving and strengthened the bond we shared.
Connect with Passionate Cat Parents.
Reach an engaged community of cat parents, build trust in your brand, and support educational content that helps cats and the people who love them.
Celebrating Three Milestones
Episode 100 marks a special milestone for Diary of a Cat Mom. Together with reaching 100 YouTube subscribers and more than 1,000 podcast downloads, it represents the beginning of a growing community of cat parents learning, sharing, and growing together.
To celebrate this moment, From Here AI published a press release reflecting on the journey, the mission behind the podcast, and what’s next.
Read the press release: From Here AI Celebrates Three Milestones for Diary of a Cat Mom
Full Podcast Transcription – My Cat Urinates Everywhere
Dagmar (00:00)
My cat urinates everywhere. Welcome to Diary of a Cat Mom.Originally my friend’s cat Peekaboo developed a peeing issue. She started urinating everywhere. Behind the sofa, on the sofa, on the bed, on her cat bed, on the walls, on handbags. Like you cannot envision.
And my my friend, she took it for a long, long time. But then she came to the point where I could see emotionally she couldn’t handle it anymore. And when we were on the phone and she shared her frustration and sometimes her anger about she couldn’t leave anything open or anything on the floor, then Peekaboo just went there and there was the little pee flow coming and then she was gone again. And that made my friend really desperate emotionally to the point where she felt on the edge.
My friend was telling me about Peekaboo and she’s peeing everywhere and she’s getting to her end and she’s thinking to put her down. That triggered me and I felt I wanted to help my friend, I wanted to help Peekaboo because she urinates everywhere. It doesn’t mean this is the end of her life. And my friend, she went to all the vets and checked. No, it was not a medical issue. So I said to my friend, okay.
Why don’t I take care of Peekaboo? So then you can emotionally balance yourself again. So Peekaboo at that point moved in with me. And at the beginning I felt like I’m doing a great job. I’m helping this cat. I’m helping my friend.
And then over time, as she started peeing everywhere here, and I could barely turn around and she peed behind me on her bed, on my bed, and on the pillow, on my handbag, I could feel what my friend felt.
I started become emotionally overwhelmed because between the pee smell and washing everything, the pillows, the blankets, the sheets, all the time it made my emotions itchy and I started to become deregulated with my nervous system. And at this point
I realized if I cannot change her, I need to change.
Because I didn’t want to live a life like that. I didn’t want to be unhappy about the choice I made from a good perspective that I wanted to help her and my friend. Because I believe we all deserve good life quality and I wanted to create that for her. So I started on regulating my nervous system. I started on studying Kabbalah. So whenever she peed, I felt, okay, stop yourself, stop your emotions and think, what a pleasure, what an opportunity to learn, to grow, to become a better person.
This helped me not to go into the emotions, to getting upset or getting frustrated, but to hold my nervous system regulated. I took care of it. I loved her. She felt safe, she felt secure, she felt good. And I really figured out the reason why she peed was she was pissed. She was pissed about smelling other cats. And as I realized that I created her own safe space in a separate room. She had her own little bed, cat tree, her own food bowls, her own water. And whenever I went into this room I changed my clothes. So in this way she didn’t smell the other cats, and she felt like she had my full attention.
And over time she started peeing less and less and less. She was at the point where she only peed sometimes. Looking back consciously choosing to understand what I can change and what I can’t change, choosing peace and calmness over allowing my emotions taking over and getting upset with no change in the results, that really created a better life quality for me, helped me grow but also created a better life quality for my cats. And every cat is different.
So in Peekaboo’s case just stopping my reaction, getting upset or frustrated, and working on staying calm and observing her and seeing how she’s reacting to my changes really helped both of us.
So thank you so much for being here with me at Diary of a Cat Mom. There is another lesson, another little story, another message ready to be shared. Check out my next video above and I see you in the next entry. Bye.
Never Miss an Entry — and the real story behind it
Subscribe to get weekly episodes of Diary of a Cat Mom delivered straight to your inbox — real talk, real life, real cats.