If your daily routine includes doing a room-to-room “sniff search” to discover where Kitty struck last, you know how frustrating and upsetting cat urine problems can be. But don’t give up – there are solutions. And the first step is understanding the situation. Here are some steps to figuring out what’s really going on.

Toilet training or territory?

There are many reasons why cats may have “litter training lapses”. If your cat is routinely using one or more places as alternatives to the box, you’re probably dealing with a toilet situation.

Start by making an honest assessment of the facilities you’re providing.  Look over your litter box to make sure it’s clean, in the right place, and otherwise up to “cat standards”.

Make sure there are no health problems. If your box is “up to snuff” but the problem persists, maybe it’s time for a trip to the vet. Cats with health problems often exhibit toilet problems. Very old cats (like very old people) also may experience incontinence, etc.

However, if the cat seems to be using the box but is also “spraying” throughout the house, you might have a territorial situation on your hands … not to mention on every vertical surface Kitty can back up to.

The territory trip

Spraying, or urine marking, is a standard feline way of territory marking, and can convey a number of messages ranging from “This is MY territory!” to “I feel threatened” to “I’m horny”. Spraying is a natural behavior for all cats, but some tend to do it more than others. Male cats tend to spray more than females, and unneutered males are the Spray Kings. They’re interested in both proclaiming their ownership of their territory and letting any female cats in the vicinity know they’re available and ready to rock’n'roll. Unneutered females may also spray to let the boys know they’re in the mood. If you need any incentive to have your cats neutered, even a brief period with a sprayer will certainly provide it.

Cats may also spray when they feel threatened or vulnerable, like when a new animal or human joins the household. A new environment can also trigger spraying (which is why it often seems to happen when you move to a new house). Cats like a predictable routine, and anything that upsets it (like their favorite human getting a boyfriend or taking a full-time job) can inspire a spraying spree.

So what can be done about it?!

Most importantly, realize that punishment is absolutely futile – Cats simply don’t understand or respond to punishment. It won’t stop the behavior, but it will spoil your relationship with your cat and the chances are enormous that it will make the spraying situation much, MUCH worse.

• If your cat is not neutered, have him or her neutered as soon as possible. There are a world of excellent reasons to have cats spayed or neutered, and lessening the likelihood of spraying problems is just one of them. Statistics show that a whopping 87% of all cats stop marking when they’re altered – of this number, 78% cease marking immediately, and 9% stop within three months. And if that’s not incentive, I don’t know what is.

• Try to understand what’s behind the behavior. Have there been changes in your household or daily routine? If so, try to see them from the cat’s perspective. Your new job might be absolutely thrilling to you, but all your cat knows is that he hardly ever gets to be with the person he loves … and that makes him feel threatened, abandoned, and vulnerable. You might see your new boyfriend’s frequent long visits as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but your cat might just see it as some big, untrustworthy stranger monopolizing both you and the couch. A new four-footed addition to the household may seem like the new favorite, getting all the attention and replacing him in your heart.

• Try to pay more attention to the sprayer – be as loving and reassuring as possible. Territorialism is the most common cause for spraying and if you can reassure the cat that all is well, chances are he will stop feeling the need to annouce his presence.

• Behavior modification (squirt-gun style). There are also steps you can take to discourage spraying, but it’s tricky: you have to remember that it’s not about punishing the cat for spraying, it’s about trying to get the cat to associate spraying with something he doesn’t like. If you catch the cat spraying or doing that back-up-and-lift-the-tail pre-spray thing, shoot him with a water pistol or make a loud noise (banging a tin pan is good). But remember, this kind of behavior modification ONLY works if it’s on-the-spot. Shouting at a cat for something hours after the fact will only confuse and upset the cat … and make the spraying situation worse.

That gawd-awful embarrassing incident at the office …. the fight you had with your spouse last Tuesday …. the depressingly deflated bottom line on your 401K … Whatever it is, it’s driving you crazy and you can’t get it out of your mind. You find yourself ruminating on it when you’re driving to work, stewing about it as you watch TV, replaying it endlessly when you’re trying to get to sleep. You just can’t stop thinking about it.

Or can you? Yes, you can, but not by simply giving your brain an order. Here are four ways to stop thinking about something.

1.Stop trying to forget about it. Realize that you can’t literally “get something out of your mind”. There’s no way to forget on demand, and you can’t “unthink” something you’ve thought. If you keep telling yourself to forget something, you’ll just burn it even more indelibly into your memory. Every time you order yourself to stop thinking about something you’re making that something more and more vivid and available to your imagination. Having a mental wrestling match with an unwanted thought is a sure-fire way to make it hang around.

2. It’s all about replacement. The key to managing unwanted thoughts isn’t eviction, it’s replacement. You can only think one thought at a time, so every time you catch yourself thinking an unwanted thought, immediately start thinking about something else. ANYTHING else.

The replacement thought doesn’t have to be the opposite of the unwanted thought; if you keep thinking about how you screwed up at work, you don’t have to replace that with thoughts about times when you did well. And you don’t have to replace an unwanted thought with something of equal gravity. You don’t even have to come up with a particularly positive thought; neutral is just fine. It just has to be a thought about something else. If you’re envisioning what it will be like if you lose your job and you can get yourself to switch, even for a moment, to thinking how terrible that guy’s haircut is, you’ve moved in the right direction.

3. Don’t let the train get rolling. The longer you entertain a thought, the larger, more dire, and more sticky it gets. You know the routine; you start out thinking about what a pain in the ass your husband as been lately, and before you know it you’ve built a future scenario that includes divorce, losing the house, moving to a shitty one-room apartment on the other side of the tracks, and going on food stamps.

The trick is to stop it before it gets momentum – stop the train while it’s still in the station, before it builds up steam and starts barrelling downhill. As soon as you catch yourself thinking an unwanted thought, replace it. Think about what you’re having for lunch, or what the livingroom would look like painted blue, or whether your neighbor is pregnant or just getting fat. Think anything else at all, and you’ll stop the momentum. The thought may come back very quickly, and if it does, switch again. Don’t forget, a thought has only whatever power you give it. Thoughts may rise out of nowhere, but they can’t stick around unless you agree to think them. You always have the power to think about something else.

Actually this is the hard part – monitoring your thoughts takes some effort – but if you’ve vigilant about it you’ll be surprised at how quickly an unwanted thought loses traction.

4. Don’t talk about it. This goes directly counter to the “get it off your chest” school of thought, but the fact is that nothing validates and strengthens an unwanted thought like hearing yourself talk about it. Unless what you’ve been thinking about could actually be put to rest by a simple yes or no answer (“so are you having an affair or not?”), talking about whatever it is will just make you think about it all the more often, and more pessimistically. There’s no voice you trust like your own, and hearing yourself verbalize whatever it is will make it real to you like nothing else could.

Put down that banana and grab some greens instead – at least if you’re interested in turbo-boosting your memory.

A 2008 study of more than 3,500 Chicago-area senior citizens showed that eating at least 2.8 servings of vegetables a day can slow the rate of cognitive decline by as much as 40% – making the rate of decline about the same as that experience by people five years younger.

Green leafy vegetables such as spinach were shown to have the most effect, which is largely attributed to the vegetables’ antioxidant activity.

Green leafies not your thing? Then go for the most colorful produce you can find, since foods with the highest antioxidant activity are generally the most colorful.

Surprisingly, the Chicago study didn’t see the same level of improvement when participants’ diets included increased servings of fruit. However while its possible that increasing the intake of certain vegetables is particularly effective in slowing cognitive decline, upping the consumption of any antioxidant-rich food is almost certainly beneficial.

University of California research indicates that purple fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries, cranberries and Concord grapes, may be especially beneficial for the brain, and compounds found in apples, strawberries, and even curry spice activate neural pathways and enhance memory.

Wouldn’t it be nice if just just thinking about food could reduce your urge to snack? Well according to recent research, it actually can.

The 2008 study, done by the University of Birmingham, UK, used female volunteers who were told they were taking part in a cookie taste test. All of the women were given lunch, then divided into two groups to conduct the taste test.

Before the taste test began, one group was asked to write a detailed description of the food they had just eaten, and the other group was asked to write a detailed description of their trip to the testing site. After the taste test the all the participants were invited to eat as many of the remaining cookies as they wanted.

The women who had written the detailed description of the luncheon food ate significantly fewer cookies than those who had written descriptions of their trip to the testing site. And the longer the interval between the luncheon and the “taste test”, the greater the effect seemed to be.

Though other studies have shown that thinking about food can actually increase the urge to snack, the University of Birmingham researchers say the difference is in how specific the thoughts of food are. Recalling a specific meal involves the hippocampus, a part of the brain believed to play a role in decision making. Stimulating this part of the brain may help people make the decision that they don’t need additional food.

The ability to concentrate is essential to just about everything. Here are six surprising scientifically-backed ways to boost cognition and concentration.

1. Doodle. A recent study shows that doodling while listening can actually improve concentration and recall, probably by keeping the mind engaged enough to prevent it from simply checking out and wandering off into a daydream. This works on the premise that the mind can only process so much of a cognitive load at any given time, and that daydreaming creates a cognitive load large enough to shut down other processes (like listening and recall). Doodling creates a minimal cognitive load – enough to stave off daydreaming, but not enough to shut down processes like listening and recall. So what seems like mindless doodling while performing a dull task can actually be a defensive tactic that improves concentration.

2. Paint the room red. Or maybe blue. Science has long recognized the importance of color to mood – green is peaceful, yellow is cheerful, etc. Red has been mainly linked to things like sexuality and aggression, but a recent University of British Columbia study indicates that both red and blue can provide a substantial boost to cognitive activities. According to the study, tests showed that red enhanced performance on attention-demanding tasks, while blue gave a boost to creativity.

3. Drink wine and eat chocolate. It sounds too good to be true, but a team of Oxford researchers say micronutrients found in both wine and chocolate can enhance concentration, improve test scores and slow the progress of age-related cognitive decline. According to Science Daily, both wine and chocolate (and tea as well, but where’s the fun in that?) contain a sub-class of subclass of dietary polyphenols called flavonoids, and flavonoids appear to be good for the brain.

4. Doze off. Briefly. Studies show that naps as short as five minutes long can improve alertness and concentration and enhance memory processes. But timing is the key to making naps work for you; we appear to be biologically programmed to sleep for a long period at night and for a short period in the middle of the day. So the next time you find yourself fighting a surge of mid-afternoon sleepiness, give in.

5. Wake up and smell the the peppermint. But lay off the ylang-ylang. The scent of peppermint has been found to enhance memory and increase the ability to concentrate, whereas ylang-ylang impaired memory and lengthened processing speed. In terms of subjective mood peppermint increased alertness and ylang-ylang decreased it, but significantly increased calmness.

6. Raise the roof. Bizarre as it seems, recent research supports the idea that ceiling height has a significant effect on cognitive processing. Study participants given a memory test in a high-ceiling room did better on concentration-demanding free recall tasks (tasks in which they’re not given any recall cues, like categories).

The average American household spends close to $2,000 a year on energy bills, and a fair amount of that total comes from energy used in the kitchen. Here are ten zero-effort ways to reduce the amount of energy you use in food preparation, storage, and cleanup.

1. Use smaller pots and pans whenever possible (the smaller the diameter of the pot, the less energy it takes to heat).

2. Use a lid to conserve energy – uncovered pots lose heat rapidly and make your stove work harder.

3. Reset your refrigerator and freezer temperatures. According to the US Department of Energy, a refrigerator temperature of 36 degrees is cold enough – a lower temperature is overkill and uses extra power that can run up the monthly bill. Freezer sections should be set at about 5 degrees, while standalone freezer units need be no colder than 0 degrees.

4. Let hot items cool to room temperature before putting them in the refrigerator. Don’t make your refrigerator work harder than it has to.

5. No “refrigerator browsing” – keep the refrigerator door closed.

6. Set your dishwasher to air dry rather than using the drying cycle.

7. Make sure foods stored in the refrigerator are covered or wrapped. Uncovered foods release moisture and make the compressor work harder.

8. Use a closed container like a kettle or covered pan to boil water. The water will come to a boil more quickly, using less energy.

9. Always make the smallest appliance the first choice; for instance, use the toaster oven rather than the conventional oven whenever possible. A toaster oven uses a third to half as much energy as a full-sized oven.

10. Let carryover cooking save you money – turn off the stove a few minutes before the food is completely cooked. The residual heat in the food will finish the job.

When it comes to outside-the-box toilet activities, some cats have a spread-the-wealth mentality; every place is fair game. But others develop an attachment to one spot and will return to it over and over.  Here are some ways to convince Kitty not to use a particular place in your house as a substitute litter box.

1. First and most important: get the spot as clean as possible. Cats rely extensively on their sense of smell, and the more that particular corner of the dining room smells like a litter box, the greater the chance it will be used that way. There are lots of ways to get rid of the smell of cat pee, both commercial and homemade. Try ‘am all till you find one that works for you.

2. Make sure your existing litter box meets the general cat criteria for OK to go. The more reasons a cat has to object to the litter box, the more chance she’ll go elsewhere.

3. Put a litter box over the “favorite spot”. This may seem like a real “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” capitulation, but it’s not. If you can get Kitty to use an approved box in that spot, you can gradually move the box away from the spot and hopefully Kitty will follow.

I’ve done this with good results, but if you have a multi-cat household it can get complicated. The last time I tried it two cats who had never to my knowledge peed in that spot apparently thought I had set up an auxiliary box for their convenience and showed their appreciation by using it as often as possible. However, the cat who had been peeing in that spot in the first place just relocated operations a few inches to the left. Not exactly an unqualified success on that occasion, but worth a try.

4. Cover the spot. If you can cover the spot with something like a china closet, great. If they can’t get to the spot they can’t pee on it. If you can’t make the spot inaccessible, try covering it with something that cats dislike, such as aluminum foil or sticky tape.

5. Make the spot uninviting. If you’re thinking there’s nothing on earth that could make a spot more uninviting than the lingering aroma of cat pee, you’re thinking like a human. From a cat perspective, the smell of citronella, lemon, orange peel, vinegar, or mothballs is much worse.

6. If you can catch the cat approaching the spot, a quick shot with a water pistol or a spray bottle can be a deterrent. It’s important to realize that this is NOT a matter of punishing the cat – it’s trying to get the cat to associate the cat with something they don’t like (being wet).