Before I left for Europe, I brought our 6-year-old gray cat to live with my parents for a few weeks who kindly agreed to host him.

I left and after a few days he actually started to get along with my parents’ cat, Moxie. But then they had to try to get him in his crate. He freaked out, busted through a screen and ran outside. He evaded my parents’ desperate attempts to catch him again and has not been seen since that day in early August.

Having been an indoor cat all his life and not also not being the smarted animal we’ve met, I doubt he’s still with us, especially with other wild animals roaming around rural New Hampshire. Sometimes you hear stories of animals who journey hundreds of miles home to find their owners. With Signal’s apparently-limited intellect, we’re not holding out for that possibility.

My parents felt terrible about the whole thing of course and put up posters all over the place. He is chipped so if he did end up at a shelter they would be able to find us, but no one has called.

Anne and I were a little sad about about it, mostly for how scared he must have been. For us, it was something of a relief. With two kids, paying attention to a cat was the last thing on our minds. I’m sure he knew that and would sometimes be very aggressive at getting our attention. He was never mean, but seemed lonely, especially after Pixel went away. We were tired of cleaning up the fur and replacing furniture he clawed.

Our biggest concern was how we would explain it to Audrey. Our solution to that was “don’t ask, don’t tell.” She never asked and we never told her. By the time she returned from a month in Europe I think she had forgotten all about him. She wasn’t particularly close with him, but explaining where he went might have been disturbing to her. At this point, I don’t think she’ll ever remember we once had cats.

So farewell Signal, I hope you enjoyed your big adventure outside, for however long it lasted.

We’re not sure what happened to him in the last few years, but he got increasingly agitated and territorial. When he would see another cat outside, he would freak out and yowl loudly, scaring everyone else in the house. We would constantly find places in the house where he sprayed to mark his turf.

We brought him to the vet several times, trying pheremones, drugs and even aluminum foil to get him to stop marking. Nothing worked. We spent thousands of dollars on checkups and tests to make sure there was nothing else wrong with him. He’s ruined furniture. When we left California, our former landlord had to take more money off our deposit to clean the rugs a second time because the new tenants complained of the smell.

With a new house and toddler (soon) running around, we couldn’t let this go on. We considered giving him up in California, but our hope was that a change of scenery would also change his attitude. For a few weeks, it seemed to. Then we found a spot where he peed. Then another. Since then, both cats have been confined to the basement, where everything we care about is in plastic boxes. Hopefully there aren’t any more spots upstairs we haven’t discovered yet. It’s terrorizing when you don’t know when you’ll find the next marking.

Anne did a lot of work to find a shelter that wasn’t full and wouldn’t euthanize him. I hope someone will take him, though it can be hard to place a 10-year old cat. We couldn’t convince any of our friends or family to take him and we didn’t think letting him outside would help.

He was a smart cat, able to fetch his favorite toys when he wanted. He would come when called. He didn’t shed a lot and he didn’t claw the furniture. He knew how to communicate with us when he needed food, water or attention. He would wait at the end of our bed as I got in at night so he could lie on my chest for a while. If I didn’t give him enough attention, he’d paw at my face.

It was sad to have to give him up, but it didn’t seem like there was any other choice. He’s not happy in the basement even though we visit him a couple times a day. He cries at the top of the stairs. It’s also not fair to the other cat to be locked in the basement, but it would be worse to keep them without companionship.

I had a hard time cornering him this morning; I think he knew something was up. The surrendering process at the Animal Rescue League in Dedham was painless and we visited the cages where he’d be kept. There were a couple of 13 year-old cats there, so he wouldn’t be the oldest, and his cage was in the top center, so he had a good spot. We donated $100 and his carrier to the shelter, mostly to assuage our own guilt.

I hope someone takes him home, hopefully adults in an upper-floor apartment where he won’t be able to see other cats close by.

It was a good run, Pixel. We hope you find a home where you can be happy again.

One of the first things I figured out was that it’s not that hard to take the moving arm out. Just pull the sides apart a bit and you can angle it out. That allowed me to move it back to the middle and observe it moving forward but not back.

I checked the switches at the front that were the problem last time and they were clear. Depressing them made it stop moving forward, but nothing would make it move back.

Since groping around blindly in a dirty litter box is one of my favorite things to do, I poked around and found two more switches in the back of the track. There’s one on each side and guess what? The one on the left was in a different position than the one on the right. In fact, it looks like some litter got stuck in there and was keeping it down. If either of those switches is down, the arm stops moving back, assuming it’s all the way back.

Getting to the sensor was interesting. It didn’t seem to open, so I had to pry it off the inside of the track. In doing so, I damaged it enough to let the switch up again. It went back just fine now. Great!

I put things back together, tested it out (uhh, with my hand, not actually USING it), washed my hands and tools, and declared victory.

If this whole software development thing goes south, perhaps I’ll be able to repair automated cat litter boxes for a living.

The other day I found it stuck again, this time almost in the way back. I emailed the company to get it replaced under warranty. They responded with some cryptic instructions on how to find the model number and date code on it.

While looking for these I discovered a few things:

1) My cats have been pissing ON TOP of the Littermaid, like on where the battery compartment is. I can understand being a little off in your aim, but 3 inches up?

2) When I put in the new unit, I used the old AC adapter. It turns out that the newer one is 1000 mA, not 500 mA. I’m sure it helps to have a little more power when pushing litter. Of course swapping these out did nothing.

3) There are two contacts inside the tracks for the rake, at the very end near the bin. When either of them make contact, the rake reverses and goes back. One one side of mine, there was litter lodged in there, forcing the contact down. I removed that, flipped the power and presto, the rake moved normally again.

Now I’m wondering if that was all that was wrong with my last one.

They’re still generally unhappy with each other’s presence though, especially when one of them surprises the other. They have a habit of walking into rooms without looking around a bit first and then suddenly they realize that the other is only a few feet away and must be “attacking” the other one. Dumb cats.

The other day when I got home, I began to pet Signal and then Pixel showed up wanting some attention too. I managed to get them within arms reach of each other so I could pet them both at the same time and they were mostly OK with that. Later I played with them both and at least while they were playing, the seemed to forget they hated each other. When playtime stopped, it was all growling, hissing and chasing though.

Signal seems to have mostly forgotten what they were fighting about in the first place. A few times he’s tried to play with Pixel and was quickly reminded that this was not appropriate behavior.

Something interesting is that Pixel seems to have regressed a bit in his personality, like to when we didn’t have Signal. He’s more playful and needful of attention. I guess that’s because before his “toy” was Signal. Now that he can’t get his aggressions out on another live cat, a feather on a string or a twist tie will do.

They’re not playing or sitting together yet, but it seems like the worst of the hostilities are over. Best of all, there’s been no more bloodshed. I expect all will be back to normal in another week or so.

I should have noticed something strange when Signal (the younger cat) was acting oddly towards Pixel (the older cat). He was hissing at him whenever they got close. I figured it was just stress from being alone while we were away for the holidays and again the weekend after for CES. I went to bed and forgot about it.

The next morning I woke to a commotion. I heard Pixel yowling like he does when there’s a cat outside the house. He’s an indoor cat, but he still believes he has to defend “his” turf outside. He does this by yowling, hissing and screaming while pounding on the window in an attempt to scare the other cats away. They usually just stare back at him in bemusement until they get bored and walk away.

This morning it sounded different, like it was inside the house and there was noise that seemed like cats were chasing each other around. They do this all the time, usually in a playful manner. The sounds I heard did not sound playful.

I knew there was something wrong when I entered the kitchen and saw the blood. There were spots of it all over the dining room and on the living room floor. There was an even an area in the kitchen where it seemed to be splattered.

I opened the door to the garage and I immediately saw the problem. The door from the garage to the outside was open. And look who was strolling in casually – Pixel.

We used to let Pixel outside for short bits on a collar and leash. He hated it. He would just skulk around and hiss and yell at us. Then when we brought him back in, he would cry for weeks for us to let him out again. It was no fun. If we let him off the collar, he would jump the fence and try to escape.

Once we accidentally left the door open, but realized it before we went to bed. Pixel was missing. We went outside and called for him, but he didn’t respond. We walked around the block, but couldn’t find him. We went to bed worrying about what would happen to him.

At about 3 am we got our answer with a loud thud at our bedroom window, followed immediately by a meow. It was Pixel, apparently done with his outside excursion. To get our attention he was jumping 3 feet to our window and pounding on it. It worked. We woke up, opened the door and he ran right over, anxious to get back inside.

This time, with the door open all night, Pixel had his wish to wander in and out at his will. Of course, it was an untypically cold night (down in the 20s), so I did I great job heating the backyard all night!

Closing the door, I went to look for Signal. He was in his typical “safe place”, underneath our bed. All cats accounted for, I went to figure out what had happened.

I expected to find a half-eaten bird or squirrel lying somewhere in the house, bleeding profusely, but there was none. The bloody spots all led back to Pixel, licking a bloody paw in the living room. Cats are always sensitive about his feet and this was no exception. He wouldn’t let me anywhere near it. He seemed to have stopped bleeding through, so he seemed OK.

I went about cleaning up all the spots of blood. Clearly he walked all over the place. It was dried, but didn’t seem that old. In the garage, I found a regurgitated clump of grass.

I got a look at Signal and he seemed alright, no blood or anything that looked like a wound. His tail seemed a little wet for some reason. Physically he was OK. Psychologically, he was not.

He wouldn’t come out of the bedroom. When I managed to finally coax him out, Pixel appeared and suddenly the yowling, screaming, and hissing began. Pixel chased him down the hall and out through the cat door into the garage. Occasionally he would try to come out, but then he would encounter Pixel again and they would go at it.

Except for maybe the first week that we brought home Signal, they’ve never acted this way. Pixel, when he gets outside, seems to go a bit primal, screaming and hissing. A few times he’s gotten so crazy that he’s attacked Anne or me. The result of this is that Anne is terrified by him when he gets angry. She’ll lock herself in a room until he’s calmed down.

I think Signal spent most of Sunday night in the garage. When I woke up and checked on him on Monday, I noticed the garage door was open again. What the…?? Was I that incompetent at closing a door? Had the cats figured out how to open it? Nah, I think it was the weather. That door has a hard time closing when it’s hot and tends to pop open when it’s cold. I think it was so cold these nights that it shrunk enough to come right open. The next night was supposed to be cold again, so I rolled a recycling bin right up against it.

I hoped that would be the end of it, but that was 4 days ago, and there’s still no peace in catdom. Signal has moved from the garage into his “safe place” under our bed and claimed it has his own sovereign state. Pixel rules the rest of the house, but does not recognize our bedroom as a state and therefore strolls in whenever he likes. Much hissing, back arching, growling and tail fluffing ensues, often in the middle of the night.

Signal must be brave enough to wander out for food, water and the litterbox. He doesn’t seem to be starving and I haven’t spotted any messes – well, almost.

During one encounter, I found the wall behind where Signal was standing to be wet. Was he trying to spray in the living room, attempting to reclaim his territory? Or did Pixel literally scare the piss out of him? He did this only inches from an electrical outlet. Yeah, it would be just great if the cat burned down the house. I’d end up as a headline in the Odd News section of the paper.

A few days later, right in front me, Pixel deliberately sprayed the same spot on the wall. I yelled at him and cleaned it up. This was not going well.

Now when we come home Pixel, comes out for some attention while Signal hangs out in the bedroom and meows for us to come visit him in the bedroom. He loves when we go to bed, but then Pixel tries to visit as well. We end up literally in the middle of a catfight. I tried throwing Signal into the garage to make sure he was able to eat, but he just cried behind the door, unwilling to go through the cat door in the kitchen and risk another encounter with Pixel.

We still have no idea what happened to make them so angry at each other or how Pixel started bleeding. Pixel seems to be more over it than Signal, but whenever they get close, Signal starts growling. This apparently forces Pixel to defend his honor and begin screaming. Usually there’s a quick retreat by Pixel, since he can go anywhere else in the house.

My hope is that this will last no longer than one more week. Otherwise, we may have to make a difficult decision. Anyone want smart white cat with a bad temper or a playful (but dumb) gray cat?