Recently we said goodbye to our Tuffy, who has been at peace for almost two months. Now the focus is on the oldest of our remaining three cats. 11-year-old Tiger, shown here with her adopted daughter Paisley, is developing her own share of problems.

Even as a young cat, Tiger was always obese, despite the fact that she eats the same food on the same schedule as the other cats in our house, who are of normal weight. As she is growing older, I find I must regularly bathe and brush her because she is not flexible enough to groom herself. While she loves to be in bed or on the couch next to us, she can no longer jump up on the furniture under her own power, and needs us to lift her. She doesn't walk so much as she waddles--it would be funny to watch, except that I imagine it is uncomfortable or painful for her, and I empathize.

Now there are new developments. For a while, there, we thought it was our young, healthy Alex, originally a house guest but now a permanent member of our family, who was leaving his droppings beside the litter boxes instead of in them. We supposed he didn't like having to share restroom facilities with other cats, and we wondered what to do about it. Even though we have the same number of boxes as we do cats, I didn't see a way we can designate one for Alex only, and stop Tiger and Paisley from using it. But, it turns out that's a problem we don't have to worry about, because we were wrong. It wasn't Alex. A few days ago, I caught Tiger in the act of doing her business beside, not in, the litter box.

The first thing we did was apologize to Alex for assuming it was him. Next we looked for a solution to the apparent problem that Tiger cannot climb over the sides of a regular litter box. We had been keeping an open-sided, uncovered box for her convenience, since we already guessed she could not climb into a covered box. But apparently even the open-sided box was too challenging for her. We asked for advice and got a good suggestion: an online friend said that when he had a cat with a similar problem, he used a cookie sheet lined with litter. We have now replaced the open-sided box with a cookie sheet as suggested, with mixed results.

This is where it gets strange.

Tiger knows to urinate on the cookie sheet. I've seen her do it, and I smiled my approval and told her she had it right. But she is still dropping her solid waste beside the cookie sheet, instead of on it. There is a bathtub mat underneath the cookie sheet, the same bathtub mat that had been under the open-sided litter box. She does do her business on the mat, as opposed to the unprotected floor. But why does she not connect it to the cookie sheet, when she knows to urinate there?

Warning, this next part is gross.

Furthermore, she appears to be constipated. Her stools are hard and dry even when they are fresh, and twice I have cleaned away hard stool that was hanging out of her. After preliminary research, I have eliminated the free range dry food from her diet. I put the dry food dispenser up on the counter top, where Alex and Paisley can still get it if they want it, but Tiger can't. We feed wet food twice a day, one can divided three ways, and now that's all Tiger gets. I've read mixed reviews on whether laxatives are safe for a cat, and I'm not taking a chance with giving her one until I check with a vet. When we have caught up our own medical bills a little better, we will take Tiger in for a checkup--sooner if she gets sick. I may have to give her an enema. I have given a kitty enema before, to a cat I had years ago, and it saved his life--he had gotten into my sewing box and had swallowed a bunch of thread, which blocked him up like a hairball. So I know how to do that if I have to.

Can anyone give me any other information on Tiger's condition? What laxatives, if any, are safe for her? What dietary changes, besides eliminating dry food, will help? Is 2/3 of a can of food every day sufficient for her? Should kitty treats be eliminated along with the free range dry food? And how can I help her to connect doing #2 with the cookie sheet, as she already connects doing #1? Or is leaving her droppings on the bathtub mat underneath the cookie sheet the best she can do?