u/vulpixlesbian

It’s exciting to see how many people want to dip their toes into all kinds of research, but PLEASE for the love of all that is holy, use Reddit as a supplement, not your main source of training. You NEED a real-life human being if you want to become a well-trained, successful, rigorous researcher.

A mentor doesn’t have to be a Nobel prize winning PI at Harvard. Grad students and postdocs are also amazing, as are faculty at teaching-focused schools like liberal arts and community colleges, as are professionals who work in government, nonprofits, etc. If I could autoreply to every “how do I start research” or “I have a paper idea how do I do it” post with one thing it would be talk to someone in real life who has expertise.

This can be hard depending on your interests, location, skills, etc etc but trying and failing at cold emails and making connections until you succeed is also an important and realistic part of research.

Tl;dr obviously post on here but the kindest internet stranger ever is no substitute for an actual mentor

4 year old neutered male cat, medically cleared by the vet (multiple times…), acts normal and happy and uses his litter box EXCEPT after his dinner he will pee on the carpet. Whether he’s fed early, on time, or late, if I’m at work all day or home all day, if it’s his usual wet food or a treat of dry food, if I’m watching tv or cleaning or on the toilet, almost every night without fail, he will pee in the living room. I have a 1br apartment and the living room is most of the space and where he spends most of his time except when I’m sleeping in bed he’s in the bedroom with me. He’s been doing this since January, except I’ve taken two 1 week or less trips and had friends check in on him and he doesn’t pee. Seems very me-targeted in that sense?? But idk what he wants!

Things I’ve tried to no avail:
- feliway optimum diffuser
- litter box deep cleans
- replacing one box’s litter with unscented litter
- stop using any odor beads/sprays/powders in the boxes
- moving a box to the living room
- Dr elsey’s litter attractant
- picking him up and putting him in the box when he’s peeing on the floor, he hops right out, even if it’s freshly cleaned
- enzyme cleaner soaking the spots he pees
- putting litter box/scratch pad/toys over the pee spots

I have petivity monitors so I know he does use the bathroom normally outside of this. It’s not a single spot he’ll pee on, and sometimes but not always he’ll pee on a soft toy as well as the carpet. The most baffling part is that he doesn’t do this when I’m gone, which is counter to what I’d expect if he was stressed. I swear he’s been trying to tell me something but he’s healthy and not in any pain so I can’t for the life of me figure out what!

Any advice?