Gerd, poor Schefflera!! George has been through so much. Potting and re-potting, pee'd on, boxed in then relocated. Flushing the soil may not be enough, but to re-pot again is a lot of work for you, and stressful for your plant. However, re-potting may be Georges only hope. Does soil smell like ammonia? If it was my plant, here's what I'd do. Re-pot in fresh, well-draining-fertile soil. Wash container, in and out. If cats smell pee, they may feel the pot is their second litter box. After soil is firmly packed, it'd get a hearty drink. I'd then sprinkle Cayenne Pepper around the edge of pot.. A smart cat smells pepper before approaching..he/she/they will make a u-turn. When the cardboard method is done, a sturdy piece of cardboard must lay flat on the pot. I used a large, flat piece, cut a circle for trunk, then placed on top of pot..this way, no part of soil was present. Your kitty-cats must love your Scheff..lol. Feisty little guys/gals. Are your cats spayed/neutered? Is George still before a south window? Toni

Hi violetta...that bad kitty..LOL..Don't worry about cat fur..I found cat/dog/bird feathers in soil.. Though if there's large fuzzy balls I'd remove them Sorry about your Jellybean..they're such pretty succulents, especially when grown in full sun and turn red. If it were my plant, I'd remove a portion of beads, if possible, water, place extra beads on top, barely in soil. Make sure soil is well-draining, especially if beads are buried. On the other hand, if you want to dump entire pot on newspaper, remove as many beads as you find, then pot up again. What type of pot are u using? I find a shallow pot works best. I've a few retanguler, shallow pots, though they don't have drainage holes, but work fine..leaves are sowed in rows like a cornfield..lol.. Good luck, and I'd place in a different spot to keep your plant, otherwise kitty will decide to play games again..Toni

I once put a broccoli seedling on my railing and went to gather some stuff up before I went outside to plant it. I came back to find my sweet little girl cat (right now purring in my lap) helping herself to a nice fresh salad. Grr! Cats like broccoli?? Most humans don't like broccoli, and cats are carnivores! I took the seedling back up to put it under lights where it could grow another leaf or two before I planted it. It's doing fine, actually. So's the cat. I did not kill her. She's too cute. I just yelled at her. My spare room is a cat-free zone. That's where my quilting, my plants, my crocheting, and all those other delicate items stay, and the cats aren't allowed in. My thoughts and sympathies re: the Virginia Tech shootings. I have a similar back yard. I'm from Colorado.

Hi Bernard, I hope I don't repeat something because I only got about halfway through this thread before I got sick of reading and decided to go ahead and post. #1. I don't know where the idea come from that calloused roots are good. Callouses can't absorb water. It's dry scar tissue that keeps in/out moisture, thereby protecting broken stems and so on. When a plant's roots are partially exposed by wildlife digging, etc., the exposed portion callouses to keep the plant from dehydrating, but that calloused portion will never absorb water again. We don't want roots to callous (except maybe Bonsai growers who like to expose some roots over a rock or something). Putting a root system into dry mix is never good for it. I challenge anyone to prove how dehydrating or callousing a root system can possibly be good for it. The previous poster who said the dry mix will dehydrate the plant is correct. Always use damp mix for re-potting a healthy root system. If the roots are dead, it might be a different story. #2. As you've already learned, it's easy to under-water gritty mix. Since it's pretty close to impossible to over-water grit, I'm with the posters who say to soak it deeply and often. If you're paranoid, soak it daily, or even twice daily, but then give the pot a quick, little down-up motion to dislodge any perched water. That way it'll always be just barely moist. If it were mine, and planted in grit, I'd just water every day or two until the roots are well-established. As one who has killed off whole, healthy root systems by under-watering grit (once weekly), I feel confident in telling you that you're extremely unlikely to drown a plant in grit. I'm watering my succulents daily right now, and some are STILL too dry. BTW, Danny, I think mentioned he prefers soil for jades. I don't disagree with him. The one I have in soil has grown much better than the ones I have in grit. Furthermore, the Aeonium I had in a 1:1 soil:pumice mix has a huge, beautiful, healthy root system. The big one in grit has puny roots. These aren't experiments with standardized variables, so something else might be going on, but for now, I'm also not certain that grit is always a better medium.