<human>: Can you give me a shortened version of the text?

My cat is about twelve years old, but does not show her age at all. She used to go outside and sleep on the couch all the time, but now does not leave the upper story of the house. She is afraid of my grandmother's dog who came to live with us a year ago when my grandmother couldn't take care of him any more. She got along fine with our Dachshund, but my grandmother's dog is bigger and apparently more scary.

We keep a baby gate on the stairs so that the dog doesn't go up there, but he's figured out how to climb over it to get at the empty cat food cans (we've started throwing them out downstairs instead of letting them collect in the bin upstairs), which makes the thing pointless. We still keep it up, though.

Somewhere in this time frame my cat started peeing on my clothes. If I leave clothes or towels on the floor of my bedroom (or even if I leave my hamper on the floor), my cat will pee on them. She's occasionally peed on things like the vinyl cover for the pool table or on a plastic beach bag, but the clothes thing is a new development.

Any insight on this behavior or tips on getting my cat comfortable with the new dog would be greatly appreciated.
<bot>: Cat is confined to a small area of the house because of the fear of a new-ish dog and has started peeing on my clothes. Why is she doing it? How can I fix it?