I have a 1 year old male domestic shorthair. Up until recently I have never experienced any problems with him going to the bathroom outside of his litterbox. However, over the last couple of weeks I have found his urine in various spots throughout the house. Initially he urinated in a pile of clothing that was sitting in a chair. I later found that he had also defecated in the chair and buried it under the clothes. A few days later I discovered a pool of urine on a plastic tarp folded up on the floor in our storage room. Most recently, he knocked over a full bag of cat food, ripped a hole in the side, and proceeded to squat over it and relieve himself into the bag of cat food. With the chair and the cat food incidents I actually witnessed him in the act and before I could even get the word NO out of my mouth he was off and running to hide, leading me to believe that he most definitely knew that he had been caught doing something wrong. At first I thought that he may be spraying. However, each time that I have caught him in the act he has not been standing, but has instead been squatting. Therefore, I concluded that he must indeed simply be urinating. The litterbox is cleaned on a daily basis so I do not see how that could be the problem. Since I obviously cannot watch him every second and have no clue as to where else in my house the cat might have used the bathroom, I have had to resort to confining him to specified rooms of the house when I am not at home and a kennel at night. This has proven disastrous. Since the confinement has been enacted, he has become extremely destructive (toilet paper, towels, trash cans, curtains, shoes, etc. must all be inaccessible now) and instead of exhibiting his normally affectionate behavior toward my boyfriend and I, is now quite rebellious. I have no idea how to discipline a cat with behavioral problems and I am running out of patience and options. Can anyone offer me any advice that may curb this undesirable behavior? Help would be greatly appreciated!!!
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Need help dealing with rebel kitty!
Replies (3)
The cat needs to go to the vet for a check up ASAP. Urinating on soft things often means there is a urinary infection present. Also if the cat has not been neutered do so immediately since this may be at the root of the problem.
If all is clear on the health front, then the problem is behavioral. It sounds like you are trying to retrain the cat to the box and that he is getting frustrated. However, there is more information at this link which might help you:
Litterbox Problems
Other thoughts to consider on the behavioral front are:
Has the cat had any major changes in his life? Boyfriend moving in? New furniture? Another pet? New baby?
Is it possible that the cat is seeing another cat outside?
Cats need easy access to boxes and you may need to put several boxes around the house. Be sure to keep all boxes very, very clean. Scoop at least once a day!
You need to thoroughly deodorize wherever the cat has been peeing. Petastic is highly recommended as is Heaven's Own. It is the smell of the "accidents" that causes a cat to reuse the place.
Check into using Feliway, a spray that mimics the happy scent cats leave when they rub their check against something. You can get it from your vet or from Cat Faeries at http://www.catfaeries.com
If you visit the website, you will see a phone number that you can call and for a fee discuss your cat's problems with someone. The person who does this is very knowlegeable and it may be worth the $$ for you. Feliway is also available in most large pet supply stores. There is also a plug-in with Feliway that can help.
Finally, if all else fails, ask you vet about using an antianxiety medication such as Buspar or Prozac. These very often work, however the decision to prescribe them will rest solely with your veterinarian who will be able to monitor the dosage and side effects.
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Thanks so much for your suggestions! The litterbox link was a great help as well- turns out I was somewhat on the right track but that article gave me some great tips that I wouldn't have thought of. I have scheduled a vet appointment for the beginning of next week in order to check for any health issues. I cleaned and deoderized the areas right after the incidents occurred in attempt to discourage recurring accidents and so far he has not returned to those spots. I will also go pick up some extra litterboxes to scatter around. As for behavioral issues there are only two things that I can think of that may have influenced this radical change in behavior. One is that a few weeks ago I was forced to cut off the cat's access to the area where we keep our rabbit. He and the rabbit were "buddies" but he had started to pull apart her hutch and annoy her in general so I no longer allow him access to her room. I think he could possibly be retaliating because I have taken her away from him. The other major change has been that I have restricted his access from my bedroom. He has always had free roam of the house and spent a generous amount of time sleeping in my bed. However, at the point when the accidents and rebellious behavior began, he developed the nasty habit of doing something bad (ie: running past me at a high velocity and scratching out at my leg) and immediately bolting for the bedroom in order to hide out under the dresser. This happened on a consistent basis and it got to the point where he was constantly camped out under the dresser and it was absolutely impossible to coax him out. Therefore, I decided it was best to just keep the door closed so I suppose this might have also peeved him a bit. I guess I will just wait and see what happens with the vet next week and hopefully she might be able to pinpoint what is causing the problems. Other than that, we're just going to take it day by day and try our best to be patient parents! 
Thanks again for your help and I'll update you after our vet trip!
Let us know how things turn out!
