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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