That is, does your cat manage to pee/crap outside of the box while standing in the box? I've never had this problem before, and it's driving me crazy. I have a 7 year old female who has, from appearances, taken to occasionally placing her butt right next to the edge of the litter box and then peeing. Most of the time it runs down the inside of the box, but lately I've found puddles of pee next to the box. Ick. I can deal with that by disinfecting and spraying the stuff that gets out the scent, but I'd like to avoid it. It isn't because the box is dirty.

The only thing that has changed is that in my previous apartments the litter box was essentially in the corner of a room, and now it is in a closet with sliding doors, and I leave one of the doors partially open. Could the enclosed space be messing up her aim? I've thought of laying down newspaper or a trash bag to protect the floors, but I'm worried that it will seem like an extension of the box and encourage the behavior. Should I look for a monster sized litter box, if they exist?

Yeesh, way to start my week.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Answers

Yes, one or more of my cats is constantly crapping just outside the box. They did it spontaneously, without my moving the box. But it was shortly after I got a new box, which is slightly deeper than the old one.

I have no idea how to make them stop, but I do have one of those litter pads just outside the box, so they wind up going on that. It's pretty easy to clean.

Man, I hate cats.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

That's it. That's it! Flame war! Cat hater. Horrible, mean nasty nasty cat hater! Cats are nature's greatest treasure. Pah on you. PAH. PAH!

Fst. I'm out of here.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

One more word out of you, missy, and I'll lock this thread right now.

Oh, wait. I can't do that with Greenspun.

Well, then, you just shut up, or I'll sic my dog on you.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Ha! I'll stuff my cat in your pants! And how will that look, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Lock this.

Joy - from what I understand of lovable and adorable cats who are so much better than dogs and don't slobber on you - it is very likely a matter of a disruption of routine. Cats will often register protests in this very lovable and also sweet and intelligent manner.

If you can get your hands on one, I would suggest a covered litter box. It's what worked with my two fuzzy and better-than-dogs-any-damn- day cats.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Or you could just get a dog (you know, those big furry animals who are much nicer than cats), and it will eat whatever the cats spill. Very handy. And if you're extra lucky, it might even eat the cat. Then all of your troubles will be over, and you'll have room for *another* dog!

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Our cat uses the entire apartment as a litter box. He didn't start this until about seven months into our owning him - up until that time he was fine, going in the litter box with no problem. We didn't move, and we didn't move his litter box. We didn't change his food. One day he started crapping in front of the front door, and he's never stopped. We've had him checked by the vet more than once. He gets lots of attention. He has toys and food and water and the run of the place. He continues to crap on the carpet, both in front of the front door, and in front of the bathroom, where his litter box is. We've tried the crystals and four kinds of litter; we've tried the spray that's supposed to repel them; we've tried shampooing the carpets weekly; we've tried watching for the signs of crapping (he starts to scratch the carpet) and picking him up and depositing him in the litter.

Nothing works. He continues to do it two or three times a week.

Unfortunately, we think he's going to have to go back to the shelter (which is no-kill). No one will take him, my roommate is ready to kill him, and I am moving in with my boyfriend - who has very pale carpeting all over the house. It's making me very sad, but we are at our wits' end with this.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

If only I'd known a cat pee question would be the setting for a flame war. I'd say "hee" if I wasn't wary of being banned.

I like the get-a-dog to eat-the-cat-crap/cat solution. Only, the nice thing about cats, if they actually DO use the litter, is not having to walk them. I'm not taking cat vs. dog sides here (actually, I love both but in a small apartment can't think about having any sweet puppies).

The weird thing is there has been no change of routine before this spate of pee puddles - the move to this apartment was last November, things have been fine. I actually stopped using one of the covered boxes years ago because then she would pee all down the side of the top, and it would just get very nasty, and she seemed to aim her butt down more without the cover. That's why I thought maybe the box being in the closet made her somehow think that the whole closet was a covered litter box - although why that would happen now instead of months ago I don't know.

I have developed a new appreciation for how much odor control my litter has though. Cat pee out in the open on the floor stinks something awful. I'll look for a litter pad, although what's pissing me off is having to clean it up at all.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

You haven't known horror until you've seen a piece of plastic sticking out of your cat's ass, and he's dragging his butt everywhere.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Valerie, you don't have dogs, do you? You would be amazed at the things that have been dragged around the field by our dogs. Amazed, I tell you. One of these days I expect to see a sock there. (Dog logic: There's a thing! A thing on floor! I'm on the floor! It must be toy! I shall eat it before some other dog gets it! I am powerful and amazing!)

If only I could get the dogs to eat baggies instead of every other damned thing that ends up on the floor, then I could make a fortune. Self-bagging dog poop.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Okay, wow, yes, now I am completely grateful that at least my cat is aiming for the vicinity of the litter box and isn't ejecting foreign objects.

My parents had a dog that loved kitchen sponges more than anything else in the world, and someone would always forget and leave it out on the sink. The backyard would end up with yellow poop piles, pink poop piles, blue poop piles, depending on what color the sponge was that month. Those things come out just about whole too.

Off to go pet my kitty and thank her for not being a dog who eats everything.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

But Joy, that's the beauty of dogs. I never have to sweep crumbs up anymore; I just point and say "[whichever is closest], clean up!" and they go to town. If I thought for a second that dog spit could be considered 'clean', I wouldn't have to mop, either.

Unfortunately, I'm just not quite that self-deluded.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

I hope you all know I was kidding about the dogs and the litter box. I think that's about the most disgusting dog trait of them all. We keep our litter box in another room, accessible to the cats via a window, just to avoid that issue.

Tragically, Crash can jump through the window. And he does.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

See? Dogs are gross! They eat unspeakable things, and then leap out of windows. Just shameful.

Anyway, yes, it's true that cats do horrible things like not go where they're supposed to for no reason whatsoever (even though they still are better than dogs), but I'm still voting that in Joy's case, routine upset is likely the root of the problem.

Sometimes it could also be an indication that a cat is not feeling right, and if there are any other symptoms, should probably get a checkup.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Joy, you can get oversized litter boxes---that's what I had to do for my bundles of love. Also, are you cleaning the litter box every single day? Maybe in the enclosed space the smell is overwhelming for her.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

How about putting a large cardboard box in front of door so as to confuse the territory?

Tried it. He craps next to it. Tried moving the litter. Ditto. Tried laying down a towel or mat over the most crapped-on spots. He pushes the towel or mat aside and does it anyway.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

Melissa, can you confine the cat to one room for a while---maybe the bathroom, with only food and the little box? And then slowly move him to two rooms, or a larger room like the bedroom? Then he can re- learn in small steps. Also, have you seen your vet? Sometimes there can be a physical problem. My cats did this for a while, because they were mad at me (I'd been gone a lot). We closed off all the rooms, and spent more time with them, and they've come around.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

If you do confine your cat, make sure there are no plastic bag in the vicinity. Apparently it's normal for a cat to eat plastic.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

I had never seen oversized litter boxes - I'm going to look for one this afternoon.

I clean the litter every 2-3 days, which has never been a problem before. She is a large cat (not huge, but 12 lbs) and not terribly graceful, and other than this is acting fine, so I think she is just awkward about butt placement sometimes, and it must be something about peeing because I never end up with crap outside the box. (Aside - I can't remember the last time that I managed to type pee and crap this often in just a few paragraphs.) Hopefully a bigger box will be easier.

She used to share one box the size I have now with my other cat (who unfortunately got lost last summer), and she definitely had the "I have to, have to, HAVE to be the first kitty to take a dump in the clean box" dominant cat thing going.

Dogs eating everything is great for random stuff on the kitchen floor, but when socks and underwear and sponges and any plastic container and every bunch of lettuce in the garden are fair game I can't deal.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

I use the giant hooded boxes which seem to have solved all of my cat poo and pee related dramas. I also use the Johnny Cat brand liners (very thick and strong) so litter changing day is as simple as pulling a drawstring and taking the bag out to the trash.

The first Christmas I had Luna-cat, she ate the silver tinsel off the tree and the litterbox was filled with little poops connected by shiny silver tinsel. Oops.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

Ditto on the hooded boxes. Sasha likes to 'perch' on the edge of the box to do her business (she'd be a great one to train to go in the toilet, but it's hard to train 7 cats to all use the potty in a 2 br 1 ba apartment)

Currently, the kittens are the only ones routinely missing, and well, they're only 10 weeks old, so they're still getting the hang of things really.

Another question -- how do you handel litter pan bags with cats who aren't declawed? Every time I've tried to put down pan bags, they tear them to shreds rendering them quite useless.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001