Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 10/28/2009

Question
We have a four year old neutered indoor cat. He is litter trained and we have never had a problem with him. We have not changed diet, no changes in routine.  He just jumped up in the chair with my daughter and peed in the chair! Oh no he didn't cause that won't fly in our house. We immediately placed him in the laundry room with his litter box.  What is going on?

Answer
Hi
There are several reasons for this to have happened either he is suffering from UTI

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-urinary-problems.html

Or it is purely behavioural and has been caused by something which is often not obvious to us. As you know cats use their urine as a scent marker to other cats but it is also used to make the cat itself feel more secure in the home. I.e if the home smells strongly of him then everything must be Ok.

The trouble is identifying what may have caused your cat to feel the need to mark like this. Did your daughter have a different perfume on or a particularly strong deodorant? Had she been to someone else's house where she may have got the scent of another animal on her? these could be reasons to make the cat feel the need to cover this scent with his own.

Hopefully this is was a one off but if it continues then you will have to try and do some re litter training with him again using the confinement process which also helps to re build the cats confidence in their own environment. process described here

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-litter-box.html

best wishes Kate
http://www.our-happy-cat.com