Originally posted by jenluckenbach
Question #1 (because I am very forgettable) are they spayed?
Yes. We got them at approximately 8 weeks of age and they had been spayed the day before. Late April, 2005.
Thought #1....Could Kimi have a urinary tract problem? If it is out of character for her to pee inappropriately, this is a good indicator of a problem.
What would be some other symptoms besides urinating outside the box? She acts fine. Her ears haven't felt any warmer than usual and I didn't feed her this evening (my husband did while I ran out to do some errands) but her appetite appears fine. She hasn't been sulky or lethargic. Anything else I should look out for?

I will say, I just went to go do laundry and scoop and I made a point of finding Kimi and placing her IN the box. She did pee, but it wasn't too much. Is that a sign?

Thought #2.....could something be preventing them from getting to the basement to the litter boxes? (any chance they had a scare down there recently, workman, loud noise, etc?)
Nope.

[b]
Question #2.....how many litter boxes are available?
We have two. I know it's a tight squeeze but aside from when we moved them and Maya began going outside the box (#2), we haven't had any issues - not with quantity or location... I don't know if I could get my husband to buy into getting another litter box. I don't know where we'd put it - our house is wide open room next to wide open room - no good corners or hallways to put it in. *sigh*

Plus, all I need is to convince him that adding another box is what we need and then the issue still doesn't end... ohhh, he would not be a happy man and that would make me a not-so-happy wife.

As for retraining Maya... where would you suggest putting her? The only rooms available are the laundry room, the downstairs bathroom and the room that used to be my husband's office in the basement. There would be no sunlight... and I know that she would have a fit, and Sushi, Kirin and Kimi would as well. I wish there was just some magic litter that would attract cats with problems like this, or a magic pill. I don't want to make any of my babies unhappy... Ugh. This is hard.

Thanks for the advice! I hope it doesn't sound like I'm pooh-poohing any of it and dismissing it, because I'm definitely not. It's just with the layout of our house, some ideas that've been mentioned are a little more difficult to do...

Thanks!