Thanks for the welcome! I guess I should just give you a background on my kitty, to start off.

My fiance "adopted" Melvin as a kitten back in college. Melvin was part of a litter of four that a friend's cat had. They lived on a farm and had a HUGE amount of cats. Melvin's mom was hit and killed on the road not long after she had given birth to him. So, the friend's mom (being a vet assistant) began taking care of the litter. Once they all came of age to be weaned from the bottle, my fiance and I were invited over to pick one out. Melvin seemed to be the most mischevious and curious of all the kittens, and my fiance fell in love with him at first sight. After getting all of his required shots, we were able to take him home with us.

Melvin is a little over 4 years old. He was neutered when he was old enough. He's also the only cat, taking full advantage of that! He is more of an indoor cat than an outdoor cat, though we do go on little walks. We don't like allowing him outside without supervision since we're not quite sure just how well he can see. When his mother had died, he suffered from underdevelopment of his eyes from malnutrition. And now he has something like a brown haziness to his eyes. The vet said that there is no reason to worry about it, but we feel really skeptical since we're so close to a busy road. We'd rather he not go the way of his mother.

As for the litter box, it's located just inside the opening door to the basement. He has full access to it whenever he wants without any obstacles. We have a flight of stairs that goes off of the dining room and then into the basement. He's situated right at the top of the stairs. We had tried putting him in the bathroom, but he wound up kicking litter EVERYWHERE. It was messy...especially when you stepped out of a wet shower and into a pile of litter on the floor.

Hope this helps narrow things down a bit! Thanks!!!!!!