TC. have you c recently changed their sleeping box, and if so, did you wash the old blanket with a detergent that is new to them and you? I do not have the answer to question #1, but I thought I would give it a try. As to them pawing around the litter box, my furkids do this all the time. I think it is because Littlebit refuses to us any litter box that has been previously used. So, whe she poops, it is often done outside the box. I go and clean up the mess (as their litter boxex are now on pieces of panneling) and then this pawing stops.

........wayne