Dear Sadie,
I note that you mention that your cat has been recently declawed. Am I
right in suspecting that the erratic urinary behavior appeared after the
cat had been declawed? In that case, I am afraid that you have brought
upon this yourself.

It is common knowledge that cats who have been subjected to a traumatic
and monsterous experience like declawing become nervous, irritable, and
often refuse to use their litter box. The last is because the operation,
which amputates, or otherwise mutilates the claw-bearing digits in the
cat's paw, leaves the cat with sore stumps, which take a long time to
heal. Obviously, digging through the litter with sore stumps is, to say
the least, painful for the cat. Hence (s)he chooses to pee
indiscriminately all over the house. Consider if you would want to sift
through kitty litter if your finger tips had been surgically removed, or
altered!

In fact, not investigating the behavioral aftermath of a declawing
procedure thoroughly before having it inflicted on your pet, was
tragic, and downright irresponsible of you and your family. Stroping
its claws is a natural feline behavior. If the damage to your furniture
because of your cat's habits was intolerable, you should have given him
away to another family in the first place, instead of subjecting him to
such a cruel operation!

There is little you can do at this stage, but to wait for his paws to heal
thoroughly, and hope that the cat will not have realised that there other
places besides the litter box where he can pee and even defecate.

As I see it, the only thing that has resulted from the declawing operation
is a traumatised and distrustful, cat in deep pain -- *you* are now going have
stinky furniture, instead of scratched furniture now. And I very much
doubt that the former is preferable to the
latter!

Please inform other cat owners about the horrors of this operation. It is
disgusting and even wicked that pet owners continue to inflict it on their
cats despite it being banned by the Cat Fanciers organizations, among
others. There is sufficient information available on the internet against
declawing a cat.

Besides, when you take in a cat as a pet, you enter an implicit contract
to care for the animal and to put up with certain natural traits, in
return for its love and devotion to you.
If you cant tolerate the natural behavior, then please don't keep a cat
as a pet. Declawing is just abusing a dumb animal because it is powerless
to protect itself against the whims of misguided owners and unscrupulous
vets.

-Zaza.