While everyone who has posted has great advice, and alot of times a cure is found simply by trial and error (if ever), I think there are two profound clues in your history of the problem:

  • You got him when he was a week old
  • You left him for a week of vacation


He was never taught by his mom where and how to potty - you did a good job as his surrogate mom, but probably started a bit late - his kitty mom would have started at about 3-4 weeks of age. So it may not quite be burned into his brain. He did fine most of the time as he got older, but then....

You went on vacation. Although it may not seem obvious, he may already have abandonment issues. I am assuming from your story, too, that he is an only cat and you are his only human (if not, if he is strongly attached to you, his reaction to your vacation would be the same).

In my non-expert opinion, I think you may be doing all the wrong things. Ignoring him may be what started the behavior. You might want to discontinue that. Of course, I don't mean lavish sugars on him everytime he poops on the carpet, but make sure every other time you are giving him extra attention. If the behavior stops, gradually wean him back down to the level of attention he used to get. Discipline usually doesn't stop unwanted activity if there is an underlying behavior problem. Discipline generally only helps train a cat to know what is okay and what is not - in other words, no you can't jump on the kitchen counter. Elimination, scratching, and such are behaviors deeply ingrained, because they used these behaviors to survive in the wild before they were domesticated. A stressed cat may poop in a different place so that other cats may not find its waste and know its stressed, and therefore vulnerable, for instance. Cats would spray urine to announce domination, for example.

The odor eliminators would also only train that this is not the normal place to pee. So if he is looking for an abnormal place, the fact that there is no prior urine scent would not necessarily be a deterrent.

I would suggest you try just giving him lots and lots of attention to let him know that you love him even if you go on vacation.

We can't see into our cat's heads, though, so I may be completely off base, so if that doesn't work, or - since you know your cat better than me - if you think this is not the cause of the problem, try some of the suggestions in the other posts.

Whatever it is, I wish you luck.