Pif, I really appreciate your advise and never thought of a problem w/ the declaw surgery itself. I have owned two other cats that were declawed and never had a problem with them. I have also owned a Siamese and two siamese mix cats before and love their voices, but this cat literally SCREAMS like he has a tail pinched in the door or like something is killing him. The money isn't a problem BUT sinking another $100 into this problem cat is, if he doesn't get better. We have even thought of consulting a pet psychic! I can handle the screaming at night--it wakes us all up but it is now a fact in our household--we would rather let him have free run of the house 24/7 but can't do that. We need our sleep too and even though he still wakes us up it is less often than when we have tried him being free. Our friends all comment about how loud he is when we talk on the phone and they hear him in the background. If the declaw was the problem, wouldn't he just poo in his box and not cover it, instead of pooing in his box and covering it and also pooing on the rug outside the box and trying to bury it and smearing it everywhere? The vet suggested that I dump all litter every day. I haven't tried that because he will use it when it is dirty but picked/scooped out. Ocassionally he will poo on the rug even if I just cleaned out the boxes. I just don't understand why he has started this. He was declawed at 4 mos because he was tearing a hole in my rug and holes in the screens and I was afraid he was going to get out. I love him being declawed because now he can safely run free in the house during the day while we are gone. I have also heard that cats can bite after being declawed but he LUCKILY hasn't developed that habit. I would say he developed his bad litter habits at 5 or 6 mos of age. He also runs a lot thru the house and we have mostly hard wood floors and you can hear his feet thumping as he runs. I would think if his feet were sore that he wouldn't do that and would act like they are sore. I really think it is a behavior issue, but am desperately trying to find out the cause and the solution. Thanks for your advise and I welcome more if you come up with other suggestions.