When a cat suddenly starts eliminating outside of the litterbox, esp. a senior cat, it's time for a thorough veterinary checkup, including bloodwork. Inappropriate elimination is often the first symptom of illness in cats.

Laurie

My older cat has begun to do the same thing. He is a bit arthritic in his hind end so I thought maybe climbing into the box was too painful for him so I bought a box with shorter sides. Unfortunately shorter sides also means he sometimes misses the box entirely when p'ing so now I have to put out puppy pads all around his box to catch that. I also moved his box closer to the bottom of the stairs. Since he is older and it takes him longer to travel down the stairs I think maybe he just can't hold it in as long so I thought I'd give him less of a journey. So far its been effective. His yearly vet visit is coming up but really I'm not one who thinks extrordinary measures should be taken to extend a pets life so there will not be much testing done to try to diagnose what his problem is. He is old, and old cats have problems. If there is something that can be done that is simple and non-traumatizing then I'm not against it but I just wont put him through multiple vet visits and a bunch of tests. He doesn't do well in a moving vehicle so just going to the vet is traumatizing for him.

Thanks for your input folks. The problem seems, touch wood, to have been solved. There have been no accidents for over a week. I have noticed a new tom on the manor that seems to be rather dominant. A colleague of mine mentioned that her cat started soiling when there was a threat on her territory so maybe that was the issue.