Neglected Cat(s) & New Baby

we have 2 cats and family moved in with 2 cats of their own. One family member was pregnant and has since had her baby a month ago. Anyhow, they are barely home and the cats are put down in their room for the night and brought back up to socialize with the other cats in the morning.
The last 4 weeks the fixed female cat (pet of the pregnant couple) has been peeing in our room, bathroom carpet and kitchen plus pooping in areas as well. Is this caused from neglect from her owners? We come home everyday and play with all the cats and feed them, water them and even give them treats...they are all spoiled and play well together. "Misty" seems to kep acting up and I DON'T & WILL NOT puish her....

Someone please help me or advise in what to do.
Karie

I am not an expert, and am having cat problems of my own, but I think it sounds like that cat is upset. Maybe just trying to get more attention? She may miss her family too? Maybe she is jealous of the new baby. I had a cat once who would do that when we weren't around as often as she liked. I dunno. Are there plenty of litter boxes? I have two cats and two litter boxes, and feel like I am ALWAYS scooping out of there. I hope you get some good advice from someone, and good luck!!

How many litterboxes do you have and are they all in the same place etc.?

It could be an inter-cat problem. Sometimes in a group of cats things look ok on the surface but there is mental warfare going on underneath. So a top cat can just by sitting at strategic places block other cats from getting to litterboxes etc.

If these sort of powergames are going on they won't necessarely show up as hissing and fighting, it's more subtle than that. Might not be the case in your house but it's a possibilty.

With multiple cats it's recommende to have number of cats + 1 litterboxes so you'd need 5 and to have them in different areas in the house.

She's marking territory, plain and simple. You may have to try and figure out some boundaries about where whose cats go and not, if possible, though if it means confining either two to an unreasonably small area it could cause further problems, but might be a bit easier if at least certain areas were off limits to the other two, with doors closed for a certain period of time (weeks, months) til she 'forgets' about her snit, though again it's hard to predict who'll do what as a result. Is the other couple and their cats going to be there indefinitely? One thing I would recommend is using Nature's Way cleaner, the best enzyme one out there - totally removes any odors (that cats can smell even if we can't) at all from wherever a cat's 'gone', which will at least help in keeping the cat from permanently 'owning' those spots, though again she may just go to others.

This could also be a UTI brought on from stress. The poop does sound like territory marking or she's too scared to use the box.

Sure you don't have any litterbox stalkers in the mix? It doesn't always manifest as actually blocking the box, it can be as subtle as sitting in the doorway, or always placing themselves in view of the box.

She's stressed out and confused and rejected. Or she might have a UTI too. I really hate it when people do this to the pets (dogs or cats)

Before human baby came along, the pet WAS the baby and many times if you ignore them, they act up - just like an older child sometimes does when the new baby comes. They are not getting the attention they did before nor are they being acknowledged and show respect for their being there first.

Can you talk to the people? Unless YOU can take those cats and rehome them, its only a matter of time before they are sent to the pound with the excuse of "we had a baby - don't have time for kitty"