Here's the background. Jamie is an 8-year-old castrated male whom we've had since he was 10 weeks old. With the exception of emptying his litter box of litter he didn't like, and then using the box without it, he's always had extremely good litter box habits, to the point of also using it when he has to vomit.
He has a jumbo covered litter box, minus the flap, with very fine-grained clumping litter that he really likes. No changes have been made for several years. The box is neither scratched nor smells of urine. It was cleaned thoroughly on Friday, with steam as always, and scooped twice a day on Saturday and Sunday.
We awoke to crashing, splintering sounds last night, and when I investigated, Jamie (a very large cat) was in the process of destroying the cover to his box. I asked him what he was doing, but he ignored me, and proceeded to scratch about half the litter out in front of the box. He then turned around and defecated on the pile of litter.
I cleaned up the mess, taped the cracks in the top of litter box from the inside so that he wouldn't get cut or scratched, replaced the cover, and went back to bed. When I got up this morning, he'd urinated in the box in his normal fashion.
I ordered another jumbo-sized covered box today, as he doesn't like the uncovered ones, and tends to stand while urinating.
Does anybody have any ideas about what that could all have been about? It was very hot yesterday, and he was out of sorts all day. I'm wondering if it was just a temper tantrum. He's not constipated, or anything like that, and seems perfectly normal today. I have a vet's appointment for a regular check-up next week.
I'm stumped, though.
He has a jumbo covered litter box, minus the flap, with very fine-grained clumping litter that he really likes. No changes have been made for several years. The box is neither scratched nor smells of urine. It was cleaned thoroughly on Friday, with steam as always, and scooped twice a day on Saturday and Sunday.
We awoke to crashing, splintering sounds last night, and when I investigated, Jamie (a very large cat) was in the process of destroying the cover to his box. I asked him what he was doing, but he ignored me, and proceeded to scratch about half the litter out in front of the box. He then turned around and defecated on the pile of litter.
I cleaned up the mess, taped the cracks in the top of litter box from the inside so that he wouldn't get cut or scratched, replaced the cover, and went back to bed. When I got up this morning, he'd urinated in the box in his normal fashion.
I ordered another jumbo-sized covered box today, as he doesn't like the uncovered ones, and tends to stand while urinating.
Does anybody have any ideas about what that could all have been about? It was very hot yesterday, and he was out of sorts all day. I'm wondering if it was just a temper tantrum. He's not constipated, or anything like that, and seems perfectly normal today. I have a vet's appointment for a regular check-up next week.
I'm stumped, though.