Helping a stressed and anxious cat who's pooping on things he shouldn't

Hello,

This is my first (very long) posting on this site and I am hoping to find some new advice to help my Old Guy.

My nearly 13-year old domestic rescue came to us after being returned at 12 weeks by another family saying that he couldn’t litter box train (really?). Well for the first give or take 5 years of his life we had no potty issues but over the years we have seen increasing potty issues but the current one is driving me insane.  Fundamentally he just doesn’t like when his world changes and shows his displeasure by pooping on something, usually my bed or the couch.

In the past 2 weeks my husband and I went out of town for the weekend and he was watched by a good friend who previously lived with us for nearly 3 years. He literally walked into the office while she was on a conference call, looked her straight in the face and pooped on the floor 15 inches from one of the FOUR litter boxes in our house. On Monday my brother began staying with us and last night it was my turn to host Bunko so I had 11 ladies in my home. He pooped on the bed before they even arrived.

Here are some facts about him and his care:

When he came to our home we already had one cat and within a few days they bonded. They were together for 2 years before “A” passed away.
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After “A” passed away about 3 months later we introduced “C”, an 8 week old kitten. Within days, again, Old Guy and “C” were playing & cuddling.  “C” got sick and passed late in 2012.
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In the spring of 2013 we introduced “D”. Again within a week or so they were getting along pretty well but “D” definitely wanted to play more than Old Guy. And one of his favorite forms of play was to climb on Old Guy, wrap his paws around him and chew his ears. Old Guy is definitely a pacifist and wouldn’t rough play back and has never tried to teach “D” a lesson.
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Because “D” had super high energy and was much more interested in play – we made the decision to bring a 3^rd cat to our home, first time ever, and “E” came during the summer. “D” and “E” are only 3 months apart in age and hit it off immediately. “E” is super kind and gentle and Old Guy will let him groom him some, but when grooming ends and play starts he wants nothing to do with “E”.  “D” still tries to “play” with Old Guy and can be quite aggressive, even when I have stepped in and tried tostop his advances.
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We have 4 different litter boxes available for use in our home, each cleaned daily and when home more than that to remove poo.  I think “D” used to ambush Old Guy coming out of the (any) box. Old Guy now uses pee pads that are on a plastic covered futon to pee, rarely will he pee in a box but he normally would still poo in a box. I tried putting a litter box on the futon but Old Guy wouldn’t use it. It should be noted that I have tried different fillers in different boxes and tried different locations for the box, nothing made a difference.
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Old Guy gets priority at bed time, he has his own pillow on my bed and he likes to knead on it each night. He gets attention first in the morning including treats. And after I finish fixing dinner after work I make sure I sit in a specific chair so he can come and get on my lap. All this to say I really feel like he is still getting quality time and attention.
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He is easily scared and you can see that he looks stiff and anxious with his movements.

I have tried both homeopathic Anti-Anxiety Drops and Rescue Remedy and they helped some, but not so much now.
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My husband is Dr. Doolittle – there is not a child or animal that doesn’t love him but to this day Old Guy won’t let my husband pick him up or really even pet him.
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Christmas Eve and Christmas day I hosted two family dinners and both times I made Old Guy go outside as we have a fenced garden area that he normally “likes” to hide in the green jungle. Early in January I was concerned that he was sick due to some behavior and litter box concerns. Ran the full (expensive) Senior Panel on him and everything came back normal. Vet chalked it up to stress/anxiety.

I absolutely feel his issue is anxiety; he hates “when his cheese is moved”. Something as simple as a project around the house, a visitor or us going out of town sets him off.  The pooping on things is really upsetting to me because he knows it’s wrong and as he showed with our friend who stayed to watch him, sometimes he can be out and out defiant in his behavior. When it is said and done I just think if he felt better, we would be having the issues.

Any new suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your comments.

Bz

I'm sorry nobody has answered your post for two days.  I can see that many people have read it, but I guess no one felt qualified to give an answer.  I'm not sure I can answer for YOUR cat but I have been through this for the past year with a young cat who was rejected by his last home for pooping outside the box.  He had been made an outside cat, but he was getting beaten up by older males, so someone passed him on to us.  He is extremely beautiful, a Siamese mix with blue eyes, and up until recently, he was a very timid guy.  Because he acted like prey, other cats treated him like prey.  This probably began in Alabama, where he originated, and continued here, where a previously well adjusted mother and daughter (both spayed) decided to make his life miserable.  I kept them separated as much as possible so they rarely got to chase him, but he knew they lived here and always looked at the door to their room to make sure it was closed.  He always pooped beside the litterbox, never in it.  I have both covered and uncovered boxes, and they are in various places in the house, and to his credit he always left his tootsie rolls beside a box, not on the bed or couch, but still not in a box.  A few months ago I was able to place his nemesis mother and daughter pair together in a new home.  It took a couple of months for him to truly believe they were gone, and his personality has started to change.  A few of the other cats used to pounce on him too because it was fun to make him run.  Now he crouches down and stands up to them.  In fact, I have seen him actually attempting to bully the old crippled neutered male who now chooses to live inside (he's feral but had a bad accident and learned the joys of inside living while recovering, and now he chooses it.)  I'm not sure exactly when, but the out of box experiences have stopped.  Sporadically at first and now totally.  Now the only one who does that is a tortie girl who used to be an outside cat and prefers not to use a box if she can't get outside.  Anyhow, if your old guy feels bullied, that is probably the problem.  I don't know if giving him a room that is his own would do the trick -- a place where you put him when you are not around, where the other cats are not allowed, where there is his very OWN litter box not used by others.  You might give him a choice of litters and boxes to start with.  A friend of mine had a cat who pooped outside the litter box for 8 years and she gave her all kinds of different choices -- when I house sat for her, I tried Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract Litter (which she had never tried) and it was a miracle.  She has not pooped outside of the litter box since then, and that was three years ago.  And she had no other cats to make her nervous, evidently she just didn't like any of the other choices (there were 8 litter box choices set up for her when I house sat!) 

In the case of my little Alabama boy (that's him in my profile picture), litter choice did not matter, but re-homing his two worst nemesis girls has done the trick.  Obvously you won't be rehoming D & E, but you might want to arrange your home so Old Guy can have a safe space of his own where D & E are never allowed, and perhaps that will do the trick.  You might try some of that Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter also.  They say there's a money back guarantee and if your cat will not use it, you will get a refund.  Remember, it may take awhile for him to understand the "safe space" concept.  It took my boy a couple of months before his personality started to change.  Cat psychology is fascinating.  I don't totally unerstand its expression but I do know that pooping in inappropriate places is often the result of some sort of stress.  Best of luck and please do let us know how it turns out.