my cat peeing

Hi, everyone.

I adopted my half-feral cat from the shelter 2 years ago at 6 months of age.  She was skinny because of having been pregnant and so the shelter neutered her and adopted out her kids.  I always try to keep her indoors even though she always finds a way to escape and explore the outside for a few hours.  She's always had the habit of peeing on my clothes on the floor or even on tables and when I took her to the vet, he said there was nothing wrong with her and just give her 2 litter boxes instead of just 1 which I did, but it's become more of a problem lately.

I blame the fact that most of the day I'm not with her most of the day because of duties elsewhere so I'm only really able to see her for half an hour a day to pet her and feed her and clean her litter.  Also there's an indoor-outdoor cat downstairs which I take care of as a favor for a friend, but she doesn't come in contact with that cat unless she finds a way to escape the 2nd/3rd floors.

I just wonder.  Does my cat increase her peeing because 1) she thinks i've abandoned her and wants reassurance that I'm still around or 2) she wants to warn away the other cat or 3) is she scared from escaping/being outside in the cold trying to find her way inside and me not being there as quickly/easily as before or 4) is this just usual for half-feral cats?  My last cat who was well-behaved that I adopted when she was already well-domesticated at age 7 years never peed on my clothes unless I was stupid to forget to leave out a litter box, so I'm very confused what's happening.  

I don't scold her because that just wouldn't make sense but I wonder how cat owners llike you deal with this?

Welcome to TCS! 

Thank you for taking her in and for taking such good care of her. It's great that you don't scold her. Scolding would only add to her stress levels and will get no positive results.

It can be very difficult to tell what causes litterbox avoidance. Generally speaking, there are three possible explanations:

1. A medical issue (which you have ruled out).

2. The litterbox setup, or

3. Stress

It could also be a combination of any of the above.

The key here is to methodically go over the possible causes and rule them out, sometime by trial and error. In your case, this means trying to change the litterbox setup and trying to eliminate potential sources of stress. You mentioned that you suspect certain stressors such as the presence of a strange cat or separation anxiety. These are definitely possible explanations, and the issues would need to be tackled. It's also possible that once you eliminate the cause of the litterbox avoidance you'll have to re-train her. Here's an article that walks you through the thinking process behind dealing with litterbox avoidance. There's lots of links within it to take you through further steps. Do please read it and come back to let us know what you think. I also wrote an e-book (in my signature) available through Amazon. Most of what's in the book is covered here in the website, for free, but I thought I'd mention it in case it's easier for you to use a concise book.

 [article="0"]Litterbox Problems In Cats The Ultimate Guide​[/article]  

thanx for the info! But my cat STILL uses her litter boxes, but she's peeing or spraying all my clothes now that are exposed to her in the rooms she's in.