Once a cat pee's outside the litterbox, will they always?

I guess my question is in the title...

I have a cat that it looks like the UTI is definitely getting better. She has always peed on my floor occaisionaly. I have a brother and sister cat. I had one litter box when I first got them until about 1 year old,,,and the male guarded the litter box and I think it was kind of the initial cause of her going outside the box...

Now she MOSTLY uses the iltter box, but she had a UTI and it is better but this morning she made a little pee spot on the rug, and when I went into the room where I am keeping her, I think she knows she is doing wrong, cause I said to her"what did you do?" and she i think got scared??? and peed on my sleeping bag that was on my futon.

Once a cat pee's on the floor or outside the litterbox, does it becoime habit to always be prone for the cat to keep on doing it?

Thanks for your advice!!

-David

I assume she's getting treatment from the vet for her UTI? If she's already been treated but you notice she's starting up again, it's possible she's having a recurrence of the UTI and needs to see the vet again.

You'll need to use an enzyme cleaner from the pet store to remove all trace of urine odor from any places where she's gone out of the box - follow the instructions on the enzyme cleaner bottle to get the spots completely clean.

After she's over the UTI, you probably will need to replace all the litterboxes with new ones - UTIs are painful, and she may have bad associations with her boxes, so replacing them should help. It's also a good idea to have one litterbox for each cat, plus one extra box, to avoid any conflict over litterboxes.

If her brother is still picking on her, you might want to try using a Feliway plug-in diffuser to calm things down - you can find them at most pet stores.

No, they won't always pee outside the box. If any cat who peed outside the litterbox always continued to do so, I would not have cats! I love them, but both of my kitties have had little litterbox problems, and I think probably a lot of kitties have a problem once in a while (often health related). I just would never get a kitty as a pet if that was always going to be a problem!

Read the stickys at the top of this forum about peeing outside the litterbox, and use those strategies.

I also suggest you call your vet. I don't think your kitty peed on the sleeping bag in front of you out of fear, I think it could be her saying "Dad, something is still wrong." Maybe she should have a urine culture done to be sure the UTI is clearing up.