We have a couple of cats, Phoebe and Maverick who are really well behaved… well… in most ways.
For years we had normal litterbox that they shared that looked just like any other cat litterbox.
After we had done a lot of work on our house I thought it might be nice to de-emphasize the litter box and ended up picking up “The Refined Litterbox” from Catsplay.com (they no longer offer this modestly priced alternative). And for the past year and a half it has been great. The cats took to it immediately and all was well.
For some reason Phoebe, in the past couple of weeks has started backing herself right up to the edge of the internal litterbox and letting loose when she pees all over the inside (and sometimes the outside too) of the the cabinet. I cannot fathom why the change in behavior as she seems to be fine in every other way but it smelled bad, was a mess and needed to be addressed.
After hunting around for a while to see what other folks have come up with for similar problems, I came upon Clevercat Top Entry Litter Box
at Amazon. Essentially it’s a smooth, high-sided rubbermaid-style box with a lid with a hole cut out so the cats can get in and out but everything else stays in.
I placed the new litterbox next to the old one and barricaded the entryway of the old one with a couple of boxes of litter. I also tossed in some “samples” from their old litter box to let them know that this new unit is theirs.
At first the cats seemed a little wary of the box but they soon figured it out and now seem to be fine with it. No more cat pee outside of the box! Yay!
A nice side-effect is that it seems that the high sides, the effort of climbing out, and the pattern on the lid of the box seem to combine to stop as much litter from making its way out onto the floor too.
Another few days and I think I may retire the refined litterbox cabinet. It’s a great idea so long as your cat has good aim!