my cat poops in the litter tray but pees on the carpet in the other room

Question
hi, we have recently re-homed a female cat and she uses her tray for having a poo but now she will pee on the carpet in the other room, shes actually just done it next to me while i was on the computer, now we clean the tray out after shes had a poo but she just wont use her tray for a pee. We dont know what to do, the kitchen door was open there was no washing machine on so we're finding it hard to understand why she's started doing this, the tray was clean but she decided to do it right next to me, are there any suggestions? i'll be honest me and her dont get on famously she actually can be submissive towards me, is she trying to prove something to me? Is there something i can do to stop her being submissive? is that the problem?

Answer
Hi
This is a common problem and one that us humans find difficult to understand. the first thing you must do is to not put a human reason behind for the behavior. Cats don't think like that and so they do not carry out this sort of behavior to make a point or statement etc. It is all to do with either territory marking or making themselves feel more comfortable in there home. the fact that she did it near you would suggest that your cat is feeling a little anxious about something and came to you who she knows and is familiar with and so feels safe with and added her scent to the area, which also helps to calm them down. i.e if the house smells of them then everything must be ok.

This can be a complicated issue to understand and sometimes a little detective work has to be done to try and dis cover the cause. i have written a page about this issue and also one about how to try and get your cat back ton using the litter tray. here are the pages

/cat-urine.html

/cat-litter-box.html

best wishes Kate