change in behavior

Question
I have 3 animals, 2 cats and a dog. The cats previously lived with my husband, and when we got married, the animals all started living under the same roof.

The cats are 2 and 1, both females that are fixed. The dog is a small 11lb chi mix that is 3. The dog and the youngest cat get along fine, the oldest cat tolerates the dog (does not get in fights but avoids the dog). All animals are indoor only.

We have had no previous behavior problems with the animals. The animals moved to their new home at the beginning of August, and had no problems. Two weeks ago we noticed that one of the animals went to the bathroom on a pile of clothes. They had access to their litter box, which was clean. The urine was a different smell, more pungent. We cleaned it up thoroughly. We made sure to leave no clothes in the floor, thinking this was the problem. A week later an animal (or animals) started peeing again, on the carpet, all around the house (although at various times throughout the week). I'm assuming this is one of the cats, I've been around cats that marked before, although they were male, and the smell is similar.

I wondered if there is something we're doing wrong in our behavior towards the animals. We give them all a lot of affection when we're home. We keep the litter box clean, and they always have access to the room its in. We have not punished the animals in any way for this behavior--I don't know how you correct a cat anyway.

The times the cats pee is infrequent, sometimes we are home (asleep) other times we are away at work.

How can we remedy this problem?

Answer
Hi Ales,

You need to take all the cats to the vet and get them checked out. One of them sounds like he has an urinary track infection. This will cause the urinating out of the box. Also the strong smelling urine was a tip off too.

You also need to clean the areas where the urine was with an enzymatic urine cleaner. This will remove all traces of odors that tempt cats to use the area again. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen