Depression?

Question
Hey, Karen!

I havent noticed any other cat attacking her. They play, of course, like all cats do, but they are not agressive with each other (they gre up together).
About the male, he is very easy going and actually, they are like, well, I know this is antropomorphism, but they are like boyfriend and girlfriend. I've never seen him swating at her. They usually rest together and as I said, the female follows the male wherever he goes.

The litter box is covered and its in the backyard. All cats have access to it, and its cleaned daily.
Nothing has changed in the household; no new cats, or dogs, she hasnt been subjected to stress to my knowledge.

She is fixed, and so are all the other cats, including the male (he never tries to mate with her or with the other two females).
She gets along fine with the other cats except for one, an old, deaf male who is always trying to play with the others, but they dont like him (they are scared of him because he meows very loudly sometimes).
But now that I think about it, altough she gets along with the other three cats, this male is the only one she follows and wants to be with.
She is eating and drinking okay.

Now, I dont know if this is relevant, but last year she went into some kind of heat, even tough she is fixed; she followed the male everywhere, and adopted that posture of receptive females, and she meowed all the time.
I was worried about her because she was like desperate, so one day I decided to do a little experiment, I grabbed the lose skin on her neck with my hand, and held her for a moment. Then she calmed down for a while.
At that time, I thought that perhaps she had some kind of sexual desire no one would satisfy. But she hadnt defecated or urinated in the house at that time.
This year she has no other strange behavior than this.

Hope you can help.

Answer
Hi Dewey,

Usually there is a change of something in the household that would set off an abnormal behavior like that. From what you are saying nothing has changed. Basically you've eliminated a lot of stress situations.
A few things come to mind that might be what's the matter. One thing to make sure of is if it is physical in nature. To eliminate that you need to take her to a vet and have her checked out.
Next, sometimes cats just all of a sudden do not like their litter arrangements. You can try changing that. Get a new litterbox and maybe a new type of litter. Change the location of it to in the room where she is defecating and urinating. Make sure that you clean the area that she has been using with an enzymatic cleaner. Regular cleaners do not eliminate all the odors she leaves. They will attract her back to that area.
If she checks out ok at the vet and the litterbox change doesn't work write back to me and I will research this further for you. Good luck.

Ciao,Karen