Why does my cat pee directly in front of her box?

[msrisotto]

I'm absolutely puzzled by it.

I have had her checked out by the vet, they analysed a urine sample and apart from being a bit concentrated (so she was a bit dehydrated), it was fine and she in general checks out fine. She doesn't appear lethargic or anything unusual. She's an indoor cat by the way.

She has two boxes in the downstairs loo. She uses both - one for wee, one for poo, just sometimes (averaging about once a week at the moment) she wees in front of her poo box as well. I clean the spot thoroughly. I move the box forward and she wees behind it. I put tin foil down and she appears to use her wee box as usual. The cleaner moved the box on top of the tin foil today and she peed in front of the box again.

She has form for weeing on the door mat so I bought a deterrent and she doesn't go there anymore. The downstairs loo is next to the front door so I wonder if territorial insecurity has something to do with it but the tiny window is difficult to see through (a kind of ripple effect glass made that way for privacy). I am thinking about buying some opaque film to cover it just in case - does anyone know where you can get that stuff from?

Any other ideas? The vet's only other thought is about anti anxiety meds which i'm not a fan of seeing as the behaviour is quite infrequent.

I would be trying more wet food so more pee but maybe more comfortable for her if she is dehydrated. Has she been tested for a UTI?

If not consider asking for a referral to a cat behaviourist.

I do hear cat fights at night occasionally"

Will be switching her gradually to wet food. Did some reading and had no idea dry food was bad for them!

Ah - then you've got a resident tom around (and maybe more than one also.) The plot thickens.

Well, it has been a week without wee incidents! Yay!

She has taken to 'guarding' the front door, just by sitting as close as she can without being sprayed by the air canister. So I am aware that the issue isn't resolved but I'm not sure how to fix it for her.

Update - It got worse before it got better. I blocked up the downstairs loo window, put puppy pads down, a third litter tray in the right place and bought Zylkene - clearly the idea of regular meds set her straight - she used the new tray for a bit then went back to her old trays and hasn't strayed from them since. I'm enjoying the peace and am starting to phase out the puppy pads very slowly, even though she never used them as they seemed to stop her peeing where she shouldn't.

Anyways, THANK YOU COZIETOZIE, fluffycloud and everyone else for the support. It is startling how distressing it is having an unhappy cat and constantly cleaning up after them and I really needed the help.