Going outside the box, but otherwise well

What this tends to look like

• Normal-sized puddles or clumps, just not in the box
• Often on soft surfaces: bedding, laundry, rugs, or in the bath or sink
• Squatting normally rather than straining
• No blood, no vocalizing, no discomfort
• Frequently follows a change of litter, box location, or box cleanliness

What is usually going on

A cat passing normal volumes in the wrong place, with no sign of discomfort, is usually telling you something about the box rather than about their health. Cats are particular about substrate, cleanliness, privacy and location, and they object by going elsewhere. The important caveat is that pain and box avoidance look identical from a distance, so a medical cause has to be excluded before you treat it as behavioral, which means a urine test rather than an assumption.

What you can do at home

• Go back to whatever litter and location worked before, exactly, rather than a compromise
• One box per cat plus one, in separate rooms, not lined up together
• Scoop daily and change fully every week or two. Cats reject a box people consider acceptable
• Unscented, fine-grained, uncovered, and deep enough to dig. Most cats prefer this and most owners buy the opposite
• Clean accidents with an enzymatic cleaner, never ammonia-based, which smells like urine and re-marks the spot for them
• Check the box is not somewhere they now feel ambushed: near an appliance, a dog's route, or a cat flap

When to stop and call your vet

• Get a urine test before concluding this is behavioral. It is a cheap way to rule out the painful version
• Any straining, small volumes, blood, or vocalizing changes this completely, so re-read the emergency list
• Spraying upright against vertical surfaces is a different behavior with different causes
• It continues after you have genuinely fixed the box setup