blazinglily

My 15 year old cat has been pooping outside of her litter box for almost 6 years now. She usually poops near the litter box, and never in the same exact place twice in a row. We have tried everything that we can possibly think of. We do have two cats, so therefore provide 3 boxes, which is the recommended amount. We clean the boxes out at least once a day (basically every time we go down there), so they are not full. We have had her checked by the vet to make sure she isn't ill. We do not cover the boxes as to make sure the cats don't get territorial with them. We have also experimented with covering the boxes, but nothing changes. We have adjusted the litter and it seems to happen with all brands. We have tried moving the boxes all around the basement to try to retrain her to use them, such as cleaning up the poop and placing a litter box directly on top of the spot she went. Every time I scoop the litter I add more to it to make sure it doesn't get too low. The boxes are standard sized boxes. They are pretty deep but easy to get into. I don't think they sell bigger "cat" litter boxes than the ones we have. We have cleaned the floor before with a special cleaner for pet odor, but our basement is kind of damp so I don't really know how well it worked, considering the tiles are very old and it's possible that some scent has leaked into the cracks between the tiles. She gets lots of attention from both my mom and me. It's not like she goes in the box when we're home and then doesn't when we're gone. It happens every time. She does always pee in the boxes...

The cats usually do designate one box as the pee box and another as the poop box... although only one cat is using the poop box.

Are there any other ideas anyone has out there? It's obviously an issue that we've learned to deal with, and our basement is unfinished so her poop isn't ruining tile or carpet or anything. Luckily she never goes anywhere but the basement.