Do your cats wait while you clean the litter box & then...?

Yep. Or they get right in *while* I'm scooping it. I guess they think they're helping me or something.

I can't figure out what their obsession is with the thing but the second I'm doing anything with it they are right there in it. Sometimes I have to ask my wife to distract them just so I can get the job done with out them all up in everything.

Often, but sometimes they inspect the litter box that I have just scooped the clumps out of, and then go to a different litter box to do their business. (Since I have multiple cats, I have a fair number of litter boxes. They all get scooped daily.)

Yes. Mine likes to be a naughty kitty and get in the way as much as possible when i clean the litter box lol

All the time, its so annoying. What i do is I clean it and then back away if they are waiting, they do their business, and I still have my bad and scooper ready to finish up when they're done. It's almost like they see me cleaning it and suddenly realize they have to go.

Unfortunately, yes, or at least before i got them to stop. the way i got them to stop was before i would push their poo aside with a scoop then put them in it. if they went, i would be cleaning it up anyway.

Yup

Nah, never. None of the three cats I had. Did their dirty business, shook paws and ran away. If the box wasn't clean - did it somewhere else.

Cats are power hungry Narcisists.

This is just one more way they can laugh at us silly humans while exerting their supreme dominance.