Here is some background: My husband and I have a 5 year old female cat. I have worked from home her whole life and she is very attached to me. She and I spend most of the day in my office. The office is also the guest room. At night I would say it is 50/50 if she sleeps in the room with us with the bedroom door open OR we kick her out and close the door so she doesn’t disrupt our sleep. The office door is always open unless we have company staying overnight.

A few weeks ago I tried changing her plastic cat box to a stainless steel one. That same weekend my father came and stayed in our office/guest room, which isn’t new and happens often. This same weekend we kicked her out of our bedroom, which meant the bedroom door and office door were both closed.

That weekend she pooped in the hallway, which I believed was her saying F U to the new cat box, and to us for kicking her out of our room, and for having the doors shut.

After this happened, I changed her new cat box back to her same plastic cat box.

But now, whenever we kick her out of our bedroom she is pooping in my office! She’ll still go downstairs to pee at night, and during the day she has no problem going downstairs to pee or poop.

Only when we kick her out of our bedroom at night, she poops in the office. I have cameras inside, so I can see that she’ll either do it immediately after getting kicked out OR she will do it around 5/5:30 AM which is the time she’ll usually we try to wake me up, since her first automatic feeding is 6 AM.

I haven’t made any new changes to her plastic cat box or the bathroom her cat box is in. I have increased our play time. I have provided her treat puzzles she’ll do independently during the day. I play with her right before bed and before kicking her out. She has places to hide in the office, and downstairs. I have moved some of her office toys and cat tree downstairs to try to expand “her territory”.

I am just at a loss of what to do to correct this behavior/habit. Before this, I think she had pooped in our bedroom before, maybe on two separate occasions, and it was specifically after my husband and I return from extended vacations. (We always have family watch her, check on her multiple times a day when we go on vacation). I do think she poops in retaliation, but this is just getting ridiculous.

If we don’t kick her out of our bedroom, we don’t sleep well. If we do kick her out, she retaliates by pooping in my office. Which is the room she likes and prefers to be in!

I am convinced this is purely poop retaliation which has turned into a habit. Any advice? Anyone deal with a sensitive, anxious, retaliatory cat? Do those calming wall plug ins actually work? I was thinking of picking those up today.