My 5 year old male cat recently has been peeing outside the litter box. For context, my fiance and I moved to a place about 8 months ago and she was about 8 months pregnant with our daughter. He peed once outside the litter box, and our first thought was he didn’t like the location. We moved the litter box and all was well until recently.

About a month ago my fiance was insisting she smelt cat pee. We change the litter more frequently ( every other day instead of every two days) but the smell was still strong and lingering. Finally, she realized that the smell was coming from our area rug. Our cat has been peeing near our daughter’s toys (6 inches) away. Before this instance, he peed once in her bath tub. Thinking it was just the moisture and acting territorial he peed.

We believe this is more of an attention/behavioral issue now. We still, however, give him the same attention and interact with him as we did before our daughter was even conceived. We also have an 8 year old son who he grew up with and never had issues before with them together.

We are looking for suggestions before we have to do the unthinkable. We love our cat, but him peeing almost purposely on our daughter’s things is unhealthy for her, and our household altogether.