TL, Dr at the bottom.

I made a post on here a few months ago stating that I moved into a new house and brought my super timid cat with me. I forgot to make an update but he’s returned to his goofy self just one day after the big move. Except for one thing…

Some background on my boy: His previous owners threw him out and refused to let him back in, so he was effectively a stray when he first started domesticating himself in our house. Since he was very much against staying indoors, I always just let him out and he’d roam throughout the night. He’d meow at the door and I’d let him out, but for whatever reason he doesn’t meow to go out anymore.

That changed once we moved, he’s now almost exclusively indoors. Almost, because, and here’s the main problem, my parents refuse to get a litter box(I’m 17 and obviously live with them, so doing my own thing is not an option). And it’s not like litter boxes are expensive, I could buy a decently sized one with the rare pocket money I get. They insist that I throw him out at night and lock the doors so that he shits outside, but I wait by the door until he’s done and only close up once he’s back inside. This works when I’m awake, but obviously I sleep, and everyone else cannot be bothered to take care of him in any way since apparently bringing him here meant pushing all the responsibility onto me. My parents and brother don’t even feed him while I’m gone, my grandpa has to do that and he can’t remember shit like that anymore.

The most ridiculous part is that we did briefly have a litter box, but it was made of cardboard, and cardboard + piss is not a combo that’s fun to deal with. But when we used that makeshift box, he didn’t mess anywhere else, he exclusively used his designated box. So we know for sure that if he had a box currently, this whole problem would not exist. The vet is not an option since my cat is not deemed necessary to spend significant time + money on by my parents.

I feel like he’s traumatised from how he lived before we basically adopted him + unfortunately the semi long car ride here, which was the first time he was ever in a vehicle.

TL, DR: My cat shits in the house and my parents refuse to get a litter box despite knowing that it’d solve this issue