Putting the cat in scatological

I stayed on the couch a little bit too long after MB left for work this morning, and ended up succumbing to its siren song of squooshy comfort and dozing off for a while. I was awakened by the sound of Kitters digging repeatedly and enthusiastically with his front paws in the blankets we have stuffed up against the sliding glass door to block the draft. Next, he ran into the kitchen, put his front legs through the door into his litter box and dug in there frantically. Then he ran back to the sliding door and dug a little more over there.

I began to get suspicious, and when I got up to see what he was doing, he immediately started acting guilty. I saw a piece of poo on the floor by the door, and thought maybe he'd had a cling-on (an unfortunate consequence of having a ridiculously fluffy rear), which always freaks him out. And then, I looked again and saw that he'd pooped on the blanket itself, clearly on purpose. He has NEVER pooped outside of his litterbox before, EVER. The only time he's ever left poo on the floor is if it sticks to his fur and falls off or gets scooted off later (and what a joy that is, let me tell you).

I got a paper towel to pick up that deposit and as I was getting it I saw another. When I came back with more paper towels for that one, he was actually pooping right there in front of me, and yowling at me for watching (which in retrospect is kind of funny...

Kitters:  "OHMYGOD WHY ARE YOU WATCHING ME?! I'M POOPING!! GO AWAY!!"

Me:  "OHMYGOD WHAT ARE DOING?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FUCKING MIND?!"

The neighbors must be quite frightened).

Clearly, he was not constipated. I admit his box was not super clean, but I also have to be honest and say it's been worse before. Thank God he didn't pee on anything. Just poop, which is a lot easier to clean up. But still, not cool!

I was an hour late to work instead of half an hour late, because before I could leave I had to clean up the poop surprises, throw the blankets in the wash, scoop out the litterbox and take out the trash, then put the cat in the bathroom for the day with his box, his food, his water, a towel to sleep on, a paper sack to hide in, and a toy since I couldn't really let him roam free without knowing if this was an isolated incident (or three) or some kind of indication of a medical / behavior problem.

When MB let Kitters out around 3:00, there was no poo in unfortunate places, and Kitters has been acting normal and using the litterbox all evening. I guess we'll just keep an eye on him and see what happened. I figure the cause is probably one of three things:

( A ) He was mad that his litterbox was getting full, so he pooped on the blanket once. When he didn't get caught the first time, he figured it was okay to do it again.

( B ) He was feeling a little sickish and thought maybe he'd feel better if he went somewhere other than the usual place.

( C ) He saw those cute fuzzy pictures I posted of him yesterday and figured he needed to protect his cred.

I was going to save this photo and show it to his prom date, but I think I've earned the right to share it with the whole internet: