Bitter About Litter-boxes

I hate litter-boxes.  For years my cats did their business outside, with the exception of really nasty snowy days when my orange cat would demand some kind of potty box inside.  Oh, then there was the tabby cat who took to pissing behind my kitchen counter, which is an old beautiful woodworking bench, because she was old and getting senile.  I have a cat door for chrisake!  There is absolutely no reason for my cats to demand a litter-box, but they do.

I believe that demand stems from the mountain lion that may have killed my two male cats.  The remaining cats must have been traumatized by the murders and now refuse to spend more than a few minutes out in the yard.  They never wander far from the house and that includes Afina, the cat who spent years down at the neighbors house and only came home to eat.  It's not like they would have a hard time finding the cat door, it has a blue carpeted ramp with a huge flamenco pink arrow pointing to it.  I believe they do this just to aggravate me.

I will say it again, I hate litter-boxes.  I know that cats are particular about their boxes so I have tried a few kinds.  First came the huge open box with the clumping litter.  That only produced tons of litter being scattered during scratching and litter being tracked all over the house.  I then tried the same box with feline pine but got the same results.  Then I bought a covered box with a cat door that swings (just like the door they used for years to get in and out of the house) but the cats wouldn't go through the door.  Thankfully, the domed lid to the box can be raised so that the front is completely open and the rest of the box is surrounded.  This works to some extent and when the cats scratch they no longer hurl litter all over the place.  This particular box has what I call a trough whose function is to act as a litter-tracking guard.  Well Assisi, the tortie cat, uses the trough as a urinal.  She will scratch in the box, position her bottom over the trough and pee.  This same cat will defecate inside the box but refuses to pee in the thing.  I have placed a plastic place mat in front of the box for those times when she decides she doesn't even want the trough and would rather piss on the floor.  I can't tell you how many times that place mat as saved her life!  For awhile Assisi urinated on the place mat every time so I switched to clay litter thinking that she didn't like the clumping kind.  For about a week she was a really good girl and actually pooped and peed inside the box, then I came home one day to urine in the trough.  I am now going to switch back to the clumping litter to make my life easier which will allow Afina and Assisi to live another day.