Bad Litterbox Habits

Q.: For the past couple of weeks my cat has not being covering stuff up in her litter box after she uses it. It is becoming a problem because of the bad smell when I return home for the evening.
She has been declawed, but it was two months ago, so I have ruled that out as being the problem, considering she just started doing this.
What can I do?

A.: I'm afraid the declawing may be behind this anyway. The claws are - among other things - used for marking one's territory. If deprived of this way of marking, the cat will look for a substitute, and if you're a cat, the first thing you think of is urine and/or feces. Luckily she's decided to still leave it in the box, only uncovered.
The only way to deal with the smell problem is to remove everything from the box as soon as you get home. That will be easier, if you use the clumping kind of litter box sand, that way you only need to remove urine lumps and feces, not change everything.

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