While preparing this posting I remembered a story relayed to me by an
aunt while I still was a young boy. She happened to witness this,
without being actually involved :-), in the Wuppertal Zoo, Germany.
There, a lion in his cage suddenly turned his behind onto the curious
visitors and peed quite a volume onto the surprised crowd.
I will not speculate about his motives, but go on to tell the two
cases where I do believe to have enough background.

Both cats about whom I'm telling you are outdoors/indoors cats,
neutered. They are quite used to marking and I observe them doing
that happily and frequently on our common walks. In fact, I often
wonder, how they manage to economize on their bladders contents to be
able to exactly meet the demands even of the last to be peed on spot
on our way back home.

Sir Thomas (then about 16) uses to wake me up each morning around
5 am to get breakfast. As the cats keep me up late in the evening,
asking for our nightwalks, this is quite a task.
One day, I came to my senses too slowly for Thomas to bear with:
He turned his back towards the board at the head end of the bed and
let go.
The sound of splashing pee made me jump up instantly, of course.
To explain to him, however, that that wasn't a good road to success,
I started a big wail and took meticulously to repairing the damage,
wailing along for good measure, while he sat by, hungry, watching,
until I finished the repair. Thus he learned, that this method of
making me jump took breakfast away from him for some forty more
minutes, and as he is a clever cat, he henceforth refrained from
taking that approach again. I admit, that I do try to get up more
quickly, since. When I can if he pees, I should also be able to, if he
doesn't.

The second case is about my young one (7, m), who came to me from
my neighbors 6 years ago with the name Major Tom - I wonder, how
that name was dug up :-).
Well, when the weather is fine enough, old Sir Thomas and I use to sit
on the terrace till late in the evening before at last we call for
Major and start our walk.
Young Major, however, leaves for work early, but occasionally comes by
to check, wether the old guys wouldn't eventually be ready to get up
to accompany him for the walk, which he is eagerly waiting for.
The other day, he comes from the garden, watches us sitting peacefully
together, then turns his back towards the nearest bush, and lets go.
Casts us another look (lazy bastards!) and disappears again into the
darkness. I have no doubt whatsoever, that he took the bush as a
substitute for us, and that by peeing (onto us) he expressed his
feeling of jealousy and being neglected. We did start the walk when he
came around next time, and I tried to be especially nice to him.

To sum up:
While it is really advisable to check for medical reasons, if
inappropriate urination occurs repeatedly and is accompanied by signs
of bodily feeling unwell, there are obviously events, too, which can
be understood as expression of frustration.

Imho, reassuring routine and affection have the same importance for
our feline companions, or even a greater one, than for an employee
expected to deliver top performance.

Once a routine has been established, any deviation probably provokes
in the cats the same reactions we exhibit, when the boss goes by
without a kind smile, when our date doesn't show up in time, or when
we find us confronted with a sudden unexplained paycut.

For us humans, body language often comes across only as a byline to
the contents of the spoken message, rarely ever noticed even.
But for our cats, our actions do make up the main communication line.

Thus, controlling what we actually do, how and when, instead of what
we say, intend or pretend, they provide us with an excellent mirror to
reveal how consistent we handle our priorities, don't they?

Regards to you and the beloved furries,
Eb