My cat tends to urinate or poop right next to the box, but not in it. What can I do?

I'm waiting for a good answer on this one...
my daughters Cat does this all the time.. there doesn't seem to be a pattern either. Clean box, filthy box... she just seems to do what she wants when she wants... it's a pain.

My cat will pee right near the litter box and i tried showing him where he peed was bad and put him in the litter box but he still has back claws and it kind of tears up my arms with me doing that. i keep the litter rather clean and it still doesnt seem to help. In the mean time my bedroom is REALLY stinking!

Some cats are really picky about the litter box being clean. I have a male cat who will do that if he thinks he is going to get anything on his paws. Try a scoopable litter and clean the box frequently to please her. If that does not work, try putting her in the box, hold her paws and make her scratch the litter. Sometimes this can help a cat to learn that this is where you want them to do their duty because they usually scratch at the area first. Any time that you notice that she is going some where besides the box, take her in and do that. It's best to do that when you catch her in the act, but you can also bring the her to the mess, show her and make sure she can smell it and then sternly tell her no or bad and then put her into the box for scratching. Good luck.

my cat uses the litter box but she also scoops the terds outta her litter box sometimes

My cat sometimes does this too. She will stand in the litter box and hang over the edge. We just put lots of newspaper under and around the litter box and change it often.

Try putting empty egg cartons or aluminium foil around the box. Cats hate standing on these surfaces.

I had a cat who would jump over the litter box to go in the floor. Nothing I did, broke her from it, and she was possessed, LOL.. I ended up, taking her to the SPCA, and getting new carpeting in that room.

I have two older cats that do that and they've ruined the carpet in 2 rooms. No sense in getting new carpet as long as I have the cats, so I put down plastic trash bags around where the litterboxes are.

One of my cats does the same thing. I've asked my vet about it, she thinks it might have something to do with an unpleasant experience the cat had while using the litter box. She either was scared really bad or had pain when "going" and now she associates the litter box with pain or fear. Any suggestions on how to fix it, I would like to know too.