Record What You Saw, in Plain Words
A useful log describes behaviour, not conclusions. For each episode write the date, what time it started, and exactly what your cat did: yowling at windows, rolling and rubbing against furniture, crouching low, eating less, or spraying a particular doorway or corner. Note where spraying happened, because indoor spraying on vertical surfaces near doors and windows tells a different story from litter tray misses on the floor. Add who else was in the house, whether a neighbourhood cat was visible outside, and whether anything in the room had changed. Those plain observations are what a vet or behaviourist works from, and they stay useful even if the eventual explanation is different from your first guess.
Track Episodes From Start to Finish
Timing is the whole point of this record, so mark the first day you notice calling or restlessness and the day it settles, even if you only check the log in the evening. Over several cycles, the length of each episode and the quiet gap between episodes form a pattern you cannot hold in memory reliably. For spraying, note whether it clusters on certain days within the episode or happens outside it entirely, and whether it follows a trigger such as a closed door, a visiting dog, or a new piece of furniture. A cat who sprays only during heat looks very different on paper from a cat who sprays whenever routines change.
Keep One Log, in One Place, Every Day It Matters
Choose one notebook by the litter area or one notes page you will actually open, and add a line the same evening while details are fresh. Short entries beat perfect essays: date, time, behaviour, place, trigger. If others in the house see behaviour you miss, ask them to add their initials and what they saw rather than reporting it second-hand later. Photograph spray sites before cleaning if location matters, and note what you cleaned with, since lingering scent in one spot can explain repeat marking there. Consistency matters more than detail — a brief log kept for every episode is far more useful than one detailed week followed by silence.
When the Log Says Talk to a Vet Soon
Share the log promptly, rather than waiting for a routine visit, if spraying is paired with straining in the tray, passing only small amounts of urine, crying while toileting, or blood in the urine, because urinary discomfort can look like a behaviour problem and needs prompt attention. Also call sooner if episodes become almost continuous, your cat stops eating, or an older cat who never sprayed before suddenly starts, since a new pattern in a mature cat can have a medical driver. Bring the log itself to the appointment instead of summarising from memory, and let the vet separate the medical questions from the behaviour ones.
Hand Over a Pattern, Not an Anecdote
At the appointment, walk through the log in order: when episodes began, how long they lasted, where spraying happened, and what changed at home around the worst days. That sequence lets a behaviourist test ideas about territory, stress, and season against real dates instead of a general impression that it happens all the time. KinsLe's Pet Passport holds those dated behaviour notes together with your cat's medical records in one packet, so the timing story you recorded at home arrives intact for the vet or behaviourist who needs to read it.