Hi Bryan
I'm trying to deal with it well - I keep reminding myself it won't be out of spite, he's just acting on instinct and being a cat!
One of the times he sprayed the blinds in the snug, he actually did it in front of us, we were both sat on the sofa, he was on the back and directly sprayed the blinds (which were closed) - we were pretty shocked! He had been running around howling beforehand and I was trying not to react and get up. Quite often I get up and walk over to his litter box and he will often then get in it and use it and calm down. He is a complex thing as that should be entirely different to spraying.
There are definite hot zones as you say. But I shut the door to one of them one morning as he'd been sick all over the sofa and I was trying to clean it. Somehow he managed to avoid every blanket that was on there! It was quite early at the weekend and Jon was still in bed but Jagger came back in for his breakfast, saw a door closed to him and howled the house down. So I imagine that could upset him even more.
The dining room cabinet is opposite the windows and we hadn't shut the blinds in there - we never have. But I still think that might be the storm we had as there was so much lightening.
It does tend to be a night time thing, shutters and blinds other than the dining room are always closed so he can't see out. Whilst Hendrix can open the shutters, Jagger has never sussed that out and I could see from the last incident, that they were shut when he sprayed.
The spare room seems to be the best place for him to sleep. There is little action outside and it is very quiet and away from it all, but he doesn't always go in there - and that room is Jagger catified with radiator and snuggle beds etc. He tends to move around the house depending on his mood. I will however see if I can think how to encourage him to settle in there more.
Zylkene definitely helps him - and that's not chemical its just a milk protein as I try to have him on that a good week before his annual vet visit. They are chalk and cheese - Jagger will literally tremble with fear at the vet and try to hide in my coat, Hendrix is stroppy and vocal.
I guess I need to get him back on the Zylkene in the short term but would prefer not to - I feel I'm letting him down by not being able to fix this for him
I had him on this for a couple of months, I've finished the course and he's sprayed again, so I will order some more...
He is a proper napoleon cat - at the extreme end - I do wonder if you are correct and some of this is imaginary threats to his kingdom!