My cat has started peeing on the bath mat and on my bed — is he angry with me?

No — cats do not urinate out of spite, and house-soiling is a medical problem until a vet has said otherwise. Book him in.

The exception first, because it is the one that kills: if he is squatting and straining and producing nothing, especially as a male cat, that is a possible urinary blockage and he goes to an emergency vet now, not in the morning.

Otherwise, the usual causes look exactly like what you are describing. Painful bladder inflammation, crystals or stones, an infection — and the big two that show up as unusually large wet clumps plus a lot of drinking at the water bowl, diabetes and kidney disease. Choosing between them takes an exam and a urine test, not a guess from a distance.

Bring urine with you if you can; a sample saves a visit. Take a clean tray with no litter at all, or with something non-absorbent (clean aquarium gravel works well), shut him in a room with it for a few hours, and pour whatever you collect into a clean jar.

Two details your vet will ask about. Is he squatting on soft absorbent things — a bed, a mat, a pile of laundry — which points at discomfort, or backing up to a vertical surface and spraying upwards, which points at marking? And how many boxes are there for how many cats? The working rule is one box per cat plus one, on every floor, uncovered, unscented, scooped daily, and away from the washing machine and the food bowls.

Clean the accidents with an enzyme cleaner, never an ammonia-based one. Ammonia smells like urine to him and invites him straight back to the same spot.