ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Today started out like most every other day...Logan woke us up, we all had breakfast, Jared went off to work. Logan seemed to be in a great mood. He was playing nicely with Cameron, using nice words to me, etc. Mid morning we walked to the park where we played together in the sand and on the slides. Upon returning, morning Logan was replaced with another child. Logan suddenly became defiant, rude, and just plain naughty. When we got back from the park, I gave Logan some juice. I sent him and Cameron outside to drink it. I reminded Logan to not to spit it or gurgle their drink. As I turned around, I heard Cameron say "No Logan, no spitting." I walked right up to him and he had spit out his drink! So I took his drink away and said he could only have water. (His explanation of why he chose to spit was there was a spider web that he wanted to knock down. Ok, fair...I can see that.) A few minutes later he came in and said he wanted to play downstairs. He decided "playing" was torturing our cat. I asked him nicely once to stop smothering the cat. He continued to bother him, so I put him in his room and told him he made the choice to play in his room for awhile b/c he didn't listen to me about the cat. Each time he got in trouble he would ask, "but do you still love me?" I had to explain to him that his choices show me if he loves me or not. Not if I love him. After about ten minutes in his room he said he was ready to play nice. He went back downstairs, but shorty came up and told me that the kitty had peed. WHAT!!! I knew he was lying...our kitty doesn't randomly pee on the carpet. I walked downstairs with him and asked him to tell the truth because I could tell if it was his pee or the kitty's. He told me it was him. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! DID HE JUST SAY HE PEED ON THE CARPET??? I calmly grabbed his hand and told him he was in more trouble then he has ever been in. I put him in his room, dialed Jared, and asked him "What do we do with him? Neither of us believe in spanking, but I was about to! Jared helped me calmed down. We decided to take away his "pet caterpillar" for good and he lost his favorite blankets for three days. I explained this to Logan. He was pretty upset about the blankets. I asked him why he peed on the carpet. He said he wanted to see what would happen. ARRRHHH I told him that I hoped he realized that doing naughty things causes not so good things to happen. However I don't think he "gets" that. After we talked he was pouting and saying how I was being mean to him. How I don't love him b/c I took his blankets, etc. I tried to turn his comments around and remind him why he lost his blankets because of his choices, not mine. After lunch we stopped talking about his behavior. I sat down with him and Cameron and read a story. As he left for preschool, I told him how I loved him. Tonight when he cries for his blankets, I will remind him that it was his choice not mine to loose them, but is it the right thing? Is there more I should be doing? I've tried incentive charts, earning rewards, taking rewards away, etc. It just seems he doesn't really care about the those things. He likes it for a few days and then he looses interest in them. Any advice on how to punish, or reward a sweet, happy but very smart strong willed boy?