* cababarant *

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The trials of Sitting Cat

A few weeks ago, I got the bright idea of toilet-training our cat, Smokey. Inspired by Mr. Jinx from Meet the Parents ("Cats don't have thumbs!!") I finally decided to give it a shot, after many years of entertaining the idea of never, ever having to touch another litter box. The reason I decided to do it now is because I found a link, via Shiny Shiny, for the CitiKitty, a training kit that cost only $30. I figured, $30 is worth the investment, just for the prospect of flushing cat poop instead of scooping it out of a nasty litter box. Now the question was... is Smokey going to actually use it?

So we received the kit in the mail and with the help of a big bag of Cat Country flushable litter, we went to work. (Actually, I should say "I" went to work because Kyle has been laughing about it for weeks now. Although, he has been helpful in vacuuming the scattered cat litter all over our bathroom floor.) You get rid of the litter box, which is a very scary step. We decided to start closing all our bedroom doors so Smokey wouldn't get any bright ideas about revenge. The first step is to set the tray (without any holes) on the toilet under the toilet seat and fill it with litter. Smokey adapted to this beautifully. It was basically just like a high-up litter box for her. But after we cut out the first hole, the setbacks started:

1. Constantly moving the litter tray. We have only one bathroom, so one of the most annoying things about this was that every time any of us actual people had to use the bathroom, we had to move the damn tray off the toilet and set it off the floor. This was fine when there were no holes in the middle of it, but once we cut out the first hole, there was litter all over the floor, all the time. We just started leaving the vacuum cleaner plugged in next to the bathroom for the constant clean-up. Aargh!

2. Smokey gets creative. We always thought Smokey was a little, well, dim for a cat, but nothing makes your cat smarter than a toilet-training process she does not like. Once we cut out that first hole, she was like "Hell to the no!" She started putting her paw down the hole trying to figure out what was down there, then she would push all the litter down the hole before she would pee on the litter tray. Gross. Constant flushing of the toilet and vacuuming and refilling the tray followed each ordeal. The biggest obstacle (literally) is that she did not want to poop on the tray after that first hole was there. So, instead...

3. Smokey opens a bag of litter. Yes, we kept a bag of litter in the back of the kitchen, and she got so desperate when we weren't home one day that she used her teeth to open the bag, scooped a bunch of litter out with her paws, made a little litter pile, and pooped on it-- right in the back of the kitchen. After the initial anger and gross-out-ness, we were like, "Hey, that's pretty smart!" So the litter bag had to be moved to the basement steps... with the door closed, of course.

4. Smokey poops in a box. Her next act of desperation to avoid pooping in the litter tray was less creative, but just as gross. Because we were fed up with the litter scattered all over the bathroom floor, we started setting the bottom of the box that the CitiKitty came in on the floor next to the toilet. That way, when we moved the tray off, the scattered litter would be confined to the box. Bad idea. One day, when we weren't home (why did we ever leave the house when we were doing this?!) she decided a box with no litter was a better place to poop than a litter tray with a hole in it. Ugh. Trish came to the house, then left again immediately to take Sofia and Soleil to go use the bathroom... at McDonald's! Good thing no one had to go too badly!

Smokey avoiding the paparazzi (and still avoiding the toilet as well)

You'd think we would have given up on this after these fiascos. But I was determined to make this happen. All you really have to do is imagine that disgusting litter box, and anything seems better than that. Smokey started reluctantly using the tray (to poop, too), and hasn't had any other bright ideas since (basically because we removed as many options as possible, and lots of doors have stayed closed in the house). We started learning when she really had to go. She would start running around like a crazy, she wouldn't purr and she would be trying desperately to get outside (by taking a running start at the screen door). After all that, she would usually go use the toilet, making a mess of the litter. After going, she would be so exhausted from holding it in and running around the house like a freak, that she would curl up on my tennis bag by the front door and sleep for the rest of the day. (Yeah, I would be exhausted too!)

The breakthrough came when one day she went, and actually pushed the poop down the hole into the toilet. Eureka! We started rewarding her after she would do her business: I would pick her up as she was leaving the bathroom and say "Good Smokey!" and take her directly into the kitchen and give her Fancy Feast-- an unbelievable treat for an overweight cat. It has been working like a charm: no soft food until she does her "work".

Now, four weeks after we started, we are on the second-to-last ring of the litter tray. She isn't using the litter anymore and is actually going directly into the toilet. It is the funniest thing you've ever seen-- she looks exactly like the animated gif on the CitiKitty homepage. If this actually works, (Kyle cannot believe it!) I am sending her picture in to the website!

A content, almost toilet-trained cat. "I feel 5 pounds lighter!"

posted by sheryl | 9:20 PM |

Comments: (1)

I don't know if I'm inspired... or terrified.
By david adam edelstein 10:18 PM