Oh Poo..What Have We Done?

Did you know that there is an entire forum devoted to LitterKwitting your cats?  It's mostly a forum about the disaster that LitterKwitting has been so far...

"My boys, Max and Sam have been stuck on the green stage and have a good week or so and then I come home to a ruined couch...or even worse i came home today, reached in the dryer to pull out my clothes and found them covered in a days worth of kitty mess (1 and 2). I have been trying so hard to be patient for about 2 months, with positive reinforcement as well as scolding if they make a mess but I just can't keep coming home to this :/ ....."

And

"Hi - my 6m old male Briman (Smokey) took to the LK reasonably well, within a couple of weeks he'd gone from red to orange and then, about 3 weeks later to green. He'd been using this for 3 weeks (gradually reducing the cat litter) with no problem at all and then, one night, one of our dogs got upstairs and peed on my bed (which is also where Smokey sleeps at night). I've washed sheets and duvets every day for about 10 days now!

Since then, Smokey has, unless I constantly take him and put him on the LK, wees and poos on the bed - including once when I was still in it!...."

Oh the fun we apparently have to look forward to...




So what has happened from 4/8 until now.  Well...we got the Kwitter pan up onto the toilet, and we're all delighted to see the babies are just fine with the new adjustment.  Leaping from floor to pot to take a poo has been no problem for our atheletic girls.

Well...sorta...

Okay, lets go back for just a second.  There are three trays to the LK:

• Red - a flat pan with now opening to get the cats used to going on the toilet and in a smaller target.  That's where we're at now.
• Amber - this pan has a small hole in the middle about the size of the bottom of a coffee cup.
• Green - less of a pan and more of an extended lip that can hold some litter.

All of the trays hold litter.  When you get to the green tray, you slowly start reducing the litter until they just don't need it anymore.  Theoretically, after that, you're all set and litter free.

We are on the Red Stage.

Somehow, our latest speed bump doesn't surprise me in the least.  Both cats are just fine w/ poo'ing into the direct middle of the pan.  In fact, you might be thoroughly impressed with their accuracy.  And Bean (shockingly) has not rebelled, nor has she deviated from her accuracy when she pees.

Coal though...

Coal is that cat that backs her ass into the corner of the box and goes.  You know that cat...the cat you bought the bigger litter box for because she doesn't know how tall she is, doesn't realize her cute little butt is up just high enough to hang over the side...  She is so well-meaning, so capable and actually, so correct.  And then, she pees on the floor.  It's sort of the exact opposite where we want things to be on the long term - cat in the box, pee outside the box.

And so it goes that Coal, on the LK, backs her cute little butt up right to the lid, all four paws completely and correctly in the litter...and then she goes - onto the back of the toilet and onto the floor - an uncute, kitty scented golden shower for the bathroom floor.  Oh Coal...you're so pretty.

In light of the above cats taking dumps in dryers and on beds while people sleep - this feels sorta like a minor positioning problem that we hope can be easily corrected with this state-of-the-art kitty re-positioning device:

If you're curious: it's four soft plastic CD pockets southernly duct-taped together and wedged between the red pan and the LK pan holding seat.

We'll see.

My personal philosophy on it all right now is that I don't want to start a fight with the cats - there's no need.    Coal and I are staunched cuddle-buddies.  The Bean and I have an uneasy truce that's more than two years old.  I don't wanna ruin either of these things over some poo'ing.  I mean, in reality, cat's poo'ing into the pot is completely ridiculous, and I'd rather this be a journey of fun, treats and hilarity than...well...a pissing match.

That being said, the other day, we discovered probably our biggest road block - VACATION.

Possibly June 11th - we'll be going on a much needed vacation - the whole house sans the kitten-fuzzes.
That's in 58 days. That's in 9 weeks.  And since you can only move at the pace of your slowest member...that means in two weeks, we've managed to train a cat to pee off the toilet and onto the floor.