PhiLLy RoLL

Some Success

I suppose it was to be expected that the cats wouldn't take to the toilet right away.

When the CitiKitty seat came in the mail today, I couldn't wait to try it out. I put it on the toilet seat and filled it with litter. (See here.) I don't have flushable litter yet, but I figured that was fine since none of it would be going in the toilet and anyway, I didn't want to switch litter on them at this point. I probably won't do that for several days at least.

I expected the cats to be a little wary of it, but imagined that when I picked them up and showed them their new litter that they would take to it right away. Needless to say, this didn't happen.

Here is Koji surveying the toilet seat, so clearly he is aware of it. Tako didn't explore as much, but he looked at it when I brought him over. So I knew that they both knew about it and I waited for them to use it.

Shortly after I'd put it in, I heard a sort of meowing/crying from the bathroom. I came to the door to see Tako standing on the toilet, crying out as if to say, "I really don't like this. What did you DO?!" Then when I got closer he jumped off the toilet and ran out of the room.

Then hours passed while they slept.

Finally, they both awoke and headed for a snack, and then looked for the litter. Koji seemed in disbelief. He checked the bathroom and I showed him the litter, but he seemed almost to shake his head. Then he walked back out to the living room to the old spot where we'd kept the litter. No, it wasn't there either. He returned to the bathroom and looked at the toilet with a look of resignation. But that doesn't mean he planned to use it. No, he had in mind another hour or so of walking around, meowing at me, and looking at me with tilted head as if to appeal to my sense of pity. But of course it was too late now. I couldn't bring out their litter box because then I would only be training them that if they want the litter back they just have to wait and ask me a lot.

At one point I took the lid off the old litter box (hidden in the shower) and put it over the toilet. Koji saw the lid and came running, but when he poked his head under and saw the toilet (seriously, it's not like you couldn't see the rest of the toilet all around the lid), he appeared miffed.

Finally, finally, after much standoff, he sniffed around, sighed a big heavy sigh, and hopped up on the toilet. It was only then that I realized how small the opening of the toilet was. His whole body barely fit. I guess that's a good thing because eventually I want his legs up on the toilet seat. But he managed ok (see here).

Afterwards he was so happy that he literally skipped around the apartment. And after a while, he settled down on the bed for a nap and looked very content.

But he hasn't gone back, in spite of the fact that I think he needs to go again.

And Tako is completely holding out. I had actually thought I might be more likely to convince him through gentle talking and placing him on the toilet, but he is really stubborn when it comes to doing his business. Fortunately, from past experience, he tends to wail when he feels forced to pee somewhere that is not a litter box, so I'm hoping to catch him in the act if he tries to go somewhere other than the toilet. But I don't know now... it's been all day and he's been needy (he's on my lap now), but just does not want to use that new litter pan.

J thinks I moved them to the toilet too quickly and is worried about switching them back to a litter box during our Superbowl party. He might be right, but there's no turning back now. I don't want them to think that they just have to wait it out and eventually the litter box will return. But we'll see... my guess is that Tako is going to find a spot somewhere else in the apartment to go. I'm hoping that after that (if it comes to that) the litter pan will seem like a better option.

Raising the Box

Since the cats are not at all thrown off by the litter being in the bathroom, I decided that today I would start raising it up. The website I've been following suggests raising the litter box two inches at a time, but I really didn't think they would be all that confused if I just raised it right up to the level of the toilet. (See today's photo. The cardboard box in front is supposed to be a step stool.)

The cats have no problem using the box at this level, so if I could, I would move onto the next step tomorrow. (At this point I am so convinced this is going to succeed that I am surprised the cats are not already using the toilet.)

However, we decided to splurge on the CitiKitty contraption and it won't be here for a few days. Also, J pointed out that we are having a Superbowl party this weekend and so maybe we should wait until after that before doing anything funky to our toilet. But we'll see. If the CityKitty thing comes really quickly, I might at least start getting the cats used to it even if during the party we put a litter box in the bedroom so the cats have a place to hide and poop in peace.

Toilet Training

I am about to embark on a project whose success is, at best, dubious. I am going to try to toilet train our cats. Seriously.

I'm not just doing this because I think it sounds fun (it doesn't) or that it would be cute (I'm not sure it is), but because I hate cleaning the litter and I hate the smell of amonia in the apartment. We'd recently switched to Yesterday's News litter, which does track a lot less than what we were previously using (Scoop Away). But it doesn't control odor nearly as well, and within a couple of days the inside of my nostrils are burning with the amonia in the air. I can't imagine that's healthy for any of us.

I recently stumbled upong this page describing how to toilet train your cat. She made it sound so easy, and to prove that it really worked, she has pictures. So I'm going to give it a shot too. She even suggests that the final step of removing the litter pan in the toilet be done when you can be home to be sure the cats really take to it, and I'm still at home during the day now, so this seems like the perfect time in our lives to give this a try.

To the extent that the cats will oblige, I will keep you updated with pictures in this photo album). Wish me luck!