Here are the students: Dumbledore on the left and Merlin on the right:
As a result of having young, impressionable kittens and a seriously small living space myself, I thought toilet training my boys would not only make a cool party trick, but also save the mess, hassle, germs, and tons of money in the long run. Plus, I'm not an idiot. My cats obey me when I'm here, but I know for a fact they climb on the counters when I'm not around. Proof? Steel wool and sponges found in the living and bed rooms..... If they're walking on the counters after taking a big fat poo, who knows where ELSE they're walking and how many poo particles are in other places. In a word, gross.
So, while I was purchasing a ginormous cat post at petco one day, I saw this kit called the "Litter Kwitter" (I know, such clever spelling), and was oh-so tempted to buy it. However, the girlfriend seemed doubtful that it would actually work and said I would be wasting $50.
Fast-forward several weeks later and I was still thinking about it. Figuring that if it didn't work I'd be $50 down, which is not fun, OR if it worked I'd be saving at least $25/month in litter and countless inhalations of kitty poo fumes and litter grains stuck between my toes. Fucking FABULOUS!
So, on my next day off I marched over to Petco to get this nifty little kit and not only were there a lot there (last time it was before Christmas and there was only one left), but this time, it was on sale for $39.95! Hot damn. It was my lucky day.
It is a 3 step program that gradually weans them off litter while introducing them to going in the toilet. It guarantees they'll be trained in 8 weeks or less.
It comes with a toilet seat rim that can fit over any conventional toilet (Japanese style squatters not included), and three trays. The first is red and is a pan into which you pour about 5 cups of litter (no hole). The instructional DVD that is included tells you to get them used to the whole thing on the ground near the toilet. I don't have much floor space in my bathroom and their litter box was already in the bathtub since Dumbledore has a thing for peeing in drains. So I just switched it out.
This was quite a messy stage since there's not a whole lot keeping the litter in that pan and they love to spray litter all over the place when they bury the waste. However, being contained in the tub, it wasn't so bad. And yes, I cleaned/swept up before using the shower myself. So now was a waiting game to see if they would adjust to this part.
Well I didn't have to wait long. That's one good thing about all this. Animals, like us, have to pee and poo a few times a day, so as long as you're home and paying attention, you can catch them and correct any behavior very quickly. Merlin (pictured above) is very laid back and adapts easily to change. Dumbledore, on the other hand, has different ideas about going to the bathroom. He's a little more prissy and needs his area to be clean. If I've been lazy or if he's not comfortable with the arrangement, he'll default to any drain. Most recently, it was the sink... ugh. He got the right idea, however, after I caught him squatting in the sink the second time and plopped him in the litter. Honestly, I think he hates litter as much as I do, which is why I believe he'll love being toilet trained as much as I will.
Next step was to move the toilet shaped litter pan to the toilet itself:
This was the part I was worried about. That big of a change could prompt Dumbledore to start going in the tub again. The question was how to keep him from defaulting to a drain. After watching him go to the tub and try to drink residual shower water (all cats do this in case you didn't know), I had an idea. I plugged the drains so that if he DID pee in the tub, the pee would stay there and not go down the drain, which is the effect I think he likes best. I did the same with the sink. Then, to discourage him even more from using it as a toilet, I let a little water run so there was a puddle by the drain. He loved it! I was a brand new watering hole! Both of them have been drinking from it. I repeated it with the sink, but the plug doesn't fit tight enough to keep the puddle. I then decided to take a plastic jar/tub/thing (take-out thai food container to be exact) and put them over the drains just to create that extra barrier.
As a result, I had switched the roles of the toilet and tub. They loved drinking from the toilet and doing their business in the litter box in the tub. I essentially created the same thing, but reversed.
Merlin, as suspected, had absolutely no problem at all and as soon as he had to pee, jumped up and went.
Woohoo! Go Merlin! Unfortunately, Dumbledore was going to need a bit more coaxing, so I made a trip down to Mud Bay to grab what is hopefully my last bag of litter and some food. While there, I spotted something that I knew would help my cause and be healthy for the little buggers as well.
Dried Bonito flakes!! For those of you not in the know, these are cured and dried fish shavings. Strangely enough, Japanese LOVE to top their food (especially okonomiyaki) with these. They move with the steam and heat waves coming off the food, which gives them the appearance of being alive. Along with being totally creepy, they taste disgusting. I could never get into them. But whatever, the cats LOVE them! Anyhoo, I thought it was particularly amusing that in the States they sell them solely as cat treats -- never as actual people food. Though I'm sure you could find them at Uwajimaya and H-Mart in the snack sections.
I worked with Dumbledore last night: placing him on the litter seat and giving him bonito flakes while telling him what a good boy he was and generally schmoozing him into feeling comfortable up there. (I'm an excellent schmoozer. I work in retail. It's my job.) He never went last night -- I think he was holding out. However, I knew something would happen in the morning. AND IT DID!!
Ta da!!! Go DD! And what nice form he has too :-). I was such a proud mama this morning. I made sure he got extra ear scratches and treats. I left for an hour to get breakfast and when I returned realized that one of them had pooed in the tray! This is important, folks. Peeing is the easy part. Pooing is the more anxiety inducing part. I know this from experience. When having to use the Japanese squatter toilets for the first time squatting to pee was easy -- I'd done it in nature quite a few times. But pooing was another matter all together -- no one wants to clean that shit up, literally. In fact, our "first squatting experience" was a popular topic of conversation among the gaijin that first week we were there.
Anyway, I figured the mystery poo was Merlin since he seems to do everything first. 5 minutes later, the suspicion was confirmed.
Another victory for DD! Fan-fucking-tastic! Step 1.5 accomplished! Now all I have to do is wait a week or so (they recommend 2 weeks at each stage and it's already been one) and then switch to the orange ring below:
At that point they will learn how to go into the water itself but still have the security of the litter in the ring around there. Luckily, most of the time the waste lands in the center part of the red ring anyway so it seems like it'll be a common sense transition. We shall see.
To be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment