Otonabee

Reflections in the Otonabee river.

Cat toilet training update 2

Now we’re on step 2 and things are a little rocky.

Step 1, you may recall, involved my cat Clint Eastwood learning to jump up on the toilet and do his business in a shallow tray of litter under the seat. Clint seemed to have no problems with step 1, so after a week or so I moved him on to step 2.

In Step 2 you remove a perforated section of the litter tray, opening a small hole. Clint Eastwood seemed fine with this for about a day, but then he pooped on the floor next to the toilet. (In the world of cat toilet training this is technically called an “accident,” although I think he did it on purpose. It’s not like he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He just didn’t want to do it.)

At this point I’m aware that Clint Eastwood doesn’t like to use the tray with the hole in it. He tries to hold it indefinitely, reasoning in his tiny brain that if he never does any business again he will never have to use the tray. But he can’t hold it forever, and after 24 hours or more (always at night) I hear him roaming around the house uttering high-pitched cries. They are quite unlike his usual guttural cries, which mean “Hey! Get out of bed and give me a treat.” These cries mean “I need to do my business and I don’t like the CitiKitty cat litter tray and you got mad at me when I did it on the floor, so I don’t know where the heck I’m supposed to do it. My life is impossible!”

When I hear him roaming around and crying like that I get up and lift him onto the toilet a few times to remind him of where he’s supposed to do it. Usually he looks at me like “Ya ya I know but I don’t like it!” and jumps down and goes back to roaming and crying. But eventually he needs to go so bad that he does it while he’s up on the toilet, just like I want him to!

He does it just right when he gets it right. It’s a wonderful sight. He perches on the front of the toilet seat with all four paws, hangs his butt over the tray, and drops his turds exactly in the hole, where they slip gently into the water. No scooping required!

At this point I don’t know if we’re going to succeed at this or not. I feel that if I didn’t wake up when Clint Eastwood was roaming and crying and get up and supervise his efforts, he’d just go on having more accidents. But I plan to keep on trying. Wish us luck!