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Adventures in Potty Training . . .

I am wondering exactly how hard it would be to potty train a cat. Er, four cats, actually.

One upon a time, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy (okay, West Virginia. Yes, the Blue Ridge Mountains are lovely. What a shame they are in a completely different state. I don't care what the song says -- that's yet another reason never to date a musician) far, far away, I had a cat that was potty trained. However, he was a mutant. Seven toes on each front paw (normal back paws -- go figure) and a quarter length tail that looked as if it had two bones. And he hopped, rather than the normal slinky kitty walk essential to the murder of small animals and birds, although that didn't seem to slow him down.

He was a kitten around the time that my brother was potty training. While my brother didn't get it, he certainly did, and quickly moved from the training potty to the big potty. It took my brother another year to master the concept, but the kitty never used a litter box again.

Anyone who has a cat will tell you that is a good thing.

The Boy flatly refuses to use his bathroom -- he says it is creepy. My sister-in-law acquired a shower curtain printed with a lovely pastoral farmland scene, and loved it so much that she felt compelled to paint a matching mural. And then requested that we not paint over it ever, because it is her single greatest artistic accomplishment.

This bathroom has roughly 4.5 tiny painted cows per square foot. Not counting the horses. And chickens.

"Creepy" doesn't begin to describe it . . .

Also, it is very green, in a muted, fake-country-ish sort of shade, rather than a green-the-color-of-life way.

You can understand The Boy's refusal to remove his clothes in front of such an overwhelming audience . . .

Besides, the giant orgy-sized tub is in our bathroom, and has room for the 12 million bath toys and The Boy. And no cows.

The cats might not be as sensitive to the viewing audience, so I could set up in the Cow Bathroom.

I leafed through a book on the subject that advocates placing the litter box next to the potty and gradually elevating it (on a stack of magazines and newspapers -- sounds like a recipe for Plague) to the height of the toilet seat. Meanwhile, the potty in covered with plastic wrap with cat litter in the center.

Eventually you slide the litter box onto the toilet seat, and place an extra toilet seat on top of the litter box. Who has extra toilet seats? And why? Discuss.

Theoretically, Kitty will use the litter box anyway, and you can place a piece of tape, sticky side up, across the toilet seat so that Kitty will have to balance on the seat. Once the kitty manages to go without getting stuck on the tape and dumping cat litter (and "presents") all over the bathroom, you can remove the actual litter box and allegedly Kitty will not notice it is gone and will use the potty like a Big Boy. Er, Kitty.

I'll be sure and let you know what happens.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

okay,

We never potty trained a cat, but yes, I'v heard it is possible and easier I guess. Can you train them to flush too? Is that part of the whole deal?

Anne said...

I doubt it . . . just getting them to use it is going to be a project. Especially since I caught Miss Puppy teaching them how to drink out of it . . .