Cats seem happy and laid back as if we're not trying to coax them into abandoning all of their natural poo-related instincts.
Curtis and I are becoming accustomed to daily swabbing of the decks and sweeping of the litters. But it's really not that bad. That one picture, from the last post, that's the worst it has ever been and I think things get better daily.
So, where did we leave off... ah yes...
Step 3: The Appearance of THE HOLE
Ok, let's talk some more about CitiKitty. It is very well designed and super simple to use, but some of the paperwork is a little misleading.
When you progress to each step you need to remove a small portion of the plastic pan in order to make a hole. The guide shows a nice clean pan with some nice clean hands easily removing the plastic oval. And that would probably be the case if you were starting off with a new pan every time or if you ran the litter-crusted pan through the dishwasher every afternoon but no, your pan is probably going to look like this:
YES. I could have washed it. But because my little ones were having to cope with so much change I was afraid that a thorough scrubbing would leave the pan smelling foreign and "not like us" so we gave it a little tidy-up and then went right ahead.
Little pointy plastic oval popped out just fine with the help of a knife and we set it up.
Looks good!
Then I showed the cats. Their reactions were similar but Hanni seemed a little more concerned than Mischa (as evidenced by his peanut-gallery commentary as she was taking her first look).
Hanni inspecting the toilet from Sarah Coyne on Vimeo.
Mischa inspecting the toilet... from Sarah Coyne on Vimeo.
The peeking down into the hole with heads tilted to the side slays me.
A short while later there were signs of use!
DELIGHTFUL!
The next morning...
Crap.
Ok. So Hanni missed and Mischa just wasn't having it. I was s little confused because they were peeing in there just fine, but the #2s seemed to be causing some stress. I cleaned up and we tried again.
Hanni got it I think the third try. I can understand his hesitation since he's a big guy and the loss of a section of his pooping platform means a slight compromise in the structural integrity. He's VERY smart. I'd be nervous too. But what about the little pixie cat? She was probably just afraid of concentrating too hard and falling down the hole.
While Hanni was making valiant efforts improving his aim (and mostly succeeding), Misch pooped on the floor two more times.
When I was cleaning up in there on day 24, she made a squatting gesture in the sink (where she often stands and judges my cleaning ability) so I covered it with a piece of plexi and again showed her the toilet.
Curtis made the suggestion that we put more litter in the tray. I was hesitant since most of it will just end up down the hole anyway but I took his wise advice.
And wouldn't you know, later that day...
"Well of COURSE I can poop in there, what do you think, I'm some kind of barbarian?"
Curtis gets full credit for that poop being there. Ok, Mischa gets SOME of the credit.
And here we are. Day 26.
We are 'scheduled' to move on to step 4 on Saturday (two weeks from the implementation of step 3 but I think we may give them another week just to be super comfortable with the current configuration. They guide does say to progress only as quickly as the slowest-to-catch-on student so we'll wait until everyone catches up.
Important lessons from the past 3 weeks:
-Lots of litter (and therefore, frequent flushing throughout the day)
-Keep the sink blocked when transitioning steps or Mischa might poop in it
-So many treats for whoever poops in the pan!
And I'll close with some photos of Hanni demonstrating how to cover your poos'n'pees 100% INEFFICIENTLY.
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