Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I give

We give up. We surrender. Star wins. She usually does... So she gets her way again, the little tyrant.

She tinkles on the hall carpet. We spray the hall carpet. She waits for the smell to go away. She tinkles on the hall carpet. We cut the hall carpet out. She tinkles on the bare wood. We spray kitty keep away stuff. She waits for the smell to die down. She tinkles on the other side of the hall on the bare wood. We spray the whole freaking thing with kitty keep away. She waits until we forget to reapply. She tinkles in both spots.

Ok. Fine. We give up. We put a litter box upstairs in the hall. We didn’t want to, we fought against it. But it was, finally, the best, and only solution. We certainly don’t want to have her still tinkling on the floor when the new carpet arrives. Whenever that is.. (sigh, these things never go as quickly as you hope.)

We cut down two sides of a plastic tub and put a small try in it to keep her from scratching the walls and kicking litter all over the place. It was a good thought... But the tray was too short and in one night she kicked most of the litter out. But the tub contained it! Most of it, she did leave the bits that stick to her toe floof where bare feet can find it. So thoughtful, isn’t she?

We definitely need a bigger tray. We might need a bigger tub. Those Katnip Lounge kitties might really have something with their litter box pools, plastic kiddy pools used for litter boxes. I wonder if she’d still be able to kick most of the litter out.. She can be very determined when she gets a bee in her bonnet.

Leo was funny when he discovered the new box. He came running up to see me when he heard me running water. I pet him but he was distracted by unusual smells. So he crept out and, low to the ground, set his sniffer wiggling in the direction of the new box. He snuck over and examined the facilities. I think the tub kind of freaked him out. He didn’t go in or use it, but he knows it’s there, so I am sure it won’t be long before he leaves his calling card for Star to find.

Too bad it’s Star-sized and not Leo-sized. I think he’d be cramped in there. Then again.. maybe Star isn’t the one who tossed the contents.. She digs a lot, but I’ve never seen her get THAT vigorous. Leo, the big goofball, I could see thinking of it as a fun game, seeing how far he could toss the bits.

Star has her odd habits; she is cover-obsessed. She will scratch and dig at the walls as if she were looking for floating litter bits to drag back to cover her business. When she deposits a hairball, she has been known to drag things all the way across the room to cover it. "Oh, how did this video box get in the middle of the room? Oh EWWWWWW! STAR!" She drags things off shelves and empties tissue boxes.. Obsessed I tells ya!



About time you gave into my demands, I was about to start getting nasty..

 
Messy litter? I know nothing about it.. hee hee

3 comments:

Random Felines said...

Amazing that it can take so long for us humans to just realize it is easier to surrender than to fight it. It may not be attrative but hey -it works. :)

Bryan said...

So true they will will. I have to put old towels down for Girl to tinkle on, other wise she will find what ever clothes I leave on the floor. (Other cats make her nervous)

Katnip Lounge said...

We've done the same thing too. You may have luck GRADUALLY moving the box into a new location...like a inch a day.
What about a covered box, or a plastic storage tub the size you would keep files in?
There's also a product designed to attract cats to the box; mainly used for kittens but we had some luck with it.