Here's to Crazy Cat People

Sharing the Bathroom with Felines

So there I was, doing my usual reading up on the renewable energy industry magazines, industry news articles, and catching up on email ... I know, my idea of fun is possible dimented.  Needing cream for my coffee, I hit the local convenience store and found an article in the Hamilton Spec that caught my eye; it was an article about a TV persona and amazing DIYer living right here in the Greater Hamilton Area.

Eagerly seeking the next procrastinatory adventure so as not to have to focus on the finicky details of numerous projects I have underway, I thought to check her out through her Blog: The Art of Doing Stuff by Karen Bertelsen. Forgive me for not knowing of her.  I'm relatively new to the Hamilton scene and don't subscribe to cable TV.

Don't get me wrong, I have a TV which I purchased from the Restore for $15!  This allows me to watch my old VHS movies.  Neither my laptop nor recently purchased iPhone seem to be able to handle that technology?

Further investigation lead me to another amazing Blogger who commented on Karen's blog about pet food dishes, which then lead me to the post about "How to Toilet Train Your Cat" by Karen.  I call these distractionary dalliances "creative procrastination" vs. time wasters!

So there are women who have cats as pets and they are typically, by default, called 'crazy cat lady'.  I propose that we reserve this ostentatious title for those who successfully toilet train their cats!  Through her Blog, she shares the entire process in great detail and gives tips on how to avoid failure or feline trauma.


I've been in the company of Siamese cats most of my life and often thought about their 'smarts' and considered attempting toilet training, but was always in a career position that took me out of the house for long hours or days on road trips, so couldn't really start a decent program. I have tried every kind of litter known to man in an attempt to reduce waste and weight of feline fecal matter destined for the landfill.

To motivate those dabbling with other solutions to consider the toilet training program, I share the following experiences I've had trying alternative litters.

The Lowdown on Kitty Litter

Clay-based Clumping Litter is bad for the cats' respiratory system, as well as their human companions' and weighs more than the waste management will consider picking up if you have a multi-cat household.

I tried breaking my 1 bag into 2 bags, using the kitty litter bags themselves as bags, only to find that this now exceeds the 1 bag limit (or so it seems, as they only take 1).


Flushable Litter (most) must be administered to the toilet by the tablespoon for low flush toilet-acceptance.  This is, obviously, quite time consuming and not all that enjoyable.

Biodegradable, Grain (corn/wheat) - based Litter is seriously hydrophilic and clumps into concrete-like football-sized offerings (especially the Swheat Scoop) that need to be shovelled vs. scooped and to be chopped up into small pieces before they can be flushed.  Given how light it is, it also tracks all over the house; I actually find it under the covers at the foot of my bed when I'm changing the sheets!!  The upside is that it smells yeasty, like bread :)  Once again, though mildly amusing - especially when people ask why there is a garden shovel next to the toilet, kitty litter box cleaning remains time consuming and whole house litter sweep-up tedious at best.

Wood Pellet / Shavings / Newspaper - based Litter doesn't really clump, results in the house smelling like amonia, and isn't really flushable unless you want to feed the toilet in tablespoon fulls.

Faced with the fact that the majority of the 1/4 bag of garbage I put out on the curb is furry feline fecal matter, I started thinking that there must be a solution. Would you believe that with 3 cats (one was an accident - left behind by a pregnant housemate) my 1/4 bag of garbage weighs too much for the city's waste management crew to take away!!

I now find myself considering weighing in at the local transfer station, but the minimum charge of $8 would suggest that this solution is not a financially viable option let alone an environmentally sustainable one!

 

The Toilet Training Project

So ... the only sustainable, viable solution is to toilet train the feline herd!  My feline family consists of: Suki - an 10-month old Applehead Seal Point Siamese, Nala - a horrifically shy 3 year old Grey Tabby, and Simba - my 15 year old indoor/outdoor Champaign Tabby. P.S. Nala was named by the housemate who didn't know that I had a Simba .. too funny :)

I plan to start the program early next week and report back on anything of value and/or significance I experience :)  Hoping my experience will lend findings of assistance to other novice feline toilet trainers.

Wish me luck!

July 22, 2012 UPDATE

After a week long process of relocating the litter box from the ground floor mudroom to the upstairs bathroom, I began the process of slowly elevating the litter box to the height of the toilet rim.  I learned the hard way that it is imperative that the elevation platform be stable regardless of angle of litter box access.  Since I've always had a roof for my litter boxes, I assumed that the kitties would enter from the front short edge.  Once I removed this roof, to facilitate jumping, I discovered that they were jumping in from the side.  Unfortunately, the printer paper bundles I was using to incrementally raise the height of the box provided too narrow and unstable a base and the litter box was capsized by a member of the study group late last week! 

While this made a mess, no one seems to have been scared by the event except me.  I have since revised the platform and now use small shipping crates I collected from Plan B, a Flamborough Ontario-based organic CSA farm - Thanks Alvaro!

The top edge of the litter box is now roughly 2"-3" below the rim of the toilet.



Since my toilet rim is higher off the ground than a standard toilet and my litter box is quite deep, I may switch to a shallower litter box before I raise it again.  Simba is getting on in age and the Nala is a bit too much of a furry fatso to be much of a high jumper.  But I have great faith in 10-month old Suki.  All three cats religiously drink out of the toilet so I know that they can get up there.  The question is, "Will they jump up there to access the litter box?"  And, eventually, "Will they consider doing there 'business' in a human toilet vs. a litter box?"

I sign off for now and leave you with pictures of the stars of the experiment who are, from left to right (in order of age): Simba, Nala, and Suki.

February 4, 2013 - Belated UPDATE

Sorry for the delay in posting an update on the status of this complex project.  The experiment, unfortunately, actually came to an end mid - August :(  I sincerely thanked the participants in this experiment, especially considering that they really weren't asked for their consent; Simba, Nala & Suki were extraordinary in their own individual ways throughout this undertaking and Suki - own her own - may have succeeded.

Unfortunately, the end result was not quite what I had in mind and we have had to revert back to litter boxes at ground level and litter.  Mind you, it could have been worse - the felines may have decided that if they were expected to use a human toilet, I should now be forced to use the litter box!

The project was cancelled for 3 main reasons:

• Simba, the indoor/outdoor cat, started to take great interest in adding organic matter to my garden;
• Nala, the semi outdoor / shy cat did so as well and, as a 'furry fatso', decided that peeing on the couch was easier than leaping up the Eiffle tower of a toilet and/or trying to get outside; and
• Suki, the indoor cat, got scared by the back-splash created by the 'right height' low flush toilet; at times, I'm even scared by it - it's almost a 1 foot drop from the seat to the top of the water level.

At the end, I would like remind us all that cat's instinctively want to bury their waste, unless they are Tom cats in heat, and that most cats are not all that fond of water.

While it might be a nifty party trick to show people your cats doing their business in the toilet, I've decided that it's almost cruelly inappropriate to even consider training them to so do, given that it goes against their instinctual behaviour and dislike of water.

Alternative Solution 

Composting!!  Green Venture in Hamilton http://water.greenventure.ca/pet-waste-composting holds regular workshops on how this can be done with dog waste and the work shops quickly fill to capacity. I am sure that the same can be done with kitty waste.  I promise to report back :)

I close by highlighting again the amazing subjects of the project, who are (from left to right, based on head position): Suki, Nala, and Simba.  They rock my world!