While I'm Writing My Exam...

Okay, so something went wrong and I am having to post this now. But this is what I intended...

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Guess what?

I am writing my exam RIGHT NOW.

That's right; I am in a classroom, writing my first exam of the term.

Now before you jump to the conclusion that I am the worst student ever to live, let me explain: This is a scheduled Kitten Blog, meaning that I wrote this on Sunday night, but had it scheduled to be published smack dab in the middle of my exam.

I thought I should use such a post to ponder how Kitten might spend his time while I am off spewing out more facts about corporations than anyone should ever really even know.

This is how I imagine his day is going:

Kitten will probably start off his day by lying on my bed, and rolling around a bit to make sure he gets his fur everywhere.

Afterwards, he'll probably go use the litter...

...and then have a drink from his Kitten Fountain.

Next, I imagine he will lie on the back of the couch, and distribute fur all over it too.

He will probably get bored of soft surfaces, like the bed and the couch, and move to harder ones, like the filing cabinet.

By now, he will want to go lie in...

... a couple of awkward positions.

And one more for good measure.

Kitten will then realize that he hasn't eaten in a while, and will go lie by his food bowls in hopes that his mere proximity to them will conjure the glory that is canned food. It won't. It never does.

After realizing that he can only eat dry food until my return, he will go and investigate the pigeons.

And then go back to the bed to get a bit more fur on it before I get home.

Potty Training: The Final Chapter

I know I have been promising this for a while, but I am finally going to tell the final chapter of the Potty Training Saga. 

For those of you who are new to the Kitten Blog, or simply have a poor memory, you can get caught up on the Potty Training Saga: here, then here, then here and finally the last paragraph from here.

The short story is, we failed. But let me start from the beginning:

After an initial rough start...

...things seemed to be going pretty well.

Kitten was using the litter tray on the toilet. As you can probably tell from his facial expressions, he didn't really enjoy it; but since it was the only option, he put up with it.

Unfortunately, as we took out more and more rings, Kitten still clung to using the litter. He would perch right on the ring of litter when we was supposed to be sitting on the edge of the toilet seat.

Then one day, for no apparent reason, Kitten decided that he would only pee in the litter. I have no idea what happened, but out of the blue, Kitten started doing "number two" in anything porcelain, except the toilet. As soon as Boyfriend or I heard scratching in the tub, we knew what Kitten was up to.

Boyfriend looked into this online and found out that this is a pretty common problem with cats being toilet trained. For some reason, most cats are okay using the toilet, except for "number twos." 

We weren't ready to give up, so we decided that we would keep toilet training, but provide Kitten with litter for "number twos." We filled a small tray with litter, put a lid on it, and kept it under the sink. Kitten was pretty good at letting up know when he had to go, and we would pull it out for him to use.

Things seemed to be back on (the altered) track. But then, Kitten got sneaky.

He started pretending to need to go "number two" and would then proceed to pee in the litter box. Next thing we knew, he was refusing to use the toilet at all. And not only was he refusing to use the toilet, he devolved from using porcelain to using the bath mat, which he would kindly flip over when he was done, leaving a pleasant surprise when Boyfriend or I went to shower. 

The whole situation fell apart and Boyfriend and I (once again) conceded defeat.

We really did not want to go back to using litter though since Kitten's abnormally furry paws track litter everywhere, sometimes making it necessary to sweep three to four times a day.

Abnormally furry paw.

I did some research, and have come up with some form of a solution: Pellet Litter.

There are apparently many types of pellet litter. The one I bought is milled grain. Since the pellets are larger, they shouldn't get caught in Kitten's fur the way little flecks of regular litter do. 

At first Kitten was not too impressed. I tried to put him in the pellet litter and he absolutely freaked out. He didn't seem to like the feel of the pellets, so I ended up putting a pretty thick layer of regular litter over the pellets and he now seems okay with it. I think next time I can get rid of the litter completely.

Since switching to pellet litter, I have only seen a few pellets on the floor. A few pellets a day is pretty exciting for me; a massive improvement from handfuls of litter.

Ultimately, I am still sad that the potty training failed, but I am happy to have found a better alternative to regular litter.

And that my friends, is the end of the Potty Training Saga.

Potty Training Redux

After about two and a half years of anxiety and frustration caused by Kitten tracking litter absolutely everywhere (see: A Paw Problem), Boyfriend and I decided to take another shot at potty training him.

A few months back I was watching Shark Tank (which by the way, is no Dragons Den) and I saw the CitiKitty. It looked much more feline-ergonomic than the model Boyfriend and I had considered and rejected the first time round. 

The fact that we tried to make one of these ourselves may have been the reason for our ultimate failure. That, and Kitten was a kitten the first time and the instructions that came with the CitiKitty said you should only train adult cats.

The CitiKitty actually arrived prior to our Bonnaroo trip, but since the process requires supervision, we waited until we got back.

This is basically how it works:

You place the cats regular litter near the toilet so he gets used to going there. Then, you place the white plastic piece over the toilet and put enough litter in it to cover the entire bottom. The toilet seat rests on top of this so that the cat needs to sit on the seat to squat in the litter. You are supposed to clean the litter immediately since cats use litter to hide the smell -- if they learn that there is no smell, they won't try to burry it.

Once the cat gets used to this, you cut out the first pointy-oval shaped piece and wait until the cat has gotten comfortable with this change. Slowly you remove each section. The cat should learn to balance on the seat and should eventually realize that water covers smell just as well as litter.

Kitten enjoying the change-over process. 

The seat should be down, but this is what it looks like.

Well, this is how it is supposed to work.

When we first removed Kitten's litter box and replaced it with the white tray he was not too impressed. He checked it out to see what was blocking the way to his "water bowl." But because Kitten is a cat, he is engrained to use litter, so begrudgingly, he did.

Covering the scent is a very big issue for Kitten. Since there is only a small amount of litter in the tray, it is impossible to bury anything so Kitten needs to rely on Boyfriend and I to clean the tray after he uses it. Kitten however, has trust issues and always tries to deal with the stink himself. This leads to litter everywhere, including Kittens face.

Unimpressed Kitten with litter on his face.

Another issue Kitten has is that he prefers to sit directly on the tray as opposed to sitting on the seat. This is a crucial set back for us, since inevitably, Kitten must learn to sit on the seat. Unfortunately, it is difficult to work on this aspect of the training, when Kitten still has issues with using the tray.

He is able to go #1 in it without much trouble, though he won't use the tray again unless it is cleaned right away. The real problem is #2s. Even if the tray is perfectly clean, Kitten still gets anxious about using it for #2s. He prefers instead, the bathtub. 

Every now and then I hear a distinct echo of something in the bathtub (generally followed by a scratching sound) -- and I know. 

He has only done this a few times, but considering that we have been working on this for over a month, I was hoping he would not still be reverting to #2s in the bathtub at this point in the training. 

In fact, while I was writing this post I heard Kitten jump in the bathtub. I ran in, pulled him out and put him on the litter tray and walked away. Then, a few minutes later, I heard it again. So I ran in, pulled him out and put him on the litter tray. This time I stood over him and held him in place. Oddly enough, I think he finds it comforting to have someone there with him because as soon as I held him in place, he #2'd.

Ideally, I would like to not have to assist my cat with his BMs, but if this whole thing works, I am pretty sure it will all be worth it.

I will keep you up-to-date with some status reports throughout Kitten's potty training process. Right now we have the first pointy-oval shape popped out and Kitten seems okay with that adjustment. Considering his bathtub attempt this morning though, I think it will be a while before we remove another one.

In the meantime, please enjoy this video of me attempting to remove Kitten from the bathtub:

The Quest for Regularity

WARNING: For anyone who may be squeamish and/or eating while reading this post, please do not proceed. The following is the heart-wrenching tale of how Kitten recently battled a severe bout of constipation. I will start from the beginning… 

As you may remember from A Paw Problem Kitten is always in and out of his litter box and tracking litter everywhere. I mentioned how he seemed obsessed with his litter and how sometimes he would just sit in there and do nothing for long periods of time. Well on Monday, the day before my last exam, Kitten went into his litter box first thing in the morning and just sat there with his head sticking out. Alone, that would have been weird for Kitten since he never leaves his head out of the litter box, but on top of that, he stayed in there for over 20 minutes. I went and shower and he was still in there. I thought this was weird, even for Kitten, but with an exam the next day, I just ignored it. 

Later in the morning, Kitten was in and out of the litter at least 5 times. It was starting to drive me insane because every time he came out, I would need to sweep; if I didn’t, he would track litter everywhere. At one point, I accidentally hit him with the broom when I was trying to get the litter off him. He got quite mad and ignored me most of the day. I thought this was the reason why he wasn't being a good study buddy while I studied. 

That evening Boyfriend got home and immediately asked me what was wrong with Kitten. I asked him why he thought there was something wrong and he said that Kitten ALWAYS comes to meet him at the door and because he didn’t, something HAD to be wrong. I told Boyfriend he was being crazy and I went back to studying. A while later though, Boyfriend said that there REALLY was something wrong with Kitten. I asked him what he meant and he said that Kitten had been sitting in one spot without moving for at least 10 minutes. I told Boyfriend that the same thing happened in his litter box this morning. 

At first, we thought that Kitten was having a seizure. We tried pushing him and he just slid across the floor, frozen like a statue. When we realized he wasn't have a seizure, we got out the cheese to try to lure him away from where he was sitting. The moment Kitten looked at that cheese with distain, we knew something was very wrong. Slowly Boyfriend and I put it all together and realized that Kitten was severely constipated. He hadn't pooped in a day or two, yet he was in and out of his litter ALL the time. He wasn't eating. He was licking his “behind” constantly. He wasn't walking and when he did walk, he walked like there was a pickle in him.

Boyfriend immediately searched online to see what we could do. Since cats are lactose intolerant, we gave him some milk to see if that would help. Boyfriend was also convinced that he could manually push it out. He tried pretty hard and said he "could feel it," but unfortunately wasn't able to squeeze it out. 

I was very worried since it was so bad that Kitten could barley walk, but Boyfriend assured me that he would keep an eye on Kitten when I went to bed (though he also told me that animals can die of constipation). Boyfriend then said that if Kitten didn't go by tomorrow, he was going to give him an enema. I am dead serious. Boyfriend was going to give Kitten an enema. Thankfully, Kitten did go over night. Though he still seemed a bit off the next day.

Boyfriend and I looked into things we could do to help Kitten stay regular. Boyfriend promised he would stop giving him cheese, and we decided we would switch his dry food and start giving him wet food again. 

Yesterday, I went to the pet store to pick up these supplies. I told the pet store girl that my cat was constipated and she was very sympathetic and told me that cats don't naturally drink a lot of water, so they should have wet food daily to get their fluids. She also told me that if it got bad again, to mix some pure pumpkin puree into his food. I held off on the pumpkin, but I will say that I was a bit frustrated to be buying a brand new bag of cat food since the one we had was only half done and we buy pretty expense food for Kitten. 

This is what Kitten had…

And this is the new one I got for him. He also got a few cans of fancy wet cat food.

On top of all of this, we also bought Kitten cat grass to get some fiber into him. The store only had the kind that you grow yourself. I just planted the seeds last night, so hopefully they will actually grow.

Honestly though, Kitten eats better than boyfriend and I. The products in Kitten’s food are all grown in Canada, the meat is free range and there are no preservatives. And Boyfriend and I eat things like this:

Luckily, Kitten seems to be getting back on track (no pumpkin or enema needed). He has been running around and breaking things like normal all day, which makes me very happy.  

Oh, and don’t forget to vote for Kitten’s Look-A-Like!

A Paw Problem

Every morning before I go to class I quickly sweep the floor of our living room because, inevitably during the night, Kitten has made a mess of his litter. You may remember from my Potty Training post that litter woes was one of the main reasons that Boyfriend and I had hoped to potty train Kitten (and as you will also know if you have read the post, we failed horribly). You may also remember from Custody of Kitten, that I have the responsibility of maintaining the litter; this includes spillage.  

Potty Training

Here's a story from the archives:

Before we picked Kitten up, Boyfriend and I  decided that we were going to potty train him. By "potty train" I mean toilet train. We didn't like the idea of cleaning litter all of the time and also thought it would be a pretty cool party trick to have a cat that could use the toilet.

We had researched it a fair bit online and came across this site. I highly suggest you take a look; not only will it help you picture a few things I am about to explain, but it also has an awesome video you can watch. The basic concept is that you slowly aclimate the kitten or cat to toilet use. You start with the litter-box beside the toilet and day by day raise it up to toilet level. Then you have litter resting in the toilet, and finally you only put litter in rings along the inside (this will really make much more sense if you just go to the link).

Anyway, Boyfriend and I didn't want to spend our money on stupid plastic rings when we could clearly construct something equivalent ourselves. We set out to become master cat trainers. 

From day one we had the little-box in the bathroom.

This is Kitten, who had fallen asleep trying to climb out of his litter box. As you will recall from an earlier post, Kitten apparently had some narcolepsy issues in his kittenhood. 

Clearly, we could not have the box any higher than floor level at this point. But as you can see, the litter box is right beside the toilet. 

As Kitten grew, Boyfriend and I put textbooks under the box to raise it to toilet level.

The photo below isn't related to Kitten's toilet training saga in any meaningful way, but it is pretty awesome:

Once we had the box at toilet level I constructed a DYI version of the plastic rings. I started out with a shallow tray resting across the opening of the toilet. After about a week of that, I created a small hole in the centre. Each week, I would make the hole a bit bigger. It seemed to be working fairly well; Kitten would sit on the edge of the toilet like we hoped, however, he was really fixated on aiming for the litter. He was not okay with his business falling into the toilet. He also would paw in the air around the toilet like he was trying to bury it. Our toilet seat got quite scratched up during this experiment.

Like I said, things were going pretty well. It was frustrating having to move the litter-ring every time we wanted to use the bathroom, and it definitely made our house guests feel uncomfortable, but we felt it was worth it for the end result.

The ring got thinner and thinner and as it became thinner, it also became less sturdy. Kitten, who had not yet mastered balancing on the toilet seat, would put his entire weight on it and would end up falling into the toilet along with the ring.

What we thought would be a fun experiment was starting to become quite a burden. The rings were becoming more difficult for me to make and Kitten was falling in on a regular basis. Every time he fell in, the litter would fall in too and we would have to deal with that as well (we had flushable litter, but it was still a pain).

The straw that broke the camels back: One day, little gifts started showing up in our sink and bathtub. 

This was upsetting for Boyfriend and me on so many levels. 

I guess Kitten had also met his breaking point with the toilet rings. We didn't know that Kitten had coordination problems at this time, but in retrospect he probably physically cannot balance on a toilet seat. Regardless of his reasoning, Kitten was done with the toilet. He does deserve some credit though, as he mainly kept his gifts to things that appeared porcelain. 

Boyfriend and I gave up and in case you are wondering, Kitten is now very well trained to use a conventional litter-box.