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.

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.