The Cat's Ass Journals
the third installment of an irregular series
In case you missed it:
Thursday, 14th August 2003
Not too much progress today. Negative, really. I put the last disposable roasting pan in the toilet with a hole in the middle but litter kept spilling out. Couldn't get a lip going. The cat also seemed dubious about it. Eventually, I cut a circle off a plastic cup and wedged it in the hole to form a little rim to keep some of the litter in, but it wasn't quite the right size.
Came home from the fair (rode mechanical bull) to find the cat carefully fitting her entire body into the pan full of litter, aiming butt out and peeing down the side of the toilet.
Goddamnit. We need a new mop; this one is the rectangular kind and is also starting to come apart. It was late and I was hot and tired, so I just threw out the last roast pan and put the spare litterbox out in the kitchen. I am tired of cleaning pee off the bathroom floor with this mop.
I guess the cat just doesn't understand where the pee is supposed to go.
I put a very small layer of litter in the spare litterbox; at least I can work on that angle while I'm letting the bathroom rest.
Matie and I had a long talk. She has an idea: we need to make the cat a toilet simulator. I had thought about that earlier, but this time hit upon the realization that we could just buy a bedside commode. It'd be perfect! The reason for a training toilet is so we could do some drastic and semi-permanent modifications to it without leaving Matie and me with nowhere to pee.
Matie thinks the current problem is that the cat is jumping up to the toilet, then stepping down into the pan. This confuses her when it's gone. We need to have a flat pan at seat-level, then put a hole in it.
(Matie thinks the best success would be if the cat can pee into a regular, unmodified toilet.)
Matie's idea is to tape the flat pan up there, then replace it with a round one made the exact shape as the seat, then make a hole and transition to a donut-shaped litter pan on top of the seat. Gradually we reduce the amount of litter, possibly substituting grip tape (my idea), then voila, the cat is peeing in the toilet.
It sounds like it might work. It seems like the main hurdle is teaching the cat to pee into something, not just where she's standing. We could fill the bucket part of the BSC with water, maybe even blue water, so she didn't stand in it.
Friday, 15th August 2003
Did not find bedside commode (henceforth BSC) at Goodwill after school, before work. Also did not find it last night at Fred Meyer or Wal-Mart. Action plan is to go to some estate sales before work on Saturday.
Cat is peeing into shallow litterbox just fine. She is still much louder (vocally) than usual. I think this experiment is upsetting her worldview a little.
The bathroom smells like cat pee, even though I used so much bleach the many times I cleaned up in there. We need a new mop. Also, I think I didn't clean the actual side of the toilet, so that could be what stinks.
(I was hoping that the pee smell meant the cat was still trying to pee in the bathroom, but that is unlikely.)
If we have a BSC in the kitchen as the cat training device, at least it'll be easier to clean under. Our bathroom is insanely small, our toilet crammed beside the sink and inside a fiendish L-bend. It's hard to clean there.
Saturday, 16th August 2003
Last night at work I went through the yard sale ads and circled a few that sounded like a longtime invalid had died. Today, score! We found a nice bedside commode and I talked them down to ten dollars. Other than that, nothing. Cat is still using the regular pan without much litter in it.
I haven't cleaned the bathroom again, but we did buy a mop. It's another rectangular mop, not a stringy one, but it's made out of metal, not plastic, and looks higher quality.
Didn't set up the BSC yet. Maybe tomorrow. I need to get some cardboard, I think, to make the sides.
Wednesday, 20th August 2003
Where the time does go! I have been at work and school and taking too much advantage of Flicks & Picks' one dollar rental days to work on the cat toilet situation. Also, yesterday we found out we will have company (normal people) tomorrow and we usually kind of live in squalor, so things are a little hectic. Plus Matie needs to clean up the jam all over the floor so we can ask the landlord in to investigate why the stove keeps electrocuting her.
The pause has been good for the cat, though. She had resumed her habit of pacing and yowling terribly at night, which she had stopped for several months as she finally settled in here and learned to stay away from Matie. The ceaseless yowling is reducing in duration and volume as she is assured of a stable place to poop.
I do have one change I will implement tonight: a smaller catbox. Her original litterbox was not designed to be one; it was a Rubbermaid Roughtote box. Those are the best storage containers ever, if you don't have the money to make marble canopic jars for everything. They're also pretty good catboxes in the smaller sizes. You can get them about two feet high - which is too high for most cats to jump but is excellent for storing blankets - but the smaller sizes are about eight inches tall, which is taller than a usual catbox (cuts down on spray) but not insurmountable. The length and width of a Rubbermaid Roughtote are about 14x20 inches. The new box is pretty cheap and nasty; it's thin, brittle plastic and measures 13x18 inches. I swapped it in only because I thought I'd be cutting it down gradually and didn't want to ruin a Rubbermaid tub. The newest box is by the same company and is equally horrible, but it's only 10x14 inches.
I think that practicing on the floor in a proper (but smaller) catbox will help the cat later when she's in the BSC catbox. She had trouble on the toilet figuring out that even if all her paws and body was in the litter pan, her urine could go down the side of the toilet. A familiar box might help her figure out elimination cause and effect.
I also think our trash collection day has been moved from Wednesday to Thursday. They haven't told us anything, but last week I got everything ready Tuesday night and it wasn't picked up until Thursday. Matie and I racked our brains, but couldn't think of any holidays. This week, the same thing. Must be Thursdays now.
This is actually related to the cat thing, because it means I can put the catbox out in the trash in time.
Thursday, 21 August 2003
The BSC was from an estate sale, and had a little latch hook cover on its lid. Until I can engineer the seat-mounted litterbox, it's closed and in the corner by the window. Apparently the cat spends a lot of her time napping on the closed lid. Will this be good or bad? Only time will tell. At least she'll have practice jumping up there.
She is doing just fine using the smaller box; no aiming problems.
Monday, 25 August 2003
It's been a while since I've done anything. Status quo; the cat is using the smaller litterbox in the kitchen. Tonight I watched Scotland, PA (best Macbeth adaptation yet) all alone, Matie being at her GURPS game. I hate not doing anything while watching TV and Mom had bought us a tub of bleach wipes, so I put my hands to work cleaning off the BSC. Close-up, it was pretty disgusting. The latch hook cover had some actual dried feces on it - with matching dried smears on the back of the seat - and I'm pretty sure the bucket hadn't been washed out. Is there anything less classy than selling a toilet chair without washing it? I deal with this kind of thing all the time at work, though so it was clean in a twinkling.
Matie has a plan, which I executed as far as I understand it: I built a 2" wall around the outside of the toilet seat, then another one on the inside rim, making a doughnut-shaped area that could contain litter. I made a sturdy bottom for the hole, too, so the entire toilet seat can be covered in litter. The plan is to get the cat to use this, then reduce the litter on the seat and get her to aim for the litter in the center. After she figures that out, reduce litter in the center and develop a hole, until she's pooping straight down into the BSC bucket. (I'll fill it with water for verisimilitude and odor control.)
I had worried about what to use in constructing thismonstrosity masterpiece. Matie suggested corrugated plastic, but there aren't any elections right now and I hate paying money for things. Luckily, I remembered that we had some spare bubble insulation. It's like bubble wrap in between two flat layers, slightly more rigid and coated in mylar. It's pretty good insulation, and it turns out it's also a decent structural material. It was a little more wobbly than corrugated plastic would have been, but it was also more forgiving.
Making the rims/walls for the seat was a little tricky; I wanted to make it easy to remove one set of walls without taking the other off, as the cat got more precise in her movements. I used duct tape (lots of it) to make the whole thing water-tight, along with a few staples to hold walls in their circular shapes while I taped them together. I think the sides will be independently removable, but it may be more difficult when I can't raise the seat (due to the cat poop and litter on top).
I think the bubble insulation will be more comfortable for the cat than corrugated plastic, too. It has some give.
I wanted to get this set up, but I was pretty tired. I didn't put any litter in, but I did write "SPAAACE TOILET" on the underside of the lid in dry-erase marker. The lid doesn't close now, due to the increased height of the seat.
Matie got home and just laughed and laughed at the toilet, which is very shiny and duct tape-y. I finally added "CAT" to the label to shut her up. I still think it'll work. I'm going to bed.
Don't miss The Cat's Ass Journals, Part 4
Thursday, 14th August 2003
Not too much progress today. Negative, really. I put the last disposable roasting pan in the toilet with a hole in the middle but litter kept spilling out. Couldn't get a lip going. The cat also seemed dubious about it. Eventually, I cut a circle off a plastic cup and wedged it in the hole to form a little rim to keep some of the litter in, but it wasn't quite the right size.
Came home from the fair (rode mechanical bull) to find the cat carefully fitting her entire body into the pan full of litter, aiming butt out and peeing down the side of the toilet.
Goddamnit. We need a new mop; this one is the rectangular kind and is also starting to come apart. It was late and I was hot and tired, so I just threw out the last roast pan and put the spare litterbox out in the kitchen. I am tired of cleaning pee off the bathroom floor with this mop.
I guess the cat just doesn't understand where the pee is supposed to go.
I put a very small layer of litter in the spare litterbox; at least I can work on that angle while I'm letting the bathroom rest.
Matie and I had a long talk. She has an idea: we need to make the cat a toilet simulator. I had thought about that earlier, but this time hit upon the realization that we could just buy a bedside commode. It'd be perfect! The reason for a training toilet is so we could do some drastic and semi-permanent modifications to it without leaving Matie and me with nowhere to pee.
Matie thinks the current problem is that the cat is jumping up to the toilet, then stepping down into the pan. This confuses her when it's gone. We need to have a flat pan at seat-level, then put a hole in it.
(Matie thinks the best success would be if the cat can pee into a regular, unmodified toilet.)
Matie's idea is to tape the flat pan up there, then replace it with a round one made the exact shape as the seat, then make a hole and transition to a donut-shaped litter pan on top of the seat. Gradually we reduce the amount of litter, possibly substituting grip tape (my idea), then voila, the cat is peeing in the toilet.
It sounds like it might work. It seems like the main hurdle is teaching the cat to pee into something, not just where she's standing. We could fill the bucket part of the BSC with water, maybe even blue water, so she didn't stand in it.
Friday, 15th August 2003
Did not find bedside commode (henceforth BSC) at Goodwill after school, before work. Also did not find it last night at Fred Meyer or Wal-Mart. Action plan is to go to some estate sales before work on Saturday.
Cat is peeing into shallow litterbox just fine. She is still much louder (vocally) than usual. I think this experiment is upsetting her worldview a little.
The bathroom smells like cat pee, even though I used so much bleach the many times I cleaned up in there. We need a new mop. Also, I think I didn't clean the actual side of the toilet, so that could be what stinks.
(I was hoping that the pee smell meant the cat was still trying to pee in the bathroom, but that is unlikely.)
If we have a BSC in the kitchen as the cat training device, at least it'll be easier to clean under. Our bathroom is insanely small, our toilet crammed beside the sink and inside a fiendish L-bend. It's hard to clean there.
Saturday, 16th August 2003
Last night at work I went through the yard sale ads and circled a few that sounded like a longtime invalid had died. Today, score! We found a nice bedside commode and I talked them down to ten dollars. Other than that, nothing. Cat is still using the regular pan without much litter in it.
I haven't cleaned the bathroom again, but we did buy a mop. It's another rectangular mop, not a stringy one, but it's made out of metal, not plastic, and looks higher quality.
Didn't set up the BSC yet. Maybe tomorrow. I need to get some cardboard, I think, to make the sides.
Wednesday, 20th August 2003
Where the time does go! I have been at work and school and taking too much advantage of Flicks & Picks' one dollar rental days to work on the cat toilet situation. Also, yesterday we found out we will have company (normal people) tomorrow and we usually kind of live in squalor, so things are a little hectic. Plus Matie needs to clean up the jam all over the floor so we can ask the landlord in to investigate why the stove keeps electrocuting her.
The pause has been good for the cat, though. She had resumed her habit of pacing and yowling terribly at night, which she had stopped for several months as she finally settled in here and learned to stay away from Matie. The ceaseless yowling is reducing in duration and volume as she is assured of a stable place to poop.
I do have one change I will implement tonight: a smaller catbox. Her original litterbox was not designed to be one; it was a Rubbermaid Roughtote box. Those are the best storage containers ever, if you don't have the money to make marble canopic jars for everything. They're also pretty good catboxes in the smaller sizes. You can get them about two feet high - which is too high for most cats to jump but is excellent for storing blankets - but the smaller sizes are about eight inches tall, which is taller than a usual catbox (cuts down on spray) but not insurmountable. The length and width of a Rubbermaid Roughtote are about 14x20 inches. The new box is pretty cheap and nasty; it's thin, brittle plastic and measures 13x18 inches. I swapped it in only because I thought I'd be cutting it down gradually and didn't want to ruin a Rubbermaid tub. The newest box is by the same company and is equally horrible, but it's only 10x14 inches.
I think that practicing on the floor in a proper (but smaller) catbox will help the cat later when she's in the BSC catbox. She had trouble on the toilet figuring out that even if all her paws and body was in the litter pan, her urine could go down the side of the toilet. A familiar box might help her figure out elimination cause and effect.
I also think our trash collection day has been moved from Wednesday to Thursday. They haven't told us anything, but last week I got everything ready Tuesday night and it wasn't picked up until Thursday. Matie and I racked our brains, but couldn't think of any holidays. This week, the same thing. Must be Thursdays now.
This is actually related to the cat thing, because it means I can put the catbox out in the trash in time.
Thursday, 21 August 2003
The BSC was from an estate sale, and had a little latch hook cover on its lid. Until I can engineer the seat-mounted litterbox, it's closed and in the corner by the window. Apparently the cat spends a lot of her time napping on the closed lid. Will this be good or bad? Only time will tell. At least she'll have practice jumping up there.
She is doing just fine using the smaller box; no aiming problems.
Monday, 25 August 2003
It's been a while since I've done anything. Status quo; the cat is using the smaller litterbox in the kitchen. Tonight I watched Scotland, PA (best Macbeth adaptation yet) all alone, Matie being at her GURPS game. I hate not doing anything while watching TV and Mom had bought us a tub of bleach wipes, so I put my hands to work cleaning off the BSC. Close-up, it was pretty disgusting. The latch hook cover had some actual dried feces on it - with matching dried smears on the back of the seat - and I'm pretty sure the bucket hadn't been washed out. Is there anything less classy than selling a toilet chair without washing it? I deal with this kind of thing all the time at work, though so it was clean in a twinkling.
Matie has a plan, which I executed as far as I understand it: I built a 2" wall around the outside of the toilet seat, then another one on the inside rim, making a doughnut-shaped area that could contain litter. I made a sturdy bottom for the hole, too, so the entire toilet seat can be covered in litter. The plan is to get the cat to use this, then reduce the litter on the seat and get her to aim for the litter in the center. After she figures that out, reduce litter in the center and develop a hole, until she's pooping straight down into the BSC bucket. (I'll fill it with water for verisimilitude and odor control.)
I had worried about what to use in constructing this
Making the rims/walls for the seat was a little tricky; I wanted to make it easy to remove one set of walls without taking the other off, as the cat got more precise in her movements. I used duct tape (lots of it) to make the whole thing water-tight, along with a few staples to hold walls in their circular shapes while I taped them together. I think the sides will be independently removable, but it may be more difficult when I can't raise the seat (due to the cat poop and litter on top).
I think the bubble insulation will be more comfortable for the cat than corrugated plastic, too. It has some give.
I wanted to get this set up, but I was pretty tired. I didn't put any litter in, but I did write "SPAAACE TOILET" on the underside of the lid in dry-erase marker. The lid doesn't close now, due to the increased height of the seat.
Matie got home and just laughed and laughed at the toilet, which is very shiny and duct tape-y. I finally added "CAT" to the label to shut her up. I still think it'll work. I'm going to bed.
Don't miss The Cat's Ass Journals, Part 4