Note: This is a post about cats and their peculiar bathroom habits. If you are not a cat or animal lover you may want to delete right now although my cats will be terribly offended!
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I have one older cat and two younger ones. I cater to my older cat Jake because he has health issues. I want to make his life as comfortable as possible because I never know how long he will be around.
Part of that means that I make his….ummmm….er…..bathroom trips convenient for him.
We have an acre of litter boxes in our finished basement. There is enough sand there to rebuild the dunes in New Jersey that Hurricane Sandy washed away. Just ask the beloved husband. He has hauled tons of sandy litter down the steps. I get the pleasure of hauling it up with “gifts” in it.
During Jake’s last health crisis (if you really want to know click here and here) it became apparent that walking the uncarpeted steps down to the warm, beautifully finished basement was a bit much for him so I did some research. There is no room for a litter box on the first floor and I’m not wild about having a stinky litter box on the bedroom floor. However, I found this new litter box. (Keep in mind here that I am a real sucker for any claim that says it makes scooping poop easier.) It’s called a Litter Genie.
It’s a container that is lined with a plastic bag. You flip the top to put the “stuff” in and then pull a flap. The “gifts” go down to the bottom section and there are two closures that trap the smell. I thought it was worth a try especially since I found a coupon that gave it to me for half price.
I like the system. For one cat it must be a real breeze. I put it in the upstairs main bath (that no one uses). It’s very convenient to scoop and the odor is contained. I was hoping only Jake would use it but that what was I thinking.
I thought I was clear that this was for the geriatric cat but no! My acute hearing picked up the sound of moving sand. I heard it often even when Jake was asleep on the chair.
The other two were very forceful in their response. “What! A new litter box! What do you mean we can’t use it!” Reasoning with a cat is like reasoning with a child.
They just had to explore and put their scent in it….again and again. That means that the capacity which says it holds two weeks’ worth of “stuff” for one cat holds about two days’ worth for my three overachievers.
I now have three cats who didn’t like sharing the acre of litter boxes in the basement using one, only one litter box, upstairs.
The basement cat poop room with exhaust fan doesn’t get much use these days. I am trying to figure out a way to make that spot more exciting. Maybe some pin-up pictures of Garfield would work? Maybe build a kitty spa? Grow catnip under lights? Tell them they can’t go there?
Jake carefully editing this post.
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
Kate, I think I’ll get one of those. Before I retired, I wasn’t home much and so one night on QVC (a Television sales channel), I bought an electronic litter box. The premise was that a cat would get in and do its business, then jump out. The sensor would pick up the moisture and a bar would come across with a rake on the bottom. it would dump the used litter into a compartment. Great premise! The first time one of my cats used it and jumped out, the others came over – very curious. One jumped in. The automated rake began coming forward with a loud whirring noise and almost ran the poor cat over. Everyone ran for the corner of the room and promptly peed on the floor!
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I saw those electric ones and they scared me. The one thing about this product (I no longer use it), it isn’t big enough for 3 cats. The premise is good and it allowed for easy scooping during the day but changing out the bag which was on a continuous roll took some time. I had to do it every 2nd or 3rd day. For me it’s easier to keep bags and scoop once (or twice if necessary and sometimes it is) a day.
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I will keep that in mind, although Charley has litter box duty most of the time. He still laughs when I tell the story about the electric litter box.
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You are lucky!
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😼
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Our two cats seem to be waiting in the wings for the litter box to be emptied. Once it is, they make a beeline for the freshened litter. What cha’ gonna do? It sure doesn’t seem fair for Jake. 🙂
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Just tell them they can use it all they want and I’m sure they’ll go back to their old boxes. I don’t know what it is with cats and their litterboxes. They always want the one they aren’t supposed to be in. My boys also LOVE to dive in right after we’ve finished cleaning it to make sure we’ve done a good job.
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Yes, there is something about a clean litterbox that they can’t stand!
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Ever heard the saying curiosity killed the cat. Not that I am saying that your two other cats will die because they are too nosey. They just love the gizmo. As for the basement, how about installing an elevator. 😆
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A group of us just spent a half hour designing a combo of try and litter box ideas because one lady’s cat used the box, but his back end was always hanging over. He’s old and persnickety and won’t try a hooded box. We’ll see how it work. It’s a relief to know hers isn’t the only one with odd bathroom habits.
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We can’t do hooded boxes in our house. No one will use them. I don’t think they like the confinement and stink in there.
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When they have their choice of boxes, why oh why do they have to use the same one! LOL! I did a blog about cat litter too, if you want to check it out. I tried a LOT of litters…I guess as cat owners, this is an important topic!
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I read your post. I guess we all work to try to get what works best. I love having litter boxes (instead of taking a dog out for a walk with a poop bag) until there are issues. Then you have to figure out what’s going on and try different things. I did get some ideas here that I will try to encourage the younger cats to go back to the basement.
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So real. Open warfare over a litter box intended for a particular cat. Territorial disputes.
Poor Jake. (We had a huge elderly cat that did the over the edge thing – and would complain until the mess was cleaned up. Announced outrage loudly that staff was slow on the job)
How about getting a large container of that cat grass the pet stores sell and putting it under a light in the basement? IT seems to last a long time and RC loves it…maybe lure them down and then while they are in the area….?
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We do have cat grass….in the kitchen and in the bedroom. Maybe a patch in the basement will work. The kitty litter room gets a lot of light.
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Blackie is a big cat so his litle box is an underbed box as well! Unfortunately, He loves to try every angle possible and he still misses and things end up outside the box. If I had a guest bathroom I would put his large little box in the bathtub and then when he missed I could just rinse it away….I have such small dreams and wishes, don’t I? Good luck with the cats and their picky litter box habits!
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I thought about that but fear the clumpable litter that he scatters everywhere would go down the drain and clog the line. Beloved husband would not be happy.
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Threaten to get a puppy! I try the opposite with my dog, threaten to get an adorable little kitten, works like a charm………you know, sometimes.
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Last time I used the word dog in the house, they hid under the beds for a week!
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Haha!
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🙂 🙂 🙂
Don’t have pets.. but do clip coupons.
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Well, that’s a start.
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Yes, it is. lol
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Good luck getting the young agile cats to go into the basement to go. 😉
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You’re right about that.
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We all say we’d like our kitty’s to be over achievers but none of us have thought about telling in which areas we would like that to happen 😀 There are some very fancy, self cleaning litter tray or small house type thingies out there. I would love some of them. Sounds like you’ll have to get something very fancy for the basement.
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Jake is a tall cat who tends to lean his butt over the end of the box occasionally. In the basement I have an under the bed storage box that I use as a litter box. It works wonderfully. He has enough room in it and there are no accidents. Unfortunately I don’t have enough room upstairs. Funny thing — I saw him go down to the basement yesterday. He is very finicky and probably doesn’t like going where the girls go.
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