Ok, perhaps not fully blown success but an admirable level of achievement all the same. In the last post I showed off the mixing bowl in the loo. Turned out this wasn't just the greatest of ideas.
She kitten thought it was fantastic. First there was the game of scooping the litter out if the bowl and onto the floor. I could see that this was bad now but I could clearly envisage this becoming more of an issue when the bowl was later removed and I would no doubt find her stuck head first down the lav playing with the floaters. If you have any poo, fling it now...
As if this was not bad enough, she also discovered that the stainless steel bowl made a satisfying clanking noise if you sat in it and rocked backwards and forwards. Now the "how to" website had clearly described that the cat was supposed to stand on the seat with one leg in the bowl, not sitting in the bowl rocking backwards and forwards like an asylum inpatient.
I have two options here. I assume my kitten is either a feces fiddling cretin or she is of above average intelligence and mocking my feeble attempts to train her. I'm now emotionally invested in getting them to use the loo so I'm going with the second, hopefully I'm a big enough person to admit when I'm wrong.
In order to prevent the constant sound of something akin to a cup being dragged along prison bars I invested in some blue tack and applied it liberally around the rim to provide some anchoring effect.
I patted myself on the back for my can do kiwi number 8 wire attitude.
And then she ate the blue tack.
Gifted I tell you. I wish there was Mensa for kittens.
Oh, and they completely refused to use it for the intended purpose.
So I abandoned this approach and turned to my old friend the Internet and my afore mentioned DIY skills.
I went to the supermarket and returned with a disposable aluminium roasting dish and a roll of duct tape. The kittens didn't even have the good sense to look nervous.
I cut down the roasting dish and taped it down onto the bowl. A sheet of newspaper on top and the seat lowered down, a sprinkling of litter et voilà!
And miracle of miracles, they are using it!
From here we cut a hole in the middle, slowly making it larger and larger until it's completely gone. Hopefully.
3 comments:
Congratulations! I've been following your progress with this project and am incredibly impressed. This type of training would never work wih my two Burmese as they are obsessed with water and would probably prefer to drink from the bowl rather than use it for its intended purpose. As it is we have to leave the lids down so they don't fall in - they are such klutzes.
Well done! You had me chortling away to myself...
wow. how did you manage to get your cat to use the loo? did you buy the kitty loo product for that? i need to teach my cat that too as kitty litter's expensive and the quality isn't that great.
-steph
PS got your blog from foodlovers.co.nz
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