Kitty Box Update

SO I am sure you are wondering - how are the cats doing with their trendy new cat box eh? Well let's see, since I last informed you, it appears that Baggy has figured out how to escape the box without getting his tail slammed in it - which has helped him in going in the box. He originally was meowing to us (what a good boy) when he had to go - thereby leading us to stuffing him in the box. As of last night - we made the decision to have the door down full time and deal with whatever .....accidents....... might occur.

Then there is Bambi. My beautiful fluffy bunny who is a little shit. Bagheera is the older and smarter cat. He has no problem saying - HEY PEOPLE I need to GO and you have BLOCKED ME. He also is much more intuitive as to - I know that is where I need to go, now how do I go about doing it. Bambi on the other hand, well she is not the sharpest tool in the shed. SO Sunday morning as I was sitting on the couch doing some work, I hear my fluffball leap up on the black leather couch to the left of me. My first inclination is that she doesn't normally jump up there - but I shrugged it off and paid attention to my computer as it looked like she was just circling the seat to find a comfortable spot to sit. And then I heard an all too familiar sound after she found her spot........you know the one........the paw, paw, paw, pawing of a cat foot on something. As my ears perk up, knowing the signals, my rational brain is contradicting my inner voice. But I look anyway. As I am staring at her - once again my senses are contradicting themselves as I see her look at me, spread her short fat little legs, squat her but down and then comes the sound that overrides anything,

Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Like a flash I am up out of my chair and on that little furball. Grabbing her and running toward the cat box - meanwhile screaming at her like I have lost my mind. She of course is growling at me the whole time. Like I care at that point. So I stuff her in that box. She comes out. I stuff her in it again. She comes out again. I stuff her in that box again! She finally gives me her grumpy stare down from the other side of the door and turns and goes in one of the boxes.

I return to then be irked about the mess I have to clean up. The reality of it is - she was being spiteful. And in some ways - I was lucky she did it on the couch instead of the microfiber couch or the floor. It was easy to clean up and I made sure to add some pine sol to make her never want to go there again! But it still was frustrating - because she knows where she is supposed to go.

Needless to say - we are struggling a little bit with the door. They now both get out just fine. Getting them to go in on their own however is the tough part. So we have reverted to a familiar exercise we all learned in psych class in high school - a little Pavlov's Dog routine. So now - if they do their business in the box - even if we had to shove them through, they get the one thing they both crave.........the hair brush. And of course lots of positive reinforcement. Bambi still has not mastered the cat door not slamming her tail at the end when she comes out - but I think after it happens enough times - she will figure out what she needs to do. I can't baby her forever on this.

So we shall see if I have any fun surprises when I come home tonight. Here is to hoping they did what they are supposed to do.