Lately, I'm feeling a little boxed in. It could be the bad weather. Or it could be that I'm outnumbered. Indoors, there are six cats and six litter boxes. On the big porch is another litter box, in case an unexpected emergency strikes during a birdwatching session.
Six against one. Even Bruce Lee would think twice about tackling those odds. But I'm no martial artist, I'm just an ordinary moron. To keep the indoor air quality respectable, I go up against those boxes several times a day, more on special occasions.
On bags of litter, all kinds of promises are written. Odorless. Good for multi-cat households. And my favorite, DUST FREE. Believe any of those claims and I've got a bridge to sell you.
Trust me, the only odorless litter box is a clean one. That perfumey stuff just makes "things" smell worse. Some of those clay litters throw so much dust, they aren't safe for humans or pets. All of us, human and felines, hate those paper pellets. If those are dust free, so is dust. Cedar shaving litter smells nice until it's used. Then it becomes ghastly since it doesn't absorb very well. I find it too messy to use indoors and once used, even on a screened porch, it reeks.
All litter sticks in the pads of little paws and tracks all over the place. The fine stuff travels farther and is the worst to clean up.
Then there are individual feline preferences. First and foremost, it's best to keep the cat happy. If the cat doesn't like the litter or the box isn't clean, the cat is apt to select a place outside the litter box. Some humans, myself included, really don't like this practice.
Because one of my cats is asthmatic, lung killing clay and perfume are out. No litter is completely dust free. We finally settled on pine pellet litter. There is some dust which is easily wiped away. But there is not enough dust to make you hack like you've smoked a whole pack of cigarettes instead of cleaning a litter box. Until moistened, the pellets are large, hard and noisy when scratched in. This might bother some cats. My cats tolerate it and I find the noise an advantage, like a built-in alarm system. If a cat goes into the litter box room and starts scratching, I grab the trusty old poopy scooper and a plastic bag and clean it up before the aroma wafts through the house. This is important with a cat, like Tommy the money cat, who could easily be used as a biological weapon.
The two quirky piss pots, Salem and Miss B. prefer the perfumey fine stuff. They have it on the porch and can indulge to their evil little hearts' delight. But if Salem had her druthers, she would just go in the bag of litter. This is so nasty. Once was enough to encourage me to keep open bags of litter closed. Cleaning litter boxes also seems to have a laxative effect on Salem. As soon as I'm finished cleaning the boxes, she has to go.
Cats are fastidious creatures. Mine seem to be more fastidious than normal. One item per litter box is their gold standard. They find the contents of used litter boxes offensive. After a box has been used, Leo will come get me. Like Lassie, he will lure me into the litter box room to do my job. This feline fastidiousness also results in a strange game. While one cat uses the facilities, others will wait outside the room in ambush. When the cat tries to leave the room, the others will chase the offending victim around the house and if caught, the offender will be tackled. Because of this, I have to break up a lot of bathroom brawls.
But at least they use the boxes and I truly appreciate this. People tell me horror stories about living with cats that go any place but the litter box. Since most cats are fastidious, either the offending cat is angry, the cat has a medical problem, the cat doesn't like the litter, or the litter boxes are not clean.
Six cats, seven litter boxes. Some days I feel like.....Queen of the Litter box.
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