The Vine: April 8, 2009
Hi Sars —
I have wonderful, sweet, loving kitty cats, and I’m about to throw them out the window.
They both have good manners when it comes to using their litterbox. Everything goes in the correct place, and there’s no issues with sharing a box. However, when it comes to flushing, they tend to get carried away. Add to that a vigorous poo gallop, and there’s litter everywhere. It’s making me crazy.
I have a covered litter box, but I’m wondering if there’s a better solution. Ideally, I’d get a Roomba, and stop worrying about it, but funds don’t allow for that. Anyone, please, is there any sort of litterbox that keeps litter from flying everywhere?
Cheers,
Littermaid
Dear Maid,
Mr. Stupidhead recently rigged up a solution similar to this one on Ikea Hacker. In his case, the idea was more to prevent the dog from snacking on cat poo, so also check out the “best litterboxes” roundup on Apartment Therapy L.A.
And this model is specifically designed to reduce tracking, although I haven’t tried it myself. I can tell you that my cats wouldn’t go in that thing if you filled it with treats.
The readers will no doubt suggest other ideas; my only remaining advice is to accept that you’ll probably never achieve a litter-free floor. Even if you don’t have a sprayer in the household — and I do, Little Joe — litter sticks in between their little toes and gets tracked around and you will find the occasional grain on top of the damn microwave and wonder what you’ve done to deserve such treatment. But one of these options may cut down on the side effects of the digging.
When does “third party / third parties” get a hyphen?
A.M.
Dear A,
“Third party” takes a hyphen when it’s used as an adjective. When it’s used as a noun, the hyphen isn’t necessary. So, if a third party corrects your grammar, you don’t need a hyphen, but if a third-party candidate corrects your grammar, you do.
This probably won’t apply to the plural, ordinarily; in fact, the phrase “third parties” doesn’t seem to me like it’s in wide usage (you’d say “other parties” or “outside observers” or something like that instead, no?).
This rule always pertains, by the way. “Thank you for the gift,” “I need to write a thank-you note for the gift.”
Dear Sars,
I’m starting at Princeton as a grad student in the fall. Basically, the department’s a great fit, everyone’s been super-nice, and they’re giving me a (comparative) boatload of cash, but I’m still kind of scared of Princeton.
My own alma mater is a scruffy, impassioned small liberal arts college with a national reputation for being — let’s say it gently — offbeat. Obviously, Princeton is very different. The leggy blonde undergrads seem to jog at all hours of every day, all short shorts and bouncing ponytails, and a popped collar on a pink Brooks Brothers shirt is Frisbee-wear, not a costume.
Basically, I associate Princeton with snobbish baby masters of the universe, and I fear their judgment, even though most of them can’t legally drink. You’re not terrifying, and I know that you do not have a bouncing blonde ponytail, and you’ve mentioned liking Princeton. Can you give me any tips on navigating it successfully, without letting my self-doubting tendencies take over?
Thanks,
Scared That I’ll Be Too Scared To Use The Gym
Dear As Well You Should Be, My Hampshire Friend,
(Heh.…Except seriously, the gym was kind of a horror show 15 years ago. “Sussudio” on endless loop. Wii Fit is your friend.)
I didn’t really fit the stereotype of the Princeton undergraduate, but that doesn’t mean the stereotype is wrong — it can seem, on a sunny afternoon in McCosh courtyard, like every single person who walks by has a backwards white baseball cap and cuffs-shot khakis on, went to Exeter, has parents on the board of the Met, blah blah, and you do see a lot of those people.
But it’s not an overwhelming majority, if it’s a majority at all; “those people” are just as likely to be fun and friendly as the ones with dreads or Ramones t-shirts; and the only contact I really had with the grad students outside of class was on my pizza-delivery route. They didn’t hang out with us, they didn’t date us…the grad campus isn’t far away, but it might as well have been in Indiana for all we saw of our TAs socially. (Fortunately for them. We were idiots.)
You’ll find plenty of people who don’t fit the “Billionettes” profile — and if it’s anything like it was, you’re around the undergrads in class and that’s kind of it. And they’re all too preoccupied with bicker or re-fonting a paper to hit a 15-page minimum to notice whether you fit in — which you will, just not with the “remember that time at the fox hunt” crowd.
Once you get there, trust me, the intimidation factor drops away pretty fast; you get preoccupied with daily shit and you don’t have time for it. Try not to get too anxious about it before you know what it actually is.
Tags: cats fat cats grammar workplace
Lauren, that sounds like a good idea, but I just wanted to mention to anyone who is now thinking: toilet training sounds good… Most cats won’t learn to flush, so guess who gets to? Just saying…
Anyone have a suggestion for an older, arthritic kitty who has trouble stepping up into the box? My little lady is 16, and having trouble getting into the box. It’s not just a litterbox issue – she can’t jump up on furniture or the bed (if I forget to put her in before I get in, I get serenaded all night…) She tries with the litterbox, but isn’t making it, and she’s very embarrassed by the situation (and it’s not so fun for me.) Any ideas would be appreciated!
Littermaid: I’ve got the Clevercat box and while it doesn’t keep them from tracking it everywhere, it does limit the amount thrown out of the box. You can probably achieve the same thing for cheaper with a decent sized Rubbermaid bin with a lid you can cut a hole in.
Actually, the major problem I have now is one of my two cats now scrapes the side of the box instead of the litter, leaving a nice pile of uncovered, smelly poo. You win some, you lose some.
We solved both the dogs-interested-in-cat-poo problem and tracking by getting a domed box with the “side entrance”- where the cat has to go in and curve around to get to the litter so the dogs can’t just put their heads straight in to snack town (eww!). By the time the cat gets out of box, less left on her tiny paws.
Also, we do a layer of the (cheapest) crystals with a layer of pine litter over it – awesome. I barely need to clean the litter box when I empty it now – no pee residue at the bottom at all. Quick clean with disinfectant and I’m out.
As a former State Schooler who had Ivy Leaguer friends (Princeton/Harvard/Yale) and Offbeat Liberal Artsy friends (Hampshire/Oberlin/Reed), I’ve always found the trepidation between the two groups curious. Seems to me they have more in common than not–most of the students come from wealthy families (because $200K is $200K), tend toward cliquishness and insularity, and come across as judgmental of anyone different. And both would lose in a fist fight with a State Schooler. : )
Sars, “third parties” gets an intensive workout in a LOT of law firms. One party sues another; the party being sued drags in someone else to share the blame: behold, third-party defendants and a LOT of third parties involved in the action. (N.B. This does not constitute legal advice in any way, shape or form.)
I just picked up a small cone-shaped hand vacuum to deal with the gravel pit that is my downstairs basement. I have a rather rickety bathroom in the basement, and in the bathroom I have not one but TWO boxes (one sits in the shower). Since I started with one cat, the idea was cat number two would have his own, cheap box until they’d learned to get along with each other. THAT took about two days, but Cat Two LOVES his cheap litter box! Cat One seems pretty partial to it as well, and a more inconveniently-shaped box would be hard to find: it’s an oval. Yeah, that fits in well. I’d like to get one of those handsome cabinet-style litterbox disguises and turn the bathroom back into a bathroom for the humans in the house – but baby steps. First step: corral the litter. Here’s hoping I don’t have to work my way through every suggestion.
@Jenn Have you talked to your Vet about your kitty’s jumping/agility problems? It could simply be balance issues due to age, but it could be pain due to age. My vet had me give my old kitty low-dose aspirin once a week (I think it was once a week–this is why you need to ask) for pain relief and it helped him stablize and get around better. However, ask your vet and don’t just start giving cats aspirin because they can’t process it the same way as people so the dosage is important (hence the small amount, not very often) otherwise it would essentially be poison/overdose.
Scared, straight up: you’re the one coming off as judgmental. You’ve stereotyped all of the undergrads there according to hair, clothing…uh, whether they have legs…it’s insulting and inaccurate. Id’ say if you want to navigate any group of people successfully and hope that they give you basic human respect, you can start by doing the same. You don’t want them to take one look at you and dismiss you out of hand? Don’t do it to them. More than you already have, that is.
@jenn if she isn’t a stand and pee’er, you could get the disposable pan type. it’s very low (we use it for kittens) and it might not be to hard for her. Our older kitty actually turned out to not be arthritic but had liver problems. We switched her to special kitty food and now she’s got a lot of her old energy back. The food is prescription only but we get it online from PetMeds.
All this litter box discussion reminds me of the guy who decided to blow his cat’s mind by switching his food, water, and litter:
http://www.stuffonmycat.com/This-is-my-cat-Carl/This-is-my-cat-Carl-The-Switch.html
@Jenn: Awww, my childhood baby was almost 16 when she died. She was 100% outdoors, (and I did not have a vote in that matter!) so we only had to deal with a little kitty incontinence when she was sleeping on the warm car hood.
Maybe you could build an extra-large pan that would allow for a ramp in and out, like a kitty stile over the side? She might poo on the ramp sometimes, but it beats effluvium on the floor and a frustrated kitty.
@Jenn – I had to put my little old calico to sleep last February and it was awful to watch her get so old. She was a trooper, though, and sassy to the very end! She was arthritic pretty early on, so the last couple of years were no longer “jumping” years. I tried a bunch of different things, but ultimately went with newspaper. Four or five or six sheets deep (so just open a 10-page section up), and made a big square for her, always keeping a large double section on top so there were no “edges” in the middle of the square – I had a service porch, so losing six square feet was no big, really. It was such a relief for her and for me! I just folded and tossed the paper every morning/night and put more out. She never missed, there was no litter to kick, totally flat on the floor – honestly, in a lot of ways I wished I’d switched her to paper far earlier. I know they like to cover, but she was over it by then and just pleased to not have to climb into/out of a box.
@Scared: I grew up in an Ivy League town went to a top, small, liberal arts State school for undergrad and a very large (different state) State school for grad and an Ivy for a post-graduate course. What I’ve learned: People are people no matter how Ivy. There were popped collars and Coach bags at my state school, there were Birks and peasant skirts at the Ivy. And while there were certainly pretentious people in my grad program, there were also people like me, who were much happier to discuss SATC than Derrida. You’ll find your niche. But it will be easier if you don’t let Princeton intimidate you. And if you go to Wegmans every day. Because Wegmans is th bomb diggity.
@Jenn: have not yet had to deal with geriatric cats (one of the reasons my parents did not allow their kids to have quadrupeds in the house had to do with worries about the eventual complexities of geriatric pet care). I’ve heard more than one geriatric cat owner I know swear by puppy training pads (i.e., these absorbent sheets you can use to puppy proof your house while you teach your puppy not to pee/poo inside). They just put them near the litterbox, so that the kitty can tell him/herself “well, at least I got pretty close.” It’s more absorbent than newspaper, certainly, and it takes care of #1.
Usually with #2, most cats can hold it in until they can drag themselves inside, but if she occasionally misses that too? You just sort of have to pick it up when the cat is not looking, that’s what an owner of an 18 year old apricot cutie had to do to spare his dignity. :/
Jenn, I too have an 18 year old arthritic cat and my solution has been to get a 9″x12″ metal cooking pan that is about 2″ deep. I put a litter liner on it, litter in it, and she’s good to go. No more “thinking outside the box”. Also Petco sells steps for small dogs that can also aid cats with getting into bed. They cost around 30 bucks. You might also try Dasuquin for cats. There is a lot less limping since I started giving it to her a month ago.
Jenn, I have an arthritic old guy, too. Added to which, he’s always had peeing on our property issues, so we REALLY wanted to make it easy for him to do what he was supposed to do. We use the lid to a large rubbermaid bin (the kind you’d store stuff in the garage in). Of course that means you can’t put a lot of litter in, which means you have to clean it even more often. But it works for him.
Littermaid,
If your kitties are agile enough, I highly recommend placing their litter box inside a large tupperware tote (at least two feet deep). My cat jumps in and out with no problem and I never have trouble with litter outside the tote. Even when Harry kicks his highest, the litter stays put. Hope this helps you.
My cats kick litter about everywhere. I got them some deeper litter trays with clip-on edge bits round the outside, which help (they are frightened of the boxed-in sort of tray). The company that I bought the trays from also offered cat ‘paw wiping’ things that have ridges and tuck under the edge of the litter tray – they are shaped like a cartoon cat and are grey plastic. I noticed they are from a Canadian company so hopefully they are available over the pond (I got them from a company in the UK). Anyway, they pick up litter really well and then you can just empty them into the litter tray once in a while.
Jenn – check this out. It is designed for dogs, but could be just what you need. One side is extremely low.
http://www.doglitter.com/Getpage.aspx?D=15858659&T=4882566
I’d stay away from baby aspirin. Try acupunture (miraculous effects in my arthritic cat) or a prescription medication called Tramadol.
I have an astroturf-style doormat in front of my littler box, and it does a great job of catching a substantial amount of the litter that would otherwise be ground into my carpet. Then you can just tip the doormat into the garbage can, and let the litter fall out (and you get a lovely rainstick effect for free!)
Like this http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/118478656_3ec2e52222.jpg?v=0 minus the flowers.