I wrote a couple times before about our litter-box situation. At the beginning of September, it looked like everyone had adapted to the most recent box, so I wrote a blog entry about it. It seems I spoke too soon though.

As mentioned then, our cat Salem had gotten it into her head that if the litter box wasn’t perfectly clean when she wanted to poop, it was okay to pick a spot anywhere and just go. It was several weeks before we discovered that it was her, so she had time to make it a habit. Then when we got the Litter Robot, she was scared of it — she’d pee in it just fine, but when it came time to poop, she’d go next to it, or in front of the front door, or in the bathtub, most of the time.

First, we tried a retraining method I discovered on Automatic Litterbox Central. We locked her and the Litter Robot in the main floor bathroom (the smallest room in our house). We’d go in a few times a day to pet her and feed her, but she wasn’t allowed out — whenever she dashed out the door as we were coming or going, we’d put her back in. The theory was that she’d have to use the box, because her food and water bowls were on the floor and if she pooped there she’d have to live with it. Well, she’s stubborn… there were four episodes on the floor before she got the idea and started using the box. That seemed to help her get over her fear of it, but when we let her out, she soon went back to her old ways.

Fortunately, we could tell when she was about to go, because she’d start picking at the carpet or trying to dig into the bathtub, both of which we could hear. Whenever we heard her start that, we’d force her into the new box (on the theory that she had to be retrained just like a kitten) and keep her there until she’d done her business. It once took forty-five minutes before she settled down and did it… she’s stubborn, but I’m stubborner. 😉

After that 45-minute episode, she seemed to get the idea. She only started trying to go outside the box (and was firmly redirected into it) a couple more times before she settled down. Those last couple times, GoddessJ started rubbing her nose into it as she was doing it… I’m not sure which one was more persuasive, but she’s been using the box with no problem for a few weeks now.

Winston, her brother, is our not-so-bright child. (Okay, he’s dumber than dirt at times, but lovable.) While we had Salem locked in the bathroom with the new box, we brought out the older box for him and Oliver to use. But when we returned the new box, he’d forgotten what it was for, and kept using the older one to pee. When we removed the older one, he started using the floor or the bathtub (you can tell he and Salem are siblings, right?). So we gave him the same stick-him-in-the-box-until-he-goes treatment, and GoddessJ started rubbing his nose into the places he’d peed immediately after he did it. It only took a few days for him to get the idea (he’s not completely dumb), and everyone is happily using the new box now.

I’ve waited a couple of weeks to write this, expecting that one or both of them would fall back on their previous ways, but so far everything is fine. Let’s hope it stays that way. 🙂