Sharing Utilities

Before I became a 'real' cat person - which is to say, went from ooing over the stray on the next block to cleaning my OWN litterboxes...three times a day - I had heard many stories of cats who learned how to use the toilet. I did not believe any of them. I mean, get real. They're animals, for crying out loud! Can you imagine? (I could, that's why I wanted no part of it. I tend to get up for a 'pit-stop' in the middled of the night. In the dark. Half asleep. Get the picture???) When you keep adding cats to your collection, and end up with multiple litter boxes all over the house, you get used to the funny looks the clerks give you when you buy kitty litter in quantities of, say, dozends. After a few years, the prospect of easing that load does not sound all THAT crazy anymore. I began to perk up my ears when those stories were told, and I even learned that there are certain props available on the market to make it easier for them to learn. Kinda like baby seats with litter in them, then later the bottom comes out, until finally the whole structure can be removed. Somehow, I just never quiet believed it possible, so I did not actually BUY one of them things. And then out of the blue, my Siamese, with her natural attraction to water, figured it out all by herself and started trying. At first, I thought it would be a great idea to cut down litter costs, but as we went through the motions, I got smack back to my original point of view. No WAY! First of all, one has to consider what could (and did) happen, what with my cats being so very sociable. But since I'm getting ahead of myself, let me back up and start at the beginning..... During an evening on the couch, whenever nature called, they would companionably get up and pad along. It might have something to do with the fact that their dishes are also in the bathroom, which makes it a favorite hangout in the first place. However, as usual, the Siamese led the way. She just HAD to know what this was all about, and sitting on her hind quarters, paws up, she got the picture (ever had a cat nose you in the back, just then??). Needless to say, with orientals being so picky and clean, she was immediately fascinated with the very idea of never getting her paws icky again. So she would sit and watch the water flush with a dreamy expression in her eyes. I know it sounds a little funny, but she was so serious and scientific about it, that I just didn't have the heard to shoo her away. After a few weeks of observing the proccess (and obviously contemplating the best possible approach), she would try to wriggle up behind me, to be closer to the activity. One feels weird enough when one is faced with a cat fighting for balance in one's small of one's back, but YOU try to reach behind and extract the cat. Think you can grab her right so she WON'T start clawing about? Didn't think so.... Anyway, by then, she had the idea. The final watching of the flushing with paws up on the seat and head poked into the bowl (am I getting too graphic here?? Sowwy) was only the last bit of information that needed to be filed. After that, gods help everybody to remember to keep the seat DOWN. Which, when I thought it through, is just what I wanted to do, and never mind carrying litter by the whagon load. I've had enough. I had just imagined stumbling in at night or early morning, half asleep, just to be jerked wide awake when finding myself sitting on a cat. And quite frankly, I know she could learn to flush. But could she aim? I have caught her a few times trying to get into position whenever someone forgot to put the seat down, so I know she has not completely given up on the idea. Of course it did not take her long to figure out how to stand on the flush button. She's done that with a passion for whole nights, and we had to install one of the pull-up buttons or try to sleep in the same house as Niagara falls. It might have won the battle, but surely not the war. Some days I find her sitting on the lid, staring at the pull-up button, as though she could force it to cooperate. I try to be careful not to be too obvious about using it, else I know she will copy it. After all, no cabinet is safe if she really wants to get in. I guess I've been just lucky so far. While it would usually turn out in the long run that I am (badly) mistaken, it serves to keep my peace of mind to tell myself she could NOT master a pull-up-button. A least, my conscious mind swallows that thought hook, line and sinker. My unconscious, however, knows it is only a matter of time... In any event, the first time one of the kittens fell in trying to do what Auntie Minou does, that did it for me. Have you ever tried to get that blue cleaning stuff out of a CAT? Without question it qualifies as the worlds best coloring device, and who on earth has heard of a blue kitten?? By now I've found a wholesale store, and no one gives ME funny looks any more, loading up the trunk with bags over bags of fresh step :)

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