Resolutions

Happy New Year! After ringing in the new year with a few friends, I awoke on New Year's Day to find yet another present in the bathtub. Admittedly, this one seems to be my fault, because the toilet seat was down, covering up the Litter Kwitter. I hadn't made any resolutions before this discovery, but I quickly resolved to not put the seat down again. Oops.

We went a few days without any problems, but then JC suddenly started missing the toilet when he was peeing. Not just by a little bit - it was like he was hanging his butt off the side of the toilet and just going there. I thought that if I moved the cats on to the next phase, the Amber Phase, maybe he would be forced to use it correctly because he wouldn't be standing in the middle of the toilet.

When I purchased the Litter Kwitter, I purchased the additional trays to go with it. The extra trays make the steps more gradual, and honestly should just be included in the kit. I skipped the extra amber tray with the smallest hole and went right to the regular amber tray, hoping to correct JC's problem.

I switched out the trays and placed Zoey and JC on top of the new tray, showing them that it had a new hole in the middle because I didn't want them to just hop up there and fall in. Actually, that would have been hilarious, and I wanted to see it happen - but I decided to show them so they wouldn't boycott the toilet altogether. JC was the first to use the new tray. He looked a bit confused, but he positioned himself correctly and the poop went into the toilet! Finally, solid progress.

And then, regression...

Zoey wasn't afraid to get up on the new tray at all, but she was very perplexed by the hole. She kept sticking her head down into it and raking all the litter into the water below. I could tell she needed to use the tray, because she kept jumping up and scratching, but then she would just hop down and come whine to me. After she pooped on the rug, I replaced the original amber tray with the one with the smaller hole. Still, she was overly anxious about the "hole" thing after a day had passed, and I had a feeling the rug was going to be getting some more carpet cleaning love soon if I didn't do something.

So now, we're back to the Red Phase. Back to step one. We're almost four weeks into a program that's advertised to work in eight weeks. I don't think we'll hit the eight week target, but my cats are between 4-5 years old and fairly set in their ways. It'll take time, but I still haven't lost hope. I just made another resolution: to stay patient.