Day 74 -- Back to basics

So how far of a step back have we taken?

On Day 72, I put the bowl back in the toilet with a small amount of dry litter. He was able to pee into it like a trooper -- peeing was never a problem. But he did not seem to find it a particularly attractive place for pooping.

All it took, though, is a little more litter. Once there was enough for him to dig into, he started pawing the litter happily (according to some, the digging action stimulates pooping activities), and proceeded to poop. Unfortunately, by then he had forgotten to stand on the toilet seat, and is back to pooping while standing in the litter.

After constant corrections in the past few days, Kratos is getting better now at peeing and pooping on the toilet seat (thank God it didn't all go away!). I'm going to keep him on the litter for another week before adding some water; that should be enough for him to get used to the pooping action.

Did you know that cats use very different stances when they pee and poop? Compare and contrast peeing:

and pooping:

When cats poop, they have to stand significantly higher off the ground than when they pee. The posture is clearly more challenging to pull off on the slim edge of the toilet seat, which might explain Kratos' initial anxiety and ultimate failure in pooping in the toilet. Hopefully, this time around, he will be able to get used to the squat, and all the canned food he's eating will make the transition that much easier.

I know what you're all wondering -- what's the consistency of his poop like? I'm happy to report that it seems to be softer and a lot smellier now. Signs of a healthy dump? Maybe; at least it doesn't look like a painful one anymore!

Day 71 -- Back to the bowl

Kratos has won this round.

I let Kratos roam freely in the house on Day 69; he pooped on the carpet on the next day. I locked Kratos in the bathroom on Day 71; he pooped in the bath tub. Instead of risking him forming a habit of pooping anywhere and everywhere, I am going to bring back the popcorn bowl in the toilet, with litter.

A few steps backwards, to be sure; but this time, I'm going to do it more properly. Kratos will be on a moisture-rich diet with mostly canned cat food to prevent constipation. I will try to be there to give him treats every time he uses the toilet, to make sure that the positive reinforcement of using the toilet far surpasses the initial discomfort. And I'm getting proper pet odor-removal supplies and eradicating any remaining traces of Kratos' poop from our living room.

I can only hope that the litter is enough to lure Kratos back to the toilet.

Day 68 -- To lock or not to lock

Today, I locked Kratos in the bathroom again. And today, Kratos pooped and peed properly again.

Tomorrow... Another day, the same dilemma... Sigh. So cruel, yet so effective...

Day 67 -- Kratos poops again... kind of

On Day 65, I waited all night for Kratos to poop. He did not. On Day 66, during the day when I was at work, he did. On the carpet.

I was especially sad (infuriated?). I had just gone cat food shopping, and picked out some yummy-sounding canned food (without words like "by-product" or "meat" in the ingredients!). I was going to surprise Kratos with some delicious, fancy dinner, and together we were going to relax and enjoy a night of successful pooping. Instead, when I swung the door open, I was met with a pile of poop on the floor -- exactly where Kratos was going to poop before I lifted him onto the toilet a few days ago.

This morning, I did not want Kratos to form a nasty habit of pooping on the carpet. I stepped out the door, and then went back in. I moved his favorite basket and his scratching post into the bathroom, and then did the unthinkable -- I locked him in there. I know, I know. I felt terrible all day.

Thankfully, Kratos did not seem to be distressed when I got home, and held no grudges. And, indeed, he also left a load of poop in the toilet for me! That is great news -- Kratos still knows that he should poop in the toilet! But it's also bad news -- he simply prefers the carpet.

Now I don't know what to do. I can reward him if he poops in the toilet while I'm watching, but I can't correct him when I'm at work. Should I lock him in the bathroom again tomorrow?

:'(

Day 65 -- Way too early to celebrate

One thing is certain -- Kratos does not like pooping on the toilet. Since I last posted the video of Kratos using the toilet, Kratos has pooped on the carpet. Twice.

Something about the last pooping video bothered me -- Kratos kept shifting his weight around, something that I'd never seen him do. He looked... uncomfortable. Almost... in pain.

A thought occurred to me: could Kratos be constipated?

According to some research online, cats in toilet-training are more prone to constipation; they are uncomfortable with their new set-up, and so they tend to hold it in a little longer, making their poop drier and potentially more painful to excrete. I also looked through his cat food's ingredient list, and found an extremely constipating culprit -- dried beet pulp! I didn't want him to associate the discomfort of constipation with using the toilet, so I went out and bought him some new, more fibrous cat food, and switched to feeding more wet food as well.

It worked, kind of. Kratos pooped once in the evening, and immediately again the following morning -- way more often than normal, but both times on the carpet. The new diet made it easier for him to poop, but Krats did not forget the discomfort of pooping on the toilet. He can still pee just fine on the toilet, which, I guess, confirms my theory.

Worried that Kratos would start forming a habit of pooping on the carpet, I started an intensive watch on his every move over the weekend. It was excruciating. After his two accidents, he refused to poop, no matter how much he ate or how many times I placed him on the toilet. Eventually, it was pushing past 2:30am, so I gave up and headed into my bedroom to catch some sleep.

And then I heard a long, mournful meow. And then another.

Curious, I went out, and saw Kratos pacing around the living room. He was walking in circles, sniffing and stopping almost randomly, until I realized that it was not randomly at all -- he was paying a visit to every place on the carpet that he has ever pooped before. Kratos had never pooped in the same place on the carpet twice, so I always thought he was not keeping track of where he last pooped. As it turned out, he remembered every single one of them.

He circled around for a while, meowing, sniffing, pausing. Eventually, he came upon a new spot -- one that he had not pooped on before. He scratched the carpet a little bit, and then sat down. Suddenly, I recognized that the scratching motion is the same as what he used to do to litter, and saw that his back was starting to arch. I yelled out his name; "Kratos! Kratos!" Normally, he would turn around or run away, but this time, nothing. He was clearly concentrating, and it was clearly happening! I ran up to him, picked him right off the floor and placed him immediately on the toilet seat. He positioned himself quickly on the seat, and started pooping. Whew! A crisis narrowly averted.

Obviously, this worries me greatly. Just before the incident, I had locked him in the bathroom with myself in an intensive pooping session, and he barely even tried. Right after I let him out, he clearly became distressed, looking for a place to poop without even considering the toilet. Does Kratos dislike the toilet that much?

I don't know. It is 1am, and Kratos still hasn't pooped yet today. I need to be able to convince him that pooping on the toilet is unrelated to constipation, and indeed, that it is quite a joyous and pleasant thing. But I can't do it if the only time I can get him to poop on the toilet is right before he poops on the carpet!

Sigh. Clearly, it was way too early to celebrate.

Day 60 -- Kratos POOPS AND PEES!!

Today, Kratos has pooped, peed, and done everything imaginable to the toilet!

Yesterday I was worried that he did not take his daily dump. I came home today, expecting to clean up a big pile from the carpet, but found nothing. Relieved, I gave Kratos some food, and waited.

My patience was amply rewarded! Right after eating, he stepped onto the toilet, and peed.

It was excellent! But he still had not pooped yet. He went out for a little more food, and then came back into the bathroom. He jumped onto the seat, and gave pooping a good try:

Okay, it didn't work. Yet. He wandered around the bathroom, snuggled with my legs, and finally went back onto the toilet. This time, SUCCESS!!

WOW!

I'll be carefully monitoring him for the next few days to make sure that he can poop and pee (and drink) without fear. It was a little worrisome today when he pooped -- he kept shifting his weight on the seat and looked a little uncomfortable. And it still takes too many tries before he could poop or pee. Hopefully, though, he will grow comfortable with the action, as well as his newly elevated place in the world among enlightened beings.

This has been a long and frustrating 60 days -- but the look on Kratos' face as he crouches over the toilet seat, squeezing out every last bit, makes it all worthwhile! Next milestone: Kratos uses the toilet without me in the bathroom!

Day 59 -- KRATOS USES THE TOILET!!111

No useless rambling from me; here's the video:

AMAZING!

A day after my last post, Kratos pooped on the carpet again. This time, he cleverly dragged over one of my sandals and placed it neatly on top of the pile, once again earning points for creativity and flourish, but not for correctness.

Thereafter, I started training him to always poop in my presence. Every night before I go to sleep, I lock Kratos and myself in the bathroom and commence a staring contest that does not end until he relents and poops (and gets his yummy treat). This ensures that he never poops on the carpet again, and I figured it would be easier to train him to poop into the toilet if I can get him to poop on demand when the day comes.

That day was today. I removed the popcorn bowl from the toilet, and Kratos became immediately attached to the rediscovery of his favorite water source. He kept drinking from it, despite my numerous attempts to stop him. Thankfully, he has no qualms about peeing where he drinks (that's a good thing!), and did the deed today!

I'm only cautiously optimistic, however. In the video he seemed to have done it with ease, but it was in fact after numerous failed attempts. And he was supposed to poop, not pee -- which means there's still a lump of poop in him waiting to be dispensed, likely mid-day tomorrow, and perhaps not in the toilet. Sigh. There's still a ways to go, but this is definite progress.

Go Kratos!! You are amaz0rs!!!

Day 54 -- Long journey to no litter

In my last post, I said that I would let Kratos get used to pooping with all paws on the seat first for a few days. Of course, I did no such thing. Instead, my impatience again got the better of me, and I immediately started adding more water to the litter bow. And again, I was rewarded amply for my impatience -- take a look at Kratos peeing into a bowl with half litter and half water, on Day 46:

Note how gingerly Kratos moved on the seats; he was still getting used to standing on the tiny seat surface.

In fact, I was so proud of Kratos, that I added even more water to the bowl, with even less litter. Unfortunately, that went much less successfully; Kratos refused to poop. And when he finally did, it was during the day, when I was at work, and on the carpet. Even more amazingly, the pile of poop was neatly buried under his toy:

(pictured here without poop)

I have no idea how a cat that cannot even bury his poop with litter found a way to stack poop directly under this thing, but no matter how impressed I was by this, it was still a failure. I slowed, down, added some more litter back, and waited.

It was a fine line to push against; I increased the water-litter ratio slowly throughout the week, sometimes locking him inside the bathroom (and myself with him) after meal time and waiting for him to poop. At some point, he figured out that if I lifted him onto the toilet and he pooped, he would get a fancy treat, and so he deliberately stopped jumping onto the seat and started waiting for me to lift him up instead. That was unacceptable, so I had to stop air-lifting him but still forcefully make sure he poops only on the toilet and nowhere else. Somewhere in there, another pooping accident snuck in too (less artistically buried this time). It was a long week of slow progress -- just like all the other weeks.

But eventually, it paid off! Kratos first gained the confidence to pee into a bowl of clear water, and last night, Kratos for the first time pooped into a bowl of clear water as well, without my help!

The bowl of cold, fresh water proves very tempting for Kratos, and he does have the bad habit of drinking out of it before he poops or pees into it. But at least he seems to be surviving without any litter in sight! I'm going to hold his progress to this for a few days (for reals this time!), and start experimenting with removing the bowl altogether next week!

Maybe Kratos will be toilet-trained soon?!!?

Day 44 -- Finally, progress!!

These past weeks have been excruciating.

Training Kratos to poop with all four paws on the toilet seat has been extremely difficult and frustrating. Everyday, I rush home, hoping that he hadn't used the toilet yet. Then, I set up shop in front of the bathroom door, and basically wait and wait and wait for Kratos to muster up enough pooping desire to enter the bathroom. Every time Kratos comes close, I jump out of my seat, and follow him into the bathroom, quietly so as not to scare him. When he inevitably hears me and turns around, I force myself to smile and nod my head in approval to encourage him further. If I am very lucky, I might be able to catch him use the toilet twice this way; on most days, though, I can only catch him once, and on some days, when Kratos just refuses to use the toilet, or sneaks into the bathroom when I'm not looking, I would waste a whole night of Kratos-stalking for naught.

Even Kratos must be getting creeped out by my unnatural scatological obsessions, as demonstrated by this picture strip taken by my roommate:

Every time I catch Kratos using the litter bowl, I try to move all four of his legs onto the toilet seat. And every time I succeed, I give him some treats. But all this work didn't seem to be having any effects; Kratos was still standing in the litter bowl every time, getting yummy treats without much improvement.

Frustrated, I decided to push him a little more. Last week, I added some water into the litter bowl, covering up some litter, so that it became some kind of nasty litter swamp. It kind of worked -- Kratos only tentatively touched the water (and yes, tasted it), but had no desire to stand in this soup. He then took a while moving around on top of the toilet trying to pee, and eventually did indeed pee with all four paws on the seat -- but in the wrong posture!!

That totally did not work.

I was feeling really hopeless; it's just too stressful to stalk a cat every minute of every evening. And I was getting ready to call it quits, if it weren't for this magical morning today, when Kratos suddenly decided to be interested in not standing in the litter! He attempted to do so:

Three legs on the toilet seat ain't bad!

Thankfully, his interest continued into the evening, when he took his daily dump after his dinner. I filmed Kratos as he tried, several times, again and again, to position himself with all four paws on the toilet seat, until...

SUCCESS!!

It's a little silly to feel so happy that Kratos is now finally able to poop with all four paws on the seat, when in fact he was able to do it on Day 11! Letting him get used to standing in the litter was the worst mistake I made -- one that took more than 30 days to correct. But that may have been simply beginner's luck; now Kratos does it with much more deliberation, and much less scratching of litter beforehand as well.

I'm going to let Kratos get used to this for another few days, but I feel great. Once he masters staying on the seat, it seems only a matter of time before he will be able to do so without any litter at all...

Wow. This might work after all...

Day 37 -- Stay on the toilet seat first!

In the past few days, I've decided that I need to first train Kratos to stay on the toilet seat while he poops before I start decreasing the amount of litter in the bowl. After all, it's definitely not a good idea to be peeing into a near-empty bowl... while standing in it. Plus, once Kratos is not standing on litter anymore when pooping, it will probably be easier to get him to poop with no litter at all.

Yes yes, obvious in retrospect. I am so impatient.

It's very difficult, however. First, I have to stalk Kratos at every moment, sneaking up behind him whenever he goes into the bathroom in case he tries to poop. Then, every time he stands in the bowl and gets ready to poop, I need to lift up his legs and put them on the toilet seat. Obviously, he does not like this; most of the time, he resets, turns around, scratches the litter, repositions himself on the litter, only to have me interrupt him and move his legs onto the seat again.

I was getting worried that my corrections on his pooping posture might be interpreted as corrections on his pooping in general -- Kratos might conclude that it is bad to poop in the toilet, or that it is bad to poop in my presence (or, to poop at all!). To make myself a welcome presence while Kratos poops, then, I bought some special treats that I give him only immediately after he pees or poops with my correction. Hopefully, this complicated mixture of positive and negative signals will somehow send the right message...

Kratos seems to be enjoying his treats so far, but the training is taking much longer than I expected. It's annoying to deal with his bowl every time I use the bathroom, and it's stressful to monitor him constantly to make my corrections. If he doesn't make some break through any time soon, it might be time to start giving up...

Day 32 -- Back to the bowl...?

I came back home tonight, nervous, and found one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news? There was a nice, healthy pile of poop in the popcorn bowl. Check out how little litter he used!

The bad news? Apparently, Kratos has decided to pull my roommate Haru's towel off of the rack, onto the bathroom floor, and then peed on it. Yup, that towel has now also been thrown out, sitting snugly in the dump with our rug. Very annoying, to be sure -- but how ingenious! I didn't know whether to punish him or to praise him for his elaborate cleverness.

Anyways, I took out some more litter from the bowl tonight... Let's see if Kratos keeps with it tomorrow!

Day 30 -- Kratos' second accident (and third)

This last stretch will not be easy.

The plan now is to start decreasing the amount of litter in the popcorn bowl until Kratos gets used to pooping into a bowl without any litter. But if you saw any of the videos I've posted, you can see that Kratos loves his litter, always scratching at it attentively as part of his pooping ritual (unfortunately, before pooping, not after).

Which is probably why, when I ambitiously left so little litter in the bowl that you could see the bottom, he freaked.

I was stationed outside the bathroom door at the time, where I often am nowadays, doing homework on the floor with one hand clutching the camera. Kratos was not on the toilet -- and didn't even particularly show any interest in the toilet -- when that sound of streaming water caught me by surprise. I jumped and rushed in, but obviously I was too late -- Kratos had peed in the bathroom corner where the litter box used to be.

Saddened, I added a tiny bit more litter into the bowl, but Kratos had no more scatalogical needs for the evening. When I woke the next morning, I had hoped to see some comforting poop in the bowl, but alas, there was none.

I knew Kratos was due for pooping, and I was nervous all day about where he would do the deed. Will he go on the bathroom floor again? Or will he hide and poop in some secret location where the poop can only be smelled, but never be found? I rushed home after work with dread, swung open the front door, and took a deep breath -- nope, it didn't smell. I quickened my pace and walked towards the bathroom, hoping that he started using the litter bowl again.

He didn't.

I found a pile of poop on the bathroom rug. I won't show you a picture of it because, well, it pretty much looks exactly how it sounds. I cleaned up the poop, threw out the rug, and filled up the bowl with even more litter -- enough that Kratos has finally decided to go back to using the bowl again.

I had always thought that the hardest part was to get Kratos to start pooping on the toilet -- after he got used to it, it seemed clear that he would simply continue using it out of habit. I was wrong. Weening Kratos off of the litter, by far, is going to be the most difficult part of the process.

Well, at least I know that it's possible. Kratos did poop on the rug after all -- with no litter in sight. And that's progress, right?

Day 24 -- One step back

There hasn't been much progress made in the past two weeks because I was gone last weekend to Sundance, and will be gone this weekend as well for Chinese new year, and I didn't want to do anything too drastic when I wasn't there, watching Kratos' every move.

Meanwhile, Kratos had a leisurely two weeks where he could get comfortable with pooping on the toilet. I noticed an unfortunate trend, however -- Kratos was starting to stand in the popcorn bowl while pooping now, instead of having all four legs on the toilet seat. I guess he has decided that the popcorn bowl is a safe place to place his weight, and while I appreciate the implicit praise for my worksmanship, this is one step back from perfect litter-free existence!

I tried to correct him by moving his leg onto the seat:

But Kratos doesn't always appreciate my correction, often just leaving the bathroom altogether when I intervene. I guess you can't blame him -- I wouldn't want someone moving my limbs around when I poop. Sigh.

Anyway, next week, I'm going to move the process along by drastically decreasing the amount of litter in the popcorn bowl. Nowadays, before using the bowl, Kratos always first scratches the litter for quite a while before he is comfortable pooping into it, so this is really going to test his tolerance. Things are going to start getting very exciting... and very smelly.

Day 14 -- Improved litter bowl apparatus!

Nowadays, I have a smile on my face every time I see a bundle of joy left by Kratos in the popcorn bowl. But I also have a frown every time I myself need to use the toilet. Detaching and reattaching the popcorn bowl with duct tape was starting to get really annoying, and, well, the sink was starting to look mighty attractive. I had to fix the situation, and fast, before I did the unthinkable.

I switched to a different design. Instead of taping the popcorn bowl to the toilet itself, I taped it to two steel rods bought from Home Depot:

The two rods are sturdy enough to hold up the popcorn bowl and, when placed onto the toilet bowl, is very secure:

And now removing and replacing the popcorn bowl takes only a matter of seconds! 

Man, how did I ever get that D in wood shop in middle school?

Day 11 Part 2 -- Kratos's first time pooping on the toilet!

Understandably, Kratos was confused about the missing litter box. He sees the new litter inside this mysterious bowl blocking access to his favorite water source, but he is unsure about how to use it. For many many times, he enters into the bathroom and examines the toilet at length:

As you can see, he even reached his paw in between the popcorn bowl and the toilet just to get to his water! But eventually, necessity got to the best of him, and -- yes, he pooped!!

There's good news and bad news about this. The good -- incredibly, amazingly good -- news, is that Kratos pooped with all four of his paws completely on the toilet, instead of standing in the popcorn bowl. According to this website, which is the primary source of toilet-training information that I've been consulting:

Watch your cat using the bathroom in the metal bowl. Count the number of feet he gets up on the toilet seat (as opposed to down in the bowl of litter). The higher the number, the luckier you are and the easier your job is going to be ...

And I am very lucky indeed :-)

The thing that gives me pause is how attached to the litter Kratos seems to be.  Witness, for example, how much Kratos played with the litter before being satisfied enough to poop into it.  I will probably really have to let Kratos poop like this for quite a while before he will get used to pooping into the toilet without any litter at all...

Anyways, major milestone, and well done Kratos once again!

Day 11 -- Litter in the toilet

Okay, I got greedy again.  I just couldn't wait to go to the next milestone!  So going back on my promise to let Kratos get used to pooping with the litter box on top of the toilet for two more days, I instead immediately put the popcorn bowl to use:

Mmmmm, popcorn!!

I filled it up with litter, and secured it to the toilet bowl with plenty of duct tape:

After putting the seat down, it looks just like a normal toilet, but with attractive, comforting litter instead of water!  Will Kratos take to it?

Well...  At this point, I switched to using another camera to take a video of what happened, but I won't be able to get the camera cable till tomorrow...  So stayed tuned for Kratos vs Toilet Bowl!

Day 9 to 10 -- Inching closer to the toilet

Kratos is going through the "easy" part of the process like a champ.  The almost daily changes to the litter box has become part of his pooping routine; enter bathroom, examine carefully (many, many times), get air-lifted into the litter box by me, and poop.  He did fine when I moved the litter box right up against the toilet:

And he did fine when I placed the litter box completely on top of the toilet:

(Yes, it is now very, very annoying for myself to use this toilet.)

I'm going to leave the litter box there for the next two days.  After that will come the next major milestone -- filling up my popcorn bowl with litter, nestling it inside the toilet bowl, and having Kratos actually poop into the toilet!  Very excited now :-)

Day 8 -- New litter!

My shopping list from Target:

• Swheat Scoop litter; due to the clever pun, this litter is made from wheat, and has no crazy clumping chemicals, is unscented, is good for the earth, and above all, is flushable.  I'm switching litter so that I don't have to keep worrying about unflushable litter going down the drain.  I've also read that unscented litter is easier for cats to quit.
• Duct tape, for finally securing the litter box.
• A metal popcorn bowl, for the next major milestone in the process, where it will be holding litter and hiding inside the toilet bowl.  After this whole thing, I can always still use it as a real popcorn bowl.  That's reuse!
• A belt, because my pants keep falling off.

Kratos seems to be getting a little more used to using the elevated litter box.  His poopage frequency is still a tad low, but at least I see stuff in there, and I'm not finding any poop under my blanket.  He also transitioned to the new litter without complaints.  What a trooper!

Day 3 to 5 -- Higher and higher, and Kratos' first accident

Day 3 and 4 went by rather smoothly. I lifted up the litter box on both days, and Kratos was able to navigate them with relative ease. He started taking to pooping in them faster, though never without a complaining meow before and after he's done. Here are pictures of his adventure on Day 3:

And here's the picture on Day 4, where the litter box is already as tall as the toilet!  Unfortunately, though, as you can see, the construction on Day 4 is rather a bit of engineering failure, a disaster waiting to happen...

And happen it did.  On Day 5, Kratos jumped onto the brown cardboard box to poop, only to have it slide off the textbooks, bringing the litter box crashing down to the floor.  I fixed it up with a more secure setup immediately, but apparently, it was an experience so traumatizing that Kratos refused to step into the bathroom by himself for more than 24 hours!

I was getting really worried.  I kept air-lifting Kratos onto the litter box, but to no avail.  Meanwhile, Kratos had started eyeing his old pooping location with nostalgia, longing for the better, golden, olden days when his pooping platform did not suddenly collapse from under him.

Finally, he pooped in the litter box.  Hooray!  I breathed a sigh of relief.  I sat back down in my living room playing the wonderful World of Goo game, and then I noticed Kratos streaming into the room.  "Good job Kratos!" I said.  He ignored my presence, and moved deliberately and slowly towards the dining room.  He sat down.  "What are you doing there, Kratos?"  I asked with detached interest.  He did not move.  It was only a few minutes later that I realized he had been sitting down at the old litter box location, and...  Wait...

I ran towards him.  "Kratos, what are you doing!!"  He still did not move.  I reached my arms out to lift him up, but before I could, I hear the sound of liquid streaming out of his body.  I decided not to lift him up after all.

It was a sad, but odd relapse.  Why did Kratos go peeing in the wrong location only minutes after pooping in the right location?  I couldn't understand it.  But to make it clear that it is no longer acceptable to take care of his bodily needs in the dining room, I cleaned the place thoroughly, leaving no scent of pee or poop behind.

Thereafter, Kratos has gone back to peeing in the bathroom, but not yet pooping.  And his frequency of litter use has definitely decreased.  He is probably still pretty nervous about the collapse, and understandably so.  I'm probably going to leave the litter box untouched at the current height for a few more days to placate him.

This is going to be harder than I thought.

Day 2 -- Elevating the litter box (a little bit)

Okay, I got greedy. The next series of steps involve elevating the litter box, bit by bit, until it is about as tall as the toilet. But, flush from yesterday's success, and with plenty of confidence in my cat's non-fussiness, I decided to lift the litter box by quite a bit:

At least I finally put my computer science textbooks to good use!

Kratos didn't seem to like it too much, however.  He hung around the house, like yesterday, wasting time and drinking an abnormally large amount of water.  Worried that he couldn't see it's the same litter box, I lifted him up and brought him to it several times, only to have him escape quickly each time.  It is not until two hours later that he finally makes the entrance into the bathroom.  Slowly, he sizes up the new setup, carefully examining what's under the litter box.

Like my girlfriend who knows she must study for her finals but, just to procrastinate and put it off a little further, goes and checks Facebook instead, Kratos did not immediately hop into the litter box.  Instead, he hung around the bathroom a little longer, and then jumped onto the toilet to take a sip of water.

Yes, Kratos drinks from the toilet.  And yes, this is one habit that will require some adjusting once (and if!) he starts pooping into it!

After much procrastination, Kratos finally decided to do the deed.  All was well, and the smell of success filled the air!  That is, until Kratos started his fruitless attempt to bury his poop again:

Despite the litter failure, though, Kratos has advanced for another day.  Well done!

Day 1 -- Moving the litter box into the bathroom

The first step is simple enough -- Kratos must get used to pooping in the bathroom.  I moved the litter box there, and waited with baited breath.

Usually, Kratos poops right after eating his dinner.  But tonight, pooping did not seem to be on his mind.  Instead, he wandered around the apartment aimlessly, as if unsure what to do next.  Eventually, he sat at the old litter box location, meowing a sad meow of confusion and request.  I lifted him up, and put him into the litter box in the bathroom.  He escaped quickly, and this repeated for a few times until I gave up and ducked back into my bedroom.

Then, I heard that familiar scratching noise.  Uh-oh, I thought.  It sounded like Kratos scratching the wall, and for a moment, I was scared that he had pooped in the old location.  I rushed out of my room, and found Kratos indeed scratching the walls, but thankfully, without any poop, the ceremony only half-complete.  I smiled, and kept waiting.

Eventually, he made his way to the bathroom, cautiously and suspiciously.  He examined the box carefully, but when he saw me peeking in, he ran out, embarrassed.  It looked like he really wanted to go -- but was still very nervous about it.  He came back, ran, and came back again, this time bravely stepping into the box and -- yes! -- dropped a glorious mound of poop!  It was followed by the usual ineffective burying motions, but oh, at last, the poop was in place!

Kratos was embarrassed by all this.  After pooping in the new location, he suddenly became exceptionally affectionate, purring loudly next to me and consistently requesting my attention.  When I tried to walk into the bathroom to clean up the mess, he did something surprising that he had never done before -- he bit my toe, trying to prevent me from entering.  Is he feeling guilty about pooping in a new place?  Is he feeling nervous, unsure of himself and his torturous decision?  Is he afraid that he has done something wrong?

Whatever worry that was going through his head, I tried to put it out of his mind by showering him with head scratches and tummy rubs.  Well done, Kratos!  This was your first step towards kitty perfection, and you have performed well!

Kratos my cat... and his litter problem

Kratos is my cat, and a very cute cat at that.

He is also, in general, a very clever cat.  He hunts for kibbles with mighty accuracy and thrift when I toss them onto the ground.  He stalks spiders and insects for hours on end.  He plays with, and masters his toys quickly.  And he even knows how to shake my hand!  I was almost ready to declare him the cleverest kitty to ever walk the earth, except for one small problem...

He does not know how to bury his poop.

It is not for lack of trying.  After he does his business, Kratos understands the need to cover up the smell, and does all he can to do so -- except all he can isn't quite enough.  He delligently uses his paws to scratch everything around him -- the litter box, the wall, the floor, the air -- everything but the litter itself.  And, it is only after countless minutes of fruitless labor and many useless scratches on the sides of the litter box that he gives up, saddened and defeated, like a confused lighthouse operator who pulled all the levers and pushed all the buttons but still could not get the light to turn on.

It makes no sense; Kratos otherwise has excellent hand-eye coordination.  I have tried showing him how to bury his poop properly, but to no avail.  Everyday, Kratos repeats his dance of frustration and eventual disappointment, with zero improvement in his almost three years of existence.  And everyday, I wonder if there were a better way.

Until I realized, of course, that there is.

What if I simply removed litter from the equation?  I spent a few days working out the math, and I'm pretty sure that it turns out:

Kratos - litter = happy kitty of perfection

Indeed -- I decided that I will toilet-train Kratos.  It will be a long, potentially endless journey of trial, error, courage, setbacks, and poop smears, eventually culminating in either the ultimate triumph of the cat-folks, or a crushing and disappointing return to the banality of daily failures.  

And this blog will be its diary.