apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Okay. Anne's cat is amazing. I have two big, big Maine coons and if they would use the can, I'd be ever so much relieved to give up poopie duty.

Anne, did they teach a mature cat to do thet trick or only kittens? Jeez. Imagine: no more litter on the floor....

Holy Merde!! I am impressed. My cat, Sean, loves to play w. toilet paper, and loves to drink from the toilet. I think he might have kitty-ADD though. Potty-trainging him might be a bit of a challenge for both of us.

Dear Doctor,

I have, until now, been struggling to find my place in the world. But after an intense succession of weekend therapy viewings, I have been born anew. I have found my calling, and that calling, dear Dr., is to love you with all my soul, to worship your eternal greatness with every ounce of strength I can muster, to seek your love and adoration until I can no longer struggle to find my next breath, to fill the world with the wondrous love that is "Doctor ov Saturn".

There are those, you know who you are, who besmirch the name of Dr. Saturn. Yet, they are fools, jealous simpletons who lack the wisdom and understanding to fully grasp the enchanting wonder that emits from every orifice of Dr. Saturn, that oozes from every poor of his stupendous man self. They blind themselves with envy, prejudice and spite.

Some question my desire to camp outside your apartment window, in the bushes, mostly naked, in hopes of stealing a glimpse of "The Wondrous Dr." Yet, I know that they too, in time, will be converted, and will wish to bath themselves in your enchanting glow.

Until the latest restraining order expires, I will worship you from afar, sweet Doctor.

No more cat litter but a roll of toilet paper with every use. Question is: Does Doodle always hit the mark or are you constantly on your knees cleaning the pee and poop when he misses?

You gotta love the Little Rascals soundtrack. Doodle is brilliant...

Here are a couple of good reports on people who have used the citikitty:

http://webpages.charter.net/bucky/ceni/
http://kutv.com/letbillbuyit/local_story_034140902.html

I've been thinking about getting a cat but definitely not liking the idea of a box of poo in my apartment. This seems great!

Why can't I get the video to play properly this week? It proceeds with a jerk forward every bow and then as a series of stills, and I'm missing most of it. All of them worked up until this point! I want to see this amazing kitty!

:(

Every NOW and then ... sorry! Also, the part with the kitty is so dark I can barely make it out, until he starts unrolling the TP!

Cats instinctively bury their waste. This is unnatural.

Come to think of it, it's not very natural for an animal to live in an apartment, so maymay's point doesn't really hold... I have a cat and am very tired of finding litter all over my place. I ordered citikitty today! Wish me luck.

My wife and I moved into a small (UWS 500 sq ft.) NYC apartment. Once we got 1/2 of our furniture into the place and the other 1/2 into storage I came to the realization that we have absolutely no place to hide the litter box! Now some of you may say get rid of the cat, this was not an option. I had my cat for over 10 years she's stuck with me through thick and thin, like when I had my last $5 and her food bowl was running low she'd recommend a can of Tuna so we could both eat. There was no way in hell that I'm going to abandon my furry friend because I couldn't deal with her turds. However I almost blew a brain gasket trying to come up with a solution. I tried to keep it in the bathroom which sucked because everytime you came out of the shower the litter stuck to the sole's of your feet. So we decided to keep it in the bedroom, which took about 2 days before we both agreed this was not too...how do I say hygenic?? So I made several suggestions like convert the litter box into a coffee table? Needless to say a litter box sucks on it's own but the suckiness is magnified 100x's when you have a one bedroom apartment. During my whole dilemma my wife stayed on the sidelines until as usual she came up with a solution, she said "we can toilet train her". I was like she's 11 years old, she doesn't do a god damn thing she doesn't want to and you think it's a good idea to try and toilet train her?? In my mind there was no way I would successfully toilet train her. Well my wife not only found countless articles on the subject and reading that this was really possible we found CitiKitty on the web and ordered it. Needless to say the three of us live in harmony and all of our s*#t goes in the same place. It took me 5 weeks to toilet train my cat and we have been litter free since 11/2004. If the litter box is a pain in the ass try CitiKitty it's the gift that keep's on giving. Oh and by the way the solution to the cat using the toilet paper is to put a metal or cardboard cover over the toilet paper roll so when the cat scrathes her claws don't catch on the paper and waste a whole roll of toilet paper.

I dont understand how you use the citykitty in a one bedroom apartment with one toilet? where do they humans go? i would love to try this though.

Melissa, I was wondering the same thing.

Chris, bravo to you for not giving up your cat. So many imbiciles give up their pets for a lot less.

I have 3 cats and one litter box. I keep it in the bathtub. When I'm ready for my shower each morning I clean out the litter box and set it aside. The stray litter goes into a screen drain cup and is emptied in the garbage at the end of the shower. No litter mess in the apt, no stray litter down the drain and you can't smell a thing. And you can't see the box with the shower curtain drawn. It works for me. I don't think the Citikitty thing would work for a 3 cat home.

Melissa and anne, the citikitty kit is easily removable, so whenever you need to use the toilet, you simply take the kit out, then put it back in when you're done. Here is a blog of one cat owner who toilet-trained his cat: http://trainingkitty.blogspot.com/.

re: tech questions:

Yeah, I watched the Quicktime version and it played just fine, but the Windows Media version is slow and jerky and generally not so good. This makes sense, as the original is Quicktime, and the upload service does an auto-transcode to Windows Media, so its quality can be questionable. Probably the best bet is for PC users to download the latest version of Quicktime (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download) I think. May Windows Media soon rest in peace. :)

thanks for the feedback everyone. like anne, we have three cats here and i wonder how much more difficult it would be to train three instead of just one. anybody use citikitty with multiple cats?

Clark:

I'm using an old clamshell iBook, so it can't handle the latest version of Quicktime ... but I didn't realize how outdated my version had gotten! I've just updated it somewhat and the video plays fine now ... thanks!

I think cats just HAVE to scratch when they're finished doing their business, whether or not there's litter involved. The toilet paper roll just happens to be in the line of fire, so to speak ... and putting a cover on it would solve the problem.

Thanks for posting this video, I just loved it. One of my cats was scratching the toilet paper roll when we were out of the house, when he was smaller. Although, the toilet paper was definitely unrolled, he actually never went in the toilet!

Raphaelle:

You just reminded me of something: we had a puppy when I was in high school, and my mother put him in the bathroom one day when we all went out of the house, because he had been misbehaving. You can guess what happened ... when we came back, the roll was empty and the bathroom floor looked like a frat house gone wild!

:)

Doodle is reeling from all the great commments; thanks everyone! Yes, she's smart, cute AND amazing. I never had the luxury of citikitty when I trained her, I did it with a combination of techniques I had read about. First, a litter box on top of the toilet. Then, a mixing bowl filled with litter set into the bowl with the seat down. Then, a piece of saran wrap with a slit cut into it and a tiny bit of litter on top. Yes, she fell in the first time but this is an important step so she learns not to stand in the center of the toilet. I trained her when she was about 8 months old, and it took about 3 months. I would say that an older cat would be tougher to train, and too stressful on them. Yes, Doodle always hits the mark. Yes, it's unnatural for a cat to use the toilet and it's not her favorite thing. But guess what? Too bad. Mommy doesn't get to poop in a box, then kitty doesn't get to poop in a box. She gets an "evacuation vacation" when we go to Vermont and she frolicks and poos in the fields like her furry brethren.

ps: once doodle's training was done, it's done. i have a regular toilet and she uses it like a regular person. the only trouble is occasionally when I have to go and Doodle will say "I'm in here!"

That was me who recommended citikitty. :D

Here is how I recommend you do it. It will take a little more patience, but if you're worried about accidents this is the best way.

Place your litterbox in the bathroom. Place your citikitty (or whichever you choose) on the toilet. Now, your kitty will probably keep using the litterbox, but just remember you're trying to train her/him. Over a couple of days, start raising the litterbox to the level of the toilet with some boxes or whatever. When it's the same height, and you see her step into the toilet to get into the litterbox, remove the litterbox. Voila!

If she ever has an accident, slow down the process. It might take longer than citikitty says, but just remember how much time and money this will save you in the long run.

Oh! And put your TP in the opposite way to prevent what bad lil Doodle did here.

You gotta love those pics. HA!

http://webpages.charter.net/bucky/ceni/

For those who were wondering, I personally have found it very difficult to train multiple cats in a household to use this - unless you have the rare cats who learn at the same rate and are both/all amenable to using it. (Spoken by one who mostly lurks but knows about this from many failed tries.) I have also found that the age of the cat matters less than personality - some cats'll go for it, and some won't. Also, it works best with squatters; if your cat raises his hiney to pee, guess what gets all over the toilet!

mm

Found this site that demystifies the whole cat toilet training process.

Here's the link
www.kittygoespotty.com