Adventures in....Toilet Training the Cats???

The possibility of doing this seems like an urban myth. But gosh darnit I hate my house smelling like catbutt! So the adventure begins...

About a week and a half ago I decided that I was going to toilet train my two cats, Ami (short for Queen Amidala) and Vader (Yes, both are Star Wars names). After consulting various websites, my favorites being How to Toilet-Train Your Cat and the Douglas Island Veterinary Service's Toilet Training for Cats made Easy (ironic name), I set off with Step 1 - moving the litterbox into the bathroom, smack next to their new best friend, the Toilet. Cats generally will go where the litter is, but to discourage peeing on the carpet where the box used to be and to encourage going to the litterbox's new location, I put the Vader's favorite scratching toy in the place where the litterbox used to be, and lugged Vader over to the litterbox and plunked him down in it. That was the easy part. No problems, other than our bathroom being rather small, and the litterbox rather large.

Step 2 occurred a few days later, when I threw a cardboard box lid (~3-4 inches tall) under the litterbox to get them accustomed to doing their business higher up. Again, no problem. Considering the horror stories I'd read about the resistance cats had put up to the whole process, my cats were going easy as a slip'n'slide ride. So easy, I only waited about 2 days to move their box up higher, this time onto a box a whole foot off the ground. Again, easy. A few days, and I switched out their litterbox for an aluminum roasting pan, since that was what was going to wind up in the toilet eventually. Before long, I had that pan up on the toilet lid, and the cats were having no problems using it up there. Andrew, on the other hand...

More to come!