Days 17-23

Yeah, I know it's not a cat picture, but the one on the right is definitely Maya, and the one on the left, Juju. My sister saw this on icanhascheezburger.com and it describes their personalities so accurately.

I'll make this one short. It's been a week since I tried using the amber disc. Well, it seems that Maya is rebelling. I had to resort to using the red disc, and putting it back on the floor. She wouldn't use the red disc on the toilet! She kept pooping in the bathtub or on the bathroom floor. So we go back a couple steps.

However, she was pooping in strange places before I even put the amber disc on, so I don't know what she's thinking. Even since I put it on the floor, she refuses to poop in it. Although I think she may have used it today. Thank goodness she's peeing in the thing. It's only a poop issue right now.

I read about tactics to curb this behavior. I filled the sink and tub up with about an inch of water. It's to keep them from going to the bathroom there. She has never used the sink, but when she had to go but wouldn't, she had jumped up on the sink counter. Hmmmm. I suppose I'll just add updates when there is some sort of progress.

Maya, why can't you be more like your sister, Juju?

Days 14-16

OK, so other than the oops previously mentioned, there have been a couple more. Once ,poop on the floor next to the toilet, and just this morning little nuggets in the bathtub! Now, it seems that both these times I found the mistakes in the morning when I got up. Both times the dish was full of poo and pee, so I am hoping that they are just disgusted with the stink and dirtiness of the red ring. I swear they go to the bathroom for four cats at night.

I am going to try an experiment. I have put on the amber disc, hoping that when they decide to go lots during the middle of the night, they may get most of it down the hole and therefore reduce the stink and dirtiness of the device. I hope that it will keep them from going in other areas of the bathroom. If it fails after tonight, I'll go back to the red disc and figure out a feeding schedule or a middle of the night cleaning appointment.

Included is a photo of Maya checking out the new ring about 20 minutes after I installed it. She is so funny. She climbed up onto the seat like she was gonna go, but one of her back legs fell through the hole and got wet. She did stay on the seat and investigated the hole and the water. By the way, she is mesmerized by water and loves to play with it. Then after staring at the water for a bit, she decided to nibble on the wheat litter. At least I cleaned the device and put fresh litter in. After she jumped down, she located a couple grains of litter and nibbled at those too. What a crazy girl!

Days 7-13

It's been one week on the red stage. The girls have been doing real good, however there have been a couple accidents. Once they had bad aim and peed on the floor next to the toilet. And I believe it's Maya who pooped on the kitchen rug... twice. I'm taking that rug out of the kitchen and hang it over the shower rod in their training bathroom. I think we'll stay at this stage for another week before moving on to the amber disc with the hole in it. I want to make sure they are not making any more oopsies and get real comfortable before moving on to something new.

By the way, I've kept the reaction to the mistakes quiet, as I've read that negative feedback doesn't help, only positive feedback when they do good. If only I could catch them in the act. They seem to go late at night when I'm sleeping. I guess they like their privacy just as much as we do.