November 30, 2002
Saturday

In the last article, we talked about getting Simba used to where the litter boxes were and, how many there should be. We left off talking about cleaning up accidents, emphasizing the need to break down or neutralize the ammonia odor of her urine.

I will reiterate that it's always better to have too many litter boxes than too few. There should be a box for each cat in the house, at least. Some behaviorists recommend a box for every cat plus one, but I've always gotten along with just the one per cat. But I've never had a cat that would keep other cats out of 'her' litter box. And I say 'her' for a reason. The largest number of cats I've seen with inappropriate urination problems have been calicos and tortoise shells, who are almost always female. So be super careful and tend toward the safe side of the equation if you have one of them. Better to be safe than sorry.

Placement of the litter boxes is important as well. While most people don't want a litter box in their living room, most people don't want their kitten - and then their cat - peeing on their couch because that's the closest soft spot. These days they make cat boxes a lot less conspicuous, most of them being covered and pretty unobtrusive. So make sure you start out with plenty of boxes.

Word of warning though. If you decide at a later date that you don't want a certain box where it is anymore, it's not enough to tell Simba where you're putting it, or even to show her. Cats are creatures of habit. If they're used to going in a certain spot, you are tempting the Fates if you just move their box to a different location. They are likely to arrive at the spot where it was, ready to pee, so, by golly, that's what they'll do, box or no box. If you want to get rid of a cat box, you need to start moving it toward either its new location, or toward a different box, a matter of inches a day, until it arrives at its destination.

This way, you are gradually shifting Simba's pee location in her head, and you're much less likely to have urination in the wrong place. I know it's a slow tedious process, but teaching a cat that's inappropriately urinating in the wrong spot to do it in the right spot, is and even longer and more tedious process. Dr Fan's mantra again.

Next: The End of the Litter Box talk

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