Crazy Cat Lady

           If you know me personally, you know I love animals. It also probably why sometimes my house feel like a zoo. Over the years, we rescued many pets and welcomed them into our family. At this moment, we have 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 turtle and a few fishes. One of our cat is indoor only, she was dewclaw very young (her paws are very tiny because of it) and she never been outside her whole life. We think she was about 6 years old, when we got her. Having an indoor cat equal having a litter box right? I also mentioned we have a dog. About 2 years ago, we rescued this full size dachshund name Bam-Bam. Before we rescued him, he was used as a breeder dog in Bakersfield. He was malnourished, lived outside mostly and had fleas and ticks. He had never been trained for anything. When we got him, we had to teach him all of the basics, like "sit" and how to walk on a leash. Still up to today, "sit" is one of the only command he responds to. Some friends of ours told us he is more like a companion dog. But no matter what, we love him very much and are glad he is part of our family.

Most people I talked to who have an inside cat and a dog seem to have the same problem that we have. Our dog loves to go munch in the litter box (I know this is disgusting!!!) Not only we were totally repugnant by Bam-Bam actions, we had cat litter all over the house. My first reaction was to make my cat potty-trained (here's the crazy cat lady) and get rid of the litter box. I researched online the many ways and all of the products to help achieve my new goal. I removed the litter box and put a bowl on my toilet with cat litter in it. I follow all of the steps on how to make your cat potty-trained. Isis was a little bit resilient at first, but she finally got it. But when it was time to remove the bowl, she refused to go on the toilet seat. She was done with my experiment. I guess you can't teach your old cat a new trick, no matter how smart you think your cat is. So there I was, back online doing more research and I couldn't find anything that will work for us. I was starting to be desperate and starting to consider to find a new family for our dog.
Then my husband and I had an idea, we were going to build a cover for the litter box with a hole small enough that our dog will not fit in it. With a few piece of left over wood from the garage, my husband build the box one Saturday afternoon. The wooden box is quite bigger than the litter box, so even if our dog try to fit in, he can't reach the litter. I cover it with some vinyl shelf liner that stick on contact from the dollars store. It was easier, faster and cheaper than having to paint the box. It works perfectly. Not only it looks better than that ugly litter box, we also used the top to put our cat food on. No more cat litter all over the house and Bam-Bam get to stay with us. My son was very happy about that, since he is his dog after all.

FYI: For more than a year now, I used the natural corn fiber cat litter and I like it a lot more. I recommended it, it is way better that the regular clay litter. Well worth the little higher price. I never tried the feline pine litter, if you have let me know, I wonder if it's better than the corn fiber.Thanks