Not using the litter box is funny in ways

in article Nevercene at lid wrote on 1/23/05
10:54AM:

We have this problem with at least one of the cats occasionally
not using the litter box. We don't know which one, but one
of them at least once a week decides to do his/her business
in the laundry room.

I've told my wife that I don't have any responsibility for this.
I didn't want the cats inside; for years whatever cats we had
lived outside, and I built an insulated and heated cat house
for them. But she and the kid decided, a few years ago, to
invite the cats inside.

She claims whichever one that does it is doing it because the
laundry room is warmer. I say its because they like the fact
that her and the kid leave socks on the laundry room floor
(usually, the stuff is covered by a sock).

In any case, I'm not going to clean it up. She won't clean it
up until its hard, which is not acceptable to me. Her excuse
is that waiting until its hard makes it easier to pick up, as
she says, like a man in a bar.

You realize the solution is to put a small litter box in that room?

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes.] On 2005-01-23, Karen
Chuplis penned:
in article Nevercene at lid wrote on 1/23/05
10:54AM:

We have this problem with at least one of the cats occasionally not using
the litter box. We don't know which one, but one of them at least once a
week decides to do his/her business in the laundry room.

I've told my wife that I don't have any responsibility for this. I didn't
want the cats inside; for years whatever cats we had lived outside, and I
built an insulated and heated cat house for them. But she and the kid
decided, a few years ago, to invite the cats inside.

She claims whichever one that does it is doing it because the laundry room
is warmer. I say its because they like the fact that her and the kid leave
socks on the laundry room floor (usually, the stuff is covered by a sock).

In any case, I'm not going to clean it up. She won't clean it up until its
hard, which is not acceptable to me. Her excuse is that waiting until its
hard makes it easier to pick up, as she says, like a man in a bar.

You realize the solution is to put a small litter box in that room?

Actually, I think the problem is that he's writing to cat groups about a power
struggle in his relationship. "I'm not going to clean it up ... not
accepatable to me ... her excuse is ..." Sounds like my reaction to my
freshman roommate, only I've grown up a bit since then. Somewhere along the
line, I think this family lost sight of the idea that a family is a team.
Sad, really.

--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

In article ,
says...


You realize the solution is to put a small litter box in that room?


Uh... No... Really?

I'll try it. Bless you.

In article ,
says...

Actually, I think the problem is that he's writing to cat groups about a
power
struggle in his relationship. "I'm not going to clean it up ... not
accepatable to me ... her excuse is ..." Sounds like my reaction to my
freshman roommate, only I've grown up a bit since then. Somewhere along the
line, I think this family lost sight of the idea that a family is a team.
Sad, really.


Having taken a day to think about your comments, I decided to respond to all
the original groups, as I think there has been a bit of an insult here. Yes,
there is a teamwork problem. Maybe I'm being too sensitive, but it clearly
seems you're pointing the finger at me.

Yet under the original plan of having outside cats, this was not a problem.
Under the secondary plan of not having stray socks in the laundry room, this
is not a problem (there is 100% correlation between socks and cat doo doo).
Since it appears the idea of woman's work and the unwillingness of men to
cooperate is about to come up, let me say in advance that I do my own laundry
and half the grocery shopping.

They are not exempt from man's work - they both take their cars in themselves
for oil changes. But I think you're possibly guilty of an automatic "you (the
man) are wrong".

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes.] On 2005-01-25, Brian
F. Nevercene penned:
In article ,
says...

Actually, I think the problem is that he's writing to cat groups about a
power
struggle in his relationship. "I'm not going to clean it up ... not
accepatable to me ... her excuse is ..." Sounds like my reaction to my
freshman roommate, only I've grown up a bit since then. Somewhere along the
line, I think this family lost sight of the idea that a family is a team.
Sad, really.


Having taken a day to think about your comments, I decided to respond to all
the original groups, as I think there has been a bit of an insult here.
Yes, there is a teamwork problem. Maybe I'm being too sensitive, but it
clearly seems you're pointing the finger at me.

Well, I have no input from the rest of your family ... all I know is what
you've shared.

What concerns me is your wording. I don't know you, but when I related it to
my freshman college experience, I was being quite literal. We were both only
children, and the transition to living in close quarters with another person
was brutal, even though we were friends already. What I recall is
passive-aggressive wars in which the entire floor would be covered in
newspapers because we each felt it was the other's turn to pick them up.
Silly stuff like that.

Fast forward to my married life. Yes, in general, the person who didn't
cook is supposed to clean the dishes, but sometimes it doesn't work out
that way. Yes, in general, Oscar is my responsibility, but if DH comes
home to a pile of barf or other disaster, he cleans it up. In other
words, flexibility. Or, to quote my mother, "Marriage is never 50/50.
Sometimes it's 60/40, other times 20/80, but it's never even." Which is not
to say that our relationship is always peaches and cream, but we try to work
it out.

There are a lot of people who post to cat newsgroups about inappropriate
elimination. Most of them don't mention their family politics.

All of that being said, the conclusion I drew from a couple of paragraphs may
be entirely wrong, and even if I'm spot on, that still doesn't mean that you
invited me to comment on your family life. I apologize for sticking my nose
where it doesn't belong.

Fortunately, Oscar has thus far been a fastidious litterbox user, so I have
little to contribute to your original question. When she was a kitten, she
had a bacterial infection and couldn't make it to the litterbox in time. When
she was an adult, she avoided the litterbox once because I'd put her carrier
right next to the box, and apparently she was so terrified of the carrier she
wouldn't go near it. That time it was very obvious that she was agitated and
looking for a place to go; unfortunately, I didn't figure out the problem in
time. And when another cat was living with us, she was so terrified of him
that she peed in the bathroom rather than try to get past him. She was nice
about it, though; she peed on the bath mat and actually folded the corner
over.

There *was* a suspicious smell on the waterproof liner of my motorcycle pants
once, but they weren't wet and I'd left them lying on the floor for a really
long time (don't ride when I expect it to rain, anyway). If it was indeed
Oscar, she never repeated the performance on any of my other clothing, and I
am definitely not the best at picking clothes up and putting them away.

I don't think she's ever pooped in the wrong place, except for when she was
afraid to leave the room because of the other cat.

Yet under the original plan of having outside cats, this was not a problem.
Under the secondary plan of not having stray socks in the laundry room, this
is not a problem (there is 100% correlation between socks and cat doo doo).

I like the second plan. I'm sorry it's meeting with resistance on the home
front.

A thought does occur to me. Cats will often pee on soft surfaces when they're
experiencing urinary tract distress, and it's a sure sign to take them to a
vet. Granted, iirc, your cat is pooping, not peeing, but I wonder if there
could be some sort of correlation there ...

[muses] Or maybe you could put the stray socks in the litter box to help him
out ... Er, that's just a joke, folks.

Since it appears the idea of woman's work and the unwillingness of men to
cooperate is about to come up, let me say in advance that I do my own
laundry and half the grocery shopping.

Didn't come up in my brain.

They are not exempt from man's work - they both take their cars in
themselves for oil changes. But I think you're possibly guilty of an
automatic "you (the man) are wrong".

Not thus far.


--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*