LOS ANGELES -- Barbara Ogburn was waiting forguests to arrive for a dinner party when her Siamese cat Toby wentto use his litter box.
"The guest bathroom smelled horrible and there was littereverywhere," Ogburn said. "I looked at him and said, 'Dude, yourlitter box is gone.'"
Someone had given Ogburn a Litter Kwitter, a three-step trainingkit that teaches cats to use a toilet instead of a litter box. Shedecided to try it, and it worked. Now Ogburn, who's had cats sinceshe was a child, says she will never again have a litter box. Nomore buying litter, lugging it home, or cleaning it up.
Litter Kwitter and other toilet-training kits on the market forcats work like this: The toilet seat is fitted with a series ofplastic rings the cat can step on so it doesn't fall in. The holein the rings gets larger over time, until the cat can simplybalance on the toilet seat.
But training a cat to use the toilet is not as easy as getting acat to use a litter box. Cats instinctively bury their waste tohide it from predators, and litter fosters that instinct in a waythat using the toilet does not, according to Steve Duno of Seattle,a veteran pet behaviorist and trainer who has written 18 books.
That's why, when switching to the toilet, some cats will scrapethe bowl, the tank or the wall next to the toilet. Outdoor cats arenot good candidates for toilet-training.
In addition, some cats tolerate change in their routines, whilefor others, even a slight change in feeding schedules will maketheir worlds fall apart, said Dr. Meghan E. Herron, chiefveterinarian at the Behavioral Medicine Clinic, part of theDepartment of Veterinary Clinical Services at Ohio StateUniversity.
"Cats are slaves to routine and very wary of danger tothemselves," Duno added.
And there is nothing about the size or height of a toilet thatis normal to a cat, Herron said. "One bad experience with a toiletcan make them never use it again," she said.
Duno, who has toilet-trained several cats, says he's "known catsthat have fallen into the toilet and that's it, you're done rightthere."
You also need patience. "Cats learn at a very metered pace,"Duno said. If you go too fast, your cat might find other places -furniture, plants, rugs or closets - to go, Herron said.
When you talk about toilet-trained cats, most people think ofMr. Jinx, Robert De Niro's beloved, toilet-flushing, mayhem-makingcat in "Meet the Parents," "Meet the Fockers" and "LittleFockers."
Dawn M. Barkan trained all the Himalayan cats that portrayed Mr.Jinx in those movies, including two rescued cats, Peanut andCharlie, who still live with her.
Misha, who has since died, did the original scene, but "wedidn't really train him to use the toilet," said Barkan, whofreelances for Los Angeles-based Birds Animal Unlimited."It's movie magic." The cat sat on a prop designed to look like atoilet and pressed a button so that the toilet appeared to beflushed. Sound effects were added later.
The idea for Litter Kwitter came from "Meet the Parents," saidJo Lapidge, who with her husband Terry invented the kit.
After research and tests, the Sydney, Australia, couple launchedtheir company in 2005. Since then, they've sold 750,000 kits.
Lapidge says the kit has an 80 percent success rate that "wouldbe higher if humans stopped to follow all the instructions andshowed a bit more patience."
In addition to toilet-training products with plastic rings -ranging in price from lightweight plastic for about $10 to LitterKwitter at $50 - there are also online how-to sites and books thatexplain how to toilet-train your cat.
Online customer reviews for the products are mixed. Even thosewho say they've been successful often say it took several months tocomplete the training, with the cat having accidents along the way.One commenter for a toilet-training kit for a product calledCitiKitty gave it five stars but cautioned that the process was"messy."
There is one disadvantage for cat-owners who successfully traintheir animals. Owners may be alerted to health problems by howoften a cat uses its litter box or the odor, color or texture ofwaste. With a toilet, "you can't monitor the cat's health throughelimination evidence," Duno said.
In addition, as a toilet-trained cat ages, it may have a hardtime leaping onto the seat.
Herron cautioned that a cat is likely to find another place togo rather than wait in line at a bathroom door, so a spare or guestbathroom the animal can use works best.
One benefit in addition to doing away with litter: Toiletsdiminish the risk of humans contracting parasites or infectiousdiseases like toxoplasmosis, ringworm or tapeworm from catwaste.
Finally, no matter how happy you might be to have toilet-trainedyour cat, Duno said this is one animal behavior that shouldn't berewarded with a treat.
"You are choreographing it, but you are not actively encouragingit," Duno said. "You can't be there to praise the cat. It's toodistracting."
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