Really Thinking “Outside the Box”

More adventures in cat care—-

I had to take our Himalayan cat, Neferkitty, to the vet’s this afternoon because she’s been peeing outside the litter box a lot this last week.  With two indoor cats and an ancient Toy Fox Terrier sharing our house, it took a bit of sleuthing to determine who the culprit was behind the puddles we kept finding on the tile floor.  (Thankfully, we don’t have any carpet.  The house is all tile with area rugs.) 

This morning we put on our Sherlock Holmes caps and deduced it had to be Neferkitty because there hadn’t been any puddles until after she woke up from sleeping on the bed all night.  Elementary, my dear Watson! 

So, off to the vet.  He asked the usual questions about any change in litter, change in placement of the two boxes we have, any new people or cats in the house, etc.  The answers were “no” on all counts.  Even so, he strongly suspected it was a behavioral thing but we went ahead with an antibiotic injection so that if, after 10 days, she wasn’t using the box again, at least we’d know it wasn’t because of a bladder infection. 

I opted for the injection, even though it was kind of pricey, because there was no way in hell I was going to dose her twice a day with a liquid antibiotic for 10 days.  I would be a quivering mass of flayed skin by that time, and besides, the last time I had to give her eye drops and ointment twice a day she took to living in the bathtub for a month; kind of like a Southern belle taking to her bed with a case of the vapors. 

No, thank you, Miss Scarlett.  I don’t know nuthin’ about giving antibiotics.

In addition, the vet suggested that he could put her on hormones if at the end of the 10 days she was still peeing “inappropriately”, as they call it in the vet literature.  I asked him how that would help and he said it would make her “feel more girly” which would, somehow, make her want to use the litter box and not the floor. 

I dunno.  I take Premarin and even though I pee in the toilet, I don’t think I would start peeing on the floor if I discontinued taking it.  At any rate, maybe it won’t get to that.

While I was scanning the interwebs for info. about this problem, I found something that, outwardly, just seems…..wrong. 

Here’s a picture of…..well…..I kid you not…..

A “Kitty Litter Cake”

And for those of you brave enough to try it…..here’s the recipe:

CAKE INGREDIENTS

1 box spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package white sandwich cookies
1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix
A few drops green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent

SERVING “DISHES AND UTENSILS”

1 NEW cat-litter box
1 NEW cat-litter box liner
1 NEW pooper scooper

Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan. Prepare pudding and chill.
Crumble cookies in small batches in blender or food processor. Add a few drops of green food coloring to 1 cup of cookie crumbs.
Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside. When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture moist but not soggy. Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.

Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable. Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points. Repeat with three more rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture. Sprinkle remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top. Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter box. Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the edge of the box.

Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with scooper. Enjoy!