Making progress with Tom

Things have taken a turn for the better in the past few days, at least for Tom.  As a whole, we haven't had any further accidents, but the cats aren't allowed in the bedroom or the living room unless we are in there with them.  The rugs have been removed from the bathroom floor and the only place they have been using is the toilet!

On Friday, I got a peak of Tom peeing inside the roasting pan with all four feet inside.

When he was done, he was rewarded with praise and catnip.

Last night, I invaded his privacy some more and got some video of him while in action.  He had three paws on the seat and one in the litter.

The video cut short, but after this he spent about another 2 minutes scooping all his mess into the hole down into the toilet!

This morning when I was getting ready for work, he jumped up to go pee with three paws on the toilet seat, and somehow peed right down into the hole in the roasting pan!  None of the litter was wet!  But, he is a cat and it's his instinct to cover it up so he pawed at the litter and pushed some of it down into the hole right into the toilet.

I have not caught Jerri in the act in several days, but I know she must be using the toilet because she isn't using other places.  Plus, I know she has peed when the very corner of the litter is wet and not covered and when there is poop left in the litter uncovered!

One step forward, two steps backward

Since the last time I updated our progress, things have been going pretty smoothly....until today.  Last Friday (Aug 19), after both cats were using the toilet consistently for a few days, we decided to move to the next step.  I took a pair of scissors and made an oval shape whole in the roasting pan.

In hindsight, the hole should have been smaller, at least in the beginning.  This is where things took a dip.  There were accidents on the couch (urine) and on the floor (feces) and neither of the cats went anywhere near the toilet.  While we never caught them in the act to know which one it was, someone was peeing on the bathroom rugs and in the empty (former) litter box.

Eventually, Tom started using the pan at this stage.

To protect the couch from being used as a litter box, we covered it with a plastic shower curtain and closed off the living room except when we were sitting in there.  Even with this, Jerri peed right on top of the shower curtain one time.  On Monday (Aug 22), as my husband and I sat on the couch, she jumped up and got into position to relieve herself.  We quickly stopped her and took her into the bathroom and sat with her and encouraged her to use the toilet.  It seemed that the hole was too large and too big of a step to take, so I replaced the pan with a new one and cut a smaller hole.

We had to leave the house, so we left her shut up in the bathroom for about 45 minutes.  When we returned, she had used the toilet for both pee and poop!  This continued Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with no problems.  Both Tom and Jerri were using the toilet to relieve themselves every time!  I saw Tom use it several times and after he was done with his "business", he pushed all the dirty and clean litter into the hole and jumped off.  I caught Jerri using it one time and got a picture.

Before I grabbed my camera, I saw her with four paws on the commode to pee, then dropped one foot in the litter to poop.  The ultimate goal is for both cats to have all four paws on the commode every time they go.  From what I have read, this can be difficult to train cats to do this.  I will continue to monitor to see how these two cats do.

For the past few days, we were getting excited that we were headed in the right direction, then this morning when I woke up, I immediately smelled poop.  I started searching around the house and couldn't find it.  When I went into the bathroom, the toilet lid was closed!  NO!!!  Eventually I found the feces and urine, and oddly enough....litter to cover up the urine.....several feet from the bathroom near a wall.

We have NO idea how the litter got to this area of our apartment!!  After I found this nice surprise, I cleaned up the feces and hurried to get ready for work.  Before I left for work, Jerri went over to that area and scratched at the floor several times.  For this reason, I shut her off into the bathroom when I left for work and explained to my husband to leave her in there until she relieved herself.  About a half hour later, my husband sent me this picture of where she finally relieved herself....

Yuck!  Then later tonight, someone used that same exact spot to relieve themselves again!  We are now wondering how to stop the backward progression and keep moving forward??

Still going at it...

Things have been going alright for the first part of this week.  Both the cats have been using the roasting pan down inside the toilet, or at least trying to.  While neither of us have seen it happen, we have found urine running over the side of the toilet onto the floor.  At first, we thought someone had peed on the floor, but then we found it running down the side of the toilet.  

It doesn't show up too great in the picture, but when this happens, the rug is always scrunched up and the floor is soaked.  

On the other hand, both cats have been leaving feces in the toilet.  I know for sure this was Jerri because she still isn't covering up her mess!  But, at least we aren't picking this up off the floor or other places!

We have been using the catnip as reward whenever we catch them in the act, but they often go when we aren't paying attention.  I caught Tom today and I will share what I was able to get.

Here is a still shot.

We are going to keep trying to make this work!  I didn't expect this to be fast and it sure isn't!

"Litter Box Diva" using the litter inside the toilet!

Knock on wood, but the last 24 hours have been going pretty well.  The cats have used the litter inside the roasting pan down in the toilet several times.  One time, there was urine on the toilet, but we both chalked it up to them needing some time to learn how to use it.  Today, we finally caught one of them in the act and got it on film!  (sorry it's sideways....next time I will remember to hold the camera the right way!)

Here is a still shot...

And here she is with her reward of catnip!

Keep on truckin'

Even though we have had a few rough weeks, I'm not giving up on toilet training just yet!  We went to PetSmart today and got some catnip to try and entice the cats to get on the toilet.  I spent $3.99 and I hope it's the secret weapon!

In addition to adding the catnip, we are back to using the roasting pan down inside the toilet.  Brand new litter was added today with a couple pinches of catnip.  I let the cats sniff the catnip and they followed me to the bathroom.  My husband and I coaxed them onto the toilet and into the litter with the catnip, so we all know that the cats know where the litter box is!

Jerri sniffing the catnip inside the litter.

Tom playing in the litter to get the catnip.

Our plan is to closely monitor them using the litter box.  When we see them in the act, we want to praise them for using the box and use the catnip as a reward.  That's the plan anyways....

Out of town, out of order

After a couple successful weeks toward potty training, my husband and I went out of town for a week.  While we were gone, two of our friends kindly welcomed the cats into their home.  We set everything up like it was at home with the litter box on top of the toilet.  The first few days were fine, but it started to go downhill after that.  One of them peed on a chair of theirs then the next day, Jerri was found trying to "cover up" her pee on the cat bed I had provided.  After a couple more "accidents", my friends took the cats back home a day earlier than we were suppose to return home.

When we arrived home, the litter box remained on top of the toilet for a few more days with no problems.  I caught Tom in the act and I thought I would share this picture.

After a couple days of getting things back to normal, I moved to the next step by placing the litter in a turkey roasting pan and dropping it down into the toilet.

We closely monitored the litter that went unused for about 24 hours.  We picked the cats up onto the toilet and placed them inside the litter to show them where it was, but this didn't seem to help.  The next afternoon we found a very large amount of urine in the corner of the couch on top of the two throw pillows.  Unfortunately at the time, we had a friend visiting town for a wedding of a mutual friend who would be sleeping on the couch.  My husband quickly steam cleaned it to get rid of the horrible odor cat urine leaves behind.  For the remainder of my friend's visit, we had the litter box set up next to the toilet as well as the pan dropped down into the toilet.

A few hours after dropping my friend off at the airport, my husband and I went out of town for a few more days to end our last week of vacation.  While we were gone, the cats stayed home and three of my friends came to check on them at least once a day each day.  While we were gone, the litter box was placed back on top of the toilet since the roasting pan wasn't working so far.

Now we are home for good (until further notice) so it's time to get serious about getting them to go down in the toilet!