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Well I'm half there already! Many would call me crazy...

The cat lady part is due to my soft gullible heart...

1. When we moved I felt bad for dd that we couldn't bring her Cougar. So when the Neighbours said they had kittens and we were welcome to one once they weened I was happy. Ended up with Oden AND Annie.

2. Then upon finding a not weened kitten alone in the shed after a raccoon was in there (the other kittens and mom disappeared and mom never came back after days), I brought him in and bottle fed him and he's now apart of our three.

Well...the neighbour that we got Oden and Annie from still had two kittens left. They went to the cottage and her mom stops by now and then to feed the cats. One kitten got out. She won't go back in the house when they come to feed the cats. Instead she has adopted ME...

I really don't want a fourth cat in the house but this little orange and white darling won't leave me alone!!! I come out and she instantly jumps up in my lap and purrs...

We have brought her into the breezeway at night during bad storms

And last night because the coyotes were right in the back field...(shudders).

Despite them putting food out on their deck I don't think this little one has been eating well since she's still so small. Ours are huge now and the kitten still in the house next door sits in the window so I can see her. She's huge too. I have been giving her food/water at night when we bring her in the breezeway.

I guess since I have done this I pretty much adopted her.

I guess the neighbour didn't think it was a big deal assuming she'd just go hang out with the barn cats. It's a cat sanctuary. The renter of the barn takes in strays, spays/neuters them and get them their shots. Most are very feral and won't come close to you. He said he thinks people dump cats here or close because he's got a couple of cats that showed up that he doesn't recognize.

I have seen one of the males be nasty to the little one we have outside. Perhaps that's why she's stayed away from the barn.

Wh isn't particularly a cat person but he brought out an old sleeping bag for her, first outside, then in the breezeway when he said to bring her in during a really nasty storm.

Ok so I guess I just need some positive SI feedback. I already feed the cat, I already have to clean a litter box daily...what's one more cat .....right???????????

Here she is:

I thought you were supposed to have one more litter box than cats...? So you should have FIVE litter boxes now. I worry one will be a problem as they grow...

Wow really? I never heard of that. We have two going. Most of the time the three use the covered box (I guess they are shy )

I got the clumping litter and scoop when they poop (or pee).

She is a babe! Somebody told me years ago that 4 cats is the perfect # to have.

I thought she was nuts-until a little, blue eyed hottie showed up on my porch and demanded entry.

It's a good balance for some reason, like they entertain eachother without leaving an odd man out? Idk, its worked for us for years now and I'm excited for you and your kitties!

Er . . . Amazonia is right that you may need more boxes. Though our 1st group of 4 did fine with 1 (self cleaning box) for years. With new additions and life changes we've had to switch to 4 regular. Probably a personality thing to some extent, they'll let you know

Aaaw! I'm so excited for you!

Crap. That sounds like I don't clean out the entire box. I do. Every week I clean out the entire boxes and wash with soap. Refill with new litter and scoop as they go, adding new

litter as I go so it's never low.

The only problem I have seen is that cougar likes to investigate and use the covered box while Annie is in there. I will probably have to invest in another covered box since they seem to like that better.

Are the self cleaning ones really good to use?

Here's our current three.

Annie (orange/white)

Cougar: this is the one that I bottle fed.... (grey, dd has a thing for calling grey cats cougar, she carries this cat around like a baby and he loves it....our original cougar greeted her when she got home from school. I loved that cat. He was let out and got hit by a car. Died in my arms! . The second cougar was the originals brother from another litter...him we couldn't bring)

Oden (black/white, brother to Annie).

He's gotten huge. And is a huge suck!

Edited to clarify. The grey cat named cougar is the one I bottle fed. Not the one from the IL's. We couldn't find that one or I would have taken him when we moved.

[This message edited by DragnHeart at 8:48 PM, August 9th (Friday)]

We have the Cat Genie - it's the kind with plastic pellets that actually get washed.

We are actually on our second one at this point - the first one started having problems after 3 - 4 years.

Is it worth it? Obviously to us it is, since we have had one for 6 - 7 years now!

The plusses

- litterbox is always clean, you don't get smell the way you can from a normal box (mostly... more about that in a minute),

- since it's always clean (cleans after each use), we have only one box for two cats (though we are in a single story condo; if we had multiple levels I would want one on each level)

- we never have to clean a litterbox (again, mostly...)

-when pellets end up elsewhere in the house, I can at least tell myself that they do get washed and sanitized, so it's probably better than litter that gets tracked

downsides:

- you have to buy cleaning cartridges and the plastic pellets, which can get somewhat expensive. It ends up costing more than a normal litterbox (though I think the convenience outweighs the extra cost).

- every so often, something solid will get missed during the scooping part of a cleaning cycle... which means that it gets washed, and then dried. This can result in a "baked poo" smell that is HORRIBLE! It has only happened to us a handful of times though.

- even though we don't have to scoop, the box does need maintenance. There is a cleaning cartridge for it which is a self-cleaning process. But there is a water sensor that must be taken out and cleaned periodically, and once in a while, a complete manual clean may be necessary. Still much better than scooping daily in my opinion, but YMMV.

- 2nd biggest problem: the frickin' water sensor. It's a bad design. It needs to be taken out and cleaned way too often (at least, in my opinion, though it's only difficult because we have the box in a location that makes it difficult to get to the sensor. If we had a better spot to put the box, this wouldn't be as much of an issue.) When the sensor needs cleaned, the freaking "three beeps from hell" mock you and about drive you out of your mind!

- And the worst thing: the stupid, fracking pellets get tracked everywhere. It is impossible to keep the cats from tracking them. So... you don't have to scoop the box, but you do have to vacuum up the pellets.

Overall, we find the cat genie to be worth it, but it's definitely personal opinion as to whether it's worth it or not.

Also - I had the littermaid before I had the cat genie. That one is a toss up as well. I eventually came to the conclusion on that one that scooping every day was better, because the smell when the thing scooped was bad, and there was no avoiding it. And with the number of cats you have, you'd have to empty the container at least every other day, if not every day, so I don't know that it would save you much work. And you'd go through a lot of disposable containers.

Oh, and we could never get the top part of the containers to stay on like they were supposed to, which added to the smell issue and sometimes meant that the stuff that got scooped ended up all over the place.

If I had the time and patience, I'd be tempted to try training the cats to use the toilet! I know it can be done.... but I don't have time to do it.

At my parents we have a two story large cage that the cats eat in and where their litter box is (at the botyom). It has two doors, the top one is kept open and the cat scratching poll is beside it. My grandmothers dog was trained to use a litter box and so would empty all off the cat poop then use it so we had to make it inaccessible..he was then retrained to go outside.

The litter box I bought had three sections for sifting out the poop. It worked alright.

I liked that the cats were trained to use that cage. It's their safe zone. When my kids come over that's where both retreat too lol. They aren't fans of my kids.

Three cats here. Six litter boxes.

Two of mine were litter mates, the last left unadopted from a litter, so they had to go together. They are sweet, but oh, so stupid. The third cat is a smart-as-hell black cat. But he and one of the other two don't get along, so they fight a lot.

I love my cats, but they are costing me way too much, in my reduced economic circumstances. One was just diagnosed with diabetes...and the insulin and syringes are about $200/month! But he's still relatively young (10 years old), so I don't want to just put him down.

I tell you though, that this is it! After they are gone, NO MORE animals for a while!!! (I'm actually a dog person) .

Sounds like you have a good set up, and you're clearly a good caretaker! Good luck!

Six litter boxes???

Wow!!!!!

Annie for sure doesn't like the uncovered litter box...she flipped it...

opps cant link image..boo..found a "crazy cat lady' action figure XD

[This message edited by Selkie at 1:05 PM, August 10th (Saturday)]

That's hilarious!!!!! Love the action figure!!!!!

I want to be the crazy reptile lady. Not cat lady...

Snakes, monitors, geckos etc.

I want to pose nude with a normal morph Burmese python wrapped around me.

THAT is crazy. That is totally ME!!!

The kitten spent the night in the breezeway then went out and stayed out. Can you train a cat that's always gone poop outside to use a litter box???

My 3rd-youngest cat, Muffin, was basically feral when I acquired her. The people had had her as a kitten, then their dogs chased her away and she lived in the woods for over 6 months. When they found her again, they kept her in the woodshop so their dogs wouldn't attack her again. Once I got her home, she adapted perfectly to a litterbox. Her only issue is that her legs are abnormally short and she's fat, so she can't prop herself up enough to properly clean her own butt. So every other day I use baby wipes on her rear.

Cougar was in the eyes just open stage so I had to feed him then wipe his butt to get him to pee and poop. As he got older he would walk over to

Me and paw at my foot to let me know it was butt wiping time

Now, thankfully, he's litter trained. He still paws at my feet though. Usually for snuggles lol.

Well, your babies are beautiful...I have 5 fur babies and 5 litter boxes..Two in the basement with one cat, three in the spare bedroom with the rest of the cats....

Two of the cats go outside on a regular basis...One of the two comes in just to use the litter box..They both come in during the day to sleep..One of the two is declawed too..He will stay in in the winter...He is also the one who uses the litter box...

All my kitties are rescues...The declawed one came from a shelter and later I found out why he was there..He likes to mark and I have to watch him like a hawk at times...He can be so loving and then he turns and nips you to let you know he is the boss...

If you let the kitty stay on the breeze way maybe she should have her own litter box..

I had a front porch kitty and he had his own box he used during the winter...During the summer he would go down on the ground..He was another sprayer and he would do it when you were watching him...He lived a long life..He was tuxedo kitty...He was declawed too...He just showed up one day..

I have one female kitty who has had breast cancer twice and she has no signs of it since January..Hopefully they got it all..It was costly for her surgeries, but she was worth it....Just have to keep an eye and check for lumps..

Good luck with all your fur babies...

My parents cleaned out their crawl space and my old closet after I left. Apparently I left A LOT of STUFF behind. (that's a topic for another thread. Oh the "stuff" we collect lol)

Anyways, they had put all of my stuff in the shed and asked that I go through what I want to keep. Started that yesterday and found a covered litter box woohoo!!!