Kevin's Watch

My husband is a Mechanical Engineer so naturally, he likes gadgets, but this one takes the cake!

Friday night I went to Wally World, broke down and bought one of those self cleaning litter boxes. He's fascinated. Says the rake gives it a kind of "Feng Shui" (spelling?) feeling.

Sometimes, I got to wonder about him.

First of all, sorry Ducky, I'd assumed you were a guy...My bad.

Secondly, I bought one of those front-loading washing machines a few weeks ago....I can sit and watch an entire cycle...It's hypnotic.

LOL, my friend's dad bought one of those self-cleaning litter boxes while she was in college. I never got the whole story, but their cats (they only had three at the time) broke it inside of a month. I think the rake was too tantalizing to leave alone...

Litter box as Feng Shui... ROTFL!!

Cail wrote:First of all, sorry Ducky, I'd assumed you were a guy...My bad.

Secondly, I bought one of those front-loading washing machines a few weeks ago....I can sit and watch an entire cycle...It's hypnotic.

Not to worry, you're not alone.....ask Pumpkin King!

We got one of those to use in our camper (yes, we take our kitty boys camping with us.) The first time it started up in the middle of the night it scared us to death. It's rather noisy you see.

Now it is relegated to the back room of the basement.

I had one, but my cat, Mojo, is... um... special... er... intellectually challenged. No matter how clean the litter box is he always has to back into a corner and would stop up the litter maid which was lovingly renamed the turd flinger because once it struggled against his load it would eventually fling poo out of the box and across the room. I went back to a regular old box since I had to scoop the litter maid anyway.

Also if any litter spills on the floor he thinks that is an extension of the litter box.

Over here all washing machines are front-loading.

The top-loading ones seem very old-fashioned to me.

Yeah, over here everyone uses the old-fashioned, clothes-abusing, water-wasting top-loaders.

I didn't know there were any significant differences in things like water consuption, but since you mentioned it I've read up a little and it turns out that the front-loaders are vastly superior. I always assumed it was because Americans kept their washing machines in "utility rooms" rather than the kitchen and therefore didn't need to put them under a worktop. Ah well, live and learn.

SoulQuest1970 wrote:I had one, but my cat, Mojo, is... um... special... er... intellectually challenged. No matter how clean the litter box is he always has to back into a corner and would stop up the litter maid which was lovingly renamed the turd flinger because once it struggled against his load it would eventually fling poo out of the box and across the room. I went back to a regular old box since I had to scoop the litter maid anyway.

Also if any litter spills on the floor he thinks that is an extension of the litter box.

*wipes diet pepsi off her monitor*

LOL-I sympathize for all who are spouses of engineers...

I'm married to one, too. If I suggested we by a self-cleaning litter box, there would be major objections in the house, he would insist on "building" one.
It would weight about a thousand pounds, have about a billion screws and cost twice as much as an already assembled one-but it would last till the next millenium!

-Avy

and there are all those things he takes apart "just to see how they work", that when put back together there is always that leftover screw and he says, "oops". I have to say that the stuff always still works and we have saved alot of money in repairs and replacements in the past. So, it does have its advantages.

onewyteduck wrote:Friday night I went to Wally World, broke down and bought one of those self cleaning litter boxes. He's fascinated. Says the rake gives it a kind of "Feng Shui" (spelling?) feeling.

I imagine it's a lot like a stinky zen garden.

My cats developed the rather messy habit of sitting in the litter tray but crapping outside of it.

SoulQuest1970 wrote:I had one, but my cat, Mojo, is... um... special... er... intellectually challenged. No matter how clean the litter box is he always has to back into a corner and would stop up the litter maid which was lovingly renamed the turd flinger because once it struggled against his load it would eventually fling poo out of the box and across the room. I went back to a regular old box since I had to scoop the litter maid anyway.

Also if any litter spills on the floor he thinks that is an extension of the litter box.

LOL....

If you think that's weird, try this one: MY oldest cat BALANCES on the edge of the litter box and poops that way. In other words, he puts his front paws on the edge of the box and basically "stands up" on his hind legs with his butt hanging over the litter rather than squatting like cats usually do. What's really funny is that my youngest cat has picked up this practice too. It still doesn't seem to prevent the occasional dingleberry, though....

Not to mention, he has the charming habit of leaving a single piece of poop on the floor by the litter box as a "warning shot" to remind me to clean the litter box once it starts getting pretty grody. I still haven't figured out how he manages this. Does he dig through the litter and find a piece, then scoop it out and drop it on the floor?

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:Litter box as Feng Shui... ROTFL!!

"Feng Pooey" ?

LOL Cats are just weird critters. They are too funny. Although who needs a turd flinger now that I have a puppy to do it for me! The past 2 days my puppy has managed to drag the litter box out of hiding and scatter the contents all over my living room floor! She seems under the impression that it is an all you can eat buffet. So during my lunch break I ran to Target and invested in a hooded cat box with a freakin door on it! Not entirely puppy proof, but heavier and certainly harder to get into. Yeesh. I guess my puppy is "feng pooey" too.

SoulQuest1970 wrote:LOL Cats are just weird critters. They are too funny. Although who needs a turd flinger now that I have a puppy to do it for me! The past 2 days my puppy has managed to drag the litter box out of hiding and scatter the contents all over my living room floor! She seems under the impression that it is an all you can eat buffet. So during my lunch break I ran to Target and invested in a hooded cat box with a freakin door on it! Not entirely puppy proof, but heavier and certainly harder to get into. Yeesh. I guess my puppy is "feng pooey" too.

Dogs apparently love eating cat poop because it has a lot of undigested protein in it, or so I've been told.

If the hooded litter box deal doesn't cut it, I've also heard that you can get additives from your vet to put in the cat food that makes their poop taste bad or otherwise discourages the dog from eating it. I can't imagine it tasted good to begin with, but then again, I'm not a dog.

Avytaya wrote:LOL-I sympathize for all who are spouses of engineers...

My high school french teacher had an engineer for a husband. When she invited the class for pizza, the way he would decide how much to order was to ask how many average slices each person might eat, then calculate the area of the pizza in terms of slices to see which was a better deal and how many to get. So he'd end up ordering something like three large and one small to make sure that they didn't have any left over. ????

I think he got the short end of the stick, though. She used to warn me not to park my truck on the street across from her when she drove her "big" car to work because she wouldn't be able to get out... her "big" car was a 1988 Toyota Corolla, which is the size of a matchbox. Her "small" car was some sort of mid-80's Porsche model, which couldn't have been more than a foot shorter than the Corolla. Crazy woman.

Encryptic wrote:Dogs apparently love eating cat poop because it has a lot of undigested protein in it, or so I've been told.

If the hooded litter box deal doesn't cut it, I've also heard that you can get additives from your vet to put in the cat food that makes their poop taste bad or otherwise discourages the dog from eating it. I can't imagine it tasted good to begin with, but then again, I'm not a dog.

I know ours do! We've tried various things to keep them out of the "kitty cookies" or "tootsie rolls" as we are wont to call them. What has worked best so far is that the litter box is sitting up on top of a dog crate and is out of their reach. Of course that doesn't do anything for the ones Sybil kicks out onto the floor!

And why is it that after consuming their goodie they always seem to want to come give you a kiss? Blech!

Hey now, let's stop making fun of the engineers... Oh wait...I guess we are nerds. Nevermind.

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:So he'd end up ordering something like three large and one small to make sure that they didn't have any left over. ????

That sounds like an efficient way to order pizza... I'd be tempted to do something like that too if someone didn't smack me. Heh.-jay

(I should tell my advisor that I'm changing my graduate thesis to determining the Pizza-to-Person Ratio.)