smiling on foot

So this blog has been super public and live since mid July and there have been a handful of people who have found their way to smilingonfoot.com via searching for other things on the internet. Below are words that they entered into their favorite search site (mostly google) and somehow my blog came up for them and for whatever reason, they clicked and arrived. I’m sure they were all disappointed that my blog is not dedicated to their topic at hand (you know who you are you weird foot fetish people)… but all the people with the cat pee problems definitely got a good recommendation with that new catbox I bought. It was a good solution for my cats, mos def.  And I hope all the skype people not only looked at my entry about skyping with RB, but also clicked through to RB’s skyping post. Perhaps she could shed some light on that analysis. Any who… here are some of recent search terms for this here bloggo:

- if you dont use IM more often, I swear to god, elle kay – smiling on foot [this is my friend, DS, who likes to communicate via my search terms because he knows I check them]

- why dont you ever sign online LK? smiling on foot [him again]

- how to stop cats from peeing on edge of catbox [I feel their pain - get the catbox I have and your dreams will come true]

- precor 100i boston [this person happens to be from Jamaica Plain - but I have many people looking up my fave machine at the gym]

- cat pees over side of catbox [seems to be a common issue... epidemic even]

- giant catbox [what?]

- skype smilings [this is one of many skype entries - I hope they enjoyed screenshots of RB skyping with me]

- night clubs people 40 dance along south “shore of MA” [this savvy person used bing.com and works at Blue Cross Blue Shield]

- skypohontas [someone in Moscow who's obsessed with RB]

- harem pants [someone in Singapore with bad fashion sense]

- LK i know you read these, smiling on foot [guess who again!]

- video smiling woman feet [I have a feeling this person in Athens, Greece just may be my soul mate - I have smiling woman feet!]

- cat tail twitching urinating [what? my cat isn't the only one?!]

OMG – so funny…

Dumb Cat Can’t Figure Out How To Drink – Watch more Funny Videos

I bought my cats a $35 cat box last week and I feel like this is a lot. But like every parent who has a child with a specific quirk or disability, I am sensitive to the needs of my cat daughter, who seems to have a serious urination issue. I was thinking I should capture her on video or photo when she urinates to fully explain her issue, but then thought better of it. No one wants to see that. (But if you do, let me know and I can make it happen.)

When Little Girl gets in the litter box, she’ll squat herself down for a pee just like any normal cat. Her tail will be straight in the air and her ears are down (most likely because I’m there watching and she is a modest cat). Just before the actual action of peeing takes place, two very odd things happen. First, her tail starts twitching like crazy and continues to twitch as long as urine is exiting her body. If the urine stream takes a momentary pause, the twitching also pauses. When the peeing resumes itself, the twitching starts up again too. Second, squatting no longer seems necessary and she suddenly positions her rear end high in the air so the urine can shoot horizontally to almost any target she desires. As one would expect, this second oddity poses a very serious problem when cat urine projects onto the floor and walls of my parents’ basement!

In their youth, both cat babies each had their own dome shaped cat box with a lid. But those boxes are small and Bandit’s giant self doesn’t fit comfortably in them. I also don’t like cleaning one cat box, never mind two. Mum offered up one of her bins to use for their cat box since it was big and the two of them could go pee side-by-side if they wished. When we learned of Little Girl’s unique urine affliction, we created a new cat box out of a tote. Yes, a clear plastic tote had the highest sides we could think of to protect the basement walls from Little Girl’s urine gun of stink.

A year has gone by and I have repeatedly lined the tote with big, black garbage bags and Mum even put cardboard in there to make the garbage bags fit better (I’d need a photo to better explain this elaborate setup, but you get the idea). We even laid garbage bags on the floor underneath the tote in the event Little Girl’s little bum muscles grew strong enough to shoot urine over the cardboard. Well, that day came this summer. I thought it was a fluke and changed the bags on the floor. But then it happened again and I decided we needed a new solution. I should note that I am not angry at Little Girl. She is an odd, odd cat and does so many things in her strange, little way. I am a loving cat parent, regardless of her various PITA quirks, and began shopping for a new cat box.

New Cat Box

And so I introduce the new cat box. The customer reviews on a popular pet web site say that it’s a good size for when you have multiple cats and one woman sited this cat box as a great solution for her cat who pees over the edge of every normal cat box out there. Perfect! I also like that it’s an actual cat box and not a giant tote… that would’ve be an eye sore for sure when we move out in the future.

The new cat box even has a cute little swinging door that helps keep stink inside. Now because my cats are especially feeble-minded, I had a feeling that mastering the swinging door could take some time. I decided to implement the new box in a 3-phase process.

Phase 1: The cat box hung out in the dining room where I coached them on how to use the swinging door. I tried to make it fun like it’s a new toy and gave lots of positive reinforcement when they could get in and out without my help. Bandit mastered it in a day, Little Girl took about 3 days.

Phase 2: The new cat box was put in the basement next to their old litter box/tote. I set it up with litter and let it be for a day. Someone used it in that time so I felt we were ready for Phase 3.

Phase 3: The giant tote is gone and the new cat box stands alone. I put one garbage bag on the floor beneath the new box just in case, but everything seems to be working out quite well. Here are some pictures of the first day of getting used to the swinging door: