Category: Uncategorized

One of the biggest concerns potential pet parents have about the animals for adoption at shelters and rescues is their health. Are pets for adoption at shelters and rescues healthy? Can my family and my pets get sick if they are sick? Pets at shelters are just like pets from any communal environment, including pet stores and commercial breeders. It’s good to educate yourself before getting a new pet, and we’re lucky enough to have had the chance to ask a well-credentialed expert, Dr. Mary Beth Leininger with the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance program, the most-asked questions many people have about adopting pets and their health! Dr. Leininger is a former President of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and co-owned a successful, American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA)-accredited companion animal hospital in Michigan for nearly 30 years. Read on for the 2nd in our short series of shelter pet health Q&A articles, here’s the 1st article, and check back here next week for the last installment!

Q: I want to adopt a dog/cat, and I already have a dog/cat. How can I protect my current pet’s health?

Adopt-a-Pet.com says: Before adopting a new pet, have your current pet’s health checked by your vet. Your vet can make sure they are up to date on parasite protection appropriate for your individual pet and your geographical area, and make sure enough – but not too much – time has passed since your pet’s last  preventative vaccinations, so they are most effective. Your personal vet can also let you know about possible communicative illnesses common in your local area, that a new pet might be incubating and bring into your home. Follow your vet’s advice on isolating a new pet from your current pets. Depending on your current pets and the pet being brought in, vets may give the go-ahead for an immediate introduction, or may recommend an isolation period, especially if you have senior or baby pets.

Dr. Leininger says: There are several steps any current pet owner should take prior to adopting another cat or dog. Interested adopters should adopt from reputable shelters or rescue organizations. For example, it’s a good sign if they inquire about the adopter’s home before completing the adoption.

To protect your current pet’s health, you should make note of the adopted animal’s medical history. Let’s take a closer look at some important health-related items you should check.

Dogs:

• Spayed or neutered?
• Heartworm test (dogs older than 6 months) and preventive medication
• Parasite testing and deworming treatment history
• Temperament evaluation
• Age and gender
• Medical history
• Microchipped?

Cats:

• Spayed or neutered?
• FeLV / FIV tested
• Vaccination history
• Parasite testing and deworming treatment history
• Temperament evaluation
• Age and gender
• Medical history

That’s all for this week! Check back next week for our final installment of our mini-series of pet health Q&A with a vet, where you can find out about keeping an indoor cat healthy!

Here’s another wonderful adoption story… two actually! Both these cats were given a chance at a new happy beginning to the rest of their lives thanks to the combined efforts of an animal shelter who took them in, a rescue group who rescued them, and then two amazing compassionate families that adopted them. We heard about these doubly happy adoption stories thank to the Adopt-a-Pet.com Happy Beginnings Fund grant program for shelters and rescues. The grants provide funding to shelters and rescues for their adoption programs, to make more Happy Beginnings like these two possible. If Adopt-a-Pet.com helped you find a pet to adopt, and you have a happy adoption story and photo that you’d like to share to help inspire others to adopt a pet, we’d love to hear from you! Please send an email with a photo or two of you and your adopted pet (or just your pet, but we love seeing your smiling faces too) attached to us here at  info@cms.adoptapet.com, and let us know how Adopt-a-Pet.com helped you find your pet! Now on to the wonderful story of Sushi & Rita…

Their rescue Mutts N Stuff Small Dog Rescue – Cats In Tow Program writes, “We took in two 12-year old cats from East Valley Shelter, one named Rita, a lynx point Siamese and one named Sushi, a long-haired Siamese/Persian mix. Because of their age the condition they arrived in, they were overlooked by the public and finally scheduled for euthanasia. 

We took them into our PetSmart Brea Cat Adoption Center because they had done well in a cage and were volunteer favorites. Rita seemed pretty calm but Sushi was overly thin and bony. Both quickly ate a can of wet food each!

We took Sushi to the vet and ran a blood panel and had her teeth checked. She suffered from the affects of starvation but good food and care could counteract it. By her teeth she was actually 6 years old–that’s a 6 year difference!

We were very upfront with potential adopters; had their vet records available; and our own recommendations of what would help make them healthier.  Within a week, both cats found loving, caring homes. Rita went to a couple where she would be a buddy to a 9-year old who lost his lifetime friend. Their vet confirmed she was really 12 and they had blood work and her teeth cleaned and she was healthy. Sushi went to a caring woman who was going to nurse her back to health and a good weight. Just what she needed to survive her ordeal successfully! Both overlooked in the shelter, these cats found homes not heaven in our rescue!

See Sushi & Rita’s “before” photos at the shelter directly above, and at their happily ever after adopted photos at the top and bottom of this page! 

Imagine how it feels trying to swallow an enormous pill without any water. Ack! From a cat’s perspective, making them to swallow a medication pill or capsule without a liquid chaser probably feels worse than than what you just imagined, given the relative size of the pill to the cat’s throat.  That’s one reason why cats need some help swallowing pills — see our tips below! My vet recently told me about an even more important reason why you should use these tips: it could save your kitten or cat’s life. She also showed me this x-ray that’s posted here, which I’ll discuss in detail below too, but it’s a sad story… so first I’ll tell you how you can prevent a fatal dry pilling situation from happening first!

Getting a cat to take a pill can be like a bad comedy routine if you have a strong willed cat who doesn’t want to be pilled, and you aren’t experienced! So what can you do?

Cat Pilling Tricks

•  Liquid medication instead of a pill! Many medications are readily available in a liquid form, you just have to ask. If not already made, some can be compounded into a chicken- or tuna-flavored liquid, or even a gel you rub on their ears. Ask your vet what’s possible!
• Crushed & mixed into canned food. Ask your vet if you can crush the pill or cut it into tiny bits, then mix it into very fragrant canned cat food when they are hungry. Only try this if you have an extra pill, as you cat may refuse to eat it.
• Hide pill in pill pockets. Pill Pockets or Kitty Doh are a soft treat you can mold around the pill so your cat will eat it. If it’s a bigger pill, ask your vet if you can cut the pill up – make sure to ask, because some pills have a coating that shouldn’t be cut. The vet over at CatInfo has this great video showing how to use pill pockets in the middle of giving other treats, so the cat swallows it then other things afterwards. (She also has other great advice!)

Cat Pilling Tips

If you can’t get a liquid, and your cat won’t or can’t eat the pill in food or a pocket, you’ll have to “pill” your cat. Do not dry pill a cat without a chaser. Always follow a pill by immediately offering your cat a chaser: canned food, broth, or water… and making sure they eat or drink at least one full teaspoon. This will help the pill go all the way down. If they are sick or just won’t eat canned food, or even lap up watered-down chicken baby food, you may have to gently syringe 6cc of water into the corner of their mouths. NEVER DRY PILL a cat or kitten. The pill can get stuck and be fatal!

(You can see this published vet study for scientific proof that a chaser is needed, and here’s another showing that hiding the pill in a pill pocket works just as well.)

 

 

1. First, coat pill with butter. Check with your vet, but most pills can safely be coated with butter or hidden in a tiny butter ball, which will help them slide all the way down.
2. Second, offer pill like a treat, out of your hand. Every once in a while one of my foster cats surprises me by eating the pill no fuss! If they do, follow with a chaser, and you’re done.
3. Third, make a Kitty Burrito: Use a towel to gently but securely wrap your cat up like a burrito in a towel, with just his head showing. It really helps to have an assistant (I owe my friends so many favors!) to hold the kitty burrito on a table or floor, so you have both hands free to open cat’s mouth, insert pill, and hold your cat’s mouth closed till they swallow. See this video for how to get your cat to open his mouth, pill, & swallow. Don’t forget to give the chaser after!

Now for the sad story…

What you’re seeing in the X-ray image above is a tragic result of “dry” pilling a kitten. This was a kitten who was given a standard deworming pill, without any liquid afterwards. The pill got stuck in the kitten’s esophagus before it reached his stomach. The medication caused irritation, which caused the esophagus to swell around the pill, effectively blocking food from getting to the stomach. You can see the swollen bulbous looking mass above the red arrow, and the normal size skinny tube of the esophagus below it.

The poor kitten was starving and trying to eat, would throw up up, and then try again. As the kitten tried and tried to eat, the food and inflammation stretched out the esophagus — it was only two days after the pilling when this xray was taken. By then the esphagus was so badly stretched out, it was too late. The smaller the kitten and the bigger the pill, the more important a pill chaser becomes, but any size pill and any size cat can have this happen. That’s why a liquid or canned food chaser is so important!

So now you have some tips for how to pill or your cat or kitten, and you know about giving a pill safely wrapped in a soft treat, followed by a chaser of liquid or canned food. You just need full body armor, and you’re ready to pill your cat! 😉

Usually our Happy Beginnings stories come to us straight from the adopters who’ve given a homeless pet their new happy beginning. If you have a happy adoption story and photo that you’d like to share and inspire others to adopt a pet, we’d love to hear from you. Please send an email with the photo attached  to info@cms.adoptapet.com. This time though, we have a Happy Beginnings story from a shelter that lists their pets for adoption on Adopt-a-Pet.com! The Forget Me Not Animal Shelter sent us this story as part of their application for an Adopt-a-Pet.com Happy Beginnings Fund grant, which help create more “Happy Beginnings” with funding for adoptions programs at shelters and rescues. Forget Me Not writes, “Jasper arrived at the shelter as an 11-year-old Labrador/Boxer mix boy, who was impounded by the county after his owners moved away and left him at their former rental home. They had told the landlord they would be back for their dogs (Jasper came in with a 5-year-old Boxer and an elderly Chihuahua), but after a month had gone by, the landlord had no choice but to ask the sheriff to remove the abandoned dogs.

The owners were located and came to Forget Me Not Animal Shelter, where they paid the impound fee for the Chihuahua and took him away… but said “you can have the other two,” leaving Jasper and his Boxer friend homeless.

Some dogs might become depressed, but Jasper seemed to really enjoy his time at the shelter; we believe he was mainly left outside all the time with his former family, so the one-on-one indoor attention and play time he received from our wonderful volunteers seemed like a grand improvement to Jasper. We did worry that it would be difficult to find a home for a dog nearing the end of his life, but optimistically listed him and hoped for the best, while continuing to make him happy and comfortable for what could be the rest of his life at the shelter.

We are the only animal shelter in an extremely rural and impoverished county (Ferry County) in Washington State. Ferry County has an area approximately the size of Delaware, including large portions of Colville Tribal lands, and large swatches of state and national forest. We seem to be a magnetic dumping ground for unwanted pets, many of whom are lucky to be found by hikers or hunters, often several miles from the nearest home.

The number of abandoned, abused, and neglected cats and dogs in our county far exceeds the number of available qualified adoptive homes; as a result, we have built a thriving (though costly) distance adoption program. Our distance adoption program relies heavily on the advertising provided by Adopt-a-Pet.com. Potential adopters find our wonderful available pets online, where every listing lets them know we have monthly deliveries to the Seattle (about 6 hours each way from us) and Spokane (about 3 hours) areas. [Read more about their Distance Adoption program here.]

Thankfully, our distance adoption program did the trick for Jasper, and he was adopted to a wonderful, loving woman in the Seattle area who needed Jasper just as much as he needed her. While no one can say how many years Jasper has left, we are all thrilled that he will spend his last years happy and loved.

Really, you know what the internet was made for… silly cat videos! N2 the Talking Cat is one awesome example of this phenomena, with millions of videos of his videos on YouTube. We love N2 not just for the way he makes us smile, like in his latest N2 the Talking Cat S3 Ep5 Defender Cat video, but he’s a huge supporter of pet adoption. You know we LOVE that! N2’s creator even says, “Black cats and shelter cats carry a stigma.  Many feel that they bring bad luck or that they do not make good companions in comparison to those you could purchase from a breeder.  With your support N2’s show will continue to raise awareness that adopted pets (especially the shunned black ones) are some of the most loving, affectionate pets you could ever own.  N2 is proof that a black shelter pet can make a difference in our society.” Do you not love N2 even more now? Well wait till you see what comes up at 1:38 in  his Defender Cat video – and then if you haven’t seen his most popular video yet Burrito Cat with almost 2 million views, check out the link to Adopt-a-Pet.com in the About section below the video. Thanks N2, we love you!

 As the end of June looms, I start to make my checklist and gather my Fourth of July supplies… if you’re thinking that includes a picnic blanket, some bug spray, and paper plates, you haven’t lived with a pet who starts anxiety drooling and pacing as the sun goes down in the days leading up to Independence Day, even before the fireworks start! It will be my 11th year of living through July 4th with my 80-pound quivering fireworks-phobic dog, and in that time I’ve figured out a few tricks that have helped reduce his full-on trying-to-escape-the-house panic attacks to mild, manageable distress. In all my research, I’ve discovered some tips that might help other pet owners keep their pets safe during one of the most dangerous times of year for dogs and cats. Many animal shelters experience the highest single day intake rates of stray cats and dogs on the 4th of July evening. Read on for my Fourth of July Fireworks Pet Safety tips!

Pre-Fourth preparations can save a lot of heartache! No caring pet owner plans on their pet getting out and getting lost:

• Microchip. Haven’t gotten a microchip for your pet yet? Now is a great time! If you have one already, call the microchip company to make sure the chip is registered with your current information. 
  
• Collar and ID tag. Check to make sure pet collars are secure and tags are up-to-date and readable.
• Photos of your pet. If they get out, you’ll want photos to make lost pet flyers. Have a clear body shot and face shot somewhere you can access quickly.
• Pet GPS. Several companies now sell a GPS transmitter designed to attach to your pet’s collar. Some come in sizes suitable for dogs or cats (on a safety release collar of course) who are at least 10 pounds. Test the units out before the 4th so you’re familiar with how they function.

1. At dusk, bring your pets inside your home. Even if they are usually fine outdoors and have been fine in previous years, there is a reason so many pets end up in the shelters on the 4th of July. You never know when someone is going to set off a firework close enough to frighten your pet into bolting, even over or through a fence that contained them before.
2. Party time? Don’t take your pet to celebrations. Your pet is safest inside your own home. If you are having people over, even just a few, lock your pets in a bedroom or in a crate, and ask each guest not to let them out no matter what. 
3. Keep windows AND doors closed & locked. Startled pets have been known to push or jump through screens or even cracked windows. Keep doors to the outside closed during and after when fireworks are going off, to prevent pets from bolting and slipping past you as you exit or enter. Pets can stay stressed for hours after the fireworks stop – don’t discount they may bolt even after the fireworks have died down. If possible, keep pets locked out of rooms where a door to the outside might be opened.
4. Turn on the TV or music. Put the volume as loud enough to muffle any fireworks noises, but it doesn’t have to be blasting! If you have a CD player, definitely check out Through A Dog’s Ear — Adopt-a-Pet.com staff used this for their anxious dogs and found it helped.
5. Ignore their fear. Let them hide if they want, but don’t coax or pay attention to a pet exhibiting fearful behavior. You don’t want to unintentionally reward scared behavior. Also, if you are calm and relaxed, this can help your pet more.
6. Engage with special toy or chew. Give your pet a super-yummy food-stuffed toy or long-lasting chew treat. Some pets are too scared to eat, but for food-motivated ones, this can distract.
7. Exercise daily. Exercise helps relieve stress, so daily release is a huge help. Schedule dog walks for early mornings when fireworks are least likely to go off. Cats benefit from indoor playtime exercise too.
8. Anxiety remedies. Many pets respond to Rescue Remedy, sold at most pet supply or health food stores. If you know your pet gets dangerously distressed during fireworks, talk to your vet about short-term medication, but be sure to try it out before the 4th to make sure your pet responds well.
9. Thundershirt. This reportedly helps with fireworks too! Order online at thundershirt.com.

Have a safe Fourth of July! We hope these pet safety tips help.

Cats communicate with each other and with humans in many ways. Body language and meowing are an important part of their vocabulary, but so is purring! Purring is that wonderful low smooth rumble that cats can emit without opening their mouth or moving anything we can see, like a fancy sports car idling. Humans can’t purr, and neither can dogs – only non-roaring felines can make this remarkable harmonious sound. Every cat purring sounds a little different. They can even purr while they meow! How do they do it? And why do cats purr? Many people speculate how and why, and some even say it’s impossible to know for sure – the purring of cats is that mysterious! Read on to find out the meanings, theories, and science behind the purrrrrrrrrr.

How do cats make that wonderful purr sound? Wikipedia says, “One hypothesis, backed by electromyographic studies, is that cats produce the purring noise by using the vocal folds and/or the muscles of the larynx to alternately dilate and constrict the glottis rapidly, causing air vibrations during inhalation and exhalation.” (Listen to their audio clip of a cat purr.) The muscles work both during inhalation and exhalation, which creates the impression that cats can purr continuously.

So now that you know how purring works, when do cats purr and what does it mean?

• Happiness. Happiness is the most well-known purr cause. A happy cat will purr when they are being loved on, being loving, snuggling, eating, be brushed, and pretty much any time they are content.
• Self-soothing. I think of this as like when a nervous human smiles. Cats in shelters, or during a visit to the vet, seem to be purring to make themselves feel better. There’s also a theory that they are trying to communicate that they are not a threat, so actually trying to sooth the humans around them!
• Soothing humans. Many cat caretakers, myself included, have experienced a “nurse” cat who lies next to us or on us when we’re feeling poorly, and makes us feel better with the intensity of their healing purr frequency.
• During labor. Yes, many mom cats purr as they are giving birth! This may be because purring may cause the cat’s brain to release a chemical or hormone that reduces pain and stress.
• Self-healing. Again, to quote Wikipedia: “Scientists at the University of California, Davis hypothesised that a cat’s purr can be used as a healing mechanism to offset long periods of rest and sleep that would otherwise contribute to a loss of bone density. The vibrations and contractions of a purr work during both inhalation and exhalation show a consistent pattern and frequency around 25 Hz; these frequencies have been shown to improve bone density and promote healing in animal models and humans.”

Now you know how and why cats purr! Did you like this article? Click an icon below to share it on Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Today’s Happy Beginnings story with it’s pool pre-jump photo will make you smile and ready for summer! Nothing warms us like a sunny day than a story of how Adopt-a-Pet.com helped a homeless pet find a new loving home. (We’d love to hear yours too, and would be happy to consider it for a future blog post too! Send your Happy Beginnings story to info@cms.adoptapet.com with a photo or two.)  This week’s story is from Sandy in St. Petersburg, Florida. She writes, “In February, I adopted a black lab mix that you had named Tyson ( I renamed him Tank).  I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart . He is the most amazing dog. The day I brought him home, it took him about an hour to learn to use the doggie door, and that night, since he was house trained, I tried not crating him. I wasn’t in bed 20 minutes, and he jumped up on my bed and slept with me.  The only problem with him (and it’s not a problem) is that he thinks he weighs 5 pounds, and decided he is a “lap dog”. I have attached 2 pictures of Tank. One of him getting ready to jump in the pool, and one of him relaxing on the couch. If you would prefer others, let me know. I can take one of him with my 2 year old great grandson who he loves to play with. Again, thank you for having a picture of this wonderful dog on your website so that I could find him and have him make my family complete.”

Did you like this story? Click an icon below to share it on Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Summer is here, and with it, summertime thunderstorms! Do your pets start trembling the moment they hear the low rumbling of thunder in the distance? I’ve seen dogs who will hide under beds or even in bathtubs trying to escape from the “attack” of thunder and lightning. Some pets will go into a total panic attack trying to run away from the terrifying noise, even to the point of hurting themselves. Dogs and cats can sense a storm’s approach by the rapidly falling barometric pressure, and so can begin to show signs of anxiety even before the storm can be heard. But good news! While thunderstorms can instill fear in dogs and cats, they can be trained to manage their reactions and feel calmer through all the noise and bright flashes. 

Our friends over at BarkBusters offer these ten thunderstorm tips to help your dog get safely through any passing thunderstorm – they are helpful to cats too! We’ve also heard great success stories about pets and Thundershirts, worth considering in addition to these 10 tips:

1. Always keep proper identification securely fastened to your dog’s collar in case he gets out. Consider talking to your veterinarian about implanting a microchip in your pet for life-long identification. Remember to update your veterinary clinic and animal shelter with your correct contact information.
2. Give your dog a safe place to stay during storms. Inside your home, create a quiet den-like area where your dog can feel secure. A properly introduced crate or kennel can be a calming refuge for him. When a storm is brewing, lead your dog to his special place to help him feel calm and protected.
3. If your dog lives outside, bring him inside until the storm passes. Outside dogs can get lost or even injured if they escape their fenced yards in fear during storms.
   
   
4. Dogs can pick up fear or discomfort with storms from their people, so it is important that you develop a calm, matter-of-fact attitude. Let your dog stay close and try to distract him with activities like play or brushing. Do not try to reassure him in a sympathetic voice—this will sound like praise and may increase his nervousness and confusion.
   
   
5. Some dogs become destructive when frightened. A crate is always the best way to keep your dog safe and your belongings intact. If you don’t use a crate, remove any items in the room that your dog could destroy or which could hurt him if he chewed them.
6. During a storm, keep windows and curtains closed to reduce noise and bright flashes. Turn on a TV or radio playing soft music at normal volume to distract your dog and help him to relax.
7. Keep your dog away from doors that lead outside. Your dog may be under significant stress, which could result in unnecessary injury to others entering your home or cause him to dart outside and get lost or injured.
8. Your dog may become incontinent due to his extreme fear and the rush of adrenaline he experiences during a storm. Be prepared, and understanding.
9. Dogs that continue to panic in thunderstorms may have to be reconditioned by creating an artificial storm with environmental recordings. While reconditioning can be a time-consuming procedure, it can have a high success rate. A qualified Bark Busters dog behavioral therapist can help you teach your dog to be calmer during storms.
10. In the most extreme cases, medication in conjunction with training may be the best solution to help your dog cope with his fear of storms. Consult with your veterinarian about possible treatments.

Your dog’s phobia about thunderstorms won’t get better on its own. Help him learn that “it’s just noise” and is nothing for him to worry about. When he learns to relax and remain calm, you can relax and not worry about your dog during future storms.

(Dog photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1413127. Thunder graphic: http://openclipart.org/detail/10525/orage-by-yves_guillou-10525)

Did you like this article? Click an icon below to share it on Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Are you looking for help with a cat that is peeing outside the box? This article may be your instant easy fix! Maybe it’s not verifiably The World’s Biggest Litterbox, but the enormous litter box that my vertical urinating foster cat inspired me to create is the biggest I’ve ever seen! (Yes, that’s a photo of the actual litter box and the actual foster cat, at right.) Most litter boxes are designed primarily with their human purchasers in mind, not so much the cats who use them. If a cat had to design their perfect litter box, I imagine it would look like a child’s sand box or a freshly turned-over vegetable garden! But since we’ve domesticated cats to be our pets, and desire to keep them safe from harm by keeping them indoors, most homes aren’t large enough to have an indoor sand box or garden just for our cat’s bathroom use. Enter the plastic “tupperware” type of litter box. Cats are quite adaptable, and their bathroom habits usually including a preference for digging and covering in a soft sand- or dirt-like substance. That makes them typically easy to litter box train, i.e. providing them with their preferred surface in a small-ish plastic box. Then, there are the rare cats like Simba. Due to past trauma or other undetermined behavioral sources, he’s a cat who was thinking outside the box, and not in a good way! He was with a rescue, but who would adopt a cat who peed outside the box? What could be done so he could find a home?

What could be done was to litter box rehab Simba! Going outside the box is one of the top five reasons cats are abandoned at animal shelters, but it is a problem that can often be fixed, and often quite easily too. Simba is a gorgeous big orange tabby tom cat, recently rescued from the streets, and then the shelter. Also, recently neutered. Fortunately, I have a fairly cat-pee-proof foster area – anything that can’t be waterproofed or washed in the machine can be replaced or repainted! I’ve been successful before with litter box-challenged cats. I attribute that to my low-stress setup, proliferation of litter box styles, locations, and OCD litter box cleaning habits. I  knew from my informal litter box testing that cats think bigger is better when it comes to litter boxes, and I had a few other steps to use to solve litter box problems that had worked like a charm in the past. The rescue felt I was Simba’s best chance, so I volunteered to foster Simba.

Simba had a full vet checkup and all his tests were negative. He’d been neutered a few weeks prior. He was ready for behavioral detective work! Simba made it super easy for me — on the second day, I watched him hop into one litterbox, turn around, and still standing up, shake his tail and pee right over the edge! A few more days and it was clear (with some black light verification) he was only “using” the litter box and not going elsewhere, but it simply wasn’t working for his style of use. Since I had no idea how I’d train a cat to squat, I decided to make a litter box that would work with him standing. I measured his rump height, and realized even my storage container taller-than-normal litter boxes were too short for Simba. Commercially available litter boxes don’t work for “elevator” urinators like Simba because:

• Normal litter box sides are too short to contain urine sprayed by a standing cat.
• Covered boxes have middle seam, which traps urine sprayed above the seam. Plus, many cats dislike the confined space and smells inside a covered litter box.
• Simba was a very tall cat!

I needed a bigger box… The World’s Biggest Litterbox! I had a 33-gallon plastic storage bin in my garage that was tall enough to contain even the spatter spread height, but I wasn’t confident he’d jump down into it. A quick online search revealed that a soldering gun could cut through the plastic like butter, leaving relatively smooth edges behind. And that’s just what I did. I used the hot tool to melt through the plastic, cutting a U-shaped opening out of one end. Just wide enough to allow him to easily hop in, but minimizing the open space that he might urinate out of. Since he liked to jump in and turn around, I thought that might do the trick… and it did!

Before you think “no way will I have a litter box that big in my house” — the footprint is about the same as two medium litter boxes side by side, which I’ve seen in a lot of people’s homes.

I immediately went and bought three more storage bins (only $12 each at Target), slightly different styles just to see if he had a preference. One I cut the U in the longer side, because of where I wanted to put it, and that has turned out to be his favorite one, right next to the door out to the catio. Litter box problem solved!

Happily a few weeks later Simba was adopted, along with one of The World’s Biggest Litter Boxes!