Steve French's Success

[pallo]

I feel like I should not tell a success story until I am totally finished with the lk system, but things are going so well I thought I would write this morning.

Steve French is 4 or 5 months old, and is an indoor cat here in New Orleans' French Quarter, where I am afraid to let him roam freely with the dangers of traffic and drunken tourists. I have always wanted to toilet train my cat and believe that kitten hood is probably the best time to start. We started the LK system 15 days ago. His litter box has always been kept in the bathroom, so he already knew where to go in times of need. He had no trouble adjusting to the red stage of the system.

At day 10 I decided that he was doing so well and because I had the weekend off of work we would move to the amber stage a little early. At first he did not like the transition, and I can still feel him uncomfortable with it, but still he has not had any mistakes after now 3 days into the amber stage. He urinates 2-3 times per day and has a bowel movement every day. Everything has gone thru the hole except for two times where he peed in the litter.

There is something I noticed that helped him on his first day with the amber stage. Sometimes he would jump to the toilet, scratch off, then jump to the floor, start scratching in the bathtub, and sometimes meowing , telling me he was looking for an alternate location. One time I noticed him sniffing and scratching around several magazines in a pile near my bedroom.

I would place him on the toilet and model/prompt the correct behavior for him. In other words, place him on the seat, use my own finger to scratch around the (clean) litter, physically place him in the correct position and hold him there a few seconds followed by praise. This worked for his first urination, and for his second when I heard him meowing from the bathroom only a few scratches of the litter was enough to change his behavior. His first bowel movement was performed much easier, and still now it seems that he prefers to defecate in the lk.

So, its day 13, were 3 days into the amber system, and Steve French has not had any accidents. Im going to give him extra time on this stage, especially since litter cleanup has just gotten a lOT easier! I am confident that we will progress with no problem.

[pallo]

Today I got home and was greeted by a very unhappy cat. He would not leave me alone, and meowed and yodeled like he was very angry. The first thing I did was check the bathroom, I figured he had pooped on the foor or on the towels. It turns out that before I left home that morning I put the toilet seat lid down and did not open it back up when I left. He was meowing because he'd been having to hold it for so long! As soon as I raised the lid he jumped up and took a long number #1. I felt horrible but was so proud of him.

So tonight, after 10 days on the red and 10 days on the amber stage, I took the risk and moved him early again to the green stage. I was washing my hands tonight and Steve ran in the room and jumped on the toilet. He did look surprised at first, but quickly sat down and started to urinate!!!!

The best part is that :

1. He actually sat on it like on the box cover. Sounds silly, but before this he had been facing backward towards the toilet tank on the rear corner of the seat. It was wonderful and looked great!!

2. He did not use the green pan at all as a balance, but sat only on the toilet seat. I keep my toilet seat down over the LK system...I figured it would be more realistic and more stable that way. Until now he always had at least one foot in the pan, but not this time!

I just heard him again! I checked the bathroom and he has already had a bowel movement!!!! This is wonderful!

[Sammie'sMom]

Kudos on the success!

But why did you put entirely unrelated links in your post?

[pallo]

Thanks. Today is day 10 on the green stage, but I think Ill leave him on it for the 2 week period at least. There is hardly any litter in the green pan, and I am in the process of weaning the litter down to none.

Some links may be unrelated to the post itself, but are relevant with regard to the sentences in which they appear and sometimes simply to the word leading to the link.

I was just having fun with the tools available on the forum.
Abita's Turbodog is delicious (the local best, in my opinion). Jolene Blalock plays the role of T'pol in the Star Trek Enterprise, and I think she is beautiful (this is wonderful).

Just making my post a little personalized. The link to the unhappy cat is a photo of Steve on his first day of the red stage.

[pallo]

I finally got my computer working again....or I would have posted eariler. Steve was doing wonderfully, until I left the toilet seat lid down one day. He pooped in the corner of the bathroom that day and the next. I cleaned the area with urine off andI placed the LK back on the toilet for one week following this, then removed it. Since then he has had no trouble at all.

He does talk a whole lot though. Especially before having a bowel movement. I wonder if he is telling me that he hates using the toilet or if he is just talking about how bad he needs to go.

Anyone?

[Jset]

he might just be letting you know. you know how little kids will go LOOK MOMMY LOOK LOOK!
or he may want his atenttion. my cat will follow me, yowling all the way, until i get to an area where i sit down, or i pick her up and pet her. you may have a cat like me that sees you as a mommy figure.