Animal Life: Can San Jose cat ever trust his litter box again?

DEAR JOAN: We have a 1-year-old male kitten and a 5-year-old female cat. They don’t get along, sadly.

I made the mistake of getting a new bag of litter. It was black; had no idea. We have a Litter Robot, which I love, and they had been using it without any issues until the new litter. It was then they decided they did not like it.

I immediately switched it out. The female is fine but the male cat will use it off and on and use the additional litter box I set out, but sometimes will poop right next to the litter box.

He has been to the vet and he is fine. The vet put him on Valium and that did help, but why did that happen?  When he went back to using the Litter Robot, why would he not use it all the time?

Lucinda Lawson, San Jose

DEAR LUCINDA: Cats gonna cat.

One of the worst things we can do to these adorable little creatures of habit is to change something they are used to and that they like. Cats are very particular about their litter, preferring a certain texture, appearance and smell. Your little boy obviously liked the old litter and was flabbergasted when he stepped into the box to do his business and found out things were not as he expected.

I actually can understand that. I like my routines, too. You were wise to make an immediate change back, but apparently the whole episode left your cat rattled so much he had bathroom issues.

The trust between litter box and cat was broken, and it will take some time to mend it. For heaven’s sake don’t make any other changes, such as moving a vase a couple of inches to the left, and he’ll eventually learn to trust his litter again and will move on to some other unfathomable behavior just because that’s what cats do. And we love them for it.

Help for cat that aims too high

Last week I addressed a reader who was having trouble with his male cat who overshoots the sides of his litter box sometimes. I received many emails from folks who had dealt with the same issue.

DEAR JOAN: Rick might want to try making Will a litter box out of a storage bin, like in this video. Sometimes if a box isn’t long enough for a cat, they hit the sides, probably because their tails can’t come down further comfortably. It should be 1.5 times the length of the cat, as measured from nose to tailbase.

Jennifer A. Woolf, DVM, MS, Woolf Veterinary Forensics Consulting, Inc.

DEAR JENNIFER: Thank you so much for this very helpful information. Many people wrote in saying they’d dealt with their high shooter by getting a larger litter box, often making their own.

Other suggestions include a litter box with an opening at the top, and many people created their own boxes using plastic storage totes and even a baby’s bathtub.

One reader she recommended the Mod Kat box (modkat.com), and another reader increased the height of the box by installing plastic “walls” inside a regular litter box. One person recommended a San Francisco-based brother-sister company (www.peepeeshield.net/) that invented and sells pee shields for litter boxes.

Another cat lover puts her litter box on a large plant tray filled with litter to absorb any mishaps.

Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions.

The Animal Life column runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.