I wrote Cat Scene Investigator (Stupid Gravity Press) hoping it would help keep cats, who might otherwise be surrendered to shelters or abandoned, in their homes and to mend the human-animal bond damaged by litter box avoidance. Fortunately, the judges got it.
Best behavior book
Cat Scene Investigator received Muse Medallions for Best Behavior Book and Best Series of Illustrations. It also received the prestigious Dr. Jim Richards Cornell Feline Health Center Veterinary Issues Award. The Dr. Jim award goes to the highest quality entry on innovations in feline veterinary medicine that educates the general cat-owning public. Arnold Plotnick judged the category. He is a specialist in veterinary internal medicine and founder of Manhattan Cat Specialists in New York City. Dr. Plotnick said, “Don’t be fooled by the small size of this book. It is jam-packed with up-to-date info on every aspect of inappropriate elimination in cats, written in an engaging, down-to-earth style. This book is the perfect blend of charm, humor and science.” This award was a double honor; the late Dr. Richards was my dear friend and mentor.
The book also received The Fear Freesm Cat Enrichment Award, sponsored by Fear Free, LLC and the Hartz® Glamour-Puss Award. The Enrichment award goes to the work that best educates about how exercise, food puzzles, scent training and other activities that can benefit a cat’s emotional and physical well-being and the role that has in their overall health. Glamour Puss recognizes the best work on parasite control, skin disorders and grooming.
In addition, cartoons by Stephanie Piro appearing in CSI received both the Muse for best series of illustrations and Stephanie’s CSI cartoons received the Kuykendall Image Award for the competition’s “outstanding image.” The book’s cover photo by Weems S. Hutto received a Muse nomination.
Thank you Cat Writers’ Association, CWA judges and special awards judges.
Cat Scene Investigator sports a new look.
Save kitty lives; spread the word
This book will save lives. We simply have to get the word out. Please tell your vet and local shelter and rescue group about Cat Scene Investigator. If you know anyone who has litter box problems with kitty, please tell them about Cat Scene Investigator. The book is available in trade paperback and Kindle. You can purchase it through Amazon, boutiques and veterinary clinics around the country. Additional distribution is pending. If you would like to carry this fabulous resource at your clinic or shelter, contact Stupid Gravity Press for wholesale rates.
Cats avoid the litter box for countless reasons, but if you can determine the cause, you can likely correct it.
He’s sick. Any number of illnesses cause pain or discomfort that your kitty associates with his litter box. As soon you notice a mishap, take your cat to the vet. Often inappropriate elimination is the first sign of disease. This is an opportunity to treat an illness before it becomes advanced.
The box is dirty. Like you, your cat wants to use a clean toilet. If his box hasn’t scooped for days, I can’t blame him for seeking out less stinky accomodations.
Scented litter. Cats have sensitive noses, and that sensitive probuscis is just inches from the surface of the litter. For many cats that’s too darn close. Switch to unscented litter.
He’s scared. Cats are amazing hunters, but they are also prey. They spend their lives worried about a surprise attack from larger predators. Everything scares them: loud noises, cat ambushes, dog harrassmment, slamming doors, and even loud music may make him feel vulnerable.
It’s hard for him to make it to the box. A stairway between your kitty and the box may make it difficult for your cat to get to his box especially if he eight years or older. After all, you don’t make your grandmother climb stairs to go to the bathroom
If you need more than a short list, check out my new book, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, the consummate inappropriate elimination guide. CSI approaches kitty crime scenes through the eyes of a detective to help determine your cat’s motive and the remedy. Check it out at Amazon.
Cats avoid the litter box for any number of reasons not their fault, from an illness to a box that in some way doesn’t meet their standards. Their fault or not, cats who miss the box are at risk of being surrendered to an animal shelter. And since families aren’t standing in line to adopt inappropriate eliminators, litter box avoidance can be a death sentence.
Now that I’ve got you totally depressed, here’s the good news: Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™ actually encourages kitties, even those with wandering bladders (and bowels), to return to the box. I’ve been a fan of Cat Attract™ for over a decade. (Keep reading to learn how you can win a bag of Cat Attract™.)
There are aisles of litters on store shelves with a variety of characteristics. Unfortunately felines and humans don’t always agree on which qualities are important.
People want a low-tracking, low-dust, yet affordable, litter that controls odors, has a pleasant fragrance, and produces hard clumps. Cats, true to their nature, are more comfort-oriented. They want a fine-textured litter that feels good against their paws, but with without an overpowering fragrance. Cats don’t give a rat’s rear about perfumes and tracking.
Enter Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™ Cat Litter. I discovered this litter when the product was first introduced to north Texas. In 2003 I was the product editor for the Tufts University publication, Catnip. I was in the midst of a cystitis-inspired outbreak of inappropriate elimination that I called The Great Litter Box Rebellion. There are few things more frustrating than my cats not using the litter box.
I conducted the side-by-side preference test of popular cat litters including the newly-introduced Cat Attract™. During that week-long evaluation, the little product testers showed a (pardon the pun) marked preference for Dr. Elsey’s. The Rainbolt Test Kitties love, love, love this litter. Since that review, my cats have had at least one litter box filled with Cat Attract™. Today, five out of seven litter boxes in my house contain a Precious Cat® litter.
Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™ is a therapeutic clay clumping litter with a moderately fine, sandy texture that contains a proprietary herbal cat attractant undetectable to the human nose. It has all of the attributes cats find desirable in addition to my wish list.
As soon as I poured out the Cat Attract™ the cats jump into the box and begin to dig and use the litter. They actually appeared to be having fun. Cat Attract™ even coaxed my Siamese-mix Cosmo, who suffered from two urinary tract blockages, back to the pan. It’s ideal for multicat homes, where litter box issues are more likely.
Cats are very sensitive to texture and scent.
Now for the human perspective. Cat Attract™ is a low-dust litter. It forms very firm clumps that don’t break when you scoop. Neatness aside, broken clumps leave behind little crumbs that cause the litter to smell. It clumps so hard and so quickly, it works in electronic litter boxes. It even comes with a booklet filled with suggestions to help your cat make friends with his box again.
The downside is that it has a moderate level of tracking, and well, that’s all I can find. Hmm. Sweeping up tracked litter versus soiled carpets. You do the math.
Yes, it’s more expensive than bargain brands, but it’s worth it; it’s certainly cheaper than a carpet cleaning service or buying new flooring. Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract Cat Litter can be purchased online and at most pet retailers. It comes in 20 and 40-pound bags.
Do You Feel Lucky?
Enter the Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™ Cat Litter Giveaway. For a chance to win a 20-pound bag of Cat Attract™ simply leave a comment on this blog before 11:59 CST April 10, 2014. Don’t forget to include your email address. The Cat Attract™ Giveaway, across all participating blogs, is limited to one winner per household. For additional chances to win, share this post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest using the hashtag #PreciousCat. Don’t forget to tell me in a separate comment where you share it. Sorry kiddos, you have to be 18 years old and live in the U.S. to enter. Winners will receive an email with instructions. Prize delivery can take up to eight weeks.
It’s time for full disclosure: Precious Cat®, who makes Cat Attract™, sponsored this review on behalf of the BlogPaws Blogger Network. Yes, Dusty Rainbolt’s Universe is being compensated for spreading the word about Precious Cat’s Cat Attract formula, but as I’ve said before, I only write about products my cats love and I use regularly. Precious Cat isn’t responsible for the content of this article.
A couple of times a month I get a call from someone who’s “moving” in a few days and wants me to take her 10-year-old cat. Where, pray tell, did they get my number? From a cousin’s friend’s yoga teacher? I suspect it’s actually written inside bathroom stalls at nearby Petcos.
Since I only foster cats who are on animal shelter Death Row, I try to help with advice and resource recommendations. After some quizzing, I frequently learn the future homeless cat is peeing outside the box, the most common behavioral excuse given for surrendering a cat.
First of all, if a well-mannered cat suddenly stops using his box, go to the vet. Often litter box avoidance is the first symptom that your cat is sick. How else can he say, “I feel like dog poop”? He’s literally writing his distress in the sand, or rather outside the sand. Even if Fluffy has been anointing the carpet for a while, it could still be a symptom of cystitis, arthritis or even life-threatening conditions like diabetes, thyroid disease or kidney disease. Never assume he’s doing it to spite you.
I always take the owner through a checklist when discussing litter box issues:
How old is the cat?
How many cats do you have?
How many litter boxes are there?
How big is the box?
Where is the box located?
How often do you scoop?
What kind of litter do you use?
It never ceases to amaze me that people with spotless bathrooms expect their cats to use a small, unscooped covered box saturated with enough ammonia to curdle coffee.
On many occasions I’ve fostered shelter cats labeled “Inappropriate Eliminators”. Two of them had terminal illnesses. (If only their people had taken them to the vet when the problem first began.) Most of my feline guests appropriately deposit eliminations in the quarantine room litter box. (Please note: the kitty gets a large open litter box that’s scooped twice a day and filled with Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™.) These cats aren’t habitual offenders; their compliance confirms that they were the one who had been offended. Often the responsibility for litter box transgressions lands firmly at human feet.
Dr. Bruce Elsey, DVM, owner of the first cats-only practice in the Denver Metro area, frequently heard clients complain about their cats missing the litter box.
“If you can’t work with the cats and get them over these litter issues, many of them end up at shelters or are abandoned,” Dr. Elsey says.
This tragic and all-too-frequent outcome inspired him to develop a litter that would encourage kitties to use the box. He tested various versions on cats at his clinic and local shelters and came up with Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™.
I discovered the litter in 2003 during my 14 years as the product editor/reviewer for the Tufts University newsletter, Catnip. Using the techniques recommended by Dr. Peter Borchelt who (as far as I know) conducted the first cat litter preference studies in the early 1990s, I set up what I called the Poopsy Challenge. I offered the Rainbolt
Test Kitties all of the most popular cat box fillers (including the brand new Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™) in identical new side-by-side litter boxes.
During these preference tests, I scooped several times a day and recorded the number of pee clumps and poops. At the time of this evaluation, my household was experiencing the Great Litter Box Rebellion of 2003, occurring after the Great Duck Food Raid. Whether the sampling of duck pellets contributed to the epidemic of feline cystitis, we never determined. Whatever the cause, the Test Kitties were peeing everywhere; and I mean everywhere.
According to my original review, my culinarily curious kitties were watering the most unusual places—the couch, the stove, my desk; to these little bladders, nothing was sacred.
Once my vet and I got the corporate bladder health under control, we had hoped the kitties would return to their former sanitary habits. That didn’t happen.
But the product review must go on, and I laid out my traditional litter box testing configuration. I couldn’t believe my nose. MY little offenders started using the Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract™ in significant numbers, displaying an obvious preference over all the other litters. OMG! The proprietary herbal blend really did act as a cat attractant.
From that day on my kitties have always had boxes filled with Cat Attract. And whenever I get those calls from frustrated families, I immediately recommend a vet visit and switching to Dr. Elsey’s litter.
Dr. Elsey offered some excellent advice for frustrated cat owners that I have paraphrased.
Dr. Elsey’s Rules to Keep Kitty Using His Litter Box
Scoop daily. Twice is better. (Hey, you expect the person ahead of you to flush. Your cat wants the same courtesy.)
Size Matters. The litter box should measure one-and-one-half-times the cat’s length so he can easily turn around in it. Most commercially available litter boxes aren’t nearly large enough.
In a multiple cat home, the rule is “a box for every cat, plus one”. If you live with three cats, you need at least four boxes.
Diamonds are forever, but plastic litter boxes aren’t. Polypropylene litter pans develop microscopic scratches that trap bacteria and odor. Eventually the plastic capture odors that can’t be washed away so dump the old box in the recycle bin and buy a new one.
Location, location, location. Placing the box next to a washing machine, dryer or furnace that can scare the pee out of a kitty answering nature’s call. Also make sure there is a box on every floor of the home. Your 10-year-old kitty might not be able to make it upstairs or down to the basement in time.
Provide an open box. Enclosed boxes are too small and hold in odors.
Most cats don’t like scents. Switch to an unscented litter with a fine, sandy texture.
After scooping the box take a quick sniff. If the scooped litter still smells musty or you detect ammonia, it’s time to wash the box and refill with fresh filler.
Offer a box with lower side to older kitties. Arthritis makes getting into and out of boxes a painful event for senior kitties.
Privacy please! Make sure kids and other pets aren’t harassing kitties while they are using the box.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Precious Cat on behalf of the BlogPaws Blogger Network. Dusty Rainbolt’s Universe is being compensated for spreading the word about Precious Cat’s Cat Attract formula, but rest assured, I only write about products my cats love and use regularly. Paying me to write about inappropriate elimination and Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract is like paying me to eat chocolate. I’m going to do it anyway, but kitty needs a new pair of shoes (or rather a new collar.) Precious Cat is not responsible for the content of this article.
