Who Cleans the Litter Box?
Everyone.
Recently, we acquired two cats (Hatfield and McCoy). They’re adorable.
They are my husbands cats. He’s the one who wanted kittens. Talking about adding a new pet to the family I was clear about my litter box concern.
“I don’t do litter boxes” I reminded him while we played with two SPCA kittens.
It was not a threat so much as self-awareness. Cat litter boxes have to cleaned constantly. Not weekly or daily, but constantly. Of course, a big litter box with high quality litter product can go for up to a week but that’s how homes take on the scent of their feline residents.
My goal, now that we’ve adopted the fuzzies, it to find balance between comfortable cats and a human home sans kitten smell and fur everywhere.
It’s possible to have a cat inhabit a home where people are surprised to learn you have cats. I’ve visited homes like that with not trace of the cats until a tail spotting or a attention drawing purr. I want one of those houses!
Challenge #1 is that we don’t have the “keep a perfect house” habits to start with. I tell myself that sweeping the kitchen amd wiping down all the counters (even one’s we didn’t use) every day (really several times a day when people are home) is a good thing. I also tell myself I’ll do it tomorrow.
My house was only a tidy, ready for company any time home during a bygone era when, as an active duty soldier, I hired a housekeeper.
She was a dream cone true. So much more that a maid or a cleaning lady she came once a week and kept up the house and it was amazing. I value a well kept house but my actions prove its not the most important thing in my life. If tidy home was my top priority then my home would be tidy — that’s how tbings work.
Priorities aren’t the things you want they are the things you do.
In a household everyone needs to pitch in, or in the case of the litter box pitch out the crap. These may be my husband’s cats but we brought them home together and made them part of the house. Now, it’s a see something say something situation, more effectively its a see something do something scenario.
Helping with litter boxes isn’t about cleaning up other people’s messes its about being part of solutions. Pitching in is lifting up. Helping out doesn’t mean doing it for someone.
I have the power of perspective. The cats and their litter box can be a point of control — I told him I don’t do well with litter boxes so I can stand my ground and refuse to touch it and accept the smell which will inevitably grow during his 12 hour work days and week long business trips and remind everyone that these are not my cats.
Of course, that would be a farce. We are married and what’s mine is his. These are his cats in our home which makes them our responsibility and I may as well enjoy them.
Cats are not power tools that can be stowed in the garage for a few months at a time. They are living animals with constant needs. If I wasn’t going to do my part it would have my responsibility to say “no- if you bring them home you need to hire a per sitter because I’m not feeding, grooming, or tending to your cats.”
Instead, I decided to see my husband enjoy the soft, curious new family members when he’s home and accept them as motivation to do better at things I should already be doing when he’s not.
We enjoy the house more when our home is better kept up and McCoy’s amazing talent to hide is a powerful catalyst for picking up the clutter. Hatfield explores everything by taste test so making sure there are no dirty dishes in the sink and everything is wiped down and swept constantly is more important now that we have kittens. I’m inspired to do this for something beyond myself.
Cleaning the litter box isn’t about cleaning up other people’s messes or making things right its about keeping things up and making things better. It’s the glue of being a community, a family.
