Day 29

After regressing to the sitz bath I decided to go slower and used a water pipe to make a bowl with a small hole, that, nonetheless, would not let all the litter out.

Here are the photos of the contraption.

However, I decided to go all the way back to the cake tin – just for one day. If they (and I mean Ziggy…) went back to using the dinner room as litter box, I would use the bowl with the water pipe.

I was so happy to see they adapted – with lots of attention seeking meows – to the tin. But there was a secret to this: I covered two thirds of the hole in the tin with a piece of card from a milk carton and tape. Today I cut a little bit and in two days I will have removed it.

Today Ziggy made a big mess and pooped a little outside of the toilet cover – but that is probably because I am using too much litter. Just removed some.

Day 26

After more than a week of partying for Carnaval, my birthday, someone else’s birthday and Chinese New Year, with four days at my mother house by the sea (where the cats have access to the garden), we are trying to go back on track.
I had to change back to the sitz bath because Ziggy was doing it on the floor (however, Mimi never strayed...). The hole in the cake tin was a source of much mystification, so we are back to Step 1.
Ziggy calls constantly before doing his «solids». I do not understand if it is because he needs my encouragement of just because he does not want to miss out on the treats I give him if I see him doing his business.
Not sure if I will go back to the tin with the hole or if I should change the method…

Day 22

The training is not going very well... since we came back from Peniche Ziggy does the #2s in the dinning room by the carpet. Maybe I will have to go back to phase 1...
In Peniche I found some of my mothers old tins to bake cakes and I designed two contraptions for phase 2 and 3 using cardboard. I was so happy - and so is Mimi - but the male cat is delaying us...

Day 19

On Day 16 I got a new bowl - orange - made a hole with hot iron the size of a fresh cheese container. You can use anything as long as it is durable or you have plenty of it and can substitute the dirty or broken ones. 

Meanwhile I came to spend some days in my mothers place in Peniche, witch semed good since here they can have their own dedicated toilet. The orange bowl with the bigger hole was met without problems by Mimi. But on the first night Ziggy went to the floor of the bathroom and the next night to the room next to the toilet...
So, I went back to the yellow bowl with the paper roll. But I do not see much enthusism: since here they roam freely outside they have probably been using the neighbours garden (since I do not see any evidence on mine).

Day 16

Last night Mimi went to the bowl with the hole without much trouble. I believe that if it was only her, we would be much more advanced… However, Ziggy made a big fuss. He made me get out of bed before light out three times. In the end I decided to stick an empty toilet roll in the hole. This morning there was a solid reward in the bowl (oh, my god, I begin to sound like a new mother talking about her baby’s smelly poo).

At lunch time, the toilet paper tube was hit right in the eye by Mimi… so I had to change it. I discovered the plastic bowl had a crack but decided to enlarge the hole, non the less. In the process the crack broke and I ended up with what is in the picture. I also made some small holes because some people wrote me about success experiments with colanders.

In fact, I put the colander while burning and puncturing the yellow bowl and Ziggy used it . The only problem is that more than half the saw dust litter went down the drain. Probably with flushable silica it would work.

A friend that inherited my beloved Peste Negra - Black Plague - (when I went to live abroad in a non pet friendly place) toilet trained him with a colander. She took a section of the bottom each time. She used rodents litter, that is organic and flushable.

For now I am sticking to the yellow bowl but I may have to buy a new one in case this one opens more cracks…