We got another robot today. This one’s job is to give the cats a relatively clean place to do their business. It’s the Litter-Robot 4, by Whiskers. It joins the Mystery Machine in the noble task of trying to keep our house clean.
In the 27 years that I’ve been living with cats, I’d never really considered anything like this. Back in PG, Chris had a litter box that you could roll over and back to sort of “semi-automate” cleaning the catbox. A few years ago, Stephanie got a fully-automated litter box, but I never thought we would.
Even when we had Mr. Doos, Nochie and Squeak it never seemed to be an issue. Maybe their pattern of using the litter was different, but with these three cats, they tend to all go at night and all use the same box (sometimes the one in the “cat bathroom”, sometimes the one downstairs). A few mornings of having an “oh dear god” reaction when going in to scoop out the box changed my mind. 🤢 I felt bad for the cats, having to use that. Our house isn’t big enough for four or more litter boxes, which is what the experts recommend for three cats.
I started investigating automatic litter boxes, and reached out to Stephanie, who recommended the Litter Robot. That was the one she had, and it was working with their four cats. We ordered one and it arrived today.
It’s set up now, at the bottom of the stairs. Ideally it would have been in the “cat bathroom”, but there just isn’t enough space in there. The place we’ve put it has space and a plug.
It remains to be seen whether this will be a good investment or a waste of $1200. But I have high hopes that the cats will use it and enjoy a much better experience when using the box.
