The other day I had a litter box epiphany. No kidding.
When we first moved in to our home, I thought it would be best to have one litter box on each floor. Unfortunately that meant putting the first floor litter box in the dining room, as that was the most out-of-the-way spot available. Since January the box sat there, and it was used daily. The only real issue, if it even was one, was that litter would get all over our dining room floor. A small price to pay for CHers, I thought.
Plus, there really wasn’t an alternative. When we first moved in, I thought it would be best — and safest — to have a box on each floor so the cats wouldn’t have to worry about going up or down the steps to go to the bathroom. I was concerned about their ability to climb the stairs, especially after a few heart-stopping Ellie falls. I wanted to make sure that food, water, and a litter box were available on every floor — just in case.
But the other day while I was cleaning, the thought dawned on me: Do we really need a litter box on each floor? I could move the one in the dining room upstairs with the other one, and the cats would be fine.
To be honest, I was really surprised that I even thought of that. I’m all about my cats’ safety, and this thought screamed anything but. That said, I couldn’t help but think about how capable our cats have become, and thought that moving the box upstairs wouldn’t be so much of a testament to their ability, but a testament to me trusting their ability.
My main concern was Ellie. She can go up the stairs pretty well, but still has some difficulty coming down. She doesn’t let that stop her, but I can’t help but worry about her. For some reason, it made me feel better to know that if (God forbid) anything happened and she was somehow stranded on a floor, she could still reach all of her necessities.
So I decided to give it a shot. I moved the litter box upstairs next to their other one in my office, and waited to see what happened. Throughout the first few days, things were totally fine.
Matt and I discussed it the other day, and I think we’re going to put the litter box back downstairs to see how things go.
As of right now, I’m torn. I’d prefer to have the litter boxes out of the way upstairs, but I also want to be fair to our cats.
I don’t want to push our cats past their limits unnecessarily, but I also don’t want to coddle them. I guess this is just one more chapter in the larger book of learning how to be a good cat parent to special needs cats.
Have you gone through something similar with your CH cats? Please share about it in the comments!
