LItter box ideas?

sneakymom

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No- not one about not wanting to poop in the box.  Holly is fine with that. 

We put a cat door in the garage, and we had the litter box out in the garage.  Yeah I know- not fun for the kitty to have to go out into the cold garage to poop- but it's not like we locked her out there or anything.  She'd do her business and come back in. 

That all changed last week.  Our hot water tank sprung a leak.  And there was water all over the floor.  So that freaked out the cat, but I left the box in there.  Until the leak got really bad- then I moved it inside.  2 days after moving it inside we had a plumber come and replace the system with a tankless system. Which freaked the cat out b/c "there's scary people in my house.  Must hide under the bed". Then my daughter had 18 kids in the house for her 16th birthday, further stressing kitty out. 

Needless to say- she wants NOTHING to do with the garage.  The "big thing in the corner" was taken out and there's a "weird looking thing on the wall".  And it makes a different noise than the tank does.  The water on the floor is gone.  I did move a whole bunch of stuff out of the way b/c it was sitting in water.  Haven't had a chance to move it back yet.  So right now it's in the house. 

Dh wants it gone.  I want it gone b/c I am the ONLY one that takes care of it.  I want it back in the garage.  I've picked up Holly and brought her in there when the system's running.  Brought her in there when it's off.  And she still gets nervous.  Though yesterday she did go to the spot where the box had been and sniffed some. 

I'm thinking maybe set up a second box in the garage.  Bring her out there and let her sniff it.  So maybe she'll get used to using it again. 

Any other ideas? 

The poor kitty has also been through a whole lot of change in the last 6 months.  We had to put 1 cat down, the other one died.  The one that died she'd been around since she was a kitten.  The one we put down was her "buddy".   My oldest daughter went off to college.  Before all this happened- she used to go in and out as she pleased- now she wants nothing to do with the outside (hey- fine with me, maybe we won't have the nasty tick issue we had last year)

Cheryl
 

di and bob

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I think I would try the second litter box in the garage to get her used to it, maybe put a little 'used litter' in it to entice her, or better yet put the old box in the garage. Cats are so resistant to change , about the only thing you can do is to get her used to the idea of going back out. Bring her out when you can sit with her. Try to put the box in the same place. It's just a matter of time before she gets used to the 'new'. You might want to put the boxes back as soon as you can, there would be one more thing that didn't change.Good luck!
 
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sneakymom

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Thanks for the idea. 

And yeah- this one especially is very resistant to change. 

Her behavior has changed since we lost 2 cats in 6 months.  Trust me- it wasn't any easier for the humans in the house


I never really bought into the "cats will grieve for other cats" theory.  I'm kind of starting to think that it might just be true.

Cheryl
 
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