I’d like to tell you a story... bare with me. It’s long but it is good news.
I always had pets growing up, I liked them, but man did I hate all the dirty maintenance that came with a pet. As I went along i always figured I “liked” animals. Then I met my lovely girlfriend (and soon to be mother of my child). After we met I mentioned how I like animals but I hated pets. They ruined and destroyed stuff, they are dirty, always a hassle. Well this woman has a bleeding heart for animals and she passed it onto me, which I’m thankful for. Additionally, I (a Police Officer) was gratefully assigned the K9 position where I got my partner Ammo (cliche police dog name, I know). This would improve my bond with animals and really show me the meaning of love for an animal. Any who, I digress. My lovely girlfriend got a cat about a year into our relationship (not so crazy as we lived separately at the time). I loved the cat (Preston) and it really opened me up to cats as pets. However, I hated the litter box. This cat would absolutely cover an entire 30’x20’ living room with litter dust and clay litter. She tried every mat and flooring in existence. She tried a litter box with a lid, she tried pointing it against a wall... nothing worked. Then came rescue cat number two (Peggy). Now she had two litter boxes, one in each corner, and it got worse. Holy hell. I couldn’t stand it. I nagged and nagged every time the floor was dirty because I knew it was my future.
Fast forward a couple years and now we are moving in together. I’m thinking.... I’m taking over this litter situation and fixing it. So I put a small piece of furniture that hides a box and a giant high side litter box to go in it (all the way back away from the opening). I put a specific mat designed to catch litter (tried many) and also tried every litter too (ended up with Crystals as they vacuumed easy). I finally gave in with what it was. At least you couldn’t see the box and all I had to do was vacuum outside the opening once or twice a day.
Fast forward again and we adopt rescue cat number three (Petey). He’s young so we keep him in a large kennel with his own little box. All I’m thinking is... dear lord do I need a bigger piece of furniture and a bigger box? Well I bought a house right around the same time so I’ll figure that out later. While in escrow.... we go to CatCon (I know... but she wanted to go and I figured once wouldn’t hurt) and I see this “Litter robot”. I’m amazed (naively) and am totally sold. I say to myself, as soon as I move into the new house, I’m getting this. Now... it’s ugly, but hell we have a spare bedroom so we can just throw it in the corner of that or in the service porch laundry area (no scooping! Woohoo!).
I move in and we buy the Robot. At first... I’m pumped. It’s in the corner of the spare room with my desk and her vanity and the cats use it easy and I bought a ramp to catch the tracking. And again, no scooping! Amazing right?! Wrong. They track.... all over the spare room... so badly so that we buy a small self cleaning robot vacuum to run in that room alone just to maintain the litter. Wait.... it gets better. We switch back to clay for this machine as crystals won’t work (even though they vacuum up easier) and it’s all wood floors in the house (carpet prior). Now there is litter that gets mashed and mushed on the wood floor that the vacuum won’t clean and there is grey dust everywhere. Dammit! But wait... there’s more. Now, I used to remove the high sided box from the old piece of furniture and clean the furniture really well, wash out the box completely and put new crystals in and voila, everything fresh and clean and box still hidden. But no, this robot (no longer hidden which was a bummer, but no scooping!) was disgusting. It got so filthy and I could not detail it like I could the old setup because the globe was hard to empty, there was electronics everywhere and it came apart to 5 pieces. It got filled with dust and litter, poop smears, the works, and the tracking was still horrid! There is no answer... what do I do....
Then.... the big news.... she’s pregnant. Oh god. The spare bedroom is going away and we have to move the box. But where? I can’t put that hideous robot anywhere else! (It’s a small house in the South Bay of Southern California, I paid a ton for this tiny house!). Well over my travels the prior couple years I had looked on google, bing, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and whatever else you can download on an iPhone and found your box. I noted it as a possibility and moved on.
I’m looking back into it... and we are discussing. I suggest another hidden furniture setup (even though the wood floors will suck with tracking) but at least it will be hidden and whatever....
I pull up your box as the new furniture option and show her and I mention... look at least this has a CHANCE of stopping tracking. She says “yeah okay but let’s be honest it probably won’t with our crazy cats”. Okay but if I’m going take a chance on furniture it might as well be one that may stop tracking? Two issues, it’s somewhat large (again tiny house) and it’s expensive. I get past the price figuring another option would run a hundred to two hundred so it’s only a couple hundred more whatever. It could be great. Thankfully I find a perfect corner using the dimensions on your website. Thank goodness.
Low and behold I go to order and now there is even a grey available!!! (Matches my living room furniture already). Also, you offered and alternative to the cardboard! (Didn’t trust the cardboard with my three pee/poop factories). So I pull the trigger.
Now at this point... I have ZERO reservations about them using the box. But at some point I do Passover the guarantee that if the cats don’t use it you will accept a return. Great. Good business model but they will be fine. I put it together and set it up. I go to set Petey in it and close the top. He freaks out and fights tooth and nail not to go in. Same with Preston. Peggy however (who loves the laser pointer) traipses through it no prob. I start to panic. No. This can’t not work. It HAS to work. Well. At least he will accept a return. Maybe I should mention to him that they are hesitant. Now here is where I brag a tad. Being a K9 Handler teaches you a lot of things. One being... how to teach an animal to do something.... also something it doesn’t like (i.e. police dog overcoming slick floors). It takes practice and build up. So I leave the top open. Peggy has no problem jumping in and out but the boys are hesitant still. I use toys and laser pointers to bate them in. I’m worrying. I go to sleep each night hoping they use it with the lid open. Well... I won’t spare you anymore story... THEY USE IT!! one at a time I find each cat in the CLOSED box using the bathroom. And bonus.... IT'S NOT TRACKING. Oh my gosh. For the love of the good lord in heaven.
Long story short. Thank you. I am EXTREMELY satisfied with this product. I have three cats and an AWESOME not gross barely detectable litter situation. ESPECIALLY with a baby coming the last thing I need is piss/poop cat litter everywhere! I’ve attached a picture (hopefully successfully) and would be happy to give you 5 stars anywhere you want. Thanks again. Hopefully this long email wasn’t too much trouble.
Kyle L