We’ve never had any accidents around the house (although Lapsang will spray around the house but this is a different matter altogether). Once I had a Siamese cat named Simmy who, if the litter box wasn’t sparkling clean, would climb on top of my chest in bed, stare straight into my eyes, and pee on my comforter. Talk about a message! But the current set of cats will use the litter boxes even if I let them get a little nasty. Lucky for me, since my busy life sometimes does not include scooping on a regular basis.

It is important to keep the litter boxes clean, though. Cats have a sense of smell that is 14 times better than that of humans so what may be an occasional sour odor for you can be an olfactory tidal wave for them. A stinky litter box may drive your cat to start eliminating on piles of laundry, on your gym bag, or in a corner of your house. Nobody wants that.

The new clumping litters are really great. They soak up all the urine into a compact ball that you can then just scoop out. Poops get coated with the litter and odor is contained quickly. The only problem I’ve had with the clumping litter is that, since it is much smaller than the original litter, it sometimes gets stuck to the cat’s paws and gets tracked around the house. This can be alleviated somewhat by placing litter trapping pads and rugs around the boxes. Or you could just vacuum a lot.

Anyway, cleaning the litter boxes can be a nuisance, but it makes your cat happy and prevents behavioral problems.

So get scooping, people!