More than 12 hours and counting…

Do you know what I did today?

I opened the Princesses and Samantha’s room door.

At 9am, I opened the door.

Only Riley came out.

I was so sure Samantha would come out since she had been so restless for the past few days. I was also sure at least Kai, the adventurous one, would come out to explore.

But no, nobody came out.

Can you believe that?

They were so contented being inside the rooms.

As usual, Kai was too busy playing.

They had their lunch.

They had their dinner.

And nobody came out???

That’s right, nobody came out!

I have never EVER encountered cats who weren’t interested to “escape” even if escape meant just coming out from where they are. I have, however, heard of friends’ cats who don’t walk out of the front door when it is wide open. I have seen, in my morning walks, cats who actually stay in the porch and don’t come out of the gate. And I always wonder what witchcraft or miracle made that possible.

Our cats? The moment you open a door, they are out!

So what’s Samantha and the Princesses’ deal here? Are they really so happy living inside the rooms that they feel no need to come out to explore?

Towards late evening just now, the two new small litter boxes I ordered arrived so I went up to add more litter boxes to both rooms.

So now there are eight litter boxes of various sizes in the room and only four cats.

I also caught Akira peeing outside the boxes. So it was her and not Indra. Or both? When I saw her doing it, I lifted her quickly and placed her in the box. She tried but she couldn’t do it. Then she quickly went to the next box and pee-ed beside the box. Again, I lifted her and placed her inside the box, made her scratch the litter and again, she could not do it. But then, I stopped interfering and just let her pee outside the box.

I’ve also been using tea tree oil to clean the places where they have pee-ed on. I guess it has worked a bit, but not 100%. Joy suggested I try vinegar so I might do that but surely the room will smell of vinegar which cats do not like?

Joy also suggested I use Wee Wee Pads. I have ordered this and will try it.

I thought using the litter box should come naturally to cats and kittens but it hasn’t been so with the Princesses.

The only time when it fails is when Litter competes with Soil and Grass. For our cats, Soil and Grass win hands down. For example, over at Bunny’s Place, nobody wants to use the litter box because there is soil and grass. At Ginger’s Catio, even though all the Monsters know how to use the litter box during quarantine in the rooms, the moment they were let out to the catio, they chose soil and grass despite the same litter boxes were being there for them.

But the Princesses, my goodness! They want to do it on the floor.  I’ve now got four different sizes boxes in the room for them.

Wish me luck, please!