Not Stressed Enough? Potty Train Your Cat

Anne Marie Chaker has joined a small but growing number of cat owners intent on using specialized equipment to complete an almost Sisyphean task: potty training their feline friends. Products on the market are selling much better this year than in the past, and they all work pretty much the same, by gradually—this can take years—convincing the cat that its litter box is inside the toilet. Then, gradually remove the litter, and…voila?

The process is plagued by pitfalls. “The last thing you want is a cat falling into the toilet, which will likely freak him out to the point that he will never want to use it again,” Chaker writes in the Wall Street Journal. Many experts take a dim view. One warns that training often doesn’t take, leading to cats who start “eliminating inappropriately” and are alienated from their erstwhile haven, the litter box. But Chaker is game. It took her a year to train her cat, though she made the normally difficult process herculean with a disruptive bathroom renovation. Bad timing much? (More cat toilet training stories.)