When Your Cat Is Thinking Outside the (Litter)Box
IF YOU’VE OPENED the book to this page, you’re probably hoping for a chapter that takes all
litterbox problems, bundles them up in a cat daddy cookbook, and gives you recipes that you can
flip to in moments of need—like this one. And, at least in my opinion, that unicorn doesn’t exist.
Wait! Don’t close the book! Let me explain. . . .
No matter who you are and where you find me—whether it’s on social media, during a Q&A
session, in line at the supermarket—it doesn’t matter. If you say, “Jackson, I have a problem with my
cats and their litterbox,” I can guarantee that fifteen minutes later, you’ll still be explaining the
problem. Then I’ll be answering for another thirty, after which I’ll shrug my shoulders and ask you to
take me to your home.
If I had a nickel for every time I was approached to write a “quick how-to” or a “top five reasons
your cat won’t use his litterbox,” I’d be a dead millionaire (because I’d shoot myself).
If I’ve done my job right in this book, you have in front of you all the tools you’ll need to
successfully address the fifteen-minute question you were about to ask me. You should also
understand by now that no matter how deep the toolbox and how many tools are in it, we are talking
about your cat. In your home. Among your family, both human and animal, and the cat’s cradle of
relationships that links it all together.
In other words, when it comes to litterbox issues, there is simply no stock, one-size-fits-all
solutions that I can pull out of my magic bag and hand to you. If there were, I would use them myself
—every time.
Instead, I show up for work. Using the same toolbox I gave you (well, guitar case for me), the same
tools, and the fine Total Cat Mojo tradition of cat Detective, I still have to work through the
“process of elimination” to try to piece together clues at the scene of the crime. After twenty years of doing this, it remains a challenge, and I still have to return to the proverbial drawing board sometimes, reassess the data, and try, try again.
Of course, the good news is that there is a help to be had. Solutions are there for you. THE most
important part of this chapter—and the fine art of litterbox issue resolution as a whole—is not the fix
itself. The most important part is taking the journey with your cat family that I take every day of my
life—the journey from question mark to period. It begins with discovering unhappy surprises in the
form of pee, poop, or both—somewhere besides where they are supposed to be—and coming completely unglued, suddenly drowning in frustration and helplessness.
And it ends with knowing why.
Now, bear with me. . . . I believe that if I gave you one magical direction and it worked, you’d be
worse off. It’s like how I, along with probably 50 per cent of the male species, fix any household thing that breaks with duct tape. So now my sink doesn’t leak anymore. Despite my boasting to the contrary, I didn’t fix anything. I now just have a broken sink wrapped in duct tape.
So, as we go through this chapter, even though you will actually have ample opportunity, I’m
asking you to step away from the duct tape. Show up for your cat and yourself by doing the actual
work. Remember, the pee (or poop, or both) isn’t the problem—it’s a symptom. Holding the root of
the dis-ease in the palm of your hand is the goal. Then you’ll address the symptoms, and you’ll gain
the key to the Cat Mojo kingdom along the way.