Training Sophie to use the toilet - honestly!
I read with interest that it was possible to train a cat to use the toilet - infact the most famous cat to do just that on film is Mr Jinx in 'Meet the parents'. After researching the subject I decided that as Sophie's smart - she comes to her name, knows 'lie down', 'sit', 'go to bed' & 'come here', she could do it. If a cat can use a litter tray and knows some basics such as coming to their name then they are potentially trainable (as long as you have the patience to do it).
I decided to buy a commercial device called a 'litterkwitter' (http://www.litterkwitter.com) to train Sophie. There are lots of other ways reported on various sites & in books where people use household trays and bowls but I thought this would be easier.
I thought I'd start the training whilst I was at home on holiday as it would all be very new to her and I wanted to monitor her reaction. I moved to the next stage as Sophie seemed ok with the last, sometimes I tried the next stage quickly other times she needed longer to get used to things. As with human beings all cats are different so there's no 'right' length of time for the training. It's difficult to write about this subject without the mention of pee & poop - so you've been warned in advance 
!
This is her progress, which will be updated regularly and hopefully show her using the toilet eventually 
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Sophie watching the instructional dvd!
13/14th December 2006 – Until now Sophie used a large covered litter tray. I got a smaller open litter tray and place it by the toilet, which is only a maximum of 2 feet from where her old tray was. She views the move with great suspicion.
15th December – I put the new litterkwitter device (white surround, red centre - the first of 3 sections - with litter in) on the floor next to the toilet, where the new litter tray had been. Sophie shows no interest at all, even showing her, placing her in it and rewarding are to no avail. Finally she climbs in and pees, most of which goes on the floor as she backs right in, as she had in her old tray, the litter is scattered everywhere!
16th December – Sophie point blank refuses to get into the tray again and sits in the corner where her tray used to be and cries, I feel really guilty 
. This goes on all day until I decide to move the device to that area. Success – she finally climbs in and pees, but still no poop!
17th December – she peed and later pooped in the tray this morning and got a reward (a teeny bit of spray cream which she loves!). All day nothing else, by early evening I showed her the tray, actually lifted her into it and immediately gave her a bit of cream. Later I was using the loo when she came in to investigate, she looked at the tray so I said ‘good girl, good girl’ she then came to look at my hand to see where her treat was!
She’s definitely avoiding the tray and she also seems to be avoiding drinking – apparently some cats do that, so I’ve taken the advice I found online to make some chicken flavoured water in the microwave – lets see if that makes her drink more!
On the occasions she does use it, the litter is all over the floor (!) I clean it straight away as it’s quite a small area and she may not like it being dirty. This stage should definitely be done when someone can be at home to watch when it needs cleaning out and do it straight away. Oh and the chicken water didn’t work!
19th December - She just proved what a typically sly 
20th December – Have moved the device a few inches from the wall, she doesn’t seem to have noticed yet and has used it. I’m going to keep moving it towards the toilet which is about 2 feet away so not far to go. When she pees she doesn’t seem to scatter the litter, on one occasion I actually wasn’t even sure she’d used it as it was so neat!
21st December – Sophie’s happily using the tray even though there’s barely any litter left in it after every use, so much for the neat start! She inspects it regularly and even sits next to it, she’s tried to fool me into thinking she’d used it by scraping at the litter but I’m wise to that trick now!
I decide to take a chance and move it right next to the toilet, I show Sophie where it’s going and wait with baited breathe. To see what happens. I don’t have to wait long – she uses it. Hooray!
Interesting turn of events……… Sophie watches me using the toilet then runs to the kitchen wanting a reward! Strange cat! 
22nd December – Sophie uses the tray again but slightly misses, I think it might be because I had it right up against the wall and she backed right up to the rear of the tray. I’m moving it a bit further away to see if that helps. At least she didn’t scatter the litter in every direction this time!
23rd December – Tray raised up on the litterkwitter box which is a good height to start at. I was out all day and found Sophie had used the tray several times – litter in every direction though!
In use - litter everywhere!
Over enthusiastic litter scraping!
24th December – raised the tray a few more inches on some magazines. Sophie complained a lot but used the tray after scraping around in the litter first. I've been slightly reducing the litter every day in preparation for the next section being put in the base.
26th December - All going well so I decide to raise the tray up another level by using the box, magazines and her old litter tray - it's now almost level with the toilet.
I check that the tray's quite stable, Sophie seems to be getting used to these changes - after her usual moaning she gets up and uses the tray a couple of times. The tray is close to the toilet so she inspects that as well, she seems to be getting quite interested in what's going on in the bowl and watches when I flush it which she's never done before.
Later on 26th December - Sophie was yelling blue murder and kept getting in the tray and scraping the litter. I couldn't figure out what she wanted. Eventually I added some more litter, she hopped in happily and used the tray. *sigh*.
Happily hopping down from a high tray.
30th December - Sophie was scraping so vigorously at the litter that she accidentally made the tray move and it startled her. I didn't want her to be put off the tray so I decided to try moving it up to the toilet as I could secure it firmly there. I used a heavy duty duct tape - not at all elegant but the tray was very secure and that was the object of the exercise. The white section is made from the same material as a toilet seat so is strong enough to take the weight of an adult, therefore when a 'human' wants to use the toilet you simply lift out the red section then replace it, ok its a bit of a procedure but it will be worth it if I can get Sophie to use the toilet eventually! 
I show Sophie the new location and after the usual complaints Sophie takes a look at it, after placing a small stool nearby, so she can get up easily, she uses it! She seems mystified by me using the same area, she has tried to inspect exactly what I'm doing. I wasn't really surprised as she always used to sit outside the door if a visitor used the bathroom, as soon as they came out she would dash in to inspect her litter box incase they'd been using it 
.
Testing it out (sorry it's a bit fuzzy, I didn't want to get too near and scare her off!)
3rd January 2007 - Sophie's happily using the tray in its current location, even with a reduced amount of litter (which means less mess when she scrapes - great!). She still loudly informs me that she's about to 'go' and when she's 'been' and looks for a treat and praise. If she carries on I will try the next section (amber) which has a hole in it this weekend (6th Jan), it will be interesting to see what she makes of the hole .
5th January - changed to Worlds Best Litter as it's flushable and I want to try out the next section which has a hole, I don't want plumbing problems if litter falls into the toilet. Sophie seems to like the smell of it (I don't!). She likes it so much she knocks the bag over trying to look inside which she's never done with her other litter.
6th January - I try out the amber section with the new litter. Sophie seems interested in the change and stands on the stool looking down into the hole. She complains and complains all morning, she seems to have scraped the bit of litter but that's it.
Phase 2 - Amber
She eventually decides she has to go so gets up, unfortunately she's a bit excitable scraping the litter, her foot slips into the hole and she jumps off startled!
This is a set back as she now doesn't want to get up, even when I show her its ok she isn't interested. She's still desperate to go so I swap back to the red ring but now she's put off it. She whines and whines and even starts scraping a few magazines I have on the floor of the lounge. 
To prevent accidents, I put her in the bathroom and close the door. After five minutes there's scraping noises and she uses the tray again. Lots of praise and a reward and we're back on track. I decide to leave the red section in for now but I want to try and deter her from standing in the centre section so she places her feet around it, hopefully if I can do that she may take to the amber section better. I have heard cats hate the feel of tin foil so I put some in the centre of the red ring, let's see what happens.
Foil in place......
12th January - I decided to try putting the amber section back in place as Sophie uses the red section and the tin foil was keeping her feet round the edges (mostly). She inspected the amber section and stuck her head right into it to inspect the water. After that she absolutely point blank refused to use it.
She clearly needed to go and yelled, walking backwards and forwards to the bathroom. All she'd do is scrape at the litter and scatter it but that's all. She then started to scratch at a newspaper I had by my chair so I scooped her up and put her in the bathroom with the door shut. Normally, the result of this is that she uses the tray and admits defeat. After some scratching around it all went quiet so I looked to see what was happening - nothing at all. I shut myself in the bathroom with her to praise and encourage her - to no avail!
She walked round the bathroom wailing pitifully scratching anything she could. She scraped litter out of the tray onto the floor and started to scratch that too so I cleared it up in super fast time, she even tried climbing into the dustpan with the litter. I felt dreadful. She spotted a newspaper on top of the linen basket and tried to get that onto the floor. I conceded defeat and slipped a piece of newspaper under the kwitter to cover the hole, she hopped up and used it. 
Red section back on the toilet. 
13th January - It's back to the drawing board and my d.i.y. skills. I've taken the amber section and cut a piece of foil from a foil cooking tray. It's firmly taped to the back with a small hole left open, I'll try increasing the size of the hole if I can ever persuade her back onto the tray first. She's currently refusing to use anything at all - I think she has her legs crossed.
Even this itty bitty hole was too much!
14th January - I tried the amber tray with the foil in place. Sophie refused to try it and just kept looking suspiciously at the hole. She scrapes in the tray but that's it. I knew she needed to pee in the evening (usually followed by poo the second I clean the tray! ) so I tried putting her by herself in the bathroom but that didn't work so I went in with her. Eventually I had to hide the hole with some toilet paper and sure enough she used the tray. *sigh*.
To cut a long story short she was an absolute pest for ages when I went to bed, racing from room to room and yowling, but finally settled down. In the morning she woke me up about an hour early by moaning in the hallway then pouncing on me (like a ton weight!). I pulled the duvet over my head and she scraped at it moaning all the time. Then she climbed down onto the floor and started scraping the carpet. I finally got up, grabbed her and took her into the bathroom as that was clearly what she wanted.
In and out of the tray for ages. She scraped and messed around so long that the inevitable happened - the foil fell through! Now Sophie was even more determined not to use the tray. I was way beyond wanting to play around any more so I put the red tray back again (!), she wouldn't go in at first but finally gave in, whining and complaining as she pooped - which was infact quite amusing! She got her favourite breakfast so she forgave me .
15th January - After the early morning carry on I decided to leave the red tray where it was and sure enough when I returned from work she'd used it - she has no problem whatever with it. It's soooooooo frustrating. She simply doesn't like a hole (no matter what size) for some reason. Having consulted other cat owners we've decided that possibly she might think she'll fall down the hole and she doesn't know it's not that deep. I think I might try putting something into the bowl so that it doesn't seem so deep, gradually making the item smaller until the bowls empty again. I need to find a suitable item, I was thinking maybe a bowl or tray - it's off to the hardware store for me.
16th January - I looked on the LitterKwitter website for advice from other users. I found that sometimes putting the amber section over the red section helps the transition. So I'm giving that a go.
Sophie's scratched around a bit but not used it yet but I'm pretty much determined she will! 
After this there was a tip which said to get clear perspex and put it under the hole in the amber section, show the cat there's no hole, maybe even put litter on it so they can see it's ok. Then as they get used to it slowly move it across making the hole a bit bigger every day. If I get her to accept the amber and red together I may well try that next!
17th January - Well I am very disappointed. I guess this was inevitable eventually but I hoped Sophie knew better..........I got in from work and she'd pooped on the floor. Not just on the floor but on my extremely expensive sheepskin rug! I was livid, mostly because she'd been in the tray and scraped the litter everywhere first then used the floor!
She knows what 'bad girl' and 'no' is so I showed her the mess on the rug and told her very sternly 'no' and 'bad girl'. I put the mess in her tray and showed her where it should be. She (foolishly) decided to come and sniff the rug whilst I was cleaning it and got told off, she then came back and sniffed the floor and got told off again. She then skulked off into a corner. She tried a couple of times to get round me by rolling on the floor, acting all cute and talking to me but I ignored her. She was thoroughly chastised so she well knows what she did. Back to the red ring again....... I wonder if she'll ever proceed to the next stage. Later in the evening she jumped up and peed happily in the red ring - boy she sure loves this ring!
20th January - All's well with the red ring, Sophie is still happily using it so I've decided to stick with it for a while. In the meantime I've discovered that LitterKwitter make an amber 'intermediate' ring with a smaller hole. So obviously Sophie isn't the only cat to have trouble transitioning from red to amber. I've ordered the ring but as it's coming from Australia it can take 2 weeks. For now we'll stick with red as she's happy and I don't want to rock the boat, some cats don't even get this far.
Getting a bit better at foot placement
22nd January - Sophie's now getting a toilet obsession. When I go she climbs up on the stool next to the toilet and tries to get as good a look at what's going on as possible, she then wants to see where everything goes and watches the toilet flush. It's very weird as it's only started since she started using the LitterKwitter. If I say 'hey do you mind!?' she just sits on the stool and pretends she's not watching but she doesn't move away.
She's still using the red tray, I'm not using much litter which is just as well as before pooping she likes to scrape like mad - when peeing she doesn't move the litter much. She was playing a little game with me today for some reason. I came in from work and found she'd peed in the tray so I praised her and cleaned it out. She watched me refill it with litter then hopped in and peed again. So I cleaned it out. 1 minute later, scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape - then she pooped in it. So I cleaned it again - I'd swear she was laughing at me 
.
30th January - All is still well with the tray, using it no problem. If she's pooped or peed whilst I've been out she waits until I come back and clean it before she goes again - usually watching and waiting whilst I do - then immediately leaps in to use it *sigh*.
I caught Sophie yesterday performing 'acrobatics' on her scratching post (photo below) so she better not try to convince me she can't balance on a toilet seat! I praised her and took a photo of the trick so now when she performed it again today she yelled & yelled to tell me to come and look (and clap and cheer) .
Sophie performing the new trick!
5th February - I was so excited to receive the intermediate amber disc from LitterKwitter.
Ok, now what are these things?
(you can see the difference in the hole sizes).
I took it home and wanted to try it straight away, the hole seemed so small I was sure Sophie would be ok with it............ *Sigh*.................I'm sure you can kind of see what's coming next eh? Sophie leapt onto the tray with gay abandon and...........yes, her foot went straight down the hole, she shot off and refused to have anything more to do with it 
I have never known such a clodhopping, clumsy cat - agggghhhhhhh
I tried everything even luring her to it with cream - but no, even though she really, really wanted the cream she really, really didn't want to go on the tray. So back to the red disc. I'm soooooooooooo frustrated with her.
I'm not giving up yet. I decided to try the amber disc over the red as I did once before, however this time I've taped them together as last time Sophie was scraping around and managed to make one move, she then leapt off and used my sheepskin rug as a toilet and I definitely don't want that to happen again!
I'm getting very impatient now as I don't seem to be able to move Sophie on to the amber stage, I had to seriously count ten tonight as I really thought she'd do it this time. I have no idea what to do next. LitterKwitter say this can be done it 8 weeks and we're beyond that now.
I omitted to mention that Sophie didn't like the two trays taped together, they must still have moved a fraction which in her mind is not ok and she wouldn't use it, so we're back to.....................yes you guessed it - the red disc!!!
****Apparently I did this wrong, when they say put the red under the amber they mean put the red disc into the toilet bowl so it's underneath the amber. Doh!! Well how was I supposed to know that?? I did think the 2 together was weird but then again it's all weird!
8th February - Even though we're back to the red disc Sophie is happily using it again and with very little litter but she doesn't seem to be bothered by that. My builder came round today and I traced the exact size of the disc on to some paper so that he could get me a piece of perspex cut to put underneath it. I intend to make a teeny weeny hole and keep increasing it until (hopefully) we get onto the intermediate disc. Heaven only knows how long that will take but that's ok as long as we get there eventually.
18th February - tried the amber disc again to no avail! Sophie discovered the hole and, as usual, that was that!
19th February - Came in from work and a little someone had had another 'accident' in the hallway. Luckily I'd decided to remove the sheepskin rug until she's finished training. I wasn't sure whether what she'd done was extremely smart or extremely stupid - it was definitely extremely naughty! She'd actually got some litter out of the litter bag and scattered it in the hallway then used that to poop on! I think the reason she'd done it was because she'd already peed in the tray, normally I'm there to clean it up straight away but her timing was a bit off today. Anyway here's the photo of what she did - complete with the poop so you've been warned!
She's currently being punished by being ignored, she was shown what she'd done and told she was a bad girl, she definitely knows she's been naughty The perspex disc that's being made is meant to be here Wednesday so let's hope that works!
22nd February - Another little accident. She again scrapped the litter onto the floor first (in the bathroom). I shouted at her and she screwed her face up and yelled back, in that one little cry she practically said "why are you shouting at me, I don't know what I've done wrong, I used the litter!". I felt terrible and called my builder to chase up the perspex, I need to move her on, if she can get to amber the tray won't be dirty and that's the only reason she uses the floor. I'm not going to shout again.
24th February - I got the perspex to go under the amber disc (thank you Franco!). Infact there was enough to make 2 so I have 2 with slightly different holes, that saves trying to make a hole bigger and possibly breaking the perspex which is notoriously brittle. I'm going to try the smallest hole first.
It was actually a teeny bit big so I got some wet & dry sandpaper and sanded it down to fit, the most important thing is that nothing wobbles or Sophie won't use it
Perspex in place (excuse reflections!)
In place with amber intermediate disc
Sophie inspected the tray but knew something had changed. She clearly wanted to use it but would only scrape around but not go. I put her in the bathroom and shut the door after about 20 minutes........and this should be sung loudly to the tune of the 'Hallaluljah chorus' - Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, she used the amber tray!!!!! Lots of rewards and a play session as I was so pleased she finally conceded defeat!
25th February - Sophie walked up to the tray a few times but seemed reluctant to use it. I figured last night that it was a teeny bit wobbly and had secured it by pushing a bit of toilet paper round the edges but that didn't seem an ideal solution. She finally used the tray again (after me shutting her into the bathroom).
After I had cleaned the tray I decided to put some padded tape on the sides to stop the wobbling. I'd seen a suggestion of the tape you use to exclude drafts round windows. All I had was the tape you use instead of silicone round the edges of a bath. The tape is narrow and padded and obviously waterproof so seemed ideal and it stopped the wobbling! All I need to do now is see if she goes in the tray by herself. Fingers crossed. I have a feeling there may be more accidents but I also feel she will take to this stage. I'm not rushing though.
3rd March - Sophie seemed to have accepted the amber disc with the small hole so I thought I'd chance my arm and try the larger hole. She went into the bathroom and started scraping the litter then got off the tray (I assume she found the hole ). I shut the bathroom door with her inside and after a few minutes there was a little cry which usually means 'ok I'm done - let me out'. Sure enough she had peed in the tray. Lots of praise and a little treat.
As I was cleaning the tray she was watching and grumbling which usually means she wants to poop. Again she got up and scratched around but got down again. I shut the door and left her in the bathroom and after a few minutes she yelled and she had pooped in the tray - infact almost dead centre so the poop had almost gone through the hole - yay that's my girl!!!!
Almost full size hole!
11th March - I decided Sophie was happy with this stage so why not take the perspex away altogether and see what happens. She hopped up scraped around and then must have found the hole (as usual!) and hopped down again. I picked her up, put her in the bathroom and shut the door. Within minutes there was scraping and then a little 'meh eh' which means I'm done, and sure enough the clever little girl had peed .
She went once more and later in the evening was scraping around in the litter but refused to go. I shut her in the bathroom which normally works a treat but she wouldn't give in and after an hour I gave up and let her out. She hadn't pooped since the night before so I knew she needed to go.
12th March - Sophie hopped up and happily peed in the tray (all into the centre section yay!), I cleaned it out and she immediately headed back into it which usually means a poop is imminent. I shut the door and left her to it. A few minutes later there was vigorous scraping, silence then more vigorous scraping - I tentatively opened the door and................woo hoo big pile of poop in the centre part of the tray. What a great cat!! We're motoring now!!!!
24th March - I decided to chance my arm again and try Sophie with the full size amber disc with a much bigger hole. My theory was that once she knew how to avoid a hole it didn't matter what size it was. I was cleaning the toilet and Sophie was taking great interest in the procedure so I put the disc on, immediately her head went straight down the hole to investigate. Later that evening, when she usually used the tray, I picked her up and put her in the bathroom with the door just slightly ajar so that I could peek in. A couple of minutes later there was scraping, I was waiting for her to jump down next, but no! 'tinkle, tinkle'......peeing straight through the hole!! All I had to do was flush - what a joy!!!! Lots of fuss and play for a brilliant cat!
25th March - I put Sophie in the bathroom and shut the door as she normally uses the tray at least once in the morning and evening. Nothing (apart from whining) so I let her out after a while. I needed to go out so I grumbled at her and left. When I got back a couple of hours later I still wasn't happy - she'd used the tray once so could definitely do it, so I was very put out that she wouldn't use it again. Until I looked into the bathroom - Sophie has pooped in the tray whilst I'd been out . Ok it was in the tray rather than down the hole but a lot of cats refuse to poop in the tray and will only pee so it was a huge deal that she'd used it on her own without me nagging. Lots more praise for a really outstanding effort!
I don't want to get too excited as there's still a chance she might change her mind about using the amber stage but I keeping my fingers crossed! Only one more stage to go - woo hoo!
Happy on amber stage
7th April - All's well on the amber stage, no more accidents and often Sophie manages to aim straight down the hole , when that happens and I get to just flush I remember what I started all this for. She seems perfectly happy so I'm not going to rock the boat at all by trying to move her on to green just yet. I have a feeling that the green disc may be a challenge!
25th April - Still on amber, I did try the green disc but after about 10 seconds of scraping Sophie decided she didn't fancy the idea of such a big hole so I took at away and put the amber back. Litter Kwitter have designed an intermediate green disc which will be available in 4-6 weeks so I may hold out for that. In the meantime Sophie's getting the hang of using the hole in the amber as you can see from the latest photo today.
Straight down the hole - perfect!!
30th May - We're still awaiting the launch of a green intermediate tray which I'm sure Sophie will need. In the meantime here she is demonstrating the exact way cats should use the amber tray!
Ready.............
Steady.............
Go!!!!!!!!..........................(look at her face, she's practically smiling!! )
9th June - If I'm going out I usually put Sophie into the bathroom and tell her to 'go potty' and bizarrely she usually does. This is a precaution as if she misses the hole when she pees (which occasionally happens) and later wants to poop she will go on the floor if the tray is dirty. Today I thought I wasn't going to be long and didn't do it.
When I came back Sophie had used the tray but missed the hole, as I was cleaning the tray I noticed there was a little bit of poop on the floor next to the bag of litter.
I sighed and cleaned it up. I wondered why the litter bag was almost tipped over and thought perhaps she had tried to get some litter out, but I couldn't see any on the floor. Then I looked inside! She had actually climbed inside the bag (which is huge!) and pooped on the litter in there (see right of white bowl I use as a scoop). You have to give her points for ingenuity!!! If you're wondering what the other thing is in the bag its the green disc, I left it there after trying to get her to use it a few times and failing. Well maybe she didn't fail she just wanted to use it in the bag . What a cat!!!!!
5th July - The intermediate green disc has finally arrived yay!! So now I have to see if I can slip it onto the toilet unnoticed! As you can see it has larger hole than amber but smaller than the final green disc. It doesn't have a 'lip' around the centre like the others did so its quite a different shape.
I decided to give Sophie a bit of encouragement, if I want her to use the toilet I put her in the bathroom and she knows what she has to do. I put her in there and eventually she hopped up on to the toilet and I could hear a bit of scraping around, then nothing. A paw came round the door and she was out! I put her back and made sure she couldn't get out - lots of grumbling from the bathroom Then - a bit more scraping of litter followed by the little tinkling noise which means she's using the toilet (always makes me laugh ).
So there we are, she's used the green disc. However, I know that means nothing yet, the big test will be later today and tomorrow - will she use it again and more importantly, will she use it to poop? She has used the floor a couple of times to poop recently (even when the tray was clean), seems to be a common occurence when cats are being trained - heaven knows why they do it. She mostly used the amber tray and for 99% of the time hit the hole dead centre, without me ever positioning her feet, she just figured it out. So lets hope we're on the final part of training now . It's taken 7 months so far!!
6th July - I can see the green disc is going to be a battle of wills, but by this stage it's something I've been through before. I have to put Sophie into the bathroom and shut the door, after the usual amount of moaning she uses the toilet, as the holes so big in the green disc she always goes straight through the hole. Now my theory is, if she's done it once she can do it again. I don't think Sophie shares my view - hence the battle of wills. She was showing all the signs of needing to poop, she yells and runs around like crazy then walks in and out of the bathroom moaning, so I put her in and shut the door. From then on it usually sounds like I'm murdering her as she yells and carries on.
She'd been doing this for ages so I went in to see what was happening and she was walking round the bathroom floor complaining loudly (nothing new there - we had this at every new stage!) and scratching the floor (I've blocked off a corner she took a fancy to - she pooped twice there!). Without going in to too much gory detail it was very apparent Sophie was about to poop, so I put her on the toilet and down she got - this went on for about ten times, with her getting more and more annoyed and me trying to stay calm and encourage her by saying what a good girl she was. I even tried blocking her route off with my hands. Eventually, she conceded defeat and used the toilet. That was followed by a treat, lots of praise and a play session. I hope she catches on soon as I'll be worn out at this rate!
9th July - Crikey cats can hold their poop in well. I decided that Sophie definitely needed to go and put her in the bathroom, lots of yelling (Sophie not me!) later I got fed up and went in the bathroom with her. I sat on the edge of the bath and kept saying 'good girl go potty' and she was definitely saying no. After a while she sat on the stool next to the toilet and kept looking over her shoulder at the toilet, eventually (about 15 minutes!) she conceded defeat, hopped up and pooped - woo, hoo!
10th July - I wanted her to use the toilet as she hadn't peed since the morning. I put her into the bathroom and pulled the door to so that I could hear when she'd been. I had put the amber tray under the green one as she's been a bit reluctant to use the green and has needed some real persuasion! Anyway Sophie was yelling and carrying on and I was getting more and more annoyed but trying to stay calm. I was going backwards and forwards to the kitchen and she was yelling louder and louder and boy can Bengals yell 
. I got fed up and let her out as I'm sure the neighbours think I'm torturing her, I also told her what a bad girl she was and ignored her which is the best punishment as she hates it. She hopped up onto the settee next to me trying to get my attention and purring but I carried on ignoring her. Later I went to use the toilet myself and discovered that she'd used it, somehow I'd missed her doing it, she must have been really quick. I felt absolutely dreadful. 
Bad Angie! Good Sophie!
15th July - I thought this would be a battle and it is. I never knew cats could hold on so long!! Sophie hadn't pooped for 3 days so I was going to make sure she did today whether she liked it or not. I tried the trick of sitting in the bathroom with her but she just settled down on the floor to wait it out. I tried leaving her by herself and that didn't work either. Finally in desperation I put the amber tray back and lo and behold up she hopped and pooped! Hmmmm.....ah well it was better than her hanging on anymore, she'd have exploded. When I think back to how she refused to use the amber tray and now its the only one she'll use, honestly!! *sigh*. Ah well we'll keep going! I keep telling myself just one more stage, just one more stage!!!
19th July - I put Sophie into the bathroom and there's an interesting turn of events. Sophie now hops onto the toilet and doesn't scrape the litter before or after. She seems to have decided it's not necessary if she's just peeing. She does know I come running to flush the toilet so perhaps she's worked out there's no smell and therefore no need to bury the smell. She's still resisting pooping, I have no idea why.
Anyway here she is using the next stage - intermediate green..........
First we'll make sure there's nothing down there that will bite my bottom!
Yep! All safe to use!!!
Note the feet positioning and the fact she now always faces forwards (despite facing every which way during training). I never taught her that, she's working out where they should be all by herself. Some people say you should position the cat from the beginning, but I felt it would have disturbed her so I left her and she's fine.
24th July - We're still not getting anywhere with using the green tray for pooping. This evening Sophie (after 3 days!) started moaning and groaning and scraping the tray but not using it. I left her in the bathroom for a while to no avail, I went in with her to no avail. I finally gave in after about 20 minutes and put the amber tray on, (after trying the amber under the green - that didn't work, she just put her foot on it and tipped it up which made her jump *sigh*). I left her in there and heard scraping, after a while I looked in and saw she'd peed in the tray which was weird - then I spotted a pile of poop on the floor in the corner under the sink - agggghhhhh I was really mad so Sophie's now in disgrace!
28th July - I was lying in bed and often Sophie has a little play by herself before going to bed herself. I could hear a sort of scraping noise as if she was pushing something across the floor, not unusual as she often finds something weird to play with. Then the noise stopped.
In the middle of the night I got up to use the bathroom. Sophie wandered in (as usual ) and started sniffing under the sink where I keep a dustpan and brush (I keep them there as there's still little bits of litter that manage to get on the floor). Then I noticed that the dustpan wasn't under the sink and was actually partially across the floor. When I checked out why ............ yes you guessed it, Sophie had moved it and pooped in the corner under the sink again ...... aggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh . So now I have a load of cleaning sprays and loo rolls there to stop her returning to the scene of the crime both in that corner and also to the left of the toilet, her other favourite place. Whether that will work, who knows. This is a real battle of wills now!
31st July - Sophie seems quite determined not to poop in the green disc. I came in this evening to find this lovely mess in the bathroom ...................
Now let me explain what the little madam has done. Sophie does not want to poop in the green disc so needs some litter on the floor. There's insufficient in the green disc so she recalls seeing a tiny box that I kept on the top of the cystern behind the toilet. I only use a small amount of litter in the disc now so I just keep a small plastic box with some in near the toilet. I had to take to hiding the bag of litter as Sophie would either scoop it out, or as seen above (9th June) climb into the bag and poop there!
Today she has climbed up, knocked the box of litter on the floor - hence the big pile of litter on the toilet, the shelf behind and the little stool beside the toilet. The black bowl I use as a scoop is on its side on the shelf, the box itself is just out of the photo on the right on the floor. She has then gathered up some of the litter on the floor and happily pooped there!!!!
Although she's being a complete pain in the a*&e, I have to give her credit for her continued ingenuity. She's smart and there's no arguing with that. Whatever I do, she manages to think of a way round it - no wonder I'm going nuts! *sigh*
9th August - Sophie had continued to use the bathroom floor to poop. I decided to ignore it as I had a theory that when she became more used to the green disc she might revert to using it to pee and poop, I thought she just needed to be a bit more confident with her balance. Today she peed into the disc with 3 feet on the toilet seat. She started off with 4 which was fantastic but something startled her and she took one off. But I was thrilled that she'd discovered where to put her feet all by herself. I think I've said previously that there's a school of thought that says you should place a cats feet where they should be, but I haven't subscribed to the theory as I think eventually they'll do it by themselves, especially when they go on to the green disc as they can't put all four feet on it as it's too narrow. This seems to be working in Sophie's case.
10th August - Sophie needed to poop, she carries on moaning to give me a clue. I decided that I would do all I could to make her use the toilet as opposed to my floor . So, we're both in the bathroom and she's getting on and off the toilet and scraping the litter into the toilet! I'm adding more and more litter to encourage her to use it. I then decided to add the amber tray underneath and eventually she pooped in the toilet! Ok she stood back to front facing the cystern but who cares, if she felt more confident that way that's fine. At least she knows she should use the toilet. She got tons of praise, a good play and some crispy bacon!! I have no doubt this will still be a battle but she's done it once, yay!!!
13th August - I got home today and...........Sophie had pooped in the toilet!!!! All by herself with no nagging from me!!!!! What a great cat. I couldn't believe my eyes. The thing I found funniest was that she must have considered using the floor first as she'd moved the dustpan and brush, but somewhere in her little mind was the sound of me saying "no, naughty" so she decided better of it. I really hope my theory has worked and she's going to use the toilet from now on, fingers crossed.
11th September - Just updating so you don't think we're not still training! Sophie is using the toilet to pee on every occasion and mostly using the toilet to poop. I say mostly as luckily I've been around for most occasions when she does her 'I need to go potty' song and dance routine . I then follow her into the bathroom, sit on a tiny stool and encourage her to use the toilet not the floor. When she gets on to the toilet I praise her, when she heads for the corner of the bathroom I say 'no', she then stops and returns to the toilet. Actually, the really funny thing is that when I go to the toilet Sophie has now taken to sitting on the stool and waiting for me to finish, I think she's encouraging me too! Daft cat!
Sophie has all day to use the toilet but a couple of times recently she's decided she wants to use it when I'm on it, she climbs on the back and all but pushes me off - I need 2 toilets!
Anyway, I don't intend to move on to the next stage until she uses the toilet to poop every time and does it with no help from me. When she does I'll move on to the last stage. I don't want to rush her as we don't have far to go now. So if it all goes quiet you'll know why.
1st October - Sophie had a little 'accident', I don't really know why I call them 'accidents' as they seem pretty well thought out. When I got in Sophie had pooped in the toilet and I was thrilled, so lots of praise. Sophie was then sniffing around her favourite spot by the dustpan and brush and I noticed the floor was wet. Yes, she'd peed on the floor! First time she'd ever done that. Heaven knows why, maybe she thought the toilet was dirty and wouldn't use it, maybe there wasn't enough litter in the tray - who knows. Let's hope it's the first and last time.
7th October - A few days ago I decided to try putting the real toilet seat down on top of the litterkwitter seat to see what Sophie did and to try and get her used to the real deal. I called her and said 'go potty' as she probably needed a pee and she usually will do it to order. She hopped up and investigated. I thought she might not use it as it makes the green tray a bit further down than she's used to but no, she was fine and used the toilet as usual. Yay!
10th October - Last night I came home after work to find that Sophie had peed in the toilet but pooped on the floor, I was really annoyed I think the reason she does it is because the toilet hasn't been flushed after she uses it and is therefore not 'clean'. I'll have to find a way round this as even when she moves to using the toilet and no kwitter tray she may revert to this behaviour when I'm not there to flush.
I wasn't moving her onto the last green disc as I wanted her to stop using the floor (even if only on very odd occasions) but after this episode I thought 'well why not try moving on'. I very casually changed the disc to the final green disc last night to see what would happen. I was in the kitchen this morning when I heard scraping, I held my breathe..........eventually I peeked round the corner of the door as it had gone very quiet - and there she was using the toilet to pee!!!! She hadn't even noticed I'd changed the tray!!!! I am really keen to see what happens when it comes to pooping though , I'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to find out......fingers crossed!!! 
Final disc in use!
19th November - people have been enquiring as to how Sophie's doing with the potty training, so here's an update. Things are pretty much as they were, Sophie is still using the last green disc with an itty bitty sprinkling of litter. She happily pees through the disc, often with 3 feet on the white rim of the unit. She still grumbles and moans when she has to poop. She has taken to doing this in the evening so I catch her and drag her off to the bathroom where I sit until she goes. This is a long process as it involves lots of 'good girl' when she is up on the toilet and lots of 'no' if she gets off an heads for the corner. I often take a magazine with me
Because of her timing there have been no accidents, although that might not have been the case if she decided to go whilst I'm out & wasn't watching her. I also run to flush after she's peed and say 'good girl get down' so she doesn't scrape the litter, hopefully she'll get the idea that litter isn't necessary. She has totally nailed the peeing, so much so I can tell her to 'go potty' and she hops up and goes
I have to say I am now totally stumped as to how to get her off the green disc, maily due to the litter. She knows it's kept in a box on top of some drawers in the bathroom, so if there isn't enough litter when she wants to poop she looks at the box and yells until I put some in. I'll be off work over Christmas so I think that may be the time for a concerted effort to get her off her beloved litter!
19th December - Well nothing much to report. Sophie does poop into the toilet with the final disc on by herself. We did go for quite a few days where she didn't seem to poop at all. It was all a bit weird as she didn't yell and carry on as she usually does when she wants to go, infact when I tried to make her use the toilet she just lay on the bathroom floor and made herself comfortable . I really should have known she was up to something - silly me! I went into the spare room for some more litter (which I don't do very often as she barely uses any) and when I opened the bag I found she had used it to poop into on what I would guess was 2 occasions! I actually would have liked to see that - she must have looked hilarious sitting in a bag of litter . The best bit is the door was shut, so how the heck she managed it I have no idea, she'll seek that litter out no matter where I hide it! The doors now firmly closed so she's had to go back on the toilet, which I'm pleased to say she has .
It is now one year since I started training her!!
12th January 2008 - Today I was in the bathroom washing the green disc and Sophie came mooching in seeing what I was doing, as usual! She climbed up on the toilet, she usually takes the opportunity to do this when there's no disc in place as there's a better view down the toilet! She walked round the seat and stuck her head down the toilet a couple of times, then I realised she wanted to use the toilet.
I said 'good girl, go potty, go potty' - this usually makes her use the toilet as she knows exactly what it means (after hearing the words for a year she should do ). I didn't think for one second that she'd use it as there was no disc and no litter. She tried to scrape inside the toilet and was a bit confused by that, then suddenly after complaining a bit, she balanced all 4 feet on the white seat and peed! I couldn't believe my eyes - no litter, no disc and there she was using the toilet!
I was thrilled, I could have danced round the bathroom, not only had she used the toilet but she'd put all 4 feet on the toilet seat and she's never done that before, 3 was the most she'd previously managed. This also reinforced my beliefe that she'd put her feet at in the right place without me showing her. So lots of praise for a clever little girl.
Doubtless it was a one off and she'll no doubt demand the green tray back, especially when she wants to poop as she still occasionally manages to use the floor if I don't watch her. However, it has shown me that she can do it and hopefully that means she eventually will use the toilet with no litterkwitter. Strangely, Jo at Litterkwitter had told me that one day, perhaps when I was cleaning the disc, Sophie would probably hop up and use the toilet for no apparent reason, I found that hard to believe but she was right! Yay!!
24th January - I didn't think by now that I'd be saying 'that's it we're done' but so far Sophie hasn't shown a real inclination to perform her 'trick' again. I must say I haven't pushed the issue but as soon as I get some time, ie at a weekend, I may well do that. I don't want to rush her as I don't want to undo any good work, I would really strongly say that to anyone else trying to 'potty train' as I think trying to make them move on too fast may actually slow the process up further.
30th January - Sophie decided that she'd use the toilet again with no tray , I was at home and left the tray off deliberately to see if she'd use it, if she didn't at least I was there to put it back and stop any 'accidents'. After a lot of examining the toilet, looking for litter and complaining she peed, all 4 feet on the seat.....clever cat!!
3rd February - I have tried taking the disc away and leaving the seat only when Sophie needs to pee and so far so good, she moans quite a bit but then goes. The strange thing is when I put the disc back (which I have to do every other day when I know she'll need to poop as she still hesitates even when the disc is there ), she jumped up to pee and didn't bother scraping the litter about just sat down and went. Obviously she is getting used to not having litter when the disc is removed and seems to not bother when it's there again. That only works when she wants to pee, when she needs to poop she reverts back to scraping for England!!!!
6th February - Minor breakthrough. Had the disc off for Sophie to pee and I thought I'd try putting the real toilet seat down. After a little rebalancing act (and more moaning) Sophie peed! All we need to do now is convince her to poop without the disc and we're finally there!
11th February - Well, I don't know what made me think that Sophie would make any stage of this easy. True to form she decided that no she didn't want to use the toilet without the last disc! She needed to pee so I went in the bathroom with her and she was up and down off the toilet complaining (as usual! ). I took my eyes off her for a couple of seconds and..........................
Yes......up went the tail and she peed on the floor (after I'd just steamed it!!!!) . I went mad!!! Typical!!!! So I'm keeping the last disc on for a while but make no mistake if it's a battle of wills Sophie has lost already!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr.........
31st March - I'd like to say that we're done - but nooooooo, Sophie's still clinging to the last disc like mad. She jumps up and pees no problem but I still have to watch her if she needs to poop as she still needs encouragement. That said, I came home the other day to find she'd pooped in the toilet all by herself A couple of days previously however, she had used the floor so it's still hit and miss. What worries me is that mid April I'm having a lot of building work done, including a new bathroom and on one day the loo will be out of action, that means bringing back the litter tray for 24 hours . I don't want her to get the idea that it's back for good!!!
Sophie follows her beloved disc everywhere, including when it's not even on the toilet!
22nd April - We've had a little set back. I have had builders in for 2 weeks and part of the work was a new bathroom. They kindly left the toilet in place with the litterkwitter and Sophie used it, reluctantly, as there were walls and bath and sink etc missing and she couldn't figure out what was going on, also the smell in the room was unfamiliar so it was a bit unsettling. Also, when the builders were working and Sophie made signs of wanting to go to the toilet I had to resort to letting her have a litter tray.
The problem now was that Sophie would look up at the tray and yell for it every time. I persuaded her to use the toilet but one day I came in to find she'd pooped on my lounge carpet so I wasn't at all happy. Today I get home to find she'd peed in the lounge too, to be fair she had located a carrier bag that was on the floor and neatly peed in the centre. However, she did get a stern telling off, then I put a carrier bag on the same spot (I thought to cover any residual smell there might be) - 2 minutes later I come back into the room and she'd done it again - much bigger telling off this time. Now the bathrooms 99% finished and the new toilet is in place I may have to retrain her *sigh*.
27th April - Sophie seemed to have abandoned the toilet altogether. I was in the bath when I heard her yelling and carrying on - not unusual - although she was extremely loud!! It was so bad I had to get out of the bath to see what she was doing. She was happily pooping in the corner of my new kitchen floor! Obviously as she'd held on it probably wasn't that comfortable - not that by now I was feeling any sympathy. I grabbed her and said "no!!" and showed her the green tray again. She skulked off and I cleaned up after her then went back to the bath. When I got out I discovered she'd now gone to the exact same corner and peed!
29th April - Crisis averted! After Sophie christened my new kitchen floor I was mopping up and I suddenly thought, if she followed her scent back here then surely she'll follow it back to the toilet. So I took some small pieces of the kitchen roll (pee covered ) and put them in the green tray. I figured they had plenty of Sophie's scent and she may remember that's where her tray was. Sure enough, after I showed her the tray she began sniffing around and now is using the toilet again! Phew!! So there's a very good tip to try if your kittie strays off the toilet.
So now I need a concerted effort to get rid of the last tray!
23rd June - Well just incase you're wondering what happened next......we're still in 'final green tray limbo land'! The building work (and strange paint smells etc) dropped us back in schedule and Sophie is only just beginning to realise that the bathroom is an ok place to go potty again. She hops up and pees but is still a bit reluctant to poop and has the odd 'accident' (at least it's always in the bathroom). I'm not rushing things as I hope we might get back to her deciding she doesn't need the last tray after all, even if it's just peeing as she was before. I might be going for a World record of 2 years training at this rate *sigh*.
and then................October 2008.......I finally gave up! I decided that having tried every bit of advice known to man and cats about how to get Sophie to poop every time using the toilet I couldn't stand it any more! Also I think the fact I had builders being extremely disruptive didn't help, I'm sure that was a big setback.
So I got her the teeniest tray, as she was now used to using a small space and only gave it to her when I knew she wanted to poop, she carried on peeing in the toilet using the final green tray. If she had have given up the final tray I would probably have carried on letting her use the toilet to pee but she was clinging to the tray and refusing to use the toilet alone (except for a couple of ocassions previously).
I now let her have a tray all the time. The advantages are: she has a teeny tray and literally a couple of spoons of litter as she no longer scrapes like a maniac! The litter is flushable so I can dispose of everything every time and flush, so no nasty litter tray smells. Also when I'm in I don't have to have the litter tray there all the time, Sophie goes to the bathroom and yells when she wants it and having studied all her potty habits in great depth I now know when she'll want it anyway.
It's sad to have to concede defeat but I couldn't stand any more battling and it just didn't seem that she was going to give in ever! I certainly gave it a good go but my patience had come to an end! Hopefully soon we'll have a house with a garden so I'll make her a little 'potty corner' of her own.