I have a very old black cat by the name of Edward Scissorhands. Ed adopted us about 17 years ago, during the height of an extremely cold winter. He found his way into our unheated garage and curled up on the seat of the lawn mower. I discovered he was there, and immediately worried that he would freeze. Dear Husband was against letting him into the basement, so he put a little heater out in the garage. Hmpf! Like that was going to do much.
The weather got worse, and DH had to put that heater on the back of the loft bathroom to make sure the pipes didn’t freeze. Ed got to go to the basement, and he’s been directing our lives ever since.
I originally put a litter box in the bathroom off the bedroom hallway. Ed is an indoor-outdoor cat, and virtually never needed the litter. It was just “in case.” But, in the past three years, the cat has aged to the point where winter weather in not as easy to bear. I was sure he was dying the first year he chose not to go out. What else could it be? After all, THIS was the cat who much preferred to be outside, who ran to the door to signal his need to be OOOOOOWWWWTT! Admittedly, it was cold outside. I suppose he was just being a smart cat!
The unfortunate side to staying in, is that the cat needs to use the litter. I have a litter pan in the basement, but Dear Husband tells me that it needs to be changed more frequently than once a month. (Out of sight, out of mind). And, this cat is a champion at filling a litter pan.
Ed’s kidneys are going bad, and he drinks a great deal of water. You know the deal. Water in, water out, or something like that. I can change the litter pan, use a new litter liner and fill it with litter, and I SWEAR he can fill it in twenty minutes! I can scoop for one day, but every other day we need to start fresh.
And the litter…..there are little granules of litter everywhere. I had to move the litter out of the bathroom to make things safer for my mother, and the only other place we could put it on the main floor was the mud room. Ed is doing his best to make the mud room live up to it’s name. After he’s used the litter, he paws at it, and dumps some of it over the side. Then he walks through it, and tracks it past the pantry and into the kitchen. I’ve found it half the house away, on the seat of the secretarial chair at my computer in the living room!
I love this cat dearly, and I know we don’t have a lot of time left together, but couldn’t he just be a LITTLE NEATER!???