I am not sure that I have ever owned a cat.. my cats have always had a way of owning me. I gladly put up with their scratching, shedding and litter box because they were part of our family.
Chloe is no different. Even though she joined our family as an adult cat, she immediately fit right in. Now, I still don't feel like she is my pet, she is just family. Any cat who is this patient with three young children is okay in my book.
To further cement her place in our home, she was there for me during all the aches and pains of my last pregnancy. She snuggled up with me or laid at my feet as I went through morning sickness and frequents nights of insomnia. Yeah, I couldn't imagine our home feeling as welcome without her.
But, that doesn't mean I want guests to know we have a cat the moment they step through our door. No, I think I would rather leave it up to Chloe whether she wants to make her presence known... or not.
Now, all through my pregnancy, my husband took over the litter box duties. Well, at least when I reminded him. It was his least favorite chore and I don't really blame him. I mean, I usually have to get out a garbage bag, scoop and then throw it out. I don't always get around to it until it has been a day or two.
That is no good.
So now that the duty is back on my shoulders full time, I wanted to try something different. I use a special pail for my dirty diapers, so would a Litter Genie help me not only control the odor from Chloe's catbox, but also make it faster and easier to clean regularly?
We grabbed ours at Target in the pet section. Yeah, they have everything, don't they? The initial kit contained all the essentials for fighting litter box odor: a Litter Genie pail, litter box scoop, and one refill.
Have you seen this? To help me scoop more often, I just open the pail, scoop, pull the handle to drop the litter into the bottom of the pail and it is sealed away (with the odors) for 14 days. My cat box cleaning just got faster and easier.
The sleek and classy white design fits easily into any home. No need to try and hide it in a corner. Since mine will be sitting right next to my cat's litter box in the laundry room, I wanted to personalize it.
I haven't had a chance to finish decorating our laundry room. I still need to finish the trim and find the perfect fabric for curtains. I am searching for yellow and white daisies. I also have plans to put up a small window box with flowers, african violets, to make fun and cheery. So to continue with that theme I decided to dress up the Litter Genie.
With my Silhouette Cameo I cut grass strips and flowers out of brightly colored vinyl. I love how it turned out and it only took me about 10 minutes to cut and finish.
Yes, the Litter Genie was just a blank canvas begging to be decorated. Would you decorate yours?
The Litter Genie system has been great. Now I can quickly scoop and move on as I am working on laundry or grabbing something from the laundry room. I know Chloe appreciates the cleaner cat box. Cats are finicky like that.
And a cleaner cat box is so important on keeping cat odors away. Frequent scooping is just one part of the pet odor solution. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve, too.
- Put the litter box in a well ventilated room. Ours is near a window.
- Look for a cat litter with baking soda or other odor-fighting ingredients
- Use a litter that clumps for easy cleaning
- Clean the litter box daily & replace all the litter weekly (Made much easier with a Litter Genie)
- Replace the litter box yearly. They become scuffed and scratched over time making it harder to keep germ free and holding onto odor.
Check out the whole Litter Genie scoop on twitter and follow #petparents for other great conversations on beating liter box odor.
Do you own a cat? How do you handle litter box odor?
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