Our cat, Janet, shown below, contemplating eating some weeds, is the queen of the house. Everything is for her, at least in her opinion. This leads to her planning elaborate crimes, such as finding a way to get stuck in drawers or sitting on the table after we leave. But we love her, nonetheless.
We’ve been seeing ads all over YouTube and Instagram advertising various cat products (of dubious durability), but one we were quite intrigued by was the world of automated robot litterboxes. They’ve been around forever with various scooping mechanisms over a normal litterbox, but the consensus had been that they don’t help all that much. There is a new batch, though, that functions as entire new enclosures that scoop and dispose of waste in sealed containers. The best brand we found is the Litter Robot 4 by Whisker. We ordered it right after Christmas (probably a bad call as they were back ordered), and it finally arrived this week!
The Litter Robot 4 is a drum with a covered box underneath for waste. When the cat has left the litterbox, it rotates and lets all litter fall into a compartment, and then continues rotating and pushes waste into the bin, then rotates back to reuse the still-clean litter. The setup was straightforward, with an app that guides you through connecting it to Wi-Fi.
About 2 minutes after placing it in the laundry room next to Janet’s old litter box, she came in to investigate. She immediately hopped in and started using it. (This is apparently very rare and speaks to the criminal brilliance of Janet.) She spent the entirety of Monday night hopping in and out, which was amusing as the app will alert you when it detects a cat, but we’re delighted she loves her present and not just the box it came in.