Do we really need litter box training? Well, perhaps we do. Our mothers can teach us and we can learn by watching them bury their wastes in a litter box. It wasn’t hard for me to learn or even to do after I hadn’t had one in years. My girl just picked me up and set me inside the box of litter. I didn’t have to go at the time, but I understood what it was and what she wanted me to do with it.

When Spot came along, I had to teach them how to use a litter box. I know he watched me and imitated everything I did. That’s fine. He just had to learn how to bury his wastes and he did. I was a good example for him.

We bury our wastes to be clean of course. That was quite obvious to many humans. But we do it for other reasons too. One is to hide from predators. In the wild, we may not want attention to hide ourselves or to hide kittens. Another reason is to show we are submissive to the dominant cat. In the case of a home, the dominant cat may be the human looking after us.

If we don’t bury our wastes, it may be because we are marking our turf and we consider ourselves dominant. Or we may be sick. Sick cats with digestive issues may not bury their waste. It’s a way for us to tell you we are sick and we want help. Showing you our wastes is a way for you to see that something isn’t right.

We may also refuse to use the litter box because we are angry. Poop gets noticed and hopefully, our humans understand why are are angry.

Once we cats went to live with humans and the humans gave us plenty of food to eat, we no longer had to hunt to survive. Unfortunately that can cause some problems. It’s good when we kill mice as we can save humans from any diseases the mice may have. It’s not good when we kill local wildlife such as birds, especially if we don’t eat them.

This is also why it is illegal in many places to let us roam freely. However, there are options if we go out so we don’t cause problems. One is to give us an enclosed area known as a catio. These are wonderful and safe places for us to go outside. Another options is to leash us and take us out for walks. Play with us and let us catch the toys every so often. That way we can have the thrill of catching prey.

Perhaps we don’t need hunting instincts as housecats, but there are ways of dealing with them safely. We can be happy and pretend without the dangers of roaming freely outside.

It is amazing how far we can travel especially when we know where our home is. When our humans move us, we may still try to get back to home because we haven’t learned the new place is our home. Some cats are reputed to travel long distances to return home.

However, there is a way to keep us cats from getting lost and roaming off. When you move with us, you must keep us indoors for at least a week so we can learn our new home. A treat, such as tuna, is a good way to help us get over the trauma of moving. Some humans have rubbed butter onto our paws to help us remember our new home.

I would highly recommend some sort of treat and keeping us inside. Otherwise, we won’t agree with you as to where home is.