Works for Me Wednesday #1....The Feline Outhouse

Living in the desert, we have to be concerned about coyotes eating our three cats, so they live indoors. I do let them in the backyard when I can watch them, but that is all. Anyway, when we lived in our apartment, the pantry always smelled of litter, no matter how much I cleaned. My brother, Mark, had a very ingenious cat box in a house he once bought and my brother in-law put one in his house because he had indoor cats and hated the smell too. So, when we bought our home, my brother in-law installed the litter box for us, as a house warming gift. It keeps all the smell in the garage and we don't have to worry about them hiding under our cars or getting out when the door opens.

We have one cat door in our laundry room that leads into the hall closet. You can buy the kit at Wal-Mart. You just have to buy the right size. Cats are very particular and a lot of times won't go into holes that their whiskers brush against. Anyway, just be careful of the size you buy. Also be careful cutting through the wall. You don't want to hit any wires.

Then the second cat door, in the closet, leads into the cat box, which is in the garage. We would have preferred to have only one hole, but because of where the box had to be positioned, this was the only way we could do it. We noticed we were getting some air in around the holes so we sealed them with hot glue.

Here is the box in the garage. We used sheets of plywood and my brother in-law even made air holes. It's not attached to the walls in any way and can be slid away if need be. We keep the new litter bucket and the scooped stuff right next to it, lined with a plastic bag and I spray with Lysol after I scoop each day. Ignore the cat door you see in the door. That one was used by the previous owners of the house and we've covered it on the other side so the cats can't use it.

Here is the open (hinged) lid. You can see the cat door that leads into the hall closet. We put green outdoor carpeting on the bottom and up the back side because sometimes they weren't "accurate" and the urine was making the wood decompose. People are always surprised to find out we have three cats. When we give people a tour of our house, this is always a big hit, and makes a great conversation starter.

To whomever the people are that my brother bought his house from, they came up with a GREAT solution. We own you one! Thanks!