Curiosity Killed the…

Completely delighted by the look of a nice looking litter box, I was sure I had found gold when I stumbled across Cats Rule. Great look, great name, I was sure the products would be great too.

How could they not? Look at them!

Simply gorgeous. I decided on a covered box for 3 reasons. (1) The box was going to go in our dining room (not formal, rarely sees food), (2) I really loved the cat face-shaped opening, and (3) I loved the color ’steel.’

As gung ho as I was, I was also hesitant. I read some horrible reviews on Target.com. Horrible! But, they were cute so I bought one anyway.

Since it was downstairs it was to be used by slinky Annie, short Penny, and giant Maine Coon-mix Oliver. The statement on Cats Rule read that the covered boxes easily support cats up to 26 pounds so I didn’t think Oliver would have any trouble at all.

This box was nothing but trouble. It came with a free filter disc to be placed in the disc holder at the back of the box plus a liner. I am not a fan of liners. Liners are plastic which is easily torn up by scratching kitties.

This liner had little adhesive strips so it wouldn’t move around in the box. Brilliant, I thought. In actuality since the liners didn’t wrap around the body of the box, litter kept getting kicked underneath it and un-sticking itself from the box. So little Penny, a ferocious digger, kept getting her sharp claws stuck on a bunched up liner.

But no big deal, liners can be removed. The trouble continues on though.

Oliver is a very large cat. He’s 12 pounds of muscle and fur. Not particularly gigantic, but he can hold his own. He didn’t fit in the box. His head and front legs would stick out when he went to the bathroom. He then had to walk all the way and back in, head first, to cover. That is too much work to do something simple like pee.

But that’s not the worst of it. The filter for the box is at the back, not the top like with traditional covered boxes. Oliver is a tall cat with long legs. He is also a boy. Sometimes he pees straight backwards. So not only would his pee hit the filter rendering the filter completely useless, but his pee would dribble out the back of the box onto the Cats Rule mat, which was porous. The mat, of course, was on carpet.

I was so very disappointed. And angry. But it was pricey and I didn’t want to just get rid it so I cleaned it out, added fresh litter, and put it in our walk-in closet for little Stella to use. Charlie’s Box works just fine for a small 6 pound cat.

I can’t possibly be the only person who’s suffered this aggravation. I should really do something about it.