When Dr Harry Cooper arrived at Juliet and Charlie’s new home, he walked into a house bursting at the seams with pets. There are dogs, fish, a bearded dragon named Brian, and one very regal British longhair cat going by the name of Lord Harold’s Buttercream III.
It was Juliet who held out the longest on getting a cat, worried it would tip their already busy household into total chaos.
But one look at Lord Harold Buttercream III, and that was it. “I just fell in love with him,” Juliet tells Dr Harry. “He’s the best little cat.”
Why cats avoid their litter box
The star moment of Dr Harry’s visit belonged to Lord Harold’s bathroom behaviour.
Charlie shared one recent Saturday morning, when he came downstairs to find the cat had suffered a severe bout of diarrhoea. Two hours of cleaning later, Charlie made a drastic call to shave the cat’s tail. “I’d had enough,” he said.
But Dr Harry had bigger concerns. Lord Harold had also taken to using the dogs’ bed as a litter tray. Not once, but twice.
Dr Harry explained that when a cat toilets outside its tray, stress or dissatisfaction with the litter are usually the culprits. His verdict? The existing crystal litter was too sharp on Lord Harold’s paws.
Dr Harry’s Fix
The prescription was simple. Swap the crystals for recycled paper litter, gradually transitioning by sprinkling a few of the old crystals on top to ease Lord Harold into the change.
Problem solved, hopefully.
