Eyes On The Litter Box

When I leave home for a stay elsewhere, I try to leave a note asking for assistance while I am gone.  These tasks would include getting the mail and newspaper and bringing them inside, running the dishwasher if visitors use dishes, water the poinsettia (yes, it's still alive), and other such mundane house maintenance jobs. One of the most important requests is to empty the litterbox.

In case you didn't know, I have two cats, Minnie and Maggie.  While they are inside/outside cats, they prefer to do their bizness inside (as we all do).  However, with two cats' biznesses, the litter box gets full fairly quickly.  Therefore, you understand my request for litter box maintenance while I am away.

Well, in the case of my most recent trip and the aftermath of Davidson travel, I walked into my house and knew immediately that there was a litter box issue.  Upon further inspection, I ascertained that either (a) the litter box had not been maintained, and/or (b) the Cats M had done an inordinate number of submissions in a relatively short period of time. To put it mildly, it was icky.  To put it maximally, it was not a sight I wished to behold as soon as I had walked in the door.  And to make it worse, apparently it offended one of the Ms, because whichever the offended feline was, she had pooped on the floor a few feet away from the litter box.

After I had calmed down and emptied the box of the yucky and retrieved the extra yucky from the floor, I started trying to find out who the offending non-cleaning-out-the-poop family member was (I left instructions for the three family members who were in town and who have children and who more than likely would be at my house to poop-scoop).

I first inquired of Grown Child M if she had scooped any during my absence.  She said that she hadn't because Grown Child S and DLaw L were at the house the day before and GCM asked if they would perform the task and apparently they affirmed their intentions to do so.   So when GCS and DLaw L were in residence, I asked the same poop scoop question of them.  And here's what I found out:

GCS asked DLaw L if she had taken care/scooped out the litter box (I'm not sure of the exact words, but I believe these words represent his question).  To which DLaw L said that she had looked at it.  To which GCS surmised that her words meant that not only had she scooped the poop, but probably also cleaned out the entire litter box, sanitized it, and reloaded it with fresh litter.  However, that is not what she meant.  She meant she had looked at it.  Period.

So, the moral of this story is not to use your words, but to think about the ones you hear.  Because you never know when the poop might hit the fan!

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Today was a great day because:  Taking E to school; getting a few things accomplished