Skip to main content

Levels of Pathetic

I realize that I have just stooped to a new level of pathetic. But I'm really liking it down here--it makes me happy. I've always been a sucker for "gadgets", unusual finds, and I watch with drooling tongue anything new that comes on an infomercial, especially if it has to do with fitness, beauty or make-your-life easier.

When we got our cat 2 summers ago, I toyed with an idea I found on the internet--toilet training your cat. The process was long, involved and not guaranteed to work, and since our cat took right to the litter box, I decided not to bother. And THEN, while getting turtle food at Pet Depot, this little jewel practically jumped off the shelf into my hands. It is the Kitty Whiz, a little device for the bargain price of $12.95 that will practically perform the toilet training for you. You basically fit the plastic shield over the toilet, pour kitty litter into the closed-in bottom and the cat will magically want to use the toilet just like his humans. Hmmmmm. They suggest that you actually get rid of the real litter box and lock the cat in the bathroom with the Kitty Whiz until it has to go so badly that its legs are crossed, but our cat has never had any accidents and I'm afraid it will traumatize her into taking to the carpets.

Tonight I tore into the directions, got everything all set up and called to Bobcat to come see what I bought her. She acted very interested in sniffing the new contraption, but I am pretty sure it was the scent of the catnip they included to make the whizzer more enticing. She about clawed my arms off trying to escape from me when I set her atop the toilet seat. After all, she is one that does not appreciate others giving her direction and besides, the water wasn't swirling, so she had no interest in cooperating. I'm hoping the whizzer will give us lots of success as potty training my kids was not an easy accomplishment of my early parenthood.

The bad part of all this is that I am never going to live it down. My friend Paij tells everyone to ask me before they buy a newly advertised item because I will have tried it and its alternative, and I can tell you where to get it and for what best price. I guess I'm going to have to rename her "busts-my-chops-for-having-tried-every-product-under-the-sun" Paij.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well, it uh, looks interesting.

Let us know how it goes, and if that works...maybe you can start on the dog!
Anonymous said…
I've heard some really great results from using that method. I think it is definitely worth a shot. Please do let us know how it goes.
Anonymous said…
oops, that was me...

- Debbie Stewart
Anonymous said…
Yes Jen, you are one who always has to try the newest thing. In fact, we learned about people like you in my Marketing classes in college. Some people wait until a product is tried and tested but others, like yourself, must be the first to get it off the shelf. I, on the other hand am somewhat of a skeptic so I have to wait until I'm finally convinced I need it only to find it is being made any more! :) abb

Popular posts from this blog

Stickin' It Out

I got married today. Well, not exactly today. It was Friday, June 2. But the year was 1989 - 17 years ago. "Amazing", people say. "Good for you", they comment. "You must have picked the right one", the add. Amazing? Yes. Good for me? I'll admit it. But it has nothing to do with picking the right one, really. It's not because I found the perfect boy, and it's certainly not because he found the perfect girl. It might sound a little unromantic, but there never really is a 'right one' floating around out there waiting in the cosmos for the other 'right one' to crash and connect. There may be 'better ones'; there may be 'more easily compatible' or something or other. But the real story is you start becoming the right one the moment you vow that "you do". When I married, I had been 20 for a whole 33 days, we had just completed a 2-year long-distance realtionship and HE was five years older tha...

Gourmet Tastebuds Looking for Chef

Brainy Boy is every good cook's dream. He will eat anything as long as it smells like food and he can't identify it. Routinely when I set dinner before him, he comments something like 'Mom, I just really prefer gourmet restaurant-type food." And he's not kidding. No PJB for him, no Chef Boyardee, no Easy Mac. He's all about shrimp scampi, homemade gnocchi (not frozen) and is dying to know what caviar tastes like. The problem is that I'm a functional meat & potatoes kind of cook. I'd love to be a throw-ingredients-together-to-make-an-awesome-dish girl, but I'm just not. I don't really know how to cook without burying my head in a cookbook, and I don't enjoy the whole process of putting it together either--kind of the same way I am with gardening. I came up with the clever idea of letting Brainy Boy choose a meal a week that I would try, his choice. I pulled out my handy Kraft magazine that comes in the mail four times a year, a...

Daddy's Girl

I witnessed an amazing thing last night. Little Chic was invited to sing at our annual church family camp which is about a 45-minute drive from our church. That's a big undertaking for an 8-1/2 year old girl, but being the aspiring American Idol that she is, it is also right down her alley. She has looked forward to it for weeks now, and she drove us all nuts rehearsing her rendition of Amazing Grace with the performance track about a gazillion times since Sunday. As yesterday approached, her nerves set in a bit, but excitement was still the dominant emotion that exuded from her. For some reason, Little Chic had her heart set on Hero Guy making the show even though we'd all seen it performed at church and a school Talent Show already. Because of logistics of getting us all to the destination on time, I took Brainy Boy and Little Chic myself and Hero Guy drove directly from work. To complicate matters, Hero Guy needed to leave directly after the 3- minute performance t...