I have always been the Kalick family veterinary consultant, regardless of where my family lives. My family who lives in Ohio will always consult with me via the phone when there is a problem, and typically I will tell them they need to see their local veterinarian. Their veterinarian and I have become friends and she sends me all the records, digital x-rays, and bloodwork as soon as she gets them, it saves her a phone call from my aunt asking to send them to me.
One interesting thing that has changed since the pandemic is that my aunt and uncle have become very adept with Facetime and Zoom.
Today’s issue is with Titus, their cat. Titus is a geriatric tabby cat that my aunt thought was depressed because her kids moved out of the house. I would never contradict my aunt, but I think Titus is happy the kids moved out. Titus took back control of the big house, and because the kids took the dog with them, Titus gets to sit in the large bay window watching the world pass by.
However, today my aunt was concerned that Titus had a urinary tract infection because he was urinating in a closet on my uncle’s shoes.
My aunt sat in the room during the Facetime call, switching my view so I could watch Titus sleeping in the window. She wanted me to see the closet that Titus was using as his new litterbox, so she swung the camera around the room so I could see the hall closet. She told me he never used that closet before and now he never wants to leave the room.
Then she walked down the hall with her iPhone because she wanted to show me Titus’s litter box. My aunt, God bless her, talked the entire way from the front room to the bathroom, bouncing her phone the whole time. She got into the bathroom and showed me Titus’ litterbox crammed between the bathroom vanity and the toilet. It looked like it hadn’t ever been used. It. left no room for the cat to move in the box if he ever wanted to use it.
The craziest part of the story was that the bathroom door was closed like Titus could open it with his paws if he needed to.
When I mentioned that the bathroom door was closed and no one was using it, my aunt started to talk about changing the brands of kitty litter or playing music in the house. I even mentioned that if someone is using the bathroom or taking a shower, the door will never be open.
She said that she never thought of that.
Titus’ litterbox was always in the room where he slept, easily accessible, and near his food. I told my aunt that the rule of thumb is that you should have one extra box in the house.
This means: one cat equals two boxes and one of the boxes should be in the front room where he sleeps and spends most of his day.
After she thanked me and was about to hang up, I heard my uncle in the background yelling to my aunt, “What does he think of the new kitten?”
New kitten? My aunt winked at the phone and said it was a topic for another day.
By Dr. Glenn Kalick