The Internet of Cat Boxes
Last year, I bought an automatic litter box. It's very high-tech. It senses when a cat climbs in, weighs the cat, waits until the cat leaves, and then cycles itself. The "box" is actually shaped more like a dryer drum with clumping litter in the bottom. It cycles by turning the drum, which runs the litter through a strainer that clears out the clumps and drops them into a waste bin below.
It's a wonderful invention. Before I owned this device, I used a traditional cat box with clay litter. I don't like sieving out daily clumps and would rather empty the whole box every few days. Either way is messy and gross. But the automatic box can go an entire week without needing to be emptied, and the clumps are whisked away into an air-tight drawer lined with a plastic bag. When it gets full, I just pull the drawer open, lift the bag out, and drop it in the trash. No touching of cat clumps involved!
The box keeps track of all kinds of data--how much each cat weighs, how often each visits the box, how often it cycles, how often it fills up. And it sends this data to an app on my phone. I still get disconcerted when the litter box sends me a text. (I could shut them off, but then I tend to forget to empty the drawer and the box stops working.)
It does have a flaw, though.
Last night, I emptied the drawer and ran the bag out to the trash, which was already at the curb for pickup. Something distracted me, though, and I completely forgot to replace the bag and put the drawer back in. This morning---aaaaaagggghhh! Cat clumps all over the drawer space and on the floor.
I went through two pairs of rubber gloves and I don't how many paper towels sprayed with cleaner getting it all cleaned up. Then there was the sweeping and the mopping. And the ew, ew, ew!
This was totally on me, but you'd think a device that can tell our two cats apart would have a sensor that says, "Drawer's open! Hold off on cycling!" Maybe I'll write customer service.
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It's a wonderful invention. Before I owned this device, I used a traditional cat box with clay litter. I don't like sieving out daily clumps and would rather empty the whole box every few days. Either way is messy and gross. But the automatic box can go an entire week without needing to be emptied, and the clumps are whisked away into an air-tight drawer lined with a plastic bag. When it gets full, I just pull the drawer open, lift the bag out, and drop it in the trash. No touching of cat clumps involved!
The box keeps track of all kinds of data--how much each cat weighs, how often each visits the box, how often it cycles, how often it fills up. And it sends this data to an app on my phone. I still get disconcerted when the litter box sends me a text. (I could shut them off, but then I tend to forget to empty the drawer and the box stops working.)
It does have a flaw, though.
Last night, I emptied the drawer and ran the bag out to the trash, which was already at the curb for pickup. Something distracted me, though, and I completely forgot to replace the bag and put the drawer back in. This morning---aaaaaagggghhh! Cat clumps all over the drawer space and on the floor.
I went through two pairs of rubber gloves and I don't how many paper towels sprayed with cleaner getting it all cleaned up. Then there was the sweeping and the mopping. And the ew, ew, ew!
This was totally on me, but you'd think a device that can tell our two cats apart would have a sensor that says, "Drawer's open! Hold off on cycling!" Maybe I'll write customer service.
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