If You See a Blur...

...of white, it's just our flag. The white flag of surrender.

It's over, folks.

Potty Training 2017 came to a screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeching halt yesterday afternoon. 

Womp, womp, womp.

{And by the way, among the topics I never thought I'd be blogging about on our 50th monthiversary? Potty training...a cat...and its failure. Ryan, I love you, for better or worse, for litter or toilets. Until the cat causes the death of both of us.}

So TWO days ago, I happened by the Braeya bathroom mid-afternoon and saw her up on the toilet, turning circles in the ever-widening pan attached to the toilet. I wasn't sure if she was leaving or arriving, so I paused quietly to watch. That's when I saw it. THE most magnificent sight of the entire operation.

That cat was positioned perfectly over the hole and went right into it. I turned into one of "those moms" and grabbed the phone to take a picture, which I promptly texted to Ryan at work with a caption of "ALERT! ALERT! SHE POOPED IN THE POTTY!!!!"

Oh. My. Word.

Suddenly the sheer elation of moms of toddlers everywhere translated in feline form right into my being and I got it. This is why they get so excited! Apparently {per the story I heard later}, Ryan's boss gathered ALL the co-workers so they could see this phenomenon of Braeya successfully pooping in a toilet.

Back on the home front, I praised her and used all manner of high pitched squeals and head-rubs and offers of sink-drinks, which are her favorite. But she just curled up on the couch for a nap. All in a day's work for her, I guess.

Yesterday, right after lunch, I happened to catch her on the toilet again so I waited much like I had the day before, to see if I could see the amazing success all over again.

And that's when it happened.

As she circled around, her back left leg slipped off the rim and plopped down into the toilet, all the way up to her tail. She shot me a look of horror, hoisted herself out and jumped down.

And right then, I knew we were in big trouble.

MONTHS ago, she fell off the toilet lid in the master bathroom while jumping from the toilet up to the sink, after misjudging her distance, and she STILL will not get back up there. We coax her and urge her, but she refuses. I knew that falling in the toilet meant we'd never get her back on this one either.

Right about then, I got a text from Ryan asking if I could come see him at work, since he hadn't been able to come home at lunch. I went over for a bit and when I came back, just a half hour or so later, I saw it. She'd pooped in the hallway. On the carpet. I cleaned it up and checked to see if she'd also peed, and thankfully she had not. {Remember when we moved in and she did that and we had to replace all the carpet in the whole house? Yeah. Can't afford THAT again.} I cleaned the carpet thoroughly and let Ryan know that we had a big problem.

Braeya was on the couch in ten minutes, where she proceeded to sleep for the next six hours. Ryan got the litter pan back out and hid it in the bathtub just in case...and when she woke up, he took her in the bathroom to try to get her to try her newfound skill again. She immediately jumped down, sniffed around, and disappeared behind the bathroom curtain into her beloved litter box. She KNEW!

So we're done. No more really cool toilet trained cat. We're back to being the normal, run-of-the-mill cat family.

But she's a cute little run-of-the-mill cat, isn't she?