Advice for Bodo

A friend of mine was adopted by a 16 year old cat. The cat was living near his house but her humans divorced. In that chaos, the act began to join Eckhard's family and was accepted as a guest. When her original humans moved away they wanted to give the cat, a female named Bodo (:rolleyes: ) to another friend in the city. When Bodo was at that place she didn't eat for days so they brought her back to the house.

But: her first family was gone, Eckhard and his family were in holidays -for 3 weeks there was only a neighbor to feed her. Now Eckhard is back and Bodo will be an official family member but now there is one problem.

Bodo up to now does not use the litterbox in Eckhard's house. She only goes outside. Now winter is coming, she will have to live mainly inside (as there will be frozen earth and snow) and they want to train her.

I recommended they keep Bodo with the litterbox in one room for a week or so (on the basis what many of you have said here) but I have no own experiences with training a senior cat and wanted to hear what you say.

However you may have noticed the good news: a sixteen year old kitty found a new place close to home with a new family:D

Barbara, when cats pee'n'poop outside they mainly use loose soil, sand and barksnippets (Rindenmulch)...so maybe they should try this as a litter substitute for available cat litter...as soon as Bodo Girl accepts the box with this familiar kind of litter her new family can gradually exchange this familiar litter with the pet shop cat litter...

During summer Nellie hardly never ever uses her litterbox, but as soon as it's getting uncomfortable outside she uses her box and I am sure Bodo as a clever girl will learn the comfort of a litterbox during wintertime pretty soon...

Hope this helps...;)

Barbara- as gross as it sounds, I might try to find some of Bodo's poop, and put it in the box, and then, move it into the one room? I have an idea that Bodo will take to the litterbox. I am so glad that Bodo has a new forever home. I don't think much of the family that left her, divorce or not.

Omg, I can't believe that someone who has an animal for 16 years would just up and leave it.
Bless your friend Barbara for taking care of Bodo.
I also would recommend keeping Bodo in one room with a litterbox, preferably more than one if at all possible, filled with what Bisi.cat suggested.

Good luck to your friend and to precious Bodo.

I don't have any advice but I'm so glad to hear that Bodo has found a new loving home. :) I'm sure she'll be able to learn how to use the litterbox in no time at all. Please keep us updated.

Great that your friend is taking care of Bodo and gives her a new home!

I think keeping her in a room with a litterbox (maybe with some soil in it first) will help her to adjust to it...

Good luck!

Kirsten