These cats know how to use the can

LOMBARD, Ill. (AP) — Liz Lerch loves cats, but not having to clean their mess out of a litter box, or spending hundreds of dollars on litter over the life of a cat.
So when she got two 4-month-old kittens from a shelter, she vowed to train them to use the toilet in her Lombard home.
Following advice from the book, ”How to Toilet Train Your Cat,“ Lerch put cardboard over the toilet, then a plastic planter holder with a hole in the middle of the bottom, filled with litter. She gradually removed the litter and widened the hole, until there was no litter and the hole was as big as the bowl.
Each time cats Carl and Stewie used the potty, she gave them positive reinforcement — praise, petting, play or food.
There were mishaps of course, but those were blamed on an unfortunate bout of irritable bowel syndrome. After nine months of practice, the cats now use the toilet on their own and seem perfectly happy. And, yes, humans use that toilet too.
Some visitors, like a guy who worked on Lerch‘s garage door, are a little freaked out by her cats‘ routine, but most of her friends had a positive reaction.
”My friends all want to see it happen,“ she said. ”They think it's cool, and want to know why nobody toilet trained their cats.“
Toilet training cats is not new. Jazz musician Charles Mingus wrote publicly about training his cat decades ago. The practice got more recent boosts from a toilet-trained Jinx in the movie ”Meet the Parents“ and coverage at online sites like Craigslist or karawynn.net.
Cat owners can buy kits from outfits like CitiKitty.com, which sells toilet-training covers for cats. Some owners even train their cats to flush by putting a toy on the handle.
Lerch‘s cats get wet sometimes splashing the water with their paws, but they‘ve never fallen in.
Still, not everyone is jumping on the toilet-training bandwagon. Some people don‘t want to share a toilet with a cat or find their unflushed presents.