Can we take a moment from cat stories to complain about cat litter? I have tried two new litter types in the past few weeks, not because I was really unhappy with my current litter, but I was lured in by promises of better clumping and less tracking for one of the new ones, and less weight for the other one.
Now I have scrutinized the outside of each box. Nowhere does it state that the litter is perfumed. Yet for both, the minute I poured out some, a noxious heavy perfume rose from the stream of litter. Seriously? Litterbox complaints are the number one reason for owner surrenders of cats to shelters. In other words, litterbox problems are the main reason people give up their cats to almost certain death.
Cats have very sensitive noses. A litter which may smell lightly perfumed to you is overwhelming to them. Would you want to go in a bathroom where someone had just spilled a highly scented cologne everywhere? A perfumed litter is just asking for litter box troubles with your cat.
So why are two major brands in litter both using boxes that do not, anywhere, state if they are perfumed or not? I'd rather non-perfumed be the default (it would say "scented" on the box somewhere) but I'd settle for simply being able to find out before I bought it. Are litter companies trying to reduce the number of cats in American households? What is possibly the marketing sense behind this effort?
GRRRR.
At least one of the two is not as heavily scented as the other one, and mainly gives off its scent when disturbed, so if mixed with a non-scented litter, I can use it. I'm going to have to take the other one back; it's intolerable. And I know that I'm sensitive to perfumes, but really, you can't imagine that I'm as sensitive as a cat. So if I find it intolerable, I wonder how bad Max thinks it is.
Okay, litter rant over.
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