Eureka! Lionel Did It!

After a week of frustration for both of us, Lionel finally gave in today and peed in the plastic litter! He was so upset about it though. He came out shaking his paws and yammering about the stupidity of thinking that those things were OK to use in a cat box. He was so upset that he got pee on his paws! And then he looked at me with disgust when I immediately opened the door to his regular box, like "well, it's about time - what were you thinking?!" So I took his sample to the vet then went next door to Animal Crackers and bought him some Kitty Kaviar (champagne wasn't an option) to celebrate. The vet called me back about an hour ago and said he doesn't have an infection and his urine was denser than she would have expected with an advanced chronic kidney disorder. All good. She was reticent about proclaiming him healthy however and wants me to bring him back in a couple of months for another blood test for creatinine. In the meantime, I'll get the diet she suggests (she sells a brand called Waltham's and Lionel ate all the samples they had under their Christmas tree just fine) and keep him as stress-free as possible. He's one exhausted little kitty tonight though. He had a very stressful day, having to go and not knowing where. He did, in fact, go in the toilet yesterday because that was another place he kept going to today, but I had put the lid down. That was interesting, finding out that he's trained to the toilet. Oh, the trials and tribulations of getting to know each other's habits. Do you know about Kitty Kaviar? I didn't but it was recommended to me. And it turns out to be much larger flakes of fish food (or as far as I can tell, sure seemed like fish food), and we all know how much kitties like fish food.