I left my cat alone in the house for a few days with my housekeeper popping in to feed and entertain him. He had a little over 2 day spell on his own at the end when my housekeeper couldn't come in. When I arrived home I discovered that our housekeeper had accidentally closed off the door accessing his litter box. I searched the house looking for the mess but couldn't find anything.. until I went to the bathroom and found that he had taken upon himself to use the toilet. He's definitely gone up in my esteem since.<p>All to say that some cats don't need any kind of training to use the toilet.
For folks who are like "who is that guy again?".... Mingus was one of the most important jazz bass players in 20th century and a key figure in both bebop and free jazz. And quite a character. This is but one of his legendary achievements!
There are even special litter boxes sold that are intended to go on the toilet seat for this type of training. But as cool as this is, I believe it can be dangerous, especially for owners of male cats.<p>Cats' urinary habits are important to keep an eye on. A change in urination volume or frequency can be the sign of a critical issue that requires veterinary attention. You just can't easily track urine volume if the cat is going to the toilet, even if they don't flush.<p>With a litterbox, you can get an idea of what their normal clump size is and notice if that changes. Regarding frequency, maybe you can hear your cat jump on the toilet, but I'm not sure it's as reliable as hearing them repeatedly scratching the litterbox. If you are out during the day and come home, with a litterbox you still notice the pee clumps to get an idea of how much they've peed - unlike with a toilet.<p>One aspect where the toilet may actually be better is that you _might_ be able to spot blood easier in the water.<p>I also wanted to train my first cat to use the toilet, until he suffered from a urinary blockage as a kitten. If he'd been using the toilet, I likely wouldn't have noticed that anything was wrong until it was far too late. Blockage is more likely in male cats, and it is _not_ an uncommon problem. It is already far too easy to not notice if a cat is blocked if you're not careful, and it doesn't take long at all to become life threatening. I believe a toilet would only exacerbate this risk.<p>If I see blood in the litter, no clumps, or clumps that are smaller than usual (or heck, even much bigger than usual), I know to pay extra attention to my cat and either book a vet appointment or go to the emergency room. It's allowed me to catch bouts of infection, crystals, and idiopathic cystitis early (all of which he is now more prone to after his initial urinary problems). A cat's kidneys and urinary system can also be impacted by stress levels, with unexplained straining and bladder inflammation thought to be in some cases caused by stress. Having them pee in a toilet in my opinion decreases visibility of a very important and sensitive health factor.
Given that the strip is now (ouch) almost 19 years old, it occurs to me that some folks may not have seen Nightlife Mingus' appearance in the web comic Achewood:<p><a href="http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003" rel="nofollow">http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003</a>
I've always been intrigued but the risk/reward seems too high. I don't want to mess with the bathroom habits of my cat who has never previously relieved himself outside his box. I scared to try to fix what isn't broken at this time.
Our neighbor when I was growing up had a cat that would use the toilet and flush. I was amazed as a kid.<p>Not sure I want to share the bathroom with our cats.<p>We just got a litter robot last week it's pretty amazing. We set it up in a hall closet to get the two litter boxes out of the laundry room. It should pay for itself in 3-4 months by using less litter than our two traditional litter boxes (yesterdays news litter).
I love Mingus.<p>The Watts Towers complex has a museum to Mingus attached, as well as another museum of local artists attached. I'd highly recommend a visit. It's a beautiful neighborhood full of very nice people.
I've seen this tutorial almost word for word before, and I even know a few people who have trained their cats using this method. It wasn't until today that I realized that this was method was created by one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world (and IMO the best bass player that ever lived).
Linus from LinusTechTips did a series of videos on how he trained his cats to do this: <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNYRHLggAj39fRHaUYE42D2vtxuhBkiM" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNYRHLggAj39fRHaUYE42D2v...</a>
There are commercially available kits to do this that are concentric rings that work very well. The kit coupled with flushable litter makes it very easy to toilet train a cat.<p>However, I can confirm you will get into a bathroom stare down with your cat every once in a while.
Lol! Wholesome tutorial!<p>Reminded me of how we tend to forget that even the most outstanding people are just as ordinary as we are. When at home, legendary jazz musician Charles Mingus is just an ordinary guy, training his cat to use the toilet.
I have a friend who never trained their cats for that, yet the two cats seem to prefer the toilet. The cats even have two spacious litter boxes away from food and noise. Every time I go to his house my friend reminds me to put the lid down after using so the cats don't use it.
Funny story: I knew someone who trained their cat to do this. It was all going well, the cat had been using the toilet successfully for a number of weeks. That is, until the cat fell in the toilet one time. From then on it refused to use the toilet, but had become accustomed to going in the bathroom... So the cat started popping in the bath. And no matter what he tried he couldn't stop the cat from doing this. At least the story is funny from the outside perspective. Perhaps less so if it was your bath and your cat haha.<p>On a more serious note, I believe it is not advised to put cat poop down the toilet, since our sewage treatment systems are not capable of dealing with toxoplasmosis from cat faeces
Does toilet training your cat introduce a significant health hazard through toxoplasma gondii into the surrounding environment? It's so hard to tell if your local wastewater plant takes care of this...
Cool cat.<p>I love how Mingus is so in tune with how his cat (Nightlife) thinks, sensing how to encourage him, how to avoid freaking him out, how to lead him along.<p>Some of Mingus's best known works (Mingus Ah Um, Black Saint and The Sinner Lady, etc.) are organized group improvisations, with multiple wind instruments playing improvised lines at once. It's different from big bands like Ellington's where you have featured soloists and everybody else playing charts (even if the rhythm section does some improvising), and it's difficult to achieve balance of the various elements under such circumstances. I get a sense from this article how Mingus manages to get inside the heads of his collaborators, to keep their trust, and lead them towards a shared vision.
Our cat spontaneously unlocked this achievement at about 5 years of age... We heard a little noise in the bathroom for a couple weeks and could not figure it out until we actually caught her in the act. Hilarious, and quite convenient!
I considered training our cat to do this, but there's a bunch of advice out there saying that it may be harmful to your cat, and may be difficult as the cat gets older. So please consult with your vet before going this route.
Then a cat does "business" in whatever that triggers similar response as toilet e.g. your shoes, pots etc. It's also not fun cleaning the cat that fallen into toilet bowl (and all the splashings around).
That's cat's balance is the key here. I tried this with a hairless cat - whom also have very little in the way of whiskers - and the poor thing just didn't have the balance to handle the final steps.
The tone and approach here is exactly what I'd expect from a man whose chief complaint as a band leader is that jazz musicians interpret his music too much and classical musicians follow it too literally.
I'm so happy my cat goes outside to do her business.<p>My last cat used a litter box and when she got old and demented, she would sometimes sleep in the box, so I had to clean her regularly.
If you have a cat which uses the litter box without any problems, count your blessings and call it a day. Having a cat use the toilet is counter to their instincts to bury their business from other animals. If they fall in, they’ll be traumatized and start doing their business in other unpleasant places.<p>I’ve used the litter robot, and honestly I think a plain old litter box is easier to keep clean, and in general better for all parties.
While we're talking about Mingus, don't sleep on his mind-blowing eggnog recipe. I try to make it every year... a beautifully alcoholic act of improvisation: <a href="https://www.charlesmingus.com/blog/news/minguss-5-star-rapturous-deadly-holiday-eggnog-3-jl95e" rel="nofollow">https://www.charlesmingus.com/blog/news/minguss-5-star-raptu...</a>
I know this article is about his cat-training program, but I can't resist the opportunity...<p>Even if you are not a jazz fan, listen to his record Mingus Ah Um. It is mind-blowingly brilliant. There is just nothing quite like it!
The cat that pamphlet is about, Nightlife Mingus: <a href="http://achewood.com/?date=06202003" rel="nofollow">http://achewood.com/?date=06202003</a>