Wednesday, October 21, 2020

There’s a new Canadian TV show that got picked up by NBC.  It’s called “Transplant” and is being filmed in Montreal, pretending to be Toronto.  I watched it last night and found it good.  The ER doc and nurse consulting the actors are from my local ER, at the McGill University Health Center.  My friends, Linda and Bev, know them.

Friday, October 23, 2020

It’s working!  Keep your fingers crossed.  All Robbie’s output is hitting its target.  The hole is being enlarged, just a smidge, every day.  Home décor now complete.  Photo shoot done, will publish that here, soon. 

Crystal just canceled its world cruise for Jan-March but I hope to hop on to it, when/if it sails in April and do Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Singapore, Dubai, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, France and England, not necessarily in that order.  It’s disappointing but doubtless safer.  I also have a great fall cruise lined up .  It will be NYC-NYC on the Queen Mary.  See some plays, visit Montreal at the end…possibilities there.  I am so looking forward to Montreal in January to March.  It wasn’t that bad last year, my place is beautiful and it’s three more months of Robbie’s kittenhood, which is pretty exciting.  This armoire is six feet tall: 

Toilet training is going well this week.  Robbie is faithful to the toilet .  Sometimes I have to take the contraption out to see if he has turned the water yellow, as he’s aiming ihis Number One infallibly at the hole.   The lumps still have to be pushed, sometimes by him, sometimes me. 

Friday, October 30, 2020

Robbie and I went to the country for a mini vacation in the country.  I brought both the contraption, and a little litter box.  He’s using the box just fine.  Rats.  Hope this isn’t a setback and that all will be still on track at home. 

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Well, with just one mistake, where he left a few turds on the bedroom carpet, Robbie has been faithful to the porcelain god.  I get up every morning, lift up the seat and roasting pan, and the water below is dark yellow.  I have to do that, because you can’t tell from on top.  He’s aiming for the hole.  What a champion.  He even eases most of the lumps through the hole.  I enlarge it a bit every day, but just a bit.  I don’t care how long it takes.  It’s already easier than a litter box. 

Just sold three cabins on my NYC-NYC run on Cunard. October 1 – 14 NYC to NYC on the Queen Mary II  https://www.cunard.com/en-us/find-a-cruise/M133A/M133A   The cruise is selling out.  My clients wanted Princess Grill and had to take sheltered balconies with positions on the wait list for better cabins.  We’ll be seeing Broadway shows on one end and I’ll be doing a very special Montreal tour on the other.  Anybody else want on?

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Not a happy morning, or last night either.  My pet project is going  as badly as the US election, which isn’t over yet.  Both yesterday afternoon and this morning Robbie shat in the sink.  I made a great show of moving the lumps to the hole in the roasting pan and flushing them down the toilet.  No treats.  After today’s load, I also added Feliway to the sink to make it smell more like the nest than the latrine.  Mind you, I prefer the sink to the carpet, so it’s a tough call.  Lots of similarities to the US election here, as to timing and content. 

Saturday, November 7, 2020

Still dealing with output in sink and on bathroom floor.  I put some more glue and kitty litter in the turkey roasting pan, cleaned the sink with vinegar and dribbled Feliway into it.  We persevere.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

And we pick up poop on the bathroom floor and run water in the sink.  But some of it gets where it should go.  I am encouraged by the fact that he has just learned how to get kibble out of the treat ball, and it was on the floor a month before the toilet training started.  Eventually, my demos got through.  Hoping for the same, picking up poop. 

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Not everyone would consider this great progress, but I do.  For a week now, all of Robbie’s pee is in the toilet, most of it without even touching the litter.  He just aims at the hole.  Yesterday, I enlarged it a tad.  Today I watched him do it with his front paws on the toilet seat.  This is a victory.  Now if he would only poo in the toilet instead of beside it. 

Apart from the esthetics, it’s easier to clean the poop up from the floor between the toilet and the shower stall, than it is to get it out of a litter box.  There’s no mess outside the box from furious scraping in a, usually failed, attempt to cover it up.  I just get the scoop under it, toss it in the bowl and flush.  Today I got the bright idea to leave a couple of small turds on the litter pan inside the bowl, as a hint.