ppp;

Since I've returned to Wisconsin and have had ample opportunity to hang out with family, I've been highly involved in the toilet training process of my now three-year-old niece. It really does take a village. We encouraged, we enticed, we begged, we bribed, we cheered, we even performed the occasional happy dance. And after a lot of (literal) hand holding and sprinting to the bathroom upon hearing the phrase, "I go pee now!" I think we may have actually gotten to the point of (dare I even say it?) success.

Funny, then, upon visiting a friend, I have found myself in the throes of potty training again. However, this time, our trainee is a six-week-old kitten. Separated from his mother too early, he wasn't able to learn from her how to use a litter box. Now my friend is trying to figure out how in the world to teach this little puffball to tinkle in the litter pan and not on her bedroom carpet. We spent last night, repeatedly putting him in his litter box and hoping something would click.

"He hasn't gone all day," my friend said, gently grabbing him as he scampered out of the box and placing him back in.

But there's only so many times you can put a highly energized kitten into a litter box only to watch him pop out as if on a miniature spring. Despite our best, "PEE IN THE BOX!" mental messages, the little guy was way more interested in playing than taking the time to pee. Hmm, sounded like a certain three-year-old I know.

A short while later as I was washing my face in the bathroom, I heard my friend shriek, "Not the curtains!"

Her beautiful, billowy drapes which just grace the floor now had a pee soaked oval on them. She sunk to the floor with her new best friend, Resolve, and went to work for the umpteenth time.

Both cat people, we discussed other possible training methods and finally developed a new plan which entails keeping him in the bathroom all day (for some reason, cats tend not to soil tile or linoleum, saving their pee and puke for your oriental rug instead) with a very shallow litter pan. Limited space can only mean a higher likelihood of success, right?

However, if any of you cat people have great ideas for a gal and her incontinent fuzzball, we'd welcome the advice. Okay, it's time for me to put him in the box again. If I can help teach a strong-willed three-year-old, I can certainly do my part with a half pound fuzzball...right?

Oh, and by the way, that title? Yeah, his doing. Apparently we all have P on the brain.