Everybody needs a place to poo....

    We have 4 peoples..... 3 cats .... and....drum roll please... 2 bunnies living in our house. Our little 1950's rambler. Did I mention our house is little? With all these animals comes lots of litter boxes. So we decided that we need to consolidate into 1 larger litter box. That would be one for the cats and one for the bunnies. Please note.. the bunnies are kept in a cage (most of the time that is). 

    

   Today was the day to clean up the bunnies cage. They have 2 litter boxes located in the corners of their little cage (that my husband and step-son also built.) I should mention my husband is handy with tools and also an architect.

    Well, I had this grand idea that the rubber membrane material he used for the bottom of the cage would be great for the little box.  As it hasn't deteriorated from their escapee urine. The plastic litter boxes we purchased from the pet store have started to deteriorate where the bulk of their urine ends up. See below how they are living currently... not usually this messy but it is at the end of the week right before clean out time... 

Yep.. A mess and they like to move their corner litter boxes around.. So my idea is the create one that is more "built-in". These bunnies are going to be so fancy with their new built-in pooper.. If they only knew how lucky they are! (Also, note how they like to get in between the litter boxes and not necessarily in them... naughty bunnies.. )

So... My husband Eric went to work. It started out with many trips to different Home Depot yesterday because the first one was out of some of the items he needed. (What's up with that!? Warehouse shopping... whatever..) Then yesterday he cut all the pieces he needs to create the little box. I am sorry to tell you I do not have photo's of all the little pieces.. I only thought to post this to the blog after this project started to get hairy.  ;)  Here is the completed little box though! Cute..

    Next it was onto the lining.. Which was where things started to get a little hairy. He is using the membrane underlayment for showers, etc... which is what he used on the floor of the bunny cage and seen to work well with their nails, etc. After thinking through a couple of ideas to make sure there are no seams and cracks for urine to escape. He cuts a piece that will fit into the box exactly and then scores the backside in the areas the membrane to create the corners. This is all fine and good until he gets to the point of gluing the 2 corners together to create a perfect waterproof bag shaped like his box. First the glue bottle does not want to open.. So, he find a wrench and literally wrenches it open :) (Hahahaha... Yes, I crack myself up... but I digress) Oh wait... I forgot to show you his fabulous gloves for doing this sticky work... 

Hot, I know.

   Then being the glue is fairly unhealthy to breathe in he goes to work outside (it is a low VOC PVC glue... so not terrible.. but not great either). Where it is 42 degrees but feels like 33 degrees...(quoted   from The Weather Channel.. Minnesota weather is awesome in May). Needless to say the glue doesn't want to play nice in the cold temps and so he comes in and starts to use a blow dryer to help the glue set.. as you can see below. 

Yes. He is having a ball at this point. This not working he goes outside again to add some more glue.... and is reallllly unhappy after this... 

Alas, after all this effort and it was about 2 hours of effort he gets his little membrane insert completed. Unfortunately it does not fit as he envisioned... 

The sides are a bit warped and don't fit as snug as he wants... Thumbs down. Ugh.. and time to noodle a bit... 

The solution. Binder clips. Who knew! They keep the lining snug and add a little bunny bling the their new little box.. One other bonus.. the binder clips will allow us to pull out the membrane and really wash it out in the sink if need be..

Oreo the first to try out the new digs... I think he likes the bling...

It fits snug as a bug in a rug.... Coco getting his sniff on..

Other poo related projects... Our massive 3 cat litter box.. This one required cad drawings to make sure if fit between the sewer pipe and furnace.. My husband is a doll and nothing short of perfect in every way. As Mary Poopins.. Oops... Poppins would say.

 This is our dumb as a box of rocks/ lover cat named Trouble.  Checking out the new digs... and Yep... he thinks.... I will test it out too.. Seriously, this cat is a hoot. 

Ps.. This cat is 18 pounds to give you some scale reference as to how large this litter box is.

With that I must say good-bye...

Alyssa