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"Keep House From Being Littered with Catbox Filler"

The Detriot News - December 17, 2005

We love our cats -- but we could probably do without cleaning up after them. It seems like no matter where you stash the litter box, it's still in the way and gives off a less-then-pleasant odor.

This problem is more acute in small apartments, where there's precious little room and minimal airflow.

When Rebecca Rescate and her husband moved to New York and took one of the city's famously small apartments, she realized what a nuisance her cat's litter box was. She'd heard tales of cat's being toilet-trained (a story lampooned in movies such as "Meet the Parents") and started doing some research to see if she could do the same with her 12-year-old feline. Through her research, Rescate found lots of helpful tips, but no clear plan.

So, she set about combining the tips into a cohesive training program. It took some doing, but after a matter of weeks, her cat was using the toilet like a pro.

"I knew I wasn't the only cat owner with this problem," says Rescate, 26. "I decided that this was something others would want to do."

Rescate designed CitiKitty to go along with the plan. CitiKitty is a series of plastic rings that you attach to your toilet and fill with litter. Each week you remove another ring, and by month's end, your cat is king of the throne.

"It's not difficult -- it just takes time and patience," Rescate says. "Every cat moves at a different pace."

After training her own cat, Rescate had friends around the city try the product themselves. The results were a success, and Rescate launched the CitiKitty Web site, www.citikitty.com.

The site features the product, which sells for $29, and also a video clip of a cat actually using the toilet. Sales have been good for citikitty, and response has been positive.

"Someone wrote about us on their blog, and it just caught on like wildfire," she says. "I couldn't ask for anything more."

Rescate hopes to get her product on the shelves of pet stores.

"You don't have to deal with the mess of litter. It gets everywhere and you always have an odor," she says. "Litter costs money (on average $175 per year), so you save that money. Plus, your cat has a really cool trick."

By Christy L. Breithaupt (Metro Detroit freelance writer)

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