01/20/03’s illustrious band:

Scoop Loop

Brought to you by way too much technology.

I bet I have the best excuse of the day for being late for work (other than that it’s Martin Luther King Day and we should all be out committing acts of civil disobedience in his honor): My litter box was on the fritz. OK, technically it’s the cats’ litter box. But they graciously allow me the privilege of keeping it clean and full of fresh litter.

This job got considerably easier when Sister-san gave me a mechanical cat box for Christmas. Powered by electricity or batteries, the m-box does its own scooping. It waits 10 minutes after a cat has done its business and walked away. Then a motorized rake glides across the box, scooping up the litter that has clumped around kitty’s leavings. The rake nudges up a lid at the end of the box and pushes the clumps into a receptacle there. The rake retreats, smoothing the litter as it goes, the lid falls on the receptacle, and the box is ready for another go. The cats love the m-box because it’s always clean. I love it because the mess is out of sight, out of mind.

I checked our clump receptacle this morning and replaced it with a clean one. I also added more litter, because a lot had gotten scooped away. One of the cats immediately made use of the new litter, and 10 minutes later I heard the motorized rake do its thing. And then I heard it go again. And again. It had somehow gotten stuck in an endlessly repeating loop.

Eventually I figured out the problem. I think the rake gets triggered when a sensor notes that the contents of the m-box rises above a certain level. A cat counts as extra contents, so the sensor notes the presence of something above the “full” line, waits 10 minutes, then signals the rake to go ahead. Apparently a too-high level of litter also triggers the sensor, and keeps on triggering it because the extra stuff doesn’t go away. My refill was the culprit. I had to find a disposable cup with which to put some of that extra litter back where it came from.

Now everyone is happy again. I wish all plumbing problems were this simple.

E-mail: jugglernaut@hotmail.com