A professional's lament on self-cleaning litter boxes
I see a lot of new products and gadgets designed to help make living with pets better, and though I find some impressive, others just make cringe. A recent article on The Bark reminded me of the complaints that I hear from pet owners about the minutiae of day-to-day care that is necessary, which gave me pause. And while the topic was focused on things like having to pick up poop and the amount of pet hair that needs to be cleaned up—first world problems, gah!—the one thing I can say that I wrestled with was getting home at various times through any given workday to tend to potty break and medication duties when Gretchen was in her final months of life. The same was true for my 19 year-old cat, Silver, who needed lots of extra tending during his end-of-life which was only months ago. Yes, those times were stressful, but only because as anyone who has done it themselves knows, there are always days when things don't go so swell during that time of life. And sometim...