When was cat litter created

Soon, her friends were asking for it, too. He decided to give the product a name: Kitty Litter. Still, Lowe didn't immediately see the business potential: "Kitty Litter was undoubtedly a major discovery, but I, as its discoverer, wasn't aware of it at the time," he admitted.

He was even afraid it might be a bit of a nuisance, distracting from his main business. It was that last point that made all the difference.

When Lowe eventually tried to get a pet store to sell the product, the owner was skeptical. No way would people pay 69 cents for a 5-pound bag of this stuff when aquarium sand sold for a dime!

But Lowe proved him wrong, with the help of promotion ideas like providing free litter for cat shows, where the lack of odor with so many cats in one place was an impressive advertisement. Granulated clay litter may have changed the way we live with cats, but once the idea was out there, inventors ran with it. Lowe's company continued doing research for decades to improve the product. Clumping litter was introduced in the s, the invention of a biochemist who raised Persian cats, and the s saw the invention of litter made of silica gel crystals.

Now there are litters made from a variety of ingredients, including wheat, corn and recycled newspapers. But the basic idea remains the same — sharing a clean, odor-free home with cats. Because Kitty Litter made this possible, Lowe credited his invention with making cats the most popular pet in America.

Bartonella is a type bacteria that can be transmitted to cats, dogs and humans from exposure to infected fleas and…. Want to give your pup yummy, low-calorie treats? Not sure about food puzzles? Our veterinarian reveals why the payoff for your pet is well worth any extra work. The friendly and inquisitive LaPerm has an easy-care coat that comes in a variety of colors and patterns. A happy accident ultimately paved the way for cats as mainstream indoor pets. In , Michigan businessman Edward Lowe was trying to market granulated clay as a nesting material for chickens.

Instead, Lowe handed her a bag of granulated clay and promptly forgot about the exchange. Two weeks later, Mrs. Draper showed up asking for more clay — and eventually, so did her friends. The clay minerals were capable of absorbing their weight in water, working far better than sand or ashes.

Clay litter became a necessity for cat owners for the ensuing decades. But as all things destined for greatness must evolve, so did the cat litter box.

The s brought about clumping litter; this new and improved type of litter heralded the next great invention to define feline bathroom etiquette: the self-cleaning litter box. For all the advancements of the traditional cat litter box in the last century, one major issue remained: Cat parents still had to scoop urine and feces!

The first design for an automatic self-cleaning litter box was patented in Rake mechanisms dominated the early self-cleaning litter box market.

In , engineer Brad Baxter inherited two cats and discovered several things: First, scooping the litter box is a dirty task; second, using a litter box with an automatic raking system can be even dirtier. Like so many users, he found that the rake mechanisms would often jam or clog, accumulating feces and waste that was a smelly pain to clean off.

After a year of testing of various prototypes, Brad designed the initial concept for the Litter-Robot. Instead of rakes, this concept utilized a patented sifting system that harnessed gravity to separate waste from clean litter, depositing the clumps into a waste drawer for easy disposal. During apartment and house hunting, we consider where the litter box will go. In plain view? When guests come over, we worry, can they smell the litter box?

And thus, our convenience is also our shame. In hushed tones, in corners of coffee shops, cat owners compare notes about type, heaviness, price, availability, environmental impact. Grumpy Cat, known by her owners as Tardar Sauce, is featured in many cat-themed memes.

And so it is at this juncture of multi-sensory disposability, at this core of emotional, physical, and psychical discomfort and curiosity, that this journey through pet ideals, household responsibilities, industry, and environment begins.