Snowflake

Snowflake was an ordinary-looking black kitten who came to live with us as a baby. My daughter, five years old at the time, named him for the one white spot he had on his belly.

From the very start, he was fascinated with the bathroom. If anyone went in there, he would follow them in and wait, watching. A little disconcerting, but we got used to it.

One day, I was getting dressed in the bathroom and I heard the tinkle of water behind me. When I turned around, there was Snowflake sitting on the toilet doing his business!

He was still very small but he had himself braced crosswise with all four of his feet on one side, his tail balanced out over the other, and his business-end right over the toilet bowl. We were amazed!

From then on this is where he went. If the door was shut, because someone was in there when he had to go, he'd pace back and forth until the person inside opened it. Then he'd fly in there and jump up on the toilet for "his turn."

For his own reasons, he decided to only use the toilet for peeing -- he did the other either in his litter box or outside.

Early in the morning we'd sometimes see my husband and Snowflake racing for the bathroom together. If Snowflake got there first, my husband would lean against the kitchen wall waiting his turn, which always gave us a big laugh!

One time, a plumber was working in the bathroom while I was out. When I returned he looked me straight in the eyes and said I should have told him about the cat! He knew no one was home, so he was banging away on the pipes. Suddenly, he heard the alarming sound of water running and he thought he'd poked a hole in a pipe. He was astonished to see Snowflake sitting on the john, doing his thing!

Snowflake has been gone many years, but I keep a framed picture of him in my bathroom now. I've heard there are ways to train a cat to do this, but Snowflake was way ahead of his time and did it on his own.

I always told my husband it was a good thing Snowflake learned from watching me and not him!

Copyright © Ruth Harding
May 9, 2001

Read Ruth's other story: How I Spent My Summer Vacation