Our new cat — well, let’s get it straight from the outset. L’s new cat has developed a rather disturbing habit of late: instead of using her liter box, she urinates on the bathroom floor and occasionally on the same patch of concrete in the basement. The Girl is responsible for cleaning up the mess, and she generally does it with little more complaining than you would expect from a seven-year-old having to clean up cat urine.

At first we thought it was a one-time thing. Perhaps the cat got trapped in the basement and had no other options. Perhaps the cat’s upstairs litter box was dirty, making her feel she had no options. Whatever the reason, it’s become a recurring problem, and so the Girl’s cleaning, while necessary, isn’t really solving the problem.

So this evening I said to K, “I’m going to do a bit of research to find out…” when it hit me. Why not use this as a way to teach L how to do internet research?

And then I promptly did the search anyway out of curiosity.