Litter Box Chats

You know how most cats are so incredibly focused on their constitutionals that they will ignore you if you are in the room?  The litter box seems to be some sort of sacred space where no other sensory input is allowed.  Their eyes will glaze over slightly and they seemed lost in their own little world of excremeditation.

Not our Otto.

One day, Sean went downstairs and happened to walk by the box just as Otto was "pitching a kibble-loaf" (Sean made me say that).  On a whim, or out of habit, Sean spoke to him (as we are wont to do), saying "Hey, Otto."  Most cats would just ignore the intrusion.  Instead, Otto responded with busy acknowledgement.  Sean said Otto sounded like Archie Bunker if Archie Bunker were a cat.  "Mrow..." Otto said, with a sloping slant towards the bottom of the syllable.  Sean was pretty amused by this.  

So a few days later, wondering in the back of his mind if this might have been a fluke, Sean tried it again.  Once again, he was walking through the basement, and once again he spoke to Otto.  Once again, Otto responded with that growly "Mrow..." that seemed to say he recognized Sean's presence, but "not now, kid, I'm busy."  

We've tried to figure out what this means, and the best we can come up with is that Otto just has such a strong bond with Sean that even sacred potty time can be interrupted.  Or maybe, Otto is just getting more human.  Yesterday, he tried to eat a peanut, and it wasn't even salted, so you be the judge.  All we know is that Otto's intense trust of us seems to stretch all the way to the litter box.  We feel kind of honored about that.