feline “litter” as well as litter boxes are facts of life for feline owners. Hauling heavy boxes as well as bags; discovering a great area for the litter box; tracking litter-box behavior; sweeping up litter brought out of the box on hectic bit paws; scooping out poop as well as “clumps” of petrified pee; disposing utilized litter; as well as figuring out exactly how to get rid of that unique litter box smell: these make up a significant part of feline ownership, particularly now that numerous pet cats are indoors-only. (By the way, the word litter, which has its archaic origins in French for “bed,” was utilized primarily to explain either trash or livestock bed linen up until “cat litter” went into the lexicon.) By 2015, feline litter was a $1.8 billion company in the United States.
Until the 1940s, keeping a feline inside your home solely took much more decision than I might most likely have mustered. feline owners had to improvise a latrine, filling a wooden box, most likely a discarded shipping box from a store, with sand, cinders or torn-up paper. As I did research study on these early versions of cat-box filler, I was struck by exactly how bit anybody talked about it. even a 1903 volume on breeding as well as showing cats, whose author was consumed with cleanliness, failed to offer particular directions for producing as well as keeping a sand box.
The story of cat-box fillers made of absorptive clays such as fuller’s earth begins with industrial-clay salesman Edward Lowe as well as Kitty Litter™, which Lowe very first marketed under that name in 1947. right here is an early Kitty Litter™ bag that I discovered on the internet in a Washington publish short article about Edward Lowe ,the creator as well as fantastic marketer of bagged clay.
Early Kitty Litter bag, no date. 1950s? Courtesy the Edward Lowe Foundation.
The appearance on the scene of bagged granulated clay for utilize in feline latrines soon led to a number of competitors. The bit pamphlet below advertises Pet Pamper®, a short-lived litter-box filler marketed by the southern Ezy-Mix business of Memphis, Tennessee. The firm was understood mainly for its bagged cement mix, offered with regional hardware as well as feed stores. The ads I have discovered for Ezy-Mix concrete mix suggest that it was marketed to do-it-yourselfers dealing with house enhancement projects. Pet Pamper® was a sideline product that competed for a short time with Kitty Litter™. It seems to have disappeared by the early 1960s.
Kitty care as well as training by NoKo. pamphlet promoting Pet Pamper litter-box filler, published by southern Ezy-Mix Co., Memphis Tennessee, between 1952 as well as 1955.
Below, the 1958 newspaper advertisement for Pet Pamper® informs feline owners that the product replaces sand as well as sawdust as well as does a much better task avoiding “kitty odor.”
Advertisement for Pet Pamper, 1958.
A decade after introducing Kitty Litter™, Lowe’s branched out into other products for feline owners, appealing a “Better Life for Kitty.”
“The much better Life for Kitty,” pamphlet for Lowe’s feline Products, between 1958 as well as 1963.
Along with litter box filler, Lowe’s provided toys, a dry shampoo, a laxative that was meant to assist hair spheres relocation with Kitty’s digestive system, flea powder as well as even a disposable cardboard litter tray.
Inside of pamphlet for Lowe’s feline Products.
Inside of pamphlet for Lowe’s feline Products.
What’s fascinating about the pitches for Pet Pamper as well as Lowe’s feline products is that they guaranteed a much better life for cats, not just their owners. as well as all these products were connected with keeping cats inside your home rather than letting them roam freely: “Kitty Litter will keep your feline safe, clean, indoors.” I’ll be composing much more about products for cats as well as the increase of the indoor feline in future posts. The concept of keeping pet cats at house where they might be supervised carefully couldn’t get much traction up until handling feline squander ended up being less unpleasant.
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