About six months ago, we decided to add a rambunctious blue heeler to our family. Just like a crawling toddler, he gets into anything and everything that seems fun. One of his favorite things to do is play in the cat litter.

I know, GROSS!!!

Like any good mommy, I dealt with this habit with patience for a while because he’s ‘just a puppy’. However, there’s only so much nasty cat litter a person can handle cleaning.

After a few temper tantrums, I decided I needed to find a final solution that didn’t involve giving away any of our beloved animals. I needed to literally think outside the box for this stubborn puppy. Could we build a shelf? Put the catbox in another room with a kitty door? Get a different box with an alarm?

Okay. Really. All of that was too much trouble.

And then…it came to me. I turned the catbox around. There’s now a narrow passageway for the cat to shimmy through and the entry to the box faces the wall. By increasing the level of difficulty for the puppy, we simply got him to ignore the box altogether.

How many things are we dealing with on a regular basis that could be fixed by thinking outside the box? Take another look—-I bet there’s an easier solution than you think.

**Special thanks to Mother’s Brewery for letting our puppy take part in Oktoberfest in the Ozarks. He didn’t really drink the beer—calm down people.