Imagine an ordinary covered cat litter box. The base is not rectangular, though; it's in the shape of a stout cylinder, a meter in diameter. The cover of the "box" is in the shape of a dome, making the thing look a bit like the Pantheon. Instead of a flap for the door, it has a transparent sliding-and-locking wall wich stays open at all times other than cleaning. The cover has four latches that lock it onto the base.
On the floor of the base is a circular peice of sturdy chicken wire with a piece of fine screen pulled over it and glued at the edges. The chicken wire/screen devices fits flush in the bottom of the base. Affixed to two points opposite each other on the screen are hinged, aluminum rods, half a meter long each. They stick up through holes where the base and the cover meet, and rest at 45 degree angles to the floor.
The cat owner fills the base with clumping litter while the screen is below. He/She waits 1-3 days depending on how many cats he/she has, and when it comes time to clean it, he/she, slides and latches the door, and latches the clips that keep the cover to the base, if they aren't already. The cat owner then procceeds to press the two aluminum rods down and apart, popping the screen off the floor, taking any feline waste materials up with it. The rods are then shaken up and down to sift through any clean litter remaining on the raised screen.
The owner now unlatches the cover, pulls the cover off, and empties the waste product into a broad rectangular recepticle (included), just by tipping the screen. He/She presses the screen back beneath the litter by latching the cover and pushing upward on the levers.
Note; The owner should make sure there are no cats are in the box while cleaning is under way.-- jellydoughnut, Mar 04 2006 Interesting design, but there are litter boxes already on the market which perform similar functions, automatically sifting out the poop.-- DrCurry, Mar 04 2006 I know about the LitterMaid automatic litter boxes, but the have some flaws;
1. The waste energy on sifting clena sand.
2. Sand can get in the electronic mechanisms.
3. They are rather costly.
4. They scare cats away.
5. Cats can get caught in the sifting device.
And why would the stinky pee matter if it's already solidified? It wouldn't be any stinkier that in other cat boxen.-- jellydoughnut, Mar 04 2006 Ah. You referred to sand in the body of the description, not clumping litter.-- DrCurry, Mar 04 2006 Blast!
I would have succeeded in my most nefarious plot to use the word sand instead of clumping litter unnotticed had it not been for that meddling Dr Curry!-- jellydoughnut, Mar 04 2006 You can't get away with anything around here!-- DrCurry, Mar 05 2006 I've but one thing to say before I edit my idea and be taken away in shackles to the jail or institution like the villains always do at the end of Scooby-Doo episodes;
I'LL GET YOU, DR CURRY!!!
You haven't heard the last of jelly; I'll assure you that! You may have defeated me, but there will be others like me! Oh, yes! You'll never stop the wickedness of criminals hell-bent on mixing up their feline hygiene products! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!-- jellydoughnut, Mar 05 2006 Just make sure you clean out your litter box before you go!-- DrCurry, Mar 05 2006 Thanks; I'll put it on my ChoreSliderSnapper.-- jellydoughnut, Mar 05 2006 Alternate, more villainous anno:
I'll clean your litter box, Batman! I'll...clean...yours...-- jellydoughnut, Mar 05 2006 random, halfbakery