I’d only consider it rude if someone walked into my house, said “OMG, your house stinks - don’t you ever clean your litter box???” the proceeded to do just that.
No, my house does not stink, and yes, I do my best to keep the litter box clean, plus it’s in the basement stairwell, so unless you’re actually on the stairs, you probably wouldn’t even know we have cats. Well, except for the cats in the living room.
But, no I wouldn’t consider it to be rude, just odd, considering where our litter box sits.
Scooping someone else’s litter box may or may not be rude, depending on the relationship, the condition of the litter box, the timing of the poo, etc. I don’t think what you did, in a friend’s house, with a relatively clean box (you don’t mention that it was atrocious or took you long to clean, so it sounds like a clean box with a fresh deuce) and the cat doing her deposit right there in front of you…yeah, that doesn’t sound rude.
On the other hand, commenting on the rudeness of stranger’s actions in a social setting…I have trouble coming up with ANY scenario in which *that *is not rude! :eek:
So consider the utility of letting a rude person’s advice on manners get under your skin.
Thank you all for your replies. I wish I could tell you that I had a fast witty reply for the person, but I’m such a smart cookie that all I could do was give her a deer in the headlights look and mumble OK.
I’m not going to bring it up to my friend, she has other more important things to worry about right now. I’m pretty sure that if anyone mentioned to her that I had scooped 1 deposit out of an otherwise pristine litter box, she would just shrug and wonder why anyone expected anything less from me.
So, going by the replies I’ve gotten I will restrain myself if I’m at a home where I don’t know the people well. If I’m at a friend’s house, they already know how involved I am in rescue…and there are a couple of them who would scoop my boxes if I had one in the bathrooms as well.
While I did use the toilet, I have a friend who’s toddler liked to pee in the litter box, so she made him scoop it (big punishment for a little boy who already liked to dig in the litter), and then wash his hands. So there
Clumping kitty litter will clog up a toilet fast. I do sometimes throw Spooky’s turds in the toilet and flush them, if there’s no litter attached.
IMHO not rude, but a tad bit odd.
It was their Almond Roca and you weren’t offered any. Seriously, it was the cat’s litter box, and the cat didn’t complain. The “person” was just worried that you were usurping her position as house human.
These are the situations that Miss Manners works wonders for! When you get a crazy lady like this you turn to her and coldly say “How kind of you to take an interest.” And then SHUT UP - don’t say anything else, just look at her. If she continues yakking on, then you say, “I’ll be sure not to do the same if I am ever at your house.”
I would never have a cat, but if I did, I certainly wouldn’t mind you cleaning the litter box!
Not rude, but risky if you don’t know how the owner disposes of the scoopables. Some of that supposedly flushable litter can cause extremely expensive damage to the pipes, yet others get upset to have stinky stuff in the trash. Trying to help can be harmful, and it’s not fair to make an executive decision and leave others to deal with the aftermath.
You are free to scoop our litter boxes at any time they seem to need it. In fact, between the scooping and the compulsive need to organize, how’s about you move in with me? I’ve got a spare bedroom, four cats, and a lot of books to organize. Plus a guy named Bill. What more can you ask for?
I’m afraid I disagree. Suppose it were a guest who volunteered to make up your unmade bed one afternoon? Or if you say, “Well, guests aren’t supposed to be in my bedroom,” suppose they decided to organize your mail stack in the living room?
I think you find it odd but not rude because unlike canonical rudeness, this doesn’t seem to come from malice. But you can also be rude by being thoughtless, as when you fail to consider “Will my host find this to be an unwelcome intrusion on my personal/living space/effects?”
It’s not rude-insulting, but it is rude-intrusive. One might even say overbearing.
So, I recapitulate: Don’t go through your host’s shit. It’s a basic rule.
This is my favorite because it is so unhinged. MM recommends the non sequitur answer in response to intrusive questions. Like when a distant acquaintance’s first question about your new baby is “Oh, she looks nothing like you, is she adopted?” (Non sequitur answer: “I think she’s just lovely too.”)
The non sequitur is never appropriate to the advisement that one probably shouldn’t have done whatever one just did.
“I think Emmaline was a little taken aback by your remark just now.”
“Oh! I do so love the autumn!”
This comes across less as unflappable savior-faire and more as stone-cold bitch. Or autism spectrum.
And I think you know this because what else could your proposed follow-up, “Well, now I know not to do it at your house,” be other than a passive-aggressive half-apology?
Is that latter repartee meant to be a burn? Because the whole point of bringing the incident up in the first place was to get it through the poop scoop perpetrator’s head that this is not something your supposed to do when visiting other people’s houses! So, seen in this light, protesting you won’t do it again isn’t really the sick burn you seem to think. It’s not really an apology either though.
It’s kind of the worst of all possible worlds: a begrudging acknowledgement of error coupled with a gratuitous spirit of recrimination. The kind of thing that inspires responses like “You won’t get the chance not to do it at my house, 'cause you’re never getting an invitation, poop freak.”
Good point about the illness, but I was at my best friend’s house. I know about kitteh’s health because I make a point to ask. I also know that she puts her litter in the garbage can, but even if I didn’t, the fabric tube full of plastic bags on a hook was kind of a give away.
We talked today (friend and I), and she mentioned that Jane had complained to her about me cleaning the litterbox. She thought it was very funny because I’ve been doing that for years. She also mentioned that she wasn’t sure about me when we first met, because I was one of her husband’s friends and they all tend to be strange.
She said that she knew that we would be friends when her cat started horking up a hairball on the rug and I instantly jumped up and grabbed kitteh and put her on the tile floor.
While I don’t usually travel with my heavy duty pooper scooper, there are some Doper’s I’d like to meet. I can bring it with me
