Thanks to scooping and cleaning, cat owners are likely to be more familiar with their pet’s litter boxes than they’d like to be. But in some cases, this close attention to your kitty’s bathroom habits can be a good thing! Paying attention to your cat’s litter box can help you uncover problems with their health. One such problem might be a urinary blockage—a painful and potentially life-threatening condition common in male cats.

Cancer is one of the scariest health problems to affect our furry friends. Not only is it often life threatening, but it’s also difficult to spot until it’s spread or worsened. One of the reasons for this is that every type of cancer acts and presents a little differently and can sometimes masquerade as a different type of health problem. Such is the case with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), or bladder cancer, in dogs.

Aside from newborn kittens who haven’t been taught yet, almost all cats use a litter box daily. It’s one of the easy aspects of owning a cat—there’s no need to take them outside or clean up urine or feces messes. That is, as long as your cat uses the litter box as they should.

With so many brands and types available today, the options for kitty litter can seem overwhelming. Should you go for the cheapest option? What does the difference in particle size mean? What scents do cats like best? Your biggest question might be, “Does the type of litter I buy really matter?”

As cat owners, we spend a lot of time cleaning up after our furry friends’ litter box, which gives us the opportunity to detect when something might not be right. Since urinary problems are so uncomfortable for humans, we understand that any sign of urinary issues in cats should be checked out immediately.

One of the major parts of owning a dog is attuning yourself to your dog’s cues, including those that tell you it needs to go outside—and fast. Bathroom breaks are not always convenient, especially if you don’t have a yard to let your dog loose into, but they are something every pet owner gets used to.

For dog owners who don’t have a doggy door or a gated yard for their homes, taking the dog outside can be a bit of an inconvenience. Sometimes, it seems like the dog whines every 10 minutes to go out and pee, even though you just took them out.

Cat owners spend a lot of time training their pets to use the litter box appropriately. We place the litter boxes in the most convenient locations for our pets and our families, stock up on kitty litter and wait for the day that the new kitten will go where it’s supposed to.

Labeling things as our own is common practice among humans—we buy monogrammed towels and write our names on luggage tags. Similarly, dogs mark territory as their own. To do this, dogs will urinate a small amount on vertical surfaces—this is called urine marking.