I know five people who tried toilet training cats. One succeeded, another one had success until one day the cat slipped and fell into the toilet and basically said FUCK THIS, and the other three failed completely. All of them said that the biggest problem was securing the training rings to the toilet seat so that it wouldn't move when the cat came up. The successful one had a spare bathroom so she could secure the training rings with duct tape. Our Poe's great about using his box, and at this point we're so used to doing the litter box thing it's not that big of a chore.
I'm used to doing it too, but honestly scooping litter every single day (my cat shits a lot) for 15 years seems like a
huge chore. It might only take 5 minutes to scoop it and run it out to the garbage can, but 5 minutes a day over the next 15 years adds up to
19 days*. 19 Days of my life spent scooping and disposing of cat shit. I'm not working hard, saving money, and simplifying my life to spent 19 of those days on cat shit. I don't actually scoop it every single day, but it needs to be done at least every other day if not every day. I also hate running the bag out to the garbage can in the middle of winter, and would love to avoid this chore.
I suppose I can do it if necessary, but would really like to avoid having to do it entirely.
*5 min/day X 365 days/year X 15 years / 60 min/hr / 24 hr/day = 19 days
I did it, I used the Litter Kwitter and it worked fine with modifications, the company has a forum for sharing tips and tricks on being successful.
I have to admit that I did not do this entirely myself, I was living in Indonesia so had a full-time maid, I made it her responsibility to make sure she cleaned the tray out immediately after the cat used it so there was no risk of the cat rejecting it due to a dirty tray. It is possible to train a cat without this luxury, but certainly, it helped avoid accidents that people complained about in the forum. Those accidents were what made people give up on the training. My cat never had a single accident and has been toilet trained since she was 5 months old; she is going on 7 years now so it was definitely worth it for me, in fact, my cat would still be in Indonesia if this didn't work out as I never really wanted a cat and would have given her away if there was a litter box involved in her upkeep. There are so many good reasons to do this with a cat, the best reason for me is that it is so much more hygienic, no worries of a cat scratching in her own waste, then hoping up and walking around on your bathroom or kitchen counter etc.
ETA - I believe that the personality of the cat is the most important factor. If your cat is bold and curious you are more likely to be successful than if the cat is the hide under the bed type. Also, I think it helps to train the cat when young, I can't imagine an older cat taking to using the toilet.
Or my bed/pillow and lap. The hair is gross, but I frequently make comments to my wife (who is a total germaphobe and clean freak) about the cat pawing her own shit and then immediately rubbing her feet on our counters and bed. If I break an egg the shell needs to be disposed of, my hands need to be washed immediately, and anything the raw egg potentially touched (including the sink I throw the egg shell because fuck that noise i'm not afraid of raw egg) needs to be sanitized asap but it's perfectly fine to have cat shit paws walking all over every square inch of our house.
Our cat is like 3 years old. She is pretty curious, but I don't know if she'll take to it. Still seems worth a shot as the cost seems paltry in comparison to the reward. Even if it only has a 5% chance of working I think it seems like a risk worth taking.