You’ll want to make sure there is enough room for the cat to defecate or urinate in a couple of areas and still have a clean place to put its paws. If the space is so small that a single “deposit” in the box uses up a lot of the litter surface, your cat will be discouraged from wanting to step back in there and use it again.

What you want to avoid is having one out-of-litter-box event – that can all too easily become a hard-to-break habit.

Radio show host and pet expert Tracie Hotchner is the author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible. Click here to follow her on Twitter.

If you want the cats you are vacation-sitting to love you – and since you are a dog person you indeed DO want everybody to love and approve of you because that’s how you’re wired – DO clean the litter box every day. Cats have to prance around in the box to do what they do. How would you feel if your box were full of last night’s dinner? Cats love dog people (and dogs) who take care of them.

Helen Fazio and her dog Raja are world travelers. Click here to visit their blog, click here to follow them on Twitter.

My sister has a much cheaper and efficient system she calls the relay system. She has two litter boxes (check a dollar store for really cheap boxes). When one needs changing, she puts it on the porch and then sets up the other one in its place. She uses newspaper in the bottom to collect leakage and a 30 gallon trash bag, which is much cheaper than bags made for litter boxes. She then empties the dirty one and puts some dish soap and water in it and lets it sit out on the porch to deodorize. And the best thing? You can even be lazy and clean it the next day.

We cats like it when the box is in a quiet location, where we can get a little privacy. That one’s a no brainer, right?

Scooping daily is really appreciated. Some litters may pride themselves on not having to be maintained daily, but trust me – it makes a HUGE difference.

Change the litter every 7 to 10 days. “CHANGE” does not mean just pouring new stuff over the old stuff. We’re hip to that jive.

Don’t clean the box with strong, chemical-smelling cleaners. It’s hard to breathe and concentrate when your bathroom smells like a laboratory. Trust me.

Keep it in one place. It’s easier and better for both of us if I don’t have to try to remember where it is today. You wouldn’t want me to give up the search and just go on that nice, new rug of yours, now would you?