The most important consideration is to choose a substance that your cat will use reliably.

By Dale Mangan

What started out as a neighbor’s lament to Henry Lowe — who sold industrial absorbents at the time — has burgeoned into a $700 million industry in the United States alone. The story on “kitty litter” has added several chapters since the product first hit the market in 1948. Back then, the substance was just a bag of absorbent clay balls.

Today, we choose from a litany of types: There’s clumping and non-clumping; flushable and non-flushable; clay-based, pine or recycled newspapers. We even have environmentally friendly biodegradables. One thing is certain: The choices are better, and more complicated, than those that were available to the cat owner in 1948. …

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