Perre DiCarlo

Perre DiCarlo is a comedy writer living in Hollywood. His first book Kick Litter: Nine-Step Program for Recovering Litter Addicts won eight awards for comedy writing, gift book, design and pets. DiCarlo is a lead motion designer for Hollywood websites, including Harry Potter, Batman and Warner Bros. For fun he edits Nearly Banned Apps, a blog that keeps track of rejected and misunderstood iPhone apps.

"Kick Litter was born in a dream I had just before waking up on the bathroom floor, having failed to keep my cats company while they struggled through withdrawl from kitty litter." DiCarlo says. "It could have been a straight story about toilet training cats. Instead, I tried to keep the tone as comical as the process itself."

Kick Litter is written from the viewpoint of the author's two cats, who realize that their years of litter abuse must finally come to an end. The "big guy who feeds us" suddenly discovered their addiction to litter. So with the help of each other (little recovery buddies) they learn the miracle of the porcelain bowl. And find balance in their lives.

"The impulse to toilet train cats isn't new," says DiCarlo, "it's probably been around since God designed the toilet. We people just got a head start, that's all."

"I first read about potty training cats in a one-page instruction sheet written by Charles Mingus - the great jazz bassist and composer - who trained his cat Nightlife to use the toilet in the 1960s. Being a little naive, I thought to myself that if I ever have cats, I'll do the same. Then when my girlfriend announced she wanted cats I responded: 'Only if you let me train them to use the toilet.' She seemed to know something I didn't and laughed mischievously like girlfriends do, then smiled and said: 'That sounds terrific.'"

"They've been trained for over four years now. And it remains funny to see Moxie or Cooper scurry ahead of me or ahead of a guest and jump up onto the toilet seat. This puts to rest the question of who controls things. Without notice, we humans have to stand there and wait for the cute little cat to finish her business before we can get to ours. That scene never stops being funny."

A dog person by nature, he didn't know it was impossible to train his two new kittens until it was too late. He is currently completing his second book, a cautionary tale for celebrity kids: Why Meghan (with an 'h') Shouldn't Bring Her Bodyguard to the Playground.