One of my cats (possum.. 9yo male) had his right front leg amputated
this past tuesday.  He had a bone tumor, biopsy results today indicate
a spindle sell sarcoma, which seldom metastasizes (at least in cats),
so that's good news.

He's doing pretty well, too.  He's eating.. not a lot, but probably
enough considering.. the vet says he needs to lose a pound, he's a bit
too heavy to support all that weight on 1 front leg.  (15 lbs
pre-surgery, 14 after, 13 is goal).

He can get around well when he chooses, get in his favorite spots
(backs of chairs, bed, window sills, etc) get out of them too!  he can
run, quite impressively, when startled! and can go upstairs, we're not
sure he can come down yet because so far we've not been able to wait
him out. I think he must be a little depressed, because the last
couple days he's mostly hid under stuff but, overall, he's doing
great. having a nice wash in his sister's cat nest at the moment.
never paid any attention to her nest until his leg started hurting,
he's always preferred to be up off the floor.. I think I'm going to
have to get persimmon a new nest.

The litter box is problematic, though.  He convinced me yesterday that
his existing box is not in compliance with the cats with disability
act standards, and while he did do an excellent job of selecting an
alternate potty in the sense that he chose something easily cleaned,
it's not really acceptable in the long term.  So, I went to target
today and came home with a plastic tray designed, I believe, for going
under pet food dishes, it's about 1" deep and maybe 12x18 or so,
useful area.  I put folded newspaper in it, and a little litter at the
edges so it smelled somewhat litterboxish, and showed him that but he
wasn't impressed.  it was kind of slippery, too, so I cut up some
rubbery foam shelf liner and put a piece of that under the newspaper
so it would stay put when he stepped onto it, and showed it to him
again, and then herded him around one more time so he actually walked
onto it himself, and I placed this contraption in the powder room,
which is mere steps from his food/water in the kitchen, rather than
considerably further down the hall in the mudroom where his regular
litter box is.. too soon to tell if he was paying attention..

anyway, I was wondering if any of you has had any experience with
front leg amputations in cats, and has any good suggestions to help
him reacquire acceptable and healthy potty habits.  or what makes for
a good toilet facility for such circumstances.  I'm sure he'll adapt
eventually, I'd just like to help. :)

-anno