You may not know it, but indoor cats are a relatively new phenomenon. Until the mid-20thcentury, most cats lived outside. That’s because most cat box filler was pretty dreadful stuff -- things like messy ashes and dusty sand. It’s why most people kept tabby outdoors.
SO, HOW DID CATS COME IN FROM THE COLD?
Credit American entrepreneur Ed Lowe of Cassopolis, Michigan.
In the late 1940s, the young WWII veteran was working in a family business selling coal, sand and industrial absorbents to local companies.
One day in the winter of 1947, a friend named Kay Draper told Lowe she was tired of the messy ashes from her cat’s household litter box. She asked for some sand. Instead, Lowe suggested a bag of Fuller's Earth – a type of absorbent clay used by shops and factories to soak up oil spills. Draper tried it, loved it, and returned for more. So did her cat loving friends.
THAT’S WHEN LOWE HEARD SUCCESS MEOWING.
He packed some of the clay into five pound bags, labeled them “Kitty Litter, 65 cents” and headed for a local pet store. In one fell swoop, he invented a new product and gave it its brand name – one that millions saw later on nationalTV. But on that day, the pet store owner Lowe visited wasn’t impressed. With sand virtually free, he said, he doubted anyone would buy the bags. “Then give ‘em away!” Lowe replied.
The store did. And like Kay Draper, its customers came back for more.
Soon, the 27-year old quit the family business. He hit the road, drumming up interest in his new product, Kitty Litter, hauling it to pet shops and cat shows across the country.
Once he conquered pet stores, he wanted to move Kitty Litter into supermarkets. But his first customers, pet stores, balked. So Ed pivoted, launching a second brand specifically for the grocery trade. He called it Tidy Cat.
INVENTION AND INNOVATION CREATED A MULTI-NATIONAL EMPIRE.
Eventually, Lowe built a multi-million dollar empire selling 700,000 tons of kitty litter annually. His scientists worked continuously to upgrade existing products and develop new ones. R&D included a “cattery” with 120 felines, a cat-care clinic, plus an animal-behavior facility, with 24-hour video monitoring of resident cats. In the 80's Lowe even began appearing in his company's TV spots. Check out their vintage commercials on Youtube.
And that, my friends, is how cats became house pets.
Today, Ed Lowe’s legacy lives on in the Ed Lowe Foundation, a center dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and small-business people. It sponsors seminars, educational programs, and information support services. The institution is housed on a 2,600-acre complex on the grounds of Lowe’s family estate, outside of Cassopolis, Michigan.