I've always had cats but one cat really racked up the medical bills: Batman. When Batman was about 4 years old, he started peeing outside of his litter box.

We mentioned this to the vet at his annual checkup, and she said that our cat might have crystals in his urine, the equivalent of kidney stones for a cat. The vet told us that cats will often urinate outside of the litter box if they're sick because they've come to associate pain with the litter box.

We were lucky to avoid surgery but had to change his diet, and there were numerous trips to the vet to check on his progress. Had we known sooner, we could've saved him from weeks of pain and ended up with a lot fewer vet bills. Batman is fine now, but our experience still haunts me. Recently a friend told me about a new kitty litter that keeps tabs on your cat's health by changing color, so I had to give it a try.

PrettyLitteris a new type of litter that monitors your cat's well-being and can often detect issues before your cat shows symptoms of physical illness or pain. Unlike clay or clumping litter, PrettyLitter is made of a formula that changes colors if your cat is sick. Yellow means normal, red means blood in the urine, blue and green represent alkalinity or acidity, and so on. Not only that, but it absorbs and eliminates moisture, meaning less odor and less litter to use throughout the month. Because of this moisture absorption and evaporation, you don't need to scoop the pee, only the poo.

We got a month's supply to see how our cats would do and if we liked it. When it arrived, I couldn't believe that such a small box could actually fit two bags of kitty litter to last us a month. Turns out, it did. One PrettyLitter bag is only 4 pounds and was about the size of their cat food bag, only lighter. I didn't have to lug it around the house, and there was no dust cloud, no pellets scattering about on the floor, just crystal-like grains.

The odor-controlling aspect is real -- I didn't realize how stinky our cats were until we changed litters. On top of that, PrettyLitter's non-clumping crystals are safer for cats, because it's created from naturally occurring minerals and clumping litters can be bad for cats prone to UTIs.

The best part is the delivery service. I hate going to the pet store and buying a 34 lb bag of clay litter and schlepping it home. PrettyLitter is a subscription service that includes free delivery. I let them know how many cats I have, and they send me a new bag of litter every month. No more wondering how long I can go before the cats go on strike because I can't make it to the store.

Being able to tell if there's anything wrong with our cats, has given me peace of mind. It won't stop our cats from having health issues, but it will help us identify issues sooner and prevent anything from getting too serious. For us, PrettyLitter was an obvious choice for our cats' well-being, and the delivery service makes my life so much easier!

UPDATE: The folks at PrettyLitter are offering a SPECIAL promotion to our readers! Follow this link and use promo code PRETTY2020 to get 20% off your first order of PrettyLitter today!