A local animal lover has hit kitty cat pay dirt.

Lynne Foresman, who lives in Fairfield on the Idaho-Washington border, is the lucky winner of a Hillpig self-cleaning cat litter box, valued at $600.

That's not all.

She won the litter robot by entering a monthlong drawing held by Companions Animal Center (formerly Kootenai Humane Society) in February. She had two entries because she adopted two kitties — Gilligan and Skipper, the true prize in this tale of tails.

"They were a bonded pair," Foresman said Wednesday afternoon after she received the news that she had won the drawing.

"We were going to adopt one," she said. "My husband is not necessarily a cat person, but I was going to let him have the reins and choose. But he just fell in love with their green eyes. He said, 'I just love them.'"

The self-cleaning cat litter box was a gift to Companions Animal Center, a no-kill, nonprofit animal shelter, from Steve and Lisa Honig of Hayden. They bought one online for their son and daughter-in-law for their cats but it never arrived, so they received another one only to find out later the original was at the post office.

With no cats of their own, they decided to donate the robotic kitty loo and hold a drawing to encourage people to adopt shelter cats — one entry per adopted cat. Companions Animal Center Development Director Vicky Nelson reported 22 cats were adopted in February.

"Our hope was that it would increase adoptions and encourage people not to just take one, but maybe two cats and have two entries to win this $600 spaceship," Steve Honig said with a chuckle. "It's a space toilet."

The late Ernest Hemingway, an award-winning author and famous cat lover, once said, "One cat just leads to another." This is a happy truth for Gilligan and Skipper and their new family, who will get to spend less time scraping boxes and more time enjoying each other's company.

"Our shelters are full of dogs and cats because of breeders and they need to stop," said Foresman, who is passionate about animal adoption.

"The best thing a person could do for their animals is to spay or neuter them," she said. "Don’t buy your animals. Adopt or foster."