Patent ID: 8413608

Claim:
An apparatus for handling animal waste comprising: a cylindrical housing mounted for rotation and having two generally opposed ends and a generally circular side and an interior volume for holding litter, the cylindrical housing having an opening generally centrally located in one end of the cylindrical housing for allowing an animal to enter the interior volume of the cylindrical housing and relieve itself inside the housing, a second opening in one of the ends and located proximate the cylindrical side for insertion and removal of a sifting drawer into the interior volume of the cylindrical housing; a base for supporting the housing and allowing the housing to be rotated about an axis of the housing; the sifting drawer for sifting through the litter held in the apparatus to separate the litter from animal waste deposited in the litter and to retain the animal waste in the sifting drawer, the sifting drawer removably mounted adjacent an internal side of the cylindrical housing and having a volume contained within the interior of the housing so that the rotation of the housing about its longitudinal axis carries along the sifting drawer for sifting through a mixture of litter and animal waste, the sifting drawer having a first opening and a second opening spaced from the first opening, the second opening having a sifting member disposed therein, the housing being rotatable along its side in a first direction so that the first opening is the lead opening to be passed through a mixture to be sifted to allow the mixture to enter the sifting drawer and move to the second opening as the housing rotation continues in the first direction, the sifting member allows the litter in the mixture to pass through the sifting member and exit the sifting drawer and be contained in the housing while retaining solid animal waste of a particulate size larger than that which can pass through the sifting member in the sifting drawer; and at least one guide member within the interior of the housing for guiding and supporting the sifting drawer to allow the sifting drawer to be removably mounted in the interior of the housing and removed for discarding retained solid animal waste from the sifting drawer, the sifting drawer being inserted into and removed from the mounted position through the second opening in the housing by movement of the sifting drawer along a direction that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis around which the housing is rotated.