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Maybe you've tried to stay strong, but "there's nothing shameful" in admitting you wish you had a robot to clean out your cat's litter box, says Catological.com. The Litter Robot III Open Air ($449) is easily the most praised of today's self-cleaning options. As sci-fi in its looks as in its concept, the Litter Robot waits until your cat has exited, then rotates its spherical chamber so that clumps are screened out and fall into the closed drawer below. An "extremely durable" machine, it "does wonders for reducing waste odor," and it even has a night-light to aid older cats with ­vision problems.