Litter Boxes, cont'd

My litter box is big, plastic, blue and white, of the hideous variety generally available at PetCo. This molded plastic probably cost them $0.15 to make and cost me $27.

A year and a half ago (!?) I posted about better litter boxes, and I was particularly drawn to the "Refined Litter Box" which was so much more Trading Spaces appropriate than my plastic porta-potty.



However, I was turned off by the $184.99 price tag.

In Sky Mall on a recent flight, whilst uncommonly bored, I saw these two attractive options:





The white one is too big, and the planter is too... silly. But I was reinvigorated in my search, and I came across this pretty, conveniently designed wicker litter box cover.



This is relatively cheap, easy to clean, and very pretty, but it doesn't have a filter, I don't know if that matters. Hmm....

For good measure, here's a truly strange litter box. It looks like a tiny weird cottage from Mother Goose or something.

had to happen eventually

Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover's Soul has been recalled. Diamond Foods took voluntary action, there was melamine found in the food but no pets have been reported ill.

Diamond Foods Withdraws Products

Luckily I've already switched them to Wellness, which despite being a Menu Foods product, contains no grains and so it doesn't have any wheat gluten. I switched them a few weeks ago because out of the blue they just stopped liking Chicken Soup. I hope they didn't eat anything bad.

I've tried them on Evolve, Felidae, Chicken Soup, Nutro Max, Avoderm, and they are just not into wet food. Wellness Turkey & Salmon they will eat almost all of it - but I only serve them half a can a day for both of them. They just love dry food, I don't get it.

Models they are not

I need a faster camera. One that is fast enough so that the cats don't have time to notice me, get up from their cute relaxed poses, and look at me like freaky alien beasts, like this.



The only way I can get a decent picture is if I distract them with petting, but then I'm in the picture, and that is just no good.

Everything's OK...

... but my cats won't pose for pictures! In case anyone's wondering what happened to this blog. They are scared of the camera and very difficult.

They are huge now. Rama has lost almost all of his white, and is gray/brown all over while still retaining a suggestion of the point pattern. Hamlet's tail has gotten huge and fluffy, and he's scared of everyone but me. He's a one person cat. Rama likes everyone but is particularly fond of our friend Justin, he always jumps on the couch when he's over.

Chicken Soup

My search for wet food has ended. I know this sounds ridiculously cheesy, but I read about a food called Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul on PetFo. I hate those books, hate them with a deep and burning passion, but this food is really good. It has no by-products or fillers, is relatively cheap, and here's the best part... the kittens like it!

Rama wouldn't even touch Nutro Max, but Hamlet tolerated it. They both love Royal Canin cereal food, but I would prefer that they both eat some wet. There was nothing else available at PetCo, so I tried a place called Red Barn, which is what it sounds like... a big barn. There is so much stuff there! Felidae, Wellness, Innova, Evo, all the stuff I'd heard of but never seen. They both liked Wellness, but it gave them runny poops and was so expensive. So Chicken Soup it is! I hope they don't get tired of it.

Feral Siamese Mom

I just got this photo from my kitties' foster mom. This is their birth mother, hanging out at Kitten Rescue. She's feral, but she looks so peaceful there.

Growing so fast

We went away for Labor Day, and I swear they were so much bigger than I remembered when I got back.

Hamlet really loves the cat tree and has started to scratch it to pieces.



Rama is really fond of clothing of all sorts, to snuggle with. Here he is with a shoe.



And they seem to enjoy playing with each other, so happy to have two.

Scratchy, Scratchy

OK, Hamlet and Rama have given up on their scratching board, and although they love their tree they almost never use it for scratching -- strictly a climbing only tree! I have to come up with something better.

They both like to scratch the carpet the best, so I think they are horizontal scratchers, but they don't like their board unless I hold it down because it moves. I think I need something heavier. I'm going to check PetCo, but otherwise this looks attractive: