El Pueblo de los Gatos

Litter Boxes, cont'd

2008-01-09T18:01:00.000-08:00

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

2007-04-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-02-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

... 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

2006-10-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

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:

Catster

2006-08-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

No new pics to post... the boys are getting so big, but I haven't had time to take more pics since now I'm on 68 hour weeks. Yes, 68... it's sooooooo productive *she said sarcastically*.

I just made Catster pages for them, just coz.
Rama
Hamlet
They already have friends, it is super cute.

Litter Box Furniture

2006-07-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Right now we have the litterbox in the cabinet under the stove, which fits it perfectly and hides it nicely, but we plan on moving soon, and our next apartment may not be so accomodating. With that in mind, I found this really attractive:

Much prettier than the average covered litterbox.

Someone at work, meanwhile, is really excited about the Litter Box Robot, a spacy, self-scooping litter box. It looks like one of those underwater explorer helmets to me, and I would think it would drive the kitties crazy, but here it is.

Chaos!

2006-07-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

DH & I went away to Comic-Con this weekend. We left a friend in charge of feeding the kitties, but I was still a little worried because of this ridiculous heat wave we are having -- it was 112 degrees in Encino on Saturday! When I got home, the boys were fine, but they had wreaked havoc on the trash can and also spilled some dried roses that I had kept for years and shredded them all over the rug. Nothing too valuable, but it was very messy. They must have been bored.

A picture of us at the con... the cats loved my costume. All that soft fabric, plus tassles to chase'n'chew while I walked:

Poop Analysis

2006-07-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of having these kittens in my house, I'm pretty well acquainted with their poop. They are very good and always go in the litter box, but of course it does have to be scooped all the time, so I am now ridiculously familiar with the proper shape and consistency of it. Which is why I was a little disturbed to find some diarrhea in there.

The kitten rescue people said that it was probably because of their shot, and it seems to have gone away, but it was kind of weird. I didn't even know which kitten had the problem, but it was pretty obvious that something was wrong. I think I'm more familiar with their poop than any other, um, poop. It's just weird. OK, sorry, I talked about poop too much. Look at the kitten pictures!

Bedtime

2006-07-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

The kittens and I disagree on what 11pm is. I think it is bed time. They think it is race around and chew stuff and wrestle time. They are interested in the bed now, though, so they have to weigh their options carefully.

Random kitty pics

2006-07-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Unlike Hamlet, Rama is totally acclimated to the TV. He came by for scritches while I was sitting on the foambag, watching Rescue Me. He agrees that Tommy is crazy, but does not think that Tommy should be with Sheila; we disagree on that point.

Meanwhile, Hamlet is busy discovering new hiding places. He is much less shy than he used to be, so yesterday he boldly crouched in the shoe rack, where he is only half hidden.

Why do his eyes photograph like this? Rama always gets red eye, which I can easily remove with iPhoto, but Hamlet's eyes turn blue and green. If someone knows the scientific reason here, please let me know.

Waaahhh.....

2006-07-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

Have been a little behind on the blog - ugh to 58 hour weeks. I don't want to work, I want to play with kitties!

We took Hamlet & Rama to get their last shots on Sunday. They were not very pleased about being stuffed in a cat carrier and schlepped in a car; they both cried and cried. Rama had never spoken before, but he was very loud and tearful and made me so sad.

However, neither of them seemed to mind the shot itself at all. In fact, after they got the shot, they were perfectly happy and stopped crying... as if they were like, "Oh, is this all this was about? I thought you were going to do something really bad to us."

Playtime

2006-07-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Rama made a break for it yesterday when I came home... luckily it is a gated apartment building, so he didn't get very far. He's very curious about the outdoors now, though, so he's made his first attempt at using the cat tree, to look out the window.

They are really into toys at this age, and really like anything with feathers, tails, and with bells. They also really like backpacks, paper bags, receipts, shoes, socks, and blankets. Hopefully there's enough to distract them so they give up any further plans of escape...

By any other name

2006-07-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Having trouble settling on names for the kittens. We really want fresh, original (pretentious) names that say something about the cats, and about us. I have mentioned on many occasions that I used to have a cat with one eye, and I wanted to name him Polyphemus, but I was talked out of it; I have always regretted that.

Have almost certainly picked Hamlet for the tiger, since he talks a lot, and he thinks about everything for a long time before he does it. A little less sure about the siamese, but I am leaning towards Rama because it is easy to say. We kind of gave up on "matching" names because these cats just don't match.

Here are the names that have been under consideration...

For the tiger:

Hamlet - after, you know, Hamlet
Schmendrick - the wizard from Last Unicorn
Montecore - the tiger that mauled Roy

For the siamese:

Rama - a hero of Hindu epic poetry, and also a Siamese king
Oolong - he kind of looks like he was dipped in tea
Radagast - the brown wizard from LOTR
Freud - because he seems kind of schizo
Orpheus - in search of a greek name
Bacchus - god of wine and good times; also the god of cats
Petruchio - to go with Hamlet, this was the only Shakespeare character that matched
Mercutio - or this one
Snowball - probably not

It is really weird having these cats and not knowing what to call them...

Pictures from Petfinder.com

2006-07-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of our 2 cats, taken by Kitten Rescue. They are still up on Petfinder.com today, proving the website is not always up-to-date.

The gray tiger Maine Coon (who is, obviously, half Siamese):

The lilac point Siamese (who is half Maine Coon?):

Baby Boys

2006-07-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

DH and I recently got married, and I decided that one of the first things we would do as a couple would be to get a cat. When I was staying with my parents before the wedding, their sweet dog Caesar kept me company when I was alone at night. I realized I really missed having a pet.

I love dogs, but there is no way we could keep a dog at our apartment with our schedules, so we decided to get a cat. After talking with a friend from the Craigslist boards who works with animal rescue, we decided to adopt a cat from Kitten Rescue in Los Angeles.

We went to PetCo, where Kitten Rescue holds adoptions every Saturday, and I fell in love with a lilac point Siamese boy kitten who was thirteen weeks old and very affectionate. Their foster mom said that she would not give us just one, that her kittens needed to be with at least one friend, so we adopted his brother also, a gray tiger Maine Coon.

These kittens could not be more different, but they are twins. Their mother was a feral Siamese beauty, and they were born in the back seat of an abandoned Jaguar. They are very well socialized, though, and while the tiger is very shy, they seem to be getting along pretty well in our apartment.

I'm really looking forward to raising these kittens. I know it sounds silly, but I think it will be good for DH and I as a couple to get used to taking care of living things other than ourselves.