8 posts tagged “cat”

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I woke up early this morning and the bed was shaking. I thought that maybe Pepper was taking a very vigorous bath (hee), but she wasn't even on the bed. And Mr. G was laying there like a log. I figured I must still be dreaming, so I went back to sleep. And then 20 minutes later we woke up to the news that we'd had a moderate (5.2-magnitude) earthquake!

When I was living in Peru, I remember waking up in the middle of the night and going out to the dining room, where all the plates were shaking and the room was tilting side to side. I have no idea what the magnitude was, but it was pretty scary for a little kid. I know that there were other earthquakes during the years we lived there, but that's the one I remember.

You'd think that, having experienced a terremoto before, I would have recognized what the bed-shaking meant. But we just don't get earthquakes around here! And I thought animals were supposed to warn you about this kind of thing ... Pepper, you failed!

For five months, I've been plagued with unbearably itchy eyes. I went to the doctor as soon as they started itching because I was worried that I had pink eye (or, worse, one of those scary fungal infections that they say you can get from contact solution). He assured me that my eyes were fine and I just needed some eye drops, but those didn't help at all. 

So, since my eyes were still driving me CRAZY, I finally decided to go back (all these months later) and demand an allergy test. His office just called me with the results. Apparently I had a high reaction to only one thing: cats!

But there's no way I'm giving up Pepper. For this face, I'll gladly become a slave to allergy meds:

Cats are self-sufficient creatures who don't need much. But having the following items around the house sure does make it easier for humans to coexist with them!

DRINKWELL PET FOUNTAIN

When Pepper was still a kitten, I noticed that she did not drink very much from her water bowl. But as soon as she discovered the faucets, we could not turn one on without her trying to drink from it! I thought it was cute, but Mr. G was grossed out ... and I began to worry that she was not getting enough water. Remembering that our vet had recommended getting a pet fountain, we decided to give the Drinkwell a try. Now Pepper gets plenty to drink (avoiding the health problems that can result from being dehydrated), and the fountain even provides entertainment for her: She has a grand old time preying on the bubbles that the water makes as the stream hits the pool.

I thought it might be a pain to clean, but all the parts (except the motor) are dishwasher safe. The only annoying thing is that, since we have hard water, sometimes the motor won't turn back on when I reassemble the fountain. The first time this happened, I called Drinkwell, and they told me to clean the motor with vinegar. This works pretty well, especially if you are faithful about cleaning the fountain once a week (that does not always happen at our house). However, over the course of two years, the water stream has gotten progressively weaker, and we've recently decided to purchase a new fountain to have on hand when the old one finally croaks.

CLEVERCAT LITTER BOX

Because I had only owned indoor/outdoor cats before, I'd never had a litter box in the house; Mr. G had never even owned a cat before. So when we first got Pepper, we just bought one of those small litter trays with no cover for her to use until she got big enough to climb into a regular litter box. 

While we were waiting for her to grow, I researched litter boxes and found many consumer complaints about how a cat could "miss" and pee over the edge of the box. Or if you had a box with a lid, the cat could spray the side of the lid. Because I wanted as little mess as possible, I was elated to find the Clevercat. This ingenious contraption looks like a trash bin with a flat lid that has a hole in it. Pepper just jumps up, climbs in, and then jumps out when she's done. She has plenty of room in there to turn around and cover things up ... and she has plenty of privacy.

Clevercat also sells custom-fit liners for the box, which ensure that the only surface not covered by a liner is the lid (and this has no chance of getting pee on it). If your cat is declawed, the liners are great because then you can just toss out the used litter with the liner, and you never have to wash out the box (cats with claws tend to rip holes in the liner, which defeats the purpose of using the liner).  

ARM & HAMMER LITTER

Again, since neither of us had owned a litter box before, we didn't know what type of litter was best. We tried eco-friendly litter made from corn cobs or recycled newpaper, but they didn't do the job. We settled on clumping litter, but we were bothered by the "perfumes" they used to cover up the smell of cat waste. Sometimes, the perfume smelled worse than the stuff it was supposed to cover up! I was using Neutra-Air plug-ins to neutralize the odor, but then Neutra-Air went off the market. I bought a Febreze air filter, and that helped, but I didn't want to have it turned on around the clock.

Fortunately, I mentioned the issue to my brother and his girlfriend, and they suggested that we try Arm & Hammer clumping litter. The combination of cat litter and odor-absorbing baking soda is AMAZING. We buy the fragrance-free kind, and you can't even tell there's a litter box in the room unless Pepper has just used it. It's so nice to know that your house doesn't smell like old cat pee.  

LITTER LOCKER

You know how no one wants dirty diapers sitting around in the trash can? Well, the same goes for the little clumps that have been scooped out of the litter box. Because we didn't want to have to take little baggies into the garage each time we scooped, we tried to get away with putting the baggies into a trash can that we kept in a cabinet under our sink. By the end of the week, however, the air in that cabinet was TOXIC.

Enter the Litter Locker. It's like a Diaper Genie for cat litter! And it may work even better than a DG ... we empty it once a week and never have an odor problem. We keep the Litter Locker right next to the Clevercat, so scooping is a relatively non-messy, definitely non-smelly cinch.

KITTY NESTS

We noticed a few specific spots in the house where Pepper liked to hang out, so we decided to find some beds to put there in order to protect the carpet. We hit the jackpot with these kitty nests made by Companion Road. They have a faux-suede exterior and are lined with faux lambskin (Pepper is a fleece addict, so this is perfect). Their circular shape is just the right size for a curled-up kitty to snuggle up in.

The best part about these beds, though, are their high sides (about 7 inches), which allow Pepper to feel protected and secure while she sleeps. And when she's feeling playful, the beds double as forts and hiding places for her. We own two and have just ordered a third!

HONORABLE MENTION

I must give shout-out to the Comfort Zone plug-ins. We wouldn't have survived the past two years without the calming pheremones that turned my mean kitty into a less-mean kitty. Thankfully, it seems that Pepper has finally started to trust us enough to shed her psycho persona, and in the past few weeks I believe we've successfully weaned her off of the feel-good vapors. Keep your fingers crossed for us! 

I walked into the kitchen this morning and saw Pepper staring out the sliding glass doors, tail swishing. At first, I thought she was just gazing at her own reflection. As I got closer, however, I realized that she was actually looking at another cat!

Look familiar? Yep, it's the neighborhood cat that murdered our backyard bunnies a few weeks ago. And now he's trying to put the moves on Pepper! I do not approve. 

Recently, we've noticed that Pepper goes crazy every time we unwrap a piece of mint gum. As soon as she hears the crinkling sound the paper makes, she comes tearing over to bury her nose in the wrapper. And then she passionately smells, smells, smells it!

I think it's pretty hilarious, so I generally let her smell away—until she gets greedy and starts to lick the wrapper, that is. (Although I haven't found any evidence to the contrary, I'm not so sure that sugarless gum is okay for cat consumption.) At that point, I have to throw away the wrapper in a trash can with a lid (otherwise, Pepper will dive right in for more olfactory fun). And that's usually the end of that.

Today, however, Pepper's mint attraction progressed to another level. Mr. Guycita caught her going through my purse (which she never does), and when I reached in to see what was so interesting, I discovered that she had gnawed off the corner of a brand-new pack of spearmint gum! She not only chewed a hole in the package, but she also nibbled on two pieces of gum. Fortunately, I don't think she actually ingested any of it.

I know that catnip is in the mint family (and Pepper goes cuckoo for good-quality catnip), but I had never heard of a cat liking other types of mint. According to Purina, though, some cats are indeed attracted to mint (and menthol, which explains why she liked to smell my Halls wrappers last winter—although to a lesser extent).

I guess I am going to have to keep my purse zipped up from now on!

We have a rabbit's nest in our backyard. When Mr. Guycita found it earlier this summer, I was inordinately excited at the prospect of spying baby bunnies through the kitchen window. So I wasn't too surprised yesterday when Mr. Guycita (who had been mowing the yard) burst into the house and declared, "The nest has babies in it." My initial joy, however, turned to horror as he continued, "I just saw a cat kill them."

Apparently, Mr. Guycita was entering the backyard when he witnessed a neighborhood cat give chase to (and easily catch) two tiny bunnies. He told me not to look out the kitchen window, but—although I was sad about the bunnies—I was very curious to see what was going on in the backyard. The scene before me was straight out of National Geographic, only on a much smaller scale and with a decidedly greener background than the Sahara: The big cat was hunched over its prey, tearing apart the flesh and devouring it.

Mr. Guycita went out later to get rid of any leftover scraps, but he could find nothing. He says that the cat did not leave even one bone uneaten! It must have had one of those moms that won't let you leave the table until you've cleaned your plate.

This morning I was trying to get some footage of Pepper playing with her favorite toy, Scooby. (She likes to carry him around, talk to him, bite him, wrestle with him, bathe him—it's so cute!) Unfortunately for me, she was apparently not in the mood to be filmed. Watch as she decides which arm of mine to take off:

In early October 2005, Mr. Guycita came home with the best surprise anyone's ever given me: a tiny, month-old kitten that one of his coworkers had found beside some railroad tracks a week earlier. It was love at first sight for me and, in an homage to The Beatles, we named her Pepper.

Twenty months later, I am still smitten. She, however, keeps me at arm's length. If I try to pet her (unless it's first thing in the morning or immediately after I get home from work), she either bites me or moves so that I can't reach her. Who cares that I am the person who feeds her, gives her water, scoops her box, and plays fetch with her? She simply does not want to me to bother her unless it's on her terms.

The same cannot be said about her feelings toward Mr. Guycita. Whenever he is around, she practically begs him for petting, her eyes following his hands' every move. He usually ignores her, but when he gives in, you'd think she was in heaven. She immediately begins to purr, her eyes slowly closing as her entire body relaxes. She appears to be in utter ecstasy. It's almost inappropriate—and I am totally jealous of his effect on her.

The vet says this behavior is normal for a female cat. Mr. Guycita says that I should just quit pestering her. But since I can't keep my hands off her, I guess all I can do is hope that she'll grow out of her crush. I have a lot of kitty love to give, and only one cat to give it to!