Organizing my sock basket…
…seems to be another impossible task.
8 Comments September 29, 2009
Scratching the floor after eating; the food burying instinct
Toby, our growing kitten, goes crazy scratching the floor after dinner time. Our first kitten, Lily, was a very mild floor scratcher so we had seen this before. Lily has largely grown out of it but her instinct will occasionally come out. Toby, on the other hand tears his dinner table up!
Cats, especially kittens, may scratch the floor around their food bowls after they have finished eating due to their native instinct. After their ancestors killed prey in the wild, what they could not eat they buried to come back for later.
We feed our cats wet food primarily in the evening and this is when Toby’s instinct comes out, after he finishes his wet food. In the midst of his “burying,” Toby throws the food plates across the kitchen but the most annoying thing is when he starts in on the dry food. (Yes, we feed both wet and dry). He will put one front paw in the dry food bowl and kick the kibble out of the bowl with his other paw. Kibble goes everywhere! It has become a nightly chore to clean up all the dry food scattered around the kitchen.
After cleaning up this kibble mess over and over, it is easy to get mad at Toby, but we can’t. Raising kittens, like baby humans, requires lots of patience. Toby knows no better; it is his instinct. We don’t know exactly what to do to keep him from throwing kibble all over hell, but one thing we can’t do is yell at him. What he have decided to do is monitor him after he is done eating and talk to him when he starts to go for the dry food bowl. We then pick up the dry food and let him finish scratching. Hopefully, this will allow him to exercise his instinct while training him to avoid having to “bury” the kibble.
Have any of you out there been through this? Any tips?
3,176 Comments September 28, 2009
“Cat Bong Man” Gets Jail Time
What a deranged man. The sad thing about this bizarre event is a lot of people think it is funny.
Judge Gale Pokorny sentenced Schomaker, 21, to 90 days in jail for stuffing a kitten into a homemade marijuana bong in March.
Schomaker cried as a sheriff’s deputy led him to a door at the back of the 
courtroom to begin serving his sentence. The judge ordered him to pay $1,171.30 in restitution to go to the Capital Humane Society for its care of the kitten, which has been adopted.
“I screwed up big time, and there’s nothing I can do to take it back,” Schomaker said.
Schomaker contends he’s not an animal abuser. He told his probation officer that if he disliked an animal, he “would not be wasting pot on it.”
12 Comments September 24, 2009
Scrapbooking is for kitties
Scrapbooking is definitely one of the top human activities the yields maximum kitty entertainment. You leave a cat in your scrapbooking room and they will be in heaven.
So many things to play with! Little pieces of odd shaped paper, pages, stickers, strings, plastic, and boxes.
My wife brought her big scrapbooking box out of the closet last night and spread everything out on the table. The kitten in even our most dignified cat, Lily, instantly came out. They all swarmed the supplies and quickly accepted an unsolicited role “helping” my wife. They didn’t get bored either. Far too much fun was in front of them!
An hour passed and my wife turned to show me her first completed page.
“What do you think of the first page? ”
“It took you a whole hour to glue two pictures on a page?” I said with a smile.
She replied, forcefully joking.
“How am I supposed to scrapbook with 4 cats around?!”
216 Comments September 24, 2009
Product Review: The Litter Lifter
The Litter Lifter is amazing. It’s a revolutionary litter scoop that will drastically improve your litter cleaning experience.
It easily will cut your litter cleaning time by about 75%. The unique design 
allows the litter to quickly filter through without the constant shaking. You simply lift the litter through the scoop. This, in addition to the large handle, reduces the litter weight in the scoop and makes cleaning easier for senior cat owners. The strong 7 inch slim design and angle of the scoop also contributes to quick cleaning and allows you to easily pry those urine deposits stuck to the bottom of the box.
Being the borderline OCD person I am, the main reason I love the Litter Lifter so much is because of it’s ability to reduce and remove litter urine “crumbs.” The absence of shaking reduces the amount of crumbs that will fall back into the litter. Additionally, the slightly slanted design of the tines catches even some of the smallest crumbs.
If you have several litter boxes to clean daily with several cats making deposits like I do, you shouldn’t think twice about getting the Litter Lifter. I was skeptical before ordering but it was only $13 with shipping and very glad I gave it a chance.
I’ve only used the Litter Lifter with clay litter, but have read positive reviews of others using with alternative products.
This infomercial give you an accurate idea how it works:
***BTW, I don’t get paid for product reviews and only endorse products I truly believe in and use personally.
3 Comments September 22, 2009
Cat Love – Gender Blind
During the weekly trip to Petsmart we always stop by and say hi to the shelter kitties. Yesterday, two young average GUYS were gushing over kittens. They appeared to be roommates and were interested in adopting.
The last two kittens in the litter remained and they agonized over which one to get. They quickly said, “we’ll take them both, we hate to separate them.” Before their adoption was even approved the two guys were excitingly picking out a litter box and deciding what food to feed their new little ones.
Considering societal norms and negative stereotypes, it was an unusual sight. Somehow, loving cats makes you less of a man, like you are a “girly boy,” or that something is “wrong” with you.
I couldn’t stop watching the two roommates at Petsmart. It was refreshing, because they didn’t care. They were adopting two little kittens they fell in love with, society be damned!
4 Comments September 21, 2009
LOL Cat of the Day
I love icanhascheezburger and I will occasionally pick my favorite post from the day’s lolcats. Today they only posted a few so this one is from yesterday. Runner-up here.
1,390 Comments September 18, 2009
Jon Gosselin bails on family dogs
As if you needed another reason to dislike the new found playboy. First he walks out on his family, now he betrays his two beautiful German 
Shepherd dogs. Of course, he blames both situations on Kate.
Just a few months ago, amid the separation turmoil, Jon described the dogs as “loyal creatures” that are a big part of his kid’s lives. Apparently the loyalty was not reciprocal. If you ever watched last season you could easily see how much the kids adored and loved the family pets. You would also know that Jon was primarily the one that wanted the dogs.
As we all know, family crises and sudden events often place pets in jeopardy. Many cats and dogs end up at a shelter due to divorce, sudden move, or death. I find these situations among some of the saddest. The pet is plucked suddenly out of their home and separated forever from the people they have 
developed deep affection for. There are definitely less humane options, but to suddenly find yourself in a cage after years of independence and love has to be heartbreaking. Like an innocent person thrown in jail.
But, there is little excuse for Jon. He is consciously giving up on his life commitment and responsibilities to his dogs consistent with the way he seems to be giving up on his family. He has other options, and he has resources. He could easily hire someone to come in and take care of the of the dogs as needed, just as they have help with the children. When you love your animals, you think about your animals and do anything possible not to lose them. But Jon is obviously in a pattern of selfishly behavior and is taking this situation to the unnecessary extreme.
Hopefully the dogs will have a happy ending and find a new home. They look like wonderful dogs. Remember Bo, the Obama’s dog, was in a similar situation, a rescue returned to the breeder.
I feel sad for the dogs and the kids who lost their friends. Especially when the result is completely avoidable.
13 Comments September 18, 2009
Welcome to CatConvo
I’m a guy in my late 20s. And I love cats. I’m so crazy for cats that I’m actually writing this cat blog. My wife and I have four wonderful cats and live in a one bedroom apartment. I am not a cat expert or a vet (I’m a lawyer actually), but I love talking about my daily cat experiences and observations.
Stick around and enjoy a conversation about cats.
481 Comments September 3, 2009
