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#21
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Yowie wrote:
I figured that if Shmogg has toxoplasmosis, and I've had him for 14 years, and been scratched and bitten on a pretty much daily basis, He bites you on a daily basis? What a nasty little bugger. Here in Australia, they say you've got far more of a chance of getting toxoplasmosis from eating raw vegies (including salad items) than you do from any cat, especially an indoor only one. Interesting. Here people are much more worried about toxo. It's a big issue for people with AIDS (or at least, it used to be, before effective treatments were developed), but also for pregnant women. But I can't deny that US culture is very fear-oriented and people tend to believe that they can ward off danger by taking all the appropriate precautions. The illusion of control over our destiny, I guess. Some of that is just plain human, but it's a particularly strong trait in the USA. getting into the car each day is a bigger risk to the Yowlet then all the rest of the (controllable) risks combined. Yeah, getting into a car is a huge risk, one that ironically we don't tend to worry about very much. We'd rather worry about much more minor dangers for some reason! I quit worrying about eating soft cheeses and cleaning the litterbox. What risks do soft cheeses pose? (Eek, I might have some of those lurking in my own fridge...) Joyce |
#22
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"Mischief" wrote in message om... ... First of all, I'm a little tired of having to clean up litter the bathroom every day. My cats go overkill when it comes to burying their stuff, so everytime they use the box there's about a cupful of litter on the floor, even with a litter box with a lid around the edges. Litter that I end up stepping on every time i go into the bathroom. Do you know what's it like to get out of the shower and step on cat litter? No matter how much I clean it up, it's always there. And that happens every time, no matter where the litter box is. You probably would say to put the box in the garage. ... Second, I'm a full time student and I also work. Expenses are tight and 30 bucks a month on cat litter is a bit much. I can't use those pearl/crystal types cause it doens't really lock in the odors. Since I'm in the bathroom, I need flushable litter. Thirdly, you say it's completely unnatural for a cat to do this. Oh, is it natural for my cat to use my roommate's bed for a litterbox while she's out of town? Is it natural for them to pee on carpet or piles of clean clothes? Finally, you say I'm a cruel person to do this. Wow, guess you have joined all the people in this world that hate me. Guess I'm going to stay up late and think long and hard about how I offended you. Better refill my anti-depressants. That's your opinion and I don't agree with it, but when it comes down to it, I really don't give a care what you think. If it works, cool. If not, I'll try to figure out other solutions. I think it can work, and I'll just have to wait and see. Kristi (unaffected) Hi Kristi, I wish I could find a litter that does not track, but so far I have not succeeded. The mats by the boxes catch some of the litter, but the rest ends up on the bathroom floor for one box and the laundry room floor for the other. Although we have a garage, I would not consider putting the box out there. And, like you, I don't like stepping out of the shower and picking up litter on the bottom of my feet. I reduced that problem by taking a few seconds to grab a nearby broom and sweep the floor before I take a shower. So, I understand your frustration. However, I have discovered that for everything you get in life, you give something up. I consider the couple of minutes a day it takes me to scoop the boxes and sweep the floor a small hassle compared to the pleasure I get from the cats' company. As for the peeing on the roommate's bed and your carpet, that is the usual way a cat will tell you there is a problem in the environment. As the human, it is your responsibility to find out what it is and solve it. It could be a medical problem, or it could be that litter box is not cleaned often enough, or not accessible, such as if you took the box away and offered the toilet as the only alternative. In any of those cases, in answer to your question, using the bed and carpets would be natural for the cat to use. Apparently, the $30 a month it costs for the cat litter is a major expense for you. I'm not sure how many cats you have, but we have two cats, and use Fresh Step Scoopable. It is excellent at odor control and I'm sure it costs us less than $15 per month. We are in the U.S. and buy it at the grocery store and at PetsMart. If you can get the same deal, you'd only have to cut another $15 a month to break even with reducing your expenses by $30. If you really are fed up with spending the time, effort and money to care for your cats without resentment, I think you should consider rehoming them with someone who has the emotional, financial, and time resources to provide for them. Maybe then you will be under less pressure and won't have to refill those anti-depressants and save even more money. You'd have more time to study (or sleep), too without all that time you're using to try to train your cat to use the toilet or staying up late to worry about offending people. Best wishes in finding a solution that makes things better for both you and your cats. Annie |
#24
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On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 23:40:53 -0800, Seanette Blaylock
wrote: snip Felix doesn't seem to mind it [and his little paws are fine], and as I said elsewhere in this discussion, I've found odor control much *better* with the crystal litter. Box liners, OTOH, are rather less than useless with him, as intensely as he digs :-). Same with Sammy, who digs furiously whenever new litter is put out. She's not interested in using the new litter, just playing in the sand. Thankfully, once it's been used she waits for the next time fresh litter comes before she plays. I tried liners, and Sammy shreds them. I have a box, with maybe 2 liners used out of it, that I bought a year ago. Felix's box resides in a hall closet, with plastic carpet protector under it. One advantage to the gravel-shaped vs. round little balls, it doesn't fly as far when he tunnels in it. :-) -- Steve Touchstone, faithful servant of Sammy, Little Bit and Rocky [remove Junk for email] Home Page: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html Cat Pix: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/animals.html |
#25
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On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 12:07:14 -0600, "Annie Wxill"
wrote: "Mischief" wrote in message . com... snip Finally, you say I'm a cruel person to do this. Wow, guess you have joined all the people in this world that hate me. Guess I'm going to stay up late and think long and hard about how I offended you. Better refill my anti-depressants. That's your opinion and I don't agree with it, but when it comes down to it, I really don't give a care what you think. If it works, cool. If not, I'll try to figure out other solutions. I think it can work, and I'll just have to wait and see. Kristi (unaffected) Hi Kristi, snip If you really are fed up with spending the time, effort and money to care for your cats without resentment, I think you should consider rehoming them with someone who has the emotional, financial, and time resources to provide for them. Maybe then you will be under less pressure and won't have to refill those anti-depressants and save even more money. You'd have more time to study (or sleep), too without all that time you're using to try to train your cat to use the toilet or staying up late to worry about offending people. Best wishes in finding a solution that makes things better for both you and your cats. Annie OK, here's my take, from her earlier posts. Kristi is new to catslavedom, has two cats, Imp and Mischief, and has posted some great stories and anecdotes. She has a web site with pix and stories about her pets, her cats and a hampster (?) recently RB (http://www.geocities.com/krysfamulan/stories.html). Being new to taking care of cats, she's run into a problem which is fairly common: the litterbox. She's tried various litters, and is now trying to train her cats to use the toilet. When she posted that she was going to give this a try, she recieved several responses, ranging from "good luck", "I know someone who has a cat that uses the toilet", to "it'll never work". This current thread, sort of a mini flame war, started when Kristi responded to someone who wrote that she was being cruel to force her cats to use the toilet, that it is unnatural and they might slip off the seat and fall in. The tone of her message is defensive and angry at being told she was mistreating her cats, which I think is understandable. From my reading of her latest message, I didn't get the feeling that she was fed up with the time and expense of caring for her cats, but was offended and angry being told she was being cruel. From Kristi's earlier posts, where she told of how she got her cats, and the funny/crazy things they do (just like all cats, right) I think indicate she loves Mischief and Imp. I look forward to reading more of their adventures. And, that's I have to say about it ;-) -- Steve Touchstone, faithful servant of Sammy, Little Bit and Rocky [remove Junk for email] Home Page: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html Cat Pix: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/animals.html |
#26
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wrote in message
... Yowie wrote: I figured that if Shmogg has toxoplasmosis, and I've had him for 14 years, and been scratched and bitten on a pretty much daily basis, He bites you on a daily basis? What a nasty little bugger. Pretty much on a daily basis. He lies in "crosshairs" of the hallway where the entrance to the laundry, toilet and bathroom is, and waits for unsuspecting feet to come past, and then attacks. And if that doesn't do it, he hops into bed with me and does the cute purry thing till I'm asleep and then bites the limbs that come too close to him during the night. Since I'm a "thrasher", I get bitten pretty much every single night. The biting is painful, but not usually enough to puncture the skin, but those claws (which he uses as well) regularly draw blood. My hands and feet are just one big maze of cat scratches, and I don't think I have been completley scab-less since the day I got him. And even worse, I still love the little b*st*rd! Otherwise known as the grey furry terrorist, these days. I quit worrying about eating soft cheeses and cleaning the litterbox. What risks do soft cheeses pose? (Eek, I might have some of those lurking in my own fridge...) Soft cheeses, cheeses with mold (blue vein types and camembert types) and unpasteurised cheeses, as well as cured raw meat products such as salami and ham, all have a small but slight risk of listeria. I was also warned about buying take-away food that sits there for a while before purchase, apparantly *that* is supposed to be quite dangerous to the pregnancy as well. Freshly cooked stuff, or stuff that has a definate turn-around time (like McDonalds) isn't so bad, but chicken shops are allegedly notorious as the chickens sit there being warm (but not warm enough) all day with lots of contaminants (and flies etc) in the air, and the salads sit there being cold (but not cold enough) int he same environment. Self-serve buffet places were supposed to be *really* bad because people sneeze and cough and even just breath over the food, they use their fingers (which may not be clean) and mix serving utensils between meat and vegetable dishes, and raw food with cooked food. Cold seafood (such as prawns an doysters) were also a big no-no. All present a slightly higher risk of food poisoning than freshly and properly cooked food, and food poisoning does present a small but real risk tot he fetus. In the end, its your call as to risks versus returns. I figure I don't smoke, barely drink (have had 3 standard drinks spread over 8 months), eat good healthy food and have even started doing mild excercise. I am not big on buffets or seafood, but do like my cheeses and salamis. In the end, I made sure that I was purchasing brand-name soft cheeses and salamis from reputable places with good turn overs, and wasn't really pigging out on them, so the risk, although higher than if I abstained, was still minimised. Besides, in the early days when I was throwing up all the time, I figured that whatever stayed down, even if it was a higher risk, was still better than anything considered "safe" that came straight back up again. And wouldn't you know it, I never chucked up any of the "high risk" food - only the really safe stuff. And from all the testing done so far, the Yowlet is just fine. Yowie |
#27
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Yowie wrote:
Self-serve buffet places were supposed to be *really* bad because people sneeze and cough and even just breath over the food, they use their fingers (which may not be clean) and mix serving utensils between meat and vegetable dishes, and raw food with cooked food. Cold seafood (such as prawns an doysters) were also a big no-no. Aaaagh! I'm never going to a buffet place again!! Joyce |
#28
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If all else fails, then i'll probable go to the bathroom towel on the
floor idea. I kinda exaggerated a bit about my problems, but I'm not going to find homes for my two kitties over something like this. The peeing in my roommate's bed happened when we were first trying out litters and Imp doesn't do that anymore. If they don't like the status of the litter box, they'll pee on my clothes to give me the message. Fresh Step does sound like a good idea, so it would just be a matter of weaning them off the wheat litter. I'm open to everyone's suggestions, and I thank everyone for their input. I'm just trying out different ways. If the cats can be trained, that would be cool. But if it doesn't work out, *sigh* then I'll go back to being the proper cat slave scooping the litter box. take care, Kristi |
#29
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"Seanette Blaylock" wrote in
message ... "Hopitus2" had some very interesting things to say about Toilet Training update: Our litterboxes are very large, oval, rounded (no corners) and "giant" liners fit well, with much side overlap. Broom & pan are cheap, short-handled, and stay right there nearby. I gave up on that crystal silicone litter simply because since it hurt *my* feet (you talk "sharp" and "pointy"! - that stuff is like shaved diamonds) little cat pads walking on it would also be hurting. Besides, I agree with her statement that odor control is poor with the silicone, at least it was here. Felix doesn't seem to mind it [and his little paws are fine], and as I said elsewhere in this discussion, I've found odor control much *better* with the crystal litter. Box liners, OTOH, are rather less than useless with him, as intensely as he digs :-). Shmogg shreds the liners too, but I have discovered if I put newspaper both under and over the liner and *then* pour in the litter, he can't easily puncture the plastic liner. And even if he does, the litter pretty much stays put and you just get soggy newspaper at the bottom. Far easier to clean than that strange cat-litter concrete that seems to form in the corners fo the box that takes *ages* to get rid of (who knew cat poo and clay made such a solid structure?) . Shmogg's favouritelitterbox is pretty much exactly the same size as a tabloid newspaper, and we get two tabloid newspapers delivered free each week. Cleaning out the box has been so much easier since I started using the newspaper and the liners together. Yowie |
#30
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"Mischief" wrote in message om... ... I'm open to everyone's suggestions, and I thank everyone for their input. I'm just trying out different ways. If the cats can be trained, that would be cool. But if it doesn't work out, *sigh* then I'll go back to being the proper cat slave scooping the litter box. Kristi Kristi, I hope that you will find a solution that is best for both you and your cats. Please let us know how it goes. Annie |
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