bossymarmalade | (no subject)

Today we went to the Winter Farmers' Market and bought absolutely no produce. But we DID get a slice of chocolate cake, a few chive and cheddar scones, gingersnaps, a mini apple pie, fresh baked pretzels and some vegan Montreal-style bagels that the lady assured us had been "boiled this morning", and three bottles of cordials to mix with club soda. Which is what we do for soda in our household, especially since I asked my parents for a Soda Stream last birthday (we got mango passionfruit, strawberry, and hibiscus lemon -- we were supposed to get blackcurrant instead of the strawberry, but I grabbed the wrong bottle at the stand, d'oh).

thesurgeon brought us some Grace's kola champagne and Jamaican sorrel syrups when he was up here visiting, so considering that Lori and I have mostly soda in our soda-to-syrup ratios, we're set till like, December, heh.

We also spent all last night mainlining My Cat From Hell with

21freckles . Now that I'm a dog auntie I am obsessed with looking at dogs on the street, and am considering a cat even though the idea of a litter box repulses me. Which brings me to my next thing: Lori, me, our friend Dasha and her fella Tobi all moved into this place together last September and we love it here and wanted it long-term, but circumstances for the landlords have changed and now they'll want to move back in September. Which, ugh, those are shitty circumstances for all involved, so if you've got the time and inclination, please send wishes or prayers out to the universe that they change their minds or that we find a really awesome new place! September's a whiles away, so who knows what can happen between now and then, right?

And finally, I am gonna be using my makeshift recs journal (

missmaggierecs ) as a more all-purpose recs journal now. So not just fic and art, but really anything else I try out in life that I feel like reviewing. Right now, I'm doing makeup!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If you want litterbox management options I am happy to provide them! (If specific parts of dealing with the litterbox make you go ick more than others, I mean.) Some cats you can train to use the toilet, but it depends.

And fingers definitely crossed for the housing situation. I hope that if you do have to move, you find a place that is ten times as perfect.

Lori actually went to the SPCA to look at cats of her own volition, which for my socially anxious sister basically means "We are getting a cat", hee! So I am at the point where litterbox management tips would be HUGELY appreciated. :D

Woohoo!

Okay, the biggest suggestion I have, if you're grossed out at the idea, is an automatic litterbox. You still have to do some cleaning (cleaning out the well that the litter gets raked into), but it keeps you from having to scoop the litterbox frequently, and helps a lot with smell.

Some cats will put up with a covered litterbox, which can help keep the litter from getting tracked everywhere. (Some cats won't put up with it at all, heh. Some cats prefer them.) Try it and see, though. If not, the litter will get tracked; get a dustpan and brush that you can just leave by the litterbox and make "sweep up the bits of litter that got tracked around" part of the routine. (I don't find scooping the litterbox gross, but I hate the feel of litter under my feet!)

It's also a good idea to put a mat underneath the litterbox so that if the cat misses the side of the box, you can just pick up the mat and wash it. If and when there is an accident, wash the area with Nature's Miracle spray; it can help keep the spot from being scented as "good place to pee" for later. (In general, Nature's Miracle is great stuff. The spray is good as a cleaning spray, and you can also add some in the laundry if you need to wash something the cat's peed on.)

If the cat won't tolerate an automatic litterbox, use a clumping cat litter (we use Precious Cat Ultra with a little bit of baking soda added for more odor control, but we have 4 cats; you might not need the baking soda) and get a Litter Locker/Litter Genie/etc type system for putting it in; it's like a diaper pail and isolates odor really well. (And minimizes the amount of "hauling around bags full of used litter" you have to do.)

Practically speaking, for gross-out purposes: nitrile gloves while scooping and breathe through your mouth, not your nose. :)

I found a Litter Locker on sale today for ten bucks and snapped it up, hee! I think having that will help me with the gross-out and tedium factor of scooping, especially since we don't have plastic grocery bags kicking around anymore to use.

We're probably gonna go with a conventional litterbox rather than an automatic -- is there a lot of dust with Precious Cat? I've been reading a ton of reviews of cat litter, from the wheat to the newspaper to corn to pine, and I haven't come to a strong decision yet on what we're gonna try out. But definitely the mat and the Nature's Miracle, we're gonna be getting!

Nope! Precious Cat is pretty much zero-dust, because it's basically just clumping clay. If you add the baking soda for extra odor control, that gets everywhere, but with just one cat, I don't think you'd need it. (We add it because we have four of them, and even scooping twice daily, it's a bit much.)