Tag Archives: pets

Chew this, not that.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten has been exercising. Unfortunately, the part of his anatomy he’s strengthening are his teeth.

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Results of his daily work outs? My spider plants that are being nibbled down to nubs. Enter kitty wheat grass.

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Something healthy and less likely to cause his premature demise at the hands of an annoyed human.

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Upon first introduction, he was not enthusiastic.

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But after the first chomp, he was hooked.

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Here’s hoping it’s tastier than my houseplants.

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You’ve got to be kidding.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten has been a finicky eater. When it comes to canned food he won’t eat fish. He won’t eat anything grilled or in pieces. No meaty morsels, no shreds. Nothing with cheesy bites or creamy sauce. The little bugger won’t even eat tuna FFS. It took me a solid month of trying every brand under the sun… from cheap to ridiculously expensive…. to find one kind he liked.

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It’s the only brand and variety he’ll eat every single time. So you know what that means….. it’s now virtually impossible to find. In person or online, and believe me I’ve tried. Oh, I could buy it on eBay.

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Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently it’s still being made but there’s a disruption in the supply chain which is making it scarce…. so the price gougers are in full swing. Amazon?

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A little better, but still outrageous. Sorry Dudley… you may have to learn to like bologna.

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Required weekly Dudley photos.

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Because he’s simply too photogenic not to share.

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Dudley likes to play with balls, and basically any round thing that rolls.

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Including raspberries his human drops on the floor.

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He also likes to stretch….

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And then runs out of energy before getting back in his original position. He sleeps like this all the time.

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While his takeover of the house is pretty much complete, from the look of this photo…. I fear the television might be next.

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The litter war.

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It’s a little too early to call, but by God I think may have just won the war.

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Thank you Exquisicat micro crystals. Maybe now the litter box graveyard in the basement can stop multiplying.

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This miracle product came highly recommended by a friend as being dust free, light weight and soft on kitty’s paws.

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Upon installation, Dudley gave it his usual glance of disdain.

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But I read you can transition by topping the new crystals with the old clay, so I tried that.

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He was still less than thrilled….

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But has done his business for the past few days with no scattering, no flinging, no dust and no mess.

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And from a human point of view, not having to chisel pee mortar from the bottom of the box is beyond victory… it’s positively orgasmic.

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Water heater hell.

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After 5 days of heating water on the stove for sponge baths… life was pretty bleak. (not to mention stinky) But our plumber came through and replaced not only the malfunctioning control board but the two elements as well. For free! I’m not exaggerating when I say my first shower after the repairs was longer than most sexual encounters. (I’d say it was more enjoyable as well, but feelings might be hurt.) Life was good! For 3 whole days….

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Until the hot water ran out and the unit was flashing another error code. F3 means compressor failure…. which didn’t sound good at all. After hours on the phone with our plumber, the FW Webb supplier and the Bradford White manufacturer… it was determined to be programmed incorrectly and was quickly resolved. Yay!

But no. It was also revealed that Webb had taken a water sample because the destruction of the elements was so severe and unprecedented there had to be an organic cause.

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These were the results, which I don’t claim to know anything about. Yes, we have high iron. Our whole area does because we live on clay near the river. Naturally the plumber and supplier are saying we need a whole house filtration system which will cost somewhere near $5,000. If we need it, fine. But I wanted a second opinion and fired off a copy of the results to our next door neighbor who is high up in the state water department. He’s basically drinking the same water, so if he says we need one I’m more apt to believe it. His wife sent me his response…

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Ok, so they have moderately hard water. This may cause premature failure of the heating element. If they have a lot of calcium buildup inside the dishwasher I could see this being an issue in the hot water tank, or maybe they notice etching on their drinking glasses. The pH and hardness are safe to drink, no issues there. The pH along with the hardness can result in scaling within anything that has hot water touching it. Meaning pipes, fixtures, heating elements. Do they notice these things?

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We yanked out the dishwasher when we moved in, but have no etching on our glasses. We’ve never had trouble with our water, and we’ve lived here almost 20 years. The plumber came back yesterday and took more samples. Said they need to find out why those elements burned out so quickly. (because you know they’re not going to admit it was a faulty unit) Our neighbor told us to send along those results as well. It pays to know people.

And in case you’re wondering?

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten was not inconvenienced in the least …. and probably wonders why we don’t just lick ourselves clean.

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Toys.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten loves to play.

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Which is why we have an entire drawer dedicated to cat toys.

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He loves his toys long and hard … and his favorite mouse is looking a little worse for wear these days.

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But then so am I, so I shouldn’t judge.

His favorite new thing to do is carry a ball to a spot under the coffee table….

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And then wind himself around a leg.

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He goes around and around in a circle and it’s quite comical to watch.

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Until I took a closer look and realized most of the coffee table legs now look like this…

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Sigh.

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Art I most definitely do not need.

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One little picture of Dudley on Facebook. That’s all it took for the Catopia algorithm to switch into high gear. And today? Unfortunately it’s bathroom themed.

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Yikes.

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Not anymore, no. Although thanks to Covid and an injured knee…. there is a whole lot more of it.

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Wow.

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I’d say this poster is a little cheeky, but that’s a tad too on point.

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If Dudley wanders in and hands me the toilet paper? I’m totally ditching Facebook.

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Update.

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And I know more than a few of you have been waiting for this …

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten was not pleased with the new litter in his box.

How not pleased was he? Every time he needed to poo….

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I caught him digging in my houseplants. He would pee in the box, but not poop…. and it was a total nightmare. After picking him up and placing him in the box at least 426 times… only to have him jump out of it like it was on fire… I gave up and switched back to the old litter.

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With predictable results. $29 bag of Skoon?

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You can kiss my ass.

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So, Skoon.

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( Yes, I’m really going to blog about cat litter. Dudley is a new family member and the boring minutia of his daily life must be shared, just like mine. Enjoy! )

The weird cat litter came in the mail today.

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And it must be seriously odd, because look at the expression on that cat’s face.

First impression?

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The pieces are large, tis true… but their claim of being dust free is an unadulterated lie. A veritable lung clogging cloud rose from filling the box which you can see by how much stuck to the sides.

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The very high sides of yet another box I purchased in the ongoing how do I stop the litter flinging saga. This is number 5…. but who’s counting?

As for Dudley –

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He wasn’t impressed. After walking around it a few times…

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He put two feet in…

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Then turned around and said, WTH mom? You can’t blame him, the poor guy has had a new toilet every week since he moved in. But I’m a determined soul, and will figure out a solution if it kills me. Me, and my wallet.

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