woo-hoo!

(woulda had this sooner but you hadn't updated in so long -- Jasper took you off his links page, and I piggyback on him for easy clickin')

Nick -- what, you don't j-walk?

It's quite honorable to be mentioned in the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. Congrats, Heather! Look at that--a couple of nice pro sales and an honorable mention, the name Heather Shaw is shining through.

Congratulations on the honorable mention, Heather! And you're telling me you just wrote the SWF story? Whoosh! I read it yesterday while sitting under a tree in the park, which made for a perfect afternoon.

We don't do the collar thing up here: we never let the kitties out of the house, and fleas don't thrive over 5k'.

I remember when we got Tia and Starlight, though. I don't think they tried to strangle each other (although I'm sure Starlight contemplated it more than once but was far too much the little lady to follow through.)

Proof! Kittens are Tool Users. Between them and the crows, we're running out of Things That Make Humans Special.

I take it from your untainted praise for the two fluffballs that the strange feline odor has subsided? Or, at least, the cuteness outweighs it?

Yes, kittens are definitely tool users. Tia figured out how to turn on my old Mac via its keyboard ON key and would tense up, pounce, then immediately check out the monitor to watch it turn on.

Thanks for all the congrats, guys! I hadn't realized that I hadn't responded to those yet! Eep!

Yes, the kittens are tool users. Disconcerting, but true. I bought them little electronic butterflies that beep and light up (their eyes do) when you press them a certain way, and it only took Zanzi about 15 minutes to figure out how to turn them on himself!

If only I could get them to use the toilet! The bathroom stinks to high kitty litter heaven, though, yes, the cuteness does make up for it, Dan. I'm switching to a better kitty litter, though I'm not supposed to use the clumping kind until they're at least 6 months old. But the cat pee is overwhelming, even though I scoop the poop every day! I hope Fresh Step will help to counter this a bit.

Sigh.

They also sell that baking soda stuff that you add to the litter. It helps somewhat, and I think regular baking soda would also do the trick. Fresh Step is also good stuff.

I'm posting on the virtues of kitty litter. Somebody kill me. Kill me now.

You're not supposed to use the clumping kind with baby kitties? Why not? I don't think we could live without Scoop Away!

Jon, no! No killing! I desperately need the kitty litter advice! I forgot it could get so bad! Gasp!

I think it might help once I get them, you know, snipped.

Rachel, according to the SPCA, the clumping kind gets into little kitten tummies when they clean their feet, and it swells up and hurts them. They recommended Jonny Cat, which is cheap, but doesn't do anything fancy such as control odor or clump. I'm about to experiment with it anyway, though; clumping makes a big difference, if I remember correctly :-)

Here's a link to a supposedly really good clumping kitty litter: World's Best Cat Litter. The stuff is made out of corn and clumps better, is natural, is dust-free, lasts longer, you can flush it down the toilet, etc (see site for full features). Everyone we know who uses it loves it. We tried it for Jing, but she's old (19+ years) and doesn't like her brand of litter changed (Arm&Hammer Scoopable). She peed other places when we tried the stuff. It's a shame, based on all the benefits that people say it delivers on. Hopefully yours are less fickle.

What you really need, instead, is a dog.

I was thinking less of the commonplace charms of cat urine and more of this:

Zanzibar is on antibiotics. We hope and pray that the antibiotics are the source of his horrible nose-hair-searing nasty smelly cat farts.

How's that turning out?

I'd love to see the Kitten Operating Machinery trick in action, odor or no odor.

Dan: Heather's off to Oregon and away from the 'net for a few days, so I'll answer. Zanzibar's putrid stench did, indeed, clear up when he finished with his antibiotic treatment, so we suppose that was the culprit. Now we're just dealing with commonplace cat-stink.

The answer is to scoop everytime you walk by the litter boxes. Don't let the stuff accummulate in the litter box. Scoop and flush, scoop and flush....that's what I do for my 6 kitties. If it's something in the clumping litter box, I scoop and bag it and close the top of the bag to seal in the smell. Mom