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Is it bad to admit that I hate spending money on cat scratchers? I mean, I know the kitties need it for various instinctual reasons but spending money that is literally being shredded, I don't even want to deal with it. 

But, the fact remained that the cats were in desperate need of new scratching posts. Miss Kitten shredded both of her sisal rope ones and she was starting to unravel it from their posts. Ian uses the posts too but likes to sneak around an scratch Mom's sofa despite us using the 'no-scrach' spray. :/ 

The posts weren't that expensive- probably in the $15-25 range and I got one from Target and I found the other at Burlington Coat Factory (not where you'd imagine seeing pet things but they do have a few cheaper items there). Of course, being the inexpensive posts that they were, their lifetime was pretty short. I think they each lasted about 6 months or so.

So, if you think about it- if you buy 4 posts a year that's nearly $100 already that is just pointless money being spent. 

Instead of heading to Petco or Petsmart, I decided to head over to everyone's favorite virtual shopping experience, Amazon. I've used it a ton for the truck or anything I can't find and I get free shipping because I forgot to cancel my free trial of Amazon Prime earlier this year. I think they count on a lot of people doing that. 

Anyways, I looked up various scratchers and the #1 Bestseller really caught my eye. It wasn't a sisal scratcher (which from experience the cats love those but they don't last) and it was 32 inches tall which allows for the cats to fully stretch. I also like them to have scratchers that are sturdy and tall enough for them to use or they won't use it if they deem it flimsy.

The reviews were wonderful and many people have had it for years and it's barely shown any wear-and-tear. I really didn't want to pay $45. I also really really didn't want to buy two because we needed one for upstairs and downstairs.

But, I figured if they do last as long as the reviews claim that in the long run it would be worth it. 

Less than two days later they were delivered and I was immediately stunned by how heavy the box they came in was! 

They were extremely easy to put together: there were two boards that stuck together with pegs to make the base and a couple screws to hold the post in place. Pretty straight forward.

I was surprised about how the new posts dwarfed the old ones! I definitely think the sheer size of the new posts were well worth the money. 

The base is nice and sturdy and Ian took to the new post right away. Putting one near Mom's sofa has definitely changed his scratching habits now. Miss Kitten had to be coaxed with toys but she seems to like them and is now using them all the time. 

I've had them for nearly a month now and they haven't shown any sign of wear yet so I deem this a pretty great purchase!

  

Flea Bags

How are the flea bags doing?

Well, hopefully better now that I actually got some treatment that is supposed to work.

Here's the thing, everyone, DO NOT buy Hartz flea treatments. A quick Google search will turn up a multitude of horror stories about the affects of Hartz. It boils down to: Hartz is poison. Hartzvictims.org is just one of many sites spanning the web dedicated to bringing about awareness of how dangerous Hartz flea and tick products are to pets. 

I even called our vet to ask them about the best treatments that I could get because I had used Hartz to no avail. They also were very adamant about how awful Hartz is for animals and recommended Frontline or Advantage (which I had already thought of using but wanted some assurance). 

So yeah, I put something horrific on all of our cats. It can cause neurological damage and death. Luckily, they're doing fine and show no signs of any damage.

And, for all the danger the pets are in from the horrific affects of Hartz, it's not even working! Zelda has had it on the longest and she has the most eggs and fleas out of all of them. What a waste of $20 that could have been put toward buying Advantage (4 doses were $62). 

I'm sick of thinking about fleas! I even dreamt about them last night, woke up out of a dream because I felt covered in them and turned on the light to search my bed. Fuuuun. 

You know what's better than fleas??

This picture of a piglet at a miniature table eating ice cream under an umbrella. A-dor-able. You're welcome.

Who's Patient Zero?

Here's something I didn't expect to be doing today: battling fleas. 

So, a couple days ago I observed a bug or two on Zelda's little face. They didn't look like fleas to me but just winged gnat-type bugs. They didn't jump from her when I grabbed them but as a precaution I put some flea treatment on her. 

Fast forward a few days and this morning I came home from dropping Russ off at work and I laid down to snuggle with Ian for a few extra Zz's. He came up to me and pawed at his nose and I see a black bug on his nose. I quickly grab it because I'm already on alert from Miss Kitten's issue and it jumps from my fingers. 

Oh, crap.

Well, I didn't say that exactly if you know what I mean. 

I grabbed Ian and took him into the bathroom, took off his collar and applied some spot-on flea treatment to his shoulder blade area. I furiously vacuumed the downstairs, threw their cat blankets in the washer, searched my bed for more spots (luckily nothing... but I still want to wash my sheets), and decide to quarantine my cats to the downstairs like we do every night anyway. 

I went upstairs to make coffee and to greet Mom as she comes home from work. Gizmo is hanging out in the sunroom so I decided to check him for fleas just to make sure the quarantine is worth it. 

I parted the fur on the back of his neck and immediately saw a flea dive back into the fur forest. Yep, Gizmo had fleas too. 

A quick Google search will help you with everything you need to know about getting rid of fleas. Luckily for us, I think I caught it just in time like I did the first time Ian had fleas back when we first got him.

My easy, quick tips would be:

1.) Keep your cats and dogs up to date on their preventative treatments (which... I'm a bad cat mommy because I was a little lax the past few months).
2.) Wash pet bedding and anything and everything fabric that your pet lays on or is around constantly, in hot water.
3.) Vacuum. Vacuum. Vacuum. Put a flea collar in the vacuum bag or replace your bag after flea vacuuming (you don't want those turds coming out of the bag and back into your carpet!) 

I found something pretty cool though, on Pet Care Rx  you can search your area and find out the flea and tick risk. 

Which... apparently our risk is really high right now. 

Mickey seems to be the only one not infected... or affected(?) right now but I dosed him with treatment too. 

Then I gave them some kitty treats to make things a little better for them. 

Cat Tales

It's been a while since I posted about all the kitty cats that are now part of one big happy kitty family. So, you may be wondering how four cats who were thrown together in a household are getting along? (Or you may not be wondering because you don't care about my pets... what's wrong with you?:P...) 

I really envisioned it being chaos. I saw visions of scratching, spraying, hissing, and running around crazy. There is some of those things but it's been a lot easier than I expected. Sometimes their little kitty personalities clash a little which can lead to some irritation between them. 

It helps that I separate them at mealtimes that way they're used to eating with the same cat they've been living with and the other won't be tempted as much to steal food. Thankfully our door to the downstairs makes it easier to isolate them for meals. I also isolate my part of the house from the upstairs at night so the cats get a little break from each other, which helps, and I can feed mine at barely dawn when they park their butts on my face to wake me up. 

But, who cares about all that? Where's the cute pictures?!

They like to enjoy the sunroom on some extra cardboard. They love the warm sunlight on the carpet. 

I think Miss Kitten was deliberately posing for this one, huh?

This is the only time Mickey can be caught for a picture.  He's usually too active and happy to have your attention than to pose for a shot.

And here's Gizmo, busy being his handsome self. 

Now that I've smothered you with cuteness, have a Happy Friday! :D

Pinterest Roundup- Cat Lady Edition

I haven't done a Pinterest post in a while! Here's my top five cat-related things I've pinned and loved.

1.) This adorable cinnamon kitten that I want to snuggle all day.

Source not found- bad link on Pinterest.

2.) This is SO true. So true. 

Source

3.) This. 

Source

4.) Cuteness overload!

Source

5.) What's cuter than a kitty DJ?

Source

Have a great day, everyone! :)

Update: Cat Car Travel

If anyone ever tells you that traveling with a pet can be stress-free, please feel free to slap them (and that includes me- but to be fair, I never said it would be as my article was titled on Offbeat Home).

For 3,146 miles or 47 straight hours in the car from Norfolk, Virginia to Seattle, Washington we hauled our poor kitties in the car. For the most part, they were pretty quiet and if I had to guess I would say they meowed for about 15-20% of the time. Which... if you own cats, you know that that is a pretty small percentage for the amount of time in the car.

For the circumstances, Zelda and Ian were really wonderful. It wasn’t their fault that Russ and I were extremely stressed, tired, and emotionally exhausted. It wasn’t their fault that Zelda had pyometra and we were concerned about keeping her alive long enough to reach a vet in Washington. It wasn’t their fault that we ran into downpours, dense fog, snow, idiots, and dark mountains with downpours.

They were real kitty troopers, that’s for sure. And when I look back on the magnitude of this trip, I’m really proud of Russ and I for doing it. It was a chore. The biggest pain in the ass trip I’ve ever taken. I was under the sad delusion that it wouldn’t be that bad- but it was that bad. While under normal circumstances, a trip like this would have been stressful. But, trying to keep two cats alive and healthy and not meowing their heads off- that was a feat. It really tested my strength and patience like nothing else.

GOOD- Here’s some things that worked:

-Getting the cats used to riding in the car ahead of time.

-Using a rubbermaid container as a litter box. It prevented any spillage and kept any smelliness kept tightly locked up, it was wonderful.

-Letting the kitties out of the carrier in a barricaded part of the car for about twenty minutes mid-driving day. They were offered water (though, they were so excited to explore and stretch that they didn’t pay attention). Windows up (or cracked) and doors locked, of course.

-Feeding wet food and giving them lots of water in the hotel room to avoid dehydration.

-Giving them a space to see you and communicate with you and receive sporadic treats and pets.

-Using old table place mats for their food and litter area. It saved many a hotel carpet from kitty messes.

-Taking along air freshener. Having a litter box in such a small area with no air flow can make your room smell rank. We took along our Gain-scented Febreze and the room smelled pretty good when we checked out.

-Since we couldn’t find elastic buckling collars, we ended up getting nicely fitting small dog collars (which were more durable than most of the cat collars we found). I thought it was better to have non-breakaway collars in case they did somehow get away their collars wouldn’t slip off as easily.

-TripsWithPets.com was an amazingly easy way to find great pet friendly hotels along our route. You can input your starting location and your destination and actually follow along your route to find hotels, it was great! Some hotels offered a discount if you booked through tripswithpets.com.

-Taking a portable cardboard scratcher worked wonderfully- they loved being able to use it in the hotel room at night.

BAD- What Didn’t Work:

-Letting them out to use the kitty box. I tried this once with Ian and it was a disaster. For one, they’re so curious to explore the car that they couldn’t care less about potty time. And, putting them in the box only causes them to sprint out and litter goes flying all over the car. Not a great idea.

-Letting the cats out of the carrier before fully exploring the hotel for potential hazards just because you wanted them to stop pawing at the door... (see next paragraph).

THE UGLY- Things That Happened During the Trip That I Thought Would Never Happen/ That I Thought I’d Never Have To Do:

-Cutting a square out of a nice fleece blanket after Zelda took a massive dump and made a mess all over it. Thank goodness Russ brought a Swiss Army knife because I did not want to ask the front desk for scissors to cut up my cat’s poop blanket.

-Screaming and yelling at my cat, “I HATE YOU! I’M GOING TO THROW YOU OUT OF THE CAR! [random obscenities]!!!” Don’t judge me. You’ll get to that point too, trust me. Especially after twenty minutes of scratching and howling to get out of the carrier.   

-Having to keep Zelda’s antibiotics in a cooler and cold at all times. And giving her two doses a day. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about.

-Shoving hotel pillows up into the holes torn into the bed box spring so Zelda didn’t climb up into the bed. Luckily only two out of the five hotels we stayed in had this issue. Most “pet rooms” have the bed sitting on a box but not Lincoln, NE Quality Inn, sadly. Thank goodness for the superfluous amount of pillows they provide or we would have been shoving our clothes up there.

-Cleaning cat poop off my dashboard.

-Contemplating why I ever thought adopting a pet would be fun.

-Playing the “Is That Smell Cow Poop or Cat Poop?” Game.

It was the most difficult road trip I have ever (or probably will ever... unless we move again) taken. But, if you love your children and don’t think of them as a pet but rather a family member, there really is no option of leaving them behind.

And if you’ve got a road trip that you’re taking your cat on, godspeed. It’s going to be an interesting ride.

Zelda Update

Once the holidays are over, Zelda's more recovered, and we're a little more unpacked and less messy I hope to start some new awesome projects on the blog. Just bear with me... it's been a weird couple of weeks and it's not over yet.

However, Zelda's surgery is over and she's now working on recovering. We took her home last night after two nights at the animal hospital. I couldn't be more pleased with the doctors, staff, and her wonderful progress. She's a very rambunctious kitty, still full of kitten energy and happiness. The staff just gushed over her while she was there because she's so sweet and playful.

Last night when we picked her up they actually showed us video of her surgery and what they removed. It was weird but interesting to see the procedure. 

And if you're a little squeamish, don't look.... It's actually not too bad. 

But, here's her incision. She's going to have a lot of recovering to do...

Miss Zelda

This week has been hectic and trying so far. As I have mentioned before, Zelda's health hasn't been too great since we left Virginia. We had another incident the other night after her recent dosage of antibiotics ran out and we knew it was time to get down to what was causing her illness. 

I took her to our new vet here and decided that yes, it was time to fork over the cash to get Zelda her ultrasound to ultimately diagnose her with pyrometra (infection of the uterus). $400 later and it was pretty conclusive that she definitely had a stump pyrometra and that she was, "one of a million" cats, according to the vet, to get this condition especially since she had been spayed. 

When the condition occurs in altered cats its because a small piece of ovarian tissue is left after a spay. The ovarian tissue causes her cervix to open and become receptive in hopes that she will become pregnant. However, because the small section of uterus isn't connected to anything anymore, when the cervix opens it can take in bacteria. That's what happened to poor Zelda and unfortunately it was a perfect place for bacteria to grow and fester. 

Happily, Zelda was doing remarkably well (which I heard from both veterinarians I took her to) and I was able to quickly call around for the best price and place to get her surgery done. Our initial vet wouldn't keep her overnight because they weren't open and would cost nearly $2,000 after all was said and done. After some early morning calls, I found a place a few more miles away that would perform the surgery immediately and keep her up to two nights for observation for less than that. 

It was a very serious and complicated surgery. The surgeons actually called me mid-surgery to inform me about what was going on and that they had run into a snag: her infected uterus was close to her kidney and they were informing me about the risks of removing it. But... there really was no good scenario. It had to come out or she would surely die. 

I got a call after the surgery that she had made it though and that there was no obvious damage to any surrounding structures. I also was called early this morning about her condition and she was up, eating, drinking, and trying to play. She seems to be doing really well and we're just waiting to hear a call from the doctor this morning about when we can go pick her up. 

I'm just hoping that getting this removed that she will finally be a healthy little kitten. 

It's been tough though, having to make these decisions on my own because Russ was busy on his ship and wasn't home with me. Guess I'm earning my Navy wife stripes, right? 

Pet Profile: Zelda

Sorry if you're sick of my pets. Oh well, they're awesome!

Name: Zelda Peach (two video game names)
Nicknames: Miss Zelda, Miss Kitten, Kitten-baby, Baby-Girl, Smellda (she did stink for a period... and does sometimes still)
Age: 6 months
Date of Adoption: July 25, 2012

Favorite Toy: Pretty much anything but especially her stuffed pink/purple mouse, shoe strings, and the laser pointer. She has completely destroyed one purple and one pink mouse already... for some reason she really rejects the white one, weird huh?

Before

After- she's actually ripped the stuffings out of her first one!

Seen with her favorite toy, her stuffed pink/purple mouse.

Favorite Sleep Spot: Under the bed.

Quirks: She loves to be held like a baby and loves to pounce at the wall while chasing shadows and reflections from the windows. She also LOVES watching the laptop mouse and anything on TV.

Favorite Activity: Chasing Ian, pouncing on Ian, chasing the laser, looking out the window.

Bad Habit: Has a fondness for unrolling and playing with the toilet paper. She also likes to confiscate pens and pencils. She also is quite fascinated with unlatching her collar.
Favorite Time of Day: In the morning when the blinds open. She'll hop up immediately to take a look outside at the birds and squirrels. 

Favorite Food: Ian's food- whatever he's eating.

Likes: Twisting in cords, batting anything and everything around, treats, playing on the scratching post. She loves to play in plastic shopping bags because of their crinkling noises they make. 

Dislikes: Being held for too long, getting her nails trimmed.

Other Facts: She's the typical 'annoying little sister' and bugs Ian as much as possible. Deep down he still loves her...

Sometimes she'll sleep with her paws folded like she's doing some sort of meditation. 

She enjoys a game of 'peekaboo' and will actually pounce at you from around a corner.

And she's always purring. I've never met such a sweet and happy cat!

I hope you all have a beautiful, warm, delicious, wonderful, and Happy Thanksgiving! (I'll be back either tomorrow night with a post or Friday morning to let you guys know about my Thanksgiving plans!)