Toy Review: Catcessities on Etsy

Recently, one of my online friends sent us some lovely crocheted toys from her sister's Etsy shop:  Catcessities.  Pictures speak louder than anything I could write, so I'll let the kitties tell you how they enjoyed them!  Half the toys are now waiting under furniture to be rediscovered and played with again, and the ones that are still out get pawed around, carried, and play-fought over at least four or five times a day!

 Heimdall's favorite is the pink kitty ball with a jingle bell inside.  Just the right size for a 6-month-old kitten to carry around!

 Tabby likes anything with catnip, so of course the nip flower is her choice!

 Tabby defending the flower from Freya while Heimdall plays with the box.

 Uh-oh!  Heimdall's got crazy nip eyes!  This yarn ball gets thrown and pawed down the hallway, but is especially fun to play with at night under the bed.

 If you look closely, Carbon's blissed out with a catnip toy in the shape of a lemon!  That and the tassel ball are his favorites.

 Heimdall and Little Bit with yarn balls.

 Freya:  "No, brother, that's MINE!"

Heimdall:  "Well, I'll play with the string on the tassel ball, then."

Freya:  "No you won't; I'm hiding it in Daddy's shoe!"

Thanks, Debbie & quality-control officer Smudge!  Definitely a 5-paws-up for Catcessities!

New Iams canned food recall!!!

There is a new recall on Iams canned food!  Please read this article that Skeezix's mom wrote, and check your cans if you have any!

Say No to Nutro Ads on Catster!

If you have a Catster or Dogster account, or read the Vet Blog there, please be aware that there are now Nutro pet food ads on it.  Nutro food has been on numerous recall lists.  There is a huge protest on Catster, Dogster, and Facebook about this.  Click here for more information.

Favorite Household Toys

Your cat doesn't always need fancy store-bought toys.  A lot of times, simple household objects work just fine and sometimes are even preferred over "real" toys!  Carbon loves bottle caps, for example.  After we adopted him and Tabby as kittens, my husband couldn't figure out where the bottle caps he was saving on the counter (ones that had prize codes for free pop) were going.  They were disappearing, but there was no trace of them at all!  Then, one day, we caught baby kitten Carbon, six weeks old at the time, on top of the kitchen counter with a green cap in his mouth!  He looked at us, then hopped down with the cap, set it on the floor, and started batting it all around the kitchen happily.  Of course, we let him keep it!

Rori just brought me five of her "babies" that she dug out of the bathroom garbage can, chirping at me and at them.  Her choice for "babies" are q-tips!  She carries them around, decorates the house with them, then bites one of the ends off and swallows it.  Not the best idea, so we pick them up when we can, and usually put used ones in the fireplace rather than in the garbage so she can't get to them in the first place.

Tabby's choice is the cardboard tube left over from a toilet paper roll.  Once she sees one of those, she asks you to throw it for her, then goes absolutely nuts batting it all around the whole house.  She pounces on it, chases it up and down the hallway, carries it into a room then bats it out to the hallway again, and growls at it in a mock battle.

What are your cat's favorite household "toys"?

Fashion Friday: Pet Stroller Bling

I have a pet stroller for my cats.  Tabby uses it when she goes on her therapy visits to the nursing home, but the others go out in it from time to time as well.  It's a  Pet Gear Ultra-Lite, and we've had it for almost three years now.  They absolutely love it!  In the above picture, Tabby is trying to figure out why I zipped it up, because she loves to get in it and sleep, besides strolling!

I decided to decorate the stroller with various patches.  I got these at local craft stores, but you can get patches a variety of places, even on eBay!  Most of mine were regular iron-on patches that I glued on using Fabri-Tac.  Don't use Fabri-Tac, because two days later the patches fell off.  I am going to glue them back on with Gorilla Glue or another heavy-duty adhesive.

 Side view.  The paw print is the stroller brand logo, the white thing hanging down is a paw-print zipper pull, and the shiny out-of-focus white thing is a reflective kitty patch.  You can see just how reflective it is!  I have one on each side of the stroller, so that traffic can see us easily.  They are made by a company called "La Stephanoise", and imported.

Patches coming...

and going.

I also have a yield sign with two light options:  blinking red and steady red.  This bag attaches to the handle of the stroller, and the sign attaches to it with a strong magnet.  The bag is from a baby store, and the sign (by Nathan) is from a bike/outdoor shop.

ABO Gear Eco Food Storage Sac at PETCO

We've been looking for an easily washable alternative to our Rubbermaid ant-proof cat food storage bin, and I think I've found one! It's an online exclusive from Petco, called the ABO Gear Eco Food Storage Sac. It's made of jute, which washes extremely well, and has a zippered top and handles. There are two sizes. The smaller size holds a 30-lb bag, and the larger size holds a 50-lb bag. They are usually $35 and $45, respectively, but there is an online sale at the moment for 20% off. Click the link above to see this product on the Petco website.

Product Review: Eco-friendly Litterbox & Air Cleaner

When I was contacted by the manufacturers of Clean & Green to do a review, I didn't know quite what to expect.  An earth-friendly aerosol?  It sounded like an oxymoron.  As Starla is having litterbox issues right now, we had the perfect test house for their litterbox odor eliminator, so I requested that one to test.

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary aerosol can.  However, there are no harmful products or byproducts, the propellant is nitrogen, and it is safe to use around pets without additional cleanup afterwards!  Just shake, spray, and rub in with a cloth!  It's very easy to use, smells great, and degrades into gas and water after cleaning.

Starla had just peed outside the box, so I cleaned up the urine then sprayed the Litterbox Odor Eliminator on the wood floor and the wall.  Immediately, the smell in the air was gone, and within five minutes most of the smell on the floor was gone.  I rubbed the product in with a washcloth, waited about 20 minutes, then smelled the floor.  No urine smell at all!  It had all been taken care of!

This product works better than Nature's Miracle for wood floors, and eliminates the odor in the air as well as the surface odors, so is twice as effective with less product.  I am very happy with the Clean & Green Litterbox Odor Eliminator, and will definitely order it in the future.

To order this or Clean & Green's other cleaning products, see their website, Twitter, or Facebook pages.

Feline Health Record

Another awesome idea from Drs. Foster & Smith is the Feline Health Record form. At only 49 cents each, you can get one for each cat in your family. Fill it out with the pet's name, address, your name, and all the vaccination information. Keep track of when shots are due, when the next appointment is, and medicine refill schedules. If you foster, fill one out for each of your fosters and send it along to their new home when they get adopted.

Cord Protectors

I wish I'd known about these Cord Protectors when we had all the kittens last summer. They look like a great product! Each strip is 10 feet long (yes, you read that right!) and can be cut to length with household scissors. They are clear, thick, flexible plastic with a slit to slide around the cord and prevent chewing. If chewed on, the cat (or dog, or other animal) will only be making contact with the protector and not the cord itself. They are $8.99 plus shipping, and can be purchased from Drs. Foster & Smith at the link above.