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4040. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:24:41 PM Just make sure they keep the litter box cleared out...I have a little slotted scoop that I use about 3 or 4 times a day to keep Harley's cleaned out. (Bag the little nuggets in plastic bags...don't ever flush them or the little that adheres to them will stop up your plumbing.) Change the whole litter out once a week. And we used to use a plastic litter box but my friend turned me on to these disposable ones, with litter already in them...you toss the whole thing once a week and they never absorb the odors like plastic has a tendency to do. My hadn't but as soon as he mentioned that, I started imagining it soon would!
Well, after buying 3 of the disposable ones, we discoved Harley hated the litter that came in them...it was "rockier" and I guess disturbed her tender little paws. Plus, the disposers were very shallow so she tossed litter like confetti onto the floor A LOT. So we hit upon a fantastic solution: disposable aluminum turkey roasting pans with her favorite "beach sand consistancy" litter that has baking soda in it! The pans are so durable, deep, and non-odor absorbing that we can go two weeks with one so less waste. She is happy, and we are happy, too. 4041. alistairconnor - 12/9/2007 3:34:12 PM Yes we are adepts of the little slotted scoop... those little nuggets are so beautiful, with the crunchy-looking bits of white litter, that they look like some regional chocolate speciality from Voisin... "Crottes du Périgord", $35 a kilo. 4042. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:36:18 PM The reasons for scooping out during the day are one, no chances of odor but mostly, two: you don't want a cat walking or scratching over and over in its poop & pee and then getting on every surface of you countertops and tables and being played with by your girls.
I thought everyone scooped multiple times a day until this poster on my forum said her cat had tossed a "turd" out into the hallway and asked jokingly if he was trying to ask for a litter change. I asked her how often she cleaned it and was appalled to hear "once a week, maybe"...and she has two cats! She said she HATES to clean the litter box...well, who doesn't? But people can walk into my house and not wrinkle their noses and ask how many cats we have whereas I'm sure they couldn't do that at hers.
We have Harley's box in the bathroom and I doubt anyone could tell it was there unless they happened upon her in mid-poop. If you keep it tidied up, you shouldn't be able to tell a cat lives with you until you see the actual cat standing there.
And by the way, congratulations to Petit Tom/Cookie on finally getting the hang of it! 4043. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:38:50 PM those little nuggets are so beautiful, with the crunchy-looking bits of white litter, that they look like some regional chocolate speciality from Voisin... "Crottes du Périgord", $35 a kilo.
Ha! I always think of Chocolate Nonpareils.
4044. wabbit - 12/9/2007 6:35:42 PM I've recommended these litter boxes here before - I have two of them and they're great. They do take up a bit of space, but they're worth having. To clean, roll them slowly, bang on the bottom with your hand, roll them back and empty the bin, then tip them back again a bit past flat to distribute the remaining clean litter. Easy peasy, takes about a minute. I have covered buckets left over from litter purchases that I use for collecting the waste, and when they get about half full, they get dumped.
medium size Omega Paw litter box
large size Omega Paw litter box 4045. judithathome - 12/10/2007 1:12:40 AM Ha...the first link went to...The Mote. At times, it might feel like a litter box but I doubt that's what you meant!
We couldn't fit even a small one of those in our bathroom, unfortunately. They look pretty cool, though! 4046. jexster - 12/10/2007 2:31:06 AM Swimming cat
4047. wabbit - 12/10/2007 5:42:28 PM Hmmm, careless careless me. Here is the correct link for the medium size Omega Paw litter box.
Sorry about that. 4048. wabbit - 12/10/2007 5:45:57 PM Cute tub kitteh. None of mine like swimming, afaik, but one has no qualms about being wet. She'll stand out in the rain (or snow) and not mind it one bit. She has a very thick coat. 4049. concerned - 12/10/2007 9:40:43 PM Actually, looks like the cat is walking around in the water. 4050. judithathome - 12/10/2007 10:00:11 PM I'd love to try that with Harley! Maybe dip her in first and soap her up and then set her loose to rinse off. I have given her two baths...in the kitchen sink, with the sprayer hose, but I fear those days are gone forever now.
I am opposed to declawing cats and certainly she's too old now to have it done but there days around here that I wish I had gone ahead and had it done when she was spayed. She's fast and deadly with those things.
However, in her favor, she HAS stopped attacking our feet in the mornings. 4051. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:05:21 PM Well, I've had the new heat pump (an Econar, made in Minnesota where they know what winter *really* means) running in my house for about a month now.
It definitely seems to be a better built unit than the Waterfurnace. For instance, the air heat exchange assembly is twice as deep, and the difference in air temperature is readily noticeable since it doesn't have to blow the air as hard to transfer the heat, so is quieter as well.
An additional piece of good luck appears to be that the earth loop that was installed (after I spent $11,000 having it backfilled so it wouldn't freeze up in the winter) has not been a problem. This means I don't probably have to spend another 25 grand having new wells dug and loops installed.
I paid for a 10 year full warranty on the Econar, and hopefully I won't have to take advantage of it. But time will tell.
In the meantime, I am proceeding with a lawsuit against Watefurnace. Their argument that the problem is the earth loop has obviously been discredited (see above), although they were also responsible for that defective installation that required my shelling out $11,000 to correct. So my primary goal is to recover all my out of pocket costs (well in excess of $40,000) that Waterfurnace forced me to spend to keep a working geothermal system in place. So much for Waterfurnace's '10 year full warranty'. 4052. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:08:19 PM And btw, if a cat ever shits or pisses in a part of your house he'll do it over and over in that same spot. So it will be interesting to see if y'all can break him of that. Wabbit knows more about that sort of thing than anybody, though, afaik.
An instant cure is to cover that spot with a big piece of furniture. Make sure you completely clean the odor up first, of course. After six months or so, if you remove the furniture, chances are good that the cat will have lost interest in using that spot, especially if some sort of feline repellent is then placed there.
4053. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:24:27 PM I once had a bigtime problem where I once lived with one of my cats who had regularly pishitted (new word, hey!) in a finished basement on a carpet. It was so bad, the whole room smelled like the inside of a cat's asshole. (I can tell jexster's getting excited here.) I was able to totally resolve the situation by buying several bottles of enzyme pet odor remover, mixing it with a good strong disinfecting cleaner and several gallons of water and literally saturating the whole basement carpet with this mixture.
After a few days, I rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned the whole thing. The result: pet odor totally gone, (no mildew odor either, even though it took almost two weeks to totally dry) and best of all, the cat didn't seem to have any interest in using the basement carpet as a toilet any more. 4054. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:26:07 PM Btw, the cat had really spread it around on that carpet. There was no 'one place' where she went. It was almost every place, but mostly near walls. 4055. wonkers2 - 12/11/2007 9:41:39 PM Concerned, I thought of you when I saw a cartoon in this week's New Yorker. Two attractive women are standing in a bar and one says to the other, "There's something about a man with a big carbon footprint that makes me really hot!" 4056. concerned - 12/11/2007 9:52:57 PM Wrt my carbon footprint, I'm Cinderella Man. Contrast that with your Chicken Little Hero, Carbon Bigfoot Bore, Globaloniliar supreme. 4057. thoughtful - 12/12/2007 1:47:00 AM concerned, we stopped by a house that is using geothermal heat and they seemed pretty happy with it. However, they told us something that our HVAC man neglected to tell us... that every time the system has to change from heat to ac and from ac back to heat, they have to have a technician in to do it and that it takes him 2 hrs to do it and it costs them $300 each time he shows up, and if they don't have that technician do it, it voids the warranty! That's $600 per year or about 2 tanks of oil.
Has that been your experience? 4058. arkymalarky - 12/12/2007 2:17:24 AM Hey Thoughtful!
Have y'all started on your house yet? 4059. concerned - 12/12/2007 2:28:58 AM Hi, thoughtful -
No, the Waterfurnace was completely controllable from the thermostat, and so, apparently is the Econar.
I'm curious who the manufacturer was of this heat pump, and whether it was an older model.
One slight down side of the Econar is the filter cost - the lowest it is available for is $20.00, being a large custom size, and it will probably need replacing 3-6 times a year. I'm looking into a lower cost alternative or two, though, where I replace the filter media in a permanent frame for about $3.00 a change, or, alternatively, get one of the reusable electrostatic filters that are supposed to only need a hosing down to clean them and are advertised to last for 'years'.
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