Some of you may remember my post a while back about Raven, our getting-elderly-pee machine.

The issue wasn't that Raven was going outside the litter box purposefully, the issue was it seemed to be such a struggle to get into the box, she'd hang half her ass off the side (because she'd only go as far as RIGHT at the front) and then pee. Without squatting. So of course, there she'd be IN the litter box, peeing...out of it.

We've mostly solved that issue with a random find at a local pet store. This experiement has been running since a few days after asking advice and I gotta say, it's been pretty kick ass.

This dog litter box.





Yes. Dog. I am so far behind the 'pet times,' I guess. I hadn't a clue that they were making dog litter boxes. The one we have as pictured above is roughly as deep on the back and sides as the largest cat litter box, but without the huge wall of plastic at the front for Raven to jump over.

In fact, I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but there's a little plastic piece that fits over the opening that can be removed too--forming a lip that's nearly flush with the floor. Maybe no higher than an inch or two. Essentially, any cat with joint problems or too old to jungle-gym all over the place just to go poop can waltz right in and go.

With the old litter box, I was cleaning up her pee on the mat (a little blue mat that picks up some of the litter from their paws) four or five times a day. Now, with the newer, lower doggy litter box I might catch her having an accident once a week. With the added bonus of the puppy training pads around the front, I have even less clean up than before.

This dog litter box was a large--apparently you can order much, much larger ones. This will set you back $30 dollars, but, for Shawn and I, that really wasn't much to ensure our ol' kitty comfort and ease. Flora took to it in seconds too. So that's one worry out of the way.

It's heavy duty plastic and really durable so far, even with all the scratching and clawing. It's surprisingly light and easy to pick up when empty and clean. I really, really, really recommend this instead of the usual cat litter boxes if you have room for it and don't mind the fact there's no cover for it.

In other pet news: Some of you may recall that I was trying to move Nugget from a mostly seed and some pellet diet, to an complete pellet diet. We figured out what was wrong with the first set of pellets: they came in three colors, two shapes. Red, green as little beads and yellow/beige as banana shaped as well as smelling like fruit. He would eat all the red and green and leave the banana. So when he ran out of the little round red and green pellets he'd behave as if he were starving to death, tweeting and chirping and chirping and tweeeeeeting--leaving the 'naner shaped ones. So we didn't get it at first, as his food bowl would still be pretty full.

Eventually, we caught on and changed him over to Zupreem pellets. These pellets are round only with pieces of real dried fruit mixed in. He eats all of them without issue and we haven't fed him any seeds at all for over a week and a half. I'm very relieved we figured things out, as we realized that seed diets were simply awful for birdies.

And that's it on the pet front!

For the tl;dr crowd: Cat's peeing less due to a doggy litter pan and the bird's now eating an all pellet & fruit diet. Mel's a crazy animal lady. Blahblahblah.

P.S RANDOMRANDOMRANDOM: MY CAMERA WASN'T DELIVERED FRIDAY SO IT MIGHT COME TODAY AND I'M STILL EXCITED OH LAWD.

Batbatbatbattitybat?

I've been spending a lot of time not-thinking.

It's easy to do, this not-thinking. I fill my days with Age of Conan beta testing, stumble upon, laundry, cleaning, cooking, re writing and editing old pieces of writing or watching (yes, yes, I know) anime. I finished Wolf and Spice tonight. If you like anime at all, especially the less action more cerebral, try out Wolf and Spice.

AND, I take pictures a lot more. The cat was sitting right beside me in the window while I played Conan earlier. I took some time out of my busy day not-thinking to snap some more Flora shots.


Geev Keeses by =EpicureanPoetry

I'm slowly building up a digital photography tutorial list. It's helping.


This is her best side by =EpicureanPoetry

Shawn says he wants to by me a real SLR, apparently my FujiFilm isn't a true SLR. It was in response to me asking him for a polarizing filter, as well as maybe some equipment for me to do some macro photography, since I really, really, really like getting up close and what images can come of it. His response was, "why spend the money for lenses and filters for this one, when we can save up and buy you a better camera to go with them?"

I like this logic. A lot.

Back from emergency vet visit. Mr. Vet thinks that Flora might have teh herpes in the eyez and/or conjunctivitis --since this is a recurring flair up. This was the worst flair up yet. I thought there was seriously something wrong with her eyeball because I'd never witnessed her eye look more than occasionally irritated.

I've got magical goop that goes into her eye, three times a day.

So I can officially say that one story this week has had a happy ending. Albeit with maybe herpes. Still.

Did you know that April 10th is ASPCA Day?

No? Let's find out what the ASPCA day says about it!

ASPCA website says:

"On Thursday, April 10, cities all over the country will be going orange to celebrate the ASPCA’s victories on behalf of animals and the joy they bring to pet parents everywhere. Lend us your voice on April 10 by dressing yourself, your kids, your pet—even your school or company!—in ASPCA orange, and show the world you support the ASPCA and the pets we protect."

Sounds pretty damn good to me. I don't think I have anything orange, however. I think Shawn might have an awful Hawaiian shirt. I'll have to drum up something! Won't you wear orange on April 10th for me? Won't you help speak for those who don't have a voice?

If not, do it for Nugget:


EDIT: APRITH? I ORIGINALLY HAD APRITH IN THE TITLE. WHAT THE HELL IS AN APRITH?

So in case you missed it, Shawn for this Christmas past purchased a lightbox for me to practice and have fun with my macro photos. Or at least, have a little studio for taking pictures of leeeetle things.

Apparently a not-so-leeetle thing, called a Flora, also enjoys this purchase. Enough so to waltz right in, settle down and have a nap in it. I foresee some difficulties in trying to take cat-free pictures in the future.

















These are unedited for levels, colors, etcetc. I think one or two are really good, so I might edit them in lightbox further.