Suck it up

Years ago, way before kids, we bought a Dyson Animal to deal with the detritus of our three cats. Now we have six cats and it's that lovely time of year when all of them are shedding their winter coats. There is literally fur flying everywhere. I can't keep up with it. And Jasper is trying to learn to crawl. Ick. It doesn't help that our old vacuum is kind of on its last legs. (Mind you, this is not due to poor design, but the fact that it's been used to clean up sawdust one time too many. Hmm, I wonder who's responsible for that?) Or that it features an ill-conceived Incredible Hulk color scheme: purple and green. With sparkles. It's time for an upgrade, obviously.

Kristin from An Ordinary Life is actually giving away one of the new-fangled Dyson Ball vacuum cleaners. They're like other Dysons, with the cyclonic suction, but they are even more maneuverable and sexy, with a swivel in their hips, so to speak. This one and the Animal handheld are totally on my wishlist…

Remembering

I won a contest at So A Blonde Walks into a Review. The prize was a gift certificate to Peternity, an online store specializing in pet memorials. I wish my gentle readers wouldn't ever have the need for their services, but it is certainly very comforting for me to have a permanent reminder of lost pets.

Here, kitty, kitty…

Please take a moment to peruse the unbelievably adorable feline finery on sale now at boygirlparty.com, the website of modern-day jill-of-all-trades Susie Ghahremani:





Then buy one of everything on her site and mail it to me.

What's New, Pussycat?

moderncat is a design blog for cats and those who love them. Seriously! I had no idea that there was this much amazing stuff made for cats, perhaps because I live in such a dogcentric community. My husband is all about reading CatFancy at the vet's office, but moderncat truly goes above and beyond that perversely satisfying rag. (It has pin-ups, people!)

I couldn't stop reading the archived posts and oohing and aahing over everything that my cats so obviously deserve… The swanky feline furniture from ThePetProject, a design consortium out of Denmark, tops my list. It's like mod bachelor pad furniture for kitties. Godzilla would have loved this stuff. Their Eddie's Room cat cave and Missy's Dreamer lucite couch would be impressive additions to any modern home.



Plus, if you sign up on moderncat's mailing list, you will also be entered to win some remarkably cool cat gear of your own:

Godzilla RIP

I feel sick to my stomach. It's been a lousy week. First the digital camera is stolen, now this. The worst. We found Godzilla tonight in the neighbor's yard, pretty much where Lum died and Claws was attacked, another casualty. The fifth cat we've lost to the dogs our neighbors rescued from being euthanized.

Godzilla was pretty much the best cat you could ever have. We found him as a tiny stray kitten six years ago and he lived up to his name. He weighed about 16 lbs, all muscle. As he got older, he grew white hairs in his armpit and pubic area. He was such a character. Lately, he'd taken to hanging out in Jasper's room. He wouldn't even leave the changing table if Jasper had a dirty diaper, he would let the baby lay on him and purr. He used to do the same thing when Roo was little. He loved the kids. Godzilla was the kind of cat who came when you called his name, which is how I knew something was wrong today when he didn't respond.




Our cats are part of the family. This is perhaps even truer for 'Zilla. We miss him so much already.

Protect Your Sleep giveaway

***WINNER PICKED 11/5 WITH RANDOM.ORG***

***CONGRATULATIONS, MELISSA NEECE!!!***

I've always had allergies. Growing up on the damp windward side of Oahu, I assumed having a stuffy nose was just a part of life. When I adopted my first pet in college, a cat named Piewackett, I knew I would be battling allergies at least for her lifetime. I religiously popped antihistamines and kept an inhaler on hand for particularly nasty flare-ups.

Piewackett's old and even greyer nowadays and we live in dusty, dry Wichita, Kansas. I have two kids and, uh, seven cats, now so I'm a bit more concerned than I used to be with keeping allergens at bay. I wash the clothes and sheets frequently, vacuum as often as possible (not enough, admittedly!), and hope for the best. So far, neither of my kids seems to have allergies but their dad has developed them, probably a result of wood carving.

Roo's potty training experience had motivated me to get waterproof mattress pads for all the beds in the house quite a while ago, but when I read about CleanRest, a line of bedding products designed to protect you from allergens in your sleep, I was intrigued. What makes CleanRest products so different is that instead of being merely waterproof, they are allergen-proof. Instead of laying on top of a mattress, the CleanRest encasements actually zip around the whole thing, providing an all-encompassing barrier to moisture AND allergens. But unlike the rubber sheets of my youth that crinkled uncomfortably and made noise, CleanRest encasements are made of a high-tech breathable fabric called Micron One. Its weave is so small, no liquids or allergens can penetrate it.



Since both kids are staying in our room right now (Jasper in his moses basket and Roo snugly between us, ugh) we tried a CleanRest mattress encasement on our king sized bed. We usually have three cats in bed with us at night, too, so there was quite a panel of product testers. The CleanRest encasement was way easier to put on our huge pillow-topped mattress than I expected. I was initially apprehensive because it was crunchy and noisy right out of the package but it became much softer after washing and drying it before use, as recommended.




We've the mattress and pillow encasements for about a month now and I have to say that I am definitely breathing easier. Bob is, too, although it hasn't miraculously stopped his snoring, unfortunately. I also like the security of knowing that baby spit up or other nastiness from middle of the night nursing won't affect the mattress or pillows. I'm going to need a set for Roo's bunk bed once she moves back into her room, hopefully as soon as Jasper is big enough to move into his crib, which there is also a CleanRest encasement for…




If you'd like to try CleanRest out for yourself, I have one twin mattress encasement + one standard pillow encasement (total suggested retail value of set is $99.98) to give away to a lucky reader. To enter and win this set, visit CleanRest's site and comment on this post with the answer to the following question: How long does it take the average mattress to double its weight from dust mite infestation?*

Entries will be accepted through October 26th. US/Canada readers only, please. Make sure you leave an email address or that you have one accessible on your blog so you can be contacted if you win!


*Hint: go to the Our Technology section of CleanRest's website and look for the dust mite.

Pet Cemetary

We lost another cat this weekend to our neighbors' dogs. This is messed up in many ways, starting with the fact that our neighbors are very cool and animal lovers like we are, who rescued the dogs from being euthanized at a shelter but haven't been able to find new homes for them. Possibly because they kill cats. In any case, we have no legal recourse because our cats have all been killed in their yard. We put up a giant, expensive fence but that doesn't keep them in. And staying inside all the time makes them miserable. They like to sleep indoors and wander outside during the daytime. Unfortunately, they also like to court danger by going into the yard of killer dogs. I should also say that our neighbors have four other dogs whom I would classify as pets who would not harm any creature. They also have a couple of cats. But the rescue dogs have to be kenneled to keep them from fighting and killing. Great.

The latest casualty was Claws, one of the semi-feral cats that we'd rescued and neutered last summer and hoped we could provide a long, happy life for. I am embarrassed to say that I don't even have a picture to post of Claws even though he lived with us for almost a year. He had really come around recently and was sleeping inside at night and not making me pretend not to see him when he'd go in or out the patio door. He actually looked a lot like Ming, who was about the same age (a little over a year) as Claws when he died. Here is a picture of Ming, I think taken the day before he was mauled by the dogs.



Ming was killed shortly after our beloved Lum. She was Bob's sweetheart, an 8 year old cat whose loss predicated the whole trapping-strays-to-get-'em-fixed scenario. She was a really great cat, even though she was very bossy. When she died, we had an 8-foot high wooden fence put around our entire property. Bob's spent the last couple of days trying to attach chicken wire to the tops and bottoms of the fence to try and keep our cats in our yard. I have no idea why they keep going into killer dog land. I wish I knew. Here are a couple of pics of Lum Lum mommying Ming when he was a kitten.




Holly looked like a cross between Lum and Piewackett, my oldest cat (and first pet– 14 this year and perched on my desk as I type this). She was feisty and beautiful. I suppose the fact that all of the cats who have succumbed to the neighbor dogs were the ballsiest probably had something to do with their demise.



This last photo has Ming in the center, throttling Dora. I include it because you can understand what a void he leaves for his brothers. We found the three of them in my mom's generator and they have always thought of me and Bob as their parents. They are typical brothers, always wrestling and arguing and sleeping in a gigantic orange pile of cat. Fluffy and Rex are still with us but Ming's absence is so sad for them. They definitely miss him still. They had taken to Claws as a surrogate brother but now they've lost him, too.



RIP little kitties, buried in our yard under a holly tree. We will miss you.

And for those of you keeping track, we still have seven cats. Yes, we are those crazy cat people.