Friday Cat Litter blogging
Friday, September 18 2009
Yesterday I paid $9.50 for 4 ounces of cat litter, which works out to $38 a pound. I think we can officially call my life as pet owner a “FAIL!”
My purchase of investment-grade kitty litter is due to the fact that Stripes the cat has lately taken to peeing on the couch. There’s not a more sure way to ruin a morning than to plop down for “The Daily Show” on DVR and realize you’re sitting in last night’s feline output. In fact, Stripes’s continued presence in the house is only because the cushion covers turned out to be machine washable.
When a cat starts peeing like this, it could mean a couple of things: a) either she has a medical condition that makes her pee inappropriately or b) she’s angry. Since Stripes is on prednisone – which can cause diabetes and kidney problems, and also ‘roid rage – we have no easy way of telling which problem we’re facing.
That leaves the hard way: collecting a urine specimen. Have you ever tried to get a kitty to pee in a cup? Me neither. Enter the Gucci of cat litters, “Nosorb”, which has the chief advantage of being not absorbent. It’s not even really kitty litter; it’s intended to simulate kitty litter. Kitty thinks she’s burying her pee, but really she’s not.
I put the Nosorb into a litter pan and locked it and Stripes into the bathroom – the only bathroom – with food and water. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. If Stripes had kidney problems or diabetes, she would have been peeing fairly frequently, and this would have all been over pretty soon. No such luck.
Stripes was pretty freaked out by the whole deal. Every time I went into the bathroom, I had to endure the most baleful of looks from her perch on the back of the toilet. It was almost enough to make me pee sitting down, just so I didn’t have to face her.
Meanwhile Solid, the beta cat, had taken up station in front of the bathroom door. Obviously, if Stripes was getting special treatment, it must have been something pretty cool, since Solid is convinced that we love Stripes best (sadly true!). So each time the bathroom door opened, Stripes would bolt out and Solid would bolt in, requiring a frenetic full-household cat-catching effort to restore proper order.
By bedtime, Stripes had already been in the bathroom for six hours. I had to lock her in for the night, which was way harder than it sounds. But by morning – success. Never before has cat pee smelled like victory – and never again, I hope.
That left me with a pan full of plastic pellets and cat pee, which I carefully poured into the sample cup. I don’t know if I was supposed to separate the pellets from the pee, nor do I particularly care at this point. Later this morning I will take the sample to the vet, who will then decide whether kitty is sick or just angry. My money is on angry.
Of course, angry or sick, it’s all because Stripes is still taking prednisone for her mystery mouth disease. Which is to say, the ridiculously expensive surgery in which all her teeth were pulled failed to solve the problem. And though I appreciate my veternarian’s efforts – really, I do – I am growing increasingly frustrated with the course of Stripes’s illness. We’re not making any progress, and it’s highly stressful: the money’s an issue, but mostly I just want Stripes to be okay.
Maybe I’m not yet angry enough to start peeing on the vet’s couch, but I’m getting there.
I understand totally believe me. I have sat on those same wet spots. LOL Poor Stripes. I hope it is anger and not illness. Although illness might be easier to remedy than anger. I hope all goes well.
Kelli
When I was 7 months pregnant my cat also started to pee on the couch. I thought she could sense I was “with child” and was demonstrating her alpha female cat-a-tude. Then, I looked carefully at her pee, and it was pink…bloody. She had a bladder stone, and peeing on the couch (new couch btw) was how she communicated it to us.
*Did I actually post this comment….jeez.*