Come & get candy!

Halloween is the greatest holiday. No gifts to buy. No fussy dinners or awkward get-togethers. No stress.

Just show up & get candy. Perfect.

To clump or not to clump? That is the question.

We recently adopted a furry bundle of joy. She's a beautiful "F3 Savannah" cat (yup, one of those fancy designer hybrid breeds) and she's awfully sweet. My father-in-law remarked that she's "not neurotic" and I think he's right: this is the nicest, most sane pet I've ever owned... which seriously calls that whole "pets are like their owners" maxim into question. We have yet to find any bad habits or annoying personality quirks in her (well, apart from being a serious bed hog!). This is the first pet my husband & I have had together, and really the first time either of us has had responsibility for an animal (having only ever had "family pets" growing up... where you get all the perks and very little of the day-to-day responsibility for it). To date, we haven't even been able to sufficiently care for a plant, so we fear that we will bungle looking after a higher life form. As a result, we're quickly becoming fretful parents.

One of the first "red flags" for us has been the issue of kitty litter. Yes, I'm going to talk about the "unmentionables". As you may be aware, there is some controversy among cat owners as to the safety of "clumping" cat litter. These are the clay-based, scoopable litters that are widely available & probably the most commonly used today. I should preface by saying that as far as I can tell all arguments for or against clumping kitty litter are still theoretical: no one has yet done a scientific study on the safety of it. Whether or not you believe the clumping kitty litter is safe or not is entirely up to you at this point.

The problem with these litters concerns the chemicals that make the litter clump: sodium bentonite and quartz silica.

For starters, quartz silica is said to be carcinogenic to humans and possibly to animals too. If you've ever noticed how dusty it becomes when you are changing the litter, or when kitty is scratching around in it, you see the problem. The dust quickly spreads through the air, can be breathed in and of course, it is likely to attach itself to the cat's paws and settle on its fur where it could be ingested through grooming. Our cat has 2 litter boxes: one in each bathroom in our house. One of those bathrooms is next to our bedroom -- so effectively we would be breathing in this dust every night as we sleep. Before I was aware of the chemicals in the litter, I noticed the dust was irritating me. Knowing that it could be carcinogenic gives me the jibblies.

The second, and seemingly more common argument against clumping litter concerns Sodium bentonite. Sodium bentonite is an absorbent material that swells when wet, sometimes swelling 15 to 18 times in size. Some pet owners fear that this could be disastrous (potentially fatal) for animals if the pet were to ingest it. Again, this would primarily be by sticking to the feet of the cat and then the cat grooming its feet. Personally, I'm not quite as worried about this as I am about the carcinogens, but I have noticed our fur-baby's feet looking a bit white & dusty sometimes so it is a concern.

Our solution: we've switched to a non-clumping cat litter. It costs more, but we've started buying "Swheat Scoop", which is made of naturally processed wheat and contains neither of the aforementioned chemicals. It's not nearly as dusty either. At first I was afraid our fur baby would rebel against the switch, but there was virtually no transition at all and so far we all seem pretty happy with it. (Except now the "clumps" look like breaded chicken nuggets. Eeeww!)

Next parental dilemma: Are we feeding her too much? Ugh. More on that later.