fur in process

fur in process
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

so i found out today that the show that i will be in with a fellow artist--Richard Hutter-- at BC Space is being moved back to the first of next year, which is probably a good thing as i had submitted some work to a juried show in Torrance (keeping my fingers crossed), and the led project is still moving along at a snail's pace.

recently, i started a sculpture made from mostly cat & some dog fur. i may extend some of the parameters and start begging for rabbit fur as well. besides the strange looks and curiosity, i've received cat fur from various friends, and the cats at home are happy to be regularly combed, but am finding i need A LOT more. not quite ready to troll the animal shelters yet...thinking about it though.

kitty obsession

yesterday, i made a disgusting discovery. white roll-y poly round worms wriggled round henry's anus. that's right. so gross. this morning i took a not too happy cat to the vet, who also discovered he had inflamed cauliflower ear canals. apparently, it had grown over from repeated infection, and there's not a whole lot that can be done, and that he is probably partly deaf. i don't understand how this wasn't caught one of the last times i brought him in to the vet.

henry was due for an exam, urine, blood and blood pressure tests. of course all of this came out to be close to an iphone. since reading this article on caring for cats using holistic health practices, i've been giving henry natural and organic cat food made with animal protein (vs. grain protein) instead of prescription k/d food, which has less protein.

according to the article, cats are obligate carnivores and are used to having lots of animal protein. i asked the vet about this who explained that cats with reduced kidney function couldn't digest the protein, which made me feel bad. i thought i was helping him to eat and get better. i hope it hasn't made him worse. i will have to try to mix the foods. he eats less of the k/d food, and one of the things i have to do is maintain his weight. henry's having all kinds of health issues. i want to do everything i can for him, but it is definitely taxing, worrying about him and the expenses.

automatic cat box udpate

automatic cat box
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

the last cat litter we tried was the scoop away multi-cat formula, and we are moving on to arm & hammer's high performance clumping cat litter.

Results so far:

Tidy Cats Scoop® Long Lasting Odor Control Formula
This litter didn't stay clumped and seemed to break apart, depending on where the clump was as it was raked. if it was too close to the center, and the clump wasn't very big or somewhat submerged. the rake smooshed the litter to the bottom. this seems to happen with all the litters we have tried so far, but this one was particularly problematic. the box started to retain the cat urine, rather than it getting dumped into the plastic bin, causing it to reek. it was pretty horrible by the time we changed out the whole box with completely fresh litter, and used up all the tidy cat litter 2 weeks later.

Scoop Away Multi-Cat
this litter was the least stinky. it clumped well, and though there were stray small pieces, most of the clumped litter got raked up and into the plastic bin. it lasted two weeks, and did not start to smell until the very last day when it all the litter was soaked.

Arm & Hammer High Performance
so it has been about 4 days, and this litter is starting to reek. i'm trying not to be impartial. i wasn't sure about the color. it's suppose to be a more natural litter ( as opposed to the other clay litters ). i wasn't crazy about the smell of the litter to begin with, and it seems to be having some trouble absorbing stinky cat odors. dumping contents of the plastic bin was pretty bad last night. they all stink to some degree, but this one seemed particularly stinky, so i changed out the liner completely.

i guess we'll see how it holds up. stay tuned...

automatic cat box: a review, sort of (1 of 3)

petSafe Simply Clean
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

I haven't figured out how to post three photos with one blog entry from flickr...so bear with the repetition...

so after much complaining about having to clean the cat box so often, we broke down and bought an automatic cat box. both mike & i did extensive research online - interestingly, there's a site devoted to reviewing cat boxes ( http://www.litterbox-central.com ). the copious amounts of information and mixed reviews made it difficult to pick one.

there was not a single machine that was the end all, be all of cat boxes. many people complained that the automatic boxes were not much better than having to manually scoop poop. some cats wouldn't use the box, the rake would get stuck, only certain litters worked well, etc. people raved about the litter robot, which came close to being the holy grail of cat boxes, but for $300, it had to be the shit (no pun intended) to justify forking out that much money. we weren't convinced. in the end, we settled on a less expensive model - the PetSafe Simply Clean. there were fewer complaints lodged against this one than the other models in the same price range.

so here is my experience:
this machine does not come with a cover -- our simple cat boxes had covers, which keeps the litter from going everywhere. sure enough, though the cats quickly took to the new box, they got litter all around it using the thing. henry has a thing about cleaning things, and he spends a good 5min aftewards, burying his "crap," kicking up plenty of litter in the process. mike found a top that happened to be the right diameter, and cut it to fit over the box and rotated the bottom to match up with the opening. that helped keep more of the litter inside.

we got this white plastic tray thingy with a gridded insert that you could pull the insert out to dump the litter that fell through the square openings. the tray didn't fit that well around the box, and litter would go on the floor around it. i got a shopping bag and laid it down underneath the box and the tray to catch more of the litter. then one day, henry decided he would pee in the tray (or maybe he just missed?).

something else disturbing was also happening. the darker grey round part rotates. there's a slanted conveyor belt that brings the poop up as the container rotates, and poop falls into the turquoise container to the left, which can be emptied. we put the machine on a timer so it wouldn't be constantly running. that was all fine. the problem was that the litter was getting soaked and stinking up the house, and not all of it was going up the belt and into the alotted bin. i ended up having to scoop (and quite unsuccessfully) often. i was afraid maybe the rake was breaking up the clumped litter, and squishing it underneath. the ammonia smell permeated the whole house. i was constantly adding new litter and trying to scoop out stinky, damp litter.

we had bought three different litters to try. mike thought that maybe it had to do with the litter. the first one we used was the tidy cat (with red top). i have always used tidy cat multiple cat (blue top), and it has been great at keeping the odor down. seems this wasn't working so well with the machine. the problem wasn't that it wouldn't clump. it clumped, but somehow, the clumps would get broken up when they hit the rake. not sure what the deal was, but it was rank. i was relieved when we used it up. the next litter was scoop away. this one seems to be doing much better. for the first time in weeks, our place does not smell like a cat box. it is day 4, and machine and litter seem to be in harmony.

i also picked up this colorful plastic mat that is much better at catching the litter and seems to be keeping the cats from tracking it all over the house.

i didn't want to believe it, but i was starting to think we wasted our money last week, but since changing the litter and getting a new mat, things have been much improved.

automatic cat box

The pattern in the litter from the rake reminds me of a zen garden ( except for the occasional poo instead of rocks ). So is a zen garden just a big cat box? in a way, the cats are expressing themselves.

automatic cat box - close up photo

petSafe simply clean

close up of zen garden cat box.