When Ya Going Shopping, Ma?

Dr. Jekyll: When ya going shopping, Ma? 

So once a month we lay in supplies. It's been tricky. Nobody really likes the new prescription diet but Emma. Luckily, the Rx is for her. I called the pet pharmacy and changed her standing order to the smallest amount available. One she can eat by herself in a month. She likes to eat on the porch by herself; and anyway, nobody is going to shove her aside to get to her food.

So today, I braved the rains and headed to Pet Smart to buy the others that wonderful grain-free dried food laced with eggs that once made them so happy. They could smell me coming when I turned the key. Lunch was in order.

I've studied the ingredients in both foods, and the Beyond, Small Batches are far and away superior to the turkey-infused, so-called calming, Dr. Hill's. We just have to keep Emma anxiety free ourselves. If that works, I'll start giving her a mixture of each food until she's free of all those ingredients that are unpronounceable.

Dr. Jekyll practically kissed me when he smelled (he has a nose to be reckoned with) his old favorite in the bottom of my blue utility cart.

Each cat also eats a share of Purina One, Grain-Free, wet food. That was the food that Belle came here eating so many years ago. It's been through several changes in ingredients, as well as in name, since then. In several studies, it's been voted the best of the best at the present time. Em and Lennie and she eat mainly a wet food diet. They barely snack on dry food at all. Remember, those boys are the two that Belle took under her wing right at first. She brought them up right!

Belle practically raised Em and Lennie. A stern taskmaster!

Everyone is sleeping now! Their stomachs are happy and (as happens every month) they got a few new toys today, so they've been stimulated and are tired. We play mostly on the porch. 

I bought them A Mouse in a Pouch that is still outside running down its AAA's for Belle who is only half asleep. Everyone else left for nap time. It's hard to relax out there, I suppose, with so many birds singing, chirping, and urging the fledgelings to fly! Add to that racket the noise of a mechanical mouse, inside a crinkly pouch, running in circles, and talking to itself in "rodent." 

I had to turn the toy off once. I couldn't tell which was the mechanical mouse and which were the wren-chicks screaming for a snack. I don't know who is going to collapse first, the cats who are fascinated by the shrieking or the adult birds who are working double shifts. 

PouchMouse also runs outside the fabric container. But can you imagine the thing stuck under the plant stands, wedged behind cat trees, and generally spinning its wheels? When I bought a new stove, there were dozens of catnip mice lost under there. Ditto when I moved the dryer, and again there were Christmas gifts trapped under the refrigerator that had been lost well before New Years Morning.

I also bought a short mesh tunnel for playing hide and seek. The Five tear them to pieces regularly. The long ones are good for taking running starts and coming out the other end, but the short ones are perfect for roughhousing.

Mr. Hyde

When Emma Woodhouse was so anxious, I had put a litter-box in the small bathroom, naming the place the "girls" room. That was around the same time that the "boys" decided to guard the other litter boxes, as well as the water bowls, and prevent Auntie Belle or Sissy Emma from having even five minutes of happiness a day.  That standoff didn't last long as Belle finally gave the boys the brunt of her wrath, but she had used the extra box as well and she liked it. No matter how determined they were, the not-so-fab-five did not have the manpower for a continual siege and the household gradually got back to normal.

Anxious Emma Woodhouse AKA Sissy Emma.

Today I bought a small-sized box for that bathroom. The space had not been able to pull off a huge litter box disguised as a potted palm in an urn! The room is way too small. We do have two on the porch like that and one in the "big" bathroom. But the children found it impossible to turn around in there without getting tickled by fabric palm fronds. Some of my ideas are just crazy.

Everyone came inside after lunch and sniffed around the new toiletry. Emma was happy, seemed to know it was for her,  went inside, and christened the new gift. The box is way to small for Belle. We'll see what happens. Belle's box came with her and is still in the laundry room where it's always been. She shares it without worry. After all, she's not the one who cleans it. 

Em Mathews

 

So you see I've been busy. It's all good. Cats are well supplied for the coming month. I have nothing for myself because another huge storm came out of the East as I was loading the car, I got wet for a third time and decided that whatever I could find in the larder, the fridge, or the freezer would do for dinner. 

I can't believe that it's after five o'clock. I played outside much longer than I intended. All cats are scattered about the house, now. Usually, if you didn't know any better, you would never guess that so many pets make this their home. Then again, it can be general chaos. Over the weekend, though, we had the nicest time with children and cats sleeping together, all the beds occupied. 

Lennie Mathews