a fun book

I just read my post of earlier this week. Boy, just like the lady who wrote 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' my post should have included a few carefully placed parentheses. Boing Boing is a blog and on that blog a posting discussed ingestion of methylene blue (which is an old timey cure for urinary tract infections) in order to turn one's urine blue.
Thought I needed to clarify my previous post. Beg pardon for any confusion this might have caused.
Recommendations for books to read this winter; 'The Good Good Pig' by Sy Montgomery; a true story of her beloved pet pig Christopher Hogwood with a lesson for us all about enjoying life! Also 'Mockingbird' a wonderful new biography of Harper Lee. Both books were terrific.
Hope this winter storm is not too terrible for everyone. Stay home and stay warm!
Curl up with a good book and your favorite cat; its that time of year!
:) =^,,^=

Outside the Box

I just read a post in 'Boing Boing', one of my favorite blogs about making one's urine turn blue. Too kookie for me but it got me thinking about a trick one can use to ferret out which cat is spraying or urinating in the wrong place.
Outside the box is a real problem in multi cat households. Many times the true offender is stealthy and this makes treatment difficult at best. Often the cat which the owner THINKS is urinating outside the litterbox is either the WRONG cat or NOT the ONLY ONE!
here's how you can find out WHO and WHERE such 'inappropriate elimination' occurs. There is a special stain called fluorescein used by ophthalmologists to check eyes for corneal damage. If you stuff several of these stain strips inside a gelatin capsule and feed it to a cat it will cause the cat's urine to glow under a black light. By performing this test one cat at a time the evidence can be seen glowing when viewed with a black light at night!
Multi cat household often have at least one cat 'marking' inside the house or urinating outside the litterbox. Statistically in a household with ten cats the chances of at least one cat not using a litterbox are 100%!
Anyway, you can play 'CSI, the home game' with this test.
oohhh, here's another hard to swallow factoid; the animal behaviorists at Cornell Veterinary College report households should have one MORE litterbox than the total number of cats!
hmm, that means a lotta litter.
Food for thought. I think we have a data sheet posted on the website about reasons for 'inappropriate elimination' and 'territorial marking'. Much more details therewithin.
Remember that urine marking is NORMAL for cats that live outside. Inside cats usually do not mark unless they are ill or socially stressed. It is one of the few ways cats have of communicating with us insensitive humans.
happy holidays!

Catnip A Natural High

here's the scoop on catnip; scientific name nepeta cataria; contains a relative of the hallucogens, an essential oil called nepetalactone. Not all cats have the genetic code needed to 'appreciate' catnip. Those that do will not react favorably until they are 8 weeks old and then not fully until at least 3 months old.
The pleasurable experience of catnip lasts about 15 minutes and is dependent on propicious (sp?) environmental factors. It takes the cat about one hour to recover from this little episode in order to attain another 'high' from the catnip.
No, cats cannot overdose on catnip but some do act 'drunk as a lord'
there is your daily dose data;use it as you will!

hm, taxi ride

just finished reading Dr. C's account of her San Antonio taxi
ride. glad she and Dr. F got home OK!
have a great Monday..........
note to all Cat Owners;avoid Turkey Gravy for your cats;a bit of
white meat w/o skin is OK but Turkey Gravy will give some cats a nasty diarrhea.
just a word to the wise
PJR

Quilt Show
if you've never been, I highly recommend it. But pace yourself and wear sensible shoes. The International Quilt Show here in Houston, running through this next Sunday, is sensational. I mean really.
I meet a friend who comes over from New Braunfels and we get sensory overload in short order. It is a truly amazing experience.
As an aside;lost track of my friend several years ago while attending the show. It is not easy to track down a little white haired lady of a (ahem)certain age in the vast sea of same cramming the aisles at the George R Brown convention center. Thank God she was wearing pink tennis shoes. I quit looking at white heads and concentrated on the search for pink sneakers.
SO, its a good idea to carry cell phones or set up a rendevous site w/in the convention center. Just be prepared to be overwhelmed by all the great artwork on display.
Its a hoot!
gotta go =^,,^=

Blog It! Blog it GOOD!
Nov 1st marks the beginning of national novel writing month. I highly recommend a month of frenzied writing to anyone vaguely interested in writing. Its a hoot. There is a terrific website to get you started.

here's another answer ; 'Absolutely' Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider

(she's a hoss) If you haven't seen Mr and Mrs Smith she kicks Brad Pitt's butt!

Ohh, 'Patrick' our little special adoptee went for a test drive this past weekend and the lady is going to keep him!!!!!!!!! I am happy as he seemed to resist domestication with all his might.

Dr. Filip was very disgusted with me last year since he thought I was writing a cat tell all. Instead I started a romance novel that evolved into a swashbuckler! It awaits badly needed editing and rewrites. But enough about the past; a blank page awaits. Yoikes and away!

=^,,^=