Sunday, November 25, 2007

Free to a good home


Warning, dog people: This post is about cats.

The chore I hate most is cleaning the litter box. I don't mean just scooping it out, which I do nightly and isn't really that bad. I mean actually emptying it and washing out the boxes.

I'm fairly certain I'm supposed to do this once a month or so, maybe every couple months. I hadn't done it since we moved here. That was 2 years and 4 months ago.

So I knew it was something I had to do.

I'm also on this let's-go-as-green-as-we-can kick lately, plus I'm sick of little cat litter kernels all over the basement. So I found this all-natural litter called Feline Pine, and it's not litter at all. It's little sticks of pine, apparently from a tree. It was on sale at Target, so last night I bought 20 pounds of it.

And this morning I emptied and washed the boxes and swept up the area. I wore a dust mask, and it was still like inhaling dirty clay.

I really, really hated it.

To top it all off, I had decided for some dumb, dumb reason to wear the very cool race T-shirt I got at the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, and I splattered bleach on it. So now little spots of white dance across the front of the deep blue shirt.

Excellent.

And here's the kicker:

When I finished cleaning up the whole dirty area downstairs and filling the boxes with a little of the pine and a little of the old (cats are smarter than you think; they know when you've changed something that matters to them, so I'm attempting to introduce the pine gradually), I at least felt productive.

But 10 minutes later, I found a gift from one of our cats on the floor downstairs, far, far away from the newly cleaned boxes. On the carpet.

So they're all up for adoption.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look how cute they are though!

Are you seriously putting them all up for adoption?

bryan said...

They look like a cat gang. Like they're not happy you crashed the part.

Jeannine said...

Very, very frustrating! They sure look sweet though all hanging out together. Just seeing the cats make me miss you so much! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Cara said...

i'm so glad you made use of that photo. it is glorious.

anne would gladly take little kitty off your hands. the other two i can't help you with.

you'd better hold on to daphne, though.

Veronica said...

I love that this post generated so many comments.

No, they're not all seriously up for adoption. But like I've said, if I could find good homes for the kittens (who are now much larger than adult-sized Little Kitty) I would re-home them. Achilles is a great lap cat. She's cuddled with me right now, but Daphne seems to hate her and Pica lately. It's growl city around here.

Cara, Anne would seriously take Little Kitty? And I knew you'd love the photo.

Yes, Sara, they are cute. I know. But they are also a lot of work.

Jeannine, thanks for calling today! I'm sorry I missed you. It was great to hear your voice, even on voice mail.

Jeannine said...

How did the turkey trot go? You are one running woman these days. I had a dream a few nights back that we were in a race together. Funny.

Unknown said...

4 cats veronica? If you didn't have a loving husband and adorable child you'd be very close to a crazy cat lady label. ;-)

Veronica said...

Grant! That is not funny.

I'm only crazy half of the time.

And I really can't blame the cats for that.