July 20, 2010

My cats have never been so beautiful! Look at this shiny coat on my Gaby:

Ashy’s coat is just as shiny.  In fact, these two are SO beautiful that I contemplated making a third cat out of the massive blob of hair that the FURminator pulled out of them!

Can you believe this?!  And this pile wasn’t even from their first session with this miracle tool; it was the second!

I’d never even heard of the FURminator before, and now I’m the biggest cheerleader for this thing.  Do you know about the FURminator?  The purple tool in the photo above is the cat version with a 1.75″ edge that literally grabs onto the undercoat and gently pulls it out.  There is also a dog FURminator with a 4″ edge.

I know what you’re thinking. “BigSis, you probably don’t brush your cats. We should probably report you to the authorities for animal neglect.  No wonder you got so much dead hair out of their coat!  And your poor cats are probably Persians that you let get matted!  Shame on you, BigSis!”

Honestly, that’s not it at all. My cats get brushed regularly with a slicker brush, and I STILL got this much hair out of them!  Plus, they’re short-haired guys, not long-haired dudes!

I’m thinking my hairball problem just got solved with the discovery of the FURminator.  Voila.  Simple as that.  I paid over $35 for mine at PetSMart, and after seeing how well it works, it’s pretty much invaluable to me.  I don’t care how much I paid for it.  If you follow the FURminator links we’ve given you though, you can get your FURminator for a whole lot less than what I paid locally!  That’s a sweet deal!

I don’t RAVE about that many products, but this thing is unbelievable.  Do yourself a favor, and FURminate the dead hair out of your animal’s coat instead of cleaning it off your carpet!

~BigSis

December 12, 2009

My little 20 pound Warren Bitey…what a funny cat he was.  Lots of people thought he was mean, but he really wasn’t.  He was actually very sweet, but insecure and fearful, which he sometimes showed as aggression in scary situations.  When he was a kitten, he was really a biter but we worked through that with the Tellington T-Touch.

He’s been gone for a year and a half now, but I think about him a lot.  We were buddies for almost 17 years, and I miss him.  One of my favorite memories of Warrie was the Christmas when he was my Christmas card cover boy.  No kitty could wear a Santa hat like Warrie.  I need a kleenex now.

~BigSis

November 28, 2009

Why, yes, I did dry those clean dishes with a pink dishtowel.  Why do you ask?

~BigSis

November 22, 2009

It’s no secret that I love animals.  I’m vegetarian because of my love for animals.  I don’t really like squirrels, but I still wouldn’t hurt one OR eat one.    I live in Squirrel Heaven amidst oodles of mature trees, and have slammed on my brakes plenty of times to avoid squishing one of the little varmints.

I especially love cats of all kinds and all sizes, so it makes sense that my cats are a couple of my favorite models.  It amazes me to look at a cat – or any animal – really closely, and notice how wonderfully they were made.  We saw your boys yesterday, LilSis, so now here are mine…the furkids!

Ashy's beautiful whiskers and freckly nose

Gaby's green-eyed profile

Ashy's transparent Siamese ear

Gaby with a squirrel or gecko in-sight

~BigSis

July 27, 2009

A few years ago, I still had 3 cats instead of my current 2, and I really was getting tired of the daily litter box scooping routine:

• Find a plastic bag without holes

• Scoop into the bag and tie it up

• Take the filled bag to the dumpster – rain or shine, light or dark, Africa hot or Antarctica cold

If I was too lazy to make the trip to the trash, I’d occasionally leave the little bag of presents sitting on the front or back porch for later, and that’s just gross.  There had to be an easier way to handle this chore, which had to be done every day with 3 cats.  I started thinking and wishing that someone made a contraption like the Diaper Genie, but for used cat litter instead of disposable baby diapers.  I went online, and voila!  Someone does make that contraption.  It’s called the Petmate Litter Locker ($21.87 at Amazon).

Litter Locker

This little jewel does everything I want it to do.  I don’t have to dig around for a plastic bag and I don’t have to schlep the filled bag to the dumpster every day.  You just scoop the used litter into the Litter Locker with the provided scooper, and then turn the handle.  There is a long plastic bag in the Litter Locker, and when you turn the handle, you’re essentially coiling the bag and it’s contents around itself.  When the Locker gets full, you just empty the coil into the trash.

There is no odor, and you never have to touch anything yukky.  If you have several cats and like a really clean litter box, or your cats demand a really clean box, you can scoop several times a day if you want to.  It’s super easy!  And anything that makes my life easier is a winner in my book!  I’ve been using the Litter Locker for around 3 years now, and am on my second one.  After a while, I think the plastic does absorb a bit of odor from storing all that poo, so I replaced mine when I moved a year ago.

You can buy the Litter Locker and refills at Amazon.com, PetSMart, WalMart, Petco and several online pet supply companies.  I highly recommend it!

~BigSis

July 11, 2009

Happy Caturday!  I love cats, but I’m the world’s biggest sucker for a kitten.  There is MUCH cuteness in this little video of a kitten begging for food, and I can’t help but share it with you!

Have a great Caturday and a wonderful Sunday!

~BigSis

May 1, 2009

LilSis Disclaimer: This is a first here; but I would like to make it known that I am not responsible nor did I contribute in any way to this post. (I think BigSis is trying to get back at me because she thought the YouTube video was crude that I posted once with the 80s workout queen farting throughout her entire workout.) I have a weak stomach and never would have been able to take these photos.  So, with that said, continue reading this post at your own risk…

You read that right.  I didn’t say “Hammer Time”.  I said “Hairball Time”.  If you have cats you know exactly what I mean.  The weather is warming up and that means only one thing…shedding and lots of it!  And shedding means hairballs, no matter how much I brush these guys.  This time of the year, it’s commonplace for me to come home from work and find a little “present” on the carpet waiting for me.

Even though my carpet is new and light in color, I don’t freak out.  If I’m gifted with hairball barf, I let it sit and get dry and crunchy.  Sorry to be graphic, but that’s the best way to clean it up in my experience, and if there’s one thing I have massive experience with, it’s the gross things that come out of cats!!  I’ve seen two very elderly cats through kidney failure to the end, so there isn’t much that turns my stomach when it comes to cats.  I’ve learned to breathe through my mouth and to go to the happy place in my head.  Nuff said.

I talked before about how to clear up cat urine odor and also my magic potion for barfage and poopage.  I really wanted to share some before and after photos from this week’s Hairball Fest, just so you could see that my potion works and there is hope for your carpet if you’re in the mist of Hairball Time!

But when LilSis heard I was doing this post, she said:  “NO!!  SAY IT AINT SO!!”  She isn’t down with this topic, so out of respect for her and her sensitive stomach, let me add a warning.  If you’re easily offended or grossed out, or if you’ve never experienced the joys of these little kitty issues, then come back to BigSisLilSis tomorrow.  If you’re brave and want to see the evidence, read on, friends!

So these are my darling furkids:

Gaby Baby

Ashy Poo

And these are the presents they left me recently:

From Gaby...actually a hairball and not poop

And from Ashy

After the evidence had dried and was removed, here was the damage left on the carpet:

Gaby's stain...

And Ashy's stain

Now, after applying my magic potion just once, here are the results!  And with no chemicals!

Gaby's mess all gone...

and Ashy's mess all clean!

Voila!  Sorry LilSis, but if this post could help just one person, it was all worth it! 

~BigSis

November 19, 2008

Here is another example of what TomTom does when he doesn’t get what he wants.

Usually, it’s a body part that he bites, instead of a file folder!  I was working at my laptop and happened to have my camera handy so I was able to snap this shot. He decided to “chomp” down on my files because I told him to get off my desk.  Again, he was mad because he didn’t get to go “exploring” in the garage.

You can’t say that he doesn’t have personality, and attitude!

~LilSis

November 18, 2008

Can you ever get enough of cats in hats?  I can’t!  So I’m bringing you more of what cracks me up.  These furkids own one of my coworkers, K, and her sister, L.  May I present Beau, Brady and Bruschi (Patriots fans, ya think?) in alphabetical order to avoid any hurt kitty feelers:

Beau in his favorite baseball cap

Another pose from the handsome Beau

Brady may be hissed off, but his whiskers are gorgeous!

Brady working those gold peepers

Adorable Bruschi loves the chicken hat...

...can't you tell??

Thanks for sharing the photos of your cats in hats, K and L!  We love them!

~BigSis

November 17, 2008

TomTom got mad at me this morning because I didn’t let him out in the garage like SirHoney does almost every morning. The little devil bit the crap out of me! When I picked him up to throw him in the laundry room for a “time out”, he dug his back claws into my hand and my wrist.  I was bleeding! Who needs that at 5:30 in the morning?

This is my way of getting back at him! Serves him right to be humiliated! He almost looks too cute in the bandanna. I need to get some devil horns to put on him!

Bandanna Man!

I can’t wait to get my Christmas boxes out! You’ll be seeing TomTom in his reindeer antlers! HAHA!

BigSis, I hear you might have some new Cats in Hats to share?

~LilSis