Rory
One year ago today Alex picked up a little kitten from the side of the road. He brought him home and the rest is history! Hopefully you enjoy these photos from the last year. Happy gotcha day precious little kitten, we love having you around!
Natural Ant Repellent
This summer while we were painting the outside of our house I had, for the first time, issues with ants in our kitchen. It seemed to be a combination of the wet conditions early in the summer and the lack of paint on the outside of our home. I tried several things before I found a solution that actually worked.I tried cleaning with vinegar, Dr Bronners soap and I finally resorted to Lysol spray. However nothing seemed to work. Whatever I used would clear the ants out for about five minutes then they would be back. I really did not want to try any sort of ant trap since those contain highly poisonous chemicals. I finally was able to track the ants down to a single hole at the base of the kitchen backsplash and that’s when I decided to try something drastic. I decided to try cayenne pepper. I had seen this fix in a couple of places on the internet but it seemed too good to be true.I placed a small amount of cayenne at the opening of the hole and used a paper towel to spread it up and down the backsplash. I wanted to make sure the ants could not just skirt around it and come in another way. Once I had placed the cayenne I used my homemade cleaner to clean as much of the counter as possible.This remedy has worked incredibly for me! I have not seen any more signs of ants, at all, in my kitchen. I noticed an immediate difference and have not seen any additional ants in my kitchen since placing the pepper. One thing to note, cayenne pepper while not toxic to furry babies, can burn them if they get too much on their paws or noses. You will want to be very careful if you have pets or children around that they do not come into contact with this ant remedy. Since the hole I was covering is at the base of my backsplash and pretty much continually covered I felt very comfortable using this method. Keep the cayenne to the smallest portion of your counter possible to avoid it coming into contact with people or pets.
Bathing your Cat (Easily!)
I don’t know about you, but Rory HATES to be bathed. However both Alex and I are slightly allergic to him and he often gets into things that get him pretty dirty. This necessitates a “deep cleaning” on a regular basis.When my parents got their second cat about 10 years ago they talked to their vet about bathing since my Dad is highly allergic to cats. When you bathe a cat it keeps the dander low so they are less likely to trigger an allergic reation.
The vet they spoke with suggested putting the cat is a delicates bag for washing. This keeps the cat contained and they can’t escape or claw you. Your cat will hate this when you start. Every time I put Rory in the bag he mews pitifully and acts like I’m killing him. However, his reaction is a lot more violent when I wash him without the bag. Last week he got into something and his belly was all nasty, so because I needed to scrub his belly I couldn’t put him in the bag. After that bath was done I had scratches all over my arm and back (he got out of my grasp and climbed over me).
Of course you want to be very careful about getting water or soap in your cat’s face. It is easier to do this when they are in the bag since they are constantly squirming. But the benefits of keeping them contained outweigh that fact. After your cat's bath be sure to towel him dry. This will help him not be so angry with you since you are essentially "grooming" him.
If you are careful and train your cat eventually your cat won’t hate this as much. It will take time though, don’t give up if your fuzzy baby is all dirty!
Natural Cat Litter Deodorizer
When we got a kitten several months ago we had to decide what type of litter to purchase. Since we have our budget and didn’t really want to go overboard on the litter we decided to go with the inexpensive unscented litter at the local farm store. Our kitten doesn’t seem to mind the unscented stuff but we noticed that there was a little bit of a smell issue. We had fantastic results with this deodorizer but it is fairly expensive for the amount you need to use and the frequency with which you use it.So I searched and searched the internet for another solution. One thing I kept coming across was using baking soda since it is a natural deodorizer. So I tried this out and it has been working great for us! We’ve been consistently using baking soda for over a month and so far the cat box smells infinitely better.
This is how I’ve found it works best for us: Each time I change the liner and litter in the box I start with a layer of baking soda on top of the liner right under the litter. Then I put a second layer of baking soda in the middle of the litter. Finally I sprinkle baking soda on top of the litter and mix it in. Every time I scoop the litter I sprinkle baking soda on top and mix it in. This seems to give me a few extra weeks with the litter not only making it smell better, but more cost effective since I’m not emptying the cat box as often.
Our kitten has had no negative response to this method. He still uses the litter box with the same consistency as before. Since we only have one cat I can’t speak as to how effective this would be with multiple cats. But it seems to work very well for a single cat and the cost for approximately a month of cat litter is around $3.50 for both the litter and deodorizer.