Sunday Night Mystery

[mikekn]

Yep - we made it back from Pennsic safe and sound.  More on that later.

We arrived home and were greeted by all three cats (Gunther and Mughi seem to be getting along better).  While unloading we noticed a bunch of white foot prints scattered around the family room.  After a quick search, I discovered that Mughi's feet were packed with dried cat litter (the clumping kind).  I spent a while trying to clean them with some success, but still need to work on it some more (need third arm to trim out remaining clumps while I hold her in place).  After that I tried to figure out where she got her feet so wet that the litter would clump like that - again, after a quick search I discovered the problem.  Seems we have a small leak in the water pipe that brings the water into the house - and said leak is not far from one of the litter boxes.  Given how much Mughi likes to play in water, it wasn't much of a surprise that she managed to get her feet soaked.

So now I'm working from home, waiting for the plumber who should be here some time this afternoon.  The number of leaks increased overnight, so that turning off the water doesn't completely stop the leak.  I get the feeling this will be expensive...

Comments

[vonbryan.livejournal.com]

Ouch, love coming home to water issues... I give you virtual manly shoulder pat comfort.

[mikekn]

Thanks! $400 later we have the leak fixed and all the valves tightened.

If we could have found the shut off at the curb I would have had him replace the valves as well, but we couldn't find it. I'm having the water company come out to mark it's location (won't do anything with it, but it will be good to know where it is).

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

I recommend replacing standard clumping litter which is bad for lungs and bad for the environment, and replace it with a type of chicken feed called lay crumbles.

Works just like clumping litter. Swear to Bast. It's also much, much cheaper and more environment-friendly.

[mikekn]

Interesting - I'd not heard of that before. How is it for odors?

I just read your Moggy Blog from when you started to use it - glad to hear it's worked out. I'll have to see if I can find the local feed store (must be one around here somewhere...)

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

I get it from a feed store, but I don't live in the city. Maybe a big enough pet store would have it or could get it in by request.

At my current feed store, it's called "crackettes" instead of "lay crumbles", but it's the same thing. You need to make sure they don't sell you pellets instead.

It comes in 25 lb. and 50 lb. bags. I try to get the smaller bags, but a lot of feed stores only carry the bigger bags.

As for the smell, I like it because it reminds me of an old corn crib in a stable and I loved hanging around stables. You only smell it when you're close to it, so it shouldn't permeate an entire area.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Does it do the solid clump thing? We have one of those automatic cat boxes, which needs a good solid clump created.

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

It works the same as all the clay clumping litters I've tried. It doesn't cement *quite* as tightly as some, but it's about 90% there.

What you want to think about is what the dust from clay litters does to your lungs (tiny sharp, jagged particles of silica). I developed a severe cough that would keep me up half the night. My doctor diagnosed it as asthma, gave me an inhaler, the whole bit.

Once I a) started wearing a dust mask and b) switched to lay crumbles, my lung problems have cleared up.

There's also the question of what mining for the clay does to the environment. Chicken feed is at least organic and will decompose in a landfill.

[cellio]

Where do city folks get that?