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

[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.