The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

Category Archives: pet care

October 20, 2008

Speshul Anounsmint frum SootsnArya

So HAI Faek Plasstick Fishy peeplz! U all noz last week wuz our 1 yr BIRFDAY! C us sellebrating? OK Soots ur doin it rong akshully. Party hat FAIL. Ennyway Mommybeth iz anemick tonite after she donated blud. Maybe iz becuz we vampire kittehz sucks her blud at nite nyeh heh heh no not till Halloweenz. So she lets us rite post if Big Klumzy Guy will soopervize.

Mommybeth sez nao dat we iz BIG CATS not lytl kittens she will cookz us fud “frum skratch” 2 avoyd plastick rap and BPA canz & we don get dis will she skratch at our skratching post & fud will jus appeer? Y don *we* jus do skratching ourselz & cutz out midllman or midllwomin or wutever. Wao daz a lot about skratching we gess *dis* wuz a skratching post LOL. Mommybeth sez she will put up weakly plasstik tally 2morow wen she not feelz so weekly.

O hay also u allz votez 4 Obama rite rite rite?? he iz verry kool & we wud votez 4 him but we are 2 young & plus were CATZ & we triez 2 get Acorn… Read the rest

August 6, 2008

Arya’s Big Plastic Thing

Oh, da hoomiliashun!

Well, what can you do when little kitties just lick off the bitter lotion we put on their sutures to keep them from doing just that? Bitter! Yum Yum! Anyone need a plastic bottle of bitter lotion? My cat thinks it tastes like dessert.

At least Arya’s fur will grow back. Some cats look like this all over… on purpose.

Arya would thank you all for your nice words and wishes for her recovery, but she’s a cat and too busy trying to figure out how to get that darned lampshade off her head (and plus, she’s kinda stoned right now, the little druggie), so I will thank you all instead. Thank you so very, very much.

The CRRA Conference presentation went really well today despite my lack of sleep last night and weekend of kitty worries. Hope to write more about that and get back to my regular blogging schedule very soon. (Maybe I’ll combine plastic tallies for two weeks this coming Sunday.)

Oh! And I keep forgetting to mention… Read the rest

August 3, 2008

Sad Weekend

My little baby Arya, about whom I’ve been bitching for weeks, fell off Michael’s high shoulders yesterday afternoon onto the hard kitchen floor and broke her front leg. We’ve been crying off and on since last night. Took her to emergency vet. The break is too high up for them to stabilize the leg with splint/cast, so she needs surgery. Can’t do anything until tomorrow, so she’s on pain meds until then.

Arya spent the night in her cramped little cat carrier because we had nothing else to put her in at 1am when we finally brought her home from pet hospital. This morning, I put her in bed with me and held her and petted her while Michael was out running his 1/2 marathon. When he got home, we went out to Pet Food Express and bought her a brand new metal cage (yes, with a plastic floor.) The idea of going through the hassle to find something used on the weekend when my baby was in pain was unthinkable to me. I wanted her out of that tiny carrier… Read the rest

July 8, 2008

Dear GPC Pet Products

Here’s my weekly consumer letter. Okay, not actually weekly. I didn’t write one last week. But I sent this one twice, both as an email (via http://www.gpcpet.com/Contact/default.aspx) and as an actual letter. Does that make up for last week?

July 7, 2008

GPC Pet Products 1600 Oregon Street Muscatine , IA 52761

Dear GPC Pet Products:

I have been using World’s Best Cat Litter for several months now. I find it to be very effective and efficient; a little goes a long way. I have two cats, and compared to other litters I have tried, World’s Best clumps the best, tracks less, and smells better.

However, there is one aspect of the product that I don’t care for, and that is the packaging. It saddens me each time I must dispose of the heavy plastic bag, a bag that is not recyclable in my community and that is made from a non-biodegradable material. I urge you to consider switching to a biodegradable paper bag instead.

I have tried SweatScoop… Read the rest

April 24, 2008

My cats are not canaries! (Are they?)

The Environmental Working Group just released a study of toxic chemicals in cats and dogs. Turns out, they are loaded with them. In samples from 20 dogs and 40 cats, they found “48 of the 70 chemicals they looked for, including PCBs, PBDEs, phthalates, and heavy metals….” Levels of some of these chemicals were higher than in humans. So EWG has created a new organization called Pets For The Environment to “create a healthy environment for pets and people by demanding toxic chemical reform legislation in the U.S.”

According to Jane Houlihan, VP for Research at EWG, “The presence of chemicals in dogs and cats sounds a cautionary warning for the present and future health of children as well. This study demonstrating the chemical body burden of dogs and cats is a wake-up call for stronger safety standards from industrial chemical exposures that will protect all members of our families, including our pets.”… Read the rest

March 14, 2008

Weekly Recipe(s): Dinner in a Pumpkin = Therapeutic Cat Food

The nice thing about pumpkins is that they last a really, really long time. We’ve had this one since Thanksgiving and finally got around to doing something with it. We also had some cabbage that was getting old, so I Googled “pumpkin cabbage recipe,” not really expecting to find much, and ended up with this fun meal called Dinner In A Pumpkin. Apparently, it’s something people serve to their kids on Halloween because, you know, that’s the only time of year Safeway has real pumpkins.

The original recipe calls for ground beef. I opted for ground turkey instead and brought my own container with me to the butcher counter at Whole Foods, where they didn’t bat an eye when I handed it to them. And yes, this container is plastic Tupperware, which I already had. I’d like to find something made of stainless steel for buying meat but haven’t gotten around to looking for an alternative. [2016 Update:  Here’s… Read the rest

February 8, 2008

Giving up the struggle: stories of ants and cats and hair products gone awry

I was planning to write about DIY hair care products this week. But so far, my experiments have been less than successful. Take, for example, the sugar water hairspray, exhibit left. Here’s the recipe:

Dissolve 1 tablespoon sugar in a cup of water. Boil 3 minutes. Be sure the sugar is completely dissolved. Add 1 tablespoon vodka and 2-3 drops essential oil of your choice for scent. Pour into a spray bottle.

The instructions should also have said, “Keep out of the reach of ants!” But then, I guess the writer figured most sane people are aware that sugar attracts ants. Just to clarify, this hairspray ant invasion happened a month BEFORE last week’s sugar incident. You’d think I would have learned. And you would be wrong.

So, about the hairspray. It didn’t work anyway. Still looking for a plastic-free alternative. But that’s not what I want to talk about in this post.

What I want to talk about is letting go of … Read the rest

January 15, 2008

Naughty kitties pass the test, as does our drinking water!

I was surprised how easily the kitties went into the box two weeks ago. The blue plastic box that I got from a very nice person on Freecycle. They were so quiet in there, I had to check a couple of times to make sure I hadn’t imagined putting them in. Good thing they get along with each other. We will need to get another cat carrier for when they are bigger and can’t both be stuffed into the same box. Freecycle or Craigslist. No new plastic for these cats!

So we went to the vet and got shots and blood drawn. Well, they did. I just felt their pain from a distance. And today we got the results. No toxoplasma gondii for these babies. Their poop is certified flushable, as is their litter! And pregnant women are safe in my house. Hurray! We’re still using the Swheatscoop litter, although I’m not crazy about the smell. I do sprinkle baking soda into it to absorb odors. I’ve heard that pine litter is good. But I really do want something that’s… Read the rest

January 8, 2008

Purrfect Pet Toys

We’ve been finding all kinds of plastic-free toys for the kitties to play with, both store-bought and homemade, and have also discovered a really wonderful online small business selling natural pet supplies. So here goes… I discovered Purrfectplay.com at the San Francisco Green Festival in November. Purrfectplay.com is owned and run by Pam Wheelock, who describes herself as having “always been outside the main stream and a *greenie* long before it was a movement.” The company makes natural fiber toys for dogs and cats, such as catnip mice and wool balls, as well as other small pet accessories. All the products are made by homeworkers in Indiana and Detroit.

As the Purrfectplay web site says:

Purrfectplay is run simply. We are dedicated to producing wonderful pet products crafted exclusively from organic, chemical free, and fair-trade materials. We are members of Green America and the Organic Trade Association… Read the rest

December 27, 2007

Kitty Love, by Soots & Arya

Okay, here’s the thing. We are Soots and Arya, and we don’t like to be awoken suddenly from our nice nap by some big flashing, bright light. So we give you face like this. Not our fault. We are infinitely cute, as you will see.

Beth woke us up to help with her blog because, as she said, it was our fault that she was having too much fun with us to blog for the last few days. Wait, did she say fun? Maybe she said she was too tired from chasing us off her desk all day. When she gets cranky, she tosses us across the floor, but we know she doesn’t mean it so we keep coming back again to cheer her up.

Our new friend David came over tonight and taught us how to do an immensely fun thing. We have expert skills of climbing and this proves that we will soon make it to the top of the drapes, which is the goal of our lives. David says that this activity doesn’t hurt humans long as they’re wearing heavy jeans. Beth doesn’t wear heavy jeans. Oh well.

I am Soots… Read the rest