Posted October 21, 2010 at 01:49 pm
So, I've always been a frugal guy. I explained this in my Wacom post. I've also always had cats. They're amazing animals with incredible, individual personalities and if they seem to just sleep all the time and avoid you, you're probably giving off an "I don't like you" vibe to start with. But that's enough about cats.
What I want to talk about is kitty litter. If you're a cat owner, you know it, and you hate it -- that is, if you buy the cheap stuff. For the longest time I'd buy the cheapest litter. Something like a 20 pound bag for $3. This might last a month, but with four cats, it was more like 2 to 3 weeks. It always stunk, so we'd occasionally get the good-smelling stuff to sprinkle over the top of it to help absorb the odor. Since it didn't clump like the 'expensive' stuff, you could only pick up the dookies with the scooper, and the pee just left the litter a darker grey, so after a few days, you had to just dump out the entire box. And this was a horrible hassle. Every time I cleaned the box, it filled a plastic grocery bag, and was extremely heavy. Sometimes it would tear from the weight, and it was just terrible terrible. And did I mention the stink? Good god, the litter box is in my bathroom and it was a punch in the face every time. No air freshener could cover it, and I don't like to use air freshener around small animals anyway.
So one day, there was a sale on kitty litter. US$9 for a 28LB box of "Fresh Step Multiple Cats Scoopable" kitty litter with carbon. Usually $12, but as I'll explain, still worth that price. I said what the heck, and removed the old clay litter for the last time. I added this stuff to the box and the bathroom smelled better instantly. It was like night and day. I never realized before how hesitant I had been to even enter my bathroom until I got rid of that old litter. A couple days later, it was time to clean the box. I was still apprehensive, as I figured there's no way anything can clump as good as it does in the commercials. So I went through my routine, I squatted down (not comfortable for a fat guy) and began scooping. I pushed my scoop deep around the first clump. The fine, still-clean litter around it feel down through the holes of the scoop without so much as a shake. It was like the waters falling away from an island that had risen from the ocean after millennia of submergence. (Dangit Worpress, don't tell me "millennia" is spelled wrong. I know it's right.) But even though it was a big perfect chunk, it was also surprisingly light. After I had finished cleaning the box, the bag I placed it in was barely full at all. I had gotten only the dirty litter, and the box still looks glistening clean, as if I'd just poured it. I added a bit more litter to the litter box (with no choking dust, mind you,) and I was done after only a minute of light scooping. With the old crappy litter, it was several minutes of feverish searching for semi-clumped stuff, pulling up clean and dirty litter alike, before getting frustrated and emptying the litter box altogether.
That was on September 13th that I started using this new litter. It's now Oct 21st, and I still have at least half of a box of kitty litter left. I figure that if this box lasts 2-3 months and the old stuff only lasted a few weeks or a month at best, on cash spent alone, you're already coming close to breaking even. And in sanity, my god is it worth every penny. Go to Taco Bell once fewer every couple of months and buy this litter instead. Your bathroom will smell like roses and meadows instead of pee and crap.
You will thank me, and your cats will, too.
- Rumpy and Needles when they were a few weeks old.
What I want to talk about is kitty litter. If you're a cat owner, you know it, and you hate it -- that is, if you buy the cheap stuff. For the longest time I'd buy the cheapest litter. Something like a 20 pound bag for $3. This might last a month, but with four cats, it was more like 2 to 3 weeks. It always stunk, so we'd occasionally get the good-smelling stuff to sprinkle over the top of it to help absorb the odor. Since it didn't clump like the 'expensive' stuff, you could only pick up the dookies with the scooper, and the pee just left the litter a darker grey, so after a few days, you had to just dump out the entire box. And this was a horrible hassle. Every time I cleaned the box, it filled a plastic grocery bag, and was extremely heavy. Sometimes it would tear from the weight, and it was just terrible terrible. And did I mention the stink? Good god, the litter box is in my bathroom and it was a punch in the face every time. No air freshener could cover it, and I don't like to use air freshener around small animals anyway.
So one day, there was a sale on kitty litter. US$9 for a 28LB box of "Fresh Step Multiple Cats Scoopable" kitty litter with carbon. Usually $12, but as I'll explain, still worth that price. I said what the heck, and removed the old clay litter for the last time. I added this stuff to the box and the bathroom smelled better instantly. It was like night and day. I never realized before how hesitant I had been to even enter my bathroom until I got rid of that old litter. A couple days later, it was time to clean the box. I was still apprehensive, as I figured there's no way anything can clump as good as it does in the commercials. So I went through my routine, I squatted down (not comfortable for a fat guy) and began scooping. I pushed my scoop deep around the first clump. The fine, still-clean litter around it feel down through the holes of the scoop without so much as a shake. It was like the waters falling away from an island that had risen from the ocean after millennia of submergence. (Dangit Worpress, don't tell me "millennia" is spelled wrong. I know it's right.) But even though it was a big perfect chunk, it was also surprisingly light. After I had finished cleaning the box, the bag I placed it in was barely full at all. I had gotten only the dirty litter, and the box still looks glistening clean, as if I'd just poured it. I added a bit more litter to the litter box (with no choking dust, mind you,) and I was done after only a minute of light scooping. With the old crappy litter, it was several minutes of feverish searching for semi-clumped stuff, pulling up clean and dirty litter alike, before getting frustrated and emptying the litter box altogether.
That was on September 13th that I started using this new litter. It's now Oct 21st, and I still have at least half of a box of kitty litter left. I figure that if this box lasts 2-3 months and the old stuff only lasted a few weeks or a month at best, on cash spent alone, you're already coming close to breaking even. And in sanity, my god is it worth every penny. Go to Taco Bell once fewer every couple of months and buy this litter instead. Your bathroom will smell like roses and meadows instead of pee and crap.
You will thank me, and your cats will, too.
- Rumpy and Needles when they were a few weeks old.