Dana_G's Profile

Lol, my favorite pastime. This is so fun to read. Aren't kitties quirky cool?! I have 7 rescued stray kitties (I'm done, I swear.) This is long but it's 7. Also my fav topic - this merging of home desgn and cat.

They have actually helped me get more organized, clean more often with better tools (all that furr!) and become more focused in what I own and why. Furniture does double duty as a potential cat napping spot and usually arranged so highest vertical access is possible, and max speed can be attained. Furniture is placed so cat's with no perspective and the will to try anyway will make the jump or at least so ouchies are minimized. Windows have platforms so more than one kitty can see, the front door with a glass door is open amap so kitties can look out, and natural cleaning products are used, which is actually more pleasant for me and they actually work better! A roomba and a swiffer vaccum, and two sets of curtains per window are a MUST. My office chair is often my couch so kitties can hang out next to me. I love happy kitties (and dogs). :)

Calie insists on a brush first thing, faux fur spots to lay on/wrapped in, sleeping under the covers with me, likes a leg up to walk on top of doors and will jump to me to be held, as often as I will let her. She is my heart cat, my first kitty love. Everyone else came by surprise 5,6, and 7 years later.

Hobbie is pathologically playful - carries the milk jug tab and drags da bird mouse toy to me for playing -he's so intent the other cats just wait till he's done. Zips over when I crack open a bag of spinach & insists I hold leaves for his slow munching pleasure. Won't eat his wet food until we play pounce upstairs on my bed, and loves it when I tent out a throw on the couch arm so he can scoot underneath. When I pet him he wraps his tail around my arm.

Magical my short legged maine coon is one of my cartoon cats - just to look at him is to laugh but in addition his paws are furry on the bottom so he has NO traction - he slides past where he wants to go, he slides off the other end of chairs, he runs in place when he's getting started...! He also loves munching spinach, needs mini-starter levels to get anywhere vertical, sleeps on his back (looks like a white shag pillow), and needs placement of the litter box so he doesn't tip them over when he gets out. He thinks he's a dog.

Fuzzy requires me to sit for his nestea plunge (it's hysterical, he falls backward on purpose to lay his back as close as possible, purrs, stares at me and wraps his paws around my arm. I love it) he cries for wet food but won't eat until I dab his mouth with his food (which he knows is coming, so he desperately tries to avoid the dab, but if I don't he stares at me like I didn't feed him. His nose apparently doesn't work.) and cries pitifully during playfights he instigates. He also is one of my cartoon cats - he does a wonderfully intense asap scrabbled 180 butt skid (like he was on a skid track!) during play sessions running back and forth. Wait till I wax the floors.

Grayling is huge and keeps me neat, minimalistic and alert - he pushes stuff off tables (there is a certain sound to horizontal movement which makes me move faster than thought - and he's inspired a dammit grayling! broken plate mosaic -collection ongoing) he stressfully paws any paper left out, meows until I open all the windows and then meows to every and anything passing by. He has a curious talent for finding computer key combination's which do unexpected and unwanted things on my computer. He seems to like it when I get on his level so I got a REI floor camping chair so I could hang out there comfortably.

Buddy has his own room because he's got FeLV and FIV so he has his own set of everything and won't get integrated. He's the biggest cat I have and was an alpha tomcat outside for 7 years - he's one of my miracle cats. He has become addicted to the laser light and does either the non-verbal cry for it or the intense stare where the red dot always shows up and when it does he thumps around like a deranged maniac after it. He just remembered how to wigglebutt pounce! When first got him he chewed through string with one chomp and scared the hell out of me, so now we use a kitty leash and he loves catching that when I flip it up. He requires the precious cat litter so he doesn't pee outside the box. He's kind of claustrophobic and needs the large crate and the window open which means he gets a heat lamp in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer.

Honeybunny is my other miracle cat. She is a teeny 7 pound semi-feral I'm actually successfully taming and has her own room. She has a very very gorgeous meow - a distinct rolling trill. She's very kitteny still and loves jumping onto her bouncy cot, chasing after laser light, pounce slides on material scraps I leave on the cot and shedding like crazy.

They all love their water fountains, da bird, da bird mouse, laser lights (except for calle - she runs away), eating spider plants and lifting them out of the pot, only warm chicken, cajun chicken, only warm hamburger, lactaid, cheese, greeting me at the front door in a herd sometimes so closely grouped they have to back up so I can get in, which totally amuses me and freaks out my friends and family. Even though it's over the top, and I verge on kooky-ness, I really enjoy integrating and puzzling out the needs of my furry family in a stylish budget conscious way - or at least trying, and getting better all the time. It's challenging. And I love reading everyone's stories!

With the diatomaceous earth - just remember to get food grade because the stuff you can get at the garden store is not safe for humans or pets. The food grade you can literally eat and be ok. (btw - it's a good flea killer too.) The garden type will hurt your pets.

It's a super fine powder, like drywall dust. And you'll probably need the manual blower/dispenser to disperse it around the house...otherwise you'll end up with a very snowy house. Or you could put a thin line of it around the edges of the inside and/or the outside of your house...my grandparents used to do that.

I just wanted to put on here some links for help with finding cat-safe plants....Remember to check out the different names a plant might be called (trees may or may not be on the lists).

Here are some links:

Poisonous list:
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/

Non-poisonous list:
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants-non-toxic.html

I do love the set and that's why I'm torn on the question of selling them. It's just a pain to clean around such heavy bases - and thus I am tempted.

Other than that, I totally love them. And I really want to find out more about them! :)

Dana

I too am allergic to my cats and I have 4. There are products by this company Allersearch which denaturalize the dander. I use this both the laundry detergent and the adms spray which really really help the air quality. (Apparently clothes carry it even after washing since dander is sticky.)

I also use the regular dryer sheets made for people with allegies. And I wipe my cats down with catwipes weekly, use an airpurifier and humidifier and it all allows me to breathe better and love my cats! And I'm not sure why, but using white vineger as a cleaning agent -everywhere- seems to really help as well.

Hey Everybody. I have a bare wall I want to line all my clothes up on and then hang some pretty linen panels in front of. It's about 10 feet across and the walls are brick, plaster. (It's a rental and I tend to move every year so I don't want any heavy furniture.)

Do you know of any way to have something go right accross as I don't want to install something permanant against the wall.
It's too wide for a tension rod. I just want something really simple and inexpensive which I could possibly use again. Is that possible?

I LOOOOOVE the origins lavender linen spray. I use it at home and now I've started to use it in my office at work. It just makes me take a lovely deep breath and relax. Makes my brain feel as if I am in a spa, getting a massage.

When I need something more energizing and happy I have a orange hand moisturizer I put on that people love to smell as well!I think it's from bath and bodyworks.

I also like the febreeze air effects scent sterilizers, which works well.

Happy end of day tip: making your room smell nice as you drift off to sleep - just a nice and surprisingly easy thing to do for yourself - even for the super lazy!

That is so pretty and logical. Love all the green~ especially your handmade upside down tomato growing pot.

I'm wondering thought.....How do you stop the grass from molding inside the dirt? (Or the dirt molding - something molds....) I would love to grow cat grass (Wheat grass) inside but something weird always happens inside the pot and it dies....anyone know why?

This is a different type of chair than your typical office chair in that it's meant to balance/move/use your body while sitting - the saddle seat is supposed to be really good for stretching out your pelvis muscles and I read somewhere that it takes a bit of getting used to since we don't normally sit that way. I say go for it. I love the idea of the hip joint stretching since I have issues there and I love the versatility of sitting forward or backward. Somehow my regular office chair doesn't cut it.

If you get it, Shanna, let us know how it goes!!