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The other day I talked about kitty litter and why I buy a certain brand. In that post I said that I buy my cat food from my local pet store, so you might think that I buy a locally made cat food, but that’s not the case. I buy Eagle Brand, why you ask…well let me tell you.

I started the cats on Castor and Pollux dry cat food, changing them from the Cat Chow that they grew up on and immediately the put on weight and their coats became soft and supple. I really liked the idea of the cats eating a organic food, I eat organic so why shouldn’t my cats, but there seemed to be a problem.

Several times I hear the cats coughing while they were eating, I would jump up to see what the problem was and by the time I got there the coughing would have stopped and they would be back eating again. Then one day while I was feeding them I noticed that there were very large chunks of veggies/fruits mixed in the food. Could my cats be choking on their food? I wasn’t going to take a chance of my children coming home from school and finding a dead cat on the floor next to their food bowl so I started picking the large chunks out and I never heard the cough again.

Now I am not saying that Castor and Pollux’s food is bad, it’s probably just my cats not chewing their food well enough. In fact I think the Castor and Pollux’s brand is great, plus my cats loved it. I was really concerned that the cats wouldn’t like it at all, since they had been eating Cat Chow for 18 months, but there was no problem at all.

I decided that as we got close to the bottom of the bag I would try another brand that didn’t have the large pieces in it and that’s when I walked into my local pet store. I could have gone back to Petco and bought another “natural” brand, but all the other brands were big business brands and I wanted to stay away from those. So I explained this to the lady at the Hollywood Pet Star and she introduced me to the Eagle Brand. I did some research and found that Eagle Brand is a Mom and Pop kind of place and that even though it wasn’t certified organic they only use antibiotic and hormone free chicken and there isn’t any meat by-product in the food.

The real test would be if the kitties would like the food and boy did they. In fact for a few days they would pick through the mixed food and only eat the Eagle Brand kibble. There have been no more stinky litter box issues (one had developed tummy problems on the food) and no more choking since there are no large pieces in the food.

This is not necessarily the food that I want to feed my cats, the bag is lined with plastic, but it’s a good compromise. Beth at Fake Plastic Fish was feeding her cats Pet Promise I thought I would try that but I can only by it at the granola store and that means expensive. I am already spending $35 a month just on food, I don’t think my husband would approve of much more. I do know that I won’t go back to Cat Chow. Your paying for quality and when you are paying $10 to feed for a month, you can’t be getting much quality.

What do you feed your pets? Does your attitude towards your food go along with what you give your pets?

I haven’t posted about anything green since a few posts ago, so indulge me one more time and then I will go back to saving the world. I guess in a way adopting the cats is a lesson in being green, it’s a stretch, but my family is learning to live in harmony with other creatures. I think that teaching my kids to take care of animals helps to instill the values of preserving and caring for the earth.

So maybe this post is about being green…pats myself on the back for the correlation!

We had terrible weather last night so it was a tough move for the cats. As soon as we got home they darted under the couch and stayed there until the tornado sirens went off. In fact they got so tired of the sirens, one started mimicking the siren with his meowing. They did finally come out from hiding and started exploring the house and the family. One of the brothers is very brave so he came out first and took a look around, later he showed his brother around their new digs.

It’s very difficult to tell them apart since they have the exact same markings, but one of them has a spot on his nose so as long as they are holding still and you get to take a good look at them you can figure it out. I ordered their collars from Purrfect Play but the collars only come uncolored so no luck telling them apart that way. I did buy them different bells, but those still may be so small those won’t distinguish them either. I can’t wait to see how they react to the catnip toys that I bought them, they have already been batting around some of my daughters toys looking for something to play with.

We can already see their personalities. One is brave and very vocal (especially in the middle of the night) and the other is shy and always looking to his brother for reasurrance.

The real test will be tonight when my mom’s dog moves in for the weekend. The cats have never been around dogs and the dog has never been around cats, this should lead to an exciting weekend for all! I have this feeling that we will be buying a baby gate and seperating the 3 to keep the insanity levels down. In fact I will put a plea out on Freecycle right now, maybe someone will let us borrow theirs for a few days.

Do any of you Freecycle? I think it’s a great way to get rid of unwanted items and get things that you need but don’t need to pay for. Everyone has stuff hanging around in their closets that needs to be gotten rid of and when you Freecycle it you know that it goes to a good home and to someone that really needs it. I don’t live anywhere near a Goodwill so it is very inconvenient to travel 10 miles to drop off a few items. With Freecycle the people come to you to pick the items up, all you have to do is post a quick note on the group and within a few minutes the items have been claimed. What’s easier then that? It even works in reverse, you post something that you want and people email you to let you know that they have it and are willing to part with it.

Anyway…back to the cats. This morning I couldn’t find the cats so my son and I looked around the house for them. We found one hiding the my son’s stinky closet, but couldn’t find the other one at all. Right before we left my son started calling for me, he had found the cat in the most unusual place. The cat had somehow gotten between the fabric covering the bottom of the box spring under my bed. He was just sitting there in his new kitty hammock looking intent on taking a nap. I would have taken a picture but the hole was so small I couldn’t get my hand and the camera in. How did that crazy cat get in there?

For those of you that have animals…do they follow the same earth friendly practices that the rest of your family follows? Are you feeding them food that you wouldn’t mind eating? How does your green lifestyle affect your animals?

I never thought I would be so excited about cats, but here I am all giddy and jumpy with excitement! We are adopting two brothers from a family that just can’t keep them. We really loved the cats from the rescue but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to help a family in need. The family is going through a divorce and both my husband and I know what it is like to lose a family pet due to divorce. We were going to bring home the cats last night but the other family wanted just one more night with them. Ahhh makes me cry…I don’t want to take their pets away but I don’t want them to go to the shelter either. I have told them that anytime they want to come over and visit. We live less then a mile apart so i don’t mind at all.

They seem like healthy cats, they probably weigh 12 to 15 lbs a piece and their fur is soft and shiny. What is so great about the cats is that they put up with my youngest’s “playing”. I think she believes that the cats are like baby dolls and you can toss them around like they are full of beans!

I bought my organic cat food and wheat based litter last night at PetCo. I was worried that the prices would be high but compared to the other “natural” products they were right in line. Several other well known brands have a “natural” line, but I just can’t buy food from a large company that puts bi-products and antibiotic based foods in their other products. I would rather pay a little bit more to make sure I was getting a good quality product from a company that was dedicated to the same principles that I have.

Now if I can only get the cats to eat the good stuff, they have been raised on Cat Chow, all will be good.

I am inheriting a large plastic bucket with a little bit of clay type litter. Maybe I can Freecycle it, as not to have to add it to my collection, I am doubting it’s recycable. I will be donating the HUGE bag of Cat Chow to the local shelter, once the kittys get used to the new food. There must be 50lbs of food in that bag, that’s a lot of cat food that I don’t want to got to waste. I am sure that it will make the other kittys very happy.

Now for toys…I went to the Pet Smart around the corner from my office yesterday durring my lunch and they only had one brand of “natural” toys. The packaging is recyclable cardboard and there was not a hint of plastic! Beth (Fake Plastic Fish) has bought some of her toys at Purferct Play. They are based out of the Indiana so if I bought from them, the toys wouldn’t have to be shipped from across the country, just across Kentucky. They ship USPS so it’s practicly carbon free anyway. I am really thinking about buying their natural hemp collars, since all I can find are made of nylon (plastic). And since the cats are twins, I am going to have to buy some bells that differenciate them from each other.

Stay tuned to see if the cats decide to stick with the plastic free program.

My youngest daughter has been begging us to get a dog, but our lease says that we can’t have dogs so we have been politely telling her no. Yesterday she asked for a cat, she had never asked for a cat before (our lease doesn’t say that we can’t have cats) so we thought about it. I have always believed that you shouldn’t buy from a breeded, so I told her that we would go to the Humane Society the next day.

Today I had to go to Michael’s to buy my son a science fair tri-fold board for his science fair project, yes it was wrapped in a TON of plastic, but I had to get it or he would get an F for a major grade. Anyway…Michael’s wasn’t open so we went next door to check out the cat supplies. I didn’t know it but PetSmart has a place for local shelters to keep their cats, so the kittys get some time in the public. Well I couldn’t help myself so I asked to take a look and that was a mistake. Now I am hooked!

I have never had a cat, we were always a dog family growing up. It was because I am allergic to most things that have hair (thank god my husband is bald!), but so far I really haven’t been effected by the cats that I have been handling today. When I was a kid all I had to do was walk into a home where a cat may had lived and bang I was covered in hives. So being able to sit in a room full of cats is a big deal for me.

We thought that we would adopt one, but now it looks like we will have two more family members. Now how do I stay within my new green rules and bring in animals to my life?

Well thankfully Beth, at Fake Plastic Fish, has done all the homework…Thanks Beth! Another lucky thing is a quick post on Freecycle and now I have a litter box. Wow that was easy. Now for food and litter. Well believe it or not our local PetCo sells natural wheat litter and organic food. I was fully prepared to start ordering pet supplies from other parts of the country and up my carbon offset, but now I don’t. This is all working out so well…maybe we were ment to have a cat.

So now the question is to declaw or not to declaw? What do you think about that issue?