Simple Solutions: Helping the Gulf and Getting Back on Track

I've been out on the road for about 45 days now and while I'm the first to admit that I have slipped in my attempts to live the simplest life possible (my credit card statement is the smoking gun) I am trying to get back on track to living the life I truly believe in. News of the devastating oil spill in the Gulf region just crushed my heart this week, but in the midst of this tragedy I discovered an organization that has found an amazingly simple way to help. Matter Of Trust is an organization that has been using natural and man made surplus products in creative ways to solve ecological issues. What's so amazing about this organization is that they are collecting hair clippings (and wool and fur trimmings) to create 'hair bats' and 'hair mats' to help adsorb oil from the water. And while I don't personally have an excess of hair clippings, wool snippings or fur trimmings, there are 370,000 hair salons in the U.S. that average a pound of clippings a day. So I decided my mission this week (having a little down time here in Chicago), would be to take my daily walks armed with Hair Mat Oil Spill Program flyers and just stop by any hair salon or pet grooming place I passed. With my 20 second spiel, I let the flyer speak for itself. One salon I went to had even just been talking about the program before I walked in, and one of the pet groomers was by far the most excited about the idea. It was quite possibly the easiest and simplest environmental activism I've ever attempted.

Oopsie Poopsie...

So an eco-confession to make… despite all my attempts to make the adventure cat into the eco-cat, I have begun to realize that I've made a pretty big oops. He's been eating his organic cat food since he was a mere furball, he's been using the post-consumer pine pellet cat litter and I was putting the used litter sawdust (non-feces) in the green waste recycling bin until I got the cease and desist from the city… then the sawdust was going in the worm bin. The poops, I was always dropping right into the toilet and flushing away. Unfortunately, I'm finding out now (after 10 years of reading environmental books, magazines, blogs etc…) is that flushing cat feces is actually illegal in California and probably should never enter the municipal sewer system anywhere. The issue is a parasite called Toxoplasma Gondii that many (but not all) cats carry and it can lead to Toxoplasmosis Gondii, the main reason pregnant women are told not to be the one change the litter box. There's no way to treat for the parasite's eggs at waste treatment plants and when that water heads back into the ocean, the parasite goes with it. The parasite is blamed for a high number of deaths of sea lion and sea otters.

Now from what I've read, it seems that if you have a septic system and don't live near a water body, you should be okay to flush cat poop, but if you're on the city's sewer system sadly, the only safe way to dispose of cat waste is to wrap it in plastic and send it off to the land fill. It can ONLY be composted in a pile that has temperatures over 160º or below zero, as those are the only temperatures that will kill the organisms (and NEVER use the composted material on plants that you eat). The internets are surprisingly mum on ideas on how to face this problem ecologically-there are special composting bins for dog feces but the parasites in cat feces are neglected. If some creative and scientific mind (I really have to get myself an MIT intern) could get on a solution to this problem I bet the owners of the 90 million U.S. cats would sit up and start to listen.

Think the CIA could use a few hamsters?

Came across this idea by way of mental_floss and boing boing today: a hamster wheel-powered shredder that allows the shredded pieces to fall into the cage and be used for hamster bedding. Ingenius! Just a prototype right now by designer Tom Ballhatchet (more views of the shredder are on the site). Petco are you listening?

Holistic Vet, the sequel

So Adventure Kitty's follow up at the holistic vet was tinged with a bit of ... how shall we say, "sassiness". Alright, he attacked me in front of the vet. We left many dollars poorer and with the phone number of a "pet behaviorist" in lieu of being asked to return to their services. But interestingly enough, in the week since the vet visit, he has calmed down considerably and doesn't engage in his usual aggressive tendencies as much. Could the power of my positive thinking have altered his emotional state? Was it really that easy?

Kitty Ch'i

So Adventure Kitty has been feeling a bit cranky and under the weather for about 6 months now. After repeated attempts by the regular vet to cure him of a bladder infection using various antibiotics failed, I thought it time to give alternative medicine a try, especially because I'm so concerned about how antibiotics affect my own body, why would I subject a poor animal to them? And so we headed to Limehouse in Studio City for a consultation. Within moments, I felt at ease there, the staff didn't have the disorganized feel that our regular vet has (not mentioning any names...) they weren't tripping over each other to get the phone, there seemed to be only 2 gals working the front desk (not the crew of 17 that the regular vet has, so disorganized and slipshod, I often wondered how any work was accomplished), and the plus was I was allowed to take him out of the cage so that he could wander around and get his bearings. After meeting with the doctor, he deduced kitty's ailment and resulting inability to get better was caused by stress. Not too much of a shocker, we had moved a month or so before he was first diagnosed, to an apartment close to the airport. The apartment previously held two cats that have since moved next door so not only can he smell where they've been, they come lurking around outside while he is forced to watch them through the security door. And last but not least, I'm not the most calm and relaxed choice he could have for a caretaker. So we left after some kitty acupunture and laser therapy with some herbal tinctures, some homeopathic remedies, and a feline pheremone diffuser—and NO antibiotics. Too early to tell the effect the treatments have had, but he does seem to have a better aura about him. And no, I'm not just saying that. If any of it calms his sassiness down, I'll take it.