Shopping Time!

                Two major events have occurred since I last updated this blog. The first one is that I have an official date set for bringing my kitty home! She will be joining my family exactly one week from today. I requested off from one of my two jobs (the one that I primarily work afternoons and evenings) for both next Saturday and Sunday. While there is still a possibility that I will have to work Sunday morning, I will be able to be home most if not all of her first 36 hours in my house.

                Which brings me to the second major event that occurred. Being that I'm now a week out from bringing the kitten home (although apparently the "kitten" label isn't a definite thing; more on that later) I decided today was the day to finish accumulating all of the supplies I'm going to need.

                I've been researching supplies since about mid-April, and by doing so I discovered that pet supplies is one area where more information is not necessarily an asset. The more I shopped around on different websites, the more confused I got. Should I get a covered litter box, or an open one? If I buy a carpet-covered scratching post, will the cat learn to scratch the carpet on my floor? And how much does that cat tree cost? For heaven's sake, it's some rope and carpet wrapped around some wood! This one's cheaper, but is it too small? And don't even get me started on food and litter.

               So, when my mother and I walked into our local Petco a couple of weeks ago to begin our cat-shopping adventure, we were more than a little overwhelmed.

                Our first discovery is that the pet retail market is incredibly biased towards dogs. We had to walk past aisle after aisle of dog supplies before finally locating the "cat" section of the store, which was easily half the size. "This isn't fair..." my mother said as we pushed our cart past aisles of dog treats, food, and toys before finally seeing something made for cats (or so the label claimed). 

My cat's future dining set-up at home.

               Food bowls! But this discovery brought with it an array of choices. Should we get a two-for-one feeder? How big should the bowl be? How deep? Plastic, metal, or ceramic? In the end, we selected the butterfly bowl in the photo above for her food, and the slightly deeper blue bowl for water. Both bowls are ceramic. The mat I picked up a few days later.

        We knew we would need litter boxes too, of course. But that proved to be an even harder decision than the food bowls. How big? Covered or open? Liners or no? My mother initially grabbed a tiny litter pan, but then I expressed concern that eventually the cat would grow out of it. We had the opposite concern about the "jumbo" pans next to it on the shelf; she might be able to use it eventually, but it was much too big for her right now. We managed to find two "medium" litter boxes (though they were not labeled as such). It's pretty generous in width and length, but the sides are not too high. Hopefully it will work.

       The most entertaining part of the afternoon was when we arrived at the display of "behavioral aids" and stain removers. For people that have never owned a cat, some of the names of these products are downright hilarious. My mother thought this one was especially funny:

       Our last purchase of that first trip was a carrier. Again, I have to bring up the bias towards dogs. It took us forever and a day to find the carriers in Petco because they were all in the dog section. Absolutely no carriers were in the cat section at all. I realize that many carriers are suitable for dogs and cats, but then why not have them in an area between the two sections? Carriers were all the way across the store from the cat supplies, next to the aisle of dog food. Anyway, I digress. Like with the food bowls and the litter boxes, my mother and I stared blankly at the display of soft carriers before selecting a blue one still folded up and wrapped in plastic.

        It turned out that this was the generic "Petco" brand carrier, labeled (of course) as "Petco Carrier for Dogs". Set up at home, it looks sturdy and comfortable enough. We'll see how well the "store brand" works for us here. 

       Of course, we still needed a lot of stuff. Food to put in the bowls, litter to put in the boxes, and stuff for the cat to scratch, play with, and sleep in. When all was said and done, here is what we ended up with. 

          For scratching, I got both the "Easy Life Hammock and Scratcher" from Petstages and the "Tower" from Kitty City. Of course, the tower required assembly, but it was the "no-tools required" kind of assembly. All I had to do was push hollow pipes into plastic joints to assemble the frame. I also stuffed a throw blanket in the bottom to give the cubical a little more structure. The Petstages scratcher slid together easily enough. Now the only test will be if she scratches at them! 

How the Kitty City Tower comes out of the box

        Next up we have the litter situation...

          "World's Best Cat Litter" was recommended to my mother by a friend of hers. I read online that it can be dicy trying to change litters on a cat, but according to my co-worker they switch litters all the time in their house. I'm only concerned about this litter because it is made of corn instead of the clay that most "mass-market" brands are made with. But this litter has some amazing reviews out there, so hopefully this kitten will learn to appreciate "going green". 

       Now, the fun stuff....

        

            Toys!!! I've already decided that this kitten is going to be incredibly spoiled where toys are concerned. Some of the cat toys out there are just too adorable! Seriously, I wouldn't mind having one of those as a decoration in my house for springtime. I actually gave this one of my co-worker for her to introduce to the cat now; hopefully it will make the transition easier to bring home a toy that's familiar to her. Apparently she's loving it.

               Like with the behavioral aids, I'm finding the names of some of these toys to be hysterical. When I showed my mother the teaser on the right and laughed at the name "Da Bird", my mother joked that we should call it "Da Angry Bird" (a current obsession of my father's). 

             

          Even though I had two teasers already, I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it at Target. Some of the stuff designed especially for kittens is even harder to resist. 

      All in all, I ended up with an assortment of toys, most of of "stuffed" variety. I also bought a treat-dispenser ball, and in the top right corner of the photo you can see the purple, floral collar I picked up as well. 

         Speaking of collars, I also picked up two of the "Come with Me Kitty" harness and leash sets. Why two? Well, that brings me back to that whole "kitten" label thing. See, another thing I've learned is that with the exception of the pet food market, cats stop being "kittens" for sizing purposes at around 4 months old-exactly the age that mine will be coming home. This really was only an issue with two products; this one and the "Soft Paws" nail caps. I purchased small Soft Paws instead of kitten-sized, as the back of the package said that the kitten size was for cats up to 16 weeks old. But for the harness, there was only one "kitten/small" size offered-the next one up was medium. When I got the small harness home and took it out of the box, I was concerned that the kitten would grow out of it too quickly. On my next trip to the store, I picked up a medium one as well. (For the record, the medium one is blue.)

        Fortunately, my cat is a Siamese and won't require much in the way of grooming; however, I figured a brush and nail clipper was in order. I'm just hoping I got the right kind of brush.

        

          And finally, the random accessories. My mother picked out the "Sticky Paws" on our first outing. I've heard it works great, but am hesitant to use it because obviously, anything that's going to make fabric sticky to cats will make it sticky to people as well. I don't think we really want Sticky Drapes or a Sticky Couch. I picked out the "No-Scratch" Spray. The ingredients seem harmless (the biggest one is lemon extract) and when I did a test spray it didn't smell off-putting to my human nose. I also picked out a "grow your own cat grass" dish, which I should probably start growing soon if I want there to be grass when she gets home...

        In the interest of full disclosure, we also picked up a bag of Purina Kitten Chow (the food she's currently eating), a packet of treats, and a box of litter box liners. I just didn't photograph those items.

       I've never had kids, but I'm already starting to understand why people feel like their pets are their children. I haven't even brought this cat home yet and already I can't help looking for toys for her whenever I go to Wal-Mart, Target, or just the grocery store. I want her to have everything I can possibly give her, especially since I know I won't be able to be home with her all the time. 

      At least for now, though, the shopping is finally over with. Now on to the next big challenge: finally deciding on a name!