using a non-biodegradable grocery bag trumps a bio-degradable one?

While our cat will indeed play with pretty much anything, she absolutely loves these cat toys from Ikea that look like bumblebees and have catnip in them. Best part is that they're only $2 each, and seem pretty indestructible.

Sorry guys, I must humbly disagree. This post seems to be written by a person(people) who haven't owned many cats. Yes, some are entertained by paper. Others, like my one Cynder, love furry mice, and will carry them around the house to you in order to play fetch(yes, it's true). And you neglect the 50% of cats that are nip-heads, like my Cynder and Dizzy.

You could do the same thing with nearly any store. How about Wal-Mart:

Dark Knight DVD, $10 - Same DVD from library, free
Wash cloths - Using your hand to clean, free
Bicycle $100 - Walking, free
Video game $60 - Making your kid play outside, free

@GMFish: Have to disagree on walking. You neglect the price of shoes and if no shoes, the inevitable ER visit and tetnus shot or needle and thread+the inevitable ER visit, tetnus shot, and antibiotics from the botched stiching job.

I bought my cat a nice cat bed that he doesn't ever sleep in. You know what he does sleep in? The cardboard box the bed came in.

True. A dog bag is just a plastic bag. But try to convince your germaphobic wife to use a thin, grocery bag that can easily tear vs. using a stout, easily carried dog bag. As dog bags go the best one I've found is from Ikea. Thick and hand sized.

I use whatever is handy.

I agree that the powder scented dog poop bags are ridiculous (and overpriced), but those rolls of dog poop bags are amazing and hang right on your leash. We live in an urban area and my dog craps maybe two or three times a day, so in a week we would go through 21 plastic grocery bags--I definitely do not have that many grocery bags lying around.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave:"You neglect the price of shoes"

Shoes $50 - Walking barefoot, free
Visit to doctor: $10,000 - Dying, free.

I have to say you guys are right on all but 4. While I dont do it often, using those kitty wipes is a good way to cut down on excess dandur which some people are allergic to, and which is created by.... your cat licking themselves.

Its certainly not a every day thing, but once every 1-2 weeks is good. And my cats LOVE it even the one who hates to be combed out normally

The cat cleaning wipes remind me of when we had a totally cat crazy neighbor. She gave her cat a bath every week. She couldn't believe we didn't give our cat baths at all. My mom replied "We bought the self cleaning model." Having seen the stress my cat goes through any time he's anywhere near water, I think he appreciates me giving him the opportunity to do his own bathing.

Vets are ripoffs, too. Mine told me that I needed to start brushing my cat's teeth and that I could guy kitty toothpaste and a little brush right there at her office.

My only argument for the bags is:

1. I buy them if I have a coupon.
2. Grocery bags get holes in them sometimes b/c they are flimsy and if you've ever picked up dog sh!t with a hole in the bag you know how unhappy it makes you.
3. These bags fit on the leash so you always have one when you walk the dog.

Don't get me wrong I try to save and I will occasionally go through all my saved plastic bags and see which are poop worthy so as to augment the bags that I buy.

@K-Bo: some cats dont mind water at all. Of our boys, one tolerates being wet, and the other loves it SO much we could spray him with a water bottle all day and he would just roll around like he is in heaven.

Our female though jumps at even the SOUND of water. When she was a kitten she had the shits and had to be taken into the shower by her previous owner because she was caked in poop. After that she was never the same with water.

So its all in how they are exposed to it.

@quail:
I have one of those little dispensers for the poop bags when I walk my dog. It's more convienient to have something about the size of my cell phone with 25 bags in it than something huge thats just 1 bag.

Also I use those fabric grocery bags since they hold 5x as much stuff than a plastic one.

But I'm up there with your wife about a thin bag lol.

Best cat toys are home made ones.
invest in a cheap hot glue gun & hot glue - $ store.
A container of cat nip - grocery or pretty much anywhere
felt squares - like $.50 to $1 each at craft store.

cut weird shapes fill with Nip and close with hot glue.

Makes like hundreds for minimal.
cats love them

those plastic milk jug safety seals are awesome too.

dog toys - after a holiday go to walmart and buy the santas and i love you stuffed animals and squeekies for like $1
also
large dogs - I have a boxer - her favorite toy is a basketball
$3 from target.

Most of this is totally true, but Felaway "Comfort Zone" really helps cats that are upset for one reason or another-- cats that are spraying, or a new cat that was in the shelter. Sometimes petting isn't enough!

And anyone who has had a long haired cat knows that sometimes they need to be cleaned... um... b/c sometimes stuff sticks in the back area and you might not want them dragging it all over your house!

But my cats definitely prefer paper balls and the tops of orange juice containers to any toys I buy them. I think sometimes the toys are more for the people then the pets!

@sunrage1: Many of those grocery bags are biodegradable today anyways.

I actually have a hard time getting clerks to NOT give me a bag - rather than throwing the bag away*, fill it up first, then you're not harming the environment by also producing those custom bags.

*Proper disposal in a landfill is actually better for the environment than shipping them to a recycling facility.

@sunrage1: The term 'bio-degradable' isn't regulated at all. A grocery store bag is actually bio-degradable. No one says that it has to bio-degrade in a year, a hundred years or a thousand years.

Not to mention, with the construction of the majority of landfills, bio-degradable doesn't mean a thing. Half the time they're Photodegradable - which means they need to be exposed to sunlight. Guess what's not available in your average landfill? If they don't make them Photodegradable, then the things will only have a shelf life of 12-18 months on the shelf and your home shelf anyway, so you're doubly-hosed when you buy these suckers.

The wipes (both types), never had to use them before, and probably never will.

Cat toys, there is some benefit in the more expensive ones, but my cat is somewhat picky. The Play-n-Squeak line of toy mice drive him insane, so do the little foam balls (those are his favorite 'fetch' toys)

He will chase, but almost never returns wadded up paper balls and he loves fighting with q-tips.

I also was smart enough never to even try to buy him a cat bed. I just used an amazon shipping box, cut off the top flaps and put an old towel in there, instant cat bed, almost free, and he loves it. He also loves sleeping under my bed, in my closets, in any cupboard that has room in it, on the couch, behind the keyboard (with legs sitting on the keyboard of course) On a shelf of my desk (no matter what is on the shelf, that gets shot onto the floor) or anywhere else that he decides is his new sleeping spot.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: My cat goes nuts if I breathe on her while eating an Altoid. She's a mint head

@quail:
I'd say visit a menards - the bags there are like 3 times the thickness of the local grocery bags.

By the same token, it's your money to do with what you want. If you're meeting your financial goals, go for it. Otherwise, if you're trying to save more money, five bucks here and ten bucks there and suddenly you're looking at real money.

@lintacious: Yeah, the prospect of having to brush my cat's teeth gives me the shakes. I'd like to avoid the ER if at all possible.

@lintacious: he was probably right. Cats in the wild who lose their teeth die. Cats in captivity have the benefit of being able to be cared for in a way a wild cat can not.

While I agree that some stuff vets provide are questionable in cost, brushing your cats/dogs teeth are not one of them.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: One of mine will play fetch with anything that he can carry, paper included, but wine corks are his favorite. I think it's because they bounce so randomly.

@lintacious:
Dad brushes our dog's teeth. It's actually a good idea, especially if you're going to be feeding your cat prepared(IE from the store) food.

Our pets, much like us ourselves, tend to live a lot longer than nature originally 'intended'. A little brushing will prevent extra expenses down the road.

On the other hand, I don't think you need a special toothpaste or brush - human varieties will do as well, though I'd select a 'mild' paste.

@Kris McAllister: Oh god q-tips. We have a female who catches them tossed to her. We can get like 6 and just go back and forth tossing them and her jumping into the air catching them with her mouth and paw and putting them down.

Then shes shes done she walks to the other side and waits for you to go and toss them again. She used to bring them back, but she got smart and lazy and makes us do it for her.

@lintacious: I didn't brush my cats teeth. They ended up getting sore and infected, he wouldn't eat and was loosing weight ( and he smelled bad ) It ended up costing me hundreds to have them removed ( surgery with full anesthesia catheter, the whole 9 yards ) Thankfully now he's like a whole new cat, gaining weight, being more active, and not stinking so bad everyone wants to sing the stinky cat song around him.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: You also need shoes for cycling, though. And if you're not fussy, you could buy a pair for about $8. Maybe less.

You people are all just a bunch of catheads. And by 'you people,' I mean, of course, the internet.

Dogs love dog toys. In fact, our dog also loves the cat toys that the cats don't care about. (Which, yeah. I've never had a cat that played with an official cat toy. They all hold out for stray pieces of cellophane and moths.)

For a dog who likes to tear stuffed toys, go to the thrift store and find stuffed animals that don't have small, choking pieces or those little styrofoam beans in them.

It's also pretty easy to make tug toys by braiding fabric scraps.

A tennis ball in a sock is also a good fetching toy. (I don't like plain tennis balls for anything but really small dogs, because bigger dogs can choke on them.)

But Kongs are indispensible. There's just no substitute that I've found, and I've tried. They're totally worth it. They're a little pricey, but they last forever, and the puzzle type ones where they have to dig the treats out can keep a dog occupied for a really long time.

@chiieddy: Well, Cynder is also addicted to kittyporn as well:

Floss is a big no-no! Cats eat it and it can seriously mess up their digestive tract, possibly requiring surgery or leading to a painful death.

Please, people! Dispose of your dental floss in a way that cats can't get at it, and don't use it as a play toy!

@sunrage1: Re-using a non-biodegradable grocery bag. Extra use for something used once is (probably) better than a product that had to be manufactured and shipped especially for one purpose.

@K-Bo: Skip the wet food and give them only dry food. The crunchiness of the bits cleans their teeth really well.

Of all of the animals my family has had over the years, none has lost a tooth, or had a tooth infection before they kicked the bucket.

@Firethorn: I'm not sure about with cats, but some artificial sweeteners (xylitol I know for sure) are poisonous to dogs, so I wouldn't use people toothpaste.

@DrWebster: Bonus, catnip has a calming effect that kicks in after the crazy effect. So you're getting some good cat-calming in there too. :D

Tell me where I can get free clumping cat litter and then I'll listen.......

We've brought our cat numerous toys: but she still prefers her string (actually two old shoelaces tied together). Just about the only purchased item she pays any attention to is her scratching post and her Furminator (which is brilliant for getting loose/dead fur off her and into the bin - instead of all over the house).

My parent's cat is a spazzy siamese who has never really liked being around people or around other animals. And then my parents got a dog. The Felaway "Comfort Zone" calmed the cat to the point that she actually doesn't mind being around the family or the dog as much. It's kind of hard to justify that petting a cat is better than the pheromones when the cat doesn't want you to pet it to begin with, and the pheromones calm to the cat enough to be petted.

Also, as other people have said, my cat would prefer a mouse to play with over a wadded up piece of paper. I gave him both to play with as a kitten, and although the paper amused him for awhile, he always went back to the mice.

I do agree with the plastic baggie thing though, if you have to get plastic bags from a grocery store, why not reuse them?

Regarding the cleaning wipes: My husband and I are both allergic to our cat. I use the Furminator (which I got for $16 at the vet; it was over $40 at Petco) and remove the fur from it with a dampened old (used) paper towel. Works well, and it doesn't waste paper and other resources.

@lintacious: One reason vets have gotten so expensive is that there's not a lot of margin in vet procedures (no insurance to hide part of the cost, and people just aren't willing to pay $1000 for a pet procedure most of the time) ... but malpractice premiums have skyrocketed because over the last decade, people have gotten very willing to sue over their pets dying, and to insist Fluffy was worth $10,000 for companionship rather than the $50 Fluffy was bought for/can be replaced for. And courts have gotten sympathetic to that claim.

It's one reason a lot of vets have moved into merchandising -- selling toothbrushes, leashes, treats, etc. The markup on those can be 50% and nobody blinks.

@Kris McAllister: My 7 year old cat still has the amazon box he appropriated for sleeping in when he was a kitten, which he teethed on, and which is all mushed and barely box-shaped. He doesn't FIT in it, but he TRIES to fit in it when he's having a stressful day. I can't bring myself to throw it out!

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): That is, if you're cat actually responds to catnip. A lot don't, like my little hellion.

My cat makes his own toys by digging stuff out of the trash and then demanding that you use it to play fetch with him.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: Mine also plays fetch (it is his favorite game), but he's not really picky about what he's playing fetch with. He has two toys that he likes a lot, but 9 times out of 10 when he brings you something to throw for him it is a piece of garbage that he found god knows where.

@MissPeacock: I got my cat a scratching post that he doesn't use. Instead he uses everything else EXCEPT the scratching post.

Since I use re-usable totes at the grocery, I tend to use the bio-degradable green dog poo bags (no, they're not powder scented). Despite the extra cost, I would say that the design of the bag is much better suited to picking up dog crap than a grocery bag... and also there are often holes in plastic grocery bags, which is f-ing gross when you're dealing with feces.

Also, if you actually want to buy high quality dog food, you need to go to a good pet store, because the grocery store just doesn't stock it.

@Jim Topoleski: My cat keeps jumping into my shower. One time he bellyflopped into a full bathtub.

@spanky:
Seconded ... my dog will tear the crap out of some cheapo non-dog toy or a tennis ball in no time.. but give her a kong or a good bone and that lasts.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: Truth. My cat will play with anything but nothing makes her happier than a decent catnip toy, preferably with the crinkle-sound. And for a bonus? Laser pointer!!