The Continuing Litter Box Saga

As you may remember from these entries, Garfield was pooping outside the box and I thought we solved this problem.

That was until 2 weeks ago when Garfield started leaving quarter-sized and even larger diarrhea (which I'll refer to as "D") outside and sometimes in the box. I at first thought it was from the hubby giving Garfield the leftovers of Chester's wet food to which we add Benefiber. Then I believed it could be a hair ball so I gave Garfield Petromalt only one time which seemed to make the D worse.

From when we ordered the second mega litter pan  in the mail

A week ago Monday or Tuesday, my hubby and Garfield paid a visit to the vet. The doctor suspected something was wrong with his GI tract (Giardia was later ruled out) so she gave him an antibiotic. Garfield responded immediately and loved the Greenies pill pocket, not to mention the medicine.

Well, last night, Garfield did a huge and stinky poop outside the box. Followed by a huge D puddle outside the box. Ditto on the D this morning, followed by a few quarter-sized Ds in the box. The hubby was going to call the vet's office when it opened for business but I was still worried. That was until...Garfield expelled the most disgusting gak puddle you ever did see with a thumb-sized hair ball!  We have never been so happy to have to clean up a mess. And I was sooo happy that I bought this Nature's Miracle for Cats.

Garfield wants to play with the furminator

This is the second fur ball that Garfield has upchucked so we will need to speak to the vet about prevention. We do have a furminator - I guess we need to use it more. Garfield doesn't like to be brushed but he doesn't mind getting furminated in the bathroom.

Sweet Flat faced Cat

We've been trying out the camera that was in the box. It can take videos and we recorded Chester licking me and him purring and stretching. Garfield meows for some attention. Don't worry about Garfield - he thinks he's a meezer and he gets plenty of love!

Flat Faced Cat Smiles

Exotic Shorthair Chester here!

I love my Snuggie so much that sometimes I smile when I am kneading it!

Exotic shorthair cats Garfield and Chester: What's in the box?

"Mew Mew, Chester, let me get a better look" - Garfield

Chester's face is very flat!

Just how flat is Exotic Shorthair Chester's face?

Here's a picture showing his profile!

Pooping Outside the Litter Box: Update

Petco Mega Rectangular litter box (the two litter boxes we are still using)

As I mentioned in this and this blog post, Garfield was pooping outside of the box and we were very frustrated. We are now back down to two litterboxes (from four). We recently switched to Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter to get Garfield interested in the litter box again and also monitored his visits to the litter box as many times as possible. At first, we had to put him back in the box when he was about to poop next to it. My husband concluded that Garfield doesn't like much litter - no matter what brand - in the box. This would be a great discovery except that Chester wants 3-4 inches of litter in the box. Our current solution - which seems to be working (fingers crossed) - is to keep no or very little litter at one end of the box and to have a mound on the other end of the box. Garfield gets to dig on a smooth surface, do his thing, and then cover the evidence with the litter from the other side of the box and Chester gets to adjust the litter to his liking and then do his thing. When one of them is done and we clean the box, we return the litter to the half no litter/half litter configuration.

I will be happy when we switch back  to The World's Best Cat litter unscented for multiple cats. WBC litter clumps better and leaves the box smelling better after pee and pooped are removed. It's also flushable, something that Dr. Elsey's isn't. I don't know that the boys will be pleased when we return  to WBC litter. Chester and Garfield like to accompany us on our now many visits to the trash chute outside of our apartment when we dispose of the contents of the box. Chester loves to run down the long hallway and groom himself on the hallway rug while Garfield likes to investigate every inch of hallway rug, sniff outside other apartment doors, and jump on the table facing the elevators. Our secret hallway  missions are not so stealthy due to Chester's throat clearing and his loud breathing or Garfield's meowing but so far, none of our neighbors has ventured outside of their apartments to check on the strange sounds! Honestly, we'll probably continue our hallway visits now that they are so keen to venture outside, even after we return to World's Best Cat Litter!

Exotic Shorthair Chester still loves his Snuggie!

In case you were wondering, Chester still loves his fleecy blankies.

Here he is with the Snuggie!:

Exotic shorthair Garfield and Fancy Feast

Garfield is very silly and very meowy but he also has a pensive side:

Food, food everywhere and not a bite to eat!

BuzzFeed list with Exotic Shorthair cats Chester and Garfield

I am so excited - Chester and Garfield are on BuzzFeed in a list called 10 Word Mix-Ups To Avoid, Presented By Adorable Animals. You can see them demonstrating the meaning of the word "tenant" (as opposed to "tenet"). I ran to Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr to repost the article. 

As you may have gleaned from this post, I have wanted the boys to be featured on popular websites and have been at a loss as to how to make this happen. The good news is that there is a photo credit to a Tumblr page called "Cats With Weird Faces" which leads back to me (ChesterSmooshyFace) as the user who submitted the picture.

iPad2 photo of exotic shorthair Chester

Here's a photo of Chester than I took with my Ipad2. It was a grainy digital picture so I touched it up in Picasa:

Photographic Portraits of Chester and Garfield

We recently had my friend Megan Green over to take portrait photos of Chester and Garfield.

Chester wasn't into the whole posing thing and one of the best photos of him was taken while he was trying to avoid the camera:

Garfield on the other hand was a natural:

Campaign Day 3: Who does Chester (or Garfield) or What does Chester (or Garfield) need to

Mew, mew - it's Garfield!

Today is the last day of this thing we're doing. I'm glad it's over - I had to stay here all night coming up with something! And Mr. Smooshyface had this big ol' picture of himself that he pasted on the wall for some inspiration. You see, we're trying to get back into I Can Haz Cheezburger? I think the first time was just plain ol' luck. Here is the lolcat:



You see, Chester didn't even caption this. And the picture? It's from a very popular site called Get Out of there Cat.

Well, here it goes anyway. This is what I came up with:



Whose butt does Garfield have to clean to get on the Cheezburger front page?

Campaign Day 2: Who does Chester (or Garfield) or What does Chester (or Garfield) need to

Greetings from Exotic Shorthair Chester!

As you may know, yesterday was the launch of the Who does Chester (or Garfield) or What does Chester (or Garfield) need to campaign. The intention of Day 1 was to bring Team CSF to the attention of those people who choose the posts that will appear on Tumblr Radar. Those selected for the "Radar" have a post appear on the right-hand side of the computer screen of other Tumblr users.

For day 2, we have selected Instagram or more specifically Cats of Instagram. My consultant recommended using New York City as the background and to include old buildings and water towers. These appeal to the "hipster" crowd which is the target audience. I also included a handful of "hashtags" (on Instagram) as our Plan B to direct IGers to the entry.

I now present to you the second post:



IF CHESTER POSES WITH WATER TOWERS AND NYC BUILDINGS WILL HE GET TO BE A CAT OF INSTAGRAM? 

Campaign Day 1: Who does Chester (or Garfield) or What does Chester (or Garfield) need to

Exotic shorthair Chester here! My consultant wasn't happy with the results of my previous efforts (I won't even mention what The Kid did) so we are trying something new.

We are launching a campaign called: Who does Chester (or Garfield) or What does Chester (or Garfield) need to.The Kid and I will find ourselves in certain situations and add captions directed at the gate-keepers of various social media outlets as a way to beg admittance invite them to get curious about Team CSF. Soon, they will find themselves reporting us as spammers coming to the various ChesterSmooshyFace channels/pages/blogs to learn more. Eventually, they will ban us outright tell their viewers/readers/members about us and our efforts will be successful.

I present to you the first posting which is directed at the elusive Tumblr "Radar":

WITH WHOM DOES CHESTER NEED TO SHARE HIS CAT TREE TO GET ON TUMBLR RADAR?

Exotic Shorthair Garfield: How to play with a crinkle tunnel

Mew mew, it's Garfield!

Ma and dad got to thinking that we needed a crinkle tunnel because we like playing with rolls of paper.

I'm so glad that they got one - I love it!

Now I'm a big boy and I can fit into the tunnel. A lot of people think that it's only for kittens. Let me be the first one to tell you that it's not.

I made a few videos to show you that big cats like me can play with a crinkle tunnel.

Video number one: Slide with the tunnel and pounce



Video number two: Slide on top of the tunnel and hide



Video number three: I think this is the best way to play with a crinkle tunnel! I call it splat and hide