Reviews

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Nix the Cat Hairballs with a Slicker Brush

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cat slicker style brush

We cats love to be brushed. It makes us feel happy and secure and loved. Even though we do our own grooming all the time, we like it when the humans help out! And when they help out, we prefer they use this slicker style JW Pet Company GripSoft Small Cat Brush. Here’s why:

  • The rubber coated tips feel comfy and don’t scratch our skin.
  • It doesn’t pull out loads of hair, just enough so we can keep up with it ourselves with our tongue brushes!
  • Because it’s not too small, it covers a larger area and gets more done in less time.

Some things to keep in mind with this slicker brush:

  • The longer your cat’s hair is, the better this brush will work. Simme the orange boy has medium length hair so he likes this slicker brush best. But a very short haired cat may like a silicone glove better.
  • This isn’t a self-cleaning brush.
  • Some humans might think this brush does not remove enough hair and that would be because it’s really designed for longer hair cats even though they say it’s for all breeds.

We like to be groomed once a day and long enough to “straighten our stripes”. How much do your cats like grooming?

 

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Some Unexpected, Great, and Very Inexpensive Finds for the Felines

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There are times you don’t need to spend a lot to get something that works really well for us felines! We hear humans like to find “bargains” and so we thought we’d talk about some things they found at the Dollar Tree and Walmart that worked really nicely for us.

First, we’ll talk about fleece throws and blankets, because you know we cats like to stay warm:

4 baby blankets

These are the Angel of Mine Fleece Baby Blankets at Dollar Tree. We’ve got a few of these and they are super buys! They are 30″ x 30″ so they are nice and small. We purrsonally recommend the gray with the white stripes; nice and neutral!

For a slightly bigger fleece throw, we use the Mainstays Fleece Plush Throw from Walmart. And when we say “use”, we really mean it!

 

Cat under blanket

It’s Abby the Tabby, keeping warm and comfy!

We’re pretty sure we can’t ever be without these fleece throws again! We love to hide under them!

There’s one more thing we want to show you. This one’s also from Dollar Tree.

3 storage baskets

You might recognize it from this photo…

Cat among toys

The Essentials Fabric Storage Basket with Grommets is a fun place to store our toys because we can play in it if we want to! The sides are flexible and this basket isn’t as tall as some of the other ones. The humans like it because it’s “only a dollar” so that’s pretty good, right?

We hope you like the things we showed you. Have you ever found something unexpected for your cats at the dollar store or at Walmart or Target?

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Our Ultimate Favorite, Our Cat Tree!

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a cat nest tree

There comes a time when sleeping on sofas or chairs or human beds just isn’t enough. We need a catty corner! A place where us cats can hang out, snooze, play, and just be cats! So we were super excited when this arrived at our home! The You and Me Double Cat Nest with Lounger is 37 inches tall and has sisal on one leg. The others are covered with comfy carpeting in a neutral color that should coordinate anywhere. It’s compact enough so you can even use it in a corner in an apartment.

Here’s why this is our ultimate fave:

  • Two cats can hang out in the nests. We can also poke each other and play. The lounge part is awesome for taking a small toy up and playing with it there.
  • It’s the purrfect place for cat naps.
  • There are TONS of spots to scratch on this thing, even upside down!
  • It’s really stable, even if we leap up to the top in one jump. We can leap and jump as though we are outdoors!
  • It’s a cozy place for us, even if it doesn’t have condos.

A couple of things to keep in mind with this cat tree:

  • No condos on this one. Not a problem for us because we never really took to condos but some cats like them.
  • This cat tree benefits from regular vacuuming. That keeps it nice and clean. Just be careful not to overdo it. You don’t want it to rip because of vacuuming.

This, in our opinion, is a MUST HAVE for multiple cat households.

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Are You a SmartyKat? You Might Become One with This Scratcher!

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angled cat scratcher

When Lily started scratching the litter mat (that we’ve since replaced) we knew we had to do something! We really lucked out with this simple SmartyKat Sisal Angled Cat Scratcher because it was just the right thing. We placed it near the litter box area and Lily took to it at once! She even hid under it. We think she and the other cats find the angle appealing.

What we liked most about this scratcher:

  • This is a small scratcher and it’s convenient to place in whatever tight area you might need to keep cats from scratching other things.
  • It’s a lightweight item but it’s pretty stable for something so light. There are rubber edges on the bottom that help to keep it from moving around, especially on carpeted floors.
  • Its neutral color helps it blend into a lot of different rooms discreetly.
  • This sisal, from what we’ve already seen, is very durable. We think this will last a long time!

Some things to keep in mind with this scratcher:

  • It comes with organic catnip. The manufacturer suggests spreading the catnip into the sisal to attract the cats. While this does work, the catnip can get really messy really quickly. We’ve noticed this with other cat toys with catnip included in them; if it gets loose, it gets all over the place! Try to do without the catnip if possible.
  • Lily was tiny when we first got it and she fit completely on the sloping scratcher but the other cats cannot climb on top of it completely. This is not necessarily bad or good but it should give you a rough idea of scale. The bigger cats also use it due to it being in a good location.

If you have a small area where you need to distract your cat from scratching and can’t fit a big scratching post, this is an ideal solution.

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Our Very Special Toy the Cuddle Monkey by Leaps and Bounds

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small monkey toy

When we first adopted our cat Abby, we bought her this Cuddle Monkey toy. She played with it a while but lost interest. We nearly forgot about it until we adopted Simme, our orange boy.

As a kitten, Simme played with the monkey toy in much the same way. However, one day, he did something odd with the toy. He left it in a special place under the coffee table, hidden away. We decided to leave it there. It remained there for a couple of months, alone and out of sight. One day, though, Simme took the monkey toy out of its special place. He began carrying the monkey around as though it was his very own kitten companion. At that point, we figured we needed to rename the toy “Munchkie”.

Simme and Munchkie became inseparable. Through the next year, Simme took Munchkie traveling all over the home, including up the stairs (which he never did at first) to leave outside the bedroom door. Munchkie couldn’t be out of Simme’s sight, not even for a moment. Otherwise, he would meow loudly, demanding that we find him without delay.

Over time, Munchkie started to show signs of wear. We tried to repair Munchkie as much as we could, but Simme did not trust us to take care of Munchkie while he was out of sight.

Then, Lily arrived. She took an interest in Munchkie but he’s really Simme’s toy, so we got two more of them to play with. Simme, in general, rejected the new monkey toys, while Lily is avidly playing with these new arrivals.

To be continued…

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These Cats are Crazy for Multipet’s Loofa Dogs!

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five long dog toys

We know this may sound, er, strange, but one of our favorite toys is actually not a cat toy. Weird, right? These are the Multipet Loofa Dogs and we think they are purrfect! Here’s why:

  • The 12″ sized Loofa Dogs are a purrfect size for us to grab and kick around with our hind legs. This is primarily how we play with them but they also can be carried around. Just don’t ask us to play fetch with them or anything!
  • We cats respond really well to whatever is making that slight crinkly sound inside the toys. There’s a squeaker inside as well but only the humans ever bother with this.
  • They are funny-looking, cuddly, cute, and come in assorted colors. We got the blue and purple ones.

A few things to keep in mind about these toys:

  • There are 2-packs and you don’t get to pick the colors, unfortunately.
  • A lot of people never think to buy these for cats so they talk about how their destructive dogs rip them apart within minutes. We cats are generally not nearly as destructive but if your cat happens to be especially hard on toys these might not work for your cat.
  • There are a few different sizes of these toys, with the smallest being 6″. Your cat may respond to the smaller sized ones well depending on their unique personality. We recommended the 12″, particularly because we can kick them.

Sometimes looking beyond your own species for toys can work out well, as it did for us with these Loofa Dog toys.

 

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One of the Most Important Items for us, the Scratching Post

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carpeted scratching post

When it comes to scratching posts, we have always preferred the fully carpeted ones over the ones with sisal and carpet. That’s just a personal preference though. The Classy Kitty Cat Carpet Scratching Post has held up for two years (and three cats) which is really something!

What we have always liked about this scratching post:

  • It’s stable! The post doesn’t knock over even if we felines climb to the top while having one of our many crazy cat fits.
  • The base is a comfy carpet in case we want to take a rest after our antics.
  • This is carpeting we’re allowed to scratch! How great is that?

Something else to keep in mind about this scratching post:

  • It does come in part sisal/part carpet if you prefer that kind. We’ve found sisal doesn’t last as long as the carpet does.

While it’s not complete like a cat tree, this is one of our favorite things to exercise our claws!

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The Drymate Cat Litter Mat is a Great Solution to Our Litter Box Woes

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paw pattern rug

The humans hate it when litter gets all over the room. We used to have one of those plastic mats with the holes in it in front of our box but we used to jump over it or dash out of the box so our paws wouldn’t touch it.  Sometimes if we did step on it, we’d take a chunk out of it when it would get caught on our back nails. Then, silly Lily got here and started scratching it! They finally got fed up and tossed out the bad litter AND the litter mat! And they replaced the litter mat with this one!

The Drymate Extra Large Cat Litter Mat is a superior replacement for the plastic one we used to have. Here’s why:

  • It’s not icky sticky plastic, so we like to step on it. In fact, we kind of wish we could sit on it because it’s so comfy! The surface is flocked and smooth and the layer underneath is waterproof and skid proof.
  • The extra large size is 28″ by 34″ so there’s plenty of room for us to step out of the box even if the box is overlapping the mat.
  • The surface is solid and it can be easily vacuumed, spot cleaned, and it’s even machine washable and dryable!

A word of advice about this mat:

  • If you use a vacuum on it, the humans think it’s best not to use any roller attachments.

This company makes lots of different pet items AND garage floor mats. And by the way, they’re made in the USA. Everyone in the home is happier with this mat and we highly recommend it!

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Arm & Hammer Makes Good Cat Litter AND Bad Cat Litter!

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Today, we’ll let the humans talk about the stuff they put in our litter box!

box of cat litter

Spoiler Alert. this is the one we like best, and so do the humans!

We’ve gone through a number of different cat litter brands since we got our first cat, Abby. After using all of them at least a couple of litter changes, we’ve got this much to say about them: sometimes, the older model is simply the better choice.

In particular, we’re recommending the Arm & Hammer Multi-Cat Clumping Litter. This was coming off the extremely disappointing Arm & Hammer Clump & Seal Slide; the cats adjusted to this litter immediately after we changed it. This is not to say they hadn’t adjusted to the Slide, however, they obviously prefer this brand.

We like this one best because:

  • Clump & Seal Slide is one of the most expensive litter lines that Arm & Hammer makes and it is not worth the extra money. The clumping ability of Slide is no better than any other brand of clumping litter. As for the Slide effect for which it gets its name, the cleanup of the litter pan was only slightly better.
  • The granules of the Multi Cat Clumping are not nearly as small as the Slide. The Slide resembles sand more than anything else. And you know how hard it is to clean up fine sand granules! It’s a never-ending chore and it gets into everything. And this was with a good litter mat under the box (which we’ll talk about in later posts).
  • We could not stand the weird smell from the Slide. Ironically, the smell was actually too subtle to cover up the smell it was invented to cover up but was still continuously toxic smelling. The Multi Cat Clumping does not have that problem. It’s a much more typically scented cat litter. Also, Multi Cat Clumping comes Unscented for those who prefer it.

Don’t waste your money on a litter that will only disappoint you.

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These Cat Tunnels are Sheer Delight and Tons of Fun

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pink cat tunnel

Our humans got one of these Collapsible Cat Tunnels with Jingle Bells for us to play with last year and had to get another one because Abby would hide inside it and keep Simme from playing. So, now we have twice the fun, even though Lily takes up both of them if she can get away with it!

Here’s what we love about this cat tunnel:

  • The humans can tie them up into a compact ring if they want to. Tying one side and not the other will make it into a macaroni shape and it won’t roll around.
  • The jingle bells and the ties are a wonderful distraction and we can play for hours with them.
  • We’ve had these for over a year and they are in purrfect condition even with all the time we’ve been playing with them!

A couple of other things to keep in mind with these cat tunnels:

  • They can roll around the room. It adds to the fun but the humans keep putting them back into place again.
  • They come in many different bright colors.

We have so much fun with these cat tunnels! Playing hide-and-seek with each other is probably our very favorite game. And we can take another toy inside to play too. We can even take a cat nap in them in them when we’re done playing. Highly recommended!

gray kitten in a cat tunnel

Lily with our polka dot collapsible cat tunnel