Kitty Cats With Our First Call In

Backyard Studio Roll Call

Tammy 0:00

Okay.

Intro 0:11

From our humble backyard studio, this is the Almost Famous Radio podcast with your host Jefferson Jefferson. Let's go!

Jeffy McJefferson 0:25

And welcome to the Almost Famous Brady Oh podcast. Jeff McJefferson here. Well, you already heard Rayette, because she's here again.

Rayette 0:36

I'm always here.

Jeffy McJefferson 0:37

You're always here, Rayette.

Rayette 0:38

Well, mostly.

Jeffy McJefferson 0:39

We have Carol and I'm here sometimes.

Carolyn 0:43

Hi.

Jeffy McJefferson 0:43

This is an experimental deal here. So we have Tammy from Missouri on the phone. Tammy, can you hear us?

Tammy 0:52

Yes, I can. Hello. Hi, Tammy. Woohoo!

Jeffy McJefferson 0:55

Hi.

Rayette 0:56

That's my bestie.

Jeffy McJefferson 0:58

That's our bestie for thousands and thousands of years.

Rayette 1:02

Oh my god, way too many. We can't keep saying how long because then it ages us.

Carolyn 1:08

But it is fun because this is the first uh call-in.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:11

Yeah, yeah. First call in try.

Carolyn 1:13

That's big. Yeah, expanding.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:15

It's huge. So huge.

Tammy 1:21

So you decide to experiment with me. Great.

Drink Check And First Call-In

Carolyn 1:24

Yes. Perfect. Thanks for being our guinea pig.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:27

Yeah, yeah.

Carolyn 1:28

Yes, that's me.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:30

So what we do, Tammy, we go a around the table and I guess around the country. And we tell everybody what's drinking. What you're drinking, Red.

Rayette 1:39

I'm drinking a party bomb strawberry lemonade.

Carolyn 1:42

Carolyn. Some ginger honey juice from Nankasi. From Nankasi.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:48

Tammy, what you got?

Tammy 1:49

I've got the truly wildberry.

Hairless Cats And Bad Jokes

Jeffy McJefferson 1:52

Truly wildberry. And I got the Springfest from Sierra Nevada. So what I wanted to talk about on this one, this this little show is about kitty cats, believe it or not. And everybody's going like that's a far cry from what we've done.

Rayette 2:12

And not those kind of kitty cats.

Jeffy McJefferson 2:14

And not those kind of kitty cats. I know.

Tammy 2:18

Oh dang, I was on the wrong show. Oh.

Jeffy McJefferson 2:22

Oh, let me restart this then.

Tammy 2:27

Miscommunication. We'll see how.

Jeffy McJefferson 2:33

Yeah, it's kind of and it was we were at cartwrights doing our pregame thing, and and then Krista was like, okay, I'm gonna pull a Ricker here. Gonna wait and see when Jeff starts talking about kitty cats going with the cats. Starts mentioning pussy. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't think that's gonna work on this one.

Carolyn 2:55

No, because I think we're really talking about cats. Like, yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 2:59

And then Mike.

Rayette 3:00

Carolyn, are we? Carolyn's a little worried. The look on her face is like, are we?

Jeffy McJefferson 3:07

Yeah.

Tammy 3:08

Wait, is this an April Fool's joke? Right, right.

Jeffy McJefferson 3:12

And they were saying, like, okay, well, could it be hairless cats? Oh shit. You know, and stuff like that.

Tammy 3:19

I don't like hair. I think we're multitasking this show, actually. No. We might be.

Jeffy McJefferson 3:24

Welcome to the show.

Tammy 3:25

You know there's gonna be innuendos. Come on. No, but what the hell is that? So, Jeff, do you prefer do you prefer long-haired cats or short?

Jeffy McJefferson 3:36

Well, God, we've already gone off the rails.

Carolyn 3:39

No, but honestly, one of my coworkers was telling me about the hairless cats because hair kitty cats with hair, it like helps with all the little what's like the little piece of poop that's stuck at the end. Dingleberries? Yes, but I know, I was like, that was that's wrong. Uh, but hairless cats don't have that. So when I'm in here too. Oh, I know.

Jeffy McJefferson 4:05

Oh shit. Dusty's there. Hey Dusty, what's up, man?

Dusty 4:10

He was more worried about talking about cats than you were what you're drinking. Well, you think people are gonna make fun of you drinking whatever the hell it was, as opposed to talking about cats?

Jeffy McJefferson 4:24

Well, stay tuned. Stay tuned, brother.

Tammy 4:28

I'm gonna talk about cats, but I'm drinking Jack Daniels. That's right. Yes, yes.

Carolyn 4:35

But no, hairless cats leave they don't get the dingle berries. Well, they don't, but they leave marks on your counter and not the kind of marks you want. Not coffee. Ew. Yeah. Ew. Ew. I know.

Dusty 4:47

When they do the drag the ass too. No, I don't think they drag it.

Carolyn 4:51

I think they just sit down and leave you a little buttons. Yeah, a little kiss.

Jeffy McJefferson 4:55

Little hersheys kiss. Ew. Ew. Uh huh. A little starfish kiss.

Tammy 4:59

Yes. Yes. That's what I was trying to think of. A starfish.

unknown 5:05

Okay.

Tammy 5:05

Yeah, I don't think that. No, I don't think. I don't feel like I can cut a little hairless cat.

Carolyn 5:10

No. I mean, I feel like a hairless cat is similar to a chihuahua, honestly. Sorry if you guys have chihuahuas over there.

Tammy 5:17

And then I think you have to be careful too of their skin because they don't have the hair. To pretend to actually. Yeah. Yeah. Their skin's really thin. And then I think I've seen things where they have to a lot of times we'll have to put sweaters on them and stuff to keep them warm because they don't have any hair.

Carolyn 5:34

Again, the chihuahua of cats.

unknown 5:37

Yes.

Rayette 5:38

So we all agree, no hairless cat.

Tammy 5:41

Yeah, no hairless.

Rayette 5:42

No bald cat. Well, you know.

unknown 5:48

We're off to the case. Okay, next legend. I guess you checked. We all agree.

Jeffy McJefferson 5:52

The only hairless cat that I've ever really seen that was kind of cool was like a real kitty cat, not the kitty cat you were talking about. But anyway.

Tammy 6:02

Because there's something like the Egyptian category. What are you talking about? I am talking about.

Jeffy McJefferson 6:07

We're talking about the kitty cat from Dr. Evil, who had a little kitty.

Dusty 6:12

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Do you want a 1970s kitty cat or a 19 or 2026 cat?

Jeffy McJefferson 6:21

Well. I don't know how to answer that. I'm going to have to ponder that one for a while there, Dusty.

Dusty 6:28

Back in the 70s, this is the poof. Very long-haired cats. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 6:34

Oh, I got you. Gotcha. Yeah.

Dusty 6:38

I was going back on the pusspart. Dusty's. That's all Dusty's about. I went too far.

Jeffy McJefferson 6:46

No, nothing's too far on here, but I was like, I was like, I told everybody at Cartwright, oh, it's gonna be a sweet episode. Like we're we talking about kitty cats and shit. Like uh obviously not, right, Carolyn?

Rayette 6:58

I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of innuendos. Come on.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:02

Well, there is.

Dusty 7:03

Is it also on YouTube going on right now? Or no, they just report. Okay.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:08

No, we're not.

Dusty 7:08

I didn't know if we had a visual of what's going on.

Carolyn 7:10

No, there's no video. No, no video.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:12

Nothing.

Carolyn 7:13

It's just us sitting around the table in the shed.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:16

That's about it.

Carolyn 7:17

Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:19

Okay.

unknown 7:21

God.

Carolyn 7:21

So Rayette, you didn't have to reel this in. Yeah, kitty cats. What's that, Tammy?

Tammy 7:26

No, Rayette, you didn't used to have cats. You've had dogs. I didn't know that you were a cat person until time of sort of recently.

Rayette 7:33

I actually have always almost had a cat, like all the time. Believe it or not. Yep. My first cat was Sambo Melbourne Spencer Theatric Chicken Noodle Soup. Wow.

Carolyn 7:46

Imagine learning to write that name in kindergarten.

Rayette 7:49

Yeah. We called him Sam.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:51

Yeah, that would be that would be a probably a good idea.

Rayette 7:53

When the girls were growing up, we had Callie. She was a long-haired calico.

Jeffy McJefferson 7:59

Well, you shorten you shortened that name awfully good.

Rayette 8:02

I know.

Jeffy McJefferson 8:02

Yeah, good job.

Rayette 8:03

And then my latest one that was in Klamath was Jamie. He was like white and gray.

Tammy 8:11

That's so weird. I don't remember you having cats. Yeah.

Meet The Cats Around Table

Rayette 8:15

He was outside a lot. Yeah. Crazy cat lady.

Jeffy McJefferson 8:20

Well, let's go around the table, I guess. Okay. Right? Our cats.

Rayette 8:26

Lily and Tucker.

Jeffy McJefferson 8:27

Lily and Tucker.

Rayette 8:28

They're they just turned a year old. And their brother sister.

Jeffy McJefferson 8:33

They're like tabbies white tab.

Carolyn 8:34

Yeah, white tabbies.

Jeffy McJefferson 8:36

Yeah.

Carolyn 8:36

Yep.

Jeffy McJefferson 8:37

Carolyn.

Carolyn 8:38

We have Panther and Pepper sisters that were born on the side of our house in our backyard from a couple feral kitties that made more feral kitties. And you said they were almost five? Yeah. I well, we estimate that I mean I told the vet when we made them our own cats that we think they were born around like May-ish, because when they first came around, it was mid-June and it was like a hundred degrees out, socked in smoke. And we noticed there were these little floof balls running around the backyard with their mom. So I put a little saucer tupperware of water out there for them, and they started coming around. And so with the features like the that you could find charts of like eye color, what their fur looks like that estimates how old they are. And so we kind of guessed that that's around where they were. So on paper, their birthday's May 1st. Okay, that works. And they were born in our roommate's kayak on the side of our house. Yep. And then it was over the summer, like lured them in with little ribbon toys, got some kibble, got some tuna. Like, I'm going to make you mine. Looked up like what you can feed stray cats from your fridge or like from your house just to not have to do a lot for them. And we did just plain scrambled eggs, no butter or milk, and put that out there. Mom would come around sometimes. We knew who the dad was too because they would be together. And then when they would come around more, we started leaving our back door open and putting the food right inside the house. So then they started to come into that, and then we moved it into the kitchen and they'd come in and the kittens would eat and kind of look around, but the mom was super feral, so she would come in and eat and just dodge back out. And then it was like October, November ish, and our roommate was gonna be gone to Tahoe for a couple weeks, and it was getting cold, and we weren't gonna leave the back door open to like heat the backyard.

Rayette 10:35

Yeah.

Carolyn 10:35

So we decided to lock them in and if they hated it, let them back out and live their feral life, but they were okay. And that was now you have two cats. Yep. Indoor cats. Indoor cats. Yeah, because we've lived areas that aren't really like conducive to having outdoor cats survive. Sure. But they'll be five on May 1st on paper.

unknown 10:57

Cool. Cool. All right.

Carolyn 10:59

Yeah, and they're awesome. Tammy, what you got?

Tammy 11:02

I've got um Harley, who's gonna be two in this summer, and he was a well, they say a feral cat. He was a feral, but he was such a he let me pick him up from like a month old, and I brought him home. He was born out in the country outside from one of the feral mom cats out there at Dusty's mom's house, and he was the only survivor.

Dusty 11:29

And the mom cat abandoned him.

Tammy 11:31

Yep. And so then I brought him back here by eight weeks, and he was so tiny, tiny. I ended up getting a kitchen scale to start weighing to see if I could get him, you know, started eating because he was only like 28 ounces or something at like at two months. Yeah, he was tiny, just skin and bones. And so slowly but surely got him to eat and stuff, and and he started gaining weight. He's still kind of on the small side, but he eats a lot and is a good. And then Grayson, his mom was one of the feral babies out there that Dusty took to his house, and she just went tramping around out and got out the dog door and tramped out around uh at least one night, apparently, and she got pregnant and Dusty came home to having babies in his bed. Oh my goodness.

Dusty 12:24

No fucking that's not the complete story because I tried to get all the animals out of the bedroom when I'd go to work or come up here to Tammy's house, and I didn't know because she crawled underneath the sheets and had the damn cats. Oh, and so she had the cats underneath the damn sheets, and I didn't know anything about them, and I kicked her ass out. So all day long. All day long. With their newborn babies, and then I came home and I noticed a couple lumps in the bed. I thought, either that's a pair of socks or and I pulled back the sheets and saw the mess. I thought, well, goddammit.

Tammy 13:04

Kiddies. So then he let he let gypsy come in and then she nursed him and took care of him, and everything was fine. But one of her babies is was Grayson, and he had a sister, and her name was Callie because she had more of the like calico kind of markings and stuff on her.

Jeffy McJefferson 13:22

You guys are best friends, aren't you? Go ahead.

Tammy 13:26

But yeah, they were both they're both farm cats, I guess you'd say. But they're they're good together. And Grayson just to uh it took him only like 24 hours for Harley, and he just took him in and they started sleeping together, started bathing him, and everything was so cute.

Carolyn 13:43

Well, and female calico are more rare too. Females are for calico print. Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Rayette 13:51

I didn't know that. Are they just inside cats?

Tammy 13:55

Yes, for sure. Okay. Just inside. Well, because we have that one cat, Hazel. I sh she she needed to be outdoors, and so I moved her out there to Dusty's cabin out there out in the country, so she could go in and out because there's a dog door and she hadn't, you know, and she did great out there, but she got bit by a tick, and so she got that bobcat fever and that's basically terminal. So we had to put her down. So now I'm like, man, I really want to be vigilant about the fleas and ticks and stuff, because even if I don't let my cats out, the dogs can bring it in. Right.

Rayette 14:34

So you gotta be careful of that.

Jeffy McJefferson 14:38

Yeah, it's true. So, Dussie, what are you drinking? Coors light? Yep. I figured a little bit. I had to get you in on that because I mean we're since you since you jumped in, I mean, yeah, you know, he had to go around the table, so you know bonus. I knew he would be a coo he's a coer's light guy. So we got cooperation. So we have you can tell you can tell our kitty cat story.

Rayette 15:05

How we got them?

Jeffy McJefferson 15:07

Sure.

Rayette 15:09

Well, we had a kitten that we rescued uh named Mila, and we rescued her at three and a half years old, and we had her about three and a half years old, and then she got kidney failure, and by the time we figured it out and everything, because she seemed healthy uh up until she wasn't, it was too late. She was a good kid, and so we had to put her down, and then we went through the house and we took everything out, and we're like, we're done with animals, we just love too hard, it's too hard losing them. And so we got rid of everything in the house, and then a week later you ain't playing at all. Well, I just wanted this one little long-haired kitten.

Carolyn 15:52

I have after comments once you tell your story.

Rayette 15:56

So we went to go get this one little kitten, and there was two of them in the little thing at Petco. Well, my friend happens to run like the rogue cat, you know, rescue jump rescue thing. Um and so, and apparently there was other people in line for her.

Tammy 16:16

But she gave you the buy one, get one free coupon.

Rayette 16:19

Well, kind of finally. So I call I messaged her and I'm like, hey, so like we really want this cat. Is there like any way I can like jump to the front of the line type thing? You know, you already know me, you already know, you know, everything. And she goes, Well, we kind of really want to keep them together, but let me have Jennifer call you. Okay. So she calls, we'll come to find out. Jeff knows Jennifer. And so they were like, Well, we have a couple that wants both of them. And if we can keep them together, then we're gonna go with that couple. And I'm like, I totally understand, like, I get it. There was only two in the litter. Okay. And then I was like, What me and Jeff kind of look at each other, well, what if we just take both?

Jeffy McJefferson 17:04

Well, yeah, we were eating Mexican food of Kamal.

Loss And Adopting Two Kittens

Rayette 17:07

Yeah, so the next morning we had two cats. So we had to go buy all new stuff, a new cat tree, a new everything. Because we, of course, got rid of everything a week ago. So these kittens cost us, you know, a fortune to read up everything.

Jeffy McJefferson 17:28

Go ahead, Carolyn, you had a story.

Carolyn 17:29

But that's how we got our cats. No, well, it's about your cats, because I think Mila was one of the cats where I was like, I think I like cats other than my own, because I'm was not a cat person until we ended up with the girls. And then Mila was such a little lover. She was the perfect follow me into the bathroom here. The perfect. I was just talking about explaining them like that's how Arlie is.

Tammy 17:52

He's my he's my little shadow. Yeah, yeah.

Carolyn 17:54

Yeah. And the other thing I think is hilarious is after you lost Mila, I remember you guys both being like, We don't, we can't, we don't want to deal with it right now, we're not gonna do it. And then within within a few days to a week, you were like, Okay, we're already looking at new cats. And I was like, Well, you might as well, you might as well get two, because I've only experienced having two as like an adult caretaker of our life has never been the same since. And that's why it's like, yeah, it's good to have two around. And you're like, we're not getting two, we are only getting one. That's yeah, if we it is, and then all of a sudden, but all of a sudden, like three days later, you had two cats.

Jeffy McJefferson 18:32

Two little kitties, man. They were little.

Rayette 18:34

That is exactly what happened.

Carolyn 18:36

Yep, yeah.

Tammy 18:38

Isn't that fun when they're babies too, and you get to they're I mean, they're like your little babies and you see them grow up and it is, it totally and mature and stuff, and the little things that they do and stuff like when they're tiny, it's just like having a little toddler grandchild, or you know what I mean? Okay, so you know what we got for National Kitten Day? What?

Rayette 18:58

Child locks on all the cupboards in the kitchen because Lily likes to open the cupboards and pull the toaster and stuff out or get crackers out and eat them. So she's hungry, she's not.

Tammy 19:11

You need to give her a snack.

Carolyn 19:15

It's like the toddler in the Tupperware drawer, she just needs an air. Yeah, she can do that.

Rayette 19:19

She they ah, they're naughty. They're getting better, I think, but they can be naughty.

Tammy 19:28

Did you see that video right yet of my cat of him? What was the oh, he's so cute playing in boxes. But at the end of that day, I was messing around cleaning my house, and at the end of the day, he had pulled this is Grayson when he was um a kitten and pulled down my uh curtains onto the floor and then ended up curled up in there taking a nap. Yeah.

Rayette 19:51

Yeah. That's Lily's been doing something similar to Jeff lately, pulling his bath towel down and curling up on it on the floor.

Carolyn 20:01

So Pepper loves Neil's spot on the bed.

Rayette 20:04

I think it's just but he took a shower, not thinking about it, and got out of the shower and like dried off with it. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 20:12

And she's long haired. So don't try to pull a visual on that. I'm just she's just telling a story.

Rayette 20:21

And he was covered in cat hair.

Jeffy McJefferson 20:24

Yeah, I did.

Rayette 20:25

After freshly getting out of the shower to just get back in.

Jeffy McJefferson 20:28

Because I didn't shave, man. And so yeah, so I was drying my face, like your chest, or Lily's long hair, and all of a sudden I I I was drying everything and I look in the mirror, I was like, oh my god, I most had a Santa Claus beard.

Dusty 20:42

I was like, Lily, when you you haven't shaved and you like you're like a lint brush, you just picked up all the time.

Carolyn 20:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. And being wet, the kitty here loves to stick to that too.

Cat Proofing For Chaos

Tammy 20:56

Well, how many how many of you guys have to put up your paper towels on toilet paper?

Rayette 21:01

Oh, we got special covers that I ordered off Amazon for our toilet paper.

Tammy 21:07

Yeah.

Rayette 21:07

So that they don't because we'd come in to piles of toilet paper on the flat.

Jeffy McJefferson 21:12

Fairland's kitties are good kitties.

Carolyn 21:14

Sometimes I mean for the most part.

Rayette 21:15

But they're also five.

Carolyn 21:16

Yeah. But they they haven't. Yeah, I had them from little biddies. They've never really messed with the toilet paper.

unknown 21:22

Yeah.

Carolyn 21:22

Um, I mean, they mess with so I would say on the under the couch stuff. I the other day was looking for something and I looked under the couch and I was like, huh, that's quite the pile there. And I used broom handle, and in this tiny little center circle, because I think it's where Pepper, she's our playful one, but where she could play with it under the couch enough and then she couldn't reach it anymore. There were two or three chapsticks, a couple of the disposable eye drop things, because if they're on the couch, some bottle caps or something. There was a cough drop, and then there was like six of her toys, all just in this one condensed area. And they're all my chops toys now. So any cough dropping toys. Anything that was accessible to her on the side table that she just would play with. She loves to knock stuff off.

Dusty 22:12

I remember when you used to drink the Cours Light with the bottle. Find them all over the goddamn house.

Rayette 22:21

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dusty 22:23

She really likes hair ties too. Yeah. 50, 60 bucks on cat toys, then we want to play with the beer.

Rayette 22:30

Or the cardboard box. Yeah.

Dusty 22:31

Yes.

Rayette 22:32

Yeah. We still have a box in our living room because I love it.

Weird Quirks And Cat Genetics

Tammy 22:36

Any s any special tricks or funny quirks with any of your guys' cats?

Carolyn 22:43

Carolyn. I mean, we got some weird girls. They got quirks.

Jeffy McJefferson 22:47

Yeah.

Carolyn 22:47

Panther was the runt when we found them. Um, she was tiny, tiny, and we they wouldn't even let us get close to them or like weigh them or anything, but she was tiny, and she I think was probably like just didn't get enough nutrition, maybe like an oxy brain and like didn't get enough oxygen because she's just always been a little off.

Tammy 23:07

And it gets a little tardy, a little like sticks her tongue out sometimes.

Carolyn 23:13

Like told my mom she was our special girl. My mom said, What do you mean by special? And I was like, Please don't make me tell you. Please don't make me explain this. Short buzz kitty. Yeah, she is such a lover. She really is a little lover. Um, but she only loves mom and she runs away from Neil, but she was the runt, tiny tiny. Like her sister would catch mice on the back porch before we brought them inside, and Panther would like look at it and like bat her paw at it. Like, she I don't think she would have Oh, I don't want to hurt you. Yeah, she would not have survived the winter if we didn't bring them in. I really don't think. But she now loves the food bowl. She she a big girl, and then her sister's the more like playful, slender one. Um yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 23:55

So if you if anybody out there wondered what color Carolyn's cats are, I think you can guess it with Panther and Pepper.

Carolyn 24:02

Yep. So so what's interesting, yeah. So Panther is uh full black with a little bit of tiny white coming through because her mom was a tuxedo, but with mancoon hair, like long hair, because the grandma was our neighbor's cat named marshmallow. And so we just called the the uh the mom junior because she was marshmallow junior, but we don't think that our neighbors knew that necessarily that their cat had had a kitten because it wasn't they didn't really pay much attention to her. Like the I think the kitten was more feral than like the mom grandma was so it sounds like a family scandal, uh-huh.

Tammy 24:41

Uh-huh.

Carolyn 24:43

Yep. So we had tuxedo long hair, they kept it under wraps. Yeah, yeah, and then the dad schmelled up. Oh well, that's uh so we called him just the grumpy grey great. Oh, what do we call him? Some but he so the dad was just this real big, short-haired, tabby-colored cat. And we are pretty sure he went around like impregnating the whole neighborhood, but he was just a jerk too. Uh and so when they showed, like he was just he would howl at you, so that was like my kind of thing. He would kiss at you, like he wanted to get close to you, but then would like like you almost wondered if he was gonna pounce on you, kind of thing. Uh, and so then that those are the parents. So Panther got the dad's like big-bodied short hair, but like blue uh black, velvety, and then pepper got the mancoon, long, long, fluffy hair, but with tabby coloring, and she's more petite bodied. I don't know. Yeah, genetics are weird.

unknown 25:44

Yeah.

Tammy 25:45

How about you, Tammy? Do your cats do anything? My cat fetches. So does moments. Pepper does. Pepper does, yeah. Yeah. Top he used to do it more when he was when he was younger, he would do it more where I would throw it, he would bring it back to me. I'd give him a treat. But then once I got Harley, then he quit doing it all together. And he had he only does it with this one special toy. But now, recently within the last six months, he'll bring it to me, he'll meow or something, or he'll sit there and he'll bring it like to me or close to the room where I'm at. And then we just have a it's just a different game now. It's not like I throw it, he brings it back to me. I'll throw it and we'll play. And then when at his convenience, yes, he will bring it to me. Yes, and then he wants all of the accolades for all of that afterwards, but I don't care. He's still doing it. He's still doing it.

Jeffy McJefferson 26:34

But I mean, he your kitty cat does that like in the living room and shit, right? Uh or any other any other room or whatever, whatever.

Tammy 26:43

Throughout the whole house. It doesn't matter. It depends on his mood.

Jeffy McJefferson 26:49

Yeah, but ours the go ahead and you can tell me.

Rayette 26:53

Only does it from the bed, like at one or three in the morning. That's when he wants to play fetch. And it used to always be just a spring, but this morning he brought me this other little toy with a bell on it, and we played fetch for probably I don't know, five or six times.

Tammy 27:14

Okay, so not just the motion, but the sound effects too to keep you up in the middle of the night.

Rayette 27:19

Yes, yeah, it's it's fantastic. It's I'll send you a video.

Carolyn 27:23

So when did Pepper start doing that? She's always been super playful, and that's the same thing. Like Panther, yeah, and I think she's not a fetcher in the way that she like brings it right back, but she loves you to throw a toy across the room and then she'll like dart for it and then play with it and maybe bring it part of the way back and then.

Tammy 27:43

Yeah, Tucker, I was wondering about those toys, those those flying bird toys are like motion activated. I've seen I've got scenarios in my head thinking they might tear the shit out of my house. Like, yes, what if it's done? Then they're gonna climb up the grandfather clock or something, or you know what I mean? So I'm like, it's it looks in theory, it looks good on paper, but you know, like realistically, are they gonna just tear up your house? You're gonna come home and looks like someone mugged your house.

Rayette 28:12

See, I'm with you there because I totally see my house being destroyed.

Tammy 28:17

Or maybe just only put it up when you're gone. Or you have to hide it, but then they're gonna. You'd have to put it out when you're there to supervise. Yes. Yeah. Supervise the destruction.

Rayette 28:27

I have a I have a toy that I turn on and it's like battery powered or whatever, or rechargeable. Shut up, Dusty.

Tammy 28:39

And we only get it in first immediately laughing. And I'm gonna be like, what the hell? Like I even elbowed my boy.

Jeffy McJefferson 28:49

I would say it's a cat toy, but uh you can also interpret that in other ways too. So it's okay.

Rayette 28:54

It is a cat toy.

Carolyn 28:57

But we can only turn to I'm sure they have that for both.

Rayette 29:04

Probably. But we can only let them play with that when we're home because they get out of control with it. Like they go crazy with that. Yeah. So go ahead, Dusty.

Catnip Spray And Toy Obsessions

Jeffy McJefferson 29:17

You're you're you're frothing at the mouth. Uh go ahead and comment on that.

Tammy 29:23

No, I'm sure he's got lots of things blown up. Yeah, I'm sure. So catnip spray. Has anyone tried catnib spray?

Carolyn 29:32

We have and I don't I think they like sort of notice it, but I did recently just get a toy that's a fish and it has like a velcro pocket that opens up and it came with they called it meowy wana, but it was catnip. I think was it. Yeah, it was pretty funny. But they do they went after that one. Pepper does a thing like where they call it like the rabbit kick or like where if it was an animal, they would slit it down the middle with their claws. So she does that with it, and then pepper just snuggles it in drools. Or Panther, sorry. Panther snuggles it in drools, so that's their different personalities.

Rayette 30:10

Mia liked catnip when we'd spray stuff, but the the kittens don't seem to. I I don't know about the spray.

Carolyn 30:17

I just don't feel like it's I don't know, but when we've used the like actual loose leaf catnip, they do seem to like it.

Rayette 30:24

I don't know.

Carolyn 30:24

Because we never just one of their scratchers came with it, so it was like a sort of a box type type scratcher, like almost with like a casserole dish, but a cardboard scratcher thing, and it came with catnip to sprinkle on it, and they definitely would go a little nutty for that.

Jeffy McJefferson 30:39

Does your cats like catnip their Tammy?

Tammy 30:43

They love the they're hooked and they are hooked on the spray. Interesting. We can do the we can do the little powdery set, but it only lasts for so long because that's all dried out and probably old from sitting on a shelf for who knows how long and whatever. But I do it too, like they have a little play area in the which is supposed to be your dining room. And I have this big long cardboard thing that Dusty's runners for his truck, what do you call that? The stepboard or whatever. So it's a big long tunnel box, which they love. Oh, yes, in bet. And then whenever you get, you know, packing paper that's like those big long strips of that kind of sturdier paper, but they love that paper. Oh so I spray it on that, and then they're in there like it's a ball pit. There they love it. And then they'll go in and out of the tunnel and stuff when I spray that stuff on there. So it just once in a while, and then of course that wears off. But like during that time, they have a fun time.

Rayette 31:40

Yeah, I bet. They love tubes and stuff like that. Yes. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 31:45

You know what sucks about ours? I mean, when they were little kitties, we bought them cat beds, you know, the cat beds and stuff like that. And they would like sleep in that they were together and they were all cute and shit like that.

Tammy 31:58

And now And now nothing, right?

Jeffy McJefferson 32:01

Well, Lily will every now and then, but she had the she had to put the fucking cat bed up on a shelf. Up on a shelf. Yeah. Yeah. But if it was on the ground or or on a on the couch, nothing.

Nighttime Routines And Cuddles

Tammy 32:15

My cats sleep pretty much anywhere besides their actual technical cat beds. Yeah. Like anywhere. I can put like have my dirty clothes on the floor, and they're like, oh, this is cozy. Right. Good smells. Yeah. It smells like mom.

Jeffy McJefferson 32:31

You guys as cats sleep with you guys at night?

Carolyn 32:34

No, but honestly, we've talked about, I think it's because we definitely they were about six months when we brought them inside and have just always been more skittish, but they're coming around now. I mean, they are almost five, and when we our roommate at one point had a dog, and so when we moved out and it's just our place and the cats, it definitely it's like they have more freedom to roam and be comfortable. No, they don't they like to bring toys in the room and meow at like three in the morning or walk over me to get into the bedroom window, but they don't sleep with us yet. Here's hoping.

Jeffy McJefferson 33:09

Uh you, Tammy.

Tammy 33:11

Mine is again dependent upon mood, but uh the it's usually the little one, he'll he'll go through spurts for he'll be and now currently me and Dusty live in separate houses, so um on the weekends, there's a lot more foot action and tossing and turning and whatever. So they don't neither one of them even try being, you know, it's hard. It's I I have a difficult sleep. But anyways, when I'm by myself during the week, sometimes Harley will he'll go through his spurts where he will sleep in the the younger one, he'll sleep in here with me. But always for sure, always if I'm not feeling good or if I'm taking a nap during the day, always they both will come sleep with me.

Jeffy McJefferson 33:55

I want to get back to that, but go ahead and read it by the with our cats and sleeping.

Rayette 33:58

Well, Lily most of the time does not sleep with us. Once in a great while she'll sleep at the end of the bed, very seldom. And she usually about once a night, she'll come up and she'll lay literally across my throat. And she's literally 10 plus pounds and furrier than crap. And so I'm like, you know, and I'm having to move her down because she's like choking me and she just wants pets. And then I pet her and then she'll usually move on her merry way.

Tammy 34:35

But Tucker's she has the longer hair, yes, real long hair.

Rayette 34:41

She's a big one.

Tammy 34:43

That's gonna be fun.

Rayette 34:45

Yeah, she's a big fluff ball.

Carolyn 34:47

I I will say, Panther, whenever Neil goes out of town, Panther sleeps on the bed with me. Not necessarily next to me, but she actually likes to sleep on the bed in his like foot spot. Yeah.

Rayette 34:59

No, Tucker's a different story. Tucker's a whole different story. He uh Tucker likes to sleep with dad. So Tucker is a daddy's boy for sure, and every night he'll come up and so he's likes to sleep between our pillows. But before he goes to sleep, he has to throw himself up on Jeff, rub his face, then he goes down and starts sucking on the extra little pillowcase, you know, like the opening of the pillowcase where it's extra fabric. And then that'll happen for about a minute, and then he'll go back up and throw himself on Jeff and rub his face all over the place, and then go back down there and curl up and do that again. And he'll probably do that four to six times.

Tammy 35:46

Wow.

Rayette 35:47

Before he finally settles in. And sometimes if I'm facing that way, then he will do that to me a couple times, but mostly it's Jeff. Every night, and it will happen multiple times a night.

Jeffy McJefferson 36:03

Yeah, and so that's if you see, you know, this is not a video podcast, but if you see bags under my eyes, thanks.

Rayette 36:11

Tucker had a good night. Yeah. I would love to set up a video camera, like just to record that, because it is I've never seen that before either like a little bit.

Tammy 36:20

That's so cute. Like the whole thing from beginning, like, especially if it's like four to six times, like the whole thing, the whole routine. Yes.

Jeffy McJefferson 36:28

Well, you start he started when he was a little bitty cat, you know, little bitty kitty, and he would crawl up the big.

Tammy 36:32

But then that was just his company. Exactly.

Jeffy McJefferson 36:36

And shit like that. And no, and I thought, well, no, he'll get over this. Absolutely not.

Tammy 36:43

Yeah. That's all right, though. It sounds like you hate it.

unknown 36:47

I love it.

Litter Box Duties And Feeding

Carolyn 36:48

I know Neil grew up with cats. Yes, sweet. I did not grow up a cat person. Neil grew up with cats. And when we first had the kitties in the backyard and he saw Pepper, he was like, I want that gray kitty. I want her to sleep on the pillow with me. And I was like, even if we end up with these kitties, they are not sleeping in our bed, they are not on our pillows. I don't want that. And now it's like, Yes, you can sleep in our bed. Yeah. I I'm converted. But that's yeah. Oh, he was all about it, and I was very anti- I wanted a cat guy. So I was a dog.

Tammy 37:20

So Sin, if you were if you were more of a well, not so much a cat person. So who's the main person who cleans the cat boxes?

Carolyn 37:29

We actually mostly share that responsibility. We have a good I well, part of it, so I grew up on a farm and we had like barn cats, but my mom, my mom was super allergic, my sister was super allergic. So and barn cats like came and went kind of thing. Yeah. He's not. Oh. Jeff likes to joke this. He's retired, but not from medicine. He's not really, but an amazing construction superintendent and engineering. Jeff's never had a cat until we got Mila. Yeah, these were these were my first. I mean, we had like the outside cats, but I was a kid, so like I wasn't and still I'm a dog.

Jeffy McJefferson 38:12

I love dogs.

Carolyn 38:13

Yeah. So we had big dogs and outdoor barn cats.

Rayette 38:16

But I wouldn't let him get another dog after Bubba passed away.

Carolyn 38:20

Yeah.

Rayette 38:20

We were without any animals for a few years. Then he found this found Mila and he was like, please, like a little kid, please. Can I can I just please You said I can't have a dog that can have a cat? He's like, he'll take care of it. I'll clean the cat box. I'll feed it. Okay, bro, was I promise? Well, and let me tell you. So I said, Okay. I mean you're like a little kid asking. But I'll tell you what, I don't I might have cleaned her cat box once or twice in the three and a half years. He actually held up to that. Wow. Did it, changed her water every day, fed her, like he, you know, and then she loved on me.

Jeffy McJefferson 39:01

Yeah, that sucked. Because I wanted to.

Carolyn 39:03

Neil gets jealous because both the kitty girls are like mama's girls, and he's like, You didn't even like cats until I told you we should have them. And I'm like, I don't know. They love mom.

Jeffy McJefferson 39:12

I bring this fucking cat in the house, and I love I love Neela, but I mean bring this fucking cat in the house and shit like that. And I I I did all the shit. You know, Ray did the parent thing. Okay, you gotta, you know, she gotta you gotta feed it, you gotta do the clip, you gotta do this, you gotta do that, you know, like like you would a little kid. And she gravitated to Red, and I was like, This sucks.

Carolyn 39:36

They're starting to give Neil more attention, and he's getting really excited about it. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 39:41

I was pissed.

Rayette 39:43

Ours are definitely split. Like Tucker is definitely his and Lily's definitely mine. They definitely gravitate towards both of us. But we both share that. I mean, we both just whoever gets to it first. Or yeah, you notice it gets bad and that's done. I kind of do the wet food in morning and night, and he does all the dry making sure the dry food in the water is done. But like if I'm gonna be a little bit late, then he'll go ahead and feed him, or vice versa, you know, and then whoever kind of just gets to the cat box every night.

Jeffy McJefferson 40:15

How about you, Jamie? Pretty quick. Who who has cat duties?

Tammy 40:19

Oh, it's it's me because we, like I said, we have separate houses right now. We just went today and we might have found our home. But anyways, um right now.

Jeffy McJefferson 40:31

Okay, who who if when you get your home, who has cat duties?

Tammy 40:36

Oh, it'll it'll probably it'll probably be me, but but he would definitely share it. He but he would definitely he would he would share it. Like, you know, I mean, it would probably be primarily mine, but if I was if I couldn't do it or whatever. I mean, he's someone who if he sees something that needs to be done, he's gonna go ahead and do it. So I mean, it's not like it's gonna be like a big deal. Someone will do it, you know. So that's cool. So has it have have you so as well Rayette knows, but like I make the fresh dog food and dog cookies. Have you guys experimented at all with any kind of fresh cat food compared to just like that you said that you use uh wet food and just dry food and like what kind of dry food do you use?

Carolyn 41:29

Panther is our sensitive girl, which includes having a bladder full of crystals, so we get to by prescription dry food for urinary issues. But Pepper eats it too, and the vet said it's just like preventative for her, it's not bad for her to eat it. Um and so I get auto shipment a couple months every couple months, and they both eat it. And we do like the free feed trough, so we don't do morning, night, whatever. It's just the like you fill it up every week or two and it filters down into the bowl. And that works for them, other than the vet told us to keep an eye on Panther's weight, and I'm like, Well, good luck with that, because uh we don't live a lifestyle to do morning or night feeding, and they were feral, so we feed her, we wish her the best.

Jeffy McJefferson 42:18

What about you two? What do you do?

Tammy 42:23

Oh, for me?

Jeffy McJefferson 42:24

Yeah, yeah with kitty food.

Tammy 42:26

Well, I I had really good luck with that dental diet, of course. There's gotta be a dental kitty. Yeah, he was he was uh my last kitty was 19. And so that's all he ate until towards the end when you know he was you know really old and this and that and then all the stuff that goes along with that. I was trying to give him other things that he could eat. He was still eating the crancy food, but I was trying to keep weight on and give him like I gave him all kinds of supplements in his the different like gravy sauce kind of situation, you know, to where they could get liquid and still I can mix in vitamins and stuff. And I did I did that for a couple of years. I know I got an extra couple of years out of him from from doing all of that stuff. Um but currently I still use that uh that dental diet. It's like they're bigger round chunks, but they're hollow in the middle. So when they crunch down into it, it helps to kind of clean their teeth. Oh, interesting. And then I still I still give them treats. I've got it is what is it called? Tiki cat. They have this it smells like crap, let me tell you. But it's got like real ingredients, it's got real meat, and it's also got organ meat in there, and there's no none of the bad stuff that's bad for them. And it comes out like a wet food sort of thing. So I give them both some, but then I still put that science diet, the the kitten food, because it's like Small little pebbles. Yeah. The dental diet is from a science diet, also. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then so I so then I put like, and I I only give my bigger cat some and I give the little cat. He can, he's like a teenager. He can eat and he's still a tiny little cat, but I give him most of it. And then I just sprinkle the little kitten nuggets over the top, and I give that to them probably five days a week. But other than that, then I free feed the dental diet and and then their water and stuff. I don't give them treats or anything like just that. That's a treat for them.

Carolyn 44:36

Yeah. It was so funny when we first brought the kittens inside. I didn't know what I was doing at all and got overexcited and filled the back of my car up with anything you could imagine from Minnie Petmart. But they didn't like the canned food. They didn't like wet food. Yeah. And just really haven't ever. And so I like gave it away and we've just never really tried again. I think if they get older or like need adjustments, we would try again. But every like once a year we'll give them a little tuna for like a holiday.

Tammy 45:04

Oh, that's the other thing that I do too is ki you can get those, you know, the packets of like tuna. And so if you get packets of salmon, because I would make them salmon once in a while, but I'm like, okay, so if you're in a hurry or whatever, you can just slide that packet open and put that and you've got like that fresh salmon for now.

Carolyn 45:22

Just tuna or salmon in the water. Yeah, those like vacuum-sealed packs that you can camp you.

Tammy 45:27

And that's a handy thing. They love that.

Carolyn 45:29

Yeah. We have those.

Jeffy McJefferson 45:32

Yeah, we're supposed to give them the Carolyn.

Carolyn 45:36

I love me some um some hammy downs.

Rayette 45:40

So we free food also all the time, and we use the Hills Science diet.

Carolyn 45:45

Yeah, that's the urinary stuff we use.

Rayette 45:47

But we just switched them to the adult one for one year old and older.

Jeffy McJefferson 45:52

And a birthday.

Rayette 45:54

But wet food, they told us to give them wet food up to a year old because of the water content and to make sure they drink enough. Whatever. And they but I think they just like it. And I don't get it.

Tammy 46:08

Try the tiki cat. Try the tiki cat. They've got all all different things. We've seen those at Conco. Well, and he look on Amazon too to check for some other deals and stuff too, because they've got so many flavors. They've got like for sensitive stomachs or whatever they've got for the all different kinds, like fish ones and beef and just all different kinds on there for whatever kind of need that your cat has.

Rayette 46:34

Yeah, I just kind of switch off different wet ones because they kind of get bored and they won't eat anything pate. Nothing pate. It has to be like the flakes or the minced or something. They hate pate. Huh.

Jeffy McJefferson 46:52

But I've gotten to where like sh tons of gravy in it.

Rayette 46:56

Like some of the ones that like the Shiba ones that have like two little trays. Yeah. Sometimes I've gotten to where I just split one half of a tray between them because sometimes they'll leave it all and sometimes they'll eat it like it's the last thing on earth.

Tammy 47:12

So that one that I give them, if I don't put the cat food on top of it, they will not eat it. If I just put that, it's like a pate that comes squeezes out of the packet.

Rayette 47:22

Yeah.

Tammy 47:23

If I just put that on their saucers, D, they won't eat it. They'll like smell it and walk away. And then when I sprinkle the stupid little nuggets of the kitten food, then they eat it every 100% of the time, no matter what flavor that it is. So I don't know.

Jeffy McJefferson 47:40

Yeah. The cats love their dry food.

Tammy 47:43

Or the crumbles. You know the crumble, like when they're eating well, they've got that big food, so that you get all that extra crumbles, which they're not gonna want to eat. I mix some of that kitten food in there with it, and then all the crumbles get eaten. Smart. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 47:58

Well, we feed, you know, the kitty cats the the you know the dry food, but we do the wet food separate. And and they're fine. And they eat the hell out of the freaking dry food, and they love the hills.

Carolyn 48:11

Yeah. And ours just pre feed on the hill science diet, urinary one.

Rayette 48:16

We were gonna phase them out of the wet food, but I don't know, they still kind of like it.

Carolyn 48:21

They're still kind of like toddlers.

Tammy 48:22

And while they're active, I mean toddlers.

Rayette 48:25

Yeah, I think so too. They're not like adult cats. That extra little burst of energy food for them or whatever.

Jeffy McJefferson 48:30

Plus their ass. I want to go ahead.

Tammy 48:33

I want to make I've seen some videos of different like interactive toys for cats, where it's basically like a cardboard box, you cut circles in there or whatever, and then you can put like a piece of food in there where they have to sit there and paw around in there to try to get that.

Rayette 48:51

Yeah, I've seen some of those.

Tammy 48:53

Yeah, and I thought that'd be something kind of fun. Well, I still have my cats kind of young, it's where they can actually get in there and do something.

Rayette 49:00

Or they still want to play and everything. Yeah.

unknown 49:04

Yeah.

Rayette 49:05

I have a cardboard box that I cut holes on the top and the like two sides and flip it over, and then they jump in there like a little house. Yeah. And then they'll pop their heads out of it.

Tammy 49:16

And like we did that when Grayson was younger, and it was so it's like a whack-a-mole thing. He'd pop his hat and go in and out, slither in and out. But then once he got over a year old and he didn't want anything to do with it anymore. Any toys that you buy? No, but then you put some finicky a bottle cap on the floor or like off of my lotion, the little cap on the thing or something random, or a tinfoil ball, then they'll pay play with that all day long.

Rayette 49:42

Yeah, we can't do tinfoil.

Jeffy McJefferson 49:45

Oh, there's a tinfoil story in that, Carolyn, with Ducker. Remember that?

Rayette 49:50

We had our dining room chairs.

Carolyn 49:52

Oh, I mean, I remember the table being covered.

Rayette 49:54

He was like clawing up the chairs to get on the table, and I didn't want him on the table. So I covered the chairs in tinfoil.

Jeffy McJefferson 50:02

Because we heard about that.

Rayette 50:03

I remember that. And then you sent a bit you had a picture of that. Yeah. And then he ate the tinfoil, got a bowel obstruction. Oh no. So it cost us six hundred dollars at the vet.

Carolyn 50:14

Yes, okay, I do remember that.

Jeffy McJefferson 50:16

You do remember that.

Vet Bills And Quality Of Life

Rayette 50:18

Special food. Because yeah. Yep. So no tinfoil in our house.

Jeffy McJefferson 50:26

So here's a question, you know, because we obviously spent six hundred dollars on this little shit. You know, we only had them a couple of months. You willing to pay bet bills for your cats if there's something going on?

Carolyn 50:42

I don't know yet. So because they were feral, but we brought them inside when we decided that we were going to keep them as inside kitties, uh, we tried to go through cats and we couldn't get the feral fixing deal because they were already safe inside of a home. Uh so we I went through Phoenix Animal Hospital, which I really do love them, and we continue to take the girls to them because one of my friends that does uh Melly Cat Rescue had like while we were working through having kittens in our backyard and what to do, like I was asking her questions about it. But it was definitely like uh I want to say uh like 1,500 for both of them between getting them fixed. Well, so we because they had to have a vet appointment before they would fix them to make sure they were healthy enough to even be fixed. Sure. Turns out they had everything fleas, worms, etc. And we had to have them in our house for a bit. So we they had to have that appointment and pass all the checks before they would even schedule getting them fixed. So between all of that, yes, it was like around I think 1500. And at that point, I told Neil, like, okay, well, we paid this and we probably will never pay it again. We've never really had to pay much more expenses other than checkups or vaccines. And like, yes, there is the prescription food, but honestly, it's like I think 120 and it lasts us like three months-ish for both cats. So it's like, whatever, it's actually not that bad because we get the biggest size bag. I get it from Chewy was more expensive. I think I get it through Petsmart, but I still have to have the prescription for it. Ships to our house. But I haven't had to deal with anything big with them yet. So like I don't know if I can answer that question validly because I'm not sure what I would do.

Jeffy McJefferson 52:29

Oh, you probably wouldn't.

Tammy 52:30

I think it does I think it also depends too, like on your current financial situation for one, but um the age of the cat.

Carolyn 52:40

And what's and what's wrong in the chance of like quality versus quantity of life? Really? Like, am I gonna pay $3,000 for something that might fix something or might give them a few more months?

Tammy 52:50

Or are we just gonna that's what we had to do with Hazel. Yeah, the one who had that bobcat fever. And they said, well, we can there's a possibility we could keep her overnight and we can do this, that, and the other, and it's gonna be minimum at $1,000, and she's probab there's not a good chance of her surviving.

Jeffy McJefferson 53:10

Well, yeah, you know, that you know that's kind of with Mila, you know, because she had the kidney stuff and and they were telling us that there's no way it we could do this, this, it, yeah.

Rayette 53:23

We gave her a couple treatments. Uh they were like sixty dollars a treatment just to help make her comfortable for a little while. And then we were sitting there on a Sunday night and she was walking across the floor and she her legs went out from under her, and we knew that because we said if we saw any sign, yeah, right, then we're gonna go through that.

Tammy 53:47

Yeah, yeah. That's so hard too.

Rayette 53:49

And you have to keep them alive for you.

Tammy 53:51

Yeah. And and having the partner there to reassure you, like, I told you, don't let me fall back on this. When we see this, no matter what I say, we have to follow through with this. Yeah.

Rayette 54:02

I mean, I like you said, I I think it does depend on financial situation and and stuff like that too. Yeah. You know, age and all that stuff.

Carolyn 54:13

And what's medically wrong? Like if it's yeah, it's a little more money to fix something very acute, knowing that it will be fixed, then that might be a little more worth it. I might have a different conversation. Yeah. Or is this like there's just a chance it might get better?

Rayette 54:30

I remember spending like, I think it was like seven or eight hundred dollars on our cat Callie way way back probably twenty years ago. I don't know, at least twenty years ago, probably. And having like an abscess fixed and everything. And it was a simple abscess surgery, blah, blah, blah. But back then that was a lot of money for me. Yeah, with two kids and everything else. And then she ended up dying like three days later or something anyway. So I always have that in the back of my head, like you know, and not the not the animals are indisposable or or it's a back and forth decision for sure.

Tammy 55:16

It is, you know, like thinking about this that's just an animal, but it's my baby, but you know, can we there's but how long is it gonna help? Is there are they suffering? Is it just making me feel better? It's right and forth.

Rayette 55:27

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's a it's a tough call. We when we got ours, they were a hundred and twenty-five apiece. But we got it like because we got two, so they ended up being a hundred apiece. But that included being spayed and neutered and microchipped and their first shots. So really I thought that was a good deal. And we didn't have to deal with them, you know, being we lose Tammy. No, I'm here. Oh, okay.

Jeffy McJefferson 56:00

I'm sorry.

Rayette 56:01

Yeah, so we didn't have to deal with, you know, getting them spayed and neutered and stuff either.

Tammy 56:06

So well that's a that's a really good deal because I remember like back in the when I was still back in Klama Falls, it was around or in I think Brookings when I got one of my cats there, Shorty. I think it was like $75 or something way back then, and that covered all that stuff.

Rayette 56:25

Yeah. So pretty good deal, I thought. And plus it's just done. You don't have to worry about it.

Tammy 56:31

Yeah, and they already have you set up and everything.

Rayette 56:34

Yeah, yeah.

Tammy 56:36

Have you had very have you had very many that that what was the oldest that you uh age that you had cats?

Rayette 56:45

I think Jamie was 17 or 18. Oh. Yeah. I left him when I moved to Kansas. I left him with my ex. He actually ended up with all the animals, and so he lived another even few years after that.

Carolyn 57:01

So uh when we moved to Oregon to our like property in 1990, there was a cat, a calico female, that's how I knew they were kind of rare, but her name was Allie, but my sister's name was Allie, and she the cat had just had kittens and it was a far it was a property cat. But so we called their mom a cat. And so one of the kittens also ironically was named Pepper, um, and was I think my dad found her an irrigation, like I she just was small and ill, but then the other one was long-haired, orange and white calico, and that one was mine because then Allie had the other cat, the mom, my sister, and then I got Sweetie, who was lovely, but Sweetie turned out to be a boy.

unknown 57:51

He's a real senior. Did you change the name? Nope, sure didn't.

Carolyn 57:56

I mean, I was like four four at this point, yeah. And uh so hilarious. And you know, they were the outside barn cats, and then I forget, I think sweetie got sick, and I forget if he died or if my parents had to take him in to have him put down. Mama cat lived for years, like even where she had gotten under the hood of my dad's truck, and when he started it, it like put a hole through her stomach, like abdomen area, and they like took her to the and like stitched her up a little bit, but she's an outdoor cat, so you just bandage them up and hope for the best. She lived for really long.

Rayette 58:34

So those were duct tape and balein wire.

Carolyn 58:37

So she lived for probably the oldest cat that I've technically had, but I was a kid and she was a farm cat, so it wasn't really mine. And then TME, Jeff and Maria have heard these stories, but we're gonna we're gonna go into it. I'll go quick. Um, we had a bad run of kittens when I was a kid, which maybe didn't help me not to be like a cat person because I just didn't know. But because we had the barn cats, then we thought it would be fun, because I have an older sister to get sets of kittens, and we would we kept them in like a shed, chicken coop shed type thing. So they were indoor still because they were kittens, but they would be indoor outdoor. And looking back, I think we were just like raising them to be outdoor cats because it was never a thing that we would have indoor. Right. But we went through three sets of kittens within like a year, and then we stopped getting kittens. Uh what happened to them? The first set, we were on a family vacation, like a family reunion on the East Coast. I think so. All of this happened between me being like seven and nine, I'm from what I remember. So the first set our neighbors are supposed to take care of, and while we were out of town, they were let out and ran away from the neighbors that were supposed to take care of them. So we came back from vacation and never saw those kittens again. Okay. Set one. So I get confused between the circumstances of set two and set three. So one came first. Set sets set two, I believe my sister's kitten was killed in our front lawn by a neighbor's dog. Oh, super traumatic from all of us. And then my mom ran over my kitten. Oh no. And it messed, like she was so upset. So I I vividly remember I was playing organ trail on my school computer, and she was picking me up after school, and she came into the classroom like crying. And because she had left to get me, she checked all around, and we think it had been up above the wheel well of her car. Oh, she was so yep, she was so distraught, and I was just like, Okay, I don't know. Cause I we just I wasn't even used to having cats. We'll get another set. And so we did. We sure did. We did. So set three. I don't know. She got it. I don't know. I didn't know. So we get the third set, and my sister's kitty gets really sick, and we take him into the vet, and it's positive for kitty leukemia, and they put it down and then tested mine, and it was positive, so they put it down. Oh, and then we never got kittens again.

Dusty 1:01:24

Oh god.

Carolyn 1:01:25

So fast forward 25 years, and I found some feral backyard kittens, and now I am a crazy kitten. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and and my parents still have barn cats, but they just get like adult rescues and they get a little bit attached to them. You like hope for the best. Not as much outside just adult cats and do the property and know where their food's gonna be.

Rayette 1:01:47

Sure.

Carolyn 1:01:48

Uh, so they've had better luck than our kittens over the years.

Rayette 1:01:53

That were like that, like barn cats. I mean, well, that's what they sleep with you, yeah, you know.

Carolyn 1:01:59

Yeah, and they don't go inside the house. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:02:02

Yeah, yours started out as barn cats, right?

Tammy 1:02:04

Mine started out that way, but then it's like I just got lucky because they don't all come up to you. Right. They don't all want to come up to you or anything. So being able to have those and have them, you know, rescued out of that, then that's but but the thing of it is, is every year, just like now, out there, there's one new fresh litter of kittens, and then there's two or three more mamas that are pregnant. And huh. It's never there aren't any other cat. There aren't any extra cats running around. Hmm. What happened to them out in the country with wildlife and whatnot and coyotes and trucks. Well, and is well that and then so Dusty's mom tried to get some of the moms, mom cats to um, they got those and went and got them fixed. Well, then they're shunned from the colony because the tomcats will run them out, and the other females will run them out. So then they go out and make their home somewhere else, we will say. But they're they're gone. They're gone. Interesting. Once they get the yeah, and that that's what she thought she was fixing the problem by doing that. Well, no, they're just gonna shun them off, and then the other ones that are able to reproduce, they're gonna be able to still stay there. And the Tomcats aren't gonna run them off. There's certain Tomcats that come around, of course, you know, but they will run off the ones that are fixed.

Carolyn 1:03:32

I feel like our kitty's dad was a neighborhood tomcat. And also, it's such it's so less expensive to get boycats fixed. It's less expensive and takes less time for healing. So yeah, they can just fix it.

Indoor Outdoor Debate And Catios

Tammy 1:03:46

But there's still gonna be more as long as long as there's farms, there's a gonna be tomcats. You can try to fix them, and yeah, there's gonna be other ones. Then then that's just they'll be out there with the other ones. That's true.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:03:58

So, okay, on that subject, kind of, sort of, not really at all, but we all have indoor cats, right?

Rayette 1:04:05

Let's okay.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:04:07

So when you're in a neighborhood, you know, like our neighborhood or whatever, and you see kitty cats, you know, and stuff like that.

Carolyn 1:04:14

I meow at them. Okay. I say hello.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:04:16

Yeah. Does it kind of piss you off because it does me?

Carolyn 1:04:20

We we want our kitty girls to be able to go outside, like because they are fixed now. They love when the screen door is going, they chirp at the birds, all the things. It's just our original house when we we found them was on a very busy street in a residential neighborhood. But now we're also in a like short, not short term, but few year rental. But we're out in the country and our neighbors have dogs that we know may or may not like our cats. There's coyotes. Like, I yeah, I don't, it just doesn't, it's such a temporary place. Like, I don't want them to necessarily be out and then have something happen to them.

Rayette 1:05:00

We always had outside cats, they were like half indoor and half outdoor. Yeah, I'm not sure. Milo was the first one that was a complete indoor cat for me.

Carolyn 1:05:09

And same with Neil, but I've I've always just only had outside cats at all, period. Like whether they were barn cats or when we attempted to have kittens that obviously not go very successfully.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:05:21

Barn cats are different.

Rayette 1:05:22

I'm just saying, like, if we're in a neighborhood and I just wanted you guys, I guess it doesn't piss me off because I used to be that person.

Carolyn 1:05:30

All my cats were I wish I had cats that I knew could hang out in the backyard and then still come in the door. But we don't have that right now.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:05:38

What about you, Tammy?

Tammy 1:05:39

I mean you you you just I think it depends on the, you know, like the neighborhood and the and you know, I uh and the family, I guess, what they're comfortable with, or you know, with the the neighborhood that they're in with me, you know, I I have thought too, because we had thought about putting the catio in, so you know that. Because my room is basically going to okay, we both snore. We're having separate bedrooms in our house, okay? And so my room is going to be basically the cat room that they allow me to sleep in there because my walls are going to be like the shelves and the stuff. So they have a cat window and whatever. And we had talked about a catio to where they can have like a cat door to go out to the catio. So if they wanted to, but then I was worried about the fleas and ticks, and I thought, well, then why am I worried about that if we're going to do some treatment and this and that and whatever for the yard collars, whatever? Because the dogs are going to bring it in. So even if I keep the cats in the house, they're going to get it in there anyway. So, you know, I mean, being able to, I think in the country, it's smart to, if you're going to have a cat, then where I'm going to be living out in Mount Vernon, then it's going to have to be an indoor and or catio situation, like in controlled environment, because I don't think that they could go out and in and out and stuff enough. Um I mean, safely without having to deal with possible wildlife or something or whatever.

Rayette 1:07:13

So I like the idea of a cadious.

Carolyn 1:07:16

I know we've talked about it. We we might try to snangle our like fencing of our porch back backyard area to do that.

Tammy 1:07:23

Yeah, we've kind of talked about it. I may even have simple ones. They have simple ones where it's just basically like a one-room thing. You don't have to have I've seen some really cool ones of like tunnels and all kinds of stuff and whatever.

Carolyn 1:07:34

Ours, we pretty much just have to figure out how we could close off our area to the rest of the property because that's like the main there's one big open area that if they jetted, they could jet. But then we do have a fence around the other part of it. And I wonder, because it's the like chain link fence or like the uh playgrounds and stuff like that. I don't know if cats can climb that or not.

Tammy 1:07:56

Oh, they can't. Um well gypsy got pregnant with a big tall uh wooden fence, and that's where Grayson came around. So and she just had to go through a dog door and climb that.

Carolyn 1:08:06

Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:08:07

I'm gonna go back real quick. I mean, because when I see cats, you know, you know, in the neighborhood and stuff like that, you know, especially when it gets cold. Yeah, like, oh I feel sorry for it.

Carolyn 1:08:22

Well, I guess that's where I was like, I didn't know if you're mad if you're mad because they're out and your kitties aren't, or if you're mad that they're what are you like more sad, mad.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:08:30

It makes me kind of like pissed off, you know, like, dude, man. It's kidding.

Rayette 1:08:35

I do not care about your cat to let it in the house.

Carolyn 1:08:37

But then again, maybe they have a cat door and the cat's choosing to be out. But the cat wants to do it. Yeah, maybe or maybe it doesn't have a home or an owner to it.

Tammy 1:08:47

Because let me tell you, Hazel, when I moved her out there to Dusty's cabin out there, she'd sit out there in the rain all day long. She didn't give a shit. She wanted to be outside. She'd go out there and get dirty, she'd play in the mud, she'd go out there and run around out whether it's sunny, rainy, anything. She didn't care.

Litter Hacks Wood Chips Baking Soda

Rayette 1:09:06

Well, my cat Jamie would go out and sometimes be gone for like two days and then come back. I had a cat box in there in like the laundry room, just as a in case he ever did it. But I never, ever had to scoop a litter box.

unknown 1:09:21

Ever.

Tammy 1:09:22

That's how I think so was. She would always go outside. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:09:25

And this is why I'm saying it pisses me out because I'm a new cat guy.

unknown 1:09:27

Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:09:28

I've never had cat.

Carolyn 1:09:30

Well, and that's why the litter box was part of the reason I didn't want to have cats. Like that grosses me out. I don't like the chemical smell. It does.

Tammy 1:09:37

I'm thinking about getting that rotating thing. So I don't know what it costs.

Carolyn 1:09:40

We actually get like a lot, a wood chip litter. We love it. It smelled because we had outdoor, we had dogs that would be in and out growing up, but big property dogs, they have their outside house and you have cedar chips. That's their bedding. It keeps them warm, it keeps them clean. And so when we found this wood-based litter, I absolutely love it. It does not smell chemical. It sounds like a good idea. It's awesome. It's it's weird because it almost looks like granola, but it's like wood chips. Uh-huh. Oh, we love it. And that's, I think, one of the only ways I tolerate having inside cats because I don't think I could do regular litter.

Tammy 1:10:16

So you think does that work like litter that so it like absorbs it and have your clumps and stuff?

Carolyn 1:10:21

Yep, for sure. It's okay, cat and they have different types of it. They have some like pellet style, paper style. But yeah, no, it's meant it's just like an alternative to the regular litter. But we love it, and I get it in from Mini Petmart, and they take my phone number every time, and I think it's buy six get the seventh free. I don't know, but it's a punch card thing. It's good. They like it. I like it. Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:10:50

Well, Tammy, I I mean I thought about the uh rotating thing too. Yes. And one of my really good friends here has cats and he got it, and he said that they kind of fuck up all the time.

Tammy 1:11:05

Oh, I wondered about that. I wondered.

Rayette 1:11:08

He said he has a lot of problems with it.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:11:10

Well, and you're spending like six hundred dollars, seven hundred dollars.

Tammy 1:11:15

Because I know cleaning out my own boxes, like there's certain spots where they want to pee more, and so it gets all quumpy there and stuff.

Carolyn 1:11:22

And well, and Jeff and Riyette know my friend Emily, they got it, and they have a like I think four cats between the them and then their daughter's cats. And two of the cats don't use it. So you still have to have an additional litter box. Like two of the cats like actually don't use it.

Tammy 1:11:38

Because out of it, you know what that little one is. He's probably too spooky to even be that'd probably scare the crap out of my little one because he's he's a scary cat for sure.

Carolyn 1:11:48

Yeah, so that's part of it, is like you can spend the money, and if then if not everyone uses it, you still have to do the other version.

Tammy 1:11:55

I'll just stick. I've got those dome ones where they go up the little stairway and they have the thing. Those are awesome, those are the best ones I've ever had.

Rayette 1:12:03

Yeah.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:12:05

Yeah, so uh I'm just gonna use a regular litter box.

Rayette 1:12:08

Yeah, yeah. And we've got a system down at takes two minutes to clean it at the end of the day. It's we have a good system.

Carolyn 1:12:16

Neil's got that like research engineer smart brain. But when we first got the kitty girls, because they're they're big girls, like they're main coon, they're big girls, big poops, all the things and yeah, big poops. Yeah. And so we actually have a litter box, we have two litter boxes, and they're within storage totes, like you know, that you move with or camp with or whatever. Oh, yeah. That we cut a door into. So there's a door. Oh, I've seen that, and it contains it so well. And that method.

Tammy 1:12:49

And then you can just take the lid off and clean it, and then all the scraps are staying in there instead of on your board.

Carolyn 1:12:56

And then every couple months we'll like take them outside and hose them out, like every three or six months, depending on your weather. But it has made a huge difference in like especially with the big cats. Yep, big cats and dust and residue and litter. Yeah, it's it's actually we have a we have a decent setup that we did pretty cheaply.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:13:16

And see, and you know, being cat illiterate, you know, because we had one with Mila, and then we get two. I thought we were gonna have to get another litter box. But apparently, apparently, apparently it's it's okay.

Rayette 1:13:30

Yeah, we just scoop it every night and it's fine.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:13:33

Yeah, we clean it up.

Tammy 1:13:33

But I don't clean my I don't clean my litter box every single day. I'm not I'm not gonna do that.

Carolyn 1:13:39

We try to do day daily to every like two days. If you go three, it's bad. Like if we're going on to town for one night, we don't have to have someone come check on them. Two nights, maybe still don't need to come check on them, but by three nights, like I have my friend and we trade. I check on her cats, she checks on mine. Do you just have one litter box for your two cats? Nope. We have two, so we have them stacked because they're in like the storage totes, and so it's like a double decker of that. Oh stack. And yep, and they both use both of them. So huh.

Tammy 1:14:14

Yeah, that's interesting. I'm gonna have to think about that when we get to our new house.

Carolyn 1:14:18

Yeah, yeah. I'll get your number from Riet and send you a picture.

Tammy 1:14:23

That's very cool. I really like that idea because then you it's like contained and clean.

Carolyn 1:14:29

Yep, and it helps with like the dust residue too and the smell. Yes, I hate that.

unknown 1:14:34

I forgot that.

Carolyn 1:14:35

Then you're stealing fans. Yes, and I forgot the other part is that there's like almost like the dust buffers that they have on the back of semi trucks that have like the tentacle legs. We have that on the doors of the boxes. So they can easily get in and out, but it also like helps with keeping because Pepper, who is our active girl, loves to spray litter everywhere. So it's almost like a little buffer from the box to the living room.

Tammy 1:15:07

I would be very much interested in seeing that setup.

Carolyn 1:15:11

I'll definitely send some your way. And it's and we Neil found it online, but it's pretty ingenious and it's worked for us for years. I think they were probably like maybe a year old when he figured that out, but we've had the same setup for I'd say probably three to four years, and it's really sturdy. And so then we just take it outside and hose it out on a sunny day, leave it out for a few hours, and good as new.

Rayette 1:15:38

We totally dump ours every trash day. And then put in a new thing, a litter, and then scoop it every night. And then like on Thursdays, I'll add a little bit more litter to it.

unknown 1:15:51

Yeah.

Rayette 1:15:52

And then yeah, that's just our system. We don't want to have it.

Tammy 1:15:54

You know what my secret is is baking soda in between in the litter. So like I so like when you dump out the whole the whole thing and you're starting over the brand new litter, yeah, then I go ahead and put some baking soda at the bottom of the thing and then I put the litter in. So then, like when I but at one week, I'm still able to use that litter, but I end up, but by then you've uh need to add more litter. So I sprinkle in the baking soda again, especially in like the pea spots, whatever, add a little bit extra. Then I go ahead, then I add the clean litter on top of that. So they still have the scent from the this is still my pea box or whatever.

Speaker 4 1:16:38

Yeah.

Tammy 1:16:38

But then you have the neutralizing and the clumping and stuff, so it's easier to clean off of the sides of the the box and whatnot because of the baking soda, and it neutralizes the smell. And then you have the nice clean litter on top, and that's how I do it.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:16:54

Oh see, I'm lucky.

Tammy 1:16:56

So it kind of integrates the both things.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:16:57

I never we're lucky because we have an extreme couponer in Riyette, and he gets like freaking.

Tammy 1:17:04

I know, you're so amazing.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:17:06

She gets you know, really good litter and shit like that.

Rayette 1:17:10

Speaking of that, I have six boxes in my trunk we need to unload.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:17:13

Yeah, for you.

Tammy 1:17:14

But anytime you don't have anything that has a baking soda in there, just add baking soda into it. And let me tell you, that works wonders with clumping and with odor.

Carolyn 1:17:23

Interesting.

Tammy 1:17:24

And keeping that off of you know how it gets all muddy on the sides of the box. I freaking hate that when it gets all muddy on there and you can't clean that off. If you put baking soda in those areas, because even after you clean it, then you you see where those like darker areas are on the thing. That's where I concentrate the baking soda on there, and then the next time you clean it out, those areas just fall right off of there because the baking soda absorbs it.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:17:51

Learn something new every day. Our assholes will probably say fuck it.

Part Two Tease And Goodbyes

Tammy 1:17:56

No, I buy it. No, I keep it in there with it in the and the cats, the cats have their own bedroom, and so I keep a case of baking soda, those little boxes, little one-pound boxes of baking soda, so I can use that for the because I have the two cat boxes, and then I have their cat food, and I have, you know, all of the stuff that they need in there to change their cat box and whatever. And it's just easy peasy right there. Sprinkle the cat sprinkle the baking soda in there and then put your new after you've already cleaned it out, put the new stuff on top, you're good to go. And then you can make it last longer. You don't have to dump it every single week.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:18:34

We'll probably we'll probably have to do another cat episode because I didn't know this was gonna go this long.

Carolyn 1:18:40

We still have plenty to talk about. Yeah, we have way, you know, we can do a whole episode on the cat box.

unknown 1:18:47

I know, right?

Carolyn 1:18:48

I had to I had to throw in my childhood kitten trauma at least, okay?

Tammy 1:18:54

I didn't even get to put in my childhood trauma. Come on.

Rayette 1:18:58

Dude, that's that's 47 episodes.

Carolyn 1:19:00

We'll save, we'll save. No, oh, I just said the kitten trauma. We're not delving into the others.

Tammy 1:19:07

Some of my childhood trauma was kitten trauma.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:19:10

Uh we didn't even get into the cat proof our house shit, you know, and stuff like that. There we go.

Carolyn 1:19:15

No, no, this has been awesome, but I definitely think we have enough for a part two. Yeah, we'll get together and do a part two.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:19:22

So, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna play some outro music, Tammy, and we can still talk during it, okay?

Rayette 1:19:28

Okay.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:19:29

All right. Jeffy McJ at almost famous radiopodcast.com. Thanks, Carolyn.

Carolyn 1:19:36

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a little bit.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:19:38

Yeah, I know. I need to have you back in here more often. Tammy, thanks a bunch.

Carolyn 1:19:43

This was so cool, Tammy. Nice to meet you over the phone, hopefully in person at some point. Thank you.

Tammy 1:19:49

It's so much fun.

Carolyn 1:19:50

We'll do it again.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:19:52

Right?

Tammy 1:19:52

Sounds good. I love you.

Jeffy McJefferson 1:19:55

So we're out. Okay, yeah, that was awesome, right?

Tammy 1:20:01

Didn't realize we uh went that long. That's awesome. Now I'm really feeling like a crazy cat lady. You're welcome. Join the club because we're all there. Yeah. We talked an hour and a half about cats and cat boxes and we didn't even get we got vulgar a little bit, but not much.

unknown 1:20:23

I did that at the beginning. I started to stop it. Dusty sticking down.

Rayette 1:20:34

Oh, this is really about.

t