Other Side of the Planet dot com

Cats: Robotic Litter Boxes: PetSafe Simply Clean

Posted on February 17th, 2009 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Cats.

[Tarzan stared at his quietly-humming litter box for a very long time…]

As Tarzan is a finicky creature when it comes to his litter box, and as my new habit for weekend trips involves my not cleaning the litter box between Friday morning and Sunday night, I decided to invest in a self-cleaning litter box.  I mean, really, who doesn’t need another robot in the house?

I went to NYCPET, where I buy Tarzan’s favorite litter.  I saw the very same litter box Beth had…for $189.99 (plus New York’s 8.375% sales tax!)  So I went home and asked Beth where she got hers, and what she paid.  $100 at Fleet Farm.  Doubting that I would find a Fleet Farm in New York City, I opted for Amazon.com.  ($90.52, direct from Amazon, and free shipping!)

Tarzan was quite apprehensive at first - you’re supposed to acclimate you cat to the new, perpetually-spinning litter box, but who has time for that? - but he soon adjusted (bless his easy-going, ever adaptable soul.)  I was able to leave him for four days, and there was really only one fault with the box…the lip is definately not high enough for Tarzan’s enthusiastic digging tendancies.

[My bathroom upon my return home.  A clean litter box, but a messy floor.  Obviously some slight modifications need to be made.]

4 comments.

Meaningless Rant: Where Things Go

Posted on August 9th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Cats, Meaningless Rants.

I misplace things.  Frequently.
Socks go missing in the dryer.
I can’t find my sole pair of scissors.
One shoe is here, but where is the other?

I find things in the strangest places.
The sock is actually behind the frig.
The scissors is behind the toilet.
The shoe is in my bed.

I could never figure out if I was actually that far out of it, or if there were in fact evil forces working against me.

Turns out it was the latter.

I was having my afternoon tea with a small bowl of raspberries this afternoon, taking a break from cleaning.  Tarzan came crashing down the hall into the foyer.  I looked up.  He turned and looked wildly at me, frozen in the middle of some incomprehensible act, thinking he was caught doing something wrong.

As I turned away, furry paws started swinging wildly.  Suddenly, the fight was with a plastic Target bag.  It lasted a minute or two, the bag seemingly putting up a good fight, before Tarzan finally retreated backward down the hallway, plastic bag in tow.  Should I take the bag away?

He came flying out again, this time clearly in pursuit of one of his favorite toys.  (If you’ve never purchased a Fat Cat Inc. toy for your cat, you’re neglecting him or her.)  The toy landed just behind a wooden sandal that I had purchased years ago in a Taiwanese night market.  The fight now involved the shoe, which didn’t put up as much of a fight as the Target bag.  Soon, the strap was in my dear sweet kitty’s jaws, and he was backing down the hallway once again.

Will the Target bag wind up in my underwear drawer, leaving me to wonder why I put it there when I get dressed tomorrow morning?  Will the sandal end up in the bath tub, letting me believe that my Saturday night ended with me being so drunk that I got in the shower with one shoe still on?

Whatever the case may be, I’m strangely comforted to know that it’s not just me.

UPDATE: Five hours later and I’ve found the plastic bag, but not the sandal…  Sigh.

0 comments.

Tarzan: The Christmas Gift Box

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Cats.

It occurs to me that I haven’t recently blogged about Tarzan.  Like myself, Tarzan is a geek, so he obsesses over things easily.  This is the story of Tarzan’s obsession with a box.

Tarzan and I had just arrived in Minnesota for Christmas, and his cousins, Sophie and Smokey, had been picking on him.  He got a little defensive and, Christmas Eve, while we were opening presents, decided to lay claim to a gift box.

He defended his gift box from his cousins any time they came near.  Eventually, he curled up and took a nap, so when it was time for bed, I took the box to my room and set it in the headboard.

Tarzan slept every night in that box in my headboard, so when it was time to New York, I brought it back with us.  A month later, the box still sits, wedged between my pillows.  It’s one of his favorite spots in the apartment.

What a geek.

2 comments.

Meaningless Rant: Sith Squirrels

Posted on September 30th, 2007 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Meaningless Rants, Squirrels, Star Wars.

It’s been some time since I did a bizarre squirrel post, but it wasn’t for lack of desire.  I needed something good.  And it’s hard to live up to my Jedi Squirrels post, my most popular entry in more than a year of blogging.

Today, I give you: Sith Squirrels.  Though I don’t think this squirrel looks evil enough to be Sith…maybe if they had gotten one of the albino squirrels off the U of M campus to play the part…  Still, it makes me wonder about the story here.  Is the squirrel writhing on the ground in agony a Jedi Squirrel?  Or perhaps a random victim?  A failed Dark Squirrel Apprentice?  Or perhaps is it the Squirrel Sith Lord being killed in its sleep by its apprentice?

 
[Image credit to Lightning Squirrel author Jeff Kipnis]

I couldn’t find much else in the way of Sith Squirrels, but I did find this: Lightning Squirrel.  Apparently, they’re making a comic about a squirel superhero who commands the power of lightning…it seems no one told them that it’s the bad guys who use Force lightning…  Looks like an evil squirrel, though, doesn’t it?  (Gavin, Garth, your opinions don’t count - you think all squirrels are evil.)

12 comments.

Tarzan: Something to Feel Good About

Posted on May 2nd, 2007 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Cats.

One day last month I was looking back at some old pictures when I stumbled across a few images of Tarzan from about three weeks after I got him, back when he was still only known as “Little Brother” (Didi/Deedee).

[Tarzan in April 2006, about 3 weeks after I got him]

When I got Tarzan, he was fully grown and living in a cage about 12″x12″x18″.  He was given neither food nor water by day, or even a litter box.  His fur was matted with feces and he suffered from a skin fungus.  He had open wounds on his head.  He weighed 4 pounds (less than 2kg.)  This, unfortunately, is the life for animals in Taiwanese night markets.

[Tarzan in April 2007, about 1 year after I got him]

While thinking about all this, I looked over at my dear kitty, who was spawled out on the bed.  He’s now more than twice as heavy as the day I brought him home, and his fur is soft and thick (even though it costantly flies off his body…)  And looking over at him, I feel good knowing that I made a difference in a life.

2 comments.

Belize: Belize Zoo

Posted on April 26th, 2007 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Belize, Blog, Travel.

[Main entrance sign: “The Belize Zoo: A Haven for Wildlife”]

The Belize Zoo is a relatively small zoo, spread out on 29 acres of land, where animals are kept in their natural habitats.  Most of the zoo’s occupants have at one point been orphaned or injured, and by the time they were well, they were too tame to be released into the wild again.  There are a few animals that have been donated by other countries.

[Emerald Toucanet]

One thing that makes the zoo fun and special are the wacky signs they have posted to introduce the animals.  The below sign is the introduction to the Emerald Toucanet (pictured above.)

 
[Feast your eyes on something green!
I make a noise like a frog!
I’m rarely seen!
Of the three toucan types foun’ in our nation
I am the smallest variation!]

[Toucan] 

One big attraction was the toucan, Belize’s national bird.  I was amazed at how intelligent they are - sometimes, they seemed to be showing off, fully aware that we were watching them with curiosity.

[Harpy Eagle]

Another beautiful and intelligent bird is the Harpy Eagle, which is nearly extict, like so many other amazing creatures that most people on this planet don’t care about.  This particular Harpy Eagle was raised by humans and, oddly enough, takes comfort in their presense.  He was so longing for human attention that, when I finally moved on, I felt guilty for it.  I could’ve stayed with him all day.

[Scarlet Macaw]

Next up on the endangered species list is the Scarlet Macaw, and if you don’t want it to go extinct in the wild, you might consider visiting http://www.stopfortis.org/ and signing the petition against the hydro-electric dam that a large Canadian power company wishes to build.  The dam will cause the Scarlet Macaw’s only known breeding ground in the world to be flooded and destroyed.

[Jaguar]

In addition to the plethora of birds, Belize is also home to a number of big cats, including the jaguar.  Anna loves cats - big and small.  Anna was in heaven.  (I used to try to convince my mom to let me have a Siberian Tiger when I was little…that was one of the few requests she never broke down for…that, the iguana (why not???) and the goat.  Oh, and she never let me have a horse either.)

[Jaguar]

Please respect that I stuck my whole hand (and my precious camera) into the jaguar enclosure to get this picture - he was about 4 to 5 feet away from me and could have eaten my hand, had he been less lazy (but in the jaguar’s defense, it was a hot day.)  Know that I have risked limb, if not life, to make this blog more interesting. 

We live in a beautiful world…so take care of it, if you want any of the above creatures to be able to survive in it.

3 comments.

Meaningless Rant: Return of the Jedi Cat

Posted on January 22nd, 2007 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Cats, Meaningless Rants, Star Wars.

[I’m learning how to do lightsaber effects!]

It occurred to me that Tarzan is somewhat lacking from my recent blogs, but he’s been strange enough lately to definately warrent a post - so here goes (again, actually, this is the third time I’ve written this post…my server keeps crashing on me.)

Tarzan maintains his bizarre sleeping behavior, which imitates that of a human.  He sleeps on his back, with his head resting on a pillow.  Is this comfortable for him?  It’s not very cat-like…

Tarzan continues to be very playful.  He’s not quite two years old yet, and I guess they’re kittens up until then, so…maybe he’s normal…in his own way.  Above, he’s playing Tug of War with me…because he thinks he’s a dog.  I see no other explanation.

3 comments.

Tribute: Beauty

Posted on January 11th, 2007 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Cats.

[My cat Beauty, opening the Christmas gift I brought her all by herself - and, in the process, enjoying said gift very much.]

A small tribute to the small-framed, gray ball of fluff named Beauty, who entered my family’s home on February 4^th, 1990 at the tender age of seven months after being adopted from her foster mother, Ann, at the Animal Rescue League.
 
Terrified of humans until her last year in the world of mortals, I won Beauty’s love and trust with patience sitting next to her and reading out loud, or offering my hand to her instead of petting her directly.  She grew attached to me, and became my constant companion, the gray ring of fur around the crater in the feather pillow on my bed was a friendly reminder of this fact.

Thinking of herself as a human, Beauty enjoyed wearing dolls clothes and eating junk food, like Oreos and Doritos.  A timid creature, no one ever dared scold her, not even when she worked up the courage to jump up onto the dinner table.  She was fond of Subway sandwiches, which made it convenient for her to eat from one end while I ate from the other.  She had a preference for white meat, and no power in the verse could hide beef jerky from her.

Beauty had her quirks, as all good cats do.  She preferred climbing over jumping, and always made a point of digging her claws into the side of a piece of furniture to laboriously pull herself up the side of a bed or a couch.  She also had the tendency to fly down the hall and disappear at the smallest provocation, or seemingly no provocation at all, leaving tufts of soft fur floating through the air in her wake.

She was a very gentle cat, and though she had all her claws, and though she used them liberally, she rarely ever scratched me, even if she was struggling to get away.  She also had an excellent set of manners, and always made a point of walking carefully around the random art project, book, or remote that might be in her way, never stepping or sitting on things as other cats are inclined to do.

Beauty left our world on December 21^st, 2006, and though I’m sad to have her leave us, I’m also grateful that she gave so much to myself and my family.  As Angelica said, “the reason you were so sad when she died was because she gave you so much love while she was alive.” Truer words were never spoken.  For seventeen years, she made our lives better: seventeen years of fun, curiosity, warmth, and enjoyment.

And I dare say that perhaps she looks back and thinks the same of us.

0 comments.

Requiem: Beauty

Posted on January 4th, 2007 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Cats.

A friend
before I could comprehend the word.

A confidant
before I understood the need.

In your company
I never knew emptiness.

Dear Beauty,
your gentle spirit is freed.

3 comments.

Meaningless Rant: Squirrel Pirates!

Posted on December 7th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Animals, Blog, Meaningless Rants, Squirrels.

So, the squirrel thing is beginning to become something of an obsession, I admit.  This time, I actually looked for interesting squirrel photos, whereas the previous two times, I stumbled apon them by accident.  I found out there are entire websites devoted to squirrels…I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by that, but I am.

[Totally looks like some bad-ass pirate!  Is he stuffed?]

Scary Squirrel World is probably one of the more disturbing sites.  They say this about squirrels, (or “skwerls”, as they call them): “We like ‘em fine and they taste great. Our mission is to track the world-wide love-hate fascination with squirrels and present it in the most absurd way possible. ”

[Text on the image readss: “Because EVERYONE wants to be a pirate - EVEN SQUIRRELS”]

The other site that shocked me was the Sugar Bush Squirrel site, a site devoted to a squirrel “super model” that has its own studio, comeplete with thousands of clothing articles and props for her photos.  It’s amusing to scroll through the page…there’s even a photo with the squirrel in question dressed as a Trekkie.

[The super model herself, Sugar Bush Squirel.]

Will this be the end of my squirrel obsession?  Or will it keep growing?  Will I fall to the Dark Side like “Anutkin Skywalker”, whom Super Bush Squirrel poses as in a picture on her website?  Only time will tell…

9 comments.