Smell So Good It Hurts

A Pink Chin

Poor Kushi has diarrhea, and got a spoonful of Peptol Bismol. Half of it ended up on her face: Update 10/28: After a week, Kushi's diarrhea has finally gone away. It started after a certain someone (ahem) fed her some spicy mutton. Her diarrhea was so bad that she would poop wet puddles all over her grass sod outside on the balcony, and while I was busy cleaning up, she couldn't wait for me to finish and deposited another poop puddle on the carpet inside. Yaargh!!! By the way, I would highly recommend this product for cleaning up pet poop/pee/vomit accidents:

8 in 1 Complete Stain & Odor Remover Spray

We've tried many other brands (ahem, Nature's Miracle, Simple Solution), and this is the only product that does a reasonable job of cleaning up stains AND more importantly, removes the pee odor, as opposed to just masking the smell. It has a fairly strong citrus odor, and I would prefer no odor, but otherwise, it does a good job of getting rid of the pee smell.

After googling for how to deal with doggie diarrhea, we fasted her for 24 hours (but with free access to water). We initially tried to give her a spoonful of Peptol Bismol once a day, which did not seem to have any effect. It was difficult to get her to swallow the Peptol Bismol (see pic at top!), since we didn't have a syringe to feed it to her. Then we fed her exclusively half rations of her homemade supplement meals, skipping the kibble. I mixed in some plain canned pumpkin, which has a lot of fiber and suppposedly helps firm up the poop. I'm not sure how much it helped, but Kushi's poop soon looked/smelled like canned pumpkin. I also mixed in a spoonful of nonfat plain yogurt (with active cultures) every meal, and that seemed to help. Her poop steadily improved until it back to normal after a week. After a couple days of normal poop, we transitioned her back to her usual combination of kibble and homemade meals.

Review: the FURminator, a fistful of fur

After thinking about it for several months, I finally got the FURminator. I had been putting it off because of the high price (retail $35 for the size small brush), but even though I usually brush all the animals about once a week, I would still end up spitting out stray floating pet hairs from my mouth. So I finally got it from Amazon for about $22:
It feels nice and heavy in the hand, and the comb blade is sharper than you would expect. Brushing it across your arm, you can feel that it would irritate the animal if you press down too hard.

I immediately tried it out on all the animals, and delightful mountains of fur began to sprout from the animals. At first, the cats were irritated by the brushing, but if I brushed very lightly, they seemed to accept it more readily. Kushi was more indifferent to the brush. The FURminator works significantly better than the flea comb at pulling out the fur. The flea comb is better, though, at catching the fur in its comb, whereas the FURminator would leave the sheddings on top of the fur, leaving you to grab it off the animal. I usually start with the FURminator and finish off with the flea comb to pick up the stray hairs. The FURminator works especially well if your pet has an undercoat.

Sheboo wondering if this will make her look skinnier...

Enough fur to make another cat...

An American Chin in Paris?

Preparing for our upcoming trip to Paris and Spain, we modeled an old beret we got on our last trip to Paris. Unfortunately, Kushi won't be coming along (shh, don't tell her). Although someone will come by to take care of our pets, I ordered the PetMate Le Bistro Automatic Pet Feeder (review when it arrives) to automate Kushi's feeding:

Kushi's new litter box

Up till now, Kushi has been using a 3 x 3 foot square of grass sod, which has worked well. The only problem is that if Kushi's poop is soft, then it will smear into the grass, making it difficult to wipe clean. Although we replace the sod every week, I'm still afraid that Kushi will track in invisible traces of poop.

So we finally got a litter box from PETaPOTTY:

Tigger and Kushi exploring the new box

It's about 34" x 34" and made of polyvinyl. Some absorbant medium such as grass sod, wood mulch, gravel, etc sits on top and there are slits in the box which allow draining into a collection tray hidden underneath. We chose to put wood chip mulch in the box and lined the bottom collection tray with puppy pads to absorb the urine that drains through the chips:

By using wood chips, I can pick up the poop and any surrounding dirty wood chips so I don't have to worry about any leftover poop residue. We also don't bother to change to wood chips as frequently as the grass sod. We just top off the wood chips and change out the puppy pads when they get too dirty. The only drawback is if your dog likes to dig, the wood chips will fly out and make a mess. You could always use grass sod or gravel as an alternative. Kushi was already used to going on wood chips, so she quickly adapted to using the box.

Review: Our new pet door: the Solo automatic pet door with patio insert

We've been wanting to get a pet door for Kushi, so she could go out to potty by herself. We wanted the door to be automatic so Kushi would be allowed to go in and out but the cats would be prevented from going out. But there are not many options for reliable, automatic doors that have patio inserts. After reading reviews on quality and reliability and after months of opening the door for Kushi, we decided the best door was the Solo automatic pet door. But with the patio insert option and the $100 tax and shipping, the total cost was a whopping $800.

So we waited. We would let Kushi out about every 3-4 hours, but she did not know how to let us know when she needed to go outside, so we were afraid to leave her alone longer than that. Because of this, we would always schedule our outings based upon Kushi's potty schedule, which was a drag. We also had to crate her every night.

We decided to get a door chime so that Kushi could let us know when she wanted to go outside (to be reviewed in another post). The problem with the door chime, though, is that we could not train her to use the chime to indicate when she wanted to go outside. She never made the connection with the sequence of pushing the button->hearing the chime->human letting her outside. After months of this, we finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the door.

There are several door sizes available, and we got the smallest configuration with the patio insert option. The door arrived very quickly, within several days. Installation was easy, but the patio insert did not fill out the whole sliding door track, meaning it would wobble back and forth within the track. We ended up using the styrofoam packing blocks that came in the shipping box as shims to fill in the gaps, which ended up working well. The patio insert option comes with foam weatherproofing tape to help seal the gap between the sliding door and the insert, but either the door or the insert is not perfectly straight, because there is a slight gap in the middle of the door. Next trip to Home Depot, we'll look for something better to seal the gap.

The pet door, newly installed in the patio door. Tigger is busy investigating. Too bad the black insert doesn't match our white patio door coloring.

A closeup of the door. The sliding door is some sort of shaded but transparent plastic.

Once you plug the door into an outlet, the door will start working immediately. The system uses a magnet to trigger the opening of the door. Since the sensor is just a magnet, you don't have to worry about any batteries. The major drawback to this method, though, is that any moving metal within range, such as a motor or a sliding door, will trigger the door to open. So whenever we opened the patio door, it would trigger the pet door. This side effect, though, is just an annoyance.

The red magnet sensor is small and unobtrusive, about half the size of a sugar cube. Kushi is looking at me miffed because she just got a dreaded bath.

In the beginning, the door sometimes seemed to get stuck or sluggish when trying to slide back down to close. If you open up the door panel, there are two controls: one for adjusting the distance at which the sensor triggers the door and one for adjusting the length of time the door is open. To prevent the cats from following Kushi out the door, I adjusted the controls to shorten the trigger distance to within 6 inches of the door and for the door to remain open for about 1 second. After adjusting the controls, the sliding became smooth and the door no longer became sluggish/stuck.

The big test came when we put the magnet onto Kushi's collar and started her training. At first, she was a little frightened when the door opened. We lured her with treats to walk through the door. Once she did this a couple times, we would throw the treats through the door, encouraging her to go through the door to retrieve the treat. After we repeated this several times, throwing the treats in and out, she quickly got the idea. This took just a couple minutes.

Later in the afternoon, we saw her go up to the door. The door slid open, and she walked outside. Holding our breaths, we watched her as she went potty and calmly walked back inside through the door. Yes! That was the first time she went potty without us. Kushi loves the door and now uses it regularly. After a couple days, we stopped crating her, and she is now allowed free reign of the house.
It's only been a week, but the door has been operating consistently and smoothly. Time will tell as to its reliability. So, except for the cost, both humans and animal are happy with the door.

Japanese souvenirs

Trying out her cute new cape my parents got while in Japan:

Reviewing Kushi's Celltei Paws carrier

I looked for a long while before I settled on this carrier by Celltei. Most of the carriers seem to be a tight fit for someone even of Kushi's diminutive size, with her estimated adult weight of about 8 pounds. I also wanted a carrier that would be unobtrusive and could hide Kushi if necessary. This carrier, the Celltei "Paws," fit the bill perfectly. It comes in assorted colors and two sizes. I got the medium size (16"L x 8"W x 10.5"H) in blue for about $100.
There are flaps on both sides of the bag that can either be up to completely hide the dog, or rolled down to give her a view. Behind the flaps is a mesh screen that can also be unzipped down. There are three pockets, plenty of room to put any doggie supplies, and two shoulder straps. The outer material is made of a sturdy cotton canvas, and the inside is cotton.

The inside of the bag has a rigid padded base that is removable and has a short leash to hook on to your dog to secure it, if necessary. The quality and construction of the bag seem very good.

As you can see, it's big enough for Kushi to stand up inside the bag. Since the bag is top loading (as opposed to the side), it's more difficult to put a squirmy dog inside with one hand while trying to zip the bag closed with the other hand. That is probably the only drawback to this carrier.

I guess prison ain't so bad...

Once I started carrying Kushi around, she settled down immediately. It was very comfortable to carry her around. All in all, a very well thought out carrier, I'm very happy with it.

Whew, I'm outta here!

A new raincoat, or Kushi does Sherlock Holmes

Although her red Puppia raincoat is nicely made and fits around her girth perfectly, it's too short for her longish body, and the hood refuses to stay on her head.
So I started looking for another raincoat that had a hat or detachable hood that would tie under a dog's chin, and I found this, a raincoat by Beanies and Belvedere:I ordered it in the size small, since it had a 14" length. The next smaller size has an 11" length, which is too short for Kushi's 13" body. Here's Kushi, modeling the raincoat in aqua, with the hood attached:
Obviously, it's too big for her girth, though the length covers her body well. Although it looks nicely made, the nylon material is not coated, and doesn't seem like it will repel water that well. I'll test it out in the next rain, and I'll probably end up spraying it with some water repellent coating. You can buy the raincoat at moderntails.com.

Why do you always make me wear these thingies?!?

Reviewing pet mats: Sleep Ezz and Eco Nap

I originally got some West Paw Design Eco Nap pet mats (starting from , a x-small and small mat to go in the car and on top of the sofa for Kushi. The Eco Nap mats are made of recycled plastic bottles, but you wouldn't be able to tell at all from the mat.

The small mat in Willow/Bear.

They seem pretty sturdy and comfortable, and both Tigger and Kushi liked the mat.

Tigger: "Yes, verrry, verrry comfy..."

I used the x-small Eco Nap mat on my lap whenever I rode in the car with Kushi, since Kushi usually would otherwise use my body as a perch to take a look out the car window, and having her on the mat also helped keep my clothes clean. Although the x-small fits Kushi, I wanted to get a bigger mat to give her more room on the mat in the car.

The only drawback to the Eco Nap is that Kushi likes to dig and scratch at it for some reason, which causes a lot of lint to be scratched off it.

I wanted some more mats to put in the crate, so I bought another brand, Pet Dreams Sleep Ezz, which is cheaper and comes in several cute dual sided colors.

These cushions are soooo soft, and I like the colors. There is also a little loop attached to the mats. Here is the x-small mat in Kushi's crate.


Again, both Kushi and Tigger approved the mats, and when Kushi scratched at the mat, no fuzzy lint got scraped off.
Although I haven't personally washed the mats yet, both brands are machine washable, which is very convenient. Of the two brands, I'd recommend the Sleep Ezz, since it's cheaper, comes in cute colors and is very soft. On the other hand, if being more environmentally friendly is important to you, the Eco Nap is a fine choice as well.

Who says you need a fancy dog bed?

A cardboard box with a pillow and a towel wrapped around the pillow. Also doubles as the "cat condo."

You can never have too many toys

Kushi's new pet gate

To keep Kushi away from the cats' food, we installed a gate. The gate had to be just tall enough to keep Kushi in, but short enough for the cats to jump over and me (the shorty) to step over. I was thinking of getting a taller gate that I could open, and although Tigger is athletic and can easily jump a taller gate, pudgy (okay obese) Sheboo is not so nimble.

This gate is 21 inches high, which is tall enough since Kushi is not a climber. It has a pet gate and is nice in that it has four wall knobs that you can individually adjust to press against uneven walls or floor moldings. You can get the Richell Pet Sitter Gate at petsmart.com for $79, which is pricey, though we got it on sale. It's very solid and works as advertised, though.

Cheaper poop bags

Those small compact rolls of poop bags are really convenient. They are housed in a plastic casing which attach to your leash, so you won't forget to bring the bags. A popular brand I see people carrying is called "Bags on Board," which sell for $10.99 for 120 bags at petsmart.com.

I then found this site called PetEdge where you can buy 120 bags for $3.98.

They're a different brand (Clean Go Pet), and the rolls are a smidge longer, so they probably won't fit in the Bags on Board casing, but the Clean Go Pet has their own casing. At less than half the price, it's a no brainer! The only catch is that PetEdge requires a minimum purchase or else they will tack on an extra charge. You can always use this as an excuse to buy other pet supplies from their website. For example, they have great pricing on the flea preventative Frontline Plus.

I also noticed on the PetEdge site that a lot of dog apparel I see on other websites are sold at much cheaper "wholesale" prices at this website...Yes, I know I shop around a lot!

Useful Tip: Babies versus Puppies

What is the difference between babies and puppies? Puppy stuff is much more expensive than baby stuff!!

Case in point:

PUPPY PLAY PEN $99.99 at petco.com

Now, replace the word PUPPY with BABY. Exact same play pen, same manufacturer. Just replace the picture of a puppy in a pen on the box cover with a picture of a baby in a pen:

BABY PLAY PEN $49.84 at walmart.com

Coincidence? How about another example:

100 "Paw wipes" $11.69 at petco.com80 "baby wipes" $2.79 at longs.com

I rest my case...so a useful tip is to get baby stuff instead of pet stuff if possible. This also applies to baby/pet gates.

By the way, I highly recommend the play pen shown above, it folds flat, and you can add or remove modules to expand or shrink the pen. Good for small dogs, though clever dogs may figure out how to climb out of it (good thing Kushi is not one of those types of dogs). Very useful tool for potty training.