Social media, followers, and making money!

The cat introductions are done! Phew, that was much harder than I expected it to be. My older cats were much easier to introduce as they have fully developed their size and personalities. The kittens are still in the kitten phase of figuring out just what their personalities will be, what they will be best known for, and what they contribute to the pecking order.

I didn't introduce the two cats that we had, one because I just don't have it in me to write about a very special cat - Peppermint. She is watching over me, amidst the chaos of the 12 cats in my home, and probably yelling that it's all gone to hell in a basket. She truly was the matriarch of our house, both for humans and pets. Without her, the cats have decided it's every cat for themselves, going straight to chewing wires, playing with things that are not meant for cats, snoozing on the forbidden counters, having horrible litter etiquette, and more! I promise one day there will be a more detailed post about the most precious cat who left a big impact on my life.

The other cat that didn't get introduced is Frannie. I'm more likely to write about her sooner (I'll have to dig deep for some of her best pictures!). She was a cat that, depending on who you talked to, was staying permanently or temporarily at our house. The husband was on the temporary train while I was full steam ahead that she's a permanent cat in our household. I lost the battle on her living situation. (She is in a GREAT home now.)

Needless to say, both of them had amazing personalities, and you truly had to be on their level. Frannie was not a favorite to anyone except me, Peppermint was loved by all because of so many reasons! Now, what do I really have to write about for today's blog?!? I really don't know, other than it's the height of summer, it's been killer hot out, I've been crazy busy working and pet sitting. I started a TikTok channel - WTH was I thinking, added another thing to my life that takes a good amount of time! All in all though, it kinda fits right in with the blogging side of my life right now.

Find the tiktok videos here: https://www.tiktok.com/@purrfectdozen

- and is solely about the cats (all 12 of them!). While some of them have been more video-ready, a few have been a little less inclined to come out. Hello Hazel, Ash, Tanner, Peaches. Pretty much in that order from least ready to more ready. Bear is the one kitten who is happy to come out for videos and photo shoots. Now it's up to me to catch them being insanely cute or infuriatingly bad on camera. Harder than one might think. Remember - cats do what they want - no matter what we want them to do.

A lot of times, they are doing cool things, cute things, or just camera-worthy things, and one of two things happens. My camera is nowhere near, or I'm actively being held down by another cat and can't catch whatever worthwhile thing is happening! I make do with what I can catch, hope my husband sends me cute stuff from when I'm not around, or is willing to catch pictures when I physically can't.

Other than being super active on TikTok, I am uploading those videos and photos to YouTube, albeit a bit slower than I should be. Find them on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@purrfectdozen

It's strange how I feel like I'm staying current with all the social media and newest technology, yet I can see the generational gaps in where people are going for entertainment and social media. That's how I ended up creating a YouTube Channel. I only knew less than a handful of people who use TikTok, but more who use YouTube. I also ended up creating the YouTube channel because my husband and several close friends don't use TikTok but said they would watch the videos on YouTube. I'm looking straight at Jim and Barb who said, "Put them up there, we will watch!" Guess how many times they have watched the videos?! You got that right, barely any.

This does go to show that a get-rich-quick scheme of becoming internet famous, whether by blogging, TikToking, YouTubing, or Twitching, is not really as quick as everyone makes it seem. There are TONS of things that have to happen for you to even get remotely close to making money. I'm still struggling with it on all the social media outlets. I have a better insight, but it's not quick or easy. It's time-consuming, hard, and maybe not quite worth it if you aren't a person who stays home and does absolutely nothing else with their life.

While I'm still plugging away and secretly hoping one (or all of these things) takes off for me, I'm still going to keep my "paying" jobs.

So to all my peeps - share all of the sites! To make it super easy - just copy and share the links below! My #purrfectdozen crew thanks you for helping make them famous!

Blogsite: https://www.lovecatsandeverything.com/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@purrfectdozen

Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@purrfectdozen

Etsy: https://lovecatseverything.etsy.com

Youtube (Live readings/book club!): https://youtube.com/@melsbookcorner

Till our Tails Cross Again

Mel

Finicky stomach's & weird allergies

The trials and tribulations of having 12 cats varying in ages ensure that there's never a dull moment. Just a small recap: we have 1 diabetic cat - Jasper - who resides in the large bathroom, 1 FIV+ cat - Dobby - a free roamer of the entire house, 2 cats with kidney disease - Smokey & Rollie - free roamers of the entire house, and 1 cat with chronic bronchitis/allergies - Vera - also a free roamer of the entire house. Doesn't seem so bad in writing, right?! Those are just the ones with some sort of health issue!

Jasper - he's on a controlled diet - a set feeding schedule with a set amount of food throughout the day. This came about for 2 primary reasons - diabetics need to be mindful of weight/carbs/sugars (yep, still applies in the feline world!) and he turned out to be a fast eater who would wolf down his entire serving in a mere few seconds and immediately throw it all back up. Out the door went a simple twice-a-day feeding. Enter the greatest thing in technology - an automatic feeder! It goes off on a schedule - based on what we programmed it to - and only a set amount of food at each serving. It easily holds a little over a week of food, has a battery backup if the power goes out! So he now gets several mini feedings throughout a 24-hour period. Keeps his sugar levels better maintained, and now no fast eating to the point of getting sick. He still eats really fast sometimes - but no more getting sick because he has time to process each tiny meal he gets. He gets an appetizer of chicken squeeze up in the morning with his probiotic mixed in - he LOVES that and will wait at the door for it, calling out if he thinks we are late with it.

Enter the Siamese Rollie & Smokey - kidney disease - this changed some things in our house. Mainly, it put us at a higher price point for food - that is now being fed to 11 cats. Just to give you a picture - I used to buy a 22 lb bag of cat food (healthy weight/hairball control) every 2ish weeks for 11 cats. So, 44 lbs of cat food in 4 weeks at a more reasonable price of about $46 per 22 lb bag. Now we feed them Renal support dry cat food - 11 lbs for $69.99 once a week. So, I used to spend $92 a month for 11 cats and now I spend $279.96 a month. (Yes, that makes me absolutely sick to my stomach!!) That's just the dry food - it doesn't include the wet food.

Wet food brings its own set of challenges. Let's start with prescription renal food -

also expensive, that is for Rollie & Smokey. In my house, crack a can of anything and ALL the cats come running for wet food. So I have to buy prescription and non-prescription - just to save some money. Depending on where I get it, wet food goes on sale - so long as it's not prescription. Enter the million-dollar bathroom cat Jasper. He is literally the anomaly here - in a perfect world he could eat the non-prescription food, but he is allergic to the fish flavors, fish additives, fish oil, salmon oil. I know, shocking - a cat allergic to all things fish-related. Now, take that allergy to the wet food aisle, read a few labels of the Beef, Beef/liver, Chicken, and any other non-fish flavored food. Get just a few ingredients in and you'll find there is some sort of fish/fish oil additive. No big deal, right? It's not like that's the number one ingredient. Jasper would like to tell you in no uncertain terms - It's a huge deal. He will eat the wet food because he absolutely LOVES the wet food and it truly is a treat for him. But no sooner does he eat it, and he has emptied his stomach from all the food he's eaten in the last 12 - 24 hours.

So we have:

Rollie & Smokey - Prescription Wet Food - for Kidney Disease

9 other cats that can eat non-prescription food

Jasper - non-prescription wet food - but it can have no trace of fish or fish oil.

Let's also stop and ponder - wet food has a higher water content. But my wacky cats like their wet food to be more of a soupy mix that tastes like wet food. I'm thankful for that as it makes the wet food spread a little farther around!

We have entered the stage of crazy cat owners who now have food containers labeled for each set of food specifications. All to make feeding wet food easier (I can mix it with water and have it ready for doling out!) This also ensures that any guest in our house doesn't attempt to eat anything from those containers.

So, if feeding 12 cats seemed easy while they are all rubbing on your legs and crying while you scoop out the 12 bowls, add in all those extras who can have what, who needs what, etc. No walk in the park for sure! There have been days when I would think, just don't give Jasper the wet food, but he sits at his door and cries because he most certainly heard the cat food can top pop.

The last two pieces of the wet food headache - Smokey doesn't love to eat when I put out the food, so it's hit or miss if she's getting what she needs from the prescription food. Hazel - she's adorable for sure, but absolutely prefers to eat on the step, partially hidden by the wall. It's a safe spot for her, I guess, although the other cats do come and eat from her bowl - so it's just safe from the humans!

Till our Tails cross again,

Mel

Never-ending cleaning

As you can imagine a house with 12 cats and 3 humans - there's never a shortage of cleaning to be done. There's never a day that goes by that I don't have to do some sort of cleaning. Whether it's scooping litter, sweeping floors, vacuuming, laundry, picking up toys, cleaning up little hairballs, the list truly goes on and on.

We did recently replace our washer - money I would rather have spent on something else. But the washer is amazing, the wash time is shorter which I love - and the clothes come out just as clean! Laundry is one of those things that I never have completely done. I can do 2 - 3 loads a day and still not get caught up. For the longest time, I would wash the cat beds & blankets weekly or bi-weekly to help with the cat hair and dander but felt that they could still be covered in cat hair.

About 2 months ago, I realized, why am I washing the beds and cat blankets so often? They aren't dirty to the point of needing a wash, they just need a good deep hair removal. My ah-ha moment came one day when I was like how can I get the laundry done faster. My brain started thinking and came up with a simple solution. The cat beds now get sprayed with a few spritz of water or a water/laundry softner mix, tossed in the dryer for about 20 minutes and put back out!

They are fresh smelling and free of hair. The cats also get to enjoy a hot bed at nap time! I know, what am I saving? 30 minutes of time for 3-4 loads of cat bedding - trust me that adds up when you are out of the house for more than 8 hours a day. While it may be a ton of energy/electric to run the dryer (for those conservative people out there). I do line dry some items that get washed everyday.

We have some cats that prefer to pee direcly on puppy pads instead of in a litter box with litter. So I do 2 loads a day of re-usable puppy pads - on days the weather coaperates, they get hung on the line. I have an entire closet dedicated to cat pads. This way if I get behind on the washing, there are always clean ones.

As you can imagine, it could get a bit stinky where they use the puppy pads instead of litter. One of my cleaning finds - OdoBan. It works to freshen the air, puppy pads and litter boxes. This is something that is a multi-use and a true product win in my house. Not only does it help keep the house smelling fresh and clean, but I can also add it to the laundry as a disinfectant! Which helps keeps things smelling fresh too! I recently discovered - it is available on chewy and amazon for a refillable size - much cheaper!

I'm sure you can imagine the amount of litter, dust, hair and dander that is flying around and collecting in the corners of my house. I have been throught a billion heavy duty vacuum cleaners that all claim to be made for pets. Another more recent find - a lightweight bissel vacuum - that I absolutely adore. It works on all of the hard floors and has the ability to be a dustbuster. The one thing I don't like - the cord is exteremly short. Otherwise it checks off all the boxes: Lightweight, easy to use, picks up more dirt and debris than if I used a broom.

I use that everyday now on any hard floor surfaces. Followed by that I do a quick swiffer mop of the floor. I'm still amazed at how much I can vacuum up in one day - but now my house is that much cleaner by using it daily.

The take away here - use the dryer for a quick removal of pet hair and vacuum or sweep everytday!

Till our tails cross again,

Mel