Vets can't come to a consensus on whether dry food or wet food is best for cats. So I feed them both. At 6:55am they each get a spoonful of wet food. At 7:00am they each get a small amount of dry food. At 7:20 they get an even smaller amount of dry food... AKA "Second Breakfast," because they will scarf it all down at once and might get sick if I don't split it up. At noon they get a small amount of food for lunch. At 5:55pm they get a spoonful of wet food. At 6:00pm they get a small amount of dry food. At 6:20 they get "Second Dinner." Then at 9:00 they get a tiny-tiny snack to carry them through the night.

These small amounts of food given throughout the day have worked best for Jake and Jenny, and there's no scarf-and-puke sessions when I go this route.

The wet food is indeed a small amount... 1/6th of a can twice a day. Jenny refuses to chomp anything wet, she just licks it, so hers is mixed with a little tap-water.

Last year I changed things up a bit. After each can was done, I split a packed of "Broths" between them. So it's 1/6 can at dinner, 1/6 can at breakfast, 1/6 can at dinner, then 1/2 a packet of broth for breakfast. Repeat.

The stinkiest of all Broths... and Jenny's favorite!

I added the Broths for two reasons:
A) The fish oil in it does wonders for their coats... so soft!
B) The cats go bananas for the stuff.

Jenny's sense of smell is diminished, so her meal needs to stink a bit. Broths stink a lot, so it's like the best thing ever to her. The minute I tear open the packet and she gets a whiff, she meows and meows and meows until I hurry up and get it to her. Jake gets most of the fish chunks, Jenny gets the small pieces and most of the liquid so she can lick it up.

Then my house reeks of fish for hours, which is why they get it at breakfast before I leave for work. If they got it for dinner, I would be gagging while trying to eat my dinner, then trying to sleep through the stench of it all.

The things I do as a cat dad.

Jake had been carting Mufasa around all day. The only time he was been without his favorite toy was using the litter box or eating. Just now as I was heading into the kitchen, I saw him sitting on the steps taking a break... and he managed to sit Mufasa down in front of him UPRIGHT. Which doesn't happen very often. I sneaked back into the living room to grab my phone, expecting him to move, but he didn't. So I managed to get a photo of it. Wouldn't look at me though. Intentionally looked away!

And then...

I decided I wanted to see him set Mufasa down upright, so I went back through the security tapes. And that wasn't even the best part of what happened.

First he set Mufasa down on the step...

Then he leaves!

Then he comes back...

And plops down in front of Mufasa...

Which is when I saw him and got my phone to take a photo.

This morning Jenny came in crying at 2:30am, waking me up. This is a rare occurrence, as my cats usually don't interrupt me when I'm sleeping. Unless it's an emergency. So you can understand my concern. I thought maybe something was wrong with Jake or the Litter-Robot needed to be filled or some other catastrophe. But when I wandered downstairs Jake was asleep on the cat tree and everything seemed to be well. When I got back upstairs, Jenny hopped on the bed and demanded to be petted... so I can only guess she had a nightmare or just woke up and needed to be petted.

At 2:30am.

A half hour later she wandered off.

After breakfast I nodded off and awoke to this...

I couldn't resist, could you?

Sorry, buddy.

I swear I am not an overly-paranoid person... but sometimes the internet brings it out in me when something wildly coincidental happens.

Which in this case concerns kitty foot rubs!

First I posted on Facebook about Jenny loving foot rubs. So much so that from time to time she will insist on them. She'll plop down next to me and keep contorting herself until I relent and rub her fuzzy little feet. Like she did on Friday.

After she fell asleep I stopped so I could keep working. Big mistake. She started kicking me until I started again. The I stopped again. She started kicking me again. So I became stuck. Can't stop rubbing her feet or I get kicked...

I've probably written about this before. I just find it so endearing because most cats don't want their feet touched at all.

And wouldn't you know it... right after I posted the above on Facebook, I drop by Instagram and see this...

Now, it's not a stretch to think that Facebook shared my post about Jenny's foot massage with Instagram. Facebook owns Instagram! And both posts clearly talk about kitty foot massages. But to have it happen this quickly? That's pretty darn... scary... I guess is the word I'm looking for?

Although I have to say... in this case I can't be mad about it if this is indeed what's happening. Just look at that cat! This is exactly what Jenny does!

My cats are very upset about the snow that's been dumping down. Very.

Jake will go out in the catio and squawk at it. Jenny prefers to meow at it from the comfort of the indoors looking out the window. Either way, they are having a bad day.

It's different for me.

No matter how bad of a day I've had, coming home to have my fuzzy girl curl up next to me and purr like a motor boat makes it all better...

But then there's Jake, giving me a heart attack when it looked like he was going to jump downthe stairwell...

The last time he did that, I had to take him for an emergency run to the vet.

Every Caturday I tear apart my cat feeding station and steam clean everything, throw the ceramic cat fountain in the dishwasher, sanitize and clean the feeders, and wash the cat warming pad covers, cat beds, and bedding. It's a lot of work, but I want to keep my cats healthy, clean, and comfortable, so I honestly don't mind.

This morning when I gathered all the pet beds and bedding and tossed them in the washer so I could vacuum under everything, I heard meowing coming from the living room. I knew it was Jenny because Jake can't meow.

I look around the corner and she's upset because she wanted to lay in the cat bed that I keep on the coffee table. But the only thing there was the piece of cardboard that I set down to protect my table... and so that's where she was...

Look at her all prim and proper sitting there in her fluffy winter coat! Such the perfect little lady!

She moved when I hauled out the vacuum cleaning to suck up all that cat hair and dust off the table though.

The vacuum is a cat's mortal enemy, after all.

Yesterday I had a slice of pizza left over from dinner, sitting on a plate next to me on the couch. Without warning, Jake jumps up and walks towards it. I take it away and say "mine." Jake looks up at me, then starts WAILING. And he would. not. stop. And so I was like "Holy shit!" So I gave it to him. He sniffed it a few times, then left. And now I'm like WTF? What were you crying for if you weren't going to at least lick the cheese off of it?

Jake has been acting out a lot lately, and I think he gets it from his sister. He sees how she has me wrapped around her little paw, so he thinks "Why shouldn't I get everything I want too?" And so he's squawking at me just as much as Jenny meows at me... demanding that I pay attention to him or give in to his frustrations when he isn't getting his way.

I am so pussy-whipped.

Take this photo, for example. I was on a Zoom call and Jake came along and sprawled out on the bannister shelf I made so he doesn't fall down the stairwell again. I thought "How cute!" and swiveled my iMac so people on the call could see him. Little did I know that this was NOT Jake trying to be cute... it was Jake waiting to get belly rubs! And when I didn't act fast enough, he was squawking at me... while I was on my Zoom call...

Which was highly amusing to my colleagues on the other end.

Then there was this morning when I woke up and Jake was on the cat tree that looms over my bed looking down at me. I said "good morning" and grabbed my computer to check my email. All of a sudden there was bird commotion outside the window and Jake was riveted...

Then the bird commotion stopped.

And Jake was very upset about it. His entertainment was gone.

So he decided to get mad at me about it.

Squawking and squawking at me... like I was supposed to go wrangle some birds for him, I guess.

Yeah, sorry buddy, but I'm not doing that. There are limits to your demands, and it's better you find that out sooner rather than later.

This was an eventful couple week to be my cats... what with all the construction fixing my home.

For the most part, Jake and Jenny spent their days hiding in the storage closet in my bedroom. I am always sure to take their food up to them... have a litterbox available... and check in several times to make sure that they're not completely catatonic. Which is a distinct possibility given how terrified they are of strangers.

The worst part was when the electrician actually had to go into my storage closet in order to replace the light switch. Poor Jenny backed herself so far up against the wall that she ended up looking like a little puffball...

Jake held out as long as he could... then made a mad dash for it, running past me, the electrician, and one of his nine lives.

He did recover enough that he was up for watching television with me that night though...

By the next morning, they were both back to their normal, abnormal selves. Jake got a paw massage, which he liked a little too much...

Fast-forward to today, and I arrived home from my Thanksgiving adventure over the mountains. As I was unloading the car, Jake was unloading my first load of stuff, including a box of toys I bought them for the holiday. I guess he smelled the catnip?

Remind me to disinfect the countertops.

Jenny is very particular about her toys. Most she won't play with. Some she hates so much that she dumps them in the water fountain. This time she only dumped one in the water... an astro mouse or something. The rest she was indifferent towards.

Except one.

I got a jumbo-sized catnip toy that she attacked immediately. She was biting it and kicking it with a dedication usually reserved for her brother...

And now? I'm off for a warm winter's nap.

I tried different "automated" litter boxes which self-clean so I don't have to scoop. Not that I mind doing it, but Jenny is very particular about having a clean litter box in which to do her business. If the litter box is dirty, the poor thing will hold it as long as she can... wandering from box to box hoping to find a clean one... then go on the floor when she finally can't hold it any more. I really don't want my sweet girl go through that, so I pay the massive cost for the only automated boxes I trust to do the job... Litter-Robot.

I started with the Litter-Robot 3. It was great. But I started having random "BONNET REMOVED" errors soon after purchase, which would render the unit nonfunctional. I followed all the advice that Litter-Robot Customer Service gave me, but nothing solved it. This was so worrying to me due to my constant travels that I ended up buying a second just in case the "BONNET REMOVED" error happened while I was gone. This error itself is inexplicably stupid. Who wouldn't put the bonnet back on after taking it off? It's huge. It's not like you'd forget or not notice. But despite tons of people having this problem, there was never a permanent fix offered... and nobody ever offered up any hacks to solder a jumper or disable the faulty sensor, so it kept happening.

Enter Litter-Robot 4.

I waited for reviews before I even considered spending SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS buying one. When the reviews came and nobody mentioned any BONNET REMOVED errors, I wrote the Litter-Robot Customer Service and specifically asked if the problem had been solved. About all they would commit to saying was "We've improved the product in many ways." Hardly the assurance I was looking for.

Worried that the cats may resist the new machines, I started by replacing only one of them so they would have a choice. Jenny noticed something had changed immediately...

Jake took a bit longer before he realized it...

In any event, there was no adjustment period. I transferred the litter from the old Litter-Robot to the new so that the smell would reassure them what it's for. But I don't think it was necessary, as they both took to it immediately and the Litter-Robot 3 was forgotten.

After a week of use, here's the positives...

• Litter-Robot 4 is much more attractive than the previous versions. The old one was kinda industrial and sad. The new one is sleek and beautiful. Plus... instead of the sickly tan/grey color, you can choose either white or black. I went with white since it will show litter dust less and be easier to spot when it's dirty and needs to be wiped down.
• The opening is larger. Jenny, in particular, seems to like this better even though she's a smaller cat than Jake by a third.
• The latest version is incredibly quiet. I can barely hear it, even when I'm in the same room. Instead of having both units side-by-side in my living room, I've got the second unit in my office next to my bedroom. Haven't been woken up by it yet (and you can program quiet hours if it still bothers you, which I doubt).
• There's a new feature which measures the level of kitty litter in the unit and alerts you when it's getting low. This is very cool and much appreciated. Furthermore, it seems to be fairly accurate in letting you know when it's time to add more.
• The waste drawer is smaller, but deeper, and it is filled up from the middle instead of always piling up in the side of the drawer. Since the waste level is measured by the same laser which measures the kitty litter level, it's far more accurate than the old photo sensor (but still not perfect).
• The nightlight is much nicer for the cats, making it easier for them to see inside and less wary about entering when it's nighttime.
• The odor control is even better than before, having the filter above the drawer instead of in front, which is far more logical. You also have the option of using odor-trapping pods instead of filters which is even better. I don't smell anything after the air clears once the unit cycles... even after one of Jake's infamous toxic dumps.
• I've already had some firmware updates, which means that they are still fine-tuning to make the product work better. That's nice.
• Despite the problems you're about to read below, it's still the best automated litter box I have ever used (and I had four before I found Litter-Robot).

Here's the negatives (photos to follow)...

• The interior of the globe is smaller by about an inch in both directions. My cats can still use it, but Jake is noticeably less comfortable, and spends a lot more time than he used to trying to scratch over his waste because he has less space to operate.
• If a cat steps on the step to look inside without entering, the unit will think that a cat has entered and trigger a cycle. Hell, if you fart in the general direction of the unit, it will think that a cat has entered and cycle the unit. This is frustrating because it results in unnecessary cycles. You'd think that you could set a threshold so that anything under a certain weight is ignored because it's clearly not your cat.
• The little fence that snaps on the front to keep the kitty litter inside is included now (it used to cost $25), but it doesn't stay on. Jake snaps it off every time he uses the box. The old one never came off. This could be because he has less room to scratch and is pawing at it, but it's a pretty serious design flaw.
• The units goes offline at random and are brain-dead about trying to reconnect to WiFi once they go back online. When I am away from home I want to keep track of what's going on with the Litter-Robots, so I've had to install smart plugs so I can remotely cut the power then restore the power so they will go online again. Until next time.
• When the unit goes offline, you lose the history from that time.
• The bonnet... which has always been problematic... has a new problem. It doesn't fit well and doesn't stay closed. The little tab on the top snaps into the slot as it's supposed to (but pops back out any time a cat uses the units and it cycles.
• Apparently the units will eventually be able to track which cat is using the Litter-Robot based on their weight. This is a feature which is "coming soon." The problem is that sometimes the weight doesn't get recorded. Pair this with the whole "offline" nonsense, and I actually have less of an idea as to what's going on with my cats' potty habits than I did with my Litter-Robot 3 boxes. Hopefully the update will disregard false positives... or at least allow you to flag them so you can train the system how to recognize your cats.
• Litter can still be tracked out of the box fairly easily. Furthermore, since the globe is smaller and the fence won't stay on, litter gets tossed out of the box more than with the old one.
• There's no stairs you can buy to accommodate older cats or cats who are uncomfortable with jumping/climbing in and out. The stairs I got for my Litter-Robot 3's were ugly and klutzy, but they worked. Maybe if the step on the drawer protruded a little more it wouldn't be necessary. I may have to build some kind steps myself, which might be tricky because I don't want to interfere with the operation or weight sensor.

This is a screen capture showing how one of them is offline. They were actually both offline until I power-cycled the first one...

As you can see, the unit went offline sometime after 11:11am, and I've lost all data from then until I cycled the power at 7:10pm. I have no idea why it's saying a cat was detected at 7:12, because neither of my cats are even in the room. I can only guess that I farted in its general direction, and that was enough to make it think a cat is taking a dump...

This is the tab of the bonnet which will not stay locked into the slot. I keep putting it back in only to have it pop out the next time the unit cycles. Incredibly frustrating...

The bonnet itself is ill-fitting all the way around, with gaps and seams that don't match up...

But, to be honest, I can handle the bonnet being poorly constructed... just so long as I don't get those idiotic "BONNET REMOVED" errors that plagued me for years with my previous units. It seems inconceivable that something costing $700 is so poorly constructed, and I can only hope that it stays operational despite it all.

And that's that. A lot of plusses. Some hefty minuses. But an overall good product that I can't imagine being without.

Pretty sure my cats can't imagine it either.

My cats have been more than a little upset about being trapped in my bedroom while workers are here to tear apart my home and take all my money. I can honestly say that I'm not a fan of it either.

Jenny is outright pissed. She meows at me to let me know exactly what's on her mind, then avoids me like the plague for hours.

Jake is tougher to figure out because he bounces back from it quicker. I know he's upset... but then he will climb up next to me on the bed, shit down, then hang out for a while. But he still has attitude...

This week it was especially great, because some birds fighting outside distracted him from his morning ass-wiping...

I'd show you a photo of Jenny, but she's still holding a grudge.