Live from the Katnip Lounge, The Kat Pack!

Starring: The Baby *Tiny Johnson * Felix * Rupert * Scouty * CC * Sweet Pea * Maui * May Ling * Salem

and...*Angels Grayce, KonaKitty, and Sylvester* always loved, never forgotten




Sunday, October 20, 2013

Fly Paper, Sheebie, and Karma

Friends* and Kitties!


Sheebie here.

It's been a wet summer here in the desert, and one consequence of all the precipitation has been a pestiferous plague of houseflies.  This is partly our fault.  Our trash receptacle is a wheelie bin type, and the garbage truck (British translation: "Rubbish Lorry") robotically empties the bin into the collector.  This is, as you might imagine, not the most delicate maneuver, and the lid of the bin got cracked a while back.  No problem, unless the owner dumps copious amounts of clumped dung into the bin without bagging it first--like we do--and then it rains, forming Cat Crap Concrete (six inches deep) at the bottom of the bin when the rain seeps through the holey lid.

This was not a project that we (i.e. Scott) wanted to deal with, or even acknowledge (me), so the CCC kind of festered through the hot weather and suddenly, we had houseflies out the wazoo.  (More accurately, albeit indirectly, out of the cat's wazoos.)  The damn things were everywhere...the Horde got bored with chasing them, they were so numerous.  Scott decided it was time to break out the big guns and came home with twelve rolls of fly paper...and of course he wanted to hang them ALL, everywhere, at once.  Since I'm a nice person and I enjoy indulging my husband's insanity whims I helped festoon the house and garage with the sticky harbingers of insectile doom, and we had our first victim within minutes.

Unfortunately, the victim was feline.  I was doing some cooking in the kitchen and there was one particularly annoying fly, so I idiotically hung a strip from a hook over the kitchen sink, and left unattended--for like, two seconds--in which Sweet Pea managed to entangle her (formerly) beautiful, plumey tail.  Poor Miss Pea, when she panicked and leapt off the counter trying to escape the fly paper's gluey grip her tail adhered to her hind legs as well.  After running around like the Keystone Kops Scott and I finally managed to corral her on the Catio and went to work with the scissors.

It was awful.

I felt so bad.  I was crying, trying to trim fur. I felt like such a moron to do something so stupid.  After about ten minutes Scott and I managed to get all the icky sticky cut out of Sweet Pea's coat, and her gorgeous tail was a hot mess...I am not posting photos, I still feel terrible about the whole thing.

Did I mention this happened a few hours before my flight down to see the folks in Tucson?  Well, Karma decided not to dawdle with my payback--when I was changing out the trash can liner in the garage I straightened up smack dab into another fly strip!  In my hair.  I ended up using gasoline to dissolve the adhesive, and taking two showers to get rid of the gas smell.

It was awful.

So, we now have a New Rule at our house.  Direct dung deposit is verboten--it goes into a plastic bag first, and then into the wheelie bin.  Which is brand new.  The trash company replaced it, free of charge.  Also, all fly strips are permanently banned from the premises; we've invested in flyswatters instead.  Miss Pea's plume is growing back, thank Cod.  And I got a good story to blog about...


Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX


*hee hee hee, did you know that "friends" without the "R" is fiends?  Sometimes being a bad typist is fun!

48 comments:

  1. Oh wow....we're glad we only make our poopy deposits in bags. We never thought about it clumping on the bottom of the cans.

    The Florida Furkids

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  2. Those strips are killer - to anything that lands on them. We have them in the barn - they are a necessity out there in the summer - and I steer VERY clear of them

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  3. OMC! Those fly strips are the devil's work. Hateful things! We avoid them like the plague.

    Us Okies have heaps of houseflies, dung or not. You have our sympathy.

    Happy Sunday!

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  4. I just can't think of any damn thing to say but that whole episode was just THE SUCK! We are so very sorry for all the furrs lost and gasoline shampoo.
    Xoxo
    Ms Stella O Houligan

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  5. If I could get onto the floor, I would be Rolling and Laughing my A** off - I'm sorry, the mental picture of poor Sweet Pea being chased by the ebil fly paper thingy is just WAY TOO FUNNY - I wonder if peanut butter would have taken the sticky stuff out - it works with gum, doesn't it? Then you have peanut butter hair to wash out... XOX T.

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  6. I'm so sorry for laughing. Those fly strips are awful but I still use them. I hang them OUTSIDE the catio but Stinky the stray managed to get it stuck on his back and I had to crawl under the car to get him so I could get the strip off. Then the tree shrew got the strip on it's back and it ran and ran and ran all over the garden, twittering as he did until the strip fell off (thank goodness).
    If you ever get glue on your hair or the kitty furs (or even your skin), use cooking oil next time. It removes the glue effectively. :)

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  7. Between my tail and my human's hair, we have voted to never, ever have fly paper in the house. Ever!

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  8. Oh, my goodness. I didn't even realize that flypaper was still sold.

    Ask me why candles are not allowed in my house.

    On second thought, don't ask.

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  9. Ok, I first started laughing at rubbish lorry and didn't stop until I got to "fiends" …. well, quite a bit after that, actually!

    PeeEss And you say "wheelie bin"? All my American fiends laugh their heads off when I say that!!! ;)

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  10. That does sound horrible. That fly paper sticks better than glue. I had a goat that got into it and had it all wrapped around his head and down his legs. That too was horrible. Just catching him was the worst and it was all I could do to get it off of him. Glad you got it off Sweet Pea,
    Have a great day.

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  11. OMC! Thank you for sparing us the pictures! How awful! Thankfully fur grows back.

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  12. Oh dear Ceiling Cat, poor kitteh! We're glad this story has a happy ending.

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  13. Oh WOW - I think you can say that was a horrifically BAD day! Well, sometimes lessons are learned the hard way, so now all cat dong will be wrapped in plastic. We use brown paper bags here - lumch bag version. That works too, although our summers don't get a hot as yours.

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  14. Oh dear, poor Sweet Pea! How undignified. It would never occur to the peeps to put litter into the trash bin without a bag, either. Out of curiosity, if cooking oil works to remove the horrible stuff, we wonder if peanut butter would work, too. It works for removing gum from hair. And cats like peanut butter (though they might not if it was used for a traumatic experience like removing fly paper!)

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  15. Oh what a mess. We've never used fly paper...and now we know we never will.

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  16. How horrid. We do not know what fly paper is but we now know never to ness with it.

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  17. Things are a lot more exciting in the desert than the cold tundra we live in...

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  18. Must have been amusing and frustrating at the same time. Have a lovely Sunday.

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  19. I must admit I laughed imagining poor Sweet Pea and the chase. The good thing is that fur will grow back though I suspect she's staying off the dining room table now!

    Good luck with getting rid of the flies! They've pretty much disappeared here since we've had our first couple of frosts.

    Have a great week!

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  20. Oh Sheebie!! You know as soon as you said you hung all twelve, I so knew where you were going with that. Just so you know, you aren't alone on the whole fur trim thing. We were fortunate that it wasn't nearly that bad, but we were obnoxiously careful the next few times we used them..

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  21. Poor thing! That will likely stick in your mind fur a while!

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  22. Oh my goodness, hope that poor Sweet Pea's fur grows back soon.

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  23. we told mom not to snicker, but well, what can you do. poor Sweet Pea.....

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  24. Yes indeed - karma! We have adhesive strips Äiti puts on the windows, and also an electric grill - out of paw reach. And Äiti asks when she should pick you up from the airport ?

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  25. Bwaa!!! Haa!!! Haaa!!! Mes loves it when a good story makes coffee comes out Mommy's nose!
    Someday, when me is over the trauma, me shall tells the story about when me was young and the mouse glue traps....
    Kisses
    Nellie

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  26. We don't know what is on a fly paper strip but it must be some bad S&#%. Glad it's out of the house and that everyone is okay!

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  27. oh no... this is awful!

    I can't even imagine... Have you tried the liter locker? I love it.. it is like a diaper jeanie for cat poop... make cleaning up and dumping very easy

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  28. Poor Sweet Pea! We're glad to hear you two converted to bagging the cat dung.

    I'm sure the trash haulers were delighted to replace your bin for free--ewwww!

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  29. Ohh poor Sweet Pea!!! How horrifying.
    I feel ok bagging my groceries in plastic because that's how I recycle them. Sure, they still go to the landfill but at least they are getting a second use. And for some reason I horde them...not throwing one away until I've collected poop/clumps for a couple days in one (unless its the stinky variety of course! )

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  30. Oh the horror! THE HORROR!!!

    Poor Sweet Pea's tail. My brother and sister, Rushton and Tess, have tails with floof. I hate to think that something like that could happen to them.

    And my peep has a tail, too, although hers is attached to her head and she calls it hair. I suspect her tail could also get papered up just like your hair did.

    I'm gonna make sure that sticky fly papers NEVER enter our house. Never ever ever. Thank you so much for these words of warning. I'm just super sorry you had to go through so much, yourselves.

    Purrs,
    Nissy

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  31. Oh Sweet Pea that must have been quite traumatic...much like having 10 stickie rugrat fingers stuck to you.
    Hugs Madi your BFFF

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  32. Very glad you figured that one out...

    As for fly paper, #1 has a story. The neighbours always used to hang their strategically in their basement so that every time she went to feed Basha, the cat, it would get entangled, victims and all, in her hair. Yuk! Mercifully, they have now shifted the location.

    Purrs,
    The Chans

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  33. Poor Sweet Pea!

    Here we use the dual coffee can system with cleanout--one gets bagged, the other gets flushed. (Might take a few flushes with yours! ;-) )

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  34. The *contents*, not the cans, I mean!

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  35. Aw, what a mess! You are a Kind Human not to post any embarrassing pictures of poor Sweet Pea's tailio (though of course, then she might insist on photos of your flypapered hair...) Hope your week improved from there!

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  36. We can totally relate! For some weird reason we had lots of flies and had to resort to fly paper. They're thankfully less now that it's getting cooler.

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  37. Very funny story; though, not for Sweet Pea. Poor girl. Not sure which is worse, gasoline of the scissors. You are lucky to get a new bin for free. When some kids set ours on fire, the humans had to buy a new one. Astrid will pretty much chase down and eat any fly that gets near her! Purrs and hugs, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

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  38. We have flies too. We put it down to the time of year(cold) and the things are SO slow and stupid!
    We also do not use the strips.It would be fun to see one get stuck in Mom's hair though ;) heehee
    Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
    Treasure,Tiger, JJ and Julie

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  39. Our human staff likes to say "You never learn anything when everything goes right!" (He's learned a lot that way, by doing something wrong first.)

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  40. My Mommy's sister keeps some up and none of her 3 kitties have gotten close enough to it to get caught in it. My Mommy better tell her to be careful with it. Poor Sweet pea! At least she only lost fur, which will grow back as beautiful as ever. My Mommy would've been crying too.

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  41. Oh no! Poor Sweet pea, and poor you, Sheebie. We are glad you made that new rule -- at least there was a lesson learned, right? Hugs!

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  42. Oh, poor Sweet Pea! In retrospect, if a cat could get into something, they will get into it. Now we know the good reason we bag our cat clumps, we thought it was just the because of the smell.

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  43. Oh nooooooooo!!! I'm sorry for laughing slightly. :) I have walked into a flystrip in our barn and it ain't pretty, I know.

    Glad you got a new wheelie bin!

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  44. We like the new rule, because Mom Bobbie volunteers at a wildlife rescue place and she knows that birds, snakes and mice can get stuck and it is a very sad death if they can't be removed.

    We are glad Sweet Pea is big enough to not let it 'catch' her!!

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  45. No No me and mom are NOT lauging our heads of at all :)
    XOXO

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  46. OMC! What a great stupid human trick! HAH! I could imagine TW doing it! I can't believe you AND Glogirly did such horrible things to The Cat accidentally. And I was reading TW for riot act cos she stepped on my widdle paw. Ouchie.

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  47. BTW, we use those plastic bags that the newspaper comes in as "Poo Bags." Of course we're the only ones who still get real papers.

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  48. Why is it that our mom THINKS she told you her flypaper story? She did, didn't she? The one about being at Jewel's ranch in Texas (you know, the singer/songwriter)? And about her cameraman who got one of those stuck in his hair and we had to SHAMPOO it out in her bathtub? MOL!!!!

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Oh Boy...this is gonna be GREAT!