Brain Fog

I've started this post, as well as multiple other posts in recent weeks, many times and have either fallen asleep, been distracted, or entered into a brain fog before publishing.  Today I will stay on top of it and finish what I start...

A couple days before Christmas, Moggy (my Domestic Short Hair rescue kitty--now almost five years old) was playing with his Sock Monkey. He normally bats his toys around, tosses them in the air, or drags larger floppy toys (i.e. Bandit's toys) around like prey. But he's never destroyed anything the way Bandit loved to do (e.g. rip the head off,  disembowl the squeeky, and shred the remainder).   Other than hunting (and killing, and presenting me with gifts of squirrels,  jays, field mice, and lizzards, etc.), Moggy's most destructive action has been to shred TP.  

Until now...

Moggy started off batting his Sock Monkey.  First, he bit SMs head.  Then he took his little paws and wrapped 'em around SMs body, bit down hard on SMs head, and pulled. There was a ripping sound and I fully expected to see SM decapitated and shreded. In the end Moggy gave up a little too early. But I joked he was channeling Bandit.

Christmas Morning I opened up Moggy's stocking and gave him a few toys to play with in the hotel while I left to play board games and exchange gifts with friends. 

One of Moggy's new toys was a squeeky mouse that squeeks at random times. Another  was a hard plastic ball with openings for treats to be worried out. The concept is simple: keep kitty occupied for hours with rewards of treats as they slowly jiggle out. The top of the ball was a cute little mouse head. I don't remember if the treat toy had the feathers on it, or if it was the squeeky mouse. Really doesn't matter, Moggy ripped the feathers  off whatever they were on.  Probably before I even reached the SUV. 

Sometime during the day he also ripped off the hard plastic treat toy mouse head--to heck with worrying those treats out one at a time! He was obviously ravenous.

I'm very picky about the everyday food and treats I allow my FurBabies to have. Each holiday I search until I find a holiday meal for the FurBoys that also meets my expectations:

1)   Absolutely nothing with China food sources or processing (ongoing decades long poison scandals).
2)   Same ban on  Tiwan (they use dogs as a catfood source).
3)   Nothing made by anyone on a recall list (usually contaminates linked to multiple major medical problems and death).
4)   And nothing by a HUGE pet name brand that is ALWAYS on the recall list.

Saddly, it is the most recognized name in pet food. They recently bought out one of my go-to  pet foods which was a high caliber outfit that used only locally resourced ingredients. I suspect the huge profit driven company bought out the smaller quality-driven company to bolster their tarnished image in the pet food industry (they continue to use China to source their ingredients and/or process  their product, knowing China products are full of lead and/or poisons/toxins).  It truly pains me that I can no longer trust the smaller quality driven company--nothing they do or say will ever restore my trust. The almighty dollar seems to have trumped the memory of their beloved pet, and the committment they said they made to him to produce quality pet food.

On my way to Tyler I realized I had failed to purchase a holiday dinner for Moggy. Once again I blamed my recent brain fog and lack of focus (much like this rambling post). But even with a reason, I still felt like a Bad Mommy. It was Christmas Eve and I wouldn't arrive in Tyler before the Pet Boutiques I knew about closed. Regular stores don't usually carry pet food meeting my requirement. I considered breaking my no people food rule.

Luckily, as I drove through Corsicana, I saw an open HEB (a Texas-only grocery store with a top 5 national reputation). HEB actually carries a cat food that meets my requirements. I stopped, but didn't find a Christmassy dinner. However, they did have a steak and shrimp dinner that would substitute as a special dinner. It would be a Surf-n-Turf Kitty Christmas.

Christmas night I returned to the hotel to find a present from Moggy. Not the chewed-up Sock Monkey. Not the featherless whatever. Not the randomly squeeking mouse. Not the decapitated and now empty treat mouse. Nope,  I wouldn't be that lucky.

Moggy's litter box was full. And stinky.

Thankfully, I keep the FurBoys travel bag filled with the basics:  a toy or two, food,  bowls,  litterbox, extra litter, pooper scooper, small dust pan and hand-held broom, paper towels, zip lock baggies to dispose of used litter so we don't stink up the room (I tried using Bandit's poop bags the first trip we took and found them to be useless at masking the pungent odor of kittie poo), a blacklight to ensure if there are accidents, they are found and cleaned up before check out, enzymatic cleaning spray (for marking and accidents--also really good to use before bringing my FurBoys into the hotel room because it masks previous occupants marks, and thus reduces the desire for my guys to return mark),  air freshener,  and litter deodorant. (Now you see why although I can travel lite, the FurBoys can not.)

Brain fog or not, I  was especially glad to see the litter deodorizer, air freshener, and ziplock baggies.  They dispossed of Moggy's gift quite nicely.