Cat Litter

So, as if having florescent pink and blonde hair, and wearing my bunny slippers to the grocery store wasn't bad enough, I am in the running to be the crazy cat lady on our block.
Yep, Little Hawk and I have three cats. We started out with two, then had to replace poor old Moggett after he had a heart attack, then took in a homeless kitten a month ago. Three cats in a two-bedroom house can be a little crazy, but it is pretty awesome to sit and read in bed with a pot of hot tea and three warm cats draped over your lap and feet.
Robbie, Little Hawk's cat, is a medium-sized, short-haired silver tabby with bug-eyes and a nervous disposition. He is easily terrified, and makes a cute huffing noise when annoyed. Bartholomew, or Mew-mew, is a HUGE short-haired black and brown tabby. He loves everyone, has a runny nose, and will meow back if you meow at him. Coraline is my kitten. She is a tortoiseshell with long, fluffy fur, grey and orange spots and a Dutch face ( her face is solid grey with a broad white blaze on her nose). Coraline follows me around everywhere, with a tiny rusty meow like a chain smoker.
Cats, even when you don't have three, are a daily adventure, We buy them expensive climbing trees and hideaways, and they prefer to hide under a laundry basket. We buy them fancy squeaky mice stuffed with organic catnip, and they would rather play with an empty Snickers wrapper. We get them fluffy, snuggly cat beds, and they sleep on my pillow and Little Hawk's wheelchair. We put together a special drinking fountain, but they only want to drink out of the tub drain and the toilet.
Our most frustrating issue with the cats, however, is finding the perfect litter. Now, my perfect litter is one I never have to change again, since this little bird is really a lazy bird. Little Hawk reminds me frequently that if I just scooped it every day, we would have fewer smell problems. Well, if he wants it scooped every day, he can scoop it.
Our problem, really, is finding a litter that doesn't track, doesn't cause much dust, (because of Little Hawk's asthma) is relatively eco-friendly, and has a reasonable smell control. That means clay-based litters are toast. First we tried a pelleted paper litter called Everyday News. It absorbed pretty well, but doesn't have any kind of smell control, so the house reeked of cat pee. We mixed it with silica-based crystal litter, and that worked pretty well. It still tracked a lot, and cleaning was kinda dusty. Then we saw pelleted wood litter called Feline Pine, and decided to try it.
Unmitigated Disaster.
Feline Pine smelled ok and did a decent job of absorbing, but the pellets, when wet, dissolved onto wet sawdust. Pee-soaked wet sawdust that got tracked EVERYWHERE. We went back to Petco and bought more paper. They had a new brand called Fresh News, that has baking soda in it. So right now, Fresh News mixed with Petco-brand crystal litter in a 50-50 ratio does a decent job.
Now, if only we could get the cats to bury it when they poop......

                                 

On Your Mark, a music video by Miyazaki