Michaela & Brandon 6: She Is an LPN and He Is Boring.....

[RosyDaisy]

Speaking of cats, my feline headship, Eli, will only eat dry food.  He prefers Meow Mix Tender Centers.  For his litter box he prefers the  unscented generic clay litter from the dollar store.  Thankfully, neither have been out of stock at my local stores.

To all of the retail and grocery store workers, you have my respect and thanks.  As do all who work in healthcare.  All of you are heros during this pandemic.

[Expectopatronus]

@RosyDaisy I made the mistake of trying a different litter once; little brats pooped on the floor. Feline headships are not forgiving! 
A million thanks to everyone working in all aspects of grocery stores; you are keeping society running! 

[backyard sylph]

This has me wondering, before there were 25 different configurations of cat litter as whoever works on these things figured out what cats are most comfortable with, what best traps odor, and all the other details that separate them, did people with indoor cats have more trouble keeping them to strict litter box use? I can see that sometimes being the case, and also, the odors were probably worse. 

As well, as people now feed a wider variety of foods, and understand that some cats don't digest seafood well and most don't digest dairy well, their waste by-products are probably...better on average. 

Considering these factors, I can partially understand why people have lost their minds about the shelves empty of 9 Lives and nearly empty of Friskies/Fancy Feast, and one very specific iteration of Tidy Cats, though not their need to direct their ire toward me. But there's a lot to wonder about.

At the same time, broader choices for humans hasn't necessarily been better for us. It's nice people can choose a variety of gluten-free breads. But people who must have only Açai Berry Storm Mio or whose kids will eat carrots cut only one certain way concern me a little. Your children are not cats. And you can buy a crinkle cutter to cut carrots yourself, actually. 

Edited January 17, 2022 by backyard sylph
a word

[Karma]

6 hours ago, backyard sylph said:

. Your children are not cats. And you can buy a crinkle cutter to cut carrots yourself, actually. 

This is certainly true of most children. Kids on the autism spectrum, on the other hand, like my son with Aspergers  syndrome, are often very fixed on one particular brand/flavour/shape. He’s better now as an adult, but life was definitely easier when he was young if the colour/flavour/texture/packaging/basically everything was the same.  Even when brands changed their packaging I had to show him that it was the same product just in a different box.  

Oh and I always chopped his vegies the same way 😂

Edited January 17, 2022 by Karma
Clipping quote to what I was referring to

[JDuggs]

1 minute ago, Karma said:

This is certainly true of most children. Kids on the autism spectrum, on the other hand, like my son with Aspergers  syndrome, are often very fixed on one particular brand/flavour/shape. He’s better now as an adult, but life was definitely easier when he was young if the colour/flavour/texture/packaging/basically everything was the same.  Even when brands changed their packaging I had to show him that it was the same product just in a different box.  

Ah, my on the spectrum son and packaging! He wouldn’t eat any food out of a package that had a picture of a person or any type of character on it. No Quaker Oats guy, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Green Giant, etc. He got over it maybe around his tweens. It was tough.

[backyard sylph]

5 hours ago, Karma said:

This is certainly true of most children. Kids on the autism spectrum, on the other hand, like my son with Aspergers  syndrome, are often very fixed on one particular brand/flavour/shape. He’s better now as an adult, but life was definitely easier when he was young if the colour/flavour/texture/packaging/basically everything was the same.  Even when brands changed their packaging I had to show him that it was the same product just in a different box.  

Oh and I always chopped his vegies the same way 😂

I am autistic, so I have some understanding about that. It took having some children of my own to be able to, uh, branch out in some areas wherein I had no other choice. I learned to make food for them I would never eat, for example, and to personalize things for each of them so they knew I didn't think of them only as a group. And now that they are grown and on their own, I am more comfortable settling into my personal track, but I still work at some of the things I have never quite gotten down. 

That is one reason, actually, I agonized over going out and getting my job. But I decided I would be a really great shopper for people. Now I don't do very much of the shopping, but when I can, I like to fix things for people so they come out just right. I learned to call them on the phone and talk to them at their cars so that they are as satisfied as I can make them. These are tough times, though, and I explain every week to this family that we no longer carry those carrots at our location. 

I have another lady who tries to buy them to make dog food. She didn't want the kind with peas, but those are pretty good for dogs. So I suggested maybe the no-salt canned carrots, but now I am wondering if she's tried sweet potatoes.

[Audrey2]

I will confess to checking the walmart.com website each morning and checking to see if they have their special Kitty brand salmon pate at my local walmart. If so I make a special trip there before work. Unfortunately that's all my cat will eat. He's not so fond of the Friskies and don't you dare give him any land animal- the only time that I can even kind of cheat is if I've been away for the weekend, when he has had full access to an overabundance of dry food but none of his pate, and then the only thing I can slip past him is chicken and tuna. 

[Bobology]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:14 AM, backyard sylph said:

This has me wondering, before there were 25 different configurations of cat litter as whoever works on these things figured out what cats are most comfortable with, what best traps odor, and all the other details that separate them, did people with indoor cats have more trouble keeping them to strict litter box use?

I am just one person with one cat in the days of simple litter. We got the cat in 1959 or '60 and the only time the kitten/cat did not use the litter properly was when she hopped up on the toilet, crouched strategically and did her business. We don't know how she figured that out and she did it only a few times to our knowledge. We used the same litter to provide friction for a car tire stuck in snow/ice and to sop up leaked oil on the driveway. 

[fluffernutter]

1 hour ago, Bobology said:

I am just one person with one cat in the days of simple litter. We got the cat in 1959 or '60 and the only time the kitten/cat did not use the litter properly was when she hopped up on the toilet, crouched strategically and did her business. We don't know how she figured that out and she did it only a few times to our knowledge. We used the same litter to provide friction for a car tire stuck in snow/ice and to sop up leaked oil on the driveway. 

My aunt's cat used the toilet too! So strange. We couldn't find Mr. Kitty's Super Special Cat Food, and had the gall to bring home pate. He seriously looked like he might tear us to pieces. He went on a hunger strike, and praise the amazon lords who kept Mr. Haughty from starving to death by having his brand delivered in two days. 

[CanadianMamam]

It sounds like Michael was Kelly's mom's caretaker on this recent trip. She said in a recent story that she stayed in the hotel with her and help her. 

[JMO]

On 2/27/2022 at 8:21 PM, CanadianMamam said:

It sounds like Michael was Kelly's mom's caretaker on this recent trip. She said in a recent story that she stayed in the hotel with her and help her. 

It still appalls me that the Bates as a whole just decided that this is what the Lord had in store for grandma and that it shouldn't cause them to be more cautious about getting COVID.  I can't with them.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, JMO said:

It still appalls me that the Bates as a whole just decided that this is what the Lord had in store for grandma and that it shouldn't cause them to be more cautious about getting COVID.  I can't with them.  

Erin also suffered quite a bit from Covid. Fundies pick and choose what they see as a sign from god. Somehow god always shows them what they want to see. They don’t see it as a sign from god to be more precautious. 

[JMO]

59 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Fundies pick and choose what they see as a sign from god. Somehow god always shows them what they want to see. They don’t see it as a sign from god to be more precautious. 

True true.  Erin is posting endlessly about Finley being a gift from god, how grateful she is.  Meanwhile I guess COVID was just a "trial" that she had to go through and completely not related to her choices? 

[Sops2]

Let's talk about Brandon.

Why is he being brought into the limelight to speak 4 times at Big Sandy this month?  That's more than David Waller. 

He is not the most inspiring of fundies.The most excited we've see him was when his latest book in the series The Quest of Quinton  arrived from the printers.

Is he being pushed into the limelight by Gil to take the shine off others like Gabe Cleator or David Waller in the climb up the IBLP ladder?

Something tactical is going on here, and I'm not sure exactly what.

[JermajestyDuggar]

44 minutes ago, Sops2 said:

Let's talk about Brandon.

Why is he being brought into the limelight to speak 4 times at Big Sandy this month?  That's more than David Waller. 

He is not the most inspiring of fundies.The most excited we've see him was when his latest book in the series The Quest of Quinton  arrived from the printers.

Is he being pushed into the limelight by Gil to take the shine off others like Gabe Cleator or David Waller in the climb up the IBLP ladder?

Something tactical is going on here, and I'm not sure exactly what.

Both the Duggar show and the Bates show have been cancelled. There will be a documentary coming out about IBLP this year. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there was a “rebranding.” If you put these new faces of squeaky clean married godly men up front, then maybe you’ll fool people into thinking you’ve changed your ways. That you’re a better cult now. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by JermajestyDuggar

[clueliss]

Maybe they’re sort of helping him sell his children’s book or whatever it was that he wrote.

[zee_four]

On 1/17/2022 at 4:14 AM, backyard sylph said:

This has me wondering, before there were 25 different configurations of cat litter as whoever works on these things figured out what cats are most comfortable with, what best traps odor, and all the other details that separate them, did people with indoor cats have more trouble keeping them to strict litter box use? I can see that sometimes being the case, and also, the odors were probably worse. 

As well, as people now feed a wider variety of foods, and understand that some cats don't digest seafood well and most don't digest dairy well, their waste by-products are probably...better on average. 

Considering these factors, I can partially understand why people have lost their minds about the shelves empty of 9 Lives and nearly empty of Friskies/Fancy Feast, and one very specific iteration of Tidy Cats, though not their need to direct their ire toward me. But there's a lot to wonder about.

At the same time, broader choices for humans hasn't necessarily been better for us. It's nice people can choose a variety of gluten-free breads. But people who must have only Açai Berry Storm Mio or whose kids will eat carrots cut only one certain way concern me a little. Your children are not cats. And you can buy a crinkle cutter to cut carrots yourself, actually. 

My cats love Friskies. I tried some of the fancy "healthy" small brand ones and nope, they'd eat a bite or two then just let it sit and eat the dry food around it. I use to Costco dry cat food now, I used to use to Target kitten dry food (my boys are both about 8 months now)

In Hawai'i there's been no Friskies anywhere! I bought the last 20 cans of one flavor of Friskies at Target. Costco hasn't had wet cat food for like 6 months, I went to all over the island to the 4 Costcos on O'ahu and pau (nothing). I thought it was just a Hawai'i problem because of shipping issues but I didn't know it was going on on the mainland too.

I'm about to order from Amazon, Chewy doesn’t ship outside the mainland unfortunately.

Fancy Feast I've read isn't the greatest but actually the Friskies wet food isn't bad especially for the price. I read a few cat blogs where they ranked the wet foods and I read the ingredient lists. There's a lot of not bad protein listed first in the ingredients, reading a can now the first listed are: meat by products, salmon, water, fish and then rice. No corn, after rice its artificial and natural flavors guarm gum and tricalcium phosphate. The by products and artifical flavors aren't great but they're at the end of the list and so there's way less of them then the first 5 ingredients.

I still have some Blue Buffalo cans I've been meaning to drop off at the shelter because the boys didn't like them.  The one I'm looking at now has chicken, chicken broth, chicken liver, natural flavor, brown rice, guar gum, sweet potatoes, powdered cellulose, tricalcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate and salt. Brown rice is better than white rice but there's two carbs plus powdered cellulose in the Blue Buffalo chicken pate entrée, and only the one in the Friskies salmon pate. I also got some higher quality small brands that are just whole proteins and a carb like sweet potatoes or peas, which is really good but only if your cats eat them lol.

I'm far from an expert but the blogs and articles I've read say to you want the first listed ingredients to be proteins, and you want them ideally to be whole healthy proteins not just chicken by product, meat by product etc. Then also you don't want a lot of carbs at all especially bad ones like corn and with carbs they sometimes try to hide the amount by splitting up multiple types of carbs which puts them lower on the ingredient list so it looks like there's more protein than there is and there's less carbs than there are. 

I figured Friskies would be rubbish when I started reading the cat blogs, it was what I was feeding them already though because I was given half a case before I adopted my boys and then got another at Costco since its the only wet food they have. So I was like I wonder if I should find a better food for them. I was surprised Friskies wasn't so bad honestly. Fancy Feast isn't good which I expected but they're both Purina, so that was even more of a surprise that Friskies wasn't just the best of the "cheaper" or big national brands but in some cases better than some of the "wholesome healthy" more expensive types. 

I'm also in the middle of trying to find the best litter and litter box. Pre cats a military family I sat for that moved off island left me their plan covered plastic litter box which I started using after like 3 months of having an open cardboard box like the type that hold cases of canned drinks because  Kolohe, my first kitty I rescued when he was 8 weeks old, was a runt and it took awhile until he was big enough to be able to climb in to the adult sized box. I got the clay litter at Costco because thats all they have and that was fine until I got Kekona a few months later, a little bit older rescue kitty who is about Kolohes age. Thats when I noticed clay dust everywhere being tracked around.

My friend with like 5 cats recommended corn litter so I tried the Worlds Best brand with lavender scent. At first I loved it but then I noticed the dust was just as bad if not worse than the clay after awhile. Since then I've tried walnut which is okay, not as dusty but not quite as absorbent with liquids. Then I tried the crystal type litter (not the fancy name brand that changes color that Martha Stewart uses just the generic type) and it was great for poo but awful with shi shi. It only took like two shi shis for it to stink and not absorb as well when you try to mix it in. Plus the environmental impact isn't goid. I told that same friend about how the corn wasn't great and she said oh yeah corn is too dusty I use the wheat litter now. 

A regular size bag is like $40 here at PetCo and Petsmart the only places that have it have only the Scoop Wheat or whatever my friend says is great. So I finally checked Amazon and got a bag double the size for slightly less than the price of the smaller bag in stores here. So we'll see how that works :fingers crossed:

I'm also looking into an automatic cleaner litter box, partially because the two boys fill up the current litter box so quick. Our apartment is really small and so I only have one and the boys have no problem sharing. But researching FIV+ kitties which Kekona is, I've read a clean litter box helps keep them from getting sick.

I bought a manual self cleaner litter box as Costco for $35 on a whim. Its the Canada built "roll and clean". I put it together but I think I'm going to return it. It would only catch poo and its just a weird design that looks like it would be messy and not very efficient. I've been reading cat blogs about the motorized/automatic versions and looking at them on Amazon. There's a uncovered version thats about $100 that has decent reviews for people looking for a cheaper version. Obviously the top reviews have all been for the robot type ones that are covered and every time its used it automatically cleans itself. They seme pretty great and with two young cats who I can't seem to keep off our kitchen counters, again small apartment and especially when I'm taking care of dogs for my sitting and boarding business I don't blame them not wanting to be on the floor, as well as my one kitty who is FIV+ and I want to do everything possible to give him a long healthy and happy life, it might be worth the investment. They're about $500-600 which is steep but my dog business has been doing really well the past few years and I'm starting another virtual job that I can do with my home based sitting business on top fo being in school, so for the first time since I was 17/18 and cleared out the $10k I had saved up in the bank for working FT starting at 16 while I was in high school because I was an addict, I'VE finally rebuilt my savings and while its not much, not living paycheck to paycheck anymore after 15 years of busting ass, scraping by and always being one medical issue or car problem from not being able to pay rent. (KInd of off topic but I won't lie I'm pretty proud of it)

Do you or any of the other wonderful FJ cat ladies have any suggestions about this?

I'd normally not go into so much detail about something off topic but let's be honest. This is the Micheala and Brandon thread that's named after how boring they are and only has like 13 pages after how long? So hopefully its not too much of an issue. 🐱🐱

The kitties are mad I took out cans if food and haven't given them any and Kolohe, which means Little Rascal, is on the counter knocking items off one by one glaring at me in between each, and that won't stop until they get a midnight snack (they usually get wet and dry food in the AM and dry food at night). Gah they're so spoiled, off to feed them lol!

 

 

[GuineaPigCourtship]

I can't weigh in on the automatic litterboxes, since my husband cleans the litter.  God bless him, he thinks I don't like that cats as much as he does so he cleans it for me.  We use tidy cats unscented clumping clay litter with little rubber mats to catch overflow and scoop every other day (we have 3 cats and 3 boxes).  They like peeing in one box and poop in the other two.  The litter does a pretty good job for odor control except right after they poop because canned food really opens a portal to hell in my cats' rectums.

I feed friskies canned to two of the cats.  One has health issues that have him on a prescription diet since Christmas weekend but he used to be on friskies, too.  When we got our first cat, the deal was that I would only get another cat if we fed canned food exclusively because it's better for weight control and kidney support, etc.  My fiancé, now husband, would only agree if we did the cheap stuff.  I'm happy with the carbohydrate-protein-fat breakdown of friskies pate food so that worked for me.  And for the record, I frequently tell clients that feeding friskies or fancy feast is healthier for most cats than the most expensive dry foods.  Mine do now occasionally get a sprinkle of the dry version of money pit cat's prescription diet over their canned because husband thinks they need a little texture sometimes.  We also use that as treats to lure them out of the bedroom before putting the baby to sleep.

[Audrey2]

The last of my beloved cats crossed the rainbow bridge in January. When I first got cats I fed them dry food but after one of mine developed stomatitis I started giving him wet food as he could manage it better. Of course everyone else wanted the wet food as well. The doctor had told me to get this special dry food which would prevent tartar buildup on the cat's teeth which I did for a while until they stopped eating it. (The pellets were large enough that they had to chew them.) My cats always had access to a bowl of dry food and then I supplemented twice a day putting wet food out. If I was gone for the weekend they could eat the dry food but were sure happy to see me and my can a food when I returned. I bought Friskies wet food most of the time until a year ago, when another cat who was preparing to cross the rainbow bridge didn't want to eat anything but salmon pate. My local Walmart had been out of it one of the times when I was just looking for salmon pate so I tried their Special Kitty brand. He ate that almost until the end of his life. The cat that I just lost this year also really enjoyed that as well as the other Special Kitty fish variety. It was funny he didn't really care for the Friskies fish varieties the last year of his life or so and for goodness sakes don't feed him any poultry! He wouldn't eat it!

[HereticHick]

I used to feel sorry for Brandon and Michaela wanting to have a child so badly.  But this week, no more. If they really want to follow the teaching of Christ and the will of God, they would be saying "Well, apparently isn't is the will of God for us to have biological children. And since we believe women should be forced to give birth and children are sacred, we are going to open our home to adoption and/or fostering"

Enough with the fertility treatments. Michaela is a trained nurse and has a life time of childrearing experience. She should put her time & money into taking care of unwanted children.

[EmiSue]

5 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

I used to feel sorry for Brandon and Michaela wanting to have a child so badly.  But this week, no more. If they really want to follow the teaching of Christ and the will of God, they would be saying "Well, apparently isn't is the will of God for us to have biological children. And since we believe women should be forced to give birth and children are sacred, we are going to open our home to adoption and/or fostering"

Enough with the fertility treatments. Michaela is a trained nurse and has a life time of childrearing experience. She should put her time & money into taking care of unwanted children.

Nope. I'm an adoptive mom and former foster mom. Fundies refuse to understand trauma and the complexities of adoption for all parties. I get your sentiment, but fundies make terrible adoptive/foster parents.

[GuineaPigCourtship]

No child who comes from a trauma background should be placed somewhere that believes in corporal punishment, gaslighting, patriarchy, and other extremely unhelpful and harmful tendencies. They should be placed somewhere that believes in therapy and gentle approaches. Same applies to babies who are adopted at birth, both because there can be stuff to unpack with adoption even in the best of situations and because nobody should hit a baby.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, EmiSue said:

Nope. I'm an adoptive mom and former foster mom. Fundies refuse to understand trauma and the complexities of adoption for all parties. I get your sentiment, but fundies make terrible adoptive/foster parents.

They really do. It seems like they are playing the hero and saving these children. When that’s a horrible way to look at adoption. They always seem to think the children should fall all over themselves to thank them for providing a roof over their head and food. And then get mad when the kids are reacting out of trauma. They think god will fix everything. Personally I don’t think many fundies bother with foster care because of all the home checks. They don’t want to be told what to do. So they adopt without fostering and have no clue what they are getting into. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by JermajestyDuggar

[SassyPants]

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I would be willing to let Michaela show me how she would treat a child before I’d assign her parents’ JB/M Duggar’s or M Pearls’  parenting techniques to her. She might surprise us and be more Jill Duggar vs JB Duggar. 

I do realize her religious views are very rigid and hurtful to large groups of people.

[JermajestyDuggar]

18 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I would be willing to let Michaela show me how she would treat a child before I’d assign her parents’ JB/M Duggar’s or M Pearls’  parenting techniques to her. She might surprise us and be more Jill Duggar vs JB Duggar. 

I do realize her religious views are very rigid and hurtful to large groups of people.

If they were made to take foster parent classes and were checked up on, I think it would be better than just adopting a kid they’ve never met from another country.