The Black Cat and the Engineer

I am always intrigued with the ways in which anipals fit into peoples’ lives… whether they live on a ranch or in a highrise apartment building.  Joggers have dogs who enjoy running with them.  Ranchers have dogs which guard and herd their livestock.  Fashionistas, like Paris Hilton, turn tiny dogs into fashion accessories.

And so it is with my friend Scott, an engineer, and his black cat, Cashmere.  Like any engineer worth his salt, Scott loves all kinds of tools, gadgets and contraptions: from DeWalt Drills, tile cutting saws, air compressors and Rotozips, to high-tech kitchen doohickeys like automated soap dispensers.  It’s little wonder that Cashmere has become an automated kitty with gizmos and gadgets all her own!

Meet Cashmere

With all her high tech things, her cool place to sit is in an ordinary shoe box!

Reminds me of the holidays when little kids start playing with the cheapo box and wrapping paper rather than the ultra-expensive toy!

Slowly, but surely, every item for Cashmere has become automatic.

First, there was her water dish.

This high-tech bowl has constantly moving water. To me, it looks like a miniature toilet bowl the way the water swirls around in it. But, unlike a regular toilet bowl, this one runs on electricity.

Next was the automated food dispenser..sort of like a huge gum ball machine.

It is programmed to dispense a certain about of food at a specified time. The variety of settings is pretty amazing…from the number of meals per day, to the amount per feeding! This gizmo is the only one that’s battery operated. (I guess that’s so in event of an electrical outage, she won’t go hungry!)

Cashmere understands how it works…she even knows to wait at her bowl a few minutes before the food comes out!

 The most recent acquisition has been an automated litter box.

It is electric and has a motion detector that tells it when to use the little metal fingers to rake through the special litter and clean the box.

Each gadget has special instructions for how to get the kitty comfortable with how it operates, and Cashmere has had no difficulty getting used to her new cat contraptions. I would have guessed in a previous life, she was a Princess, but who knows? Maybe one of her incarnations has been as an engineer!

Please understand, these gadgets have NOT been a substitute for personal attention and love. Each evening, Cashmere sits with Scott to watch TV. Every night she sleeps in the bed with him. In fact, once, when she sprained her leg and couldn’t jump, he put the clunky cedar steps from his hot tub next to his bed so she could climb up to her spot on the bed. (He didn’t buy the special steps made for pets since this was just a temporary measure.)

Two Paws Up for Scott for saving homeless kitties before they went to a shelter. His first cat, Smokey, was a rescue from his college days. Smokey was living in the parking lot outside his apartment one cold Winter, apparently abandoned when someone left town at the end of the semester. He adopted Cashmere as a kitten from his vet’s office when Smokey was getting elderly.

All in all, I’d say this is one Black Cat that is pretty lucky!

I can’t imagine what the next gadget will be, but I am sure when Scott spots it, Cashmere will be the proud owner of the newest thingamabob made just for cats!

• Know of any other automated gadgets for cats that Scott doesn’t own?

• Do you have any special routine, activity or gadget that fits your pet to your lifestyle?

Thanks for stopping by...See you tomorrow!

Carole

PS: Be sure to look for the key words "November Contest" for how to win either the Paw Print Locket Necklace or the Paw Print Business Card Case!

[Photos and Text Copyright 2009 Carole of CloudK9.com  All Rights Reserved.]