< Continued from page 2

Franny: How does a blind person feed the kitties?

Mario: Dinner is Served

Dry Food

If you're using dry food, keep it in a large cooler, near their plates. Keep a scoop inside the cooler, tossed on top of the dry food. No fancy scoops, a coffee can or unused laundry detergent scooper.Eschew bowls for plates with a shallow lip. I use sturdy plastic "people" plates which work well for my cats.
When you pour the food into the plate, don't bring the scooper to the plate, bring the plate to the scooper, keeping both plate and scooper over the opened cooler of cat food.


When the inevitable spilling occurs, it just falls back into the cooler. No loss, no cleaning up afterward. Well, not as much, anyway.

Canned Food

Recently I switched to canned food only. Keep a plastic recycle bin nearby.Normally, there are 24 or 32 cans per package. Take the cans out and stack them, one stack per daily ration. This way, you can easily tell, how much you have already fed them that day and how long it will be before you need to buy more.
The flat surface of a plate makes it easier to empty out the contents of a can. Forget the sighted person's way, using a spoon to scoop out the contents. You'll end up throwing away much of the food, not knowing that it's still in the can. Not to mention that you may not notice that the plate is not under the spoon. Yuck! Instead, just flip off the lid and, toss it into the recycle bin. With one hand holding the plate, use the other hand to flip the can over right down onto the plate. If the content doesn't come out right away, lift the can up and bring it down with a little force.

Do this a few times, until the food plops out of the can. Toss the can in the recycle bin.

Keep a regular feeding schedule.

This will reduce overall stress on both human and cat; for the human because you don't have to make such an effort to remember to feed them; for the cat because they learn that they are being cared for.
 

Franny: "How does a blind person manage a litter box?"

Mario: Is it true that what you don't know (see) can't hurt you"? Don't even suggest that to a blind person who, just yesterday, was clobbered by a low hanging branch". They haven't made canes to solve that problem yet.

Litter Box Management for the Blind (A Hands on Approach)

Warning: This technique is not for the squeamish. Let me say, in this particular matter, I have "hands-on" experience.
First, a word or two about organization: In the basement of my house, where two of the five litter boxes are located, there is a set of shelves. One entire shelf is dedicated to, cat care accessories, maybe tools, is a better word.

• One item, on this shelf is a box of rubber (latex) gloves.
• Another item is a median size plastic tub
• Next, a container of plastic grocery bags.
• Roll of Paper Towels

The first step is to take a plastic bag, fit it into the small plastic tub, in the same way you would insert a garbage bag liner in a garbage can. This tub is about 6 inches square. Next, take a rubber glove from the box and, slip it on one hand. Now, comes the really fun part, are you ready? Were going on a treasure hunt. Dig in cat lovers, scoop the poop. You'll have to feel around thoroughly. This won't of course, help with the urine but, neither do conventional methods. However, using the hand has the advantage that you can feel how much of the litter is beginning to become urine soaked, not to mention the clue that is going into your nostrils.
If you do this routinely, once a day, you'll find that it takes only a moment or two. It takes me less than five minutes to do all five litter boxes, if I've been doing them each day. Once a week, I replace the litter entirely. Sometimes sooner if, the case is appropriate.When done, remove glove and place it in the tub with the treasure, take the loops of each handle and tie them together. Lift out the bag and toss it away.

Missing the Litter Box Or Beware Of Land Mines

Once in a while, I'm not entirely sure why, Sandy decides that the basement floor is more convenient and, drops one right there. This is quite unfortunate because, "right there" happens to be near the washer and dryer.How do I discover these land mines? Well, ask yourself, who does the laundry in this household? You got it! The human land mine detector.
Fortunately, the laundry sinks are only a few feet away. Off comes the sandals, right into the sinks. (Now, you know at least one purpose for the paper towels) Rather than cleaning up right away, I recommend waiting a bit. Besides letting your blood pressure settle down, there is a practical reason to wait. Immediately after your discovery, use the scooper from the litter container and, pour about a cup of litter over the top of the pile. Let it stand, or sit or, whatever, poop does, for a few hours. This will cause most of the moisture to be absorbed into the litter, thereby making it easier to scoop up.

Now, you know why a flat paint scraper is listed in the materials list. Put your handy-dandy rubber glove on one hand; use the flat portion like a dust pan. Scoop it up and place it in the rubber tub, with the liner (don't forget the liner). In the same way that you do with the litter box treasure, take the handles of the plastic bag, tie it together, lift out the contents and, toss them out.

To complete the cleanup operation, spray some disinfectant over the area and, wipe up with a paper towel. Wait a minute, wait a minute. You're blind, how do you know where the poop was, after you cleaned it up and took out the trash? For a sighted person, I believe this question would never enter their mind. For a blind person, this is a real consideration. Here is how to avoid that problem. While you are on your knees (oh did I mention that?), and cleaning up (scraping up) and, after you lift out the bag of poop (I mean treasure), flip the tub over and place it over the spot where the indiscretion (accident?) happened. Now, you can find the location.

I may have left out a minor detail, here and there but I think you get the general idea. You might say "I have to hand it to you Mario" We have solved the problem at hand. Or, should I say, with the hand? Now, you can tell people that, you are "handy" with the management of litter boxes.