Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team and Today's Chat is **What's It Like Living In A Multi-Cat Household**

Happy Monday Fluffies

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team 

Welcome to the sandbox for a quick chat session, and today we're sharing a popular post as we've had a number of requests for what it's like living in a multi-cat household and what's involved.

By the way, no hissing, no spitting, no smacky paws or swiping, no flicking sand and definitely no widdling or pooping in the sandbox either! MOL 

 Living In A Multi-Cat Household

Now we know that some hoomans may have only one kitty.  Some have two or maybe even three. But how does having even more kitties work in today's fast-paced world?

At BBHQ, we usually run at six cats constantly. That seems to be the magic number for us, our Goldilocks number—not too many and not too little, the 'just right' ratio. However, we have had times when we've been down to only three, and we've also been as high as eight indoors, plus feeding several strays that visited our garden daily.

So, how does this work for us?

Having six cats is quite a bit of work, and here's why:

Everypawdy needs to have one-to-one time with the P.A. and Cat Dad. It's very impawtant that all B Team memfurs have this time daily. So if we each get only 10 minutes, that's an hour minimum.

Plus we like to have playtime and outside time too. We're only allowed outside if the P.A. or Cat Dad are on paw to snoopervise us. Usually, the P.A. will do some gardening while she keeps an eye on us, and as she and Cat Dad work Mon - Fri, this means we only get outdoor time when they get back from work. 

So kitty entertaining takes up a lot of free time.

Next, there's the grooming/brushing.

Now, some of us like being brushed and pampered, while others do not so much. For instance, Parsley will let mew brush him 24/7. There is never enough brush for him; he will sit, stand or lay down and take as much as mew can give.  

Pandora, our hairy little Ewok/Sasquatch cat, used to hate being brushed, and the P.A. had to literally walk around the house while trying to brush her. She gets mats in her fur because she's such a hairy beast, and we have every type of grooming implement to try and combat this issue. The one she likes the best and tolerates better than anything is actually the P.A.'s Tangle Teaser brush, which is now Pandora's.

Pandora's Tangle Teezer

Pandora, as just previously mentioned, was tough to brush. However, after much perseverance and a lot of dedication, guess what? She now loves to be brushed, which the P.A. is thrilled about, as it means fewer mats, and Pandora doesn't look like she's just spent a week in the wilds or been dragged through a hedge backwards anymore! MOL

If mew would like to purchase one of these brushes, a Google search will bring up a selection for you.  

Smooch likes a bit of brushing, as does Melyvn, and as time goes on, Melvyn is becoming more like Parsley. Amber also doesn't mind, although Fudge has never really been keen, though he is getting used to the pet mitt, and he doesn't mind the Tangle Teaser, either.

None of us like ear cleaning, eye cleaning or nail clipping and will do anything to avoid these activities.

Feeding Time At BBHQ and Watering Holes

We're very lucky to have our own kitty kitchen, aka the laundry, and we all know which bowl is ours. This is our regular line-up.

From the top:

Pandora
Smooch
Fudge

[a bowl of dry food stationed between Parsley and Fudge]

Parsley
Amber

And young Melvyn, who is more like his Great Uncle Basil than we could have ever imagined, eats his on the countertop to the right, just out of shot. We all eat together and have a couple of snacks daily. Plus, if we get hungry, we go and put in a request for an extra meal; this entails finding the P.A. meowing a lot and then leading her towards the kitty kitchen. This method works 90% of the time.

We also have dry food available 24/7, which is topped up as needed and stationed around the house in various locations, along with clean water.

We use stainless steel bowls because they are more hygienic. Plastic dishes are a no-go here and can cause chin acne in some kitties, so be careful. We have clean bowls for morning and evening meals, so that means lots of washing up. Also, all our bowls are on placemats, and we use kitchen roll, too, so clean up is easy if there are any spills or some heathen decides to start throwing their food about.

Our water bowls are many and stationed around the house. These all need changing/cleaning daily, as food debris and dust can collect. We have Brita-filtered water, too, as our tap water is hard and doesn't taste that nice. Plus, we use a couple of water fountains.

 Click here to see the water fountains we use and have reviewed. 

The P.A. also grows us fresh cat grass weekly, and she grows us catnip too, so we've got an endless supply of fresh greens.

See how to make our Happy Grass Pots in one of our Crafting with Cats posts.

Kitty Bathroom

The B Teams Bathroom Habits: We currently have several trays that get changed daily for a completely clean one. This system works for us due to Smooch's inappropriate widdling issues. Some days, a tray may last a little longer, but generally, it's all changed once a day.

We used to use Bob Martins Cat Litter—non-clumping. It was like the Catsan white litter, but the dust was getting quite intense, and the ever-escalating price made the P.A. look for an alternative. She decided to revert back to recycled newspaper litter, which she buys at Amazon and has delivered to the house. There's no dust and minimum odour when soiled.

We have our trays in various locations downstairs so that everyone can use a tray somewhere without being bothered by another kitty or feeling vulnerable. 

Amber, our elderly matriarch, suffers from arthritis and finds it difficult to squat fully, so she sometimes accidentally widdles over the side. To try and combat multiple widdle rivers, the P.A. has employed an extra tactic to keep them to a minimum. She places our regular tray on a grow-bag tray. A widdle river is inevitable if Amber gets on a corner angle, but it does stop a lot.


To eliminate widdle rivers altogether, we need a tray like the one above, but a square one! MOL

Beds and Scratch Posts/Cat Trees

We have multiple sleeping places around the house and several tall scratch posts/cat trees. 

We love windowsills, and each one upstairs has one of our funky Snuggle mats on, as they're our favourite. The P.A. has spent a fortune on funky cat beds over the years, only to discover that we don't like them. What we do like sleeping on is the bed, the cat beds that she has made, and sofas.

So, at no time is there any need to squabble for space.

We are also exceptionally lucky to have a catservatory with some really high cat shelves accessible from our tallest cat tree.

There's somewhere for everypawdy, and nopawdy gets in anyone's space unless they're invited! MOL

Parsley and Fudge sharing one of the Snuggle Mats on the P.A.'s desk.

In summary, The B Team live a most harmonious life. There are very few spats, as everyone seems to get along, so we are incredibly fortunate in that respect.

Looking after six kitties does take a lot of work, and planning is vital to running a smooth oppurration, but as the P.A. says, she wouldn't have it any other way. 

**Top Tip** 

Get a really good cordless vacuum for your daily clean, as there's a lot of cat hair which mew won't want building up, and a regular brush is useless as it just makes everything airborne. We use a Dyson stick vacuum and find it works great; before that, we tried other brands, but they didn't have the power.

If mew have any questions about how we organise things, cleaning, routines, etc., feel free to ask. 

Many of our epic blogging furiends have as many if not a lot more kitties than us, so for all those that exceed our number of kitties per household, purrhaps mew could tell us about your experiences and top tips?

Join us again on Wednesday when we're here with more Midweek News. 

In the meantime

Keep calm, and snooze on, and don't forget to...

Wing Commander Basil and  The B Team 

Follow Us @BionicBasil®  at Instacat

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com  

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team and Today's Chat is All About Living In A Multi-Cat Household **Revisited**

Happy Monday Fluffies

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team 

Welcome to the sandbox for a quick chat session, and today we're resharing a popular post as we've had a number of requests for what it's like living in a multi-cat household and what's involved.

By the way, no hissing, no spitting, no smacky paws or swiping, no flicking sand and definitely no widdling or pooping in the sandbox either! MOL 

 Living In A Multi-Cat Household

Now we know that some hoomans may have only one kitty.  Some have two or maybe even three. But how does having even more kitties wurk in today's fast paced wurld?

At BBHQ we usually run at six cats constantly, that seems to be the magic number for us, our Goldilocks number - not too many and not too little, the 'just right' ratio.  Though we have had times where we've been down to only three, and we've also been as high as eight indoor plus feeding several strays too that visited our garden daily.

So how does this wurk for us?

Having six cats is quite a bit of wurk and here's why:

Everyone needs to have one to one time with the P.A. and/or dad. It's very impawtant that all B Team memfurs have this time daily. So if we each get only 10 minutes, that's an hour minimum.

Plus we like to have playtime and outside time too. We're only allowed outside if the P.A. or dad are on paw to snoopervise us. Usually the P.A. will do some gardening while she keeps an eye on us and as she and dad wurk Mon - Fri this means we only get outdoor time when they get back from wurk. 

So kitty entertaining takes up a lot of free time.

Next there's the grooming/brushing.

Now some of us like being brushed and pampered, while others not so much. For instance, Parsley will let mew brush him 24/7, there is neffur enough brush for him; he will sit, stand or lay down and take as much as mew can give.  

While Pandora our hairy little Ewok/Sasquatch cat, hates being brushed and the P.A. has to literally walk around the house while trying to brush her; she gets mats in her fur because she's such a hairy beast and we have every type of grooming implement going to try and combat this issue. Though the one she likes the best, well tolerates better than anything is actually the P.A.'s Tangle Teaser brush, which is now Pandora's.

Pandora's Tangle Teezer

When this post was furst written in August 2018, Pandora as just previously mentioned was really hard to brush, however aftur much perseverance and a lot of dedication, guess what? She now loves to be brushed which the P.A. is thrilled about, as it means less mats and Pandora doesn't look like she's just spent a week in the wilds or been dragged through a hedge backwards anymore! MOL

If you would like to purrchase one of these brushes, a google search will bring up a selection for mew.  

Smooch likes a bit of brush as does Melyvn, Amber also doesn't mind, although Fudge is not keen, though he is getting used to the pet mitt. 2021 update; Fudge is also getting to like being brushed more, and his preferred choice is Pandora's tangle teezer.

None of us like ear cleaning, eye cleaning or nail clipping and will do anything to avoid these activities.

Feeding Time At BBHQ and Watering Holes

We're very lucky to have our own kitty kitchen aka the laundry, and we all know which bowl is ours. This is our regular line up.

From the top:

Pandora
Smooch
Fudge

[a bowl of dry food stationed between Parsley and Fudge]

Parsley
Amber

And young Melvyn who is more like his Great Uncle Basil than we could have ever imagined, eats his on the counter top to the right out of shot. We all eat together and we have a couple of snacks a day. Plus if we get hungry we go and put in a request for an extra meal; this entails [pardon the pun] finding the P.A. meowing a lot and then leading her towards the kitty kitchen, this method wurks 90% of the time.

We also have dry food available 24/7, which is topped up as needed and stationed around the house in various locations along with clean water.

We use stainless steel bowls as they are more hygienic, plastic dishes are a no go here and can cause chin acne in some kitties, so be careful. We have clean bowls for morning and evening meals, so that means lots of washing up. Also all our bowls are on place-mats and we use kitchen roll too, so clean up is easy if there's any spills, or someone starts throwing their food about.

Our water bowls are many and stationed around the house. These all need changing/cleaning daily as food debris and dust can collect. We have Brita filtered water too, as our tap water is hard and doesn't taste that nice, plus we use a couple of water fountains.

 click here to see the water fountains we use and have reviewed. 

The P.A. also grows us fresh cat grass weekly, and she grows us catnip too, so we've got an endless supply of fresh greens.

See how to make our Happy Grass Pots in our latest Crafting with Cats post.

Kitty Bathroom

The B Teams Bathroom Habits... we have at the moment several trays that all get changed daily fur a completely clean one, this is the system that wurks for us due to Smooch's inappropriate widdling issues. Some days a tray may last a little longer but generally it's all change once a day.

Until recently we used  Bob Martins Cat Litter - non clumping, it was like the Catsan white litter, but the dust was getting quite intense and the ever escalating price made the P.A. look for an alternative. She decided to revert back to the recycled newspaper litter, which she buys at Amazon and has delivered to the house. There's no dust and minimum odour when soiled.

We have our trays in various locations downstairs so that everyone can use a tray somewhere without being bothered by another kitty or feeling vulnerable. 

Amber our elderly matriarch suffers from arthritis and finds it difficult to squat fully, so she inadvertently widdles over the side. To try and combat multiple widdle rivers the P.A. has employed an extra tactic to keep the widdle rivers to a minimum.  She places our regular tray on a grow-bag tray, although if Amber gets on an angle, a widdle river is inevitable but it does stop a lot.


To eliminate widdle rivers altogether we need a tray like the one above, but a square one! MOL

Beds and Scratch Posts/Cat Trees

We have multiple sleeping places around the house and several tall scratch post/cat trees. 

We love a windowsill and each one upstairs has one of our funky Snuggle mats on as they're our favourite. The P.A. has spent a fortune on funky cat beds over the years only to discover that we don't like them, what we do like sleeping on is; the bed, the cat beds that she has made and sofa's.

So at no time is there any need to squabble for space.

We are also exceptionally lucky to have a catservatory with some really high cat shelves, accessible from our tallest cat tree.

There's somewhere for effurypurrdy, and nopurrdy gets in anyone's space unless they're invited! MOL

Parsley and Fudge sharing the Snuggle Mat.

In summary, The B Team live a most harmonious life. There are very few spats, as everyone seems to get along, so we are extremely fortunate in that respect.

Looking after 6 kitties does take a lot of work, and planning is vital to running a smooth oppurration, but as the P.A. says, she wouldn't have it any other way. 

*Top Tip* get a really good cordless vacuum for your daily clean, as there's a lot of cat hair which mew won't want building up, and a regular brush is useless as it just makes everything airborne.  We use a Dyson stick vacuum and find it wurks great, before that we tried other brands but they didn't have the power.

If there's any questions mew have about how we organise things, cleaning, routines, etc... feel free to ask. 

A lot of our epic blogging furriends have as many if not a lot more kitties than us, so for all those that exceed our number of kitties per household, purrhaps mew could tell us about your experiences and top tips?

Join us again on Wednesday when we're here with a new Cat-Formation post in the meantime

Keep calm, and snooze on

Epic purrs

 The B Team 

Follow Us @BionicBasil®  at Instacat

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com 

Adoption for Pets ~ UK Based Pet Charity on Meowing on Mondays ~ Can Mew Help?

Happy Monday Fluffies

And welcome to 

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team 

What does that mean we hear mew ask? well fabulous furiends it means we're in the sandbox for our weekly chat session, which could be about anything.

By the way; no hissing, no spitting, no smacky paws or swiping, no flicking sand and definitely no widdling or pooping in the sandbox either!  

Today we're talking about helping others in difficult times and unusual circumstances.

Now, unless mew've been living in a another universe for the last 6 months, effurypawdy around the wurld has been impacted by Covid19. We've all be stuck at home unless mew're one of those outstanding and ameowzing frontline workers - we salute mew dudes! We've all been trying to do our bit and stop the spread of this dangerous virus, but while we've been social-distancing the real wurld has quite literally ground to a halt, causing the economy to take a major nose-dive. 

And we only tend to think of those normal businesses that have been closed; such as highstreets shops, restaurants, gyms, cinema's, theatres, hairdressers, hotels, etc... the list is endless of what got closed, though we think that a particular sector has been furgotten who relies on the generosity and goodwill of the public, and that is the anipal charities.

There's not been very much coverage that we've seen lately highlighting the dreadful predicament a lot of rescue centres are facing without being able to fundraise via their usual channels. We know a lot of events the P.A. and Dad usually visit throughout the year always have stands and pitches for various charities, but without these events happening, there's no way to collect extra revenue needed to support a lot of these charities.

 So today we were asked if we could highlight one charity that's been struggling in recent times and of course, we said yes so read on and if mew could help, that would be epic or if not, just share our post and help spread the wurd.

Support Adoption for Pets

Adoption for Pets is a pet charity based in the UK who make it their mission to help pets who aren’t lucky enough to have a loving home.Since COVID-19 their ability to fundraise has taken a huge hit… but they're hoping purrhaps mew can help. Appurrently it’s getting to a point where they are struggling to support the small rescues who rely on the grants and financial aid from their organisation, and help pets with things like their daily food intake, vet bills and shelter, so any support would really mean the wurld to them.

There are lots of ways to help:

Mew could go to their online shop and buy a charity badge or two. 

Mew can donate at the checkout at your local Pets At Home store, or by clicking the link below: 

www.supportadoptionforpets.co.uk/support-usAll donations small or large go a long way to saving the rescues and giving pets in need the love and care they deserve.

Their adoption centres for small pets all over the UK are now open again after being closed for the last few months due to the Covid crisis, so if mew're able to give a lovely kitty, K9, or other anipal furiend a home do check their list of adoption centres at the majority of Pets At Home stores.

Parsley just donated:

Thanks dude, mew're epic!

Thanks for stopping by today, and we hope mew enjoyed the post.

Join us again tomorrow for the second installment of our most exciting adventure to date in our surprise re-run of; The Clockwurk Labyrinth, in the meantime...

Do good deeds and purr 

Oodles of thanks

  Basil and The B Team 

Follow Us @BionicBasil®  at Instacat, Twitter and Facebook

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com

How To Get Out Of FaceBook Jail ~ A Purrsonal Experience on Meowing on Mondays

Happy Monday Gorgeous Pals

Welcome to another pawesome week at BBHQ. Today we're sharing how we got out of FB Jail.

How To Get Out Of FaceBook Jail ~ A Purrsonal Experience

About 3 weeks ago we encountered a rather tricky issue. It would appear that someone reported us to Facebook, a lot of mew know the story already, but fur new readers here's a brief rundown of events.

On the 23rd of May 2020 Fudge's Sunday Selfie post was reported to the FB Po-leece for being abusive, offensive and spam. Leaving us unable to share anything from the blog to FB.

Click here to see the post.

As mew can see, the post is neither abusive, offensive or spammy. So we proceeded to dispute the claim and were rejected instantly. We disputed it again and we're rejected once more.  

We sent 7 different messages to varying departments explaining that they'd made a mistake and after 2 weeks we'd still heard nothing.

Lots of our blogging buddies and fans also sent messages, and they went unheard too.

Not only did our blog get banned from Facebook, it then in turn caused purroblems on Instagram, and our web address was classed as a spam link and unsafe. So we had to remove it from our profile to be able to use the platform.

We also reported it more times than we can remember on Instragam that they had made a mistake, but still nothing happened and the web address was still blocked.

At this point we were getting quite purrplexed as we seemed to be getting nowhere fast, literally chasing our tails.

In fact, we felt like we'd been parked up in a layby, against our will, had our hummer put on blocks, the steering wheel removed and just left there indefinitely.

What Happened Next?

Well fabulous friends, we started searching online for ways to contact FB and came up with purretty much nothing; one telephone number in London and as it was right in the middle of our lockdown period due to the Covid-19 situation we thought there was no point calling as there'd be no one home, or if we did we'd purrobably be waiting a furry long time due to reduced staffing mesaures.

So we kept digging and changing our search parameters until we came across a post from a chap who'd also been banned, blocked and put in a layby indefinitely. We think he'd had six months of searching for ways to get back on the FB highway.

Anyhoo, we read his post and all of a sudden there was a little ray of hope. Even Melvyn felt it!

So What's The Secret To Getting Out Of Facebook Jail?

Now, this system may not work for everyone, but it wurked for us - so no purromises or guarantees are being made. It won't work, especially if mew were being abusive, offensive and spammy with your posts, but if like us mew are an innocent pawty who's been wrongfully accused, tried and guillotined with no trial then this could be your solution.

Are mew ready? Are mew sitting down? As it really is rather simple.

Have mew ever paid to promo a post on FB or Instagram? If the answer is yes, brilliant. If not then maybe pay £1/$1 or £5/$5 to promote a post on either Instagram for a day or FB for 5 days.

As before mew can try this method mew need an ad account. [If mew haven't got an ad account, we have no answers or solution for mew.]

Then, this is the really groovy part; go to your ad account and go to the help pages and send a message to them via their online form explaining exactly what has happened.     

Step by Step Destructions:

Go to the help centre: https://business.facebook.com/business/help/support

Click on your name.

A new window will open asking What Do You Need Help With?  

Click Other ad account issue bottom right selection. 

Another window will open called; Get Help and on this page, mew can input all the issues mew’re having and explain what your boggle is, and ask if they can purrlease help mew rectify it. 

Within 24 hours we had a reply from a real, YES a real purrson who assigned a case number to our purroblem and got the catnip ball rolling.

They will want your ad account ID number and some screenshots of the problem mew're experiencing and the URL of the post that got mew banned.

Aftur we had furnished our supurr helpful representative with all the info required, we received another email confirmation that all of this new evidence would be sent to the FB Internal Assessment Team to manually evaluate the issues we were experiencing.

And 5 days later we received an email from our supurr helpful representative, yes the same one as before, to notify us that our appeal was successful and we were no longer parked up in the layby without wheels or a steering wheel, and that we had the green light to get back on the FB supurr highway immediately and on Instagram too.

We obviously tested it before we replied to send many thanks just to make sure and yes, it was true we were FREE to put the pedal to the metal! 

Fudge said it was just like magic! 

We did leave our very helpful representative top marks when asked for feedback, so if mew do get a good result don't forget to thank the purrson who helped mew.

Or if mew would like to 'speak' to someone, try this:

On this page: https://business.facebook.com/home click on the '?' in the top right corner, scroll down to contact support team, click on that and a pop up will open where mew can fill in all your details and describe what issues mew're having, and live chat online to someone in the support team. Though the wait time is about 20 mins at the moment [12th June 2020] as they've not got a full team working due to covid.

 We didn't try this as our issues were resolved. 

So there mew have it, a supurr simple solution to getting your case heard at the FB Po-leece Head Quarters. So if mew effur find yourselves on the wrong side of the FB law, whether it be by someone else's malicious mitten or your own folly, try this, what have mew got to lose?

We hope mew enjoyed our post today, leave us a comment and tell us if mew've been experiencing any FB issues, or if mew tried this method, did it wurk? 

**And many thanks to the really helpful dude who suggested going through the FB ad account on his website, sorry we can't remember who it is, but thank mew furry much, mew're a total rock star!**

Have a really spiffing Monday, and we'll be back on Wednesday with The Pet Parade, so come blog hop around the world with us, Dash Kitten and Barking from the Bayou.

Supurr Monday Purrs

Basil & The B Team

Free Lockdown Activities

And don't furget while we're all on lockdown, we The B Team have got your six and can entertain mew fur weeks; there are oodles of colouring pages to download and not furgetting the colouring books too.  There's a page full of crafting projects to keep your mittens making stuff, and if books are your thing, check our Amber's Book Reviews fur your next pawesome read! 

There are some epically exciting adventure stories too, so read our thrilling tales episode by epic episode.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Capt'n Basil & His MotleyCrew 

Fast, Furry and Dangerous

The Clockwurk Labyrinth 

We've got some new Brain Training posts, just to keep your little grey cells in tip-top condition. And we’ll be adding extra jigsaw puzzles to the puzzle page.

If mew want to see more of what's been happening at BBHQ since the lockdown began, check out our Instagram feed where mew can see our daily diary and exclusive videos that we don't put here on the blog.

Follow The B Team @BionicBasil®  on Instacat, Twitter and Facebook

Graphics created with paid licence @www.canva.com 

Jail bars https://www.pngfind.com/download/xxTmJJ_share-this-image-jail-png-transparent-png/