The ideal solution? Well, I'll keep that to myself. Anyways, there is absolutely nothing worse then people who let their HOUSE cats wander around outside where they get into other people's stuff, and kill the song birds at people's feeders. If there wasn't a law prohibiting dispatching of ferel cats, I'd have no problem taking care of business. Obviously it's illegal, so I am forced to take care of matters in other ways. Here's how I dealth with a certain orange cat that was hiding in the bushes by my deck, stalking my feeder birds. Note that I have witnessed them eating birds, so I as a bird feeder have a responsibility to keep my birds safe. Here's what I did: I saw the cat's head sticking out of a mugo pine by the step down from my deck. I installed a nice new, super quiet sliding patio door last spring, so I very softly opened the door, and sneaked up behind the cat. It never saw or heard me. I had a big air horn made for those safety kits on boats. I got the horn right up behind it's head, and let out a huge blast. TOOOOOOT! It was the funniest thing I ever saw. The cat jumped about 6 feet in the air, hit the ground with it's legs moving like scooby-doo. It ran as fast as it could, until I couldn't see it anymore. I NEVER saw the cat again....problem solved. Or, chicken wire works :) Joe

My cat snapped the faux wood 2 inch blinds about 4 inches in - right where there is a hole for the cord to go through that enables you to open and close the blinds. It probably is because I have very large orange kitties - 16 and 19 lbs - or it could be that my blinds are not as well made as some others on the market. They were custom, but not a brand name - they are made local to me. I just super glued it and you can't even tell. I also have verticals on my triple slider and the cats don't bother them at all. They just sit between the verticals and the window - in fact one is there now. I would like to begin the process of drapes, but didn't think about the cat hair showing on the drapes until now...I will have to take that into consideration when I'm choosing a color. LOL.

They are going to last me a while, and I wonder whether I will be able to use them up in a year. I will not store cans in Cathedral City because I set the A/C to 85° when we are not there, and I would rather store the cans in a cooler location. In L.A., we have the A/C set to 74° at the warmest, but the weather is reasonably cool or mild near the beach, and so that does not use much electricity. I'm going to CC tomorrow, and so I just turned the A/C down to 80° so that it will be easier to cool the house to 76 or 75° tomorrow. It's supposed to be 109° in CC today, while the high for Westchester today will be 73°, which is cooler than what we have the A/C set for. I'm not sure how many empty plastic containers I have in CC, and so I might need to take some with me. I guess I need for them to be 27 oz capacity, but I was also hoping to use some 24 oz. jars. I also have some 32 oz. jars. I'll probably start my experiment with two jars (one for the fridge and one for the freezer), one plastic container, and one plastic food storage bag. I do not have a lot of freezer storage at either house, but I can always use things up to make more space. These tomatoes are way much cheaper than what I've bought in cans before, but I guess there is the economy of size. I normally do not like to buy in bulk, which is why this was an accident. The tomatoes are ground, not whole, and this is what I prefer. They by far have the best flavor of any canned tomatoes I've tried, and I've tried many brands. I do not buy peanut butter, and so I have no jars from that, but I have bought olives that came in straight sided jars, and I saved those. I tend to save most jars that have straight side, even the tall skinny ones, until I have enough of them. Right now I have three cans stored on the floor in my kitchen (out of my way), two can on the lowest shelf of a cabinet, and one can set aside to take with me to CC tomorrow.

Wow! You guys are a wealth of information! I have super large and tall convered litter boxes. The base is not super tall but the lid is. I have tried other types of litter boxes and they just would not use them. They would stick with the one as described (tall and with a lid). I also have tried various pellets and such and they do not go for that. One cat has claws the other two do not have front claws. They have NEVER been outside. I think for fun I will just try the super strong (hopefully) liners and see what happens. I hear you guys on the sherr pain of dealing with litter, hair and all the rest that comes with having cats. It is not easy. I will keep you all posted on how it goes. Thanks you ALL for the suggestions, advice and your invaluable (and some hilarious) experiences! Amy