Cats Herd You

Flashback Friday: Pierre and the Digital Fish

Today’s flashback takes us back to 2011, when Pierre was too intent on the digital fish to realize he was sliding off of the arm of the chair…

Pierre: Gotcha!

Safe Disposal of Medications

As part of a massive spring cleaning effort, we managed to clean out cabinets recently that hadn’t been touched in several years. Included in those cabinets were bottles of medications from the cats who came before us, which led to the very important question: How do you safely dispose of medications you have around the house?

We know that there are a lot of ways that you shouldn’t dispose of things.

Flushing your unused medications down the toilet or drain is a bad idea. The US Geological Survey has already found levels of drugs such as antibiotics, hormones, and contraceptives in 80% of the rivers and streams tested in part of a nationwide study. Additional studies have shown that fish and other wildlife can be adversely affected by medications, even when they are expired.

Instead of flushing medications, check to see if there are drug take-back events in your area one of the following ways:

Call your city or county government’s household trash and recycling service to ask whether a drug take-back program is available in your community. Some counties hold periodic household hazardous waste collection days, where over-the-counter and prescription drugs are accepted at a set location.
Ask your pharmacist whether he or she knows of any medicine disposal programs in your area.
Find a local, independent pharmacy in your area who participates in drug disposal through disposemymeds.com.
Check the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s web site for National Prescription Drug Take-Back Event information.
Ask your veterinarian. They may be willing to include unused medications originally purchased through them in shipments to their medical waste company.

If there aren’t any drug take-back events in your area, you can purchase special postage-paid packages from your local pharmacy that send medications back to a medical waste company. Some medications are ineligible for this program so read the fine print before you purchase.

The same guidelines can be used for disposal of human medications, though your veterinarian is unlikely to be willing to take back unused human medication. Keeping our groundwater safe is everybody’s responsibility!

Wordless Wednesday: Sneaky Brother Edition

Note: We’ll be a little slow responding to things the next few days because the head peep is at Global Pet Expo. We can’t wait to bring you all of the news she collects there!

In Which Ashton Breaks New Ground

Ashton: The other day, the head peep got home and said hello to all of us the way she normally does. Hi to Newton at the door. Hi to Pierre in the living room wine crate cat tree. Hi to Ashton wherever you are.

She was crossing the living room when she nearly stepped in cat barf. You should have heard the HBO word! One glance told her that it was the cat food that Newton and Pierre eat, and she stood back up to look at Pierre. He huddled down into the cat tree, and she thought, “Oh, no, he’s really sick, and it’s time for the vet to close for the day.”

Then she looked more carefully and realized that the cat in the cat tree wasn’t Pierre at all. It was me. I have never gone in that cat tree in the whole time it has been there! She was so surprised she almost stepped in the barf trying to get a closer look, which of course made me run away.

These photos weren’t taken that day. I made her wait a few days, and she had to take them while she was sitting at her desk, on the other side of the room. But at least there’s photographic proof that I sometimes go up there.

Now that I have discovered getting on top of things, I’m going to test out getting on top of some other stuff. Is this what I’ve been missing out on all this time?