Giveaway Archives - Cats Herd You

Giveaway Update: The Scoop Speaks!

Newton: Hey, Ashton…

Ashton: Kinda busy in here right now.

Newton: ASHTON! You have to see this!

Ashton: What?

Newton: Remember that It’s the Scoop you told everybody earlier this week we’re giving away? It’s… talking.

Ashton: Did you get into the nip again?

Newton: No!

Ashton: I’m not going anywhere near a talking litter scoop.

Newton: Well, it’s a little late for me.

Ashton: It’s a little late for you for a lot of things. *sigh* What does it say?

Newton: It says we should give away three It’s the Scoop litter scoops.

Ashton: Instead of one?

Newton: That’s what it says.

Ashton: Well if the scoop says, it must be true, right? This is too weird, even for a cat. You heard Newton, everybody! The It’s the Scoop says we’re giving away THREE scoops, not just one. That’s more chances for you to win. So if you haven’t already entered the giveaway already, head on over to the previous post to enter. You now have three times the chance of winning! And if you have trouble with Rafflecopter, leave us a comment and let us know. We know that it doesn’t load properly for some people, so we can enter you manually if you can’t get it to work.

Newton: Good job.

Ashton: Thanks. Just one question, Newton. What were you doing talking to the litter scoop in the first place?

Newton: Who do you think keeps me company when I use the litterbox?

Ashton: I’m sorry I asked.

It’s the Scoop: Review and Giveaway

Ashton: Did you know that you should replace your litter boxes once a year? It’s true.

Ashton: While I was waiting for treats, I asked around, and there doesn’t seem to be a guideline like that for replacing the scoop you use to clean the litter every day. I know this because our litter scoop was pretty old. Older than me. Older even than Pierre, and he’s old!

Pierre: I heard that!

Ashton: Well, it’s true. Our litter scoop was really old. So when the head peep met the the folks from K-Kat Innovative Pet Products earlier this year and they insisted that she try their It’s the Scoop, she thought she might as well. She didn’t really think that it would be any better than the plastic one she has been using for more than ten years, but at least it would be new. It looked durable, too.

She was also surprised that it was six inches wide. Our previous litter box scoop was over an inch narrower. That meant that she was covering more of the litterbox every time she scooped.

The thing she really liked was how fast the It’s the Scoop sifted litter. We made a little movie so you can see the difference. If you are eating your dinner at the computer, don’t watch it, because it has real mancat litterbox stuff in it. (You can click to watch if it doesn’t display below for you.)

Pierre: How did you know that was mancat litterbox stuff?

Ashton: Because ladycats don’t let their business end up on YouTube. Seriously, Pierre. Anyhow, the head peep loves how much faster she can clean our litter, and I love it, too, because she can be done with scooping the litterbox and get back to giving me treats.

Pierre: Do you remember what she said about the people who invented it?

Ashton: She said that they have lots of cats, too!

Pierre: The inventors of the It’s a Scoop should know about scooping litterboxes. They aren’t just pet products people. They also run Tabby Town USA, a non-profit, no-kill rescue in Wisconsin, so they scoop a lot of litter. We like that this scoop started out as the idea of people who do cat rescue!

FTC Disclosure: We received a litter scoop free of charge for review, but our opinions are our own.

Simple Solution Litter Review and Giveaway

Newton: When the head peep was at Global Pet Expo, she got to hear about Simple Solution cat litter. It sounded different from anything we have tried before. It is supposed to last for 30 days without your having to do anything but scoop out solid waste. It’s made of attapulgite instead of clay or corn like other litters, which lets it absorb liquids. That sounded too good to be true, so she decided we would give it a try.

You’ve seen our sunroom plenty of times, but we haven’t ever invited you back here. This is where we keep our litterbox.

We got a new litterbox just for this review so that there was no left over smell from previous litter.

Pierre: Something’s missing here.

Newton: I think that’s why she’s taking pictures of us in here. She never did that before.

Newton: We were worried that the Simple Solution litter wasn’t going to fill the box well enough when we saw the box of litter in there.

It was a little shallower than we keep our corn litter, which was still in the rear litterbox.

Whoa, this stuff has a strong smell! We have heard other people describe it as an herbal scent. Our house is small and poorly ventilated (does anyone know a ventilation contractor who will actually return phone calls?), and one litterbox full of the Simple Solution litter filled the house with a scent the way that one of those scented plug-ins do. The head peep could smell it as soon as she opened the door from the garage, three rooms away. It’s not a bad smell, but it was a little overpowering for the first few days, so it’s probably best to use it in a room with better ventilation than our sunroom, especially if you are sensitive to perfumes or scents.

I know what you really want to know about this litter is whether you can really go for 30 days without scooping urine from it and have it control odor. The answer is a qualified yes. It didn’t last 30 days at our house, but three cats using two litterboxes mean that it was seeing roughly 1.5 cats worth of use. Also, we all prefer the front left corner of that litterbox. Don’t ask. But that means that we were really giving that part of the litter a thorough test.

The head peep thought that would be the part of the litter most likely to fail first, so after about a week or so,she would get down on all fours and give the litter a sniff whenever she noticed that spot looked dark (which meant it was wet). If a cat ever wished for a camera, it was me watching her do that. On day 21, it didn’t pass the sniff test. One thing we learned was that when the attapulgite material is done soaking the urine in, it’s done, so it’s not a good time to need to go to the store for more litter. You don’t get a lot of warning, so stock up on litter for that next litterbox change!

Other things I noticed during our test:

Tracking – The litter does track. Our old corn-based liter tracked a lot more when our paws exited the box, but this litter seems to track noticeably farther. It’s hard to tell whether this is subjective, though, since the pink grains of the litter are so noticeable. Our previous corn-based litter had much smaller grains, so it wasn’t as easy to notice when we tracked it into the house from the sunroom.
Dust – If someone invents dust-free litter, they are going to win the Nobel prize. This is about as dusty as our corn-based litter, and the dust was more noticeable on the first few days of sifting it for waste, then it wasn’t as noticeable,

Overall, we gave the litter paws up, and we would continue to use it. The head peep is sensitive to fragrances, and she had enough trouble with the strong scent the first few days that we might not get to have it again any time soon. Still, she admits that it was really nice not having to sift for clumps in the litter multiple times a day for 21 days!

Would you like to try this new litter yourself?

We’re giving away a month’s supply of litter to three readers in the US or Canada using the Rafflecopter widget below.

FTC Disclosure: We received litter free of charge to review. All opinions expressed on this site are our own.

I’d Rather Be With My Cat T-Shirt Giveaway

Newton: Hey, everybody!

I inspected the bags of swag from Global Pet Expo, like I said I would.

And guess what? The head peep took all of the treats and food samples and hid them from me. She must have heard about our plans to throw a big pawty and serve them as appetizers.

Pierre: Mouses! How did she find out? Ashton, did you tell her?

Ashton: I… umm… excuse me, I think I left the light on in the closet.

Pierre: Now what do we do?

Newton: I have an idea. Check this out! The head peep got it at Global Pet Expo from a musician named Doug Ratner who raises money for The Gray Muzzle Organization to benefit senior dogs. Except this shirt is about cats!

Pierre: That’s the artificial fur that the humans wear.

Newton: She called it a t-shirt. The tag has an L on it. What do you think that means?

Pierre: Loud?

Newton: Are you calling me loud?

Pierre: I’ve heard you when you’re waiting for Ashton to finish her dinner. But no, I think the L on the shirt means loud.

Newton: Oh, you’re probably right.

Pierre: So you’re going to wear the artificial fur — I mean shirt? Because I don’t think it’s going to fit you.

Newton: No! We are going to offer it to our friends in a giveaway, because we don’t have appetizers for a pawty. And since the shirt came from Global Pet Expo, anyone can enter from anywhere in the world. We just have one shirt, size Loud, so there aren’t any size choices. You can enter with the Rafflecopter widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you have trouble with the Rafflecopter widget, let us know, and we’ll manually enter you. The giveaway ends Friday night, March 21st.