Butternut and Lea ♥︎

Butternut and Lea sitting next to each other

Thank u for taking care of these kitties! Feel free to call or text us whenever if you have questions or updates.

with love, emrys + doug

Table of Contents

Emergencies ✚

In case of emergency, there's Good Vets up the block, or a 24-hour animal hospital a few miles away. A soft cat carrier is in the closet in the office, on the top shelf. If you need a step-stool to reach it, there's one in the cat room.

Daily Checklist ✔︎

  • One full can of wet food each
  • Refill water bowl in living room next to couch
  • Top off Butternut's dry food (Friskies) in the bowl on the butcher block in the kitchen
  • Top off Lea's dry food in the slow feeder bowl in the cat room
  • Clean litter box

Cat Facts ✍︎

Lea

  • Has two teeth
  • Will not let you pick her up
  • Hides under the bed most of the time
  • May come and hang out with you if you sit quietly on the couch for a little while
  • Enjoys birds for cats to watch videos on YouTube
  • Ambivalent about closed doors
  • Serious cat (not very playful)
  • Enjoys cat nip

Butternut

  • Has all of his teeth
  • Doesn't mind being picked up. Enjoys it, even.
  • Hides under the bed some of the time
  • More likely to come and hang out with you
  • Enjoys birds for cats to watch videos on YouTube
  • Hates closed doors
  • Sometimes likes to play
  • Fiend for cat nip

Water ♒︎

  • Water Bowl (living room): Each visit, dump out, rinse and refill the Good Cat water bowl in the living room, on the lower shelf of the side table between the couch and chair.
  • Water Fountain: The cats prefer the other water bowl, so the fountain is more of a backup. It takes a while for it to run out of water. Every 3-4 days, lift up the lid to peak inside and see how much water is in there. If it's getting down to a half tank, unplug it, dump out the water in the sink, rinse it, and refill the tank to the max fill line on the inside of the tank.

Food ☕︎

Wet Food

  • Can of wet food: Usually the kitties split one can of wet food twice a day -- in the morning and at night. If you are visiting once a day, feel free to just put out one can each.
  • Tube (treat): Sometimes we put a bit of "tube" on their dry food as a treat. This is the "Temptations" puree stuff in the yellow box in the cat room basket. We put ~1/4 of a tube on each bowl of dry food at a time, so you can put the remaining 1/2 of tube in the fridge for next time.

Dry Food

They have dry food for grazing. There are two types of dry food:

  • Sensitive Skin and Stomach (Lea): This goes in the slow feeder bowl (the bowl has little ceramic fish) on the floor in the cat room. Put enough in here to shallowly cover the base of the bowl, so that the fish are still visible. Since Lea doesn't really have any teeth, we typically spray the food with water. There's a spray bottle on a shelf in the cat room. Give it ~5 good sprays.
  • Friskies Seafood (Butternut): Put this in the bowl in the butcher block in the kitchen. Fill the bowl about half of the way.
  • Greenies (treat): There are little bags of Greenies dry treats in the cat food basket. You can throw a couple of those in the living room and the cats will chase after them (although if Lea is hiding Butternet will probably eat all the Greenies so you can put a couple in her dry food dish to make sure she gets some).

Cleaning Dishes

  • Wet food bowls: I think the easiest thing to do would be to thoroughly rinse their wet food bowls each time you visit. Pour out whatever is left in them into the sink, and reuse them.
  • Dry food bowls: Butternut's dry food bowl can be used for 2 days before being washed or replaced with a new small bowl. There are multiple slow feeder bowls for Lea that you can cycle between, or just wash and reuse her same bowl every two days. You can scrape old dry food into the trash. Her bowl gets gross faster cuz of the water we spray :/

Litter Box ☀︎

Scoop both litter boxes each visit.

The Scooper is next to the litter boxes. Scoop the litter into the green litter bags (on a shelf near the boxes), tie up the bag, then put it in the yellow litter container with the teal lid. If this container is getting full, take it out to the trash in back and empty it (more on that later!)

If the litter is getting low (like if you consistently see the bottom of the box), top off the litter with some from any of the litter jugs on the shelf.

Cleaning ☔︎

We aren't particular about cleaning for our sake. This information is more for those spending time here who don't want to hang out alongside potential messes.

  • Cat hair: If you don't want to sit on a surface that is covered in cat hair, there is a pet hair roller thing in a little turqoise basket in the living room, in the black cabinet on the floor (the one with a little lamp on top of it).
  • Messes (floor): Lea throws up more often than your average cat. If she throws up on the floor, use paper towels and Bona to clean it up. You can find the Bona in the laundry closet in the kitchen (to the right when you exit the cat room). If she throws up under the bed or something, don't worry about cleaning that up. When in doubt, stick with visible messes.
  • Messes (couch cushions): If Lea throws up on the couch, we're sorry. She's sorry. She's trying her best. Get the bigger chunks off, then–if you want–you can unzip the cover and wash it in the washing machine.
  • Messes (couch arm, brown furniture): Sometimes Lea will throw up on the arm of the couch, or on the brown furniture. For that, get off whatever chunks, then use the bottle of pet stain remover, which is also in the laundry closet.
  • Messes (bed sheets or comforter): Get the chunks off, then throw whatever you need to in the washing machine. If you need to wash the comforter, just know that it takes a good while to dry.

House Care ✿

  • Taking out trash: You only need to take the trash out if it's full or stinky. The trash bins are in the alley. You can go out the back door from the cat room. You will need the gate clicker to open the gate. Bring your keys with you too!. The gate clicker should be on one of the built-in shelves in the cat room. There's a clicker in my car as well, under the stereo system in one of the compartments.
  • Vacuuming: if you want to vacuum, the vacuum is in the cat room hanging on the wall.
  • Watching TV: Feel free to hang and watch TV or play video games. You'll have to turn the power strip back on to use the TV or anything, it's located on the floor behind the TV (you can reach through the left-most square to access it). If you want to play video games and and need help figuring that out please call one of us!
  • Guest room/office: Please keep this door closed unless you are in there. I am afraid Lea might throw up on the couch in there, or on my computer ☹︎. If Butternut is in there hanging out with you he will try (and succeed in) opening the closet door, and we do not want him in there. So just pick him up when you leave the room.

Car Info ⛽︎

If you're borrowing my car, here's some stuff you should know:

  • The car key is hanging on a hook by the front door
  • There is a clicker for the gate in the car
  • I have a parking space behind the building, it's the middle spot on the north end of the north lot
  • At the moment, it's super icy in the alley, so be careful ☺︎
  • You can park my car on the street (it's permitted but I have a sticker)
  • Please give my car a few minutes to warm up before driving if it's the first drive of the day (especially when it's super cold)
  • Make sure to close the gate when you drive away
  • There are spare car keys in a small navy blue Warby Parker box on the desk in the office
  • There's windshield washer fluid in the trunk, and snow brush/scraper in the back seat