Thanks, Gabe! The Name “MeowSpace®” Was Your Idea
“A name…the pressure of a name… ” (from the 1980′s movie, “Pretty Woman”) We are coming up on the third anniversary of the registration of the name, “MeowSpace,” and it has since graduated to “MeowSpace®” (note the circled ® at the end of the word). We have our “other” son, Gabe, to thank for the name. By “other” son, I mean that our son, Corey, the builder of the first MeowSpace®, grew up best friends with Gabe. Both being raised as only children, their friendship deepened to the point of them considering each other brothers, and as such, Gabe became our “other” son. He has since provided us with an “other” daughter-in-law, Jordan, and most recently, our “other” grandson, Malcolm. But I digress… Berdell and I were having lunch with Gabe, Jordan, and Gabe’s mom, Kathy, at McMenamin’s Kennedy School restaurant, attempting to come up with a name for this difficult-to-explain-in-one-or-two-words invention. All of us were throwing around ideas, most of which elicited wrinkled-nosed, eye-squinting responses. Sometimes we groaned or snickered, and sometimes we even looked interested before morphing back more »
A MeowSpace® By Any Other Name…
What To Call the MeowSpace® This blog was inspired by my Google Analytics page, which lists the keywords people have used to find the MeowSpace.biz site. You see, the MeowSpace® is a unique product. The multiple pet household problems it solves are what people usually search by because they are seeking a yet unknown solution to “heretofore unsolvable problems.” In other words, it’s not a new kind of pet brush, or dish, or bed. It’s a…well…I’ll let those seeking us tell you. Here are some of the many search terms used to find us: • Keeping one cat away from the other when they eat • Cat feeding device • Dog eats cat poop • Fat cat skinny cat • Ventilated pet enclosure • Segregate food from cats • Cat feeding box • Cat fat • Pet feeding station • Automatic pet feeding station • Cat feeder • My dog eats cat poop • Stop dog cat poop • Dog eat cat food enclosure • Magnetic cat box • Cat box solutions • Feeding solutions for multi-pet households • Locked more »
Dog Eats Kitty Roca (Cat Poop, the way it looks in clumping litter)
As you can easily see by the photo, a covered cat litter box is no guarantee against a dog getting into the cat litter. This is where a MeowSpace® comes to the rescue. Simply place a litter box in the MeowSpace®, put the locking pet door access devices on your cats, and relax. Let me digress a bit here. When we invented the MeowSpace®, the only thing we had in mind was keeping our fat cat out of our skinny cat’s food. As more and more of our friends asked us to make one for them, well, they became our beta testers. Some of them asked us for a second MeowSpace®, and told us they had a dog or dogs whom they could not keep out of the cats’ litter. We couldn’t see how it could work, given the fact that cat litter boxes are usually rather large. Then we went to our first cat show, where hundreds of cats were confined to small cubbies, and used litter boxes the size of a small cigar box. I was amazed, more »
MeowSpace® Made A Vet Tech’s Mean Cat Nice
I LOVE getting letters, phone calls and emails from MeowSpace® owners who have found answers to feeding and litter box issues by putting the MeowSpace® into service. A recent call was from a veterinary technician in Chicago. She had a problem keeping one of her cats from eating another cat’s food. Cats eating one another’s food is common. In her case, the cat who kept having his food stolen was very skinny, and “mean as a hornet.” Due to this meanness, the vet tech had decided to find him a new home. Before she was to do that, she wanted to try out the MeowSpace® for her vet clinic’s evaluation of its usefulness. They ordered one for her, and she trained Mr. Skinny & Mean Cat to use it. A funny thing happened. Once Mr. Skinny & Mean Cat was no longer hungry all the time because of his personal MeowSpace®, he suddenly became a sweet, gentle, loving kitty! Whodathunk? Makes sense. I’d be mean as a hornet too if somebody kept eating all my food! Needless to say, Mr. more »
MeowSpace® and Active or Aggressive Cats and Dogs
Every now and then I get a call from someone who says the MeowSpace® isn’t working…not because their pet can’t be trained, and not because the enclosure itself is problematic…but because they have another pet who is so active or aggressive that they keep knocking the enclosure out of its fittings in some way, usually they knock off the top panel with the hinged opening. Granted, the MeowSpace® panels are not glued together and are made to come apart easily for cleaning. With that in mind, consider the following: The MeowSpace® solution is life enhancing for us humans. We don’t have to worry about running home to feed Fluffy and Fido because the MeowSpace® does that for us. We don’t have to follow our furry kids around while the food is down in order to keep certain pets away from the food because the MeowSpace® keeps the food away from those pets for us. We don’t have to fret about Fido getting into the cat litter box because the MeowSpace® keeps them out of it automatically. We don’t have to hire more »
From Fat Cat to Scary Cat
Most of my friends have cats who hide the minute someone walks through the front door. Now, I know that’s not the case for many of your cats, but it has been my experience that cats, in general, don’t particularly enjoy the company of strangers (aka people who are not members of the immediate household). My cats are pretty much the opposite. Mitchell, the original MeowSpace® user, sees all, hears all, knows all. If there’s a guest in our home, he’s either sitting on their lap or trying in some way to get our attention. Flopsie, our formerly fat cat, prefers to spend her day on our king-sized bed, but if a guest manages to awaken her beauty sleep (which isn’t easy to do), she’ll find her way downstairs and hang around so she doesn’t miss the action. Our cats are not afraid of much. But they sure know how to scare the hell out of me. Case in point: It’s late at night, and I happen to be home alone, in the shower. Suddenly the glass doors begin shaking more »
Cat Habits are Habit Forming
Cat habits become people habits. Not such a bad idea! When Mitchell, our MeowSpace® cat, is not eating in his MeowSpace®, he is most at home in his cat habitat, aka lying peacefully on his “bed,” and Berdell is most at home lying peacefully on hers. Habit forming? You bet! cat habits | habit forming | cat habitat | people habits
Cat Feeding Box & Litter Box Solutions
We have spoken with hundreds of vet professionals including veterinarians, veterinary technicians, assistants, nurses, receptionists and office managers who have shared with us the problems they have encountered regarding feeding and litter difficulties in multi-pet households. Pet owners, mostly cat owners, have told us how they have attempted to solve these problems, but to no avail. Here are some of the things people have tried that come up short and why they cease to be viable or permanent solutions: DOESN’T WORK #1: Building a box with a door too small for the fat cat to get through This may work for a while, but the pitfalls are glaring. A cat who is fat will go to almost any length to get to the food. We have heard horror stories of fat cats getting stuck in the opening, and terrorizing the skinny cat as it is eating. In addition, guess what happens after the fat cat has lost some weight? In they go! DOESN’T WORK #2: Putting the food on a level that the fat cat cannot reach because more »
Training = Love, Time & Patience
Training your cat (or dog) to use a MeowSpace® can be very quick for some, and lengthy for others. The key is to remember a few main points: 1. The MeowSpace® solution is worth the effort, whatever effort that means for you. 2. Generally speaking, cats love boxes, so they are naturally inclined to like it. 3. Food is a great motivator. The most important thing to remember is that your job is to facilitate a friendship between your pet and the MeowSpace®. Introduce the MeowSpace® to your pet by taping the door open and allowing them free time to explore. They will sniff, go in and out, walk around it, and get to know it at their own pace. It’s ok to allow your other pets to explore it as well. When the time comes to put it into use, they’ll learn quickly that they can’t get in, and that your MeowSpace® will belong to your MeowSpace® pet only. During this initial introduction time, put surprises inside the MeowSpace®, like a toy, or some catnip. Then when it’s more »
