Animal safety with Washer and Dryers

Nowadays homeowners are purchasing front loading washers and dryers for their efficiency power. While although they promise wonderful things for our utility bills, we need to take extra consideration to how this design change will affect animals.

Having the doors to the machines in the front makes it much easier for animals to jump inside and explore these areas. Especially for cats, the curiosity factor will get them every time. In our household, only one of our cats has a serious problem with his curiosity and the laundry room. I have caught him several times jumping into the dryer while I am transferring clothes from the washer. I have had to get in the habit of closing the laundry room door while I am working in there just to be sure that I was not being absent-minded and not double checking the dryer. Before starting the dryer, even with closing the door, I will still call his name every time to visibly assure me that he is out of harm's way.

This is food for thought. There is no need for there to be these kinds of unnecessary accidents. Let's protect our animals!

Kitties and our Toddler

Here's my little Lizzie. Classic Mommy's girl, needy like you wouldn't believe, sensitive like no other, and all around sweet kitty. 
She has had a hard time adjusting to life with a new baby, well, toddler now. She is in good company when it comes to a toddler coming after them, she's gone. Wants no part of it. She would never be aggressive towards her, all she wants is an exit strategy. So poor little Lizzie only gets her mommy during nap times and bedtimes.
 It's important to remember that we can't neglect our furry babies while we take care of our little ones. But it definitely isn't necessary to re-home a pet once a new baby comes into the picture, and it truly breaks my heart when I read such stories. It's not their fault, and they just need time to adjust.

 Here is Aubie. She is a good 'ole feral cat, being on the streets for about one and half years before we took her in. She has been with us for 3 years so she is well versed in the life of a house cat. And let me tell you something- she is princess personified! Attention when she demands it, and she requires her king size pillow top mattress as her bed. She's a brat and we truly love her for that. She has definitely come around when it comes to our toddler. Again in the beginning, when she would start crying she would leave the room (like the rest of the cats), now Aubie has taken a liking to her by rolling on her back and showing off her belly, and that's not to say that Aubie hasn't had her fair shares of tail pulling, but she has never once got upset with our toddler, just walks away until she has calmed down from excitement. When our daughter had tubes put in her ears she came home from the surgery and you could smell the anesthesia. That was when Aubie decided that she need to protect her toddler. It was an awfully sweet picture that made me a bit weepy... (cheesy, I know).
 So give your fur babies some time, they'll learn to transition!