The cloud that won’t go away

It seems I’m not the only person with a little black rain cloud… Piffle has one too, so I’m in good company.  Remember how devastated I was when I accidentally threw out the blade and small cutting plate for my meat grinder?  Well, I bit the financial bullet and bought a refurbished meat grinder from an appliance reseller on eBay.  It only cost me $15 extra to buy an entire grinder vs. buying just the blade and one cutting plate from Waring, so it seemed to make the most sense.  I’d even have a backup motor in case mine ever burned out.  Well, my grinder arrived Thursday, and I anxiously opened it because I needed to make cat food that day or the furry beasts would starve (or act like they were about to drop dead from starvation).  I carefully removed all the packing material and unwrapped everything and… there were no cutting plates, and there was no blade.  The grinder was also missing a sausage-making attachment, which I didn’t care about, but it was obvious that this refurbished grinder was not in original condition.  So, after shelling out $125 for a grinder so I could have a blade and cutting plate, I was left again with no blade and no cutting plate!  How can this possibly happen?

The grinder was packed properly with all the correct packing materials, and it was taped securely, and it had a sticker on it which said something like, “Recertified by Waring”.  I’m sure the seller didn’t know the parts were missing, but as of yet, they haven’t replied to my email query asking what they want me to do.  I paid via PayPal, and they’ll protect me in the event that he seller is uncooperative, but I hope this isn’t a long, drawn-out process.  The original product listing on eBay says that if I return the item, I won’t be reimbursed for shipping, but I can’t imagine the seller anticipated that they’d be sending me a faulty product.  I wish I could have purchased directly from Waring, but eBay was the only place I could find a refurbished grinder.

So, the black cloud seems determined to stick around to bug me.  If I have to return the item and the seller won’t refund my shipping, I’ll be out about $35 or $40, and I’ll still need to buy parts.

One “positive” thing to come out of this incident was that it reinforced how much I prefer raw food to commercial, canned food.  I had to run out and buy a case of Natural Balance on Thursday evening, and by Friday, there was a lot of stinky, stinky poop in the litterboxes.  Back when I fed canned food all the time, I’d often smell a fresh “litterbox deposit” from the other end of the house.  Since I switched to raw, I swear that the cat poop does not stink.  I haven’t deliberately picked it up and sniffed it, of course, but a cat can be pooping in the litterbox while I’m in the same room, and I don’t smell anything.  The poops are also lovely and petite.  The only canned food that gave me this sort of great result was Merrick, and the cost difference between feeding homemade and feeding Merrick is a couple hundred dollars per month.  So, if you gag when you empty your litterbox(es), keep the concept of feeding raw in mind.  It’s been a change which has led to lots of good surprises (the meat grinder incident aside).

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/11 at 09:54 PM

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  1. I have had excellent results buying refurbished kitchen appliances and accessories from Amazon. You might see what they have to offer if your purchase does not work out.

    Posted by Brenda  on  08/12  at  06:36 AM

  2. I hope they resolve the issue quickly! It’s so difficult to wait through this sort of process when all you wanted was your item.

    We’ve still got the dogs on kibble, mostly but we’re definitely considering moving our cat to all wet food considering the great results you’ve come up with - thanks so much for sharing!

    Posted by prajantr  on  08/12  at  11:07 AM

  3. Ugh, I can vouch for the stench of the cats on canned food.  Gross, man.  Lots of gross stinky poop.

    Posted by Flippy  on  08/13  at  08:22 AM

  4. My cat shows no interest in burying her large deposits, so smell is definitely an issue for me. She only eats kibble but she still stinks. I barely have time to cook for the humans in the household so I can’t see myself making home-made food for the feline. The best solution I have found so far is to use that silica/crystal litter. It seems to absorb the moisture and much of the smell from the poop. Unfortunately, the cat also tosses it all over the place.

    Posted by Gimmeasign  on  08/13  at  06:56 PM

  5. "Gimmeasign”, I think kibble is absolutely the worst “stinky poop offender” of them all!  It’s just noxious.  I know a lot of people seem to think that feeding wet food will cause mucky poop, or stinky poop (because the food itself is mucky and stinky) but I think bad experiences like that are either caused by food sensitivities or intestinal problems from changing foods too quickly.  I think kibble only exists as a convenience for humans, because there’s certainly nothing natural about it.  My other complaint about kibble is the volume of poop: my cats were all pooping at least twice a day on kibble, and on canned, they only go once.  On raw, they still go about once a day but it’s small and not smelly.

    As for feeding Wild Kitty and cooking for your cat, it’s not very time-consuming.  You’d mix about four pounds of lightly cooked ground turkey or chicken with a $13 bag of Wild Kitty, and you could practically feed one cat for an entire month.  That’s about $17 for nutritious, human-quality food, and it would take about thirty minutes to prepare it and freeze it in portions.

    And about the litter… have you tried a deeper litter box to help cut down on mess?  We use large Rubbermaid storage containers which are about 14” deep, so it’s almost impossible for the cats to kick it over the sides.  There’s also the option of putting a lid on the container (after cutting a hole in it, of course), and that will cut down on mess even further.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  08/16  at  04:19 AM

  6. Oh, that’s just beyond aggrivating!!!!!

    Posted by Diana  on  08/17  at  04:05 AM
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