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The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

charlesmingus.com

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Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#21
post #17
post #7

There are even special litter boxes sold that are intended to go on the toilet seat for this type of training. But as cool as this is, I believe it can be dangerous, especially for owners of male cats. Cats' urinary habits are important to keep an eye on. A change in urination volume or frequency can be the sign of a critical issue that requires veterinary attention. You just can't easily track urine volume if the ca…

And if you have a male cat it’s important to also make sure they’re getting enough liquid, especially if they’re on a dry food diet. My cat almost died while I was out of town because he stopped drinking from stress I guess and was only on a dry diet. Now they’re on a can diet and healthy.

Very good point. My cats get wet only. The male I mentioned in my other comment is underweight since he never regained his full appetite after his urinary issues, so at some point I started allowing him to snack on a bit of dry food at night to get his weight up. A month or two later he developed urinary problems. This ended up being caused by crystals in his bladder, which are associated with not taking in enough liquids. Now, I'd rather he be a little skinny than risk that again. Water fountains help, but aren't enough.

There is an issue of Royal Canin Veterinary Focus that focuses on lower urinary tract disease in cats and dogs: https://vetfocus.royalcanin.com/en/-/media/vet-focus/en-us-p...

There are interesting sections on Feline Idiopathic Cystitis and blockage, which talk about water management as well. On page 23, there is a table called "Table 1. Clinical features of cats diagnosed with cystitis with (n = 8,220) or without (7,862) concurrent pyuria in 2012."

At the bottom of the table are a few rows on diet. ~3.5% of cats in the sample were on a canned-only diet. ~19.2% were on a mix of dry and canned food. 77.3% were on a dry-only diet (percentages slightly varied for those with pyuria).

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#22

Given that the strip is now (ouch) almost 19 years old, it occurs to me that some folks may not have seen Nightlife Mingus' appearance in the web comic Achewood: http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003

Man look at that early 2000s simple text-based web header & web design.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#24
post #7

There are even special litter boxes sold that are intended to go on the toilet seat for this type of training. But as cool as this is, I believe it can be dangerous, especially for owners of male cats. Cats' urinary habits are important to keep an eye on. A change in urination volume or frequency can be the sign of a critical issue that requires veterinary attention. You just can't easily track urine volume if the ca…

I'd just want to add that, I in general don't think it's a good idea to train cats to learn behaviors that are unnatural for them. One could say that, eating processed cat food and living with humans are already unnatural, which is true. But to the extent that's possible, I want to provide my cats the freedom to act as naturally as possible.

On this particular cat toilet training trick: cats are in fact quite particular about litterbox -- where it's positioned, how safe it feels inside it, how it smells. A human toilet is decidedly an unnatural setup for cats, and who knows what can happen. Maybe the cat learns to use it but constantly feels anxious about it (e.g. slipper surface). Maybe it will avoid pooping until it gets really uncomfortable. All of these can't be good for its health.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#25
post #20

Our neighbor when I was growing up had a cat that would use the toilet and flush. I was amazed as a kid. Not sure I want to share the bathroom with our cats. We just got a litter robot last week it's pretty amazing. We set it up in a hall closet to get the two litter boxes out of the laundry room. It should pay for itself in 3-4 months by using less litter than our two traditional litter boxes (yesterdays news litter…

I've been looking at getting an automatic cleaning litter box for a while now. Would you mind recommending the type that you bought if you are so happy with it?

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#26
post #4

I love Mingus. The Watts Towers complex has a museum to Mingus attached, as well as another museum of local artists attached. I'd highly recommend a visit. It's a beautiful neighborhood full of very nice people.

As if I didn’t have enough reasons to love Mingus.

Thanks for the museum suggestion. I haven’t been to the towers since 1979 when I made my parents take me after they played in a tennis tournament at USC while I hung out at the Boys and Girls Club in the nearby park.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#27

Given that the strip is now (ouch) almost 19 years old, it occurs to me that some folks may not have seen Nightlife Mingus' appearance in the web comic Achewood: http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003

Man look at that early 2000s simple text-based web header & web design.

It often strikes me that nothing has aged as well as solid colour backgrounds/widgets when it comes to user interfaces. If you'd told me this site was made in 2021 I'd believe you. Another example that comes to mind is the intro screen at the start of The Running Man, crisp white text on a red background. Looks as modern as the day it was made: https://i.imgur.com/wCRSDK0.jpeg

I wish I could extrapolate from this to figure out what else will age well when designing UIs.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#28
I've seen this tutorial almost word for word before, and I even know a few people who have trained their cats using this method. It wasn't until today that I realized that this was method was created by one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world (and IMO the best bass player that ever lived).

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#29
post #20

Our neighbor when I was growing up had a cat that would use the toilet and flush. I was amazed as a kid. Not sure I want to share the bathroom with our cats. We just got a litter robot last week it's pretty amazing. We set it up in a hall closet to get the two litter boxes out of the laundry room. It should pay for itself in 3-4 months by using less litter than our two traditional litter boxes (yesterdays news litter…

I've been looking at getting an automatic cleaning litter box for a while now. Would you mind recommending the type that you bought if you are so happy with it?

I've had a Litter Robot for nearly a year and also really like it (wrote a more detailed review here[0]), although it's definitely not perfect. Mine is the Litter Robot 3 with the WiFi functionality (lets me keep an eye on how often they go even when I'm not home). I do believe the price isn't worth it for _most_ people, but do not regret the purchase.

[0] https://liza.io/litter-robot-3-review/

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