We adopted 4-month-old Mir just over two days ago from a rescue group that takes in cats and kittens bound for euthanasia (i.e. to meet their Kitty Maker) at overcrowded shelters.

Chekhov is PEEVED.

But where’s Sting?

Our operators are standing by for your e-mails

Photo by Tamar Schechner

I so rarely make personal purchases these days—a combo of ecological living and cheapskatednessa high joy-to-stuff ratio—but I just had to treat myself to one of Tamar Schechner’s beyond-gorgeous fairy-tale dreamcatchers, which she tells me makes use of fabric scraps and vintage buttons. I’m enormously pleased with myself to have gotten my hands on this, because I’m usually beaten to the punch by quicker fellow admirers—the same ones, I’m sure, who snapped up Alicia Paulson’s cagelets minutes after she put them up for sale. (Whoever you are, quit it, okay? Or I’ll be forced to hunt you down and cut you.)

Equally charming are Tamara’s paper flower pins, made from recycled magazines, catalogs, and other pretty papers she gets her hands on. For more eye candy, check out her exquisite blog.

Now to figure out a way to hang my dreamcatcher without a certain kitty noticing the plump, pink bird.

Comic by Patrick McDonnell

Chekhov wants to remind you that June is Adopt-a-Cat month! He was first adopted as a 3-month-old ball of fluff with mad ninja skillz on June 1, 2002, by sheer coincidence. (We had both just been dumped.) That night, he made it unequivocally clear that he thought Woody Allen was overrated. What a cat.

[via my supercool sister-in-law]

Taken by the hub.

Photo by Heidi Coppock-Beard/Getty Images

I’ve previously quoted Joe Dominguez’s philosophy that to be frugal means to “have a high joy-to-stuff ratio.”

Here are three simple, practically cost-free things that give me joy:

1. The dreamy palettes of cupcake fondant, whipped up into miniature peaks of pure decadence.

2. When Chekhov crawls under the duvet and flops his little furry self flush against me in bed, purring softly before he tucks his head into his chest and drifts off to sleep; the dull staccato of his heartbeat.

3. A cup of hot (organic, fair-trade) tea while homebound on a rainy day; the rising steam mingling with the faint smell of rain.

What are some of yours?

Don’t worry, this was taken three years ago, after a run-in with his nemesis/now-former roommate, who slammed a door on his tail, lopping part of it off. He’s all better now. Scarred for life and two inches short of a full-length tail, but better.

I had to make nicey-nice back then—she was rather contrite, though, and paid for his vet’s bill—but, between you and me, I wish he had scratched her face.

Photo from Fetching Tags

While researching “How to Green Your Pet” for Treehugger, I came across some sustainable options for pet I.D. tags. To tie them all together, check out the U.S.-made I-can’t-believe-that’s-hemp collars by Earthdog—y’know, if that Swiss Family Robinson look doesn’t work for you. Also available: breakaway cat collars made from 100-percent hemp.

These tags are handcut from recycled diamond-plate aluminum and then polished so brilliantly your pup can almost see its face in it. You can choose from one of almost a hundred catchphrases (such as “Bad to the Bone” or “Who Farted?”) or you can come up with your own custom wording. Lightweight yet durable, the tags come in six sizes and four different shapes. Your pet’s name and your phone number can be inscribed on the back. I think Chekhov’s should say “You Smell” or “Cylon Agent.” ($15, Robbins Pet Care)

Fetching Tags are made from lightweight aircraft-quality aluminum and are twice as thick as regular I.D. tags. Shopowner Jen e-mailed to let me know that the tags contain recycled content, though they have no way of determining how much exactly. “Aluminum is the most efficiently recycled metal that we humans use,” she says. “Something like 2/3 of aluminum ever brought into production is still in use in some form.” Again, you get your choice of catchphrase in front, and your pet’s name and your number on the back. Comes in three sizes and four shapes. ($30, Fetching Tags)

You’ve undoubtedly seen Maize Hutton’s Mommy and Daddy Tags made from silver that was reclaimed from old film negatives. Now your pet can get its own 1×2-inch Wagg Tag from the same recycled silver. You cat or pooch’s name is engraved in front, along with the appropriate pet image, and your number goes on the back. Because the tags are constructed from very fine silver and can dent easily, they’re not for the rambunctious animal. ($55, Mommy Tags)

I have no balls so why should other animals have them?

Have you contributed to Spay Day 2007 yet? Every $2 donation gets you an entry into our random drawing from which one lucky duck gets to take home a generous basket of certified-organic cat or dog goodies from Heidi’s Bakery. You have until the 27th to empty your wallets and fill your pockets WITH EMOTION.

CLICK HERE TO GIVE!

Illustration by the Humane Society of the United States

My cat Chekhov is taking a break from ambushing invisible bugs and dishing eco advice to bring Spay Day USA (Feb. 27, 2007) to your attention. Spay Day is a national campaign that promotes spaying (or neutering) as a simple, effective, and humane solution to pet homelessness, rather than taking strays to that terrible room where Chekhov says “you can go in but YOU CAN’T COME OUT.”

It costs $75 to spay a cat or a dog, and, in support of Spay Day, Chekhov wants to raise funds for the Humane Society of the United States’ Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS) program, which provides free spay/neuter surgeries for pets in poverty-stricken or geographically isolated locations. His goal isn’t too outrageous: 10 cats and dogs, or $750—but as that old chestnut goes, every dollar helps.

Chekhov says he is one of the luckier ones because he found a pair of human slaves loving home, but most of the thousands of puppies and kittens born every hour don’t even survive to adulthood.

You can make a tax-deductible donation directly at our HSUS-provided personal fundraising page, so you know that Chekhov isn’t absconding with your moola to buy sushi or, you know, getting “dee nuclear wessels.”

Please drop a note in the comments after you’ve made your contribution, because we’ll be selecting a donor at random and awarding them a PRIZE to share with a four-legged buddy. I haven’t decided what it is yet, but I promise IT WILL BE GOOD and include certified-organic pet treats. Many, many thanks (and kitty head-butts) in advance.

I mean, how could you say no to this face?

CLICK HERE TO GIVE!

Screenshot from Darfur is Dying

What’s going on in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan?

The CliffsNotes version from Save Darfur:

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.”

The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.

The situation in Darfur became less abstract to me, shameless child of the MTV generation that I am, when I started playing Darfur is Dying, a simulation “game” online that I realized (after obnoxiously whinging how hard it was) isn’t a game to the 4 million people in Darfur.

Another creative strategy in response to the crisis: Eyes on Darfur, a collaborative effort among artists and crafters on Etsy.com to raise money and awareness for the people of Darfur. All proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. Of course, it’s always more pragmatic to donate directly to the charity of your choice, but if you’re going to buy something anyway, it couldn’t hurt to make your purchase count.

Chekhov’s pick of the litter: kitty toys made from recycled sweaters (and stuffed with organic catnip) for the “tree-hugging cat”.

And if you’re an American Express-card holder, you can donate your points to Refugees International (a three-star Charity Navigator charity), which provides “humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world,” as well.

Related article:
1. Even Third-World Farmers Get the Blues

Reconstructed tops by Snowflake 66, available at Cut + Paste

Shopping as therapy is so ingrained in our cultural identity that despite my best efforts, when under duress, I still double over, sink my head into open palms, and use the Lord’s name in vain because GOD ALMIGHTY I need to shop NOW. It’s a genetic sickness, kind of like Bruce Banner’s, if the Hulk had a thing for pointelle lace and cap sleeves. Most of the time, Chekhov leaps onto my lap and jabs me in the eye so I have trouble making out where to key in my credit-card number. When his mind is honed in like a particle-beam satellite on the cleanliness of his furry tuckus, however, the following cheat sheet comes in handy.

GOOD: Buy organic clothing, i.e, no pesticides or chemicals were used in the making of this T-shirt, which is good for you and good for the environment. (See “What’s the Cotton Pickin’ Idea” for problems with conventionally grown cotton.) Other tree-hugging materials: hemp, bamboo, and soysilk.

BETTER: Buy vintage or repurposed/reconstructed clothing. Their polluting impact has come and gone, no new resources have been expended, and you’re not contributing anything new to the waste stream. Plus, you’re keeping perfectly good clothes out of the landfill. Even Umbra of Grist says, “New organic clothing is not better than already-purchased synthetic clothing.”

BEST: Don’t buy anything. (No foolin’!) Refuse to wrap your identity within the temporarily gratifying bounds of material consumption and be “possessed by your possessions.” Like Juliet B. Schor, author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need and Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture says, choose quality over quantity, longevity over novelty, and versatility over specialty. If we’re satisfied with a much smaller closet, we can spend more per garment so our clothes are better constructed. “Workers would work less, produce fewer but higher-quality items, and be paid more per hour. Such a change would help make ecologically clean technologies economically feasible,” she says.

Photo from A Greater Gift

Another fair-trade, though not organic-certified, Halloween treat, me hearties: Divine Chocolate’s chocolate coins from a co-op of 40,000 cocoa growers in Ghana. Swab yer haunted deck with these gold dubloons, ARRR. ($3.50, A Greater Gift)

Can you spot Chekhov hiding among A Greater Gift’s other fair-trade spookilicious swag?

Related article:
1. Fair Trade is Boo-Tiful

Chekhov grudgingly consented to a couple of action shots. Previously, I had grown the wheatgrass in his single-serve cat-food tins, but the setup proved too light. You might have better luck with the large cans, if you’re a multiple-cat household.

I ended up not going to the apple festival—it turns out the farm is three-quarters of the way to Coney Island and I’d have had to transfer to a bus on top of a very long train ride. On top of having a limited supply of spoons, I have a tendency to get lost because I’m directionally challenged, which is why I married an Eagle Scout. I hope we’ll be able to hit up at least one apple festival when he gets back. Do you know how long this city girl has nursed the fantasy of gathering fallen apples in a red-and-white gingham apron, rolling out the dough for a pie, and then watching as little woodland birds descend upon the crust, hopping along the circumference to make little V-shape indentations? Don’t tell me this actually won’t happen because I will be forced to hurt you for ripping my still-beating heart from my chest and smashing it to the ground.

Instead of moping around for want of a husband—he’s been away for three weeks and counting—I went to the farmers’ market in Union Square to partake of some of fall’s bounty. From left: organic banana bread, homemade apple butter (I blame Amy), and organic spelt flour. Not shown: six luscious yellow peaches for my lonesome belly.

Here’s Chekhov’s takeout—really homegrown organic wheatgrass, but I get a kick every time he nibbles from it.

Today is the Eighth Annual Knit-Out & Crotchet, Too! Last year, I rocked out my Lorna’s Laces socks on the Union Square tarmac and spotted The Chin chain-smoking with abandon. Mothers, don’t let your daughters grow up to be short, egomaniacal, “champion” crocheters who filk about yarn.

In the news today:
1. California takes on global warming.

2. “Yes Virginia, there is a way for students to live green.”

3. 58 percent of consumers surveyed said they were “not green interested” and did not care about environmentally friendly practices, including recycling, corporate social responsibility, or natural and/or organic ingredients.

4. 40 percent of the U.S. is facing moderate-to-extreme drought, says NOAA.

5. Bottled water vs. tap water: “Paying hundreds of times more for something you’re already paying for is probably the silliest of all spending habits.” I think the word they’re looking for is “sucker”.

6. On PBS this October: Building Green features green building techniques and materials.

7. For some brevity, Lambert the Sheepish Lion! [via Hugg.com]

Chekhov and I are taking a mini blogging break to recharge and work on some personal projects¹, along with a few campaign promises I’ve made a couple of people. We’ll be back on Monday, August 28, or thereabouts, though we may reemerge earlier if we feel sufficiently rested and caught up.

When we return: Fair Trade 101! Cradle-to-cradle will rock! Organic wool! EZ DIY book wrapper! Chekhov answers more mail! Plus, COWS!

Meanwhile, feel free to browse the archives by month, category, or search term. Is there a red-hot topic you’re champing at the bit to learn more about? Our research desk is always open to suggestions. And cupcakes.

¹Including catching up on my magazine subscriptions while Chekhov bats around a plastic milk tab with deranged ecstasy.

Photo by Amy Eckert/Getty Images

(Part of my Green This House program.)

Rainshow’r Shower Head
Mentioned previously here, suffice to say, we love it. The hub marvels at the higher water-jet pressure despite the shower head being lower flow (due to its great many pinhole perforations). I love the pause switch that saves gallons of water during lathering, but doesn’t lose your carefully calibrated balance of hot and cold water. Plus, the dechlorinating filter, which is supposed to last six to nine months for a family of four, can be mailed to a company that will recycle it at the end of its life.

DIY Skin & Hair Care
My skin is so much happier and clearer since I began mixing up my own skin-care products, and the cost savings have been substantial. Plus, everything is completely edible, which is always the safest bet health-wise when you’re debating over what to smear on your face. I don’t even buy commercial hair conditioner at all, now, but prefer a mix of olive oil, lemon juice/apple cider vinegar, and a few drops of tea tree oil. (Occasionally I add an egg yolk.)

Newbie Gardening
I have a wee catnip seedling and an even-more wee lemon balm seedling growing in TerraNotta pots on my windowsill. A broadleaf thyme cutting I planted taught me a hard lesson about misting young leaves in the mid-afternoon and encouraging leaf burn. Poo. Oh well, ever onward, upward. Oh, I also have three lavender seeds in an Earth Plug I’m quite excited about. (Poor hub has to endure my bursts of “Grow For Me” from Little Shop of Horrors because he’s married to a complete ham.) I didn’t get to go to the farm on Sunday because we weren’t able to get a ride, but I’m sure other opportunities will arise (even if I have to put a bell on Chekhov and pretend he’s a cow). Update: Cause of plant death may in fact be Felis cattus. We made a protective cloche out of an empty cider jug.

Cat Litter
Remember our non-sustainable litter box? I finally managed to convince the hub to unplug the beastly thing. Because the corn-based cat litter we use is biodegradable and flushable, it’s easy to just scoop any kitty byproducts when we visit the bathroom and send it whooshing down the toilet. Chekhov sometimes leans over the toilet to watch, a bit aghast. Most notably, our bathroom doesn’t smell as it sometimes did before.

Bamboo Cutting Board
I am absolutely over-the-moon in love with our attractive, functional, and sustainable bamboo cutting board. It really makes it much more of a joy to prepare food on, as silly as it sounds.

Photo by Luc Hautecoeur/Getty Images

This is hysterical. And sad. But mostly hysterical. From the Times: “GM grass takes a walk on the wild side.” (My knee-jerk reaction was, “GM again? First they put toy Hummers into Happy Meals and now they’re releasing mutant grass? IS NOTHING SACRED?”)

A genetically modified grass designed to improve golf courses and lawns has caused alarm in the US after escaping into the wild.

Creeping bentgrass, Agrostis stolonifera, has spread up to three miles outside a test site in Oregon with nine different plants being identified.

It had been modified to make it impervious to the herbicide glysophate and was designed to appeal to golf course managers who would be able to spray large areas to kill off weeds without damaging the grass.

Homeowners were considered another lucrative market because it could help them to create perfect lawns in front of their houses.

The US Department of Agriculture has ordered a full environmental audit of its impact and spread to determine the threat to wildlife. Unlike GM crops such as maize and soybeans, which are annuals and unable to reproduce, the perennial grass was able to produce seeds during outdoor tests.

Some of the plants found outside the test site, reports New Scientist, had grown from seeds produced by the GM parent. Others were hybrids derived from a non-GM plant being pollinated by one of the modified specimens.

Incidentally, cross-pollination between GM crops and neighboring organic crops is a pressing issue for many organic farmers because it could invalidate U.K. Soil Association or USDA organic certification.

Pesticides may be able to exterminate creepy crawlies and other gross-out household pests, but guess what, they’re slowly killing you, too. The man-made chemicals we favor are like the nose-picking houseguest we just can’t seem to get rid of—for instance, an average of 200 industrial compounds, pollutants and other chemicals were recently discovered in the umbilical cord blood of newborns. (These included seven dangerous pesticides, some of which were banned in the U.S. over 30 years ago.) We’re serving our kids potent chemical cocktails even before they are born—not quite the head-start they may have been hoping to get.

The toxic chemicals mimic hormone activity, impeding reproductive and mental development in fetuses and children, as well as resulting in nausea, dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, and asthma. As steady doses of pesticides accumulate in our bodies, they can lead to infertility, nerve and neurological damage, blood and lymphatic system cancers, cancers of the lip, stomach, lung, brain, and prostate, plus melanoma and other skin cancers. In fact, cancer is the second leading cause of death among children. (Accidents rank first.) Pesticides have also been implicated in Parkinson’s disease.

The choice is obvious: ditch the poisons. Natural, safe, and non-toxic methods of corralling pests abound online, many of them using items you already have in your kitchen cabinet. We recently won a war with marauding ants by spraying our counters and floors with vinegar. And if I happen to give our surfaces a curious lick, all I’ll get is a bad taste in my mouth.

Photo by Misha Gravenor/Getty Images

• New York usage breaks 2005 energy consumption record
• Heat wave does lasting damage across California
• Utah heat wave could cause rolling blackouts
• Extended heat wave impacts Central Valley crops
• Heat wave straining power
• Heat wave, drought hit U.S. farmers hard
• Racing dogs perish in heat wave
• No end in sight to Europe’s heat
• Heat wave worsens toxins in already-closed lake
• Air quality dives as temps rise
• Heat wave causes a pileup of livestock carcasses
• Global warming, not just heat wave
• Scientists split on heat wave cause
• Does heatwave prove climate change?
• Global warming disputes heat up Congress

From Gristmill:

More heat = more electricity usage.
More electricity usage = more carbon emissions.
More carbon emissions = … you get the idea.

We’re digging our own graves, suffice to say. Our home is kept cool by a couple of box-window fans and desk fans, and plenty of water we keep chilled in two pitchers in the fridge. (Chekhov hangs out in the bathtub if he’s feeling the heat.) “We can just suck it up now,” I told the hub, “or face a future where babies spontaneously combust in the delivery room because it’s THAT HOT.”

I say this in jest but you know what I mean. Says the NRDC, “Unless we act now, our children will inherit a hotter world, dirtier air and water, more severe floods and droughts, and more wildfires.”

Every bulb you switch prevents roughly 1,000 pounds of global warming pollution over the life of the bulb.

Feel free to steal this linky button. Just save it to your own server, si’l vous plait. (Original illustration © Environmental Defense)

I’m so traumatized right now I don’t know if I can even type this.

Ok.

This is even funnier if you keep in mind I have a degree in zoology. Yes, really. And not from one of those fax-yourself-a-certificate outfits on the Internet.

So I’m home today, nursing a migraine and feeling like I want to hork up a goat. I scavenge the contents of my fridge and make myself a nice bowl of greens topped with an ad-hoc tahini dressing I throw together, along with generous dashes of sesame and poppy seeds.

Crunch crunch crunch. Happy happy happy. Declare myself culinary genius with tahini dressing.

Then I spy a large blurry form that doesn’t look very lettucy or poppy-seedy or tahini-blobby. I squint and half-a-beat later, let out a rip-roaring scream that brings Chekhov racing into the room. He cocks his head to the side. “Mrr?”

“CHEKHOV THERE’S A CATERPILLAR IN MY SALAD AHHHHHHGETRIDOFITHELPMEAHHHHHHH…”

Chekhov sits on the hardwood floor.

“AHHHHHHHHELPMESOMEONEAHHHHHHHHOHKILLMENOW….”

Chekhov starts to groom himself.

I realize I’m on my own. I take a step forward toward the salad—

—and with a loud yelp take a flying leap backward.

Time for some Dutch courage: I eat half a bar of (organic, fair trade) chocolate.

“Ok, you can do this. Think of it as a pre-butterfly. You like butterflies? They’re pretty. Pretty butterflies. You should see this as being poignant and tragic because it never got to become a pretty butterfly.”

“Be logical. What’s the worst that can happen? It’s dead. And the worst thing that can happen is that you die, right? And that’s good because then you won’t ever be bothered by creepy crawlies in your salad. Death GOOD. So it’s a win-win situation.”

Logic and I aren’t exactly bosom buddies. In fact I wouldn’t even go so far as to call us passing acquaintances. If Logic saw me from across the room at a tea social, Logic would quickly make up an excuse to use the ladies’ room and then climb out of the bathroom window to make her hurried escape. Such is our estrangement.

It takes me another 5 minutes of bouncing back and forth like a drunk, cussing kangaroo (after seven riotous rounds of “Waltzing Matilda”) before I do anything remotely constructive.

I call the hub on his cell and proceed to shriek into his voicemail until it cuts me off. Bite me, T-Mobile.

Finally, I grab my longest pair of straight knitting needles, lay out a piece of newspaper, and squeezing my eyes tight but not so much that I can’t see at all, pick up the offending leaf of lettuce and drop it onto the newspaper. Then, like a woman possessed by the infernal armies of Beelzebub, I scoop up and crumple up the newspaper and HURL myself toward the kitchen trashcan, dry heaving all the way.

I’m going to pass out now, thanks.

(Part of my Green This House program.)

I think Chekhov has finally reached a place of spiritual acceptance over the fact that his delicious crap is never coming back. Apparently I’m not the only meanie-butt human can-opener around, because organic pet food sales are growing at nearly three times the rate of organic human food, according to the Organic Trade Association.

“The major problem with the content of conventional pet foods is the use of ‘animal by-products,’ which are low-grade wastes from the beef and poultry industries,” Dr. Andrew Weil tells PlanetSave.com. (Weil is a holistic-medicine advocate who endorses Pet Promise, a line of dry and canned foods for cats and dogs.) He goes on to say on his Web site that “the animals used to make many pet foods are classified as ‘4-D,’ which stands for Dead, Dying, Diseased or Down (disabled) when they arrive at the slaughterhouse. If the meat from an animal is acceptable for human consumption, it likely will not be used for commercial pet food unless you buy products which truthfully state that they use FDA-certified, food-grade meat.”

Translation: Rover and Fluffy get the scraps no human in his or her right mind would deign to touch under normal circumstances.

Weil says that nutrition is just as significant to our animal compadres as it is to us because it’s “one of the most important determinants of health and resistance to disease.” Ideally, he says, we should be feeding our pets meat, poultry, and fish of a similar quality to what we would eat. For optimum nutrition, their chow should be “raised in sustainable, humane ways without added drugs and hormones, and with quality grains, fats and macronutrients.”

What is organic or natural pet food, anyway? Says PlanetSave.com:

Natural pet foods generally are minimally processed and are preserved with natural substances, such as vitamins C and E. Whereas “natural” is an undefined and unregulated distinction, “certified organic” pet foods must meet strict standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that spell out how ingredients must be produced and processed. These standards do not allow the use of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial preservatives, artificial ingredients or genetically engineered ingredients.

…

Besides pesticides and hormones, natural and organic pet foods are free of other undesirable ingredients such as hair, blood, waste and “meal,” all of which come from the rendered carcasses of livestock animals.

One caveat, though:

Phil Brown, a veterinarian who helped develop the formulas for Newman’s Own Organics pet foods, says “natural” has come to mean that the food is free of chemical preservatives and artificial colors, but does not guarantee that the food is free of pesticides, herbicides or antibiotics.

“Natural pet foods can be good foods, but just how good is up to the company,” he says. “I like organic because it has defined parameters.”

Chekhov may not be a Friskies cat anymore—we feed him PetGuard now¹—but he still loves to cha-cha. (And if he’s good, this hard-nosed vegetarian might buy some organic cage-free chicken and prepare the homemade-cat-food recipe outlined at the bottom of the article.)

¹PetGuard’s antibiotic- and artificial-preservative-free line includes a USDA-organic-certified flavor, Organic Chicken and Vegetables, though not all of its products are certified organic.

Chekhov poses with his new summer bed, which I whipped up last evening using repurposed materials: corduroy from an old ankle-grazing skirt of mine I shortened considerably, upholstery remnants I snagged for cheap a few years ago, and foam padding someone at my office threw out but screamed “POTENTIAL” at me.

(I used an overlapping envelope-style closure on the back so it’s easy to throw the cover into the wash.)

My sister was kind enough to relieve some of my Chekhov-missing by filming this clip.

Environmentally speaking, the cost of mass producing cattle, poultry, sheep, and pigs is highly unsustainable due to our inefficient use of freshwater and land, along with soil erosion and heavy pollution from livestock waste. Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food, while raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water per kilogram of meat. In comparison, according to a Cornell study, soybean production uses 2,000 liters per kilogram of food produced, followed by rice (1,912 liters), wheat (900 liters), and potatoes (500 liters).

Compared to the 3kg of greenhouse-warming carbon gas released by a typical American car in a day, clearing enough Costa Rican rainforest to produce beef for one hamburger results in the release of 75kg of CO₂.

Try going meat-free once or twice a week—you’ll not only be reducing your environmental impact, you’ll also save some extra clams, while getting some much-needed nutrition, including vitamins A, C, and E, and dietary fiber into your diet. (Note, however, that dogs and cats are carnivorous and should not be fed a wholly vegetarian diet. Not if you value that pretty face of yours. Punk.)

(Part of my Green This House program.)

A couple of years ago, back when sustainability was a catchphrase rather than a household motto, and my lifelong emotional malaise was spiraling ever more downward than usual, we invested in an electric-powered automated litter box to make our lives a little bit easier. Now, of course, it’s become the 800-pound gorilla dogging my ongoing efforts to green our lives, especially considering the litter box uses disposable plastic containers. (Mon dieu!) Despite conventional wisdom that you do WHATEVER THE 800-POUND GORILLA DAMN WELL WANTS, we’ve gone over all our options, including dumping it (waste of money and resources), giving it away (no difference, just palming off our guilt), or simply disconnecting it and using it as a regular, old school poop shack (”That’s just stupid,” said the hub, who lacked the will and I the energy).

Finally, we met ourselves halfway with what I thought to be a decent compromise: Disconnect it for most of the day, flip the switch once after work to clear the byproducts of Chekhov’s daily contemplations, then turn the litter box off again. We also decided to reuse the plastic receptacle instead of tossing it and its hapless successors in the trash every week. The automated litter box wasn’t going to vanish into nonexistence as much as I wished it would, and this way, the hub reasoned, we’d be reducing its ecological footprint—which wasn’t going to be the case if we had given it away—while still reaping its benefits.

At around the same time, a post by Clay and Wattles up north inspired me to do some research on flushable cat litter, since, like most people’s cat overlords’, Chekhov’s pathogen-laced caca ended up in the landfill, where, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, it is “mummified for generations in plastic bags.” From the same story:

“American dogs and cats produce 10 million tons of waste a year, and no one knows where it’s going,” said Will Brinton, a scientist in Mount Vernon, Maine, and one of the world’s leading authorities on waste reduction and composting. “That’s really beginning to be looked at as a nightmare.”

Further investigation led to the discovery that clay litter is strip-mined, an environmentally devastating excavation process. (Merde!) Not only is the clay sediment permeated with carcinogenic silica dust that can coat Chekhov’s little lungs, the sodium bentonite that enables the litter to clump can poison him through chronic ingestion. That’s not the worst of it, according to Care2.com:

Sodium bentonite acts like an expandable cement, which is why these litters should not be flushed: they swell to fifteen to eighteen times their dry size and can be used as grouting, sealing, and plugging materials.

Cats often lick themselves after using the litter box, ingesting pieces of the litter. If litter gets inside them, it expands just as it does in the plumbing.

An article on the sheer nastiness of clumping clay litter had me clutching my kitty to my chest and bawling apologies for endangering him through my ignorance.

Very soon after, we started mixing the naturally clumpable and flushable corn-based World’s Best Cat Litter to Chekhov’s regular litter for a less traumatic transition for our change-adverse cat. World’s Best has no clay, silica, odor-absorbing crystals, or any synthetic additives, and, because it’s produced from corn kernels, Chekhov can ingest it during grooming without any problems. One cat-lover has some reservations about whether the corn is actually organic, however, but she agrees that it is a far safer alternative to conventional litter. (She reviews a multitude of alternative litters here.)

So far, we’ve been very pleased with this litter and Chekhov has taken to it without much fuss. Quite unexpectedly, my asthmatic sister, who is staying with us for the duration of her summer internship, no longer suffers the persistent wheezing she used to during prior visits. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen her whip out her inhaler even once. I guess the proof, as they say, is in the pooping.

Sharp-eyed readers may notice a new page near the top of the sidebar: “Fair Trade & Organic in NYC.” Inspired by Green LA Girl’s attempt to catalog all the fair-trade coffee shops in the country, I’m putting together a directory of New York City tearooms and cafes where you can pull up a chair and get a fair-trade and organic cuppa. This is obviously a work-in-progress, and the list will get updated as I sip and slide my way through the Big Apple.

Like Siel, I’ll only be listing establishments that show a significant commitment to fair trade/organic.

(I’ve also written summaries of “Why Fair Trade” and “Why Organic” for folks who are just passing through and aren’t familiar with the concepts yet¹.)

And here’s something for Chekhov’s fans:

¹You will be. You. Will. Be.

I’m a sucker for good design so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I instantly gravitated toward Castor & Pollux Petworks’ range of certified organic cat and dog products. The company even has organic catnip for the persnickety puss, “paw-made in the USA.”

The jury is still out on whether organic pet food is better, and while we’ve bought the odd can for Chekhov, we haven’t completely sold him on the idea¹. Considering that the organic versions are twice the price of conventional pet food, I think our wallets need some convincing, too.

But man are Castor and Pollux the cutest fictional spokepets ever.

¹If he did reviews, expect a lot of “I hate this. And I hate you for making me eat this.”