As a person who participates in regular sessions of yoga exercise and believes in the power of the universe and love, a gift of a desktop Zen Garden was recently bestowed upon me by a friend. This little box included a shallow wooden tray about four inches wide by ten inches long. The kit also included a bag of very fine sand, some small rocks, and a teeny tiny plastic rake.
After adding some colorful rocks and a souvenir shell turtle with glasses, I found moving the sand around with the teeny tiny rake was indeed soothing and rewarding. Some days the sand became as smooth as glass. Other times, it would drift against the sides of the box as if a strong, desert wind had blown through my office cubicle. Often, strange designs appeared in the surface of the sand as though the shell turtle with glasses had hopped about across the sand under the cover of darkness. Coworkers would stop by to rake the sand and rearrange the rocks. Overall, the desktop Zen Garden was a big success in the office.
In a seemingly unrelated event, a new addition to my menagerie of pets at home came in the form of a nine week old kitten. Thus, for said kitten, being too small to protect himself outdoors in the Central Texas countryside with hawks, raccoons and coyotes ready to eat him, a cat litter box was placed into service. At first, cleaning the thoroughly disgusting tray of offal was a nose holding, sometimes gagging experience. But the discovery of an exceptionally effective odor control, clumping cat litter made this task much less objectionable.
One morning, after scooping out the now thankfully unrecognizable excrement with the slotted spatula type instrument designed for such activity, I quite unintentionally proceeded to smooth and move the cat litter around the box. The grains sifted through the slots in the scoop easily and gracefully. The surface of the litter moved like a wave with the strokes of the scoop. I smiled. Yes, you read that right. I smiled while leaning over the cat box. It was surprisingly peaceful.
Therefore, no wonder indoor cats and odor controlling cat litter are so popular. They combine to make a very desirable pet situation. Between the warm, soft fur, the gentle purring, and the unexpected pleasure of litter box stirring, a person most certainly can reach a state of Cat Box Zen.
After adding some colorful rocks and a souvenir shell turtle with glasses, I found moving the sand around with the teeny tiny rake was indeed soothing and rewarding. Some days the sand became as smooth as glass. Other times, it would drift against the sides of the box as if a strong, desert wind had blown through my office cubicle. Often, strange designs appeared in the surface of the sand as though the shell turtle with glasses had hopped about across the sand under the cover of darkness. Coworkers would stop by to rake the sand and rearrange the rocks. Overall, the desktop Zen Garden was a big success in the office.
In a seemingly unrelated event, a new addition to my menagerie of pets at home came in the form of a nine week old kitten. Thus, for said kitten, being too small to protect himself outdoors in the Central Texas countryside with hawks, raccoons and coyotes ready to eat him, a cat litter box was placed into service. At first, cleaning the thoroughly disgusting tray of offal was a nose holding, sometimes gagging experience. But the discovery of an exceptionally effective odor control, clumping cat litter made this task much less objectionable.
One morning, after scooping out the now thankfully unrecognizable excrement with the slotted spatula type instrument designed for such activity, I quite unintentionally proceeded to smooth and move the cat litter around the box. The grains sifted through the slots in the scoop easily and gracefully. The surface of the litter moved like a wave with the strokes of the scoop. I smiled. Yes, you read that right. I smiled while leaning over the cat box. It was surprisingly peaceful.
Therefore, no wonder indoor cats and odor controlling cat litter are so popular. They combine to make a very desirable pet situation. Between the warm, soft fur, the gentle purring, and the unexpected pleasure of litter box stirring, a person most certainly can reach a state of Cat Box Zen.
Spunky, the new cat in town.
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