Karmic Konsumer

ponderethereal.com has been alive and kicking since 2001. Not too long ago, I added advertising to the site which has generated a small amount towards supporting the site. Otherwise, the site has been supported out of pocket.

Ponderethereal A La Aspie has provided information and support for countless numbers of parents of kids with Asperger’s Syndrome and adults like me with Asperger’s Syndrome and Karmic Konsumer enjoys regular reports of people finding valuable information about products and service providers on a daily basis.

To be candid, in September, I was assaulted by my husband and sustained injuries that made me unable to work. That on top of the divorce (of COURSE I divorced him!) has left me in dire financial straights. I am no longer able to financially support the site on my own.

If you have the means and have appreciated the site, please consider donating towards it’s upkeep. I would be eternally grateful. :)




I found Daniel Charlton at Del Mar View Dental Care after a bad experience with another dentist. I recently told them they were priceless - and I meant it.

When you walk in, you are greeted by an immediate sense of quality. The greeting staff is always warm, friendly, polite and accommodating and you are surrounded by an environment that was obviously carefully designed to be peaceful and serene. There is internet access, a plethora of magazines and coffee while you wait - which is never long. This dentist is on time.

I think that the cleaning area is actually called the ‘cleaning spa’ or something similar and it most certainly does have a spa feel to it. Although the equipment is state of the art, clean and sterile, there is nothing sterile feeling about the experience. The dental hygienists are knowledgeable, caring and gentle. You can even watch a dvd while you’re being worked on and block out some of the sound with the dvd visors they have.

As someone with autism, sitting in a dentist’s chair is one of my worst sensory situations. The noise, the scratching, the people moving around me, the hands in the mouth, cold, hot, suction… GAH! But at Doctor Charlton’s office, everything that I’m ever irritated by is carefully noted so that they remember every time. Mine says : “This one doesn’t like much of anything. Candidate for telekinetic toothcleaning when Dr Charlton figures out how to do it. Because he will.” Ok, well maybe the first part. Although, I’m sure if it’s possible, he’d totally invent it.

When you ask my son how much he dislikes going to the dentist, he stares at you blankly. In his 9 years (until his recent bad exp with another dentist) he’s never experienced rough or insensitive dental care. He doesn’t know he’s not supposed to like it!

And probably the best part of the whole practice is Dr Charlton. He’s got expertise in such a wide variety of dental specialties (I’ll let you read the bio) that he is able to really make a complete assessment of a problem and give a comprehensive idea of the best approach. He’s assessed me for orthodontic work to re-straighten my bottom teeth as well as / in conjunction with fixing my TMJ and both times, I came away feeling like I could make an informed decision.

I’ve talked to him about a toothache before and even though it was really nothing, he did a very careful exam before telling me that. :) He’s found and filled a couple of cavities in the years I’ve been there and there was excellent follow up. When I felt my bite was just a little bit off, he was very patient with me and attentive to fixing it. I’ve never had ANY trouble out of the work he did.

When my son needed the bottom of his front tooth replaced, we both felt SO much better finally throwing in the towel on our Dental Trek of Doom and just going to Dr Charlton and paying out of pocket. I might not have been able to afford it… but it was worth it. They fit us in at the very last minute. Dr Charlton very carefully examined it, gave me all of the information I needed AND fixed it absolutely perfectly. My son’s teeth are back to beautiful and I know the work will last - AND my son’s opinion of dentists is redeemed and HE knows now, how excellent Dr. Charlton is.

I drive 40 minutes one way to get there making it a 1.5 hour or 2 hour trip every time. There are dentists that are closer and I’ve moved twice since I started going there. But it’s worth it. So, in summary, I would recommend this dentist to anyone - even kids and the most squeamish. :) If you read this and decide to try them, tell them I (Carrie - the one who wrote the huge internet review) sent you because the have a rad referral bonus - Starbucks! :)

In the past, I have written about a few really bad personal dental experiences (here and here). In all of these experiences, I noticed a differing level of service for people with and without private insurance - and even between dentists that accept public plans and dentists that do not.

Having been on medicaid as a kid, I remember how horrible the care was. I had teeth pulled when I should have had a more complex and more expensive but medically necessary palate widening procedure, that I still need now. When TMJ flared and the need was worsened, it was shoo shooed. When my son, on Medi-cal, needed care for an injury, I thought it would be better in California, a place where I’ve experienced such a higher level of care than elsewhere but it wasn’t. Having been on private insurance for quite some time and then moving my son to a public plan, it turns out that the differences in care are more likely a result of the public plans the dentist accepts.

Jeffrey Fabie, DDS told me, while we were in the waiting room, that the reason my son’s cavities probably handn’t been diagnosed before then was because I probably took him to a Medi-cal dentist who doesn’t get paid much to fill them so they weren’t diagnosed (inferring that they were probably there all the time and he was the good guy by FINALLY diagnosing them - Hooray!). I, of course, was on private insurance and going to an excellent dentist so I’m not sure I agree with his presentation of who the bad guy was, but it was obvious that he WAS aware of the process of weighing financial gain against what should/could be done with a patient.

Jeffrey Fabie DDS obviously saw the need to do this comparison. Plaza Family Dental did it with the xrays and from the outside, I see why someone with an eye of their profit would do it so I don’t think it’s too large a leap to assume it’s happening on a broader scale.

The bottom line is that Medi-cal (and medicaid) offers an environment rich for billing fraud and bad care. These public plans don’t reimburse the dentist very much so common sense tell us three things are likely to happen :

• dentists that accept it almost HAVE to rush patients through in order to make a profit
• The low payment they receive for a procedure also encourages them to use less materials, materials of less quality and less time per procedure, amounting to shoddy care.
• If they can fudge and say they did a ‘teeth cleaning’ when the parent isn’t sitting there or if they only polished them, why not?

Now, I’m sure getting a polishing is better than no cleaning at all. And it’s possible that filling a tooth that doesn’t need it won’t hurt much in the long run. But shoddy work needs to be redone later and work that is not done because the dentist doesn’t want to do it at the rate they are reimbursed, turns into bigger problems later on. This amounts to a frustrated patient who is potentially in pain or damaged by bad care and a dentist that gets more money. And in the end, the money the dentist gets, comes from the taxpayers who THINK they are funding a system that keeps low income people healthy - but in fact are funding a system which only barely does that, if at all, and keeps unscrupulous practitioner’s paychecks coming.

Last week, my nine year old son broke his two front teeth in a skateboarding accident. We took him to the ER to make sure nothing else was broken or damaged. We were instructed to follow up with a dentist the next morning.

He was taken off of his step father’s insurance in January so I put him on Medi-Cal. That, however, meant that his old dentist, who I love, (not PERSONALLY love.. just.. professionally love.) (As a client.) (not like a client who is also a stalker. Just a client.) (Not even one who remotely loves her dentist affectionately.) (But his work? I would marry it.) wouldn’t be covered under Denti-Cal so I had to find him a new one.

The following are my own personal first hand experiences with these dentists. Your mileage may vary.

Roland M Buyama, a pedontist in Oceanside, CA

That night, I spent hours scouring the dental providers list and looking up reviews for each dentist on the list. I landed on a few possibilities. The next morning, I set up an appointment with Roland M Buyama, a pedontist (dentist for kids) in Oceanside, CA. We went directly there.

BUYAMA, ROLAND M, DDS INC
101 SOUTH NEVADA ST
OCEANSIDE CA 92054-3036

The waiting room was tiny, cramped, dirty and dim. There were two kids screaming in the back rooms. There was nothing kid oriented in the waiting room. For a children’s dentis, it didn’t look very child friendly at all.

The receptionist didn’t seem to have a really good grasp on what she was doing. The ‘paperwork’ I had to fill out didn’t much at all about his medical history… just enough to bill us. While I was filling that out, a child came out of the back to sit with her mother again. The mother asked ‘Did he brush your teeth?” and the child shook her head. “Oh. I brought you for a cleaning.” She responded. Hm.

I finished the paperwork and handed it to the receptionist. She wanted to know about his disability and any special circumstances. “Oh, he’ll just need to be numbed when they are fixed”, I said. Oh, we don’t do that, I was told. Um… wow. That would be painful. “Ok, well we just need to see the dentist and I’ll make a decision then.” I said. “Oh, we don’t allow parents to come back with the kids.” WHAT?! My kid broke his teeth out and I can’t go with him to talk to the dentist? No thank you! I’ll take him elsewhere! I asked for the form that I filled out with all of my personal information on it but she wouldn’t return it, saying that it was property of the dentist.

I have NO idea why anyone NOT on medi-cal would EVER go to this dentist. If I had private insurance for Ethan, I would have turned around and walked away as soon as I opened the door.

• horrible waiting room
• bad service
• did not desire comprehensive background on child : dangerous
• not kid friendly
• would not allow mom back with child
• would not numb child for a painful procedure

Richard Tannyhill in Encinitas, CA

So we left. The next place I called was Richard Tannyhill in Encinitas. He doesn’t work until Thursday evenings so I was probably calling a little before he got in. His answering machine said that in an emergency, you should call this other number. Two broken front teeth, need a follow up within 24 hours. I’d say that warrants an emergency. So I called the emergency phone number to be told very rudely by his wife (I assume) that that was his home number. Well, this was the emergency number on his work answering machine, I replied. “Well, he’s not home!” She snapped at me and hung up. Wow. That was professional.

TANNYHILL, RICHARD J
1293 ENCINITAS BLVD.
ENCINITAS CA 92024-2843

• Unavailable most of the week.
• Horrible ‘emergency’ process

Jeffry Fabie DDS (possibly Jeffrey) in Escondido, CA Happy Angel Dental Care

Finally, I called Jeffry Fabie DDS in Escondido. Happy Angel Dental Care. Well, that sounds safe enough, right? Why call it “Happy Angel” if you aren’t at least trying? So we made a quick appointment and “rushed” over. 30 minute drive. We got there and I was pleasantly impressed. The waiting room was very clean and neat and the receptionist was kind and knowledgeable and the information they wanted about Ethan was comprehensive.

FABIE, JEFFRY A. (possibly Jeffrey)
HAPPY ANGEL DENTAL CARE, 1647 EAST VALLEY PKWY
ESCONDIDO CA 92027-2408

There was a kid in the back screaming. Loud. But her grandmother patiently told me that her three year old granddaughter was having three cavities filled right in the front of her mouth. That sounded odd. The likelyhood of a 3 year old with that many cavities on her baby teeth that required filling is slim.

Her brother was done, she told me, gesturing to her ten year old grandson sitting across from us. Wow… two kids in one family under the age of 12 that require multiple fillings? Maybe their mom feeds them twinkies for breakfast and withholds the floss?

So, we were finally ushered back. The exam room was nice with up to date equipment. Did we want a cleaning for Ethan while we were there? Sure! He got two x-rays and we waited. The dentist came in and immediately my entire image of the place changed. NOT a people person, rushed and gruff.

First, he poked each of Ethan’s back teeth and started calling out cavities to his assistant. Cavities? Ethan has had regular checkups since he was three BY GOOD DENTISTS and he’s never had a cavity. Somehow he developed six cavities in six months?

Wow.. this is starting to sound eerily like my experience at Plaza Family Dental, who wanted to charge me for filling cavities that didn’t exist. The poor screaming three year old that had just been in getting a mouth full of fillings came to mind. The likelihood of a 3 year old with that many cavities on her baby teeth that required filling is slim. The likelihood of her ten year old brother ALSO needing fillings, more slim. Added to the fact that I know my son doesn’t have cavities and he just diagnosed six? Hm.

You are not drilling six holes in my nine year old’s teeth when your two x rays and 10 minutes looking at his teeth are aced by a 6 year history with a private dentist and umpteen xrays and really good exams. He summarily made a really big production of making me sign a note that I refused tooth fillings.

Then he took a look at Kegan’s front teeth and said that no, in fact, the second tooth was not fractured. I pointed out the white line across the tooth that follows the line of where the first tooth broke off. “Oh.” He says. That’s probably something on the tooth. He scratched it. Ethan squirmed and said “oooow.” Of course, the whole front part of his mouth is sore. He just ATE THE PAVEMENT.

The dentist pulled out a magic light of fracture seeing (it was the ultraviolet wand that they use for drying stuff in your mouth). Bear in mind, he’s already taken two x-rays and it is clearly visible with the naked eye. He mumbled “yeah.. it’s fractured but there’s nothing I can do. I can maybe put some resin on the other one but I can’t make it look good. He has an overbite and it would just break.” That was confidence building.

So, then the “teeth cleaning” begins. He pulls out the polishing brush and POLISHES ETHAN’S TEETH. Not scrape them or otherwise actually CLEAN them. He polished them. Roughly. Ethan’s mouth was injured because of his crash the day before. Kegan moaned and squirmed and kept saying “ow.” I wanted to rip that man’s hands out of his mouth. His response to Ethan’s discomfort was “Those are the cavities your mother says aren’t there”. WHAT?!

On my way out, the receptionist offered me an appointment for the resin covering nearly a month out. It would be a MONTH before he (a dentist that obviously isn’t worth much) would fix something that is obviously painful to a nine year old kid. No thanks.

• NOT gentle with children
• not gentle with obviously painful injury
• diagnosed cavities that didn’t exist
• was not able to diagnose fracture visible to the naked eye
• would only schedule necessary procedure one month out

did not actually ‘clean’ during a cleaning… only polished

I took Ethan to his regular dentist. We had to pay out of pocket. BUT. He had a full exam, one more xray and his tooth was fixed within an hour. Beautifully. AND, his mouth was numbed for the procedure. AND we had an rx for antibiotics in case of infection. AND a full explanation of why we needed to keep swelling down, just in case. AND verified that it was dubious he had six cavities - but if I gave them the x-rays from the other place, they would look at them. Painless. Quick. The way it should have been at 10 AM that morning.

In summary, although your experience may vary, I would NOT recommend any of these dentists to anyone I care about.

Also check out Plaza Family Dental in Carlsbad, CA and Why Medi-Cal (or medicaid or denti-cal) and Dentists are a Bad Combination. And if you’re looking for a good dentist in North County, check out Daniel Charlton DDS, Del Mar CA

Most long time readers will know that my 9 year old some has some issues with impulse control and behavior in school and socially. This is, in large part, due to his Asperger’s Syndrome and in small (but not inconsequentially) part due to a very highly intelligent mind and strong will.

He is consistently disciplined and rewarded at home and I’m very involved in his world but it’s just not sinking in. And where his disability is concerned, only seen and experienced consequences help. Where zero tolerance and potentially legally dangerous acts are concerned, waiting for legal consequences is not an option I want to explore. So I decided to take him to the San Diego Juvenile Hall Open House.

It was absolutely fabulous. There were booths set up outside, first of all, so while you’re waiting in line to go on the tour, you’re passing educational booths about the facilities and county programs for crime avoidance. Ethan got to see what inmates wear and eat, handcuffs, pictures of inmates doing hard work and get a real taste of life in Juvie before we even went inside.

When we got inside, the kids, Ethan included, were lined up in the front of the tour, shortest to tallest. They were told right away that everyone under 18 was being detained for the next 20 minutes against their will. Right away, officers started yelling at them to straighten the lines up and tuck their shirts in and fold their arms the right way and it was like all 20 kids just totally zipped it up. The looks on their faces were priceless.

We went through each area of the facility and in each area, they were given a very gritty rundown of things like schedules, chores, responsibilities, discipline etc. They were warned about ill behavior at home and school and how it could land them there by people other than their parents. Every step of the way, they were very sternly treated and reminded about their behavior.

We saw bare exercise yards, sparse rooms with cots, bathrooms with no privacy, school classrooms, shared clothing, gross food and a really, truly, disciplinary environment. There was nothing that the kids could grab onto to say ‘it wouldnt be that bad’. By the end of the tour, they were satisfactorily sobered.

I took someone who had been in that juvenile facility as a kid and he was very clear that had he seen this as a kid, it would have been a deterrent. I know *I* surely would have been scared. It’s one thing to hear your parents harp on it, it’s another to see it first hand and hear cops tell you about it without your parents talking to them first.

When we left the tour, we went to booths about gangs, weapons and drugs and they had in depth displays that the kids could look at and actually see drugs and drug paraphernalia and gang related stuff so that they know what they are looking at when they see it.

I highly recommend this for any even borderline kid.

I was stumbling about my new best friend, hulu.com when I ran across Kings, a new television series on NBC. I’d seen the previews and thought I might like to catch it sometime but hulu stuck it under my nose and so I watched and I am enamored.

It takes place in a fictitious world. It’s not clear yet what the history of this world is other than it has taken 20 years for a brand new sparkling city, Shiloh, to be built to house the King and his royal family as the capital of Gilboa. It is this royal family and the government upon which the series is focused.

In the first episode, a contemporary David and Goliath encounter places a country boy at the top of the government food chain. He has eyes for the princess and a knack for doing the right thing. The quintessential well meaning, wholesome hero in the midst of political scandal.

I’m charmed with the mystical spirituality that seems to touch the edges of intense drama. Words from the gods, mystical symbolism in the butterflies, prophecy in dreams in the midst of peace talks, bloody wars and betrayal. It’s very Battlestar Galacticaesque, in that regard.

Here’s the first episode.

I must say that after relating the experience to several Feri family members and hearing that it was uncharacteristic, I was a bit confused about the whole thing and didn’t post the entry that was written almost two years ago.

However, I finally posted my experience with luckymojo.com, the hoodoo store, after receiving an email that my student status was going to become ‘inactive’, well over a year after the fact.

Although I did have a negative experience with luckymojo.com, I am glad to have a positive update. The emails that I received over the past few days from Cat’s (the owner) partner, as a result of the ‘phantom’ student status, have been nothing but kind and accommodating and have made the experience much more pleasant.

Turns out, after emailing back and forth with Cat’s partner, who takes an active role in the business, that the experience that I had doesn’t seem characteristic of the shop at all. As you can see from Cat’s comment on the last post, there isn’t really a trace of the nastiness that was inferred by Ernie. In fact, she seems very straightforward and matter of fact with a hint of kindness.

It also appears that Ernie is no longer with the shop. Maybe this is something that should be on his ‘record of service’ rather than the shop’s. I think that with a better customer service person on the case, the shop’s concerns about the pain in the arse it was for them to cancel the first order (see Cat’s previous comment) would have been voiced and I would have understood and not canceled.

I think, in a business, recovering gracefully from a mishap goes a long way in customer service and in the reputation of a business and I think that, even if late, the shop has recovered extraordinarily gracefully and that isn’t always easy to do.

UPDATE : I placed a new order with the shop and the new shopping cart was much easier! My order arrived quickly and it was a great shopping experience!

I had a peculiar, bizzare and otherwise absurd experience with luckymojo.com. luckymojo.com is a website based upon an in person shop which specializes in hoodoo related merchandise. They sell powders, candles etc and the site has a wealth of hoodoo information on it.

However, although the information on hoodoo on the site is great, the shop really isn’t that great, it turns out. The following is my personal experience. Take it or leave it. Your mileage may vary.

When I was doing resale, I decided to place a wholesale order for them because I wanted their stuff in the shop. The entire ordering experience was a nightmare. Even worse was the particularly unpleasant demeanor of the employee, Ernie and the owner, Cat.

None of the order process is automated. I had to email to get a copy of the wholesale catalog, which is a text list. You read the text list and put together a list of everything you want and then email that to the shop. Then they have to CALL you to get your credit card number. And forget emailing a copy of your sellers permit… no.. it has to be faxed or mailed because ‘their system doesn’t allow attachments’.

After the pain in the butt of ordering, I had three seperate issues with my order. I finally canceled the order, intending to deal with it when I had the time and energy to deal with it - and according o Cat (or Ernie, who knows) that made me an unsuitable student for the class and the store cancelled that order as well.

The following is an email that I set to Cat, the owner, that explained the situation after the fact. It went unanswered.

Read the rest of this entry »

Part one was about kittens. On to the ferrets.

I can handle the daily meds for adrenal disease. What I can’t handle is the constant cleaning. Ryan never did stay on top of them so they stunk. Keeping them so that they DONT stink is an every day affair. So I was determined to find the right stuff to do the job better. Also, they have a playpen but it’s a real pain in the ass to pull out so I thought some in-between-playpen-time toys for their cage were in order.

I changed litters. I was using corn cob litter because that’s what was recommended by the people we rescued them from and therefore, that’s what Ryan was using. I changed to Marshall Ferret Litter. What a difference! This litter does a MUCH better job of controlling odor and it doesnt get all stick to the litter box in a goopy mess when it gets wet like the corn cob litter does. AND? It’s way cheaper per pound.

Nature’s Miracle for ferrets - you know it, you love it… Nature’s Miracle. For cats, babies, dogs… it cleans it all. And now ferrets. I was using Cage Clean, which was ok, I guess. But Nature’s Miracle is trusted, does just as well - and is WAY cheaper.

Ferret Waste Deodorizer - I’ve always been iffy about using waste deodorizers. It seems like it can’t be natural. BUT… ferrets stink when they eat the right food… and this one is made by the top ferret breeder in the nation - Marshall Farms, so it’s gotta be ok. And it works! After about 3 days of adding it to their water, there is a noticeable decrease in the stink factor that cannot be attributed to the new litter.

Sportpet Small Animal Playground is omg, excellent. It’s one of those pop up contraptions that is mostly vinyl but one tube has fleece inside. I put it in their cage with a new sisal ball and they went nuts over it. for 45 minutes they played and scratched and played some more. It was about $7 at Walmart. For ferret toys, that is UNBELIEVABLY reasonable. After two weeks, there are no rips or tears and really, for $7, if it were destroyed, I would feel like I got my money’s worth - so, GREAT value.

Corner Deterrent Springs are totally one of those inventions that you go ‘doh! Why didn’t I think of that?! Id be a millionaire!’. They are tiny springs with a hook on each end. You hook it to the ferrets ears and tweak it every time they start to poop somewhere they aren’t supposed to. I kid. You hook each end to the cage over the corner and they can’t back into the corner to poop anymore - so they DONT! Woohoo!

I started with a box turtle and two older cats. In January, I adopted an older dog from the shelter. In September, I became a foster mommy to the sweetest 4 week old kitten (if that). She is so dark brown, she’s black and she has the prettiest light brown eyes. I just couldn’t give her up. But she’s a hellian. Then, in November, my ex ditched his two ferrets with me. And although they are not hellians, they poop a lot and one has adrenal disease. Not exactly the perfectly easy pet one hopes for.

Ethan wants a fish - and I was considering a large dog, for protection, in lieu of a gun. But then I thought to myself… “Self, you run a zoo and it drives you nuts as it is. What the hell are you thinking?” And then I realized that I was a breath away from ditching them all here and moving to Tahiti by myself. Time to take back the home. So, I did some taking back.

This part will address the kitten. The next part will address the ferrets.

The problem with the kitten is just the typical kitten problem behaviors that need to be trained… like scratching furniture, getting up on counters and tables and attacking every human body part that moves with claws and teeth flying. So I pulled out the big guns. Franky, my 11 year old cat looked on smugly. He knew the hell that was about to come down around the innocent ball of claws and teeth. He’s seen this one before.

Cats are not untrainable. You just have to find the right motivators and demotivators. Water and sticky stuff are great demotivators. Fun moving stuff is a great motivator.

It goes without saying that any home with a kitten should have plenty of safe scratching surfaces. Cats love both cardboard
and sisal scratching surfaces. Of course, the sisal surfaces are more durable and if you use the cardboard ones, you’ll want to make sure it is easily replaceable.

However, kittens should NOT be scratching up the furniture. So, I pulled out the Sticky Paws for Furniture. They are essentially double sided tape strips made to be easily used. You stick them to the corners of your furniture and suddenly, your furniture is no longer quite as attractive to little kitten claws. In fact, all of the scratching noises have suddenly… stopped.

Being on the counters and hard surfaces in my home is a no-no. This kitten was bottle fed for a while and sometimes, the prep for the bottle occurred on the counter with her in hand. So she picked it up as a bad habit. When tsking the kitten no longer works, I resort to a 3 pack of squirt bottles. Twist the nozzle to the super soaker setting and you can nail a kitten on the kitchen counter from across the room. Seeming to strike from nowhere… it’s kitten momma ninja! Keep one in each room for quick, consistent squirting. Once or twice is all it takes for a good, solid lesson learned.

And of course, it should also go without saying, that kittens need LOTS of toys. Rolling, bouncy, sparkly, ringing, shaking toys. That doesnt mean your house has to be a cat zoo! It’s possible to still stay organized. We have a small basket for toys. When the house gets too cluttered and I’m going too insane over picking cat toys out from between my toes, all of the toys go into the basket. The kitten can get them out when she wants them… or is able to tip the whole basket over, depending upon her mood.

However, no matter how many toys this little angel has, nothing is quite so alluring as the movement of human body parts. The feet, as they walk past, the hands in the midst of conversation, the fingers as they type, the legs as they shift. And so, there are times when it is difficult to unvelcro the cat from my appendages at inopportune times. My roommate started carrying a toy around to toss in the other direction. I found the laser pointer. Not only is this an hours of fun for the cat for years and years to come, because they never do figure out that it’s really just a light and not a mysterious small red disappearing mouse, it is a wonderful diversion. Here’s how it works.

1. Keep it by your side with the squirt bottle.
2. Play with the kitty, everything is fun.
3. Go back to work.
4. Kitty pounces on hand.
5. Catch kitty’s attention with laser pointer.
6. Move it off into the distance.
7. Kitty follows.
8. Turn it off.
9. Go back to work.
10. Kitten, mystified, stares at spot where it disappeared until your hands are entirely forgotten.

So, here I am today, three days later, with a perfectly behaved kitten, feeling like I’m enjoying her angelic side rather than loathing her demonic side.