A Survivor's Guide to Driving in Montreal!

I've been driving in Montreal now for 7 years. I have also driven in this city for an additional four years with my learner's permit. So I know these roads pretty well, and am very familiar with the driving style here.

First we will start off with the condition of the roads. Hell. Plain and simple. Possibly due to ongoing corruption in this city, the condition and safety of these roads has gotten significantly worse over the years.

For starters there are bridges that are on the verge of collapsing. There have been many studies on the condition of the bridges and most of them say that they need a complete overhaul in order to meet safety standards. One problem is that some of our major bridges are federally owned. This means that Montreal can sit back and wait to get money from Ottawa before making any repairs. I don't know how the politics work, but from what I understand it takes a while to sort out who pays for what. In the meantime, nothing happens and the bridges continue to deteriorate. There is actually a Wikipedia article on the Jaques Cartier Bridge that mentions how it is deteriorating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier_Bridge.

As you drive through the city you will see many overpasses and bridges that are in horrible condition. There have been many incidents of pieces falling off and hitting cars. You can read this Maclean's magazine article if you'd like to learn more. http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/08/23/montreal-is-falling-down/ I don't know how many people have been injured or killed from falling debris on our roads, but it is definitely something to be concerned about.

Next you need to be aware of the pothole situation. Now, every city has it's issues and I'm sure nowhere in the world has perfect roads. However, in a first world city it is absolutely abominable how many potholes there are and how big they are, how uneven and rough the streets are, and just the generally terrible condition they are in. This winter a man drove into a pothole that was so deep it flipped his car! http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/03/11/quebec-massive-pothole-car-flips-kirkland.html. Generally what happens is that the city will just patch up potholes rather than resurface the whole street. Then if there is a water main problem the company that deals with it will just dig up a section of the street and then do a cheap patch up job after. Then in the winter the whole mess freezes. Ice penetrates all the cracks and causes it to expand so that in Spring you end up with holes everywhere. Pardon my lack of scientific knowledge, I'm not sure I've explained that properly, but it is true that each Spring the potholes are worse than ever. 

It is very difficult trying to navigate through the city in a normal, or compact car without worrying about damaging the car's suspension. An even greater threat to damaging your car of course, is the possibility of simply losing your car (and maybe your life too) to a sinkhole! http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Sinkhole+swallows+cars+Trudeau+Airport/8171026/story.html. There have been other incidents of cars going down into sinkholes. Beware!

Ok, so you've familiarized yourself with the falling debris from overpasses and are learning how to navigate around potholes. Now you will have to learn how to cope with the year round construction on the roads. There is a bit of a conspiracy here. You see, there are millions of orange pylons - EVERYWHERE - . I believe they are there to pacify the masses and give them a false sense of security in knowing that work is being done on the roads. That the problem is under control. However 99% of the time you will NOT see ANYBODY working! You won't see anyone there at all. Thousands of roads get blocked off, sending people on ridiculous detours and yet there is absolutely no one working on the roads! The construction industry here has been under investigation for corruption. They have unions and short working hours to begin with. There are hardly ever overnight workers.

I once got stuck at Rockland going around in circles because there were detour signs everywhere and when I'd get to the spot I thought I needed to get to, there was another detour sign and each time I ended up at Rockland. I kind of lost it that night. So frustrating!

The worst thing about detours is that you never know where you will end up! If you don't know the city very well, you can expect to get lost! One night last summer I was driving along the highway and noticed that there was a sign saying that one of the major bridges to get off the island was closed! That was it. There was no detour sign or any message telling you how to get off the island. I felt bad for any American who was visiting the city and didn't know the island very well. Unless they had a GPS or map on hand, it would certainly be a challenge to find their way off the island!

The last thing I'll mention about road conditions is the street signs, or lack there of. The signage in this city is terrible! Many streets are simply missing the signs. Others are covered up with overgrown hedges or trees. The highway signs are all in French, as are the messages telling you about accidents. For instance "congestion" means traffic not phlegm. Ouest means West. Est means East. Having a GPS telling you where to go is also challenging (and humorous!) because many computer programs can't pronounce the streets properly! My phone has a GPS and it pronounces the road Gouin (normally pronounced Gwain - but not really saying the "N" at the end) Ouest (West) goo-een-ooo-ist. It pronounces the road Papineau (normally pronounced Pap-ee-know) Papp-in-eee-uh. Some programs are better than others. I have heard some that can pronounce the names adequately. The street signs are often placed in hard to read spots and are often tiny! Even if your vision is perfect, you will likely be driving past the sign and only realize once you are just past the intersection that that was the road you needed to turn on. 

Oh, one more thing, you can't turn right on red here. This is very bothersome for people not from here. At least there is usually a big sign with a turn right arrow with a big red line through it. 

Now on to the driving style here. One word. Psychotic. It is possible to have a nervous breakdown each and every day if you have to spend much time driving here. I highly recommend meditative music or Pink Floyd.

Now, what do I mean by psychotic you might ask? Well, I mean dangerous. I mean angry - you know, like road rage? I mean people overdosing on testosterone (if that's even possible). I mean unpredictable (though the unpredictable nature of drivers here IS predictable and so you have a slight advantage in knowing that!). I mean - MEAN, vicious, vindictive, spiteful and BULLYING behavior. 

Rule number one, in this city most people have a ME FIRST attitude. Therefore, DO NOT expect any courtesy. What this means, is that when you are at an intersection, even if you were there first, unless you put your foot down on the accelerator HARD and DO NOT actually make a full stop at the stop sign, you can expect everyone else to go before you have the chance. Therefore, you are probably safer to just make a full stop, let all the impatient people go who don't like to take turns  (you might find that six or seven people just floor it before you get a chance - many people actually share stop signs so two people will stop at the stop sign and then drive away at the same time). You might need to inch forward across the line to let people know that you do indeed intend to cross the intersection.  

The next thing, especially in the suburbs, is that everyone is in a terrible rush! This means that stop signs are more like suggestions. People will slow down for them, but rarely ever actually stop. Therefore if you hit a stop sign and need to turn left and someone is coming towards you on the opposite side and they also have a stop sign, they won't stop at all. They will worry that you will take too long to turn, so they will do a slight slow down and then dramatically speed up before you have the chance to turn. Even if you are there first. 

Next up is tail gating. There's lot's of it, and it's very aggressive.  If you are in the passing lane on the highway you had better be going really fast. The average speed in the passing lane is 140 km/h. The speed limit is actually 100km/h on most highways, but most people drive 110km. There is extreme bullying behavior in the passing lane on the highway. People will drive right up behind your car - forget that two second distance rule - you could read the writing on their baseball caps they are so close. They will drive ridiculously close to you until you move into the next lane. They'll be flying past you before you are even out of the lane!

At least half of the cars on the road are large pick up trucks, vans and SUV's. Therefore if you are driving a compact vehicle you will feel tiny. So when someone is tail gating you, it's intense! 

People also cut each other off in traffic all the time. If you need to be in the left lane in traffic on the highway to get off at the next exit and the lane isn't moving but the lane beside you is, then people will go into the next lane and then drive to the front of the queue of traffic and cut in! Hundreds of people do this so it takes even longer to get off at the exit. 

They also weave in and out of lanes without warning. People in this city HARDLY EVER use their indicators! I'm not exaggerating or joking in any way. So if you are in rush hour traffic and leave more than an inch of space between your car and the car in front of you, you can expect some weasel to squeeze in. 

Merging onto the highway is another challenge. Much in the same way that people share stop signs, people also try to merge in groups. They don't seem to like the concept of one car at a time. So the result is that if a person lets you in, they will give you only JUST the exact amount of space into which your car will fit. Not an inch more, otherwise the car behind will think it's a free for all and he'll squeeze in too! I'm ashamed to admit, that I am now guilty of this too. Much as I hate driving really close to the person in front of me, I hate having 3 or 4 cars try to merge in front of me at once. I'm happy to let one person in, maybe two. But that's it. So I'll give them a car length worth of space and that's it. Then I accelerate and close the gap immediately so that the front end of my car is almost touching the bumper of the car in front of me!

People will also just suddenly stop their car without warning. Right in the middle of the road. Not on highways or major roads, but on smaller streets. I guess if their phone rings they just instinctively stop the car. They don't turn on their signal either. So you then have to drive around them. It's a lot like walking in the shopping center and people just suddenly stop so that they can text.  

There is also a lot of parallel parking going on, more downtown than anywhere else. It's really annoying as you'll suddenly pull up behind someone who is parallel parked and realize that they aren't moving and then you can't get around them because there's too much traffic in the next lane, and believe me, no one will let you cut in. No, you'll have to wait until everyone else has gone. 

On busy streets like Sherbrooke and Queen Mary it's very tricky to make a left hand turn as there is a lot of on coming traffic. Sometimes you'll be lucky and there will be a flashing left arrow allowing you to turn. Most of the time though you just have to stop and wait for a  gap in the traffic to be able to safely get across. What is really annoying is if you are driving in the left lane and get to a green light and the guy in front of you suddenly stops, without putting on his indicator. You realize that he is wanting to turn left and so you need to go around him if you'd like to make the light. Problem is, before you have even processed this information, ten people behind you who are lightening fast have already switched lanes and are now whizzing past you. Unless you can floor it and manage to squeeze in between all these cars now flying past you will be stuck behind this person, probably until the light turns red.

Driving downtown is very interesting. Especially on St. Catherine's Street. There are a LOT of pedestrians walking along the street at all hours of the day. When you need to turn off of this street, you can't do so easily because pedestrians have the right of way and they don't have a special light to walk. So you have to wait for them. Basically, usually only one car can turn for each light. During rush hour traffic it's even worse. Also, Montrealers are notorious for jay walking. The city has been cracking down on this, but years ago swarms of people would cross on red lights. This must have seriously annoyed drivers, not to mention it's dangerous!

There are also a lot of cyclists. This has gotten worse over the years. There is now a bike program called Bixi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixi_%28company%29. It's a bicycle sharing program. It's nice to see people getting exercise, and it's great for the environment. The island of Montreal also has an extensive amount of bike paths. My favourite is the one that goes from Pointe Claire to Old Montreal.

Lately I've been having to drive into the city more and have been having to drive around the cyclists. They have every right to be out on the streets, and I take my hat off to them. I feel that on regular streets it's just dangerous! They have to bike in heavy traffic and beside parked cars. It's a narrow space, and if someone in a parked car opens their door without looking and a cyclist is there, then that could be a  fatal accident if they are thrown into a moving car! Personally, I don't feel there is enough room for cyclists on the road. But maybe it's just because I'm not used to seeing them, out here in the suburbs the roads are wider and there is more space for them!

The next obstacle you will encounter is taxis!  They zig zag all over the road as they talk on their phones, talk to people out of their window, slow down without warning, never use their indicators, drive between two lanes (which many people do in traffic, as they are too scared to pick a lane in case it turns out to be a slower moving one!!!). Taxis will just stop in the middle of the road and you have to drive around them. Most people agree that taxis are horrible. The scary thing is that a lot of the taxi drivers don't even wear seat belts!

An interesting observation. The driving styles vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood! On Cote Vertu Boulevard people drive the speed limit. I've heard this is due to a heavy police presence. On Cote St. Luc Boulevard they are maniacs! Downtown traffic moves slower and there are a lot of annoyances to contend with, but I find that as a result there isn't a lot of maniacal behavour to contend with. It's hard to act crazy when you can't move! Outside of Montreal people get cocky because they have a false sense of security over the large roads. I know two people who have gotten into serious accidents in the suburbs. One of them turned on a yellow light and an oncoming car crashed into her. Another friend was turning left at a stop sign, the oncoming car also had a stop sign but didn't see it so crashed into her. I've had several close calls. Especially in parking lots of big box stores on the West Island. Across from Fairview for example, there are many stores that share a giant parking lot. Many cars simply fly through it, not following lanes. This means you have to whip your head around in all directions and drive very cautiously. 

Well, that about sums up what it's like to drive in Montreal. Though from other people I've spoken to, this sort of behaviour happens everywhere. I think it's more of a big city phenonomen. I haven't driven in any other cities, so have nothing to compare this place to. I just go by what my driver instructor taught me to do. Basically, all the driving rules get broken all the time, so you really do need to be extremely careful!

Good luck to everyone brave enough to drive in Montreal!

What is wrong with our society?

I cannot, for the life of me, understand HOW we live in such a wasteful society. It absolutely boggles my mind!

I let my recycling build up for the last two weeks and today I finally brought it out. I live in a neighbourhood where we have many shared recycling bins and often times the bin is too full for me to be able to bring my stuff out. So it builds up.

Well, it was two full garbage bags full of stuff. This makes me wonder, why is there so much packaging for EVERYTHING? Why do we live in such a wasteful society?

There are SO MANY WAYS that packaging could be reduced. For instance, we should all have our own containers for many food items. Juice in supermarkets could be in large keg type containers and we could bring our juice container and fill up. There are many types of food that you find at Bulk Barn that could be sold in a similar fashion in grocery stores. Cereal, flour, cookies, chips, candy, nuts, spices, peanut butter, jam, dried fruit. If we all had our own reusable containers for said items then our packaging waste would be significantly less.

Bottled water should be BANNED. It is an incredibly destructive industry. Companies like Nestle suck bodies of water dry and then sell the water at a huge profit. The plastic water bottles don't get recycled most of the time and end up in the ocean killing wildlife. The bottles also leach out toxic chemicals that make the water less safe to drink than tap water. It's just unnecessary! Plain and simple. When I was growing up there probably was bottled water, but no one I knew ever bought it! Why would we? It has no flavour and tap water is free.

Then there is all the crap you buy at the dollar store. Do so many items need to be in packaging? The packaging is often at least five times bigger than the product itself!!! Think about how much transportation it takes to get all this stuff to stores. All the gas, pollution, road traffic, accidents, and money it costs to transport it all! We pay for this! We pay for the packaging, we pay for the people who design the packaging, pay for the people who assemble the packaging, ship the packaging, insurance claims from accidents. All of these things are reflected in the price. So a small 50 cent item is now costing us $1.25 plus tax. This might be small money to us, but compounded billions of times and the destruction to the environment make this a very costly practice! Not to mention that then we are left with all this excess waste that has to either be sent to landfill, burnt or recycled. Studies are now showing that recycling is actually not very profitable with the exception of metal and maybe glass. It's actually cheaper to just make something new.

Each week in my neighbourhood my street is filled with garbage on garbage day. Many people here still aren't recycling and throw out many things that aren't even supposed to go in to the garbage. There is absolutely no regulation when it comes to what you can or can't throw out. There are "rules". Like, you aren't supposed to throw out paint tins. But as we all dispose of our garbage in black plastic bags, no one knows what's in it. So you could easily throw out paint tins, computer components - anything you want.

In my opinion, nothing should be made that has to be thrown out! Clothes can be recycled or upcycled. Furniture can be donated for free to charities. Food can be composted. Why do we have garbage in the first place?

Disposable diapers are unnecessary. Throughout history people used cloth diapers and got on just fine. I for one, was raised on cloth diapers and have no negative memories of it at all! My mother would wash these cloth diapers daily and then reuse them. In the late seventies people were starting to use disposable diapers more often and my mother was ridiculed for still using cloth. I admire her, she knew it was a disgusting and wasteful industry and she didn't buy into it!

Shampoo and conditioner could easily be something we buy with reusable containers. When the shampoo and other soap bottles are empty, simply go back to the store and re-fill! Companies could have their products in giant containers with spouts that we could then pour ourselves. There are too many bottles and containers for so many things it's insane.

Then there is all the frozen food. I do not know what the answer to this is. These are very convenient (though not always healthy). Perhaps if we had to order our dinners and had to return our containers which would then be washed and reused. I volunteered for Meals on Wheels for a few months and the particular branch that I was with actually had their own metal dishes that they brought and collected to and from each house twice a week. My mother has Meals on Wheels and they deliver everything in Styrofoam and metal pie plates with round paper covers. She throws it all in the garbage when she is done. She seems to think that only newspapers can be recycled! And I'm sure she's not the only one, by far! Many people are too lazy to recycle!

We live in a world where corporations make and produce most things, make all the money, don't give back to the community, and buy out government. We wonder why our governments make decisions that don't seem to be in our best interests. They are simply the ones legally making and passing laws. Corporations can't make laws they can only conceive of them and then give government enough money to pass them. Why else does Canada have dirty oil that doesn't profit Canadians? Gas has NEVER been more expensive and yet we've never had so much oil! As a kid growing up in Canada we were taught that our main exports were trees, nickel, and other things. Not oil. There is an interview with Stephen Harper and Peter Mansbridge that you can watch on youtube. Peter asks Stephen why it is that Canadians are still buying foreign oil at high prices when we could be buying domestic oil cheaper. Stephen basically said that it's more profitable to sell our oil to foreign markets and that it is good for the country. Yeah, ok. Seven years ago gas was about $1.00 a liter. Now it's up to $1.42 a liter. That is significant. In another seven years it will probably be $1.60 or more. How exactly is this good for Canadians? We're destroying our natural resources to produce this oil and are not even reaping ANY benefits from it! Only the oil companies are seeing the profits and gains, not us! They want to build a giant pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia to facilitate the transport of oil to China! There is something like a 90% probability that the pipeline or tankers will leak oil and therefore destroy huge sections of our beautiful country. How are we really gaining by this? The premier of British Columbia has recently said no to the pipeline, but I read that the reason is not because she's concerned for the environment. No, she's more concerned about how much money it will cost to clean up the oil spills. In other words, if the oil companies give enough money to the B.C government then they will happily go along with the plan. Stephen Harper has himself said that if some people had their way, that Canada would just be a giant national park!

Please tell me what would be wrong with our country being a national park? What would be wrong with being a country that has the strictest environmental policy on the planet? One that creates organizations to help and monitor environmental policies instead of withdrawing from ones like Kyoto? One day, there really won't be any natural places left on the planet to visit. How valuable would our national parks be at that point? It would be a billion dollar industry! People from all over the planet would come and visit this beautiful country. In addition to the tourism benefits, keeping our land natural would help the planet! When you cut down all the trees on the planet and cover the land with pesticides and oil and dump toxic waste into the ocean, how exactly do you expect life to thrive on the planet? It's a slow kill process!

We already have technology to have fully electric vehicles and yet these have been so incredibly slow to hit the market. Year after year more and more gas guzzlers are being manufactured despite the fact that it is well known how bad gas is for the environment.

It's so sad. Corporations are just out to make money and only think about NOW, about TODAY. Today I can get filthy rich by destroying the environment and by the time shit hits the fan I'll be dead so it really doesn't matter. What about my grand kids and their grand kids? Why can't we as a society think ahead?

By reducing our carbon footprint TODAY maybe we will secure a better future for this planet. But as a whole, the people on this planet are doing very little far to slowly to really make enough of a difference to prevent a global environmental catastrophe in the future.

As one person, I can do the best I can. But it's not enough. I drive a car, I buy disposable items, I take planes, I paint my house, I use a dishwasher and use many other electrical devices. And so do most of the other 30 odd million people living in Canada. What about the two billion people living in China and India? What about the 300 million in the States? There are too many people on this planet living wasteful lives and I am really concerned that the environment just can't cope with it all. Something is going to give, and it will mostly likely be devastation of all life on this planet.   















 

Canadian weather

It's the beginning of February and it's cold. Like, really cold. For the last three weeks it's been between -5 and -30 every day. There was one day where it was 8ºC and a couple of others that were 0ºC or maybe up to 3ºC. But there was also one week straight of below -20ºC. That was harsh. Like, really harsh.

It got me thinking about how nice it would be to live in Australia or some other warm country that is English. I've been to Australia and absolutely loved it. In fact, I've been to many places on the planet like England, Scotland, Spain, Greece, Holland, Poland, Whales, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, New Zealand, Raratonga, and a few major cities in the U.S. I liked Australia the best! I actually drove across Canada from Vancouver to Montreal and not one stranger actually said hi to me. When I was in Australia I rented a camper van with my boyfriend for three weeks and we drove from Brisbane to Cairns. We were greeted by strangers on a daily basis. It was kind of surreal.

I started thinking about what the differences are between Canada and Australia. I know what some of the differences are in a more superficial way. I know that Australia (or at least Queensland) has amazing beaches, wonderful forests, friendly people, amazing wildlife (I couldn't believe the beautiful songs I heard from birds) wide open spaces, a vast land that felt really natural without being overcrowded by people. Canada has many of those qualities as well, beautiful coastlines (though with water mostly too cold to swim in) wonderful forests and an abundance of wildlife (though not as visible as in Australia - no kangaroos or wallabys wandering around in campgrounds!).

I would love to just live in Australia to find out what the more subtle differences are. I know for sure that the weather is better there. I have Perth listed as one of the cities on my igoogle weather widget. Though right now they are having summer so perhaps it's not a fair comparison, I researched it a bit and the coldest it seems to get is 5ºC as an overnight low in winter. But daytime highs in winter are 18ºC! Wow, I would love to be able to walk outside in winter and it's a sunny 18ºC!

One thing about Canada, is that as far as weather goes, it doesn't change much where ever you live. Most of the population lives within 100 km of U.S border, so we are all pretty much on the same latitude.  Therefore, it's just different kinds of cold. Vancouver is considered the mildest climate in Canada, but when it's 5ºC and raining it doesn't really feel much different from -5º and sunny. Basically, it's cold. There's cold and there's freezing. Montreal is freezing in winter. It's often quite sunny which is nice, but when it's -20ºC it's still rather unpleasant. It doesn't inspire you to want to go out for a nice walk, that's for sure. At least in the States you can choose your climate. You can live in New England where you can have four seasons, including snowy winters. Or you can live in Arizona where it's like a hot desert landscape. Or anywhere in the south where it's hot year round. In Canada it's just cold, colder and coldest. Many parts of this country are pretty much uninhabitable.  There are parts of the great white north that are largely barren unpopulated tundra. There are areas where there are small villages, but winters up there are horrendous! Six months of the year you don't see sun! Can you imagine six months of darkness? Yes, that also means you get six months of sun and no night, but it's still cold. In some parts a hot day in July means it's 10ºC. I couldn't live there. I have always lived in a cold climate and I've never gotten used to it.

I find it sad that every year I dread winter. I don't particularly enjoy winter sports. They all seem to involve risk of getting injured. Except maybe snowshoeing. I prefer summer activities. I love biking, walking, swimming, kayaking, snorkeling and camping. Every Fall I feel the dread kick in. First off because when I was younger Fall meant going back to school. It meant the end of summer which always felt like it was a bright, full of flowers and friends, fun, free, outdoors time. Fall meant going back to the boring prison. Soon after it would be winter, which as a kid I must admit I didn't mind. I liked playing in the snow, making snow angels, sliding down hills, skating, making snow forts and snowmen. But as a teenager it was hell. I had to be cool, so felt I couldn't wear a hat. I just remember always being cold. I used to have to go outside and walk my dog and hated it. I would just walk him outside my apartment building and then bring him in when he was done his business. I hated walking outside and did not do any outdoor activities at all. The only time I spent outside was walking and waiting at bus stops or standing outside to smoke a cigarette. Or walking to the store because I didn't drive.

As an adult, my time outside is even less. Now it's just from my front door to my car! I have tried to learn how to snowboard, but it's been very difficult and I have not had much success at all. Being outside means getting cold and wet.

Basically the weather here sucks. January - March is freezing. March and April are unpredictable. One year it might be mild with temperatures from 5ºC to 17ºC. Another year it might be snowy until mid April with temperatures between -5ºC to 10ºC. May and June are also unpredictable. One year it might be 20ºC to 30ºC almost every day for two months. Another year it might be 15ºC to 25ºC. July and August are usually the two months where you can almost guarantee hot temperatures ranging from 25ºC to 32ºC. Though August can be a bit of a wild card and temperatures can go down to low twenties. September tends to stay warm until the middle of the month, usually around 20ºC. Then late September goes down to the mid to high teens. October to December are also unpredictable, though you know for sure that every week it will probably get a little bit colder on average. Temperatures are usually between 10ºC and 0ºC. You can expect to get some snow anytime after Halloween. Though it can snow in October, it just won't normally stay for any length of time.

It's during these very cold months that I dream of living in a warm climate. I wish the planet wasn't so rigid about who can live where. If you are born somewhere, it's often difficult to just go and live and work somewhere else.

For now I'd settle for a warm vacation somewhere. It's been cold with lot's of snow on the ground for eight weeks now, and I feel like I've had enough!

My cat has the Feline Leukemia Virus

We found out in the beginning of December that our beloved cat, Gayden, has the Feline Leukemia Virus. He wasn't himself for a few days and I knew something was wrong. He will often greet me in the morning when I wake up, he will often greet me when I get out of the shower so that he can lick my toes, he always greets me when I get home - even if I've only been gone for a few minutes! Most importantly, he showed absolutely no enthusiasm for his food. I came to a horrifying realization that he probably hadn't been finishing his meals for weeks if not longer. We have never had to watch him eat as he has always inhaled his food in record time and then moves on to finish his brothers food. His brother Calvin can be a bit of a push over and will just walk away from his food as soon as Gayden comes. Well, I realized that the tables had turned and now it was Gayden that was leaving food that Calvin was finishing.

Back in March of last year poor Gayden went through the awful experience of having crystals and once he got better the vet suggested he go on a prescription diet. So we put him on W/D which is a low fat food to help with weight loss. Gayden was a bit chubby at 13 pounds. Well, he got a little too skinny in my opinion so I increased how much food he was eating. We were going through over 3 cans a day (at over $2 a can!). I did find it a bit weird that Gayden kept losing weight and Calvin kept gaining weight but I think I was more focused on his emotional health.

Gayden had been a real mess since his ordeal with crystals. He was incredibly anxious, would pace back and forth from one side of the house to the other. Just look out the windows, flap his tail about aggressively and then walk back. He had stopped lying on me, and would only stay for a bit and then jump down and pace again. His tail was constantly flailing around and worse than that, his poor tail hardly ever went straight up. A straight up tail is the equivalent to a cat smile, in my opinion. At night we had an evening ritual where he would jump into the bathtub and we would pet him. Then after March, he stopped doing this.

He wasn't very interested in playing anything, at least not for long. Sometimes I would take him out for a walk and he seemed to really enjoy that, but then when we'd come back in he would be restless again. At night when we'd go to bed he developed a new disturbing ritual. He'd howl at the top of his lungs! So we'd call out to him and then he'd come upstairs to see us, let us pet him for a second and then he'd run back downstairs and the whole process would be repeated at least five or ten times.

He also started spraying things! The first thing I noticed was the couch in the basement. I slept down there one night and kept thinking I smelled urine. Well, in the morning I sniffed around and sure enough, many of the pillows stank. I went through an extensive process to get it all clean and would not leave him downstairs unsupervised after that. It became an obsession actually, I would feel bad locking him upstairs while we went downstairs to watch t.v. So I'd let him down and he'd go over to the couch and spray. So then I'd have to clean it all over again. Eventually when I let him down I'd just stalk him and wouldn't even sit down so he never got the opportunity to spray again. He also sprayed numerous other things, not regularly - thank goodness! But often enough that I was worried that he'd developed a serious anxiety problem!

He also started trying to hump me all the time. Every time I'd talk to him and pet him he'd get excited and then start trying to hump me. It was slightly flattering, in a sick kind of way, to know that my little buddy loved me so much that he wanted to get it on with me. But it really wasn't a behaviour I was willing to allow, so sadly I had to pick him up and put him on the floor each time he did it, which was at least five times a day. He still does this, in fact, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop.

He also continued to eat his food at a pathetically slow pace. I realize now that he actually needs variety and hates to eat the same flavours day after day.

But in early December I knew something was up when he spent 3 days just sleeping and hardly getting up to do anything! My boyfriend said that he thought he was probably just under the weather, but I wasn't convinced. So I took him to the vet without consulting him first. They took some blood tests and then we had to wait. When I got home, my boyfriend was not at all thrilled at the $300 vet bill! I got the vet to also do a urine analysis on Gayden, just in case.

It turned out that he had non-regenerative anemia. This means that his body was not producing any red blood cells, so there wasn't enough oxygen going through his body which left him with no energy and no appetite. They told us that normally it's a symptom of a much more serious condition. They recommended that we test him for FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus) and FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). We weren't sure what we wanted to do, we were so taken aback and also felt like we had no idea what any of it meant. They gave him an injection that somehow gets red blood cells in the body. Then we took him home. I spent the next day or two researching everything I could about anemia and it's causes.

I know that the internet can be a bad place when you start researching symptoms and you can end up thinking the worst. Well, in this case that did prove to be the case. However, I was desperate to find some hope! I was so hopeful that maybe he'd have something different that could cause it that was treatable or curable. But hour after hour I just kept seeing the same basic message. It's usually a sign of kidney trouble (which he didn't have), hypo (or hyper) thyroidism - one of those two (which the vet said was unlikely for a four year old), trauma based (nope), parasite based (nope), nutrition deficiency (highly unlikely as he was on W/D) but we didn't rule that out as we were worried about how long Calvin had been eating his food. Or the Feline Leukemia Virus. No matter how hard I tried to be positive and hopeful, it really didn't seem at all likely that it was just nothing and he'd be fine.

So we decided to go ahead and have him tested for the virus as well as for FIV. As you can imagine I was absolutely devastated to find out he tested positive for the Leukemia Virus. Our cats are indoor cats, the only time they go outside is supervised and usually on leashes! We got him when he was a kitten, about four months old. As he was just left in a box on a neighbours porch we never found out about his background. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as FeLV. If I had, I would have had him vaccinated against it regardless of the fact that he's an indoor cat. We leave our cats at a friends house when we go away and she has five cats that haven't been vaccinated against it either and one of them was a stray. So there is a possibility that he got it from one of her cats, who might be a carrier but hasn't yet shown any symptoms. Or he might have been born with it. Or he might have picked it up from our back patio area as there are cats that come and spray our patio furniture in warmer months and we take our cats our there and they sniff the wet spots. There isn't any scientific proof of exactly how long the virus can survive outside yet, so it can't be ruled out completely.

In any case, it's rather irrelevant as I can't change the fact that he has the virus. I can't change the fact it's a terminal illness, and that at some point I'm going to lose him.

He's had two hormone injections called Darbopoetin which create red blood cells and we've been so blessed, because he has responded amazingly well to it! There were a few scenarios I was hoping for initially. One, that he didn't have the virus and that what he had was minor. Two, that if he was going to die soon that it be as painless as possible for my little beauty. Lastly, that I could have more time with him.

I've been handed the third option. More time with my beauty. And what a time it's been! We were so incredibly lucky to have him with us for Christmas! He gained back his appetite, he gained weight, and he had lot's of energy! We changed his diet, I don't care about weight loss at this point! I don't mind having a slightly chubby but happy and active cat! He really hates all prescription diets we've tried, except for A/D - anorexic diet - which is an incredibly palatable food for cats without an appetite. However, it's also a really rich food and a cat could end up quite fat if kept on it long term. I don't want Gayden to end up obese as that would just be an extra burden on his system. But at the same time, I can't be putting him on any more weight loss diets. Not at this point in his life. So he's on Wellness, which has loads of flavours and he seems to enjoy them all! We had him on EVO, which is cheaper but still very good quality and he enjoyed it at first, but seemed to grow a bit tired it and it only has one or two flavours. So he now eats the most expensive food in the store! We also give him either Taste of the Wild dry or T/D.  He also gets an amino acid supplement every 12 hours.

I was adamantly opposed to him eating any dry food at all after the crystals. I read everything I could find on the subject and it seemed that most people believed that dry food was bad for the condition. However, after all my research I'm not so sure anymore. The dry foods often have sodium in them which causes the cat to drink more water. I do believe that a cat should eat a species appropriate diet, but as an animal in captivity this does end up being very difficult. No one wants to feed their indoor cats live mice! Raw diets can be great, but they are still new to the main stream so therefore it's hard to get concrete facts and recipes. There is a wealth of information out there on it, but it worries me that most vets are not on board with it. Anyway, for now I'm staying away from raw but am not opposed to the idea.

I feed him about 80% wet and 20% or less dry. So I believe that at that ratio he's getting more than enough moisture in his diet. He enjoys crunching on the food and at this point, it's his quality of life I'm looking at.

Gayden is back to being his old self, the little guy we had before he had crystals. He is really perky, he walks around with his tail up if I talk to him. He enjoys attention and affection. I let him outside in the snow for some fresh air, but he comes back in quickly as it's currently -20 ºC outside. I bought him a bunch of new toys and he seems to enjoy all of them! Especially a wand toy with a little insect thing attached. He went crazy for it, chased it around with such force it was like he was a kitten again! I didn't let it go on too long, as he has a heart murmur! But we play a lot of hide and seek with it, and I throw his favourite mice around for him which he loves. He doesn't sleep all day, and is active at the usual times. He greets me all the time, follows me around the house, gets involved with anything going on in the house, however small. He doesn't like to miss out on anything.

He's a really special cat, and I love him so much. Right now I'm really just trying to enjoy him day by day. Every day I know that this could be the last day that I get to enjoy him before he gets sick. From what I've read, it's not the Leukemia Virus that will kill him, it's the fact that it destroys his immune system so he becomes vulnerable to other things. So we're kind of in for a hard time ahead and I'm not looking forward to that. Which is why it is so important to just enjoy today. Today he's in in a good mood, energetic, perky, friendly and healthy. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, so I'm not going to live there, I need to live now - right where he is - and enjoy him as much as I can! As I write this he is lying at the end of my chair against my legs. One of his favourite spots.

Pet shops should be banned

Will I ever live to see the day when animals have rights? It actually horrifies me going into a pet shop and I'm surprised that they are legal. Perhaps I'm simply too sensitive, and have unrealistic expectations on how living creatures should be treated.

Seeing birds in cages breaks my heart. Imagine if you had wings that you could never use? Imagine living in a cage for your whole life? I don't think that people see animals as anything more than  animated colourful objects to add to their homes.

I know that many people love animals and keep them in their homes because it brings them joy and that they do take care of them. However, I still can't believe in my heart that any bird could ever be happy living in a cage when it is denied the ability to fly. When I was four years old my mom had a budgie and I hated seeing it in it's cage. I felt that it communicated to me that it wished to be released. So I opened the cage and it flew away. Sadly it went out the window and was never seen again, which is really quite cruel as it wouldn't have had a chance to ever survive outside. Especially not in the winter.

But I digress. I honestly believe that pet shops should not sell live animals. Imagine if you could go to the store and buy a person? Oh, there would be outrage! Imagine seeing a baby in a glass cage with a metal floor and it was banging on the wall screaming for some attention! This would never happen in the Western world. Why not? What is so different from a human and an animal?

What makes us God? What gives us the right to abduct innocent animals from the wild and place them in cages? What gives us the right to abuse them, torture them, eat them, experiment on them, buy them, sell them, and throw them away when we don't want them anymore?

How are so many people unable to have compassion for animals? I suppose given how we treat each other it isn't surprising that we treat animals the way we do. But we do set a basic standard for human rights and we have organizations to help people such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. There are many organizations that aim to protect animals, but ultimately most people eat animals so until that changes people probably aren't going to be able to see animals as being equal to us.

Animals should be allowed to live a natural and normal life without us killing them. There should be ways to test medications without killing and torturing animals, isn't that a bit primitive in this day and age? There has been a lot of research that shown that many animals that are tested on will not respond to drugs the same way as humans (duh, we're not the same species!) which could cause delays in cures. How is it that we can't have computers doing the testing? Then in final stages test on volunteers.

Most people live in a bubble and are completely unaware of the gross and disgusting way animals are treated across the planet.

You like to wear fur? Did you know that the animals are often abducted from their wild and natural home, and then while they are still alive they get to have an electric probe shoved up their ass so that they are electrocuted from the inside out. Apparently this preserves the fur. Would you ever do that to your baby? To your mother? To your house cat or dog? Then why would you ever wear fur? I can't believe it's legal.

You like to eat meat? Love to eat chicken? Wow, if only you knew how these beautiful creatures are treated!!! Baby chicks are thrown into the garbage if they are male because they can't lay eggs, so are therefore worthless.

Have a look at the  PETA website if you have balls http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chickens.aspx. If you eat animals, then you are a cruel abuser. Only instead of doing the damage yourself you are paying people to do it for you. That makes you no better or worse than an assassin. Only instead of just putting a bullet into the back of someones head, you condone allowing the creature to be brutally treated for its entire life and then finally at the end of it's miserable life, murdered.

Buying pets from the pet store is also cruel. You are now supporting puppy mills where dogs are imprisoned in a cage for their whole life and their only purpose is to breed. There are so many dirty and overcrowded mills that there is no way to know where your new little puppy has come from. The SPCA work really hard to save animals and we owe it to society to support them and to buy animals form them instead.

Oh, but you mean you can't get a pure bred? Too fucking bad! Do you only hang out with pure bred humans? Someone that you can trace their genetic history for centuries to prove that they are 100% German, or whatever? That would be racist.  Well so is rejecting a beautiful animal waiting to be loved just because he or she doesn't have the right genetic make up. We love people of all colours shapes and sizes and we should do the same for animals. Worst of all, pure bred animals often have genetic defects and are more apt to develop debilitating illnesses when they are older.

Seeing cute little bunny rabbits at the store makes me sick! Do you know how many people abandon their bunnies once they aren't so cute and little anymore and are chewing on their furniture? The average time a person will keep a rabbit is about year, after that they get dumped at the SPCA. They aren't pets for kids contrary to what most people believe. http://www.rabbit.org/easter/ . Do your research!

What makes me more angry and sick than pet stores is seeing lobsters at the supermarket!!!!!!!!!! How anyone can walk past and not feel like they are about to burst into tears is beyond me. I see them in the tank, and know how cold that water is, and see their poor little claws held shut with rubber bands, and how they are all piled on top of each other like they don't even matter at all! Each and every lobster has a right to live! People buy them, and then toss them into a pot of boiling water WHEN THEY ARE STILL ALIVE!!!! How would you like to see your best friend or your mother tossed into a pot of boiling water while they are still alive! Why can't we see the cruelty in that?

My cat has crystals

My beautiful and amazing feline companion has crystals. I've feared the illness since we got him, and prayed he'd never get it.

I changed his diet about a month ago to something called California Natural. It had a lot of the same ingredients as the Science Diet Natures Best we were feeding him before. The first ingredient was chicken, and it looked to be a good food. I should have done the research, not that it probably would have made a difference as I did read a bit about the food after we bought it and I couldn't find anything negative about it.

I also stopped giving the cats wet food for about two weeks as I had run out and was too lazy to get more. So really, I'm pretty sure that this illness could have been avoided and I feel pretty guilty. On top of that, I have been neglecting the cat litter for the last few months. We have two cats and two litter boxes and I have only been emptying them once a week.

My other cat seems fine, and I am now cleaning the litter box every day making sure that he is peeing as I am now paranoid.

My wonderful cat friend Gayden has now been at the vet for a week with a blockage. They had to hook him up to an I.V and had a catheter in him for a few days. He is peeing on his own now which is good, but he has great difficulty doing it, it takes him ages to get even a squirt out and he does not do nice long streams.

So therefore he can't come home, as he is really not better yet. The whole thing has been an absolute nightmare, for the cat and for us. I was so sick with worry that I couldn't eat and started losing weight. But worse, seeing what my little fur friend has to go through breaks my heart.

He spends most of his waking hours shifting from his bed to his litter. Yesterday he just peed wherever as I guess the feeling of needing to go pee doesn't go away and nothing was happening in the litter so he just stood in his bed instead. So so sad. He's normally so clean and would never pee outside his box at home.

I can tell he's really frustrated at his situation. The first few days he was calm and affectionate, but you could tell he had discomfort. Now he's still friendly but when we visit him he spends the whole time either eating (we hold the bowl to his face as it's hard for him to eat wearing that protective plastic hood) and peeing in the litter (or rather, squirting small amounts).

He should be a lot further along in his recovery and sadly it's just taking a long time. I really hope that it isn't an infection!

It's also proving to be extremely expensive. The initial treatment for the first couple of days was estimated at approx. $2000. Then after that, it was going to be $250 a day. So as of today we're at about $3500. The vet said last night that he's going to need a few more days and maybe as long as another week! That would bring the total to over $5000.

As I said, it's been an absolute nightmare.

I really really miss him so much! The house feels so different without him here. I have another cat, Calvin, who's the same age as Gayden but he's not quite as friendly or spunky. We actually got him as a companion for Gayden as he was so demanding and needy we thought a friend would help.

When we first got Gayden, he was a few months old. My mom's neighbour found him in a cardboard box on her back porch. She was the neighbourhood cat lady and had about 15 of her own. She had a huge heart when it came to animals (and people too) and she would never turn an animal away. She used to even take in strays and get them treated at vets and then re-home them. She called my mom up one day and told her that she had a little kitten that I might want.

To be honest, I really didn't want any pets! I had a dog for 13 years when I was younger, we got him when I was nine years old and when he died it was the most devastating thing I had ever had to deal with. I cried every day for three months, and to this day 13 years later I can STILL cry about it! I didn't cry that hard or for that long when my grand mother died. So I was pretty reluctant to go through that again, as I get overly attached to my animals.

I was also enjoying my life without pet fur. For all of my teen years black clothes always looked terrible on me because they would be covered in fur. I liked that my house stayed cleaner longer and that there wasn't any fur anywhere. Plus, I hate cat litter. I find it really gross having to clean it.

My boyfriend wanted cats. He said that he really missed having cats and couldn't understand why I didn't want any. When I told him about my reasons he said that he'd clean the litter. Famous last words.

We went over to visit the kitten and when I saw my boyfriends face as he held the kitten in his hand, I knew we were going to get it. We didn't even need to talk about it, it was so natural that he'd come home with us. Love at first sight I guess. We went to the pet store and got all the supplies we needed and then took him home with us.

The first thing we noticed about this cat was that he had an insane amount of energy! I had never had a kitten before, so this was all new to me! He would run around and around chasing whatever we provided for him until he would start panting and then just collapse from exhaustion! I actually thought he might just drop dead, as I had never seen a cat pant before!

He became quite attached to us quickly and soon he was following me everywhere. Like, I'd go to the bathroom upstairs and he'd follow me. I'd go back downstairs, he'd follow me. Wherever I went, if I stood still long enough, he'd be there right beside me.

Most people just think of cats as animate objects. Cute, cuddly, decorative pieces of home decor that you can interact with. They are, however family members!

Gayden has the most adorable little habits that entertain me, fill me with love and at times annoy me. He faithfully greets me at the door every time I come home from where ever I've gone, even if it's only a few minutes. Sometimes he's not at the door when I get home, because he's somewhere in the house sleeping, but within a few seconds he'll appear looking a bit disheveled like he just woke up.

He still follows me around the house a lot. Whenever I have a shower he runs upstairs to see me, and when I get out he likes to lick my toes and rub his body against my legs. When my boyfriend gets home from work he gets very excited and jumps up on the dining room table to get a rub on his back. He loves his rubs. At night he has a good night ritual where he runs upstairs when we are getting ready for bed and he jumps into the bath tub. This is because one time when we got back from a long vacation he was shedding a lot of fur so I got him in tub and gave him a crazy rub down to get rid of the excess fur. Well, he absolutely loved it! He was purring like crazy and ever since he waits expectantly in the tub for more rubs.

He also got very interested in a plastic syringe I had to use for my teeth, it squirts water and he very much wanted to play with it. I would squirt water in the tub and he would try to catch the water streams, then try to swat the syringe out of my hand!

We got him to ride a skate board. He just simply got on it and it moved and he stayed. It's pretty adorable. Then we slide him back and forth across the room and he just lies on the board looking down at the wheels as if trying to figure out how it all works.

If he was a person, he would definitely be a scientist. He loves to learn things and figure things out. He is the most incredibly patient being I think I've ever met. I give up easily and get frustrated. As does the other cat, Calvin. Provide Gayden with some sort of mystery to solve, something he needs to open, and his eyes light up and he gets to work. He takes little breaks and attacks the problem from many different angles. He thinks outside the box.

We had a squirrel in the house once, well in the walls that is. I couldn't figure out where it was but I was sure it was above the kitchen ceiling. Gayden knew exactly where the squirrel was. He sat in the bathtub and stared at the faucet. I thought he was being weird, I couldn't figure out why he was doing that, thought he'd got it all wrong in his head about what was going on. As it turned out, there was a large amount of space under the tub, almost the size of a small room and that was where the squirrel was.

Gayden opens the kitchen cupboards, which is both adorable and frustrating. He simply stands on his hind legs, puts his paws on the handles and leans back. It's pretty crazy. So we had to make "locks" out of coat hangers to keep him out. He's like a magnet for any cupboard that's open. Whenever open my bedroom closet he's there. Especially if I am trying to figure out what to wear, he'll use the opportunity to try and go inside.

He also walks on a leash. Not very well, I must say. He used to, when he was about six months old. We used to run around outside and he'd run with us. Then we got the other cat, and leash trained him and since then for some reason when we go outside with him on a leash he just likes to sit there. However, if we take the leash off he runs off at full speed. Very sneaky. Though he's pretty predictable about where he'll run to so he's pretty easy to catch.

One of the strange things about this cat is how bad he is at jumping. He's a bit chubby, but not to the point where you would think he would have trouble moving. However, he really has trouble jumping to high places. Calvin is like a gymnast, he moves with such grace and ease. Gayden is super clumsy and just sort of flops around.

He has such a huge person(cat)ality. Sometimes he just lies on his back on the floor stretched out. He knows that I make a big fuss over how cute he is when he does it. He usually does it when he's beside himself with boredom, which is about every day.

That's part of the problem. They are indoor cats, and it's really hard to keep them happy and busy. Let's face it, they are prisoners and sometimes I let them go outside supervised for a few minutes, but then it's back into the house. They really don't get a lot of exercise. Calvin is quite good about only eating what he needs for fuel and then doing some sprints throughout the day. Gayden on the other hand would just lie there and eat all day if you let him. He just really likes food. It takes his mind off of how bored he really is.

I feel like I've let him down, and not been the best owner I could possibly be. I let my cat get chubby, I've ignored him when he's been bored even though I have owed it to them to try and make their lives more enjoyable. Now the poor little guy is sitting in a cage hooked up to an I.V unable to urinate properly and just squirting all over the place. Today is the 10th day in that cage. I miss him so much.

Melaleuca - Review of products

So I've now received two shipments of Melaleuca supplies. First package consisted of cleaning products. Second shipment consisted of body washes, lotions, tooth paste, mouth wash, hand sanitizers, lip balms, shampoo and conditioner. I also got a candle warmer for a Christmas gift. Total cost for cleaning pack was $162. Total cost for second package was $166.

I've tried many of the cleaning products now. I received the pack yesterday and went absolutely crazy cleaning the house! For those of you who don't know about the home conversion cleaning pack it comes with about a dozen or so cleaners and disinfectants, wipes, and a bunch of laundry supplies. It was a pretty big and heavy box. I have to say it was kind of fun opening it and seeing what everything was. Most of the things are concentrated so you have to dilute them and put them into spray bottles. They give you all the spray bottles already labeled, and pumps if needed. So that was kind of fun too, making all my new spray bottles.

Though upon closer examination today, I realize that the spray bottles are actually half the size of normal bottles you get in the store. So in terms of value, it isn't necessarily cheaper than buying stuff from the store.

I can see why the products and company can be so addictive and why people love them so much. First off, receiving a big box full of new products feels like Christmas! You feel like you are getting something fun and special. Also, if you aren't obsessive about reading labels and researching products to find out how green they are, you could be totally swayed into thinking that Melaleuca is amazing because all the stuff smells great, looks great, and works - and  best of all it's supposedly healthier for your home!!!

The key word here is "healthier". It doesn't say "healthy" or "non toxic" or harmless to the environment.  First of all, with environmentally friendly companies there is usually a lot more transparency in terms of listing all of the ingredients. Companies can use the word "natural" on their products and not have to back up the claim. It's just a word. Most of their products have fragrances in them, and they do not state what they consist of. Usually it's petroleum based, not particularly natural.

However, after all is said and done, the prices are not significantly more expensive and most of them are concentrated. So while a product might not be non toxic, it does gain points by being more environmentally friendly by using less water and plastic, as well as less gas to distribute the product. Particularly the laundry detergent and fabric softener. They both come in smallish containers and have 96 loads. The price is about $20. So realistically, that is very comparable to Tide, for example. Big difference being, that the smell of the Melaleuca one is nicer.

Anyway, so after cleaning my whole house (yes, I really went nuts trying everything!) these are my results.

Rustic Touch Furniture Polish: Amazing. Really. I have this table in the corner of my dining room that is often neglected for cleaning. It's solid wood, but old and second hand. We just use the whole thing to store junk really. Anyway, I took everything off of it and polished it with this stuff, and holy cow! It honestly brought the old thing back to life! I had only wiped it with water before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it left a really nice glossy finish. It wasn't oily, and it smelled great! Very easy to use to, just a nice little spritzer bottle. So much better than using Pledge (I've used that crap at other peoples houses and I hate it).

Tough and Tender All Purpose Cleaner: I have actually used it before at someones house who is a member. As I clean houses for extra money now and again, I have used a lot of products. This product doesn't smell amazing in my opinion. It's clean smelling, but really nothing special. It works well, but not really better or worse than other things I've tried.

Tub and Tile: When I first used the stuff I was actually overwhelmed by the fragrance of it. I think I used quite a lot, and combined with all of the other products I'd used in the same area, it was all smelling very strongly. It did take a bit of getting used to the smell, it's kind of lemony and it does smell strong. However, it does work very well and after using the product a few times I grew to actually quite like the smell. In fact, several years later it's one of my favourite Melaleuca products.


Sol-U-Mel: It's a stain remover, cleaner and deodorizer. I used it on a chair (one of my cats had an accident on a chair).  I sprayed the chair, and wiped it with this stuff. It got everything fresh and clean again.

Melamagic: It's a heavy duty cleaner of industrial strength. I only used it to wash my floors. It did a great job in the kitchen. I used it for half the house on the parquet floors. However, later when I checked the label I noticed that it says it's not recommended for hard wood floors. Oops! Oh well, those parquet floors are already old and damaged (from the 70's). It seemed to clean them well anyway.

Clear Power: It's a glass cleaner. It worked well, no harsh smells. I first started using ammonia free cleaners a couple of years ago and I like this one the best.

No Work: It's a spray for your shower. You spray it after each shower and apparently it dissolves soap scum so you don't have to clean it as often. There's very little work involved, just spray it on and leave it. No rinsing or wiping. There are other products like it on the market, and I haven't ever tried any of them so I can't compare. I have been using it for two days so far and I have to say, it does seem to work. I gave the tiles a good scrub before hand so I would notice any new soap scum. So far there is none. **Update** While I did like the product, ultimately I'm lazy and did not like spraying so much after each shower. Plus the perfume smell was too strong just after a shower, so I stopped using it. But it is a good product.

Sol-U-Guard: It's a disinfectant. It smells like thyme and lemon. I like it. Though I am a bit torn, because I'm not sure if it's made of that anti-bacterial stuff which I am quite against. ***Update***While I did really like the product, I've started making my own gentle multi purpose cleaner for my kitchen counters (as a gentle daily clean).

Melapower (laundry detergent): This works well, and smells very nice too. Though I've never had a laundry detergent that I hated! Not sure how tough it is on stains though.

Melasoft (fabric softener): This is the nicest stuff I've ever used. It smells amazing, and makes things really soft. I've had complements on my blankets smelling so nice. I love it! ***update*** Three years later and I still use it! I love that it's so concentrated, you need so little to do a wonderful job! I've been using the same bottle for a year and a half and still have some left. I also have another bottle waiting unopened that I bought through a friend at the reduced price.

Melabrite: It's an optical brightener. I think it's supposed to be used instead of bleach (maybe?) but it did not seem to do anything to my clothes at all. Also, after doing research on optical brighteners I'm not so sure that adding those kind of chemicals to your clothes is necessary. Therefore, three years later I still have some left in the bottle!

There were many other products, I could spend days talking about all of them. The bottom line though is that some of the products are pretty good, overall I like the stuff. It's hard not to really. I don't like that they don't disclose a full ingredient list for things. Apparently in the U.S there isn't any law that says a company has to. Also, there aren't any strict laws that govern criteria for a company to call itself green. Therefore, I do believe that a lot of companies call themselves green and charge accordingly even though they aren't. I think that some companies are less green than others. Like that Comet stuff, gross green detergent powder to clean bathrooms. So disgusting. It only costs a dollar and the stuff will last ages. I do not think that stuff is good for the environment or a persons health, but they don't pretend to be green either. Something like Chlorox Green Works though, pretends to be green, has green in it's name, but is it really green? Well, it's colour is green so it isn't lying there. But is it just a play on words? It does not list it's ingredients and does not claim to be non toxic. Therefore, I would say it probably isn't really the safest product.

My favourite company is Method. I like their packaging, their prices are a little bit high but I really do like the products. They all smell amazing. Really. Every time I clean someones house they always comment on how nice everything smells. One of the all purpose cleaners smells like lavender. The glass cleaner smells like mint. The floor cleaner comes in almond scent or lemon. All very nice pleasant smells. They list all of their ingredients, and on each bottle it says that it's non toxic. A company can't just say that they are non toxic if they aren't. Melaleuca products do not claim to be non toxic.

What annoys me about Melaleuca is that you have to be a preferred customer to buy things at sane prices. Even then, the prices are still a bit on the expensive side but only slightly so. So you pay a little bit extra to get something you really like and then it's delivered to you (which means you are paying more for shipping). But at the regular prices it just feels like robbery. Take the furniture polish for example. That is a product that I would love to buy again. Regardless of how safe it is, it smells amazing and does a really good job. I've never seen a wood cleaner so easy to use that smells so nice. However, they charge $11.50 at the regular price, plus tax and shipping. So it comes to almost $15 for 237 ml! It costs $31.50 for 1.4 liters of laundry soap. Enough for 96 loads apparently. But after tax and shipping that is close to $40! I'm sorry, but I can buy the same thing for $20 at the health food store.

I cancelled my membership. I can still order things at the regular price, which I don't think I will as it's too expensive. I can sign up again at no cost within six months and become a preferred customer so I can buy things at the reduced rate and then I can cancel again with no hassles or charges. Though, let's face it, it IS a hassle to have to sign up and cancel (all the time and paperwork or phone calls involved) just to order some products!

As for the employment aspect of it all, I didn't try to make money. I don't think it's very easy to make a lot of money though. The person who signed me up has at least 10 people on her team that she has recruited via ads and facebook and the money she earns covers half of the cost of what she spends each month. That's a racket. I mean you have to be a preferred customer in order to recruit people and make money. Which means that you have to spend 35 points each month, which as I've mentioned works out to about $80 a month. Then you have to spend about 15 hours a week a month so that you can earn about $40 a month? What?

***Update***
Two and a half years later and I'm still using some of the products. I was lucky and managed to get my friend to order things for me so I got the preferred customer price on things.

Therefore I still use the fabric softener, laundry brightener (two and a half years later there is still some left!) furniture polish, glass cleaner, tub and tile cleaner, and I still have a couple of bottles of Melamagic - which because it is so concentrated lasts forever!

However, looking to the future I won't be able to order from my friend again as we don't live local to each other and therefore it is not convenient. So I will have to decide whether I will pay the full price for things.

Ultimately, I can use Method products for most of my cleaning needs. I also now make my own cleaning products that I know are environmentally friendly because all they have in them liquid castille soap, water, and some essential oils. They freshen up my kitchen nicely without the extra cost and chemicals.