Out Of The Stone Age

I walked into the pet store the other day and was confronted with an unbelievable dilemma. My boss needed some cat litter, but there were at least 20 available brands. My mind shuddered. They ranged from coarse grained to fine grained, scented to unscented, single cat to multi-cat, etc… There were the commonly used, well respected brands, as well as the off brands which promised to be just as good. There was the small 5 pound bags and the giant 80 pound bags.

I immediately went home and started searching the blogs and forums for the ideal litter. I was confronted with a barrage of information, as well as some angry critiques:

“Anyone who doesn’t use the coarse grained scoopable Tidy Cat is a Moron! There is no way a fine grained litter will scale to multiple cats without tracking. It just isn’t possible. I’m so sick of this new fine grained, scented crap that keeps popping up. This is a forum for SERIOUS CAT OWNERS. TAKE YOUR CAT HOBBYIST ASS SOMEWHERE ELSE!”

I sat in my chair pondering my dilemma, thinking that I might as well go with the Tidy Cat, because it seemed that was what the majority was doing, and it worked very well. Although there was the occasional complaint that the price didn’t really reflect its value adequately.

But then I remembered, my boss only has one cat and will probably only get another after he dies, so I don’t really need the scalability. But I worried about getting the cheap stuff because of the reputation of people who use it. They are often called hobbyists, or amateurs. Sometimes they are even told they don’t care about their cats! I didn’t want myself or my boss to endure that kind of labeling.

I set off for the store bound to get the good stuff, but while heading down the aisle I had an epiphany: What if the cheaper, newer stuff is really GOOD ENOUGH for 1 cat and maybe even 2 or 3? I knew my boss was away for the weekend so I decided to buy the new stuff, let the cat shit in it and see if it scaled to his odor. I could always get the good stuff later.

Kinda reminds you of the REST vs. SOA debate, doesn’t it.