A Tribute to Tamara

We buried Tamara last week. A grey-tabby cat, she came into our lives in mid-February, 1988. The litter was purported to be six weeks, by our friend Ace, but I think he might have been pushing time a bit, because they were really tiny. In spite of that she thrived, in human years making it almost to 100.

“That one’s crazy,” Ace said when I stooped to look at the kittens he had brought in a box to our town’s little cafe. He was right about that anyway. Tami, as we called her for short, always did have a bit of a wild streak. But she was sweet, too, and I miss her terribly.

Though she definitely showed her age in recent years, she remained pretty spry and happy until just the last week before we made the hard decision. She would go outside and still catch mice. Ken and I would laugh that those mice must be pretty dumb, and just run into her mouth. She purred madly whenever she was getting pets until the last two days of her life. There was no sign of cancer, and or anything like that. What took her down at last was an abscessed tooth. The infection moved into her eyes and her sinuses, and she couldn’t eat anything solid. Were she a younger animal we would have taken her to the vet, had it extracted and put her on antibiotics. But at her age, she couldn’t have handled that. So Ken dug a hole. I carried her outside. He shot her. She was dead before she knew what hit her. Ken placed her gently in the hole, covering her gently with the rich dirt in a small corner of perennial bed adjacent to the house. We both cried. I carried rocks to protect her resting place. Our friend Tami was gone.


The reason I decided to write about Tami is because she was, in a way, a canary-in-the-coal-mine for our personal environment. She has lived with us so long, breathing the same air, drinking the same water, sleeping on the same furniture and linens. We try to feed our animals as naturally as possible, and with the highest quality food we can, too. So, I think our coal mine must be pretty clean for her to have lasted so long and in such generally good health. We quit using most household chemicals, avoided any use of pesticides or herbicides (no Weed-Be-Gone here), and have eaten mainly organic for the last couple decades. We didn’t start for our health, but because we wanted to help protect the environment. Yet based on our animals’ longevity (we run an old-age home now, with all our animals getting on in life) and generally good health, I hope it bodes well for our own health. And the science supports that it does! More and more research shows that what we have done will indeed reduce our risks. You too can make these decisions. Although our food budget may be higher than some peoples, cutting out all those other chemicals and reducing the amount of other stuff we buy has more than offset it. For example, my trusty gallon jug of white vinegar—the main cleaning product in our house—costs less than $2.00 and lasts a couple months. So start eating as much organic as you can. Avoid those perfumed, synthetic cleaning products. Quit using pesticides. And think of Tami as your inspiration for living to 100.

Clean Up Cleaning

Here's a challenge: Go to the bathroom or kitchen and look under your sink. How many bottles, cans, and containers of stuff are under there? For most Americans, there are a bunch: dish detergent, general-purpose spray and powdered cleansers, specialty cleansers (such as brass polish, furniture polish, or oven cleaner), maybe even some bug spray. That small space epitomizes our infatuation with chemical concoctions.

This month the environmental group Women's Voices for the Earth released a report, Household Hazards: Potential Hazards of Home Cleaning Products, on some of the health concerns associated with these products. For example, monoethanolamine, a surfactant found in some laundry detergents, all-purpose cleaners and floor cleaners, is a known contributor of occupational asthma, and glycol ethers, such as 2-butoxyethanol, are solvents commonly found in glass cleaners and all-purpose spray cleaners that have been linked to reduced fertility and low birth weight in exposed mice.

So, what can you do to keep your house clean, but protect yourself from these chemicals? First, begin winnowing out the stuff under the sink. If you haven't used it in a long time, just get rid of it. Next, when you go to the store, start looking for safer cleaning products: companies like Seventh Generation and Ecover have consciously reduced toxic chemicals in their products. Or learn some of the tricks your grandmother knew: use vinegar and baking powder (which are both also really cheap) instead of synthetic products.

Cheapy white vinegar (I buy it by the gallon) mixed one to one with water and a teaspoon of salt in a spray bottle makes a great general-purpose cleanser that readily cleans most surfaces, and is perfect for removing soap scum from around sinks and fixtures. A cup of pure vinegar poured in the toilet and allowed to soak for an hour or so is great for cleaning the toilet and makes brushing out alkaline deposits a cinch. Add half a cup to the rinse cycle in your washer, where it acts as a fabric softener.

Baking soda works in place of abrasive cleansers, but it won't scratch shiny surfaces. If something is spilled on the carpet, pour some baking soda on, work into the spill with a paper towel, let it dry, and then vacuum it up. Use it as a polish for aluminum, chrome, jewelry, plastic, porcelain, silver, stainless steel, and tin by moistening a little on a soft rag.