You can't "discipline" a cat as you would a child. That's absurd. They don't think like humans do, nor do they reason like we do. To hit or abuse a cat, will create a very frightened animal that will be traumatized for the rest of its life. It will jump at its own shadow, and be constantly petrified in anticipation of the next beating. Why do that to an animal? People need to understand why cats defecate and urinate around the home when there is a perfectly clean litter box nearby. I have a cat, she's now 15 years old and she's been doing this on and off for the past 15 years. We've read up on this, done research, listened to dog/cat experts and none of their advice worked. I've "figured" this out on my own. Cats in the wild (lions, tigers, etc) "mark" territory using their feces and/or urine. When a domestic cat does the same thing inside its home, it's "marking". The question is: why does the cat mark? My best guess is, to help its owner "find it". Translation: I've found whenever me or my husband (or both of us) leave the home for extended periods of time, our cat will "mark" our home using both her feces and urine, usually on my husband's clothing, or a towel. In her little cat brain, she's leaving us a "scent" for us to find our way home. She doesn't like it when we leave the house, she would prefer we stay at home all the time, so we could pet her all the time, which is how she expects us to spend our time - petting her. In her mind, petting her comes above everything else. So when we're gone from home, she doesn't like that one little bit. And if we're gone long enough, she's figured we're "lost" and we need to find our way back home. So she "marks", using her urine, and/or her feces. Our cat has used both to "mark" for us. So would 'beating' her help? Would "discipline" help? As already mentioned, NO. You have to figure out animal psychology to understand just what makes them tick and what doesn't. Our latest way of handling our cat, is to lessen the amount of time petting her. It's hard for us, because we like to pet her, but this is a last resort for us. I'm sorely tempted to pet her, but I don't want her soiling our home. And rather than have her euthanized, we'd rather have her around a warm home with good food and clean water and live out her life. But with minimal petting, because the more we pet and spoil her, the more she soils our home. We'll see where this latest "theory" takes us. More later.

Finally joining in... First of all Bobby, it really sounds like you're going in the right direction. When I read your comments from 6 weeks ago to now, you seem to have evolved to eating in a more sustainable way for the long term. I've been following, but instead of starting with the food, I started with the exercise side. I had been feeling that age and gravity were taking too much of a toll. Now that I've been doing "boot camp" for 1 hour, 3 mornings a week since early December, I can see the changes in toning, but it's still hard to get rid of the gut. My instructor said the best results she sees in people is when they cut out wheat products. So that's my next step. I'm not a big sweet or junk food eater, but I do like my bagels, pasta, croissants, good bread... So my plan is for no predominantly wheat products (not going totally gluten-free). I'm not going to worry about everything, or totally diet (I don't believe that works for the long run). Just going to make one change at a time until it's a lifestyle change. I've heard often that it takes about a month to really change a behavior. And that seems to hold true for me, so first, I'm just going for changing breakfast from a bagel w/cream cheese to oatmeal and banana or yogurt or ?? (Breakfast ideas anyone? I get really hungry after the morning workout!)

Back before my kids were grown up enough to fend for themselves, when I had dinner on the table I liked to intone: Dinner is Served, except with my interpretation of a plummy butler's accent: DiNUH is SUHved. My husband hates that. Which used to make me do it even more frequently. My daughter is the master (mistress) of quoting lines from movies; she has the complete intonation down. Cracks me up every time. Right now she likes to hit me with a quote from Bridesmaids: "Ellen knows the owner." "You DOOOO?" For anyone who has seen the film, picture that phrase being tossed out at any time or moment all day long. My son likes to reenact the Lion King scene in which little Mustafa gets held up to behold his kingdon...using our idiot cat Janis, who is so fat that her belly wiggles while she is having her paws waved wildly in the air and my son is doing that tribal chant. My husband wears his work jeans over and over and over before washing them, and he likes to come in from being out in the backyard, covered in dirt, and haul the waistband up nearly to his armpits while telling me to 'give sexy guy a kiss'. Oh, he is also always sweating bullets and the work jeans have holes in the knees that extend nearly to his ankles. What a vision.

I don't have children so I'm sure this slants my view. Please remember this is just my view and what I'd do. I certainly understand that Moms may feel differently. I never, ever give children toys...stuffed, plush, or otherwise. I will give money, if I know the parents will part of it into the child's savings account. I will give books; I will take them for outings and treats, but I don't give "things." I've been in so many homes where there are entire rooms completly filled, piled, stacked with "toys." I've been in children's rooms where you could not even walk on the floor because of all the toys. Some children seem to have so many toys that can't focus enough to play with any of them. It's clutter and stimulation overload. Does your daughter truly love the plushies? Does she spend time every day playing with them? Would she be just as happy if she had, say, three plush toys? If worse came to worse, you could bag them all up and drop them off at the nearest thrift store. Again, this is just my thoughts. I certainly respect other people's choices.