The Menagerie Archive

She squeaks delighted to see him run under the chairs and beds and giggles when he leaps to high places. She follows him butt-scooting wherever she can. She loves the cat. Too bad the feeling isn’t mutual. He looks up at me as if to say, “Would you keep that damn pink squishy thing AWAY!”

Flash Fiction Friday is hosted by g-man. You may also visit Flash Fiction Friday 55′s, a blog dedicated to hosting 55 Flash Fiction Friday posts.

In case you’re not part of the “dirty hippy vegan” club as Kurt calls it, GSE or Grapefruit Seed Extract is this wildly popular “natural” do it all medication/supplement, household cleaner, fruit and vegetable wash, and food and cosmetic preservative. Does that sound odd and maybe a little scary to anyone else?

I discovered GSE though researching parrot diet and nutrition. One thing that kept coming up in bird forums, books, and web sites was using GSE for sprouting to reduce risk of mold and for cleaning their cage because birds are very sensitive to the chemical products many use. I’ve noticed GSE all over the place since my initial search, and because of what I’ve found out about it, that makes me twitch. Some brands of GSE apparently are truly Grapefruit Seed Extract, and they do none of the above listed tasks any better than water. Other brands however, are not what they seem. I’m not saying that ingesting them will kill or maim. It might not even make people sick if used in the diluted amounts recommended by manufacturers as a vegetable wash, but if your goal is to reduce your exposure to chemicals, I’m afraid you may have been duped. Just to be on the safe side I would not add GSE to pet foods, take it as a pregnant woman nor feed it to an infant, but that’s just me.

From the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s site, 1999 tests that revealed preservatives:

Aspects of the antimicrobial efficacy of grapefruit seed extract and its relation to preservative substances contained.

Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany.

The antimicrobial efficacy as well as the content of preservative agents of six commercially available grapefruit seed extracts were examined. Five of the six extracts showed a high growth inhibiting activity against the test germs Bacillus subtilis SBUG 14, Micrococcus flavus SBUG 16, Staphylococcus aureus SBUG 11, Serratia marcescens SBUG 9, Escherichia coli SBUG 17, Proteus mirabilis SBUG 47, and Candida maltosa SBUG 700. In all of the antimicrobial active grapefruit seed extracts, the preservative benzethonium chloride was detected by thin layer chromatography. Additionally, three extracts contained the preserving substances triclosan and methyl parabene. In only one of the grapefruit seed extracts tested no preservative agent was found. However, with this extract as well as with several self-made extracts from seed and juiceless pulp of grapefruits (Citrus paradisi) no antimicrobial activity could be detected (standard serial broth dilution assay, agar diffusion test). Thus, it is concluded that the potent as well as nearly universal antimicrobial activity being attributed to grapefruit seed extract is merely due to the synthetic preservative agents contained within. Natural products with antimicrobial activity do not appear to be present.

From the United States Department of Agriculture’s site (bold text is my emphasis):

Identification of Benzalkonium Chloride in Commercial Grapefruit Seed Extracts

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Date: August 12, 2005
Citation: Takeoka, G.R., Dao, L.T., Wong, R.Y., Harden, L.A. 2005. Identification of Benzalkonium Chloride in Commercial Grapefruit Seed Extracts. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 53:7630-7636.

“In this study we identified a new synthetic adulterant, benzalkonium chloride, in commercial GSE samples. This ingredient is a synthetic antimicrobial agent that is widely used in cleaning and disinfection agents. The presence of benzalkonium chloride in a commercial product designated for internal and external use by humans is troubling in light of its toxicity and allergenicity.”

From the Food and Drug Administration’s site (bold text is my emphasis):

Analysis and Evaluation of Preventive Control Measures for the Control and
Reduction/Elimination of Microbial Hazards on Fresh and Fresh-Cut Produce

Chapter VI

Microbiological Safety of Controlled and Modified Atmosphere Packaging of Fresh and Fresh-Cut Produce

“Antimicrobial compounds have also been used with traditional films such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE); for example, the fungicide Imazalil (IM) and the antimicrobial grapefruit seed extract (GFSE) have recently been used with bell peppers and lettuce, respectively (Miller and others 1984; Han 2000)…”

“…Lee and others (1998) investigated the ability of GFSE with LDPE films to inhibit growth of E. coli, Staphylocuccus aureus, molds, yeasts, and lactic acid bacteria, using the plate disk test. Films containing 1.0% GFSE in LDPE film inhibited E. coli and S. aureus as demonstrated by a clear zone; however, molds, yeasts and lactic acid bacteria were unaffected…”

“…Grapefruit seed extract is reported to be inhibitory to a number of human pathogens. There has been evidence, however, that any antibacterial activity of commercial preparations is due to the various preservative agents (triclosan, methyl parabene, benzethonium chloride) contained within the product. Researchers have found that products not containing any preservatives and several self-made preparations had no antimicrobial activity (Woedtke and others 1999). In the aforementioned study by Lee and others (1998), the composition of the GFSE incorporated in the film was not discussed or examined. It is obvious that if pure GFSE is to be used, its antimicrobial properties will have to be fully investigated. If the active antimicrobial ingredients in commercial GFSE preparations are preserving agents, they may be better targets for investigation.”

From the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s site, 2006 tests that again revealed preservatives:

Development and validation of an HPLC/UV/MS method for simultaneous determination of 18 preservatives in grapefruit seed extract.

Institute of Pharmacy, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. markus.ganzera@uibk.ac.at

Grapefruit seed extracts are used in cosmetics, food supplements, and pesticides because of their antimicrobial properties, but suspicions about the true nature of the active compounds arose when synthetic disinfectants such as benzethonium or benzalkonium chloride were found in commercial products. The HPLC method presented herein allows the quality assessment (qualitative and quantitative) of these products for the first time. On the basis of a standard mixture of 18 preservatives most relevant for food and grapefruit products, a method was developed allowing the baseline separation of all compounds within 40 min. Optimum results were obtained with a C-8 stationary phase and a solvent system comprising aqueous trifluoroacetic acid, acetonitrile, and 2-propanol. The assay was fully validated and shown to be sensitive (LOD < or= 12.1 ng on-column), accurate (recovery rates > or = 96.1%), repeatable (sigma(rel) < or = 3.5%), precise (intra-day variation < or = 4.5%, interday variation < or = 4.1%), and rugged. Without any modifications the method could be adopted for LC-MS experiments, where the compounds of interest were directly assignable in positive ESI mode. The quantitative results of several products for ecofarming confirmed previous studies, as seven out of nine specimens were adulterated with preservatives in varying composition. The samples either contained benzethonium chloride (2.5-176.9 mg/mL) or benzalkonium chloride (138.2-236.3 mg/mL), together with smaller amounts of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid esters, benzoic acid, and salicylic acid.

This morning Sophia sat on my lap facing me with her feet up kicking at my chest stopping momentarily to let out a wet squishy fart. Her farts usually come in twos or threes so I waited for – yep there it went right on cue. I waited ten more minutes to make sure. Ok time to change the baby. Lift her up and…oh crap looks like I get to change my pants too. I guess white onesies aren’t the only ones susceptible to blowouts. Pink Elmo onesies may also be shit on.

I changed the baby and figured since I have to change my clothes I may as well take a shower at that time, but first I’ll let the dogs outside. Now from time to time I feel guilty that we only allow the dogs in our tiled basement. Today turned out to not be one of those days. I went downstairs to find that one of the dogs left me a wonderfully smelly surprise, and it wasn’t very easy to clean up because it wasn’t horribly solid.

This is the write up I did for the person that will care for my “kids” when I’m in the hospital. It’s two pages! – Just imagine how much the poor schmuck that volunteers to babysit Sophia for a couple hours will have to read through!

The Dogs
Their food (Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach Formula), pills, and arthritis medicine are in the garage – just inside the door. The food is next to the tiny chest freezer, and the meds/pills are in a Tupperware bowl on top of the freezer.

The dogs are not allowed beyond the “mud room” please keep the door between the “mud room” and the rest of the house closed while the dogs are inside eating.

Petie: Four scoops of food (scoop is in the bag), two “Move Free” glucosamine pills, and his arthritis medicine (insert the syringe into bottle and turn bottle so that it’s opening faces down – that way you don’t fill the syringe with air) fill the syringe up to the “100″ mark. All of this can go into his food dish – no need to shove pills down his throat. Make sure to fill his dish with water or he’ll literally choke his food down.

Chelan: Three scoops of food, two “Move Free” glucosamine pills, and also fill her dish with water (the water isn’t as critical for her, she doesn’t eat *that* fast).

Please supervise as they eat so that Petie doesn’t steal Chelan’s food. If Chelan doesn’t eat don’t worry too much – she’s a freak of nature. Just dump any of her uneaten food in the gravel just past our “lawn” in the front yard.

Their water bucket is right outside the sliding door in the back yard. There isn’t functional water spigot in the back yard. If they need water you’ll need to fill either using the kitchen sink (please don’t spill on the hardwood floors) or go through the large garage door and up the front steps it’s on the right side.

The 12 pound cat that you will never see…
Bailey’s food, dish, and water are all in the kitchen. He can eat about two scoops (scoop is in the bag) of his food per day. Half of his food lands on the floor as he eats, which he then deems it completely inedible. *eye roll* You can give him both scoops of food at one time. Hell, leave the food bag open on the floor. I don’t worry about him overeating – he’s invisible after all.

Squeaky bird
Gandalf’s food dishes are on the left side of the cupboard that’s next to the refrigerator. They are the green ceramic ones. There are only four total and there is a good chance all of them are dirty. Please check the sink His food is kept in the refrigerator in a dish that is on top of the veggie drawers on the left side. The food is in a zip lock bag inside said dish. Each bag of food will last for about four meals. He gets about three to four tablespoons of this food for each meal and needs to be fed twice a day. His feedings don’t have to be 12 hours apart nor do they have to be the same hours that we typically feed, but we usually feed him at 6 or 7 am and then at 6 to 7 pm. Extra bags of food are kept in the freezer (very bottom) and take about 24 hours to thaw, so if the current bag looks low just place another in the dish with it from the freezer. We keep them in the dish because they sometimes leak as they thaw.

Gandalf’s water is in a water bottle that is accessible from the outside of his cage. It rarely needs to be filled, but if it looks low fill it to the tippy top with the filtered water from the fridge (that’s on the top shelf on the right side). When feeding Gandalf please put the new food dish where the previous food dish was – we only use that one back corner so that he doesn’t fling food onto the carpet.

Thank you so much for volunteering to feed the “kids”. I really appreciate it.

On Friday, I took Gandalf to the vet. She said that if his feather chewing wasn’t from an irritation to begin with it certainly is now because all he has on that one wing are poky itchy feather stubs. She said the good thing is that he isn’t picking at his skin and that because he’s plucking his wing it’s unlikely he’ll pluck his body (body pluckers tend to get cold easy). So right now, he’s on two medications. One medication is to relieve the itchiness and the other is an herbal equivalent to birdy Valium to take the edge off in case he’s stressing about changes in his environment (my pregnancy). An article about the herbal treatment Gandalf’s vet prescribed was published in Exotic Dvm magazine.

As a kid I thought it was great fun to set off fireworks. When my daughter is old enough we’ll probably buy some small firecrackers for her to play with (supervised of course). For now I’d really rather just go downtown and watch the professional fireworks.

I still live in an area where fireworks are legal although legally they’re only supposed to be used on the 4th of July. The reality is that my neighborhood sounds like a war zone two weeks before the 4th and two weeks after. I don’t mind that they’re legal I just wish people would respect the fact that others need to work in the morning and not shell the house at midnight and two am for a month. At 6am Saturday morning, my boyfriend and I woke up to four very loud explosions – not horribly neighborly if you ask me.

If they would actually restrict their bombings to the fourth and maybe New Years, I wouldn’t have any issues with it. It’s not that big a deal for me to sedate the dogs two days a year and keep them in the house. I don’t want to ruin someone’s celebration, but until everyone follows the rules I’m forced to stay home every night lest my malamute starts pulling the siding off the house to try and get in (He’s never actually done that but he does run around the yard too scared to even drink water because he doesn’t want to turn his back on the kids setting off the fireworks.) My husky takes it well (she’s too stupid to be scared) – The malamute on the other hand has had an extremely bad experience in the past with kids actually lighting a whole package of “black cats” and lobbing it at him. Now every year my 120-pound dog shakes like a shell shocked Vietnam Vet at even the tiniest “pop” and he hates little boys.

On Monday night I put the dishes in the dishwasher and turned it on about an hour before bedtime. I went upstairs to chat online and mess around with my blog a little. As part of the ‘getting ready for bed’ routine Kurt put squeaky pants (Gandalf) in his room and closed the door like we do every night. Minutes later I started to smell smoke. It smelled a little like burning rubber. I went downstairs thinking I left the stove or oven on, but didn’t see any lights on. I went back upstairs, but still smelled something. I went downstairs again and this time looked inside the dishwasher, which was on the heat dry cycle. I called up to Kurt, “I think we need a new dishwasher!”

“Why?”

“Cause this one is smoking.” I said. Then the fumes hit me and smoke just started pouring out of it. I turned off the dishwasher, closed the dishwasher door, ran upstairs and put a towel in front of Gandalf’s door. Kurt asked what’s wrong and I said, “The dishwasher has smoke pouring out of it.” I never use the heat dry cycle, as a matter a fact even though I typically have it set on air dry I usually turn off the dishwasher when it gets to the dry cycle.

Kurt and I opened the door again and pulled out a nylon/plastic cooking spoon that had slipped through a hole in the lower wash rack. The rubber handle of the spoon was resting right on the heating element. I opened all the downstairs windows and stayed up till about one o’clock in the morning. At midnight I think the smell was pretty much gone and I checked in on Gandalf. He WAS sleeping peacefully. He was a little miffed at me for waking him up, but he was ok. I still didn’t sleep very well that night and my throat hurt this morning. My nasal passages felt like they were burning (filled with smoke) all day.

It’s so funny to watch Gandalf run across the top of his cage and attack paper. I usually give him my junk mail to destroy and he loves to punch holes and shred it. He’s an extremely expensive paper shredder, but he’s very thorough. The other day I gave him a Drs. Foster & Smith catalog that I had finished looking at. He had so much fun dragging it around the top of the cage and attacking it. At one point he was standing on the edge of his cage with catalog open and him shredding one page. Suddenly the catalog slid over the edge of the cage and Gandalf, who apparently weights less than the catalog, was still holding onto one end and plummeted to the floor still grasping the catalog. He was fine other than a slightly bruised ego. Gandalf popped up and was very alert – looking to see who may have witnessed his embarrassing moment.

We’ve had a couple of cold snaps in the past few months. The first one caused about a foot of snow and I was out of power for two hours, which isn’t too bad. The foot of snow wasn’t even that bad, but then again I’m originally from Alaska. After the cold snap it warmed up a rained for a solid couple of weeks and then we had high wind storms. And let me tell you soggy ground + strong winds = a ton of tress just falling over. Some people were out of power for a full week (mine only flickered a bit). Just a few days ago we had another cold snap plus strong winds but only three inches of snow. My power went out for twelve hours (that was a cold night). And the gate to our fence fell, posts and all. If our power had stayed out any longer I would have taken Gandalf to stay with my parents or found some other friend that still had power. My malamute, despite his arthritis, still loves the cold and had a ton of fun in the snow.

Gandalf actually has two names and both originated before I even knew from which breeder I would be getting my baby. I chose Gandalf for my grey from the wizard in The Lord of the Rings books. The movies had not come out yet, but the first one was released a month before I brought Gandalf home. I thought I was being all cleaver with the name but when the breeder I chose asked me what name I was going to give him she just chuckled and told me it was pretty common.

Gandalf’s other name is Micken. We use Micken as a nickname and is more of a description of the type of animal to which he belongs (we call crows Mickens as well). So the story goes – One day my boyfriend and I were trying to decide what to eat for dinner and the choices were narrowed down to two things, Meatloaf or a chicken dish he makes with cream of mushroom soup and shoe string potatoes. We couldn’t agree on which to make, so he jokingly came up the idea of making the chicken and stuffing the meatloaf with it. He called this ingenious idea – Micken loaf. Months after bringing Gandalf home we had the same “what’s for dinner” dilemma and in the course of deciding what to eat my boyfriend pointed out the Gandalf was a “fat little Micken”. The nickname stuck and we use it on all waddling birds that are not chickens. Gandalf thinks it’s funny because he has the same twisted sense of humor that we do and he’ll say his nickname several times quickly – Micken Micken Micken!