Cat Litter in my slipper

We have a crazy big white cat named Klondike.  He went through a phase where he was peeing everywhere BUT the litter box.  One particular place he started to pee was in the corner of our bedroom, near where I sleep.  To beat him at his game I stuck the cat box in that corner.  It seemed to do the trick and so now I sleep with a cat litter box on the floor near me. Joy.   Sometimes when I get up in the morning and put my slippers on there will be a piece of cat litter in my slipper. (We use the Feline Pine litter, so it is more like a pellet) If I walk around with a pellet of litter in my slipper it will continue to nag and irritate and quite possibly hurt the bottom of my foot until I remove the pellet.

I started to think this is similar to  an ache or pain that I get from running.  If I don't stretch or use my foam roller then it will continue to worsen and quite possible leave me on the DL until I address the situation. And that is where I am today.  I can't really pin point the area, but I have a pain near, around, my hip/lower back,butt and sometimes thigh area. I ignored the "pellet," and wasn't stretching as much as usual since I was away for the holidays and not running; I then decided I better address the pain. So I stretched, foam rolled, espsom salt bathed, Cryodermed, yoga'ed and ibuprophened and its till keeps me up at night with a throbbing pain.  My next course of action is a sports massage, and rest. UGH....hate the rest part; two steps forward, 1 step back.  I have a race in two weeks in which I am not prepared for and, now even more so with this situation.  However, I would rather rest now, for a few days, then for 6 months because I didn't listen to the signal my body was giving me.

In addition to resting and the massage I thought this would be a could time to incorporate strength training into my work out schedule.  So since today is a "snow day" here in the South I will use this time to come up with a strength training program. Oh, and also do some research for my pending trip to Hawaii :)

Here is to noticing the cat litter in your slipper!