Let us speak today of parasites and cat poop, of otters and entrepreneurs.

First, the parasites. More specifically, Toxoplasma gondii, a tough and crafty one-celled critter that forms cysts within its host, usually in the brain and muscles.

Humans can pick up the bug from contaminated meat or water, or by handling material that cats have used as latrines. In most humans, T-gondii is generally no big deal, but it can be a major health threat to pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.

The parasite is carried by rodents and birds, but it's only in a reproductive mood when it gets into cats. (A 2000 British study found that the parasite apparently coaxes rats' brains into losing their instinctive fear of cats. That cleverly gets the rat — and the parasite — into the feline.)

Now, here's where the cat poop hits the fan. In its egg-like stage, T-gondii is incredibly tough.

Pat Conrad, a professor of parasitology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, says you can soak 'em in pure bleach for hours and hours and they come out fit and ready to move on to other things.

That means when people flush their cats' feces, the parasite can survive the ride through a sewage treatment plant and arrive alive and well in the ocean.

And that might be a dire consequence for sea otters, which in recent years have not been doing well as a species. A team led by Conrad examined 305 dead otters and 257 live ones between 1998 and 2004.

Of the dead ones, 52 percent were infected with Toxoplasma, and 38 percent of the live ones were, too.

California Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, found all this out after he took his family to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As a consequence of his visit (and his young son's tearful pleas to do something about it), Jones and Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, co-authored a bill last year to help out the otter.

The bill, was approved by lawmakers, signed by the governor and went into effect Jan. 1. It establishes a voluntary checkoff on state income tax returns to raise money for otter protection and research, but not until some other tax checkoff is dropped from the form.

It also requires that cat litter sold in California carry a label suggesting that cat poop be put in the trash rather than down the toilet.

For most cat litter brands, that's no problem. Flushing their product can cause plumbing problems and they don't recommend it anyway.

But Gerald Marantz fears he may be out of business come April, when the labeling regulation will start being enforced.

Marantz is a 54-year-old Chatsworth, Calif., resident. For the past 20 years, he has marketed a brand of cat litter that is specifically designed to be flushed. Hence its name: Scoop 'n' Flush.

Marantz says it's a niche product, designed for shut-ins, the elderly and the disabled, who own cats but can't make regular trips to the trash can after cleaning the litter box.

"I have a big-time problem," he said. "They are telling me I have to put a label on a product called Scoop 'n' Flush that says "please don't flush." Who's going to buy that?"

Marantz complains that the only cat litter manufacturers consulted when the bill was being drafted don't make flushable products. He argues that poop from feral felines is far more of a threat to the ocean, and putting domestic cats' output into landfills carries its own problems.

But he also knows who's going to win a political fight when it's a small businessman vs. a tearful kid and a cuddly sea mammal. And he's got a tongue-in-cheek, fall-back business in mind.

"I'm thinking of manufacturing bumper stickers," he said, "that read 'Kill A Cat, Save A Sea Otter.' "