Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 15

Unseasonable Modeling Session

About two and a half months ago, a nice Instagram follower from Finland asked for my measurements so she could knit me a sweater. So my human sent them along. A few weeks later, they were coming to the U.S. for a visit and sent me a package during their trip. It turned out to be not one but two sweaters! And they are amazing, cozy and so well made. Unfortunately we are having a heat wave here, but let’s face it, they are too pretty to wait for winter. So my human cranked up the air conditioning, and I got to model them.

Here’s the lavender and white one. You can see how happy I am to be wearing it!

Here’s a side view. You can see how well it fits.

Here’s the purple sweater. I love the ruffles at the hem and sleeves.

Here’s a side view. You can see that it’s long enough to be a sweater dress, which is awesome! So I’m ready for November.

My human wondered if the sleeves would hamper me being able to wave bye-bye, so we tried. It wasn’t too difficult.

Do you like my new sweaters? Let me know in the comments.

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Picking Out an Ugly Dress to Model

Every so often, my human sets out my clothes rack and lets me pick out my own dress to model.

So I chose…but I don’t think my human was happy about it!

In fact, she said it was one of my ugly dresses! I don’t know why she has a problem with it. I’m the one who gets to wear it and I like it just fine.

I don’t think it looks that bad on me. It just needs some accessories to dress it up.

I started off with this pearl necklace.

And then I added my new straw hat, and ta da! Well, my human says I look dowdy, but I disagree. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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Why We Don’t Just “Adopt” the Peach Kitty

Although I’ve explained it many times on my social media posts, along with posting about taming feral cats in general here, a lot of people still ask why my human doesn’t “adopt” the peach kitty. I think the best way to explain it is through his point of view. After all, this whole blog is about looking at life through a cat’s eyes. And that doesn’t always mean just my own way of seeing things.

The Peach Kitty’s Background Vs. a House Cat’s

The peach kitty, along with his brother, sister, and mom were born outside and grew up with barely any human contact. Their life experience is vastly different from a cat that lived in a home and was abandoned to live outside. Or a kitten whose mom was taken in by a rescue and raised by a foster human.

When a house cat, whose life primarily existed of living inside, suddenly becomes homeless, it’s really hard on them. They may have the basic survival instincts all cats have, but they are not accustomed to using them.

What House Cats Lack

House cats aren’t used to sensing the danger of predators, or cars racing down the street. They may know how to hunt, but they probably aren’t very good at it. In fact, they may not be good enough at it to survive just by hunting. Even if, say, they manage to find a treasure like a trash can behind a restaurant, they may have to fight for the right to the food there. They understand territory, but they may not know the ins and outs of fighting for it.

House cats are at a big disadvantage when they are forced to live outside. It’s very dangerous for them out there — actually much more dangerous for them than feral cats. Abandoned or lost house cats are the first to be victims of a car or a coyote, and more likely to be harmed by a malevolent human because they trust humans in general.

Humans Are Mostly Like House Cats

Consider your average human — if you were tossed outside without shelter, it would be pretty hard to survive! Especially if you were in the middle of a forest surrounded by predators. Most humans don’t have the skills to live in the wild. And the majority of those that have learned how to do that still can’t do it longterm. Or if they can, they may still be prone to making a dumb and potentially fatal mistake because it’s not really in their DNA. Same with a house cat.

A house cat that is outside without a home definitely needs to be adopted! A warm home, regular meals, health care, and an affectionate human are necessary for them.

The Feral Cat Life

When it comes to life experiences, feral cats are just the opposite. Their outside skills are honed from birth. Their instincts are deeply ingrained, and they know exactly how to survive in the wild. And one of the lessons they learn early on is that humans can’t be trusted.

To a feral cat, inside life is as mystifying and uncomfortable as the outside is for a house cat. One of a feral cat’s biggest fears is to be trapped and sent to some unknown fate. They know to avoid predators, they know how to feed themselves. They understand the dangers of the world around them. But being trapped inside a house is one of the scariest things they can experience because there is absolutely nothing familiar or reassuring about it. Quite the opposite.

The inside of a house isn’t just unfamiliar territory to a feral cat — they might as well be on a spaceship from another planet! It’s that foreign and frightening to them.

The Peach Kitty Doesn’t Know What Being “Adopted” Is

For ferals like the peach kitty, being “adopted” seems more like being kidnapped. A feral cat lives in a territory that they know well. It’s their home, and they know the good places to go, and the dangerous places to avoid. They have a sense of belonging there. The inside of a house offers none of that to them. It’s all dangerous, and they don’t know for sure where the safe parts are.

What’s even worse, they have to deal with this frightening and unpredictable human creature. Anyone who has tried to take a feral into their home will know how much they hide, hiss and make themselves seem dangerous to humans. It’s their survival instinct, their attempt to keep potential danger at bay.

But the Peach Kitty Is Friendly!

He is, to a point, and do you know how long my human has been working on him? At least three years! That is how long it had taken him to trust my human enough to be comfortable around her. And to this day, he’s still sketchy about my human petting him, although he allows it sometimes. And she has never, ever tried to pick him up. Trying that would risk injury, and even worse, do significant damage to the trust she has built up with him.

The best approach with a feral cat is to spend time with them and let them become friendly on their own terms. Snatching them up and forcing them indoors could scar them enough so that they will never quite be comfortable living inside. Sure, they may learn to be okay with it, but they will never be happy in the same way a trusting cat can be happy.

So Where Does That Leave the Peach Kitty?

If you’re asking if we will ever adopt him — no, we don’t plan on “adopting” him. He doesn’t want that. What he wants is to be allowed to decide whether he wants to explore the possibility of learning about the inside of the house and deciding if someday he wants to live there, or at least mostly live there. It’s a slow process, and a lot less traumatic for him. But it gives him a better chance at having a rich and satisfying life.

So I hope this helps you to understand a little bit more about the peach kitty and our approach to him.

Have you ever tried to tame a feral cat? And how has that worked out? I’d be curious to know your stories, so tell us in the comments.

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Dress Up Date With the Peach Kitty (Video!)

I promise this is the last time you’ll see this Paris Hilton outfit for a while, but I had to share this video of my visit with the peach kitty. You saw the photos last week, but my human just finally got the video edited.

There were a lot of cute moments you didn’t get to see in the photos.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the video! If you do, let me know in the comments.

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Funday Photo Bloopers

It’s time for outtakes…and just wait til you see the silliness I have in store for you!

Are you ever supposed to pose nicely for a photo — but you can’t help making a silly face? Here you go.

I guess my human didn’t want a close up of me right at that moment.

I take my after-visit treats very seriously!

Don’t worry, I won’t sleep on the job during my therapy cat visits!

And we’ve reached the end of this week’s funny photos! If you have a favorite, let me know in the comments.

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Modeling My Paris Hilton Cat Dress (Video!)

There was actually a video of me modeling my Paris Hilton dress that you saw the other day (and a couple of days later!). My human edited it…and then forgot about it! But she finally has it uploaded.

I really enjoyed this modeling session, and I think it shows!

You can check out the video below, and if you look really close when I’m turning around, you might see I had a tiny flower stem stuck in my tail. (My human missed that!)

Is there any more of me in this dress? Maybe! We’ll see.

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Therapy Cat in Search of Patients

My therapy cat visit this week was at the big hospital, but it was so quiet it was almost eerie. The Cancer Center was empty — even the nurse wasn’t there. And Pediatrics was empty. The nurse there told my human they’d discharged their two patients earlier and were expecting one from emergency later. That’s way fewer than we normally see there.

So we stopped by Labor and Delivery. They did have patients, but none available for visits. We did visit with some nurses, though. They always appreciate seeing the therapy animals.

Next we went down to rehab, and only one patient wanted to visit. It was an older Spanish speaking lady with her forearm in a cast. She assumed my human knew Spanish too because apparently she’s mastered the two sentences she knows quite well! Fortunately the lady was being looked after by a nurse who was fluent so between the three of them they were all able to chat. The nurse had cats at home and he talked a lot about them! Everyone had fun, and the patient petted me the whole time.

Our Thursday visits almost always involve stopping by Behavioral Medicine, and they had two patients for me. They were very young girls, just teenagers. One was very quiet and withdrawn and she just wanted to sit and observe. She didn’t want to interact with me, or really, anyone else. She wasn’t unpleasant or in a bad mood — just deep inside herself. The other girl was sweetly happy to pet me, but she was very quiet too. My human had me give her paw shakes and let her give me treats. I think they were both glad to have a break from their time in the ward.

Even though it was kind of disappointing to have no one to visit at the beginning, the patients we did wind up seeing more than made up for that.

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Fun With National Straw Hat Day

It’s National Straw Hat Day! And I finally get to show off this straw hat. The only time you’ve gotten to see it so far, it was part of a group of accessories I got at a cat show.

The problem was finding a dress to match! Nothing seemed quite right for it. Until my human remembered this Jessica Simpson dress. Neither of us were that impressed with it before, but I figured why not give it a try?

I’m still not too sure about those pom poms! But let’s see how it looks with the hat.

So here’s the look! What do you think?

In case you are wondering, Google says it’s celebrated as “a day to transition from wearing heavier, winter hats to lighter, more breathable straw hats as the weather gets warmer.”

I can see why!

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Dressing Up for the Peach Kitty

The peach kitty showed up for a visit! So I thought I’d wear my new Paris Hilton cat dress that you saw me modeling the other day.

I’m not sure what he thought of my outfit!

He was happy to see me anyhow.

So happy, in fact, that he almost knocked my flower crown off!

After that, it did fall off, so my human showed it to the peach kitty. He wanted to chew on it, but my human didn’t let him.

He did get treats, though.

Then he went into the enclosed patio to play with his toys.

I will say he dropped his toy time for a few minutes to hang out with me.

It was mostly a nice visit.

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My New Tunnel and Bell Trick (It Was Harder Than I Expected!)

My human likes to combine tricks for me to learn, and this time it involved something new. She used one of my tunnels! So the trick was to run through the tunnel and when I come out, to ring my bell.

It turned out to be more challenging than either my human or I expected!

I mean, I did do it right a couple of times, but I got it wrong a lot too.

I guess I will just have to practice more! Not that I’m complaining. I really enjoyed it! And you can see me learning in the video below.

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