Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 19

My Spring Cat Show Wardrobe

I have a cat show this weekend! And although it’s not very far from us, it’s somewhere my human has never heard of. It’s called Norco, and it’s kind of a farm area. But it’s actually a pretty big cat show, and the last one of the season in our area. The season ends in April, and starts again in May, although there won’t be another cat show in our area until at least June.

So you know what all that means right? It’s time to show off the outfits I’ll be wearing!

This time around, I’m wearing some of the spring dresses that don’t get seen very much. Like this dress.

And this dress, which is actually supposed to be a harness. I never wear it, and it’s too pretty to hide away.

And since Easter is next weekend, I have a couple of bunny-themed outfits. One is this dress. I hadn’t intended on posing with the strap falling off my shoulder, but as you can see I made the most of it.

And of course this bunny outfit!

My human packed a couple other things too…and I even have a video of me modeling these outfits! You can check it out below.

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Modeling My New Scrubs on Video

I hope you enjoyed the photos of me wearing my new hospital scrubs the other day…because I have a video too!

My human shot photos and video during the same session, but she was late finishing the video. It just went up on YouTube a little while ago.

Check it out below. I think you’ll like it!

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Researchers Finally Affirm Cats Make Good Therapy Animals

Do you know what the biggest issue is when it comes to therapy cats? It’s not the training (feline or human). And it’s not finding the “right” cat. It’s overcoming the prejudice and myths surrounding cats and how appropriate they may be as therapy animals.

Even now, people still think cats are too independent, aloof and untrainable to be effective therapy pet partners. If you’ve followed my blog or social media for any length of time, you know that’s completely false. You probably also know that there are many hardworking cats like me. Cats who visit hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other facilities where a fluffy being can do some good. But many people — and many facilities — haven’t figured that out yet.

What’s it going to take to change their minds? Studies like this one (funded in Belgium) that was just recently published. It not only found that cats can make good therapy animals — they have something unique to offer with this type of work.

Overcoming the Myth About Cats Being Antisocial

The crazy thing about the study is that the abstract begins, “The engagement of cats in animal-assisted services (AAS) is increasing. This is surprising given that feline behavioural needs have been perceived as contradictory to conditions associated with AAS engagement, leading to the assumption that cats as a species are not suitable for AAS.” So clearly this study was badly needed because it showed that wasn’t the case.

Therapy Cat Work Further Improves a Cat’s Temperament

The realization that cats exist with characteristics that lend themselves to therapy animal work (duh!), was just a start. They also found that doing therapy work helped to strengthen a cat’s ability to interact socially with people, be comfortable with being handled, and the other things therapy cats do. Which shows that while a cat may be inclined to be friendlier and more easy going than other cats, these traits are also to a certain extent, teachable.

This makes a lot of sense from my own personal experience as a therapy cat. Once I learned the routine of therapy work, it was easier for me to do the important stuff, like be with people in a way they needed.

More to Come?

It’s an early study, and they admit they are still learning a lot about cats and animal-assisted work. I hope there are more studies diving deeper into this because eventually it could make improvements to therapy cat training. Right now, the human halves of therapy pet teams are pretty much making it up as they go along! Just ask my human, or any other volunteer with a therapy cat.

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My New Scrubs

I know you guys love my nurse’s outfit, and it is pretty awesome! But you have to admit, it is a little bit on the dated side. When I visit the hospitals, nobody dresses like this. Everyone wears scrubs.

Then recently, an Instagram pal got in touch with me and wanted to send me some scrubs! And my human picked them up from my post office box this week. Of course they are lavender.

And they are real scrubs! Made by a uniform company called Figs, that specializes in scrubs.

They may not be as fun and girly as my nurse’s outfit, but I feel really professional in them!

I love wearing them! The moment my human put them on me, I even sat up straighter! I’ll have to wait until October — Halloween month — to show them off at the hospitals, but I’m sure the nurses will love me in them! (And yes, I’ll still wear my nurse’s uniform too.)

So what do you think? Should they make a little matching cap too? Let’s discuss it in the comments!

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Beautiful Spring Portraits…and a Surprise

I returned to the wall in my backyard for portraits. As you may recall, I got interrupted last time. We’ve been meaning to go back, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. And we could only do it at a certain time of day because my human was looking for some good back lighting. Finally all the elements came together, and we came down for a session.

Can you see what a difference it makes from the last time? That extra bit of light helps make me pop!

It works even better with profile photos.

But you know we couldn’t be out there for very long without getting interrupted.

Next thing I knew, I had company on the wall.

My human thought that maybe she’d get some nice couples portraits of us. But no such luck.

He only hung around for a moment before wandering off. But not too far off. Just enough to be distracting.

We still got a few more nice portraits, though!

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My Fun March Compilation – Peach Kitty Visits, Shopping and My Birthday!

March is always good for me because it’s my birthday month!

I had a lot of visits with the peach kitty. Since the weather has improved, he’s been out and about more.

Plus I got to visit all my favorite pet shops this month! Since my human has switched me over to mostly canned food temporarily because of the H5N1 virus, we have to shop more often.

I didn’t have a lot of training practice videos, but there was a fun one of me touching random things.

And of course, there’s my birthday party video! I think it was my favorite birthday so far.

There’s more to check out too, and you can see it all below:

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Silly Random Photo Flubs

It’s time for outtakes! And they’re pretty random. And silly, just like the title says.

I hate when my human snaps a photo of me when I’m not ready! Couldn’t she tell I wanted her to wait?

During this photo session, my human wanted to get me to rub against her hand, and look photogenic at the same time. The problem was, I had no idea what she was trying to do! Clearly, I did not understand the assignment.

My human wanted to get some photos of me playing with this toy in the turret. The only problem was it was really difficult for her to manipulate the toy and take photos at the same time! I was ready, but she wasn’t.

And guess what? We’ve reached the end of the outtakes! I hope you enjoyed them. If you have a favorite, let me know in the comments.

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Visiting With the Peach Kitty on a Cold Spring Day

Excuse my slightly grumpy face — I wasn’t really in a bad mood. In fact, I was in a good mood because I was going outside! But since it was a cold, gray day, I needed to pick out something warm to wear.

I had some pretty unique choices! Can you guess which one I went with?

Did you guess the gray velvet jacket? Because of course I want to look my best.

I was still in the enclosed patio and he came over to see me already! Maybe he thought it was cold outside too.

After greeting me, he expected me to follow him outside. So I did.

We spent some time outside having treats and hanging out. But it really was a little cold for me and my human!

He’s used to the weather, but I just wanted to go in and lie on a heater vent.

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Winning Friends and Giving Pain Relief

I got to have my therapy cat visit at the children’s hospital this week! My human made sure to bring my bell because doing tricks is always a good ice breaker for the kids.

But that wasn’t going to work in the first exam room we visited — the little girl was scared of me and started crying! At first my human was going to just assume she didn’t want to see a kitty, but something made us linger for a moment. And almost instantly she stopped crying and looked at me curiously. Her mother encouraged her to pet me, and she did. And she gave me a sly smile. It turned out she wasn’t really scared after all.

We didn’t think the second patient wanted to see me either. It was an older teen boy, and he sort of shrugged us off. But again, something made us pause and he changed his mind. So I walked up to him on my leash and he petted me, and my human had me do some tricks for him. He really enjoyed it all and admitted to my human that when he visited friends with cats, the cats always hated him. So in his 16 or 17 years of life, I was his first positive experience with a kitty.

I didn’t have to work to win over every patient. One room had a little boy with his wrist and hand in a cast. He was happy to see me, and so were his mom and sisters. I sat next to the boy and gave him a high five with his uninjured hand. Then both his sisters stood on a little step and petted me too. One had a disability so she needed a little extra help, but they were all delightful.

The last patient in the exam rooms was another young girl who wasn’t sure of me at first, but who warmed up to me. But something was bothering her, and she whispered it to her mother. The mother told us she was worried that I might relieve myself in the exam room! My human assured them that she made sure I used the litter box before going off on our visit. The mother was a little impressed by that.

Did I mention I purred the whole time I was visiting the exam rooms? Because I did.

We also went up to the surgery area. Several patients had nurses working with them so it wasn’t a good time for a visit. But one girl on a gurney had just one nurse and she gasped the moment she saw me. Clearly she needed a visit so my human brought me over. During the visit she told us all about her cats. We spent longer with her than we normally might have because she in a lot of pain. The nurse had given her a dose of strong painkiller and it was taking a while to kick in, so having me there was one way to distract her.

We’ve been doing therapy visits for so many years now that my human instinctively knows when to stay and when it might be better to leave. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I am so happy during most of my visits. Because I do love visiting people when they appreciate me the most.

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Six Quick Playtime Hacks You Can Use With Your Cat Right Now

If you do a cat toy search on Google or TikTok shop, you’ll get all sorts of crazy results — elaborate electronic toys, wild new inventions, and quite a few items that are clearly toy fails. But you don’t need those! I can give you a few playtime hacks you can use right now! Here are six fun ones.

Here’s the easiest and cheapest: toss a cat treat across the room. That’s it! If your cat loves treats, they will immediately chase after it. If you have a staircase, even better. Tossing treats up and down the stairs will really give your cat a workout. (This works best with carpeted steps, like I have in the turret — you don’t want your kitty slipping and sliding down the stairs.)
 Want to add an extra element to the treat game? Take a paper bag and toss the treats in there. (Make sure to cut off the handles, if the bag has any.) If your cat’s not treat motivated, use their favorite small toy instead. You can do the same thing with a cat tunnel or tent, if you have one sitting around.
 Combining two toys into one play session is always fun. I did a post once on combining my RompiCatz cattipeed with my Happy Camper tent. You can get really creative by using an interactive and a static (or semi-static) toy together. You probably have cat toys sitting around the house that can pair up for some kitty games.
 Then there’s always the toy hiding under the blanket game. You can also do this with a cat bed. This is really fun to do with a wand or fishing pole style toy. That way you can keep a distance while you move the toy around and out from under the blanket. Your cat can more easily pretend you’re not responsible for the toy’s movements.

The secret to this game is you really shouldn’t use your hands or feet. Because there will come the day when part of you is under a very flimsy blanket and you will feel every claw when your cat spontaneously decides to attack.
 

Some cats really like to chase those plastic balls with the bell inside. But a lot of cats don’t — they are not very prey-like, to be honest. If you have any sitting around unused, try this: put one or two of those plastic jingly balls inside an old sock. Add some catnip too, if your cat enjoys catnip. Tie it off and toss it — the soft texture of the sock is way more appealing for cat play. Now you have a new toy that didn’t cost you anything. In fact, you reused toys that your cat got bored with long ago.
 Use a toilet paper roll as a treat puzzle. Just poke some treat sized holes in it, add treats and fold up the ends. This takes almost no effort, and if your cat loves treats, they’ll love this toy.

Cats — and their people — can get into toy ruts sometimes, and it’s good to change things up occasionally. Save these ideas for when you want to add variety to your cat’s playtime. You’ll have these ideas right at your fingertips.

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