Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 28

Evacuation Outtakes? Yes, We Have Some!

The past week, let’s face it, has been horrible and devastating. So this week’s outtakes are maybe more important than ever. Because I think we all need a moment or two to take a break and be a little silly.

If I’d known what the rest of the week was going to be like, maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to stick my tongue out after my therapy cat visit.

You can see my commentary on the week’s events above.

You have no idea how annoying it is when you are told you’re not allowed into a room. Especially because “she will get lost forever!” Sounds like an awesome room to me.

And that’s the end of this week’s outtakes! I have no idea what the next week is going to bring. I just hope we get some funny photos.

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We’re Home!

We’re happy and relieved to be home, and to see the evacuation areas and warnings near us being lifted. It’s been a rough couple of days, and devastating for many thousands of people, a handful of whom we know personally.

This includes:

A friend my human has known for 30 years, who lost the Pacific Palisades house she grew up in, leaving her and her mother homeless.

Several colleagues my human worked with when she was a music journalist.

The trainer and animal expert my human and I have worked with on several videos and photo sessions for Sleepypod. She escaped with her dogs and spouse and everything else is gone.

Many historic places that have been around for over 100 years are gone. Must-visit Malibu restaurants burnt to the ground. The scenic Pacific Coast highway is all ashes and blackened, skeletal structures. Pretty much all of Pacific Palisades is gone. And before you shrug that off as an enclave of the wealthy, it also has a brilliant history of mid-century artists and intellectuals. That history has vanished.

We were very lucky, multiple times over. We didn’t have to evacuate, but felt it was wise to. Our electricity was out, the air was unbreathable, and only a freeway and a hill separated us from the mandatory evacuation zone. We had places to go, first to a friend’s townhouse in the lower part of Pasadena, and then my human’s boyfriend’s ranch in the desert. At 6 AM on Wednesday morning, finding a hotel was impossible. They were booked up in all the surrounding areas already.

It was a very stressful few days for my human, but she did her best to keep me happy, and keep up with necessary things while we were away. As soon as the electricity went back on at our house, she checked the security cams periodically. She saw the peach kitty a couple of times, and one of the neighborhood raccoons. And saw that otherwise, things were quiet.

Along the way, she learned a few things:

It’s possible to love something dearly and not be attached to it.
Anyone who knows my human knows she loves her stuff, and she keeps a lot of things (some of them pretty silly) that have a sentimental value. She also loves her house. But she didn’t hesitate to leave all those things behind. And if she had lost them all, she would have had no regrets. Up until now, the idea of love and detachment being compatible was a foreign concept to her.It’s okay to be attached to stuff even when someone else isn’t.
Just because my human realized this about herself, she knows that doesn’t mean everyone is the same way. She knows some people are destroyed over what they’ve lost, and they may never recover from it. And that’s an equally valid point of view, and probably a much more common situation.If there’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing you can do about that.
We had to leave the peach kitty behind because there would have been no way to find him. We don’t know where he goes when he’s not visiting, and he would not let my human catch him anyway. So while she was concerned about him, she didn’t kill herself with worry about him either. She was relieved to see him on the security cam, though! And he was literally the only thing left behind that she cared about at all.She needs a better evacuation set up!
She left quite a few things behind that she should have taken like insurance documents, her parents’ death certificates, and some other paperwork. She just packed her personal records and that was it. Everything should be in one secure place to grab and go instead of in several areas of the house, like they have been here. Also she left behind a couple of stupid things, like deodorant and her sweater coat, which she really could have used during the cold desert nights.

So yes, we’re home and although we are getting back to our regular schedule, things will never really be the same.

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Modeling Away From Home

Yes, my human packed some of my outfits when we were getting away from the Los Angeles fires. Along with other necessary things of course, like her laptop and hard drives and personal records. While this may sound really, really strange, when I explain why it will make sense!

My human knew our lives were going to be turned upside down for at least a couple of days, and it wasn’t for a fun reason. So she wanted to bring some things with us that represented my regular life. Things I could do while we were away. She brought my favorite toy, of course. But she also brought some of my outfits. And although she kind of grabbed what was easy to find, she included each one for a special reason.

Like this chullo knit hat, for example. Friends of ours in the U.K. sent it to me, so she wanted to save it in case anything happened.

She packed the flower crown just because it’s so pretty on me.

She picked a couple of sweaters because it was cold! This one with the pink pattern looks really nice.

This sweater is my most unique one! It’s kind of a statement piece.

And of course she had to pack a princess dress. This one is my most iconic, and it has received many millions of social media views. And she also packed my other iconic piece, my pink pearls and crystal heart necklace. Fortunately, it was ready to be packed since she’d never unpacked it from my last trip. Which is why none of my tiaras came along — she wasn’t going to hunt for them in the dark.

And the one thing she would have never left behind was my nurse’s uniform! As a therapy cat, it might be the most important outfit I own.

So how do you think I responded when she brought out the clothes and her camera? I was so excited! I hovered around her and purred while she was setting up. Since her boyfriend is a filmmaker, he even had a light for us to use. I had a great time.

Fortunately, our area seems to have escaped any serious fire effects, other than lots of smoke and ash. Our electricity is back on, and my human saw the peach kitty on the security cam a couple of times. In the most recent video, it seemed like he was looking for me. So it’s time to head back.

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Temporary Fire Escape

After a stressful day of high winds and fire alerts, my human could barely sleep. Since the living room was the only area with heat, we slept up there. Except she got up after an hour or so. Even though we weren’t that close to the fire, our electricity was out, the whole house smelled like smoke, and it was hard to breathe. And she didn’t want to wait for an evacuation notice. So she packed what she thought we’d need and after a few texts and phones calls, we went to a friend’s townhouse.

It was just temporary, though. She was already making arrangements with her boyfriend to meet him at his desert house over the hill. She just needed to get some rest first.

I thought it was an adventure! And while she was trying to shoot a video to post on our social media, I may have stolen a treat or two out of the bag.

We got to her boyfriend’s place, and I was so glad to have a whole house to play in again! I’ve been here a few times before and it’s always fun.

The living room has some fun spaces in one wall for me to pose in.

My human promised me a photo session or two while we’re here. She hopes it’s not for too long (I don’t care!). The fire is a little less threatening to our area than it has been, but that could change with the wind. And the air quality in our area really is terrible! But as soon as she feels it is safe to return, we’ll go back. Meanwhile, our neighbors are keeping an eye on our house.

And if you are wondering about the peach kitty, when the electricity came back on at the house, she was able to see him on our ring cam. He was walking through our neighbor’s yard like usual. So he’s okay too!

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We’re Safe for Now, But No Electricity

It is extremely rare for me not to be able to have some sort of decent blog post. The only other times this has happened was when my predecessor, Sparkle, passed away, and once or twice when my human was really sick. This time it’s a huge weather event.

As many of you know, we live in the Los Angeles area, and right now we are having a very dangerous windstorm, with gusts threatening to blast up to 100 mph. (It hasn’t gotten that high yet, but it’s been pretty intense at times.) As a result, our electricity is out and I don’t know if they’ll get it back on this evening.

There are also several fires burning but as of right now, none of them are even remotely close to us. My human does have at least one friend in Pacific Palasades who has had to evacuate, along with her elderly mother. There’s another fire that’s closer to us, but still too far away to be of any immediate concern.

The only power we have here is a portable charger for my human’s phone and iPad. It’s not strong enough to power the MacBook, where most of my photos and video software live. So we’ll stay in touch on social media, we’re just limited as to what we can do here on the blog. And although there’s no electricity, our living room and office floor heater doesn’t need it, so we are still warm!

If all we have to deal with is a bit of inconvenience, we consider ourselves really, really lucky, and our hearts go out to everyone who is less fortunate.

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Staff Support From a Therapy Cat

I had a quiet therapy cat day at the big hospital, as far as patients went. My first stop was Pediatrics but all the patients were either infants or in isolation. So on our way out, we stopped by the Residents Workroom to see if anyone wanted to spend some time with me. It turned out that one resident did, and she was so happy I was there. The residents work hard, and I’m always glad to brighten their day.

Then we went up to Labor and Delivery, and there were no patients to see there either — they were all in delivery! So it was a crazy morning for the nurses and staff. But they were still happy to see me and spend some time taking photos with me. I think they needed the stress relief.

Finally we visited the Cancer Center and at first I didn’t think there would be anyone there either. The infusion room had three patients — one was asleep, and the second one didn’t want pet therapy. But the third patient, who was getting ready to leave, wanted to see me. While the nurse took care of her IV, I got to be on her lap while she petted me. She asked my human if it was okay to kiss me, and she said, “Of course,” so she kissed me on the head.

On the way out of the Cancer Center, I visited with a couple of people in the waiting room for a while, and that was nice too.

So not a lot happened during my first therapy cat visit of the new year. But I think I saw exactly the people that needed to spend time with me.

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Putting Away the Ornaments or Cat Training Session?

It’s been a while since I’ve practiced touching random things. So when my human started taking down the Christmas ornaments, it turned into a training session! She had me practice my bell ringing, just as a refresher.

We took a chance with some of the more fragile ornaments.

Most of them were a lot less breakable.

And of course I have my very own ornament! You can see all the different ornaments I touched in the video below.

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My Festive and Fun December Video Compilation

I have so many treats (not the cat type treats) in store for you in my December video compilation! My human’s video editing schedule was off. So a lot of my blog posts wound up without videos…which were assembled later. That means that if you only read my blog, or follow me sporadically on other social media, there’s a lot here that’ll be new to you.

You didn’t get to see the video of my worst holiday outfits. And there’s video of me shopping for the peach kitty’s Christmas presents.

My human didn’t have time to edit the video of my Christmas with the peach kitty either.

And I never did manage to do a Boxing Day blog post! But there’s a whole video of box game fun for you to see!

So check out the December compilation! As always, it’s divided into chapters, so you can skip to the videos you really want to see.

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Final Festive Photo Flubs of the Season

After this weekend, the holiday season draws to a close. I don’t mind seeing things get back to normal. I have all sorts of fun planned! But for now I have some festive photo flubs to share!

Maybe I was hoping for some treats when the clock struck 12!

And here I am, a little flummoxed by my falling-over New Year hat.

And of course the peach kitty had to get in on the raspberries.

And that’s it for the last of the holiday outtakes! See you with some fresh 2025 outtakes next week!

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New Year’s Day Visit With the Peach Kitty

I got to have a visit with the peach kitty on New Year’s Day!

My human usually goes outside by herself before taking me out to make sure everything is safe. He must have seen her because as soon as she went back inside to get me, he showed up.

My human brought my New Year’s hat for me to wear. Because it was still a holiday.

I thought he might not like it, but he was really interested in it.

We got got treats, of course.

And my human brought out the mini bag of catnip that she got him for Christmas.

Of course once the catnip came out, he got a little distracted! You can see a video of our visit below.

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