Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 341

First Calendar FAIL for 2017!

Yes, it’s that time of year again — when I do photo shoots for next years’s calendar! And I can already say that the sets my human are putting up are not winning! I don’t care how much she loves Betsey Johnson, this throw of hers is not a good backdrop for October. Neither is the hat, a rerun that I thought I’d seen the last of.

This hat did not work before, and I don’t know why my human wanted to give it another try. She should have talked to me about it first.

Even though it was obviously a bad idea from the start, I tried to be game about it and give my human a cute pose or two. Finally, she had to admit defeat.

After getting rid of the hat, she put a dress on me. Actually it is one of my favorites, and it even might have been nice… except the ugly backdrop is still there!

This photo shoot was one big calendar FAIL! I get the feeling that if I do an outtake calendar again, I’ll have lots of material.
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post First Calendar FAIL for 2017! appeared first on SparkleCat.

Catnip Harvest Selfies

While my human and I were harvesting the catnip, I decided to take some time to do this week’s selfies too. So if they look a little glassy-eyed this time, it’s because I was nip-whiffing!

As always, I had to get the iPhone set up in place. I didn’t want any glares from the sun.

Well, this is no good! I’m barely in the frame. The iPhone must have slipped or something.

It would also be nice if I could get myself centered in the frame. Maybe I should have done this before I started sniffing the catnip.

Okay, I got it! Although you can tell I’ve been into the catnip.

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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post Catnip Harvest Selfies appeared first on SparkleCat.

Caturday Catnip Harvest

I was out back, checking up on my catnip plants and it was amazing!

Look at how overgrown it has gotten! A catnip harvest was long overdue.

Some of the catnip was in full bloom — a lovely time to harvest it. Some of it was past the flowering stage. Some shoots were still young. It was kind of a mess… but I didn’t care! I just wanted to whiff.

But it was time to get to work and supervise my human as she cut back the catnip. It’s a very important job, and I needed to make sure she didn’t mess it up.

Plus her hand smelled heavenly when she was finished.

So I had a taste… I mean, how could I resist?

Look at all the catnip we harvested! My human actually read up on how to dry it so she could do it in a way that would best preserve the potent oils. So now the bunches are tied together and hanging in a dark corner of the half bath in the enclosed patio. And there’s still enough nip in the planter if I want to have it fresh!
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post Caturday Catnip Harvest appeared first on SparkleCat.

The Healing Power of Rescue #BtC4A

This is really a dark time for humans. It seems like there is a new tragedy every few days in some part of the world. I don’t even have to list them, and who knows, by the time you read this, there may be something new and terrible that has happened. The worst part of these events is how helpless most people feel against so much hatred and so many things gone wrong. So my focus for today’s Be the Change for Animals post isn’t really animals this time around — it’s the people who help them.

One of the best things anyone can do when the news is as bleak as it is right now is to turn off the TV, shut off Facebook and Twitter, and volunteer to help at a local pet rescue. One person may not be able to do a whole lot in the face of global unrest — but you can help enrich, and maybe save the lives of some cats and kittens.

Spend an hour tidying up the cat room.
Do you have a car? Offer to transport pets to and from the vet clinic or to and from adoption events.
Ask to learn how to care for neonatal kittens — there is always a need for that.
Are you good at WordPress or social media? Find out if a rescue needs help with that.
If you are good with a camera, help take photos of adoptable cats.
Most of all, spend time with cats and kittens. We have the ability to heal hearts, you know, and even those of us who are in search of homes want to offer you good energy and headbutts.

Yes, the rescues need you. But there are times when you need to be at the rescue, helping out, just as much. Maybe you can’t reach halfway around the world and put a stop to hatred, but you can spread love and goodwill right in your own backyard. You can make a difference. Never forget that. Act on it.

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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post The Healing Power of Rescue #BtC4A appeared first on SparkleCat.

Another Round of Outtakes

It’s time for outtakes again! They’ve been piling up since I got back from BlogPaws.

Here is Binga photobombing somebody other than me! Amazing, isn’t it?

Frankly, I think this outtake of me in that awful, tiny Fourth of July hat might have been improved with a photobomb.

Remember when my quiet time got disturbed? Well, the moment my human started pointing her camera at me, I knew there was going to be trouble.

I’ve been out on the back patio a couple of times, and here it looks like I smelled something unpleasant, which I probably did!

Wow, I couldn’t believe my face from my cat tricks photo shoot! It looks like I hated the treat my human gave me for sitting up! In reality, I was just chowing down on it.

And of course no post of outtakes would be complete without me sticking out my tongue! Maybe it was at Binga.
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post Another Round of Outtakes appeared first on SparkleCat.

The BlogPaws Swag We Kept… and Who Won the Rest

Here is one of my favorite parts of doing my blog: announcing giveaway winners and shipping off the prizes! As you can see, I have a helper today.

My human packed up the boxes in a room by herself, but we are checking to make sure she included everything and didn’t try any funny business. You might notice that while we had two giveaways  — the BlogPaws swag and the Cat Writers goodies — there are three boxes and a small package. The extra box is because my human gathered enough Cat Writers goodies to have a third giveaway only for my newsletter subscribers! I like to thank my subscribers by doing these occasional extra giveaways when I can.

The small package? That’s actually a copy of the new edition (available in the U.K. only) of White Line Fever, Lemmy Kilmister’s autobiography that my human helped him write. My human is sending a copy off to a special bass player friend who deserves one. That doesn’t really have anything to do with me or my giveaways — it’s just that she is dropping it off at the post office with the other boxes.

Anyway, here are the winners.

The BlogPaws swag winner is… Rachelle L.!

The Cat Writers goodies winner is… Dee V!

And the newsletter winner is Laila and Minchie!

A big concatulations to you all!

Yes, I gave away most of what I got from BlogPaws, but that’s because we already have so much here and I love to share my bounty with my pals! But don’t worry, I did get to keep a few things, mostly my favorite treats and a couple of toys.

Oh… and I guess I get to share these too.

I hope she doesn’t plan on counting out each and every treat!
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post The BlogPaws Swag We Kept… and Who Won the Rest appeared first on SparkleCat.

Tricky Tortie

Somebody on Facebook who read yesterday’s post wanted to know if their four-year-old cat was too old to learn tricks. The answer is no! Binga will be 16 in August and she can do tricks. Of course, she learned the Sit Up trick as a kitten, but she didn’t learn anything else until I came to live here. She walks on a leash and does High Fives, and she learned it all just from watching me do it.

My human actually didn’t have to do anything — she just put her hand out for a high five one day and she did it! Of course, my human doesn’t do these tricks with her all that often. Usually Binga’s claws aren’t trimmed (she’s difficult), and sometimes she gets a little too, um, over-enthusiastic.

Besides, how many humans want to get their hand too close to this face? She looks like a tricky tortie, and not in a good way!
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post Tricky Tortie appeared first on SparkleCat.

Cat Tricks: Sit Up, High Five, Shake and Stay

As you know, I can do some tricks. The humans who I met at BlogPaws got to see me do them in person! Cat tricks are not really all that hard. I bet a lot of you kitties out there could get your human to do them with you. And the best part is you get treats, just by giving your human some very specific paw or body signals. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

All your human needs to start working with you on this is patience and some treats. A clicker is optional — I learned without one. And your human should also trim your claws before you start practicing. You will see why once we get started.

I’m going to show you the four basics because they are all sort of related: Sit Up, High Five, Shake and Stay. Learning one led to the others, and I still practice them several times a week.

Sit Up

Every cat that has ever come to live here, beginning with the cat before Sparkle, has learned how to do this trick. Except this one — she knew what my human wanted her to do, but she just refused. That means, if you do the math, 85% of cats my human has worked with do this trick. It is part of our breakfast ritual — we all have to sit up for a bit of food before my human gives us our bowls. My human simply holds up a treat or some food the way you see here (she is using a fork with a chunk of food to make it easier for her to photograph).

While we were learning it, my human held up the food or treat just out of our reach until we sat up, and when we did, she said, “Sit up!” and then gave us the treat. Eventually, we learned that when my human said, “Sit up,” if we did, we got something tasty. My human doesn’t even have to look at me anymore. If I am sitting there, waiting for breakfast, she can just say, “Sit up,” and I will do it. It is just a matter of repetition. When your human thinks you have learned to Sit Up, she can try saying it before holding out the treat to see if you will do it. If you don’t, that just means you need to keep practicing.

High Five

Some cats are naturals when it comes to High Fives. Here is how you figure that out: take a particularly tasty treat and hold it a little higher and farther away than you normally would for doing a Sit Up.

If it’s a good treat, your cat will stand up, trying to reach it. If it is not a good treat, then why are you using it? Go get some freeze-dried chicken or something else super good!

If a cat tries to grab the food or treat like I am here, it will be very easy to get her to learn how to do high fives! This is also why it is a good idea for you kitties to have your claws trimmed before practicing this — you don’t want to snag your humans’ skin with your claw. That will discourage them from working with you.

Once you humans get your cat to reach for a treat, all you need to do is hold the treat in one hand and give your cat’s outreached paw a high five with the other hand, and at the same time say, “High five!” Then give her the treat. It’s that simple.

Just keep doing that a few times a day, several times a week, and eventually it will stick.

Shake

High Fives and Shakes are totally related. Instead of giving your cat a high five, say, “Shake,” and lightly hold her paw instead — emphasis on lightly. You don’t want your cat to think you are being grabby and graspy. You can teach your cat to do both High Five and Shake but make sure she knows one really well before going onto the other one, or she will get confused. Chances are she will be a little puzzled when you start the new trick anyhow, but that’s when the patience thing needs to kick in.

When your cat is used to doing Shake, then you can grasp her paw a little more firmly, like a real handshake.

Stay

Stay is actually a very good trick for a kitty to know! It helps us focus. I confess, I get a little ADHD sometimes, but when my human tells me to Stay, and I know there’s a treat at the end of staying, I will sit down and stay put. For some reason, most kitties understand that pointing the way my human is in the photo above means to sit down. If your cat needs help with this, just point at her when she is sitting still, say, “Stay,” and give her a treat. Eventually make her sit longer before giving her the treat. Soon she will relate “Stay” with sitting patiently (or like with me, semi-patiently) and waiting for a treat.

Staying is a good thing to practice between other tricks. It may take a while, but eventually a cat will learn to stay still while you are digging through the treat bag for another treat. That is a good test to see how well she is catching on.

So there are my cat tricks! I hope you and your human have learned some new things to try. Remember to make each session fun and brief. My human and I only spend about 10 minutes, sometimes less, to practice my tricks. She uses them for when we are out places to tell if I’m comfortable. Even if I am a little nervous, she knows that if I will still do a trick for her, that I’m okay, and if I won’t, then maybe I’m too uncomfortable and we should leave.

The best part about cat tricks? Not only is it a fun game to play with your human, we kitties are always the ones in control! Your human always should follow your lead and practice tricks with you that you naturally gravitate towards. I know it has strengthened my relationship with my human. Maybe it will do the same with yours.
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post Cat Tricks: Sit Up, High Five, Shake and Stay appeared first on SparkleCat.

Bathroom Selfies, Interrupted

I thought I would try some selfies in the master bathroom this week. Technically, it’s not really the “master” bathroom — it belongs to my human’s boyfriend. Hers is the one with the yellow and black tile. Where the litter boxes are. Anyhow, the master bathroom gets some nice natural light in the afternoon, perfect for some selfies.

I just need to get the iPhone from my human and set it up for a good angle.

Wow, this one is not half bad! I think I’m on a roll.

Well, I was on a roll, until she came along….

Okay, so much for my bathroom selfies!

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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post Bathroom Selfies, Interrupted appeared first on SparkleCat.

A Caturday Escapade

When my human and I are out of town, we sleep together, but at home, I often leave the bed to Binga and Boodie. Usually I sleep on the top tier of the cat tree in the corner, but I found a new spot the other day! My human is still mystified about how I got up there without waking her up. The only way to reach it is by leaping up from the bed. Incidentally that lump in front of Boodie in the mirror is my human.

If you are one of the early, early readers of this blog, you may recall when my human brought home this plush red iguana. It was 13 years ago — July, 2003 — and Sparkle was not impressed (yes, that is her in the photo, not me!).

As you can tell I was a little surprised to be caught up there — I expected to be told to get down.

It seems like I drew a crowd! But I think they were more interested in breakfast than what my human thought of me sleeping on the plush red iguana on top of the dresser.
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See Summer’s 2016 calendars and other awesome merch at her Zazzle Shop!

The post A Caturday Escapade appeared first on SparkleCat.