Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 349

Saturday Catinee: Fetch! Or Not

You saw how much I love my orange sparkle ball the other day.

Now you can see me play fetch with it! Well, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, as you can see.

If you can’t see the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube!

In case you were wondering, the two tosses happened within seconds of each other, but my human removed about four seconds of dead space in the middle where all you saw was the rug.
* * *


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

A Cool Kitty Performance

Guess what my human did last night?

Want another hint?

And in case you haven’t guessed yet:

That’s right — my human went to see the Acro-Cats! She’s been looking forward to it for weeks. They make it out our way every couple of years, and this is the third tour of theirs that my human has seen.

The star of the show, of course, is Tuna — and she knows it. Everyone cheered when she came out. In fact, the audience was pretty enthusiastic the whole time, and many people knew all the kitties! But Tuna got an extra special reception.

There were lots of very talented cats performing, and each had his or her own story — and specialty. Alley has a special talent for leaping. In fact, she is a Guiness World Record holder for cat with the longest recorded leap! She did a few amazing jumps at the show.

One of Annie’s specialties was rolling a barrel. Both she and Alley… and every single one of the other Acro-Cats is a rescue cat! Some of them were foster fails — Samantha Martin, who is the head Acro-Cat human, fosters kittens while on the road and she has adopted out nearly 200 kitties! If I hadn’t come along, my human may have contacted her about adopting a kitten because they are all hyper-socialized… and they learn tricks!

The Acro-Cats’ shows are always unpredictable because the cats (and rats and chicken and groundhog) do their tricks on their own schedule… and sometimes they are not in the mood to do them at all. This particular show went really well, except for a couple of times. But even when the kitties don’t perform as they are supposed to, it’s just as fun watching the humans improvise around it! The audience also got to enjoy visits from a couple of Acro-Cats who jumped off the stage and wandered around for pets and attention. One of them, Jax, hung out on somebody’s lap until she was needed back on stage!

The show always finishes up with the Rock Cats jamming.

Tuna is always on cowbell!

My human’s favorite Acro-Cat, Sookie, plays the chimes.

Cluck Norris, the chicken, played percussion. She also bowled a game against Tuna earlier in the show… it was a tie.

The Acro-Cats rule! Like, literally rule their bus and the tour. They perform when they want and how they want and they get paid in lots of treats! The humans are just there to serve them. These kitties have it made, and it makes me want to run off with these circus cats! If the Acro-Cats come to your town, you really need to see them!
* * *


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

Polka Dot Parade

I spent some time outside on my leash yesterday because I hadn’t in a while and my therapy cat evaluation is on Saturday! So my human wanted me to have some leash practice. I wore my red polka dot dress too. I know you have seen it several times before, but I really like wearing it, plus it has a handy keyhole in back for my D-ring and ID tags.

We started in the back part of the front yard, but I walked all the way down to the front and around the garage to the side of the house. My human was very proud of me because for a while, I was kind of scared of being too close to the street. Today I was happy and self-confident.

I got to walk on the wall too!

My human let me keep going until the wall started getting too high for her to reach me.

No, I didn’t want back in the house — I heard Binga meowing on the other side! I think she was jealous. But my human’s boyfriend was busy doing a phone interview for a podcast, so he wasn’t available to walk her. It’s too hard for one person to walk the both of us together.

I just want to say, my human uploaded a photo of me to my Instagram account and one of the tags she used was #polkadotdress. Later on, she took a look at the other images for that hashtag, and there were two humans wearing imitations of my dress!

Copycats! It figures — you have a good look and everybody wants to steal it.
* * *


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

Me and My Orange Sparkle Ball

Want to see how much I love my orange sparkle ball? Here you go!

* * *


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

Kitten Season at Kitten Rescue

It’s that time of year, when humans die from cuteness and explode with frustration. That’s right, kitten season is here, and because people did not spay and neuter their cats or the strays in their community, kittens abound. Just in time, Kitten Rescue has opened their new nursery, and they threw a kitten shower to celebrate! We only live a few minutes from Kitten Rescue’s Casitas sanctuary, so my human popped over. I stayed home and loafed.

Perversely, the first thing my human did was check out the adult cats. Kitten Rescue had recently upgraded their area, so she wanted to see how they liked it. In spite of the crowds, this orange guy seemed pretty chill.

Here is his information sheet — all the cats had one.

This tortie and white kitty had drawn quite a crowd, and she was quite happy to just pose.

My human didn’t catch the names of these two cats, but they didn’t seem to mind all the visitors either. Most of the cats, in fact, seemed pretty calm about it all.

One cat my human looked for but couldn’t find was Domino — she was one of the recipients of the Santa Kitty Toy Hop a year and a half ago. She had a brother, Monster, but he passed away a few months after the Santa Kitty Toy Hop. My human found Domino’s information card, so she knew she was still there. Perhaps she was napping somewhere.

Finally my human made it over to the new nursery. There were several nursing moms, including this pretty tortoiseshell.

There were some kittens without moms, and that’s when volunteers stepped in.

It was really tempting to reach out and touch these babies, but each cage and enclosure had signs warning the visitors not to do that.

This baby doesn’t realize how lucky he is — he has a team of volunteers helping to take care of him and the other kittens in the new Kitten Rescue nursery. He’ll grow strong and healthy, and when he is old enough, he’ll find a good home. There are lots of kittens — some in your neighborhood — who need help. Do some research and see what resources are available where you live, so if you happen on kittens in need, you know what you can do for them.
* * *


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

Cat Training Like a Movie Star

I ran across a story about the kitten(s) that starred in Keanu, which is coming out this week. In case you don’t know anything about this film, here’s the plot: Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are a couple of dorky middle-class humans. When their adorable kitten is catnapped by a drug dealer, they have to pretend to be thugs themselves to get him back. So basically, the kitten is the star of the film, no matter what billing the humans get.

Here’s a trailer for the movie (warning for the sensitive — there is violence and some HBO words):

If you can’t see the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube!

The Hollywood Reporter story I found mentions something that some of you may not know: often in movies, multiple cats or kittens are used to play one part… at least when there are real cats at all — way too many films these days rely on CGI animals. This one didn’t, and I give them a high paw for that! Keanu required seven different cute tabby kittens, each with his own set of stunts. They picked tabbies (which they got from the shelters) because they were common and it was easy to match patterns. The kittens were trained especially for the movie, and when they weren’t in scenes, they doubled as therapy for the cast and crew… and all of them wound up with homes! Three of them stayed with the trainer and the rest went to regular households — or as regular as an entertainment industry home can be (my human knows because she grew up in one).

The story also mentioned some of the training techniques — and they are a lot of the same things I do! The kittens were trained to wear hats by using treats — and you can bet I got lots of treats for wearing this awful thing.

The kittens were also trained on location — the same way my human puts me through my paces when I’m at loud, noisy cat shows. In fact, I enjoy doing tricks for visitors at cat shows, and a couple of times my human even let a kid do high fives with me! That was fun. I’m still learning how to ring the bell, but once I do, it’s coming with me to cat shows.

The important thing is that the humans let the kittens set the pacing. And that is really how cat training goes — it’s more the cat showing the humans what they like to do, and then the humans helping the cats make the most of it. A trainer can mold a dog’s behavior. We cats do it the opposite way — we mold the trainer’s behavior. And even Hollywood trainers have to bow to the whims of the tiniest kitten.

My human is going to see Keanu when it comes out! Is it the sort of movie you’d watch?
* * *


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

Slightly High Selfies

So there I was, inhaling the rich aroma of my outdoor catnip plants when I realized… I still needed to take some selfies!

I hope I get the timer set right!

Oops, I guess not! Let me give it another try.

Good, nailed it! Or at least, as close as I can when I’ve had a bit too much nip!

* * *


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

Lazy Caturday

What am I doing this weekend, since I’m missing the cat show (which I hear is really awesome)? Not much.

Playing a little.

Napping a little.

I even got to go out back and see how my catnip is doing. It’s outgrowing the planter, it’s so bushy now!

I hung out for a while and enjoyed the sunshine.

I have a pretty nice view from here!

But I really am bummed I’m not at the cat show.
* * *


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

Outtakes and Surprises

Since I have no cat show this weekend, I thought I’d share some outtakes… and guess what? I found a couple of pics from never before seen photo sessions too!

So let’s start off with one of those failed photo sessions! This one happened when my human returned from a publishing conference that did not include me. She tried to make it up to me by creating a conference badge with my name on it. As you can tell, I felt dubious about the whole thing.

Here is a photo from one of my sessions on the back patio. Something certainly did not agree with me!

Remember my selfies with hat photo session? Here I am asking to be paid first.

I think this was supposed to be a selfie in the plane on my trip last weekend to Phoenix. After trying this one photo, I had second thoughts.

Here’s another never before seen photo session, from when my human took me to the post office when she checked our P.O. Box. I hated the post office! It was noisy and echo-y and smelly and uncomfortable. So the photos were a bust.

Remember the Vault Marinater from the Jackson Galaxy cat toy collection, and how much Binga loved it? We couldn’t keep her away from it.

And this is what I thought of her behavior! By the way, have you entered my contest to win a selection of Jackson Galaxy cat toys yet? The giveaway is going on until Tuesday, April 26, so there is still time to enter!
* * *


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

No Cat Show for Me This Weekend

Well, I am bummed! I developed a urinary tract infection, which means I can’t go to the cat show this weekend. I am on antibiotics and I’m supposed to stay home, away from anything that is “stressful” until it goes away (like going to the vet to get meds wasn’t stressful — ha!). My human still has to go down there for set-up today because she is in charge of the Somali cat breed booth, and she has all the materials here.

I don’t really feel all that sick. I played fetch last night and I’ve been eating all my food. I don’t really want to stay home… but I guess I had better so I am well by next weekend, when I have my therapy cat evaluation.

So I guess I will just tear a few chunks out of this old cat tree for now.
* * *


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