Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 353

My Birthday Gifts… and Commenthon Results!

I got a special dress to wear on my birthday!

Check out the back. I like it, which is a good thing because my human forgot to take it off me before she went to take a shower, and I wound up wearing it for most of the morning.

That afternoon, she disappeared for an hour, and when she came back, she had this humongous gift-wrapped package! Was it a new cat condo?

Nope — it was a brand new train set.

My human assembled it and assured me it was lots of fun!

I guess it is kind of interesting.

Boodie didn’t know what to make of it.

She also caused a minor accident. Don’t worry — there were no injuries.

Honestly, I get the sneaking suspicion she got the train set for herself and not me!

I do want to thank all of you for making my birthday really special! This pretty birthday card was made by Pipo and Minko’s human — isn’t it lovely? And I know I said I was going to have my human donate a dollar per comment on my birthday post to Southern California Abyssinian Rescue, up to $75, but… the comments hit 75 and kept going! In fact, they are over 100 now, so my human is going to donate a whole $100 instead! Plus Angel and Isabella’s human is going to make a donation too! How awesome that you all made that happen — thank you again!
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My 2016 calendars are here!

Sunday Selfies and Random Mats

My human found some mats on the lower part of Boodie’s chest, so she took her to the enclosed patio and combed them out. Since she was FURminated a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t too much work. Also getting a quality diet helps — when my human started feeding her only grain-free canned cat food a few years ago, she matted way less than before. After grooming her, my human thought it might be a great opportunity for Boodie to do some selfies.

I guess not! Now you know why you never see Boodie doing selfies. So I guess it is up to me again.

First, let me get Boodie’s old, matted fur out of the way.

Now, let me set the timer….

Oops! Two seconds was too fast. Let me set it to 10 seconds instead.

I don’t like the angle on this one. Let me adjust the iPhone’s position.

This one’s pretty nice! I’m gonna tell Boodie she missed out.

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My 2016 calendars are here!

Caturday Birthday – and Commenthon!

Guess what today is?

That’s right — it’s my birthday! I am two years old today.

Check out my birthday cake! It’s a defrosted disc of raw chicken cat food from a local pet food manufacturer, topped with unsweetened, made-from-scratch whipped cream frosting, and sprinkled with crumbled freeze-dried chicken hearts! Can you imagine anything more heavenly?

Of course I shared! My human divided the cake into threes. We couldn’t wait to dive in!

Well, except for Boodie. She’s not too good with the diving thing.

My human had to help her get her share once Binga and I had wolfed ours down. Binga was bummed — she was hoping to wolf down Boodie’s too.

Yes, that is whipped cream on her forehead.

So, happy birthday to me! Now for the important part: I am having a commenthon today to benefit Southern California Abyssinian Rescue! This small organization helps Abys who find themselves homeless or in trouble, and they also help Somalis and other kitties too! Just because a cat has a pedigree, it doesn’t mean they all live happily ever after — there are people out there who discard kitties no matter where they got them, or what they paid for them. S.C.A.R. is a really great group, and my human will donate a dollar per comment, up to $75, for every comment received on this post between now and Monday at midnight, Pacific Time! Let’s see if we can hit the maximum!
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My 2016 calendars are here!

Field Trip

My human took me on a short field trip yesterday afternoon! We went on the Metro Rail Gold Line down to Union Station. I’ve only been on the Metro Rail once before, when I was a kitten, and we went in the opposite direction.

We sat around and people watched for a while.

Of course, I had to peep through a window. Or two.

All the places to sit, inside and outside, were made out of vintage tile and had probably been there for many decades.

In addition to people watching, there was some good bird watching… even inside the station!

Briefly, we went across the street to El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the oldest part of the city. My human kept me in my carrier because we were only there for a few minutes.

This field trip was actually a practice run for an event that’s going on soon — and we may come back one more time before it happens.
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My 2016 calendars are here!

St. Catrick’s Day Leprecat Lore

As you kitties probably know, St. Catrick’s Day is a big day for fun and celebration, and I bet there will be lots of nip hangovers tomorrow! I’m not sure exactly how a saint’s day got turned into a day for partying, but does it really matter? Let’s just whip out the nip and the treats and raise a tuna juice toast!

But first, I want to tell you a little bit about leprecat lore. Leprecats have a fascinating history, and while some of it is made up, maybe some of it is really true!

Leprecats are small orange Tomcats wearing green hats, and it is said they have piles of gold cat treats hidden away somewhere. Humans, believing that having a leprecat is good luck, will try to capture them, but they don’t realize that leprecats are feral, plus they are also tricksters. Once trapped, a leprecat may barter for his freedom by giving you directions to his treasure, but as soon as you let him go, he will just run off and spray your front door, and the directions to the treasure will lead you to the nearest litter box.

You will most often find leprecats in catnip bushes, where they will spend their days getting high and contemplating the stupidity of humans. Of course, not every cat hanging out around catnip bushes is a leprecat, and chances are if you try to catch one, you will just wind up with an ordinary cat… which isn’t such a bad thing, but you won’t get any treasure.

Sadly, there are fewer and fewer lepricats around because of the TNR programs in many communities. So if you do see a leprecat, consider yourself fortunate indeed — but unless you want to go digging for a pot of gold cat treats in the nearest litter box, you should probably let him pass by.
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My 2016 calendars are here!

Spring Nip

Spring has definitely arrived at my house! It is gorgeous outside.

Because it was raining not that long ago, everything smells fresh and intoxicating!

Oh wait… maybe it smells intoxicating because of my catnip garden — it’s really thriving. Doesn’t it look inviting?

In fact, I think I’ll examine it a little more closely.

Oh… was I supposed to do a blog post?
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My 2016 calendars are here!

Tortie Interruptus Tuesday

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My 2016 calendars are here!

Why We Need a Cat in the White House

My human is very depressed these days, and it’s all about the negative atmosphere of the 2016 presidential campaign here in the U.S. People are angry, violent, and hateful rhetoric abounds. Few humans seem to care about real issues, or if a candidate is actually qualified to run the country, or if the things they are promising to do are even remotely possible. They are buying into the cult of personality — not that this doesn’t happen during every presidential campaign (or so I hear), but it’s way worse than normal this year.

But what is making her especially unhappy is how everyone seems to be at each other’s throats. People — even people on the same side of the political spectrum — are arguing and destroying friendships. Political rallies are angry gatherings and people are starting to get hurt. People are being physically attacked for no other reason than they disagree with a politician’s views. It’s all so very wrong and disturbing.

See, one of the best things about the cat blogging community, and one of my human’s favorite parts of it, is that all the humans behind the kitties are so different. They are not only from all over the U.S., but from around the world, and nearly all of them have strong opinions about a lot of things. There are Christian Conservatives, GLBT humans, atheists and scientific secularists (like my human), Democrats, Republicans and even maybe some pagans and Libertarians thrown in. Some of these humans couldn’t be more different from the others, and the ones in the U.S. all seem to support different candidates for president. But you know what? Everybody gets along and everybody looks out for everyone else. And I think I know the reason why: it’s us cats.

You know the best way to stop an argument about politics? Interrupt it with, “Oh, never mind that — my cat has been throwing up hairballs all week with the weather change. What do you do for your cat?” If one cat lover is for Donald Trump and the other wants Bernie Sanders to be elected president, instead of talking about those guys, why don’t they talk about the new cat food they found that was carrageenan free? Or about the latest new cat litter? Because let’s face it: hairball remedies, cat food and kitty litter are way more important and interesting topics than who should be the next president — and there is a lot more room for agreement.

Imagine if we had a cat in the White House that spent time in the Oval Office the way I spend time in my human’s office. Things would go a lot smoother, and people would be much calmer. It’s true! Cats have a healing effect on humans… and I think we can also have a healing effect on the United States, if only we are allowed to supervise all the decision-making. Just looking at a cat makes most people kinder and more empathetic. I don’t have any figures on that — actually I made that up — but I have found from my own experience that this is true.

So who cares about the humans that want to be in the White House? I think it is way more important for a kitty to be there! In fact, there should be a cat for everybody who has an important job to do in the government. Because kitties calm you down, inspire happiness, and make you realize what’s important in life: peace and good will for everyone.
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My 2016 calendars are here!

St. Patrick’s Selfies

My human had some more St. Patrick’s hats that I didn’t get around to modeling last time, so we did another photo shoot. I decided to do some selfies on the set, but hatless so I had one less thing to deal with. I just wore my bow.

I love doing selfies when there are lights and a backdrop set up — it makes set up so much easier.

At first I thought I’d look away from the camera, but I’m not so sure about this pose.

This one looks like a mug shot! That won’t do.

Ah! This is better. Just a touch out of focus, but I think it works.

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My 2016 calendars are here!

Saturday Catinee: Binga Speaks!

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a video of Binga meowing. This isn’t that video.

Binga talks all the time, usually about how she wants food. So my human got a couple of different videos of her meowing and then edited them together. So in addition to the meowing you might have seen on Instagram, there is a whole lot more. If your sound is already on, you don’t need to turn up your speakers!

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

Incidentally, the floor isn’t quite as dirty as it looks — it’s mainly just ugly, which is why we don’t do photo shoots in the kitchen very often.

I guess she is not amused.
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My 2016 calendars are here!