Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 364

Three Days in Tucson

The cat show I competed in this past weekend was a long one: three whole days! Actually, it started Friday afternoon at 3, and went into the evening, then all day Saturday and Sunday. By the time it was over late Sunday afternoon and everyone was on their way home, both kitties and humans were exhausted!

In addition to the cat show, I got to see a real Christmas tree! Well, sort of real — this one was fake, like the one my human says she will put up this year.

And I got bacon Sunday morning!

But back to the cat show. I love that the cat club that put on this show had this sign at the entrance — if you ever go to a cat show just to watch and look at cats, these are the basic rules to follow! I think they are pretty simple, but you can’t do them if you don’t know them, right?

My breeder brought the sweet little Aby kitten to the show. It was a hard show for her because there were lots of kittens entered, plus there was another Aby kitten who has been doing well. But she did get some finals!

It was a competitive show for me too — even though I was the only Somali, there were many different breeds of cats in the Alter class, and they were all exceptional, which made it hard for the judges to choose just 6 or 8 cats to final. There were no mediocre cats in the bunch, and many who were just breathtaking! So I had to work extra hard this show. I did lots of cat yoga.

I got as much rest as I could between rings, even though I had to entertain lots of spectators!

Plus I took time to be goofy! When you are at a cat show, you need to have a sense of humor, otherwise why bother? I mean, it’s not rocket science or mice catching.

I do want to say that in one of the rings I finaled in, the judge was from Australia! Sometimes these shows get an international judge, and it is always fun and exciting. Sometimes they bring a little toy or gift to give the cats who final in their ring. This judge gave us these cute little koala bears. And I want to mention that she said that I reminded her of the Somali type they have back home in Australia… which is no coincidence because you can trace my dad’s line back to Australia!

By the end of the cat show, I had made eight finals! And I am proud of each one because this really was a tough show. A couple of the judges gave my human lots of compliments on how well I was groomed, and honestly I don’t know how she pulled it off. The combination of bone dry desert weather and heat in the rooms risked making every cat staticky! My human and I had to work very hard to keep that from happening. And we did it!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Special Guest Selfie

If you have read Rescued, you may recognize the lovely lady! It’s Harriet, one of the cats who tells her story in the book. She lives in Tucson, at the PAWSitively Cats No Kill Shelter, and since we were in town, my human got in touch with the human who helped Harriet write her story and asked if she could meet her.

Harriet lives in the feral and special needs area of PAWSitively Cats because, as you can see, she can’t use her back legs. If you have not read her story, Harriet was a stray cat who was raising kittens when she was attacked by a dog or coyote. She fiercely protected her kittens and was seriously wounded. She was fortunate to wind up at PAWSitively Cats with her kittens. It took a lot of time, effort, and vet bills for Harriet to heal, but she mothered her kittens the whole time. They’ve been adopted and Harriet is now a permanent resident of the rescue. Don’t feel bad about her back legs — she gets around very fast (my human saw!), and she rejected the cart the rescue tried out on her. Harriet is a very happy and very loved girl… and she agreed to do selfies today!

My human had to show her what to do at first.

The first time she tried, she wasn’t quite ready and took it too early.

But it did not take her long to nail it! I think she did a great job, don’t you?

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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Out of Town Caturday

Can you guess where I am? The next photo will show you!

That’s right — I’m at Los Angeles International Airport, and I’m headed for a cat show. I’m not going too far, just to Tucson. Since we are flying Southwest, which allows two free checked bags, I’m able to bring my usual show tent, so I’m happy about that.

I really like the hotel room here, and I’m excited about this weekend’s cat show! It’s three days long, and there are some judges I know, and some who have never met me before! My human is very excited because she got to meet a kitty whose story she knows very well, but who she has never met in person! You will find out who it is tomorrow!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Christmas Costumes

I’ve been playing dress up with some more of the outfits I got from Skeezix’s human and I wanted to show you the results! One of them was this — I’m not sure if it is meant to be a dress or a cape, so I am wearing it as a dress. I felt it was missing something though.

So I added a Santa hat! I think the combination is pretty cool, don’t you?

I was not sure what this outfit was supposed to be! Maybe a rooster. Or a lobster… with wings?

It was a little big on me. Skeezix was a mancat (even though he often embraced his feminine side), so he probably wore a bigger size than I do.

And here is a Christmas tree outfit! Even though there were arm holes, I thought that maybe it would look better, and my head wouldn’t hide the star, if I didn’t use them. So I decided to try.

Well, that had mixed results!

I may have to work harder on this one!

And there are some more outfits left in the bag… and these are just a few things that Skeezix’s human had sitting around.! That Skeezix was really the king of dress up!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Memories of Christmases Past #TBT

I went over the photos from the blog when Sparkle was around and I saw that my human actually only put up a Christmas tree three times during her lifetime. The first time was in 2004, and she didn’t get many photos. The second was in 2005, and she did remember to take photos. As you can see, Binga was all-too willing to help!

She supervised the assembly of the artificial Christmas tree. For a lot of different reasons, my human has always had an artificial tree. It’s just easier and there are less needles to clean up.

Once the tree was put up and decorated, Sparkle, Boodie and Binga all spent time hanging out underneath it. Nobody ever was compelled to climb the tree. Surprising, isn’t it?

This is the tree all decorated and lit up. For as few times as my human has had a Christmas tree up, she sure has a lot of ornaments! They are all her own personal heirlooms too, that she gathered herself — she doesn’t have anything from when she grew up.

The next time my human put the tree up, it was 2007 and it was in the house we are currently living in now. She was smart and made sure all the tree lights were working before she started to put the tree together.

Sparkle supervised my human as she put the tree together and decorated it. She was not impressed with the job my human was doing.

Binga supervised too. Sort of.

Here is the tree, all assembled and decorated. It looks kind of like the tree in 2005, only in a different location! If my human gets the tree up this year, it can’t be here because now there’s a bookcase and chairs in the way.

And she is going to get a tree up this year, isn’t she? I do deserve my own Christmas memories!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Miscellaneous Outtakes

I just realized it’s been nearly a month since I’ve featured any outtakes, so here you go!

Remember when I took you behind the scenes of one of my photo shoots? Here’s one photo that did not make it in. Incidentally, if you look behind me here, you’ll see the fleece blanket being used as a backdrop has an old Google logo. My human was one of the first website publishers to put Google Ads on her website, and Google sent them all blankets that Christmas. That was a long time before they went public.

When my human was photographing me for the litter box tips post, I needed to take a bathroom break — and the “bathroom” just happened to be right there! She was supposed to put down the camera, but she didn’t.

There were lots of outtakes from my Thanksgiving photo shoot… but this one really stood out — for all the wrong reasons!

You know there had to be some outtakes of me in that fancy Carnival headdress! Surprisingly there was nothing too outrageous!

Can you believe that the opening shot to my cat show post, which was already an outtake, had an outtake too?

My human wanted to get a full shot of all the products in the Catit Oasis for the giveaway… but I messed up.

I hope you enjoyed my outtakes!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Humongous Catit Oasis Giveaway!

So this ginormous box showed up on our doorstep not long before the Thanksgiving weekend!

It was loaded with… more boxes! And inside all those boxes were all the elements that make up the Catit Oasis! You may have seen versions of some of these items before, but they are new and even better than before!

The Senses 2.0 Super Circuit has straight, wave and curved sections that can be assembled dozens of different ways into the biggest track toy ever — a full 24″ longer than the old circuit! It’s Boodie’s favorite toy.

The Senses 2.0 Scratcher is assembled with scratching blocks that can be rotated to create a variety of claw-pleasing surfaces. The Senses 2.0 Wellness Center is like the old Massage Center, only improved using extensive field research and user feedback. It’s bigger, more fun, and comes with some primo nip!

My human didn’t even get a chance to put the nip on before Binga started using the Wellness Center!

The Senses 2.0 Grass Planter is almost foolproof! There’s a non-skid mat, and the screen on top keeps the planting material contained so it doesn’t get dug through by curious kitty paws. We just get the grass that grows out. Plus there is the Senses 2.0 Cat Grass Kit with three sets of seed and 3 bags of vermiculite to keep kitties in grass for a long time!

The Flower Fountain is a nice, compact water fountain that still manages to contain three liters of water! It’s quiet and ergonomic and has a filter to keep water soft and delicious.

Speaking of delicious, there’s also the Multi Feeder — you can feed canned food in the dish part and put some treats or kibble in the reservoir for dessert, or for your cats to reach in and nibble on when they feel like it (although we all hoover up any food immediately here). The Multi Feeder also has a cool ergonomic design.

And here is something the humans will like! The Magic Blue Cartridge is a non-toxic air purifier for litter boxes that is an amazing urine odor absorbent! It even helps with that “other” smell too.

So here’s a recap of it all:

Senses 2.0 Super Circuit
Senses 2.0 Scratcher
Senses 2.0 Wellness Center
Senses 2.0 Grass Planter
Senses 2.0 Cat Grass Kit
Flower Fountain
Multi Feeder
Magic Blue Cartridge
and all the boxes they came in!

It’s the ultimate cat playground! Separately, these items are a $155.93 value, but you can get the whole Catit Oasis on their site right now for $129.99!

And I have great news for you! The Catit humans are giving all of this away to one of my lucky U.S. or Canadian readers! All you need to do is leave a comment on my blog and say you did in the Rafflecopter widget below! Once you do that, you have other options for more entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And I have an extra-added bonus for you newsletter subscribers! My package came with a copy of Pure, cat portraits by Lucas, cat photographer and the creative director of Catit. The photos are beautiful and it is a stunning coffee table type book. Well… actually my package came with two copies! So here’s the deal: the prize package does not come with a copy of Pure, but if the winner is one of my newsletter subscribers, I will send them my second copy! So if you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter yet, you might want to. You can do that in my sidebar. Good luck!

Disclosure: I received the Catit Oasis for free from the Catit humans, but all opinions are my own — and when they offered to give one away to a reader for my honest review, how could I resist?
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Best Hat Cat Show

You’ll have to excuse me — I was working hard to look my best at the cat show this past weekend! The competition was especially tough: both the handsome ruddy boy Somali and the stunning blue Somali boy were competing against me… and there were two other Somali alters too! It was very hard to stand out. My human almost didn’t bother entering me, except that the show was less than 10 minutes from our house, plus this show has the famous “Cats in Hats” competition! And my breeder came up with a really awesome hat for me.

I was also there for the publicity! This show draws a lot of the public, so my human made a big sign for me with all my blog and social media info. She also brought a stack of business cards for me. By the time the show was over, all my business cards were gone!

There were lots of familiar faces there. My breeder brought her blue Somali boy. Since he is going into the breeding program, he is competing against different cats from me. Too bad the artificial lighting of the show hall does not show off all his awesome blue and peach color! But that’s not even his best part — he is the most awesome and loving cat, with the nicest temperament. So he’s got both looks and personality! He did very well at this show.

My longtime sponsor, Almost Invisible Cat Litter, was also there.

Although my human was holding me and not able to take a photo of me when we were competing in the Cats in Hats competition, she did take photos a couple of days earlier when she was getting me used to the hat. Since my name is Summer Samba, like the song, we went for a Brazilian Carnival theme. At the actual show, I was also wearing a feather boa around my beads. And I won first place!

The first place prize was this amazing, huge ribbon — and fifty bucks!

And that wasn’t all! In competition against all those other Somalis, I was Best Somali in two rings! (The ruddy boy, who has been traveling all over the country to shows, got the others.) And in one ring, I got a final, which means I also won over a lot of other altered cats of different breeds. So coming down to this show, even though I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of ribbons, really paid off!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

Lazy Selfie

I had a cat show on Saturday and it was quite exciting because at lunchtime there was a Cat in Hats competition, and I won! I was originally going to do a selfie of me wearing my award-winning hat, but after we were done, somebody borrowed it and I won’t get it back until January. Later on in the afternoon, I realized I still hadn’t done my selfie yet for today, and even though I was tired and didn’t want to move, I did it anyway.

I didn’t even bother with the timer this time, I just reached over and hit the button.

The first one was no good — my eyes were shut!

That’s better! It’s not perfect, but that’s what you get for now!

Whaddya mean I have to get up and go to another judging ring?

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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!

#Caturday HAM!

Note: I will be continuing the Saturday Catinee, but only occasionally, when I have a really special video to share with you! I will be posting more fun cat videos on my Facebook page, so you can watch for them there.

As you can see, Binga and I were totally frantic with excitement because we were getting something we thought we’d never have: ham! It was a fortunate accident. My human went out to dinner on Thanksgiving and they got her order wrong! She only ordered turkey but they gave her the combo, which was turkey and ham. She does not eat ham and does not even like it, so she made sure she was not charged for it and she left most of it on the plate. But she did grab a chunk for her take-home bag because she knew we would like it. You will have to excuse the quality of these photos because it was dark, late and we couldn’t keep still!

Can you believe my human tried to make me “stay” to get a piece of ham? I was incredulous. But I did “stay,” if only for a millisecond.

I was actually very polite and did not chomp on my human’s fingers. My human had to give Binga her ham in shreds to keep a distance between her fingers and Binga’s teeth because she does chomp! Boodie got some too. In fact, there was enough ham for us to have a second round of treats on Friday too. Sadly, I doubt we’ll be seeing any more ham anytime soon!
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My 2016 calendars are here! Find my regular calendar on Lulu.com — OR get my calendar of outtakes from Zazzle!