Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 371

What It’s Like to Adopt a Shelter Pet (Like Binga)

According to BlogPaws, it is Adopt a Shelter Pet Month. If you Google it, though, October seems to be Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. But since we’re a cat family here, and there is actually a shelter cat among us, I thought I’d stick with shelter pet and devote a mostly Flashback Friday post to Binga, who was adopted from the Lacy Street animal control facility, one of the toughest city shelters in Los Angeles. The photo above was taken almost exactly 12 years ago, in early October, 2003! Binga had been living with the humans for nearly two years by then.

Many of you have seen this kitten photo of Binga before, but there aren’t many kitten pictures of her because my human didn’t have a digital camera back in 2000. Binga was insane as a kitten! The humans had no idea what they were getting into. In fact, my human named her Binga because she bounced off the walls, bing-bing-bing! And she was feisty. A friend came over and as he held her, he said she looked “tore-up” (that’s what he thinks of all tortoiseshell cats)… and Binga bit him!

As you can see, even back in the early 2000s, my human was making cats pose with dumb things. Binga didn’t appreciate it.

And she has always been the same way about not wanting to share things. Here she is, telling off Sparkle because she did not want her playing with the Alpine scratcher… even though my human got it for Sparkle.

But when the mood strikes her, she can be fun. Here she is playing with Sparkle on the new cat tree.

And here she is playing with me over a decade later… on the same cat tree!

And here is a recent photo of Binga. My human wasn’t thinking of adopting when she walked into that shelter. She was actually looking for a neighborhood cat that had gone missing. But when she saw Binga as a kitten, desperately begging to be released from her cage, reaching out with her paws and licking anyone’s fingers who tried to pet her, she knew that she did not belong there. So she and her boyfriend rescued her from the place. There are cats in shelters that need a home every day of every month, not just October.

I know a lot of people think shelters, especially the city-run kill shelters, are horrible, depressing places. A lot of them are. Can you imagine being stuck there, unable to leave? That’s why you should go visit one next time you want to add a kitty to your family. And if you wind up with one like Binga… don’t say I didn’t warn you!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

¡Ay, Caramba!

All My 2016 Calendars Are Here!

My 2016 wall calendars are all done and available!

My regular calendar is on both Lulu.com and Zazzle! The Lulu.com version has a number of special cat holidays in addition to the usual human holidays. It is also less expensive than my Zazzle calendar… but the back is blank.

The Zazzle version doesn’t have the cat dates… but it has a printed back with all my calendar pages! And while it is more expensive than Lulu.com, Zazzle often has good sales when you can get it for even less than the Lulu.com calendar!

Buy the Lulu.com 2016 calendar with the special cat holidays here.
Buy the Zazzle 2016 calendar with the printed back here.

And here’s the calendar a lot of you have been waiting for: my 2016 Outtake Calendar! It’s on Zazzle only, and with a couple of exceptions, the photos are from exactly the same photo shoots as the regular calendar. I will give you a preview of some of the pages.

This is February.

Month-End Outtakes

I thought I’d end September with a few fun outtakes!

I’m not sure why my human was trying to take photos of me getting skritches from her, but they didn’t work out at all! I was confused, and this one looks like my tail is growing out of my head.

Binga is a never ending source of outtakes. Here my human caught me in mid eye roll blur, so I couldn’t use it in the post I’d intended.

I hate when she takes photos like this.

A pet store outtake. You know how those incline scratchers sometimes have holes in the side? With toys? Of course I had to look!

This one was totally my fault — I couldn’t wait for the treat and I kept asking for it before finishing my pose!

There were actually photos of me with my supreme cake that were sillier than the ones posted the other day! Who knew?
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

New Mutts Book – and Awesome Giveaway!

I’m sure all of you know the Mutts comic strip, and its creator, Patrick McDonnell. Mutts is in over 700 newspapers in 20 countries and a favorite of animal lovers worldwide. Mr. Patrick has won lots of awards, including the Reuben (which is like winning the Oscars for cartoonists), but even more importantly, his comic strip has also won awards for its environmental and animal advocacy. This human has a heart of gold and it shows in the warmth and gentle laughter in the Mutts comic strip, now in its 21st year.

The great news is that there is a new book of Mutts comics coming out on October 13! It is called The Mutts Winter Diaries, and it is full of winter adventures starring Earl, Mooch and all their pals. Although it is supposedly for children, I would say it is really for children “of all ages!” This is an awesome book for any Mutts fan and perfect for the upcoming colder months. Especially because there’s a section at the end called “More to Explore” and it has suggestions on helping your local wildlife cope with the winter weather.

You can visit the Mutts website here
Visit Mutts on Facebook
Follow Mutts on Twitter

In advance of the book’s release, the humans who are helping promote The Mutts Winter Diaries sent us a really awesome package!

Not only did we get a review copy of the book — we also got a pretty pink sleepshirt too, all nicely packaged!

And you can win the same package! If you are wondering how big the shirt is, it says “OSFM,” which means One Size Fits Most, but it’s actually about 22″ across, so it basically fits up to a L, or maybe a small XL. To enter for a chance to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Along with receiving the sleepshirt and book, we also received a small fee for writing about the new Mutts book.
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Doing the Cake Walk

I had a show this weekend and it was a very special one!

It was my first local TICA show since I got my Supreme title, so my human brought along a Supreme cake! The initials at the bottom stand for Regional Winner, Supreme Grand Champion Alter. Isn’t it awesome? Sadly my human did not listen to me, and instead of a chicken liver cake with salmon cream icing, she chose a vanilla strawberry whipped cream cake.

Of course I had to examine it anyway.

And since it is pretty much impossible to carry a whipped cream cake and not mess up the frosting a bit — especially if you are my human — she let me lick some of the whipped cream off the cardboard.

Don’t ask me how this happened! A friend of ours with a Turkish Van boy cat took this photo. She thought it was pretty funny.

I needed some cleaning up for the rings. I don’t think the judges would appreciate whipped cream accessorizing.

My breeder was at this show, with two kittens. You’ve met my half-brother, back from my Visalia show. The other kitty was this five-month-old Abyssinian girl, and she is beautiful! It was her first show, and she did well! The very first time she finaled, she got Best Kitten! I am not related to this girl, but she and my half-brother have the same dad.

I got some finals too!

So we all had a lot to celebrate! My breeder gave me this nip wine bottle toy.

I may have partied a little too much.

So how did I do? Out of 10 rings, I had five finals, which was really good! It was a tough show — because of the lower number of Altered cats entered, there were fewer than the normal 10 slots for finals. In Allbreed, it was six or seven and Specialty (just longhaired Altered cats) only five. That makes it a lot tougher to make a final.

My last ring of the weekend was a Specialty ring where the judge was giving out extra ribbons and a box of candy to the cats in her ring who got Best. My human did not think I was going to get one of those… but I did! So we went home really happy, and tired!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Supporting Small Businesses Selfies

As you know, my human runs a small publishing company, so she is always happy to support other small businesses — and there is one in our neighborhood that we go to at least a couple of times a month. It’s called Rock Dog & Cat, and it has two locations. One is only a few blocks from our house, and my human almost always brings me when she goes. The one time she didn’t (she had to go to other non-cat-friendly places on that trip), the humans working there asked after me!

They love having four-legged shoppers. There is even a large bed out in front.

The store carries a number of unique items that you might not see at the chain stores. It’s one of my human’s favorite places to buy us kitties treats, and there are some cat food brands that you don’t find at a lot of other places. They even have cat litter made of green tea leaves! My human has not tried this yet.

They also have super giant sized litter scoops! Oh, I guess these aren’t for cats.

They also have primo cat nip and some cool toys! Anyway, I was supposed to do some selfies this trip, so I had better get to it.

Sorry, the iPhone fell through my paws. I guess this is why my human has it in a heavy-duty case.

I’m always getting myself off center.

I’m still a little off center, and the focus isn’t perfect, but you know what? I kind of like this one!

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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Saturday Catinee: Little-Seen CATastrophes Laugh Riot! Double Feature

The other day, I saw a hilarious CATastrophes video I’d forgotten about and never featured. It inspired me to check out their YouTube channel… and I found an even more recent video I’d never seen before! So I am sharing them both today.

First up is.. the PURRMINATOR! Will he be back?

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

Next up is Louie Sorbet, the Gordon Ramsay of litter boxes, in an episode of his own reality TV show, “Litter Box Rescue!”

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

If you missed these, you’ll laugh your tail off! If you’ve already seen them, you’ll still laugh your tail off.
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

(Too) Frisky Friday

Even though the temperatures are still pretty warm here in southern California, it’s never too hot to play with my Neko Birbug! Of course, air conditioning helps.

One of my favorite places to chase it is in the turret that joins the two halves of our house with this circular staircase.

Usually the Birbug is my toy, but for once Binga decided she wanted to play with it too.

The only problem is that Binga can play a little rough with toys.

She likes to bite through the string of these types of toys so she can keep the toy all to herself. She also eats the string.

As you can imagine, I was pretty concerned about my Birbug!

When she was done, I thoroughly checked it to make sure it was okay, and was really relieved that it was!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!

The petMD Cat Care Center: an Awesome Resource for You!

This post is sponsored by petMD and ARM & HAMMER™ Clump & Seal™, and the BlogPaws Professional Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about The petMD Cat Care Center, but I only share information on sparklecat.com that I feel is relevant to my readers. ARM & HAMMER™ Clump & Seal™ and petMD are not responsible for the content of this article.

Taking care of us kitties is not all that hard! Keeping us happy and healthy is pretty simple: good food, a home that’s both safe and fun for us to live in, and a litter box that is scooped and changed regularly. But sometimes you want some information on the finer points of cat care, and that is where the Cat Care Center on petMD comes in handy!

My human brushes my teeth, and I am actually good with that! I think the toothpaste is a treat. But teeth brushing isn’t always something you can easily do with your kitty. The Cat Care Center has a great article with tips on keeping our teeth and gums in great shape!

It’s fun for us kitties to play with toys like this little sparkle ball. But if you are feeling ambitious and would like to create a whole catio for your cats to enjoy, the Cat Care Center has a whole article devoted to suggestions on building a kitty playroom.

We always look forward to treat time here, and I mostly get healthy treats. If you want some suggestions for good treats for your cat, or food that’s best for us, it’s easy enough to do a search at the Cat Care Center. The cool thing is that the articles are written and approved by the veterinary community! While the internet will never replace your own vet, when it comes to everyday care, it’s nice to know there is a source you can trust.

So browse around the Pet MD Cat Care Center and see what you think! My human checked it out and she was really happy with what she saw… and she even learned a couple of things! I think that deserves a High Five!

The Pet MD Cat Care Center is sponsored by ARM & HAMMER™ Clump & Seal™ Lightweight Cat Litter. This litter is dust-free and 50% lighter than regular cat litter, while still powerfully destroying odor. If you want to give it a try, click here for a $2 off coupon.

Find a store that carries ARM & HAMMER™ Clump & Seal™

Follow ARM & HAMMER™ on Facebook.
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” Sparkle had answers to many annoying problems in her two award-winning books! Visit her author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of her awesome Dear Sparkle books!