Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 378

Secret Treats

Although I gave away a lot of swag from BlogPaws, my human held a few things back that she thought I might enjoy. One of them was this sample packet of Lamb Bark Cat Treats from Scout & Zoe’s. She finally pulled it out for me to try a couple of days ago… and then we realized that the treats are not even on their website! In fact, their whole cat area was totally empty (they are mostly a dog oriented company). So basically I got some secret treats because only those who got them in their swag bag at BlogPaws know about them!

Here is the see-through bag turned around so you can see what is inside: 100% freeze dried lamb lung! As you can tell by the teeth marks, I was really anxious to try a few.

Enough of the package display already!

As you can see, I’m having to work for these treats, but they are worth it! The lamb these treats come from is raised antibiotic-free in the U.S., and no hormones are added. My human thought they were a little tough and hard to break… but trust me, I did not see any issues. They were tasty!

In fact, I liked them so much, I got a little over excited! Best of all, they smell great, but they are not so stinky that they attract any other treat-grubbing kitties from another room.

I say these Lamb Bark Cat Treats are package-chewing good! I hope Scout & Zoe’s starts selling them soon because we are going to run out pretty quickly!

Disclosure: I needed something to write a blog post about so my human pulled these out of the leftover BlogPaws swag.
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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!

Decisions, Decisions

The last time my human went to the pet store and I didn’t go along, she came back with two party dresses for me! Now I have to decide which one I like better, in case I have a party to go to.

Here is the one with the satiny striped skirt. It is pretty and kind of classy.

My human had me stand up so you could see the pink ribbon better. Nice, isn’t it?

I have to be honest, though — I think I like the skull dress better!

See? I can be a punk rock kitty! This is my tough look. I couldn’t wear the other dress and look tough.

But I can still look sweet in it if I try.

So what do you think? Which dress looks better on me?
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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!

Selfies On the Boat

I was on the boat coming back from Catalina when I realized I’d forgotten to take any selfies!

I decided I’d better do it quickly. Too bad I couldn’t have done it with the dolphins in the background!

I wasn’t so sure about this one.

This one’s a little better!

Back to napping.

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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: Fear and Kitty Loathing

To be honest, this is more of a Sparkle kind of video — she would have adored it. I’m the kind of of kitty who loves everybody, so I don’t relate to it so much… but I found it funny anyway! So humans, be forewarned if you see your kitty behaving like any of these!

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

Summer School: The History of Human Domestication

Since it’s summer and I’m Summer, I thought it was time for some Summer School! Today, I want to explain how the whole domestication thing got mixed up.

Humans have always been confused about cats and domestication. Creatures like dogs, horses and cows were clearly domesticated over time, but us cats? It is more of a gray area to humans. We can’t truly be controlled, and no matter how cute and cuddly we are, there is always a wild side to us. Still, we choose to live with humans, and benefit from the perks they give us, such as food, shelter, and entertainment (intentional and unintentional). As a way to explain it all, humans like to say that we cats domesticated ourselves.

But they are wrong. It’s us cats who have domesticated humans. And we are still working on it.

Back in the olden days, when all humans were undomesticated and feral, all they cared about was dominating their environment and making it bend to their will. In fact, they cultivated this trait into a kind of art form when they began using agriculture as a way to sustain themselves. You can only imagine how frustrating it must have been when vermin started breaking into their grain stores. But what was maddening and potentially tragic to them was a big opportunity to us cats — and we took it. We made meals of the mice and other critters that were eating the human’s stores, knowing that in time these hard headed, two-legged beings would learn to rely on us. And after that, it was only a matter of time and behavior modification before we had them where we wanted them.

Some humans were easier to domesticate than others. The ancient Egyptians were so well domesticated that they put us on pedestals! Humans who rebelled, on the other hand, suffered for it. When Europeans of the Middle Ages chose to shun cats, we weren’t there for them to help control the plague carrying rats, and you know how that turned out.

Nowadays, human domestication happens on an individual level. We cats share techniques in common — the cute looks, repetition and purr therapy — but we don’t have a training regimen that we all follow. Maybe we should, but working in teams is not a feline forte. Still, I think we are doing a pretty good job, considering that we dominate the internet and in the U.S. there are more cats in homes than truly-domesticated dogs. Humans actually seem to enjoy being domesticated, and it’s something we cats are very good at using to our advantage.

That is what I have for you today. Any questions?
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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!

23 Hours on Catalina

Because I don’t have a cat show in July, my human was trying to figure out something to do with me to “get me out of the house.” At least, other than just taking me to the pet store. Then she found out that if you take the boat to Catalina Island on your birthday, you get a free ride! Plus they allow pets onboard. Plus there was a good pet friendly hotel there. Oh, and she was having a birthday this week. So we went, and so did her boyfriend!

I didn’t stay in the carrier for long. As I waited with the humans to board, I wondered what to expect.

I certainly was not expecting this — because I had never seen anything like that before, except for on the internet.

I will tell you right now that my human is pretty much a landlubber! She has been on a boat, like, twice in her life! But she was quite excited and couldn’t wait to show me everything.

I thought it was strange. I read Bailey’s blog posts all the time about boat life, but I never knew what it was really like! I guess I still don’t, mostly, but the being on water part was weird! I wasn’t even sure what it was! I mostly napped because it was too strange to look out the window for long, and I was glad when we landed.

Avalon, the little port where we landed on Catalina Island, is so small they could put the map for the whole town on a tile sign.

I noticed right away that the Bird TV was very different!

As usual, I was happy to get to the hotel room! The pet friendly rooms all had two queen beds, which bummed out my human because she wanted one king. But I didn’t mind — it meant I had a place to go be alone when I got tired of walking all over the humans while they tried to sleep!

I got to check out the cool shower in the bathroom.

Plus there was an awesome balcony!

My human made me pose for some photos because she liked the lighting.

I was more interested in spying on the other guests!

A bunch of them were jumping around in this big sink like it was something fun. When I get put in the sink for my baths, I don’t think it’s a party.

Best of all, my human brought my Neko BirBug along!

I didn’t get to accompany my human for her birthday dinner, and I am a little miffed she did not bring any back to me, since it was lobster enchiladas. But she and her boyfriend did make up for it the next morning by taking me to brunch. My human ordered eggs Benedict, with the Canadian bacon on the side.

That’s because the Canadian bacon was for me!

All too soon, our trip was over and we had to return to the mainland.

I had my own seat most of the way home.

Because I had the middle seat, I missed the dolphins dancing around the boat about halfway back, and my human wasn’t quick enough with the camera. When we were almost back at the port, I saw the Queen Mary. I was not impressed.

It was actually a cool trip! I met lots of nice people and even though I thought the water part was strange, I enjoyed the rest of it totally!
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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!

Random Outtakes

It’s amazing how these outtakes accumulate! So I am sharing some today.

I’m not sure what happened here. Maybe I got a bit of plastic from the treat bag stuck between my teeth. Maybe that’s also why the bag got taken away.

Tempers flew when I was getting ready to ship out the BlogPaws goodie bag to the winner! Well, maybe just one kitty’s temper.

When I was reviewing the Tabby James catnip, there were several tongue shots in addition to the one that was used. My human felt this one was too subtle.

I had nip on my tongue in this photo.

Here I am, being photo bombed by my own human! You can tell I want her to get her hand back on the other side of the lens.

This one is even worse! What an amateur mistake.

I hope you enjoyed my outtakes today!
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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!

Nip Garden Report

Here I am on the back patio, and it’s a really humid day! That almost never happens here in southern California. In fact, it has been pretty dry for a long time. But we had rain over the weekend and something called “monsoonal moisture.” I am here to see what effect it has had on my catnip garden.

Wow, look at this! So lush and green, and this year the bugs haven’t chewed on the leaves. At least not yet.

Of course, I have to go through the garden myself and get my paws dirty! And maybe have a few whiffs while I’m at it.

But there is still more work to be done if I want my catnip to really thrive. I am having my human pinch off some of the stems so the plants don’t get too leggy, and so that they fill out.

And maybe snag a few buds too.
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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!

Kitty Bungalow #CATbaret Goodie Bag and VIP Giveaway

It’s that time of year again — one of our favorite rescues, Kitty Bungalow, is having their CATbaret. It’s a star-studded song and dance revue, and it’s how they raise much of the funds they need to keep running for the next year!

Why do we love Kitty Bungalow? Because they focus on feral kitties — trapping and neutering them, and socializing kittens to adopt out! The adoptables graduate into awesome homes, and the not-so-social kitties get their GED and are returned to the outdoors. Kitty Bungalow is a big advocate for the feral cats of Los Angeles, and is fighting to get our city to become more feral-friendly once again.

The past couple of years, my human went to the CATbaret and brought home a nice goodie bag for Sparkle to give away. I was really looking forward to doing the same… and then we found out she is not able to go this time! But never fear, we are still getting a goodie bag to give away, and I hear this one is better than ever, with a retail value of $50! It includes items from the show’s sponsors and some of the celebs participating in the show will autograph the bags! If you want a chance to win it, remember to say you would like the gift bag when you leave a comment below! I’ll choose a winner on July 27.

Kitty Bungalow is also giving away one pair of tickets to CATbaret, plus passes to the awesome VIP after party (it really is awesome — my human says the treats are always the best!), valued at $300. It’s for the tickets and passes only, not travel, so if you live in the Los Angeles area, or can be here on August 1, when it happens at the Avalon in Hollywood, then you should definitely enter the giveaway! You have until July 27 to enter, and the tickets will be waiting at will call for the winner.

Let me tell you a little bit about this year’s show. Some of the celebrities performing are Modern Family’s Fred Willard (he plays Phil’s dad), Billy Boyd from Lord of the Rings, Castle’s Jon Huertas, Wendi Clendon-Covey from The Goldbergs, and many, many more! My human says she has really enjoyed the show every time she has gone, and she is really bummed she is going to miss Jon Huertas especially because he was amazing last year! The sponsors that are helping make this show happen this year include World’s Best Cat Litter, Nature’s Variety, Pioneer Pet, By Nature, FoundAnimals and more!

For more info about the show, or to buy tickets to support Kitty Bungalow, click here! The tickets range in price from $50 to $125, and the VIP after party is $40. You can also enter the ticket giveaway below — although this widget is included on all participating blogs, only one winner will be chosen:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And remember to comment if you want a chance at the goodie bag — each of us kitties who are blogging about this event gets one to give away to one of our U.S. readers!
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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!

Vet Clinic Selfies

It was time for my one-year booster shot, so my human and I paid a quick visit to the veterinary clinic.

There were dogs in the waiting room — big puppies, really, a golden retriever and a samoyed — but as soon as they were called back, my human let me wander on my leash.

The clinic has a small store with pet food, collars and leashes and stuff, so I did some browsing.

When the dogs came back to the waiting room, my human took me back to my carrier, so I decided to do some selfies.

Sorry about this shot — I messed up on the timer.

I don’t think I want that woman in the background of my selfie. Let me try a different angle.

This one is kind of “deer in the headlights,” but I think it’ll do.

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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!