Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 381

Baby Patches’ Blowout Sale At Nip and Bones!

I’m sure a lot of you know Sparkle’s pal Baby Patches from the Nip and Bones store! I was so happy to meet BP when I inherited Sparkle’s blog — she is one cool kitty! Anyhow, her human (who does the day-to-day work at Nip and Bones under BP’s supervision) had some health issues, and it took her a long time to get them under control. Meanwhile she had a very hard time keeping her online store going, and she has now hit an especially rough period. So what does any good shopkeeper do when that happens? They have a big blowout sale! And that is what is happening at Nip and Bones!

Select items are up to 60% off, and if they sell out, they are gone! Here are a few items you might want — you will have to check if they are still available:

Cat Charmer Toy

We have one of these, and it is a favorite toy around here. Just about every kitty loves these. Normally they sell for $7.99, but on sale, they are just $4.99. You should get two!

Floppy Catnip Fish

Not only are these cat toys filled with potent, organic catnip, they flop around just like a real fish might if you caught it in the wild! Doesn’t that sound like fun? Normally, one of these goes for $6.99 but during the sale, they are just $2.99 each!

Here Kitty Cat Bowls

Aren’t these adorable? And you had better jump, if you want them — last I looked, there were only 5 blue bowls and 1 pink one left! Usually these go for $14.99, but they are on sale for just $7.99. No wonder they are going so fast!

Mystery Box for Cats

Every kitty loves a mystery, and this box contains 5 awesome cat toys (not samples or cheapo toys) from the Nip and Bones inventory. These are special items that you kitties will love! Usually this box sells for $26.99, but you can get it during the blowout sale for $12.99 — what a deal for 5 quality cat toys!

And of course, Nip and Bones sells silvervine powder — even their 5 gram bags are a dollar off and are currently priced at $4.99.

You can find the Blowout Sale at Nip and Bones here — it’s on until July 6, but lots of items are bound to sell out before then, so go there right now!

Also check out their other cool, cat and dog goodies — they’re awesome!

No disclosure — I am just helping out a friend.
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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!

Aha! Is Your Veterinary Hospital AAHA Accredited? You can get $50 Towards Your Next Visit!

Why do Binga and I look so concerned? Well, for one thing, we are at the vet clinic, and for another thing, we are wondering if it is AAHA accredited! When we must go to the vet, whether it’s for a check up or for something more serious, we want to make sure we are getting great care. There are lots of excellent veterinary hospitals out there, and not all of them have AAHA accreditation — but when one does feature the AAHA plaque and logo, you know that it has met very high standards for patient care.

What is AAHA, and why does it matter?

The American Animal Hospital Association evaluates veterinary hospitals on about 900 standards of excellence. These range from contagious disease control to surgical protocols and a host of other areas that make for a great practice — pharmacy, exam facilities, cleanliness and more. When a veterinary hospital applies for AAHA accreditation, all the humans working there often prepare for weeks to make sure everything is ready to meet the AAHA’s high standards. And once they achieve accreditation, they will be re-evaluated every three years to make sure they are keeping up the quality expected of them as an AAHA practice, and to see if they have kept up with any updates in the standards that make up AAHA’s criteria.

Human hospitals that see Medicare or Medicaid patients are required to be accredited by an outside organization. There is no such requirement for veterinary hospitals, so to be in compliance with AAHA’s standards of excellence is completely voluntary. To find out more about AAHA, you can visit their website.

At the moment, only between 12 and 15% of North American veterinary hospitals are AAHA accredited. Is the veterinary hospital you go to one of them? You can find out with AAHA’s accredited hospital locator. If they’re not, ask them why! I checked and found out that our emergency veterinary clinic is AAHA — I was kind of relieved to know that, considering that when any of us cats get sick it always seems to be at night or on the weekend.

If you do have an AAHA accredited veterinary hospital in your area, I’ve got great news for you: the AAHA humans are offering a $50 credit at an accredited hospital to one of my lucky readers! The organization accredits veterinary hospitals in the U.S. or Canada, so the giveaway is good for both countries. All you have to do it leave a comment on this blog post (like so many of you usually do), then say you did on the Rafflecopter widget below! You get extra points for visiting my Facebook page, or the AAHA Facebook page, and even more points if you can name an AAHA veterinary hospital in your area! Good luck — I know lots of you can put that $50 to good use!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: AAHA has generously provided the $50 credit for my blogging about them.
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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!

Keeper… Or Noper?

When we were picking out things to keep from the BlogPaws swag, and which things to give away, my human kept this little mouse toy because, except for the different color, it looks like one of my favorite toys from when I was a kitten.

As you can see, my favorite toy is a little worse for wear!

My human put both of them out for me, because she was positive I would decide I liked the new toy much more!

Clearly my human needs some remedial kitty lessons! I mean, you knew which one I would pick, right?

It is my favorite toy for a reason! And if it is not obvious, I won’t tell you.

I will admit… I considered the new toy. For about two seconds.

And then went right back to my old toy! So I guess my human can put that toy into the BlogPaws swag giveaway with the rest of the stuff!

Okay, so maybe we can keep it.
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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!

How to Harness and Leash Train Your Human, Part 2: Wearing the Harness

I am so embarrassed! I started my series about harness and leash training your human back in February, had one installment and then forgot about it! So I am giving you Part 2, about actually wearing the harness, just now. The first thing I want kitties to know about wearing a harness:

You are always in control. Never forget that!

Now, I liked wearing my harnesses right away, but you don’t have to. If you want to make your human work to get it on you, that is fine, and there are benefits. If your human thinks it will take time to get you to even put on the harness, she will probably just set it near you for a little while every day and give you treats just for that. Then she will give you treats for sniffing the harness, and a few days later, give you more treats if you allow her to lay it on top of you without putting it on yet. You can actually parlay reluctance into a lot of treats! Eventually, though, you will probably get tired of having the thing hanging around all the time and let your human actually put it on you.

The first time your human completely puts the harness on you, you may feel like flopping over and looking grumpy. That is fine. You will probably get treats just for wearing it for a few minutes. If you train your human to be patient with the harness wearing process, you can get treats for a few days just because she was able to put the harness on you.

Your human will probably want you to get up off the floor eventually and will try several tricks to do it. She may offer treats, of course, or if you are a young cat or just playful in general, she may try to tempt you with toys.

Of course, you don’t have to get up off the floor. You can play lying down for as long as you want. Like I said before, it is important to train your human to be patient. That makes wearing the harness more fun for you in the long run.

Eventually, when you are ready, you can get up off the floor and play with the toy more actively.

Next, your human will want you to walk around while wearing the harness, but you should demand payment for this! I would consider some of your favorite treats to be proper compensation.

If the treat meets with your approval, walk towards it! Your human will give you lots of praise in addition to the treat, and then repeat the process. This way, you will get as many treats as you want, at least until your human gets bored or gets a text message or something. Eventually, you will be comfortable walking around with the harness on and you’ll barely notice it. But always make sure your human continues to give you treats, play with you and praise you for your actions! Humans love giving their kitties things, and it creates a good bond between you.

I hope you enjoyed these tips! My next installment will be all about the leash!
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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!

Pet Store Selfies

Why am I in the cat litter aisle of the pet store, complaining? Because I just got butt-sniffed by a dog! As you might have gathered from my BlogPaws experience, I don’t mind being around dogs, so when my human and I encountered a small, friendly one while we were shopping, the two of us were allowed to check each other out. I thought that was fine, and even liked him a bit… but man! He was way too interested in smelling my butt. Why do dogs do that? We kitties do that too, but nowhere near as much.

After that, I kept an eye out for that rude little dog — and my butt out of the way! While my human was grabbing a couple bags of litter, I decided to jump on a shelf and grab some selfies.

I wasn’t so sure about this particular angle.

Oops! I wasn’t supposed to take the photo in mid head turn.

The store was closing for the night so I had to finish up really fast. I hope this one works for 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!

Saturday Catinee: Louie the Towel Cat

The CATastrophes humans recently had a two part series featuring their rescue kitty Louie… in a towel. Just watch the below video, you’ll see what I mean!

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

You don’t have to click to see part 2 because I’ve given it to you below. I will say that they finally retrieved Louie… but you’ll have to watch the video to find out how (and yes, they did use a lot of reader suggestions)!

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!

And for My Next Trick…

My human has me jumping through hoops!

Of course, the price is right! Even though I can’t see the treat, I know it’s there.

And so does Binga! What a cheater! But she said she learned this trick long ago. I didn’t believe her at first, but then I saw proof.

If Binga can do it, I know I can too!

Oops, I guess the timer was a little off.

I’m just too fast for the camera!

Of course, Binga had to practice too… otherwise she wasn’t getting any more treats.

That was fun! I want to do it again.
* * *

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!

Outtakes From Cat World Domination Day

Here are some behind-the-scenes looks at my Cat World Domination Day party. We all had lots of fun!

Well, mostly! As you can see, I am telling my human what she can do with this hat.

Even so, she didn’t give up immediately! I was so glad to finally get that thing off.

Remember this scene from my post about preparing for the party? Here is the full picture — as you can see, I was watching the chicken skins frying! That was exciting.

My human had a really hard time getting a photo of me posing with the Neko Birbug… because I kept wanting to play with it.

It wasn’t any easier photographing us cats with the food.

The chickenade was a big hit with everykitty! We all had some.

I was supposed to wait while my human got a good shot of the dessert. As you know, I did not obey!

I hope you enjoyed these outtakes!
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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!

A Special Cat World Domination Day

Happy Cat World Domination Day! I have a lot of fun planned for you today, but first let me deal with this hat. My human thought it would be fun to make this a quirky, ’80s themed party, but I did not agree! Of all days, Cat World Domination Day is one where a kitty should not have to wear anything. If my human wants to celebrate the ’80s, she can put on her own old clothes that she’s never thrown out.

That’s better! I want to mention that since this is the first Cat World Domination Day without Sparkle, we are doing several special things in her honor. The first one is that we are having a commenthon to benefit her favorite sanctuary that helps cats, Tabby’s Place! For every comment on this post until the end of the June, my human is donating 50 cents to Tabby’s place, up to $50! Let’s see if we can fly through that goal!

Now for refreshments! Just wait til you see who is catering our party.

That’s right — Ashton’s Chicken Emporium! Don’t worry that is not lemonade in the glass — it is chickenade, with a catnip sprig garnish!

Try the appetizers — fried chicken skin bits! I got the idea when I saw them on the Christy Paws blog, so I asked Ashton to do something similar, and wow, are they tasty!

You had better hurry and have some before they are all gone!

I bet you could smell the main dish when you arrived — barbecued chicken! Since I like green stuff, it’s being served on a bed of creamy cole slaw. Try some, or you can skip the slaw — it just means more for me!

I hope you saved room for dessert! It is old fashioned, hand-cranked chicken ice cream sprinkled with premium catnip! Yes, I had a taste already… and yes, I am licking the bowl. It’s that good!

Now, I have a couple of special treats for you, especially those of you who knew and loved Sparkle!

As most of you know, Sparkle’s first book, Dear Sparkle, Advice From One Cat to Another, is available on Amazon Kindle… and until tomorrow, it is available for free! Click here to download your free copy of Dear Sparkle — and if you get it, please remember to leave an honest review! It’s the nice thing to do. After the free offer is over, it will be available for just $1.99 for the next week, and after that, it will be permanently discounted at $2.99, which is two dollars less than it was priced previously.

And I have a second, huge announcement!

Sparkle and my human were working on this book last year when Sparkle passed away. It’s a compilation of her wisdom (and a couple of sections from Binga), based on her blog posts over the years. And it is going to be published! It’s still in the editing stages, but I got to take a look at some of it, and it is amazing! Not to mention that my human’s talent at cover design has greatly improved over the years (yes, she was the one who did this cover mock up). It is tentatively scheduled to come out either in fall of this year, or early in 2016! My human is hoping to set up pre-orders. I will keep you posted!

And now for the giveaways — I know you were waiting for those. Yes, I have more than one!

Here is the BlogPaws swag bag giveaway! It includes treats from Delightables and Pet Naturals, cat food from Against the Grain and Evangers, bunches of toys and more! Plus you get the cool BlogPaws bag to go with it. It’s a U.S. only giveaway because there is so much stuff. To enter, leave a comment and say you did on the Rafflecopter widget! (If Rafflecopter gives you problems, let me know and I will add you manually.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And yes, there’s a bonus giveaway! You get a chance to win your own Neko Birbug and Telescoping Rod! If you saw my review the other day, you know this toy is more fun than you can imagine! I adore mine, and if you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can win one too. Below is the Rafflecopter widget to enter the Neko Birbug giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you are an international reader, you can still enter either giveaway and name a U.S. rescue to receive the prize!

I hope you enjoyed my Cat World Domination Day party! And remember: we cats are in charge — use the power wisely!
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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!

Why I Get Paid the Big Bucks and Binga Doesn’t

I may still be young, but I work really hard to pose just right. When I do, I get richly rewarded! At least in treats.

But there is somekitty here who, even after many years, just can’t seem to get the posing thing right.

Even when she is supposed to be in the shot, she has a hard time staying still! She looks like she is about to sneeze in this picture.

She also gets distracted all the time.

She is always missing her mark. She does not understand that this makes it hard for the photographer to consistently focus.

But even with all these faults, she still manages to get all the attention.

At least I get more treats.
* * *

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!