Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 382
June 22, 2015
Preparing for Cat World Domination Day
I have been very busy getting ready for Cat World Domination Day! I spent a lot of time figuring out what to put into the BlogPaws swag giveaway….
I had some help with that, as you can see.
Although it was not very helpful help!
There will be lots of surprises! Just wait ’til you see the catering! And I have a couple of really special announcements for you. I will give you just a little hint:
But don’t worry — I still took some time for recreation, and killing things!
Make sure you stop by on Wednesday, June 24 for all the fun!
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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!
June 21, 2015
Happy Fathers Day to My Dad!
I bet you would like to meet my dad! Here he is:
His name is Aslan, or as he is more professionally known, GC, RW Riemarkable Aslan of Tajhara. He is a Grand Champion, and a Regional Winner from the 2011-2012 show season. He got fifth place that year!
Can you tell I’m his daughter?
He was more dignified in the show rings than I am, though!
I just sort of stand up there and try to look cute!
Dad is from Australian and European strains of Somalis, and he came to live with my breeder because she likes to bring in cats with lines that aren’t related to her lines — it’s healthier for the kittens that way. He and my mom, Bluesette, have exceptionally well-tempered kittens. My human met an older sister of mine a couple of years ago, Samaraa, and wanted a kitten as sweet and easy going as her. She had to wait until last year when I came around!
I’ve had to work really hard to measure up to my dad! In fact, Sparkle and I both had to — her father was on the cover of Cat Fancy, twice!
Happy Fathers Day to my dad! I’m glad he set such high standards — otherwise I might not have realized what I was capable of accomplishing!
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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! 
June 20, 2015
Saturday Catinee: Bathing Beauties
As you all know, while I’m not a big fan of the twice-monthly show baths I have to take, I tolerate them and don’t struggle or complain (at least, I don’t complain much). Most of you would be way more unhappy about getting wet… but then, there are some crazy cats who actually enjoy baths! I know, I didn’t believe it either until I saw this amazing compilation of wet kitties.
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! 
June 19, 2015
Birbug Madness
Now you can see what was in the box from yesterday’s post! It’s the cool new Neko BirBug and Telescoping Rod from Nekochan! I couldn’t wait for my human to open up the packages.
The cool thing about the Telescoping Rod is that it can be pulled out to a length of 32″, but when it’s retracted, it’s only 18″ — small enough to fit into a 20″ suitcase! And you know how important I think it is for toys to travel easily.
As for the Birbug… well, just look at it! I almost thought it was some awesome new species of prey!
I couldn’t wait to kill it — and my human hadn’t even clipped it onto the rod yet. The string can be clipped onto any of the sections, or guides, of the telescoping rod (except for the one on the very tip). You’re only limited by how much room you have in your house for kitty play!
My human tried really hard to get photos of me playing with the Birbug…
But most of them wound up looking like this! So she shot some video instead. Not that the video quality is any better, but stick around to the end (it’s only a minute) — you’ll get to see the little trick I do with it!
If you can’t see the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube!
I actually run away with all my Neko Flies too. Sometimes if my human doesn’t want to follow me, she’ll let go and just let me drag the rod. Incidentally, all the Neko Flies can be clipped onto the Telescoping Rod too.
I give the Neko Birbug and Telescoping Rod four paws in the air! You can get it at the Nekochan website, or you can find it on Amazon!
Disclosure: I got the Birbug and Telescoping Rod for free to review. Link to Amazon is an affiliate link.
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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! 
June 18, 2015
Box Day #TBT
Tomorrow is International Box Day, but as you know I’m not altogether sold on boxes. Plus, I’ll be telling you about the cool thing that came in this box then! So instead, I thought I’d put together a Throwback Thursday post featuring past International Box Days with Sparkle. I think you will enjoy seeing them again — or seeing them for the first time if you missed them!
The first IBD post, from 2011, is almost like a #TBT within a #TBT! It includes a variety of old photos of Sparkle — and Boodie! — checking out a variety of boxes. Plus, she had a pop quiz to see if anyone could guess the dates of the blog posts from when the photos first appeared. A couple of readers actually cracked my human’s blog photo filing code without too much trouble.
In case you were missing Binga in the above post, here she is from last year’s IBD post, doing what she does best. There was a linkup to that blog post, and even though Sparkle’s InLinkz account went dormant, you can still click through to see what other blogging kitties did in 2014.
Everyone’s favorite IBD from Sparkle is from 2012, when she spoofed the cult film Fight Club… with boxes! No further explanation needed.
I hope you enjoyed this boxy trip down memory lane!
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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! 
June 17, 2015
Getting Ready to Pose
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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! 
June 16, 2015
Awesome CatCon Stuff That My Human Didn’t Bring Home
Even though I had lots of fun at the Meow Meet, and there really were too many people at CatCon to make my attendance there possible, I really wish I could have gone! You couldn’t have found a bigger selection of unique cat toys, trees, towers and more, all in one place.
Look at all these toys! I could have just hung out here while my human went off and did other things.
There were designer cat bowls.
These people had catnip cat toys in all sorts of fun shapes — condiments, like you get at fast food places, pretend artificial sweetener packets and these popcorn cat toys!
We already have a mat from Feline Yogi and we all use it!
You’ve probably seen this Cattino scratching post and cat bed around other cat blogs, or on BlogPaws posts… but this is the first time my human actually met the Cattino humans in person! She said they were very nice.
As you know, I use a Sleepypod Atom when I fly, but I’d really like to have one of their classic mobile pet beds for car travel!
The Weruva booth was one of my favorite parts of CatCon — they were giving away a free can to any human that wanted one… but if they were willing to try some of their awesome cat food on a cracker, they got two free cans! I was majorly disappointed when my human came home with only one can.
CatCon was a huge success for the vendors, with many of them selling everything, or nearly everything they brought with them. And they were mostly small, boutique-type companies. Even cooler, many of the vendors, like these plushie makers from The Tiny Tabby, have their hearts in the right place, and give a portion of their profits to rescue.
And CatCon was really big on giving a big presence to organizations like Fixnation, that work so hard to help cats. Fixnation spays and neuters feral cats in Los Angeles — for free.
With all this cool cat stuff around, CatCon attendees were hungry to see real kitties, and Best Friends accommodated them with an adoption center. On Saturday, the line snaked around the corner and down the hallway.
On Sunday, they had to organize the line better! Some humans waited up to an hour to see adoptable cats, and so many were adopted on Saturday, that Best Friends had to bring in more kitties for Sunday!
CatCon was an amazing event, and whether humans liked their cat culture cool or kitschy, there was something for them all. But what I thought was best was that it made it possible for kitties like these to find homes.
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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! 
June 15, 2015
Season Finale
It’s a new cat show season and I was competing in a one-day CFA cat show this past weekend. It was a special show, because they were also having the awards banquet for the season that just ended a few weeks ago. But before I tell you about all that, let me show you the awesome hotel room I stayed in with my human!
It had a hallway between the desk and sitting area and the bedroom so it was almost like a suite! Note the pillows my human stuffed at the edge of the TV table — that was to keep me from crawling back there. Trust me, there was nothing that interesting there anyhow. How do I know that? Oh, I heard rumors.
Here’s a shot from the bedroom side — you can see the desk in the background.
And here I am on the desk, ready to help my human get to work!
The bathroom was pretty nice too!
There were also great morning sun puddles in the bedroom — and because it was Palm Springs, there was lots of sun!
It was a long walk from the hotel room to the show hall in the adjoining convention center, and my human forgot my toys. So instead of going all the way back and possibly missing a call to take me to a judging ring, she bought a peacock feather for me from one of the vendors. It was less than a dollar.
Did you know that the non-feathery end of a peacock feather is a good jaw toner and keeps your teeth in shape? That is a show kitty tip for you.
Okay, so maybe I sort of made up that show kitty tip, but it must have worked because I got finals!
In fact, out of six rings, I got three finals! As you know, I’m still not convinced I’m going to spend a lot of time doing cat shows this season, but this is a good start.
That night, my human went to the awards banquet. We kitties weren’t invited, which I think was kind of a gyp — after all, we won all those ribbons! Plus there was chicken. So I didn’t get to see the awards until she got back.
I was the eleventh best Premier (altered) cat in the Southwest Region! So I got this really big ribbon!
And I got this trophy! If you recall, I had to do a photo shoot especially for it. The real professional photos were in the slide show and program.
Plus I got a surprise in the envelope that contained my certificate for my win… I actually got three certificates! I was also the Best Somali Kitten and the Best Somali Premier in the Southwest Region! I was really surprised about the kitten certificate because I think I got all of my kitten points from when my breeder was showing me, before I came home with my human.
My breeder was also at the awards show, and she was so proud of me! She gave me some gifts.
I got a Hello Kitty harness.
And a Hello Kitty crinkle toy.
Plus a little electronic Hello Kitty.
I also got a really nice toy from a breeder friend who has the Kelela Abyssinians cattery — this dragonfly toy that had to be specially ordered!
And here is what arrived in the mail while my human and I were gone — my Supreme Grand certificate from the other organization I belong to, TICA! They are having an awards banquet too, but that isn’t until August.
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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! 
June 14, 2015
Meow Meet Selfies
My human went to CatCon LA last weekend. The only problem was… there were no cats allowed, other than a few big celebrity cats and the cats looking for homes in the adoption area. So I couldn’t go, which was just as well because it was very, very crowded and my human would have worried a lot about carrying me around. The good news is that there was an event Saturday night at the nearly Hotel Figueroa called Meow Meet LA — and kitties were not only invited, they were encouraged to attend! So once my human was done with CatCon for the day, she rushed home, took a quick nap (I helped), then she brought me down to the Meow Meet!
The paparazzi were out in full force! I made sure my human handed out my business card to anyone who took a photo.
Here are just a few of the awesome kitties I met at #meowmeetla!
June 13, 2015
Saturday Catinee: Walk on the Wild Side
Here is a cool video from Cole and Marmalade, and their human Chris, that shows how similar we little cats are to our big, wild relatives! You will be impressed by how close we are in nature.
If you can’t see the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube!
But even with all our similarities, big cats should never be pets! Did you know that it’s actually legal in half the U.S. for humans to own these beautiful, wild creatures? And that is wrong. The cats you see in the above video are from Big Cat Rescue, which rescues abused big cats, and is working to end the trade.
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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! 
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