Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 385

Saturday Catinee: Kittens and More Kittens

It seems like there has been a running theme going on with my Catinees for the past few weeks: all have featured kittens! But it only makes sense because it has been kitten season! In fact, this week’s Catinee, a recent release from the CATastrophes humans, is a PSA that looks kitten season right in the eye… with both laughter and a message.

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!

A Friday Photo FAIL

Hm. This is the second week I’ve had a FAIL post. I guess it’s my human’s fault, although her intentions were good. She took me into the master bathroom this afternoon to take some photos. When I’m here, my eyes look really green!

But things started going south very quickly!

She got one nice profile shot of me before the invasion.

At that point the photo session landed in Antarctica.

Of course, I couldn’t let Binga get away with that. I had to one-up her!

It’s no fun being upstaged by a tortie butt.

I was a little bit disappointed in today’s blog post.
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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!

Don’t Take the Blame for the Dastardly Deeds of NOKITTY!

I have seen a disturbing trend among cats. A series of terrible acts have been perpetrated, and humans have been blaming the resident felines for damages — broken vases, shredded curtains, dirty plates mysteriously licked clean! Hundreds, maybe thousands of cats have been victimized, accused of acts they did not do! It’s about time we kitties put an end to the grief we have been suffering and put that blame right where it belongs — on…

That’s right, it’s the nefarious NOKITTY who is the culprit behind all these terrible transgressions! Has the treat cabinet been raided? Does the sofa have a new rip? Has the stuffing been torn out of a decorative pillow? It’s NOKITTY’s fault! That hacked up hairball in the hallway? It’s NOKITTY. Missing keys? Chewed up phone charger cord? Cat fur permanently stuck to clothing? NOKITTY is responsible for every last one!

So stop mutely taking the flack for all the misdeeds around the house. Next time something gets destroyed and your humans want to know who is responsible, put the blame right where it belongs: tell them NOKITTY did it!

What was the last thing that happened at your house that was NOKITTY’s fault?
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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 Supremely Good Time

Finally, I’ve gotten a chance to tell you how last weekend’s cat show went! I will tell you, it was not an easy competition! I’ll show you why.

This is the only photo my human got of the two of us next to each other, but I think you can see that cat #305 is a very handsome boy Somali! His name is Zuri and he is quite a contender, and at a little over 8 months he is already just a bit larger than I am! We almost looked like bookends next to each other in the judging rings — and there’s a reason for that: not only are we both ruddy Somali cats, we have a grandfather in common. The judges often had a hard time deciding which one of us was Best Somali in the 13 rings where we competed against each other. Sometimes I got it, and sometimes he did. Plus he has an advantage: ruddy male Somalis almost always score better in the rings. We girls often wind up second to them.

If you recall from my last cat show, I have been on the edge of earning the title of Supreme Grand Alter in TICA. I just needed to win Best Alter in one judging ring, but With Zuri competing against me, I didn’t think I would make it this show. As a matter of fact, in one Specialty Ring (where just we five longhaired Alters were being judged), I got second and Zuri got first! Another cat got a Supreme cake in the middle of all this. Lucky kitty!

I had some extra room at this show, since the space next to me was empty, so my human used it to play with me a lot to keep up my energy. Zuri is a very playful kitty on the judging table and I prefer to just stand there and pose. My human wanted me to at least look lively.

She also kept messing with me and letting the yellow bug toy land on me where I could not see it. She has a weird sense of humor.

But guess what? I did make a Best Alter in one ring! And it wasn’t a Specialty Ring either — it was an Allbreed, which meant I was judged over 13 other cats, short and longhaired. So yay, I’m a Supreme now! I hope my Supreme cake is chicken, not some silly sweet thing. My breeder says that sometimes it takes a cat years to get a Supreme title. I got mine in a little over five months. My human and I did work very hard for this.

The second day of the cat show, I got two more finals for a total of five.

That was an exhausting weekend! I was glad to go home and rest up. Now my human and I are figuring out what to do. I have two Regional wins in TICA from last season, one as a kitten (I just barely scraped in), and one as 13th Best Alter. It also looks like I am Second Best Somali Alter internationally in TICA for the season! I don’t really need to compete again in TICA if I don’t want to… but I really enjoy it! Maybe I should hunt out different opportunities to be a public kitty, and now that I’m over a year old I need to start working on becoming a therapy cat for real. I have a lot to think about.
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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 We Love Zazzle’s Associate Program – and a Giveaway!

As you know, I have a Zazzle store with all sorts of cool cards, mugs, shirts, and every year, a new calendar! 2015 was the first one to feature me. But something a lot of you may not know is that Zazzle has an awesome affiliate program. The Zazzle Associate Program is a great way to promote your friends’ stores, or to show off some really great finds — and make money too!

This card from my store, which features Binga, won a Cat Writers Association Muse Medallion for Digital Art. If you love torties (or Binga), you could share about it, and get a 15% commission from the Zazzle Associate Program.

You can actually make some serious money during holidays. Take calendars, for example. You could feature your favorite new calendars for the fall and winter, and get a commission every time someone buys one from your blog. Add in some gifts, like phone cases or notebooks, and some holiday cards, and you may sell enough to get a volume bonus. It’s not that hard to do — I’ve gotten volume bonuses several times!

Zazzle has all sorts of link building tools and banners for their Associates. This one is my favorite. Log into your Associate account, and then go to a product you want to feature. Then click on the link symbol I’m pointing to on the left. A window opens with different code options, with your Associate number already added. You can just copy and paste the html code to a blog post. Let’s say I want to feature something from Glogirly’s Zazzle store — here is what it might look like:

Mustache Kitty Ladies Tee by Glogirl
Create your own custom t-shirts online at zazzle.com

 

As you can see, the Zazzle Associate Program is a great way to share fun items with your pals, and it’s pretty easy to make some money. Here are some quick tips for making the most of the program:

If you are blogging about a certain topic or a holiday, you can always include a related item or two from Zazzle. You’d be surprised what you might find by doing some quick searches!
During the holiday season, you can create a whole gift shopping post of cat-related gift items! With the link building tools, it is really easy to do — just do some searches for cat calendars, cat shirts, cat clocks or whatever you want, pick out your favorites, and write a few lines describing them!
Zazzle frequently has really great sales, and that is always a good time to promote some items. I sell a lot of calendars that way.
If you have any questions or want some tips, the Zazzle forum is full of really amazing, helpful people (and probably some kitties too).

Having a Zazzle shop has done really well for me, but being a Zazzle Associate has been equally as great! It is easy to sign up and get started. And here’s something really cool: the nice Zazzle people said if I blogged about their affiliate program, I could give away a $25 gift certificate to a lucky reader! You don’t have to join to win, just comment on this post and say you did on the Rafflecopter widget below! There are other options too, once you do that. The giveaway is open until midnight Pacific Time, June 1. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I am a member of the Zazzle Associate Program and have a Zazzle store… I think that is pretty obvious! Links to Zazzle stores and products are Associate links. Zazzle provided the gift certificate and I was compensated for this post.
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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 Moveable Treat

Look at what my human’s boyfriend found in the enclosed patio! And he’s not the only one who saw it.

Can you see me better now? I may be a pampered show cat who has never seen a mouse before, but I still totally knew what it was… and what I wanted to do with it!

My human wouldn’t let me come out and look at it, not even on a leash, because it was staggering around and she was worried it was sick. She did not want me to get sick from having any contact with it.

The humans took a piece of cardboard and scooped up the mouse and put it on the steps outside. I could have taken care of it much more easily!
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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!

Show Selfie Sunday

I’m competing at a cat show this weekend, but I made sure to take a break between rings and do my selfie for today! So I took my human’s iPhone, set the timer and got ready.

Hm. I look like a deer in the headlights in this one. Better try again.

No good. It caught me just when I was getting ready to smile. Plus I moved.

Wait! Was that my number being called? Oops, I ruined it again!

Oh no, it caught me in mid-yawn! Well, it has been a long day.

Oh well, this is the best I can do today. At least I’m not crooked like in the other ones, even if my ear tip is cut off. Now, excuse me, but I’ve got a ring to go to!

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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: Action Kitty Style

For my first Saturday Catinee, I’m featuring a genre that’s a weekend movie favorite: an action film! But who cares about the latest Avengers flick when you can watch it performed by kittens instead? ‘Cause, duh, everything’s better with kittens.

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!

Unmentionable Toy From Finland

I got a package from Finland! It’s the prize I won for guessing correctly what the toy was in this blog post. My human is still amazed that I guessed! And you know what? I could smell it right through the envelope!

Along with my prize was a very nice card, but by the time my human opened up the envelope, I was more interested in the toy, and her nose finally got a whiff of why I was excited.

“Phew! Valerian root!” she grimaced. “Whoa! Valerian root!” I said. I’ve never had it before. Sure, there is a Plague Ratsie around somewhere, but it’s old and the valerian scent is really faint. Apparently humans think valerian root is stinky, but I think it is heavenly!

I couldn’t wait to start attacking my new toy!

I also want to report that valerian root is rather tasty.

Binga is not a huge valerian root fan. She is more of a niphead, but she still wanted to give my new toy a whap or two.

Then Boodie commandeered it. It was only supposed to be for a moment or two. It’s a good thing I did not believe that.

She was in the throes of a valerian root-induced ecstasy.

Finally she passed out. I would have taken back my toy, except it was, ew, drooled on! My human had to put it somewhere to air out. But I do want to thank my Punapippuri pals and their human — and the highly crafty Katnip Lounge human — for this fun gift!
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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 Cowgirl FAIL

As most of you know, I am going to the BlogPaws Conference in less than two weeks! I am really excited — it is going to be my biggest adventure so far! Since the conference is going to be in Nashville this year, I wanted to fit in, so I had my human order me a cowboy hat! But it did not work out the way I expected it to.

It was just a teensy bit the wrong size! It was slightly too big to fit comfortably between my ears, and too small for my human to cut in some earholes.

My human tried pushing the hat a little forward but that didn’t work.

Pushing it a little farther back didn’t work either.

We tried tilting it over one ear, and that almost worked. In fact, it’s pretty dashing from some angles!

The only problem was it made my head tilt… and I couldn’t straighten up!

I thought maybe it would look stylish if I wore it slung over my shoulder. Does it look like I’m trying too hard? Oh well, maybe my human will bring the hat to BlogPaws anyway and see if there is another kitty (or maybe even a dog!) that it will fit better.

And in case you noticed a wayward tail in the background of the first photo… yeah, she had to wear it too! And was way less cooperative.
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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!