Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 390

Learning to Supervise

Even though I am no longer a kitten, I still have a lot to learn! Sparkle left a lot of notes about “supervising,” and I’m embarrassed to admit I often fall asleep on the job! Instead of keeping an eye on my human, I’ll sleep on the chair behind her, or somewhere nearby. According to Sparkle’s notes, I should be keeping an eye on her! So right now I have the perfect opportunity to redeem myself. She has finally finshed getting all the materials together for the rewards from the Pubslush campaign for Rescued, and she needs to send them all out. The bookmarks were the last thing to get done, and they had to wait because my human had to create the eBook versions herself (do not ask her why unless you want to hear her griping for half an hour!). But finally everything is here in the living room.

A couple of the rewards involved sending off five copies of the book, so I had to see if the boxes were the right ones for the job, or if they would be better used by us kitties.

And apparently part of supervising involves posing, and it’s important to do it right! For example, here I am doing it wrong because I am drawing attention away from the book and bookmarks, and making them look tiny. Sparkle said that Binga makes this mistake all the time, which is why she will never be a professional.

Speaking of which…

Sparkle did not say anything about this in her notes, but I decided to let Binga and Boodie take over for a little while — after all, they are rescued cat themselves, so it is only fitting. They can offer a perspective I can’t. Besides, my human already put the treats away.
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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 Kitten on #ThrowbackThursday

So far in my show career, I seem to be doing better in the grown-up Premier (CFA) and Alter (TICA) categories than I did as a kitten. And if you look at early kitten photos of me, you can see why! It’s one thing to be small and cute — all kittens are — but how could anyone even guess how or if I was going to measure up to any sort of Somali breed standard? With some breeds, the quality is pretty clear even when they are kittens. We Somalis don’t look like much when we are youngsters. Plus I was spayed early on, and healing from that delayed my development. The above photo is from my spay day.

It was while I was healing and my tummy fur was growing back that my human got my show cage. Look how skinny my face is!

And here I am at one of the first shows I did after I came to live with my human. I was already a seasoned show kitten but really, I was pretty scrawny.

Here is a photo of me from the Las Vegas show in early October — I am all arms and legs. Plus the lighting in that hall was so bad my fur color was off. I was grateful when any judge put me in a final. I’m sure being sweet to them helped lots!

And here I am at last weekend’s Palm Springs show — big difference, right?
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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!

My Human Traded Me In for a Bunny!

Hm. I think the April Fool’s joke is on me!

But seriously — tell me which tail you like better!

I’m glad I’m not a bunny — these ears are kind of hard to keep on straight!

You knew this was coming, right?

Sadly, this costume is too small to put on her.
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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!

Keeping It Clean in Palm Springs

I was in Palm Springs this weekend for a one-day cat show! It was mostly fun, but it did not get off to a good start. Like usual, I had my bath and groom before we left, but not long after we checked into the hotel, disaster struck!

My tail fur, and the fur at the base of my tail, was greasy! Why is still a mystery — maybe I got into something or my normally-meticulous human didn’t rinse my tail well enough, or who knows? In any case, there was no way I could be shown like that — no judge would put me in a final. My human tried fixing it with dry shampoo but it didn’t help enough, so she had to use the “nuclear option” — she gave me a tail bath! Fortunately, she brought my shampoo in case of just such an emergency. The bath itself wasn’t much fun, but I was very patient while she used the funky hotel dryer to groom me. I even head butted her! I’ll be honest… it feels kind of good when my back end gets blow dried!

It was much better, but my human spent the rest of the weekend messing with my tail and britches to keep them looking acceptable. Can you see the little pink containers? Those are my shampoos.

The rest of my time in the hotel room was fun! I enjoyed rolling on the rug and jumping around at 5:30 AM!

And even though the room looked out on the parking lot, there was still lots of good Bird TV to be had!

And of course, I had the cat show to do! It was six rings in one day, so it was a long day! My human got me some new toys, including the spring you can see at my feet.

I used it to keep my energy up!

I always find myself surrounded by a wide variety of kitties — here, from left to right, are a Devon Rex, an Oriental Shorthair, me, and a Cornish Rex!

And that fluffy white Persian guy was back again, of course! It was a tough show for everyone — there was a white Persian female also competing in Premiership, and it was pretty amazing, seeing her and this guy next to each other in the judging cages! Several of the cats I was competing against are in the top 25 national premiers! And of course, they were usually the ones who took the top honors in the judging rings.

But there was still room for me in the top ten in four out of the six rings! At this show, they didn’t give out ribbons. Instead, they gave out these cardboard acknowledgements — and cat toys! So I really cleaned up in the cat toy department… along with my clean tail!
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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!

Texts From Mittens – and Binga – and Giveaway!

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Hold on a minute.

Okay, that’s better! Now I can get down to reviewing Texts From Mittens and telling you about my giveaway!

Texts From Mittens began as a column in Catster, using a series of texts to detail the relationship between a cat and his human (with commentary on the side about the dog Phil, feline pal Stumpy, Mittens’ human grandma and neighbor Drunk Patty). Not surprisingly these hilarious texts became hugely popular and Mittens wound up with a million dollar book deal! Okay, I exaggerated a little. It was actually author Angie Bailey who got the book deal, and it wasn’t for a whole million dollars (but it still could make that much!). Anyhow, Mittens, his human and all his friends and foes are in this really fun, hardcover book! Here’s a bigger version of the page I was reading so you can see:

Now here is the cool part: I am having a giveaway! One reader from the U.S. or Canada can win a copy of Text From Mittens by commenting on this blog post and telling me the state of province in which you reside in the Rafflecopter widget below! If you are an international reader, you can name a friend in the U.S. or Canada to receive it — just tell me the state or province they live in! You also have other options for more entries. The giveaway ends next Monday, April 6, at 11:59 PM.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you can’t wait, you can get a copy of Texts From Mittens here. It comes out tomorrow. I promise, it will make you laugh lots! It even inspired Binga to start texting all the time!

On second thought, maybe I should block her.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for free but it did not influence this review, or Binga’s texts. Links to the book on Amazon are affiliate links so I will receive a small commission for purchases.
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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!

Sunday Catinee: New CATastrophes, More on Black Cats… and Giveaway Head’s Up

I hope you don’t mind my featuring something just a teensy bit racy today! I’m a year old now, so I can do that, right? It a new CATastrophes video about cats… and sexting! I hope none of you kitties get your humans in trouble like this.

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

Around here, we kitties believe in texting but not sexting — which brings me to my latest giveaway! It’s a book I think you will really love. We sure did! In fact, it inspired us to send a couple of texts of our own… but you’ll have to wait until Monday for all of that.

And on the black cat front? Remember the star of the CATastrophes video that brought luck to his humans? He and his pal Fitz are still looking for a home! The CATastrophes humans made a special video just to help him, and other black cats, get adopted! Watch it below… and somebody give these two kitties a home now!

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!

The Caturday Report: Drama and Fascination Edition

This week’s Caturday Report includes several stories that I think prove how felines, small and large, can fascinate humans in dramatic and powerful ways.

And as usual, my blogging pals have some really great info for us kitties!

The Tumblr “Humans of New York” became a sensation and will now become a book, but I bet the newer Tumblr, “Felines of New York,” will be even bigger!
Bored Panda sometimes has posts that invite submissions, and here is one of their most powerful: before and after photos of rescued cats and kittens! They are still accepting submissions until April 4, in case you have before and after photos you’d like ot share.
While the battle over the growing population of feral cats brews, humans seem to be forgetting that habitat loss is threatening the survival of big cats. Here is a cold, hard reminder.
When most people think heartworm, they think of dogs, but cats can be plagued by this too. Here is a post from the Paws for Reflection blog about heartworm and how it impacts cats — I consider it a must-read.
And another must-read comes from the Fur Everywhere blog, about four dangers of the Easter season for cats.

I had a mostly-fun week. Sometimes it’s just awesome being a kitty!

I went to a trunk show last weekend, and I tell you all about it — plus I had a cool announcement to make!
When humans misbehave, it’s important to let them know it, so I have some good facial expressions for you to use.
There I was, sunning by the turret staircase… and you know what happened!
I took my readers on a tour of my back patio and enjoyed the California spring sunshine.
I told you about a special kitty, the flea soap he inspired, and his human, who needs a little help right now.

If you see a good cat-oriented news item around the internet, send me a link and I may include it next week!
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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!

Caturday Art: The Me-But-Not-Mine Edition

Me-but-not-mine meaning that it’s art of me, but neither me nor my human made it — it was done by my pal Nellie’s very talented human! (If you don’t follow Nellie’s blog, you should!) Lately she has been having a fun “finish the sentence” contest and the winner gets a drawing of themselves by Nellie’s human that is somehow related to the completed sentence. Well, this week I won! The sentence began, “If you’re happy and you know it…” and of course I finished it with “wave your tail!” because I do a lot of tail waving! She totally captured me, from my big eyes to my fluffy tail! Isn’t it totally awesome?

You can see the original post with the drawing on Nellie’s blog here.
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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!

Of Fleas, Flea Treatments Good and Bad, and a Nice Human in Need

Are we ready? Good because I have a lot I want to say today!

While it is still very cold in lots of the U.S., as you can tell from my post yesterday, it is warming up quite a bit here on the West Coast! Which means flea season is already starting. Actually it never really ends around here. And just because you are an indoor kitty, it does not mean you are safe! There are any number of ways fleas could get in your house — they could even come in on your human! Around here, we are very wary of chemical-based flea treatments and we only use them as a last resort. We prefer natural ways to keep the fleas away. If you’d like a list of some of the most common natural ways to control fleas on us kitties, check this one out. One of the ways they mention is bathing us, and I am sitting with a great flea soap right now!

This Dirty Flea Soap was inspired by a cat named Tiny Timmy. Some of you know about Tiny Timmy, but for those who don’t, I’ll explain briefly. In 2009, a nice human adopted Timmy as a kitten from some people who had dosed him with some cheap flea treatment they bought at Walmart. Timmy almost died from this… and it didn’t even get rid of his fleas! His new family found more than 350 fleas on him. With a lot of care and a lot of love, Timmy lived, but he suffered permanent neurological damage. You can read all about Timmy’s journey here. Tiny Timmy’s human decided to take action, not just for Timmy but for all pets, and invented an all-natural flea soap. Tiny Timmy’s Dirty Flea Soap contains Oregon rain water, saponified olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil and rice bran, ground oatmeal, food grade diatomaceous earth, montmorillonite clay and a kiss of wildcrafed Oregon sagebrush, sweet basil oil and common sage oil. It’s all good stuff, and the soap is safe for cats, dogs, kids — and the planet.

In addition to the flea soap, Tiny Timmy’s human also has an awesome project called Timmy Stones. It’s kind of like geocaching — you can get a couple of hand-painted stones for just a nominal shipping fee (each stone is different), and you can place them anywhere you want as a tribute to a special pet that is no longer with us, or to honor someone who has a special bond with an animal. Then you add it to the Timmy Stones global map. And if you happen to find a Timmy Stone, you also can log it. The philosophy is that, like small stones, we all have the ability to create a ripple. The stones were originally created to honor not only Timmy, but Oliver D Cat, who did not survive his encounter with chemical flea products, and to raise awareness of more natural ways to control fleas.

You would think someone who created such an awesome product and project would have lots of good things coming their way. And actually, a lot of nice things have happened for Tiny Timmy’s human, but right now, she is having a hard time. For the past six years, she has suffered from a chronic health condition — and her disability has run out, so she has to sell her house. She needs to get it ready to put on the market, but she can’t afford to! So some good friends hers set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise the amount she needs… but there’s a twist: friends of Tiny Timmy’s human and her angels have donated some awesome gifts as thank you prizes to lucky donors who will be chosen randomly! This woman has done so much to help people find a natural way to deal with fleas… if you can help in any way, please do! Any amount helps. Here is the link to the GoFundMe page.
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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 Spring in Southern California

As most of you know, we don’t have much of a winter here in southern California, but we definitely know when it is spring! The weather has been exceptionally beautiful this week… and maybe even a little bit too hot! But that did not stop me from hanging out in the patio out back for a little while the other afternoon.

I love taking in all the fresh, new smells.

And enjoying the afternoon sun puddles.

There’s also prey! I wasn’t sure you would be able to see him, so I had my human point him out in Photoshop. No, I didn’t actually catch him.

See all that green down there? Isn’t it pretty? It’ll be brown in a few months, though.

But here’s the most important part — the nip garden! As you can see, it is coming along. We should have a good nip crop this summer!

Have you ever just wanted to sit in a nip garden and contemplate life? I love 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!