Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 393

My Fun Week

This week was just lots of fun! I got my prizes from the Chinese New Year giveaway from the 15 and Meowing blog!

We love the mat, and the pierogis/ fortune cookies.

And my human really liked the key chain.

But there was also a surprise in the package! Can you see it in my fur?

It’s a bracelet with the lucky hand symbol, for protection. Even though it fits around my neck, my human says she is going to wear it because my fur kind of hides it.

Speaking of prizes, I never did announce the winners of my Valentine’s Day giveaway (except on my newsletter), so I had better do it now: Jenny C. won the Triple T. studios jewelry, and FuzzMother won the Valentine’s Day gift pack, which my human is just getting in the mail now because she was temporarily out of copies of Rescued! We finally got one for you, so look for your package early next week!

I also had to go to the vet clinic to get a health certificate for my next cat show! I don’t know why I need one this time, I never have before. But my human says it involves an adventure. In case you are wondering, I weigh 6 lbs., 10 oz.

It took a while for the vet to see me, so during a time when there were no dogs in the waiting room, my human put the leash on me and let me go exploring! They have a whole shopping area off the waiting room.

There is also an office, and the door was open so I figured I could just go in there and explore. My human says I always go places I am not supposed to. I say if I can get in, I am supposed to be there!

And most fun of all, I got to go outside and chase birdies! And I bet I would have caught them if I hadn’t had been wearing a 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!

10 Reasons Every Office Should Have a Kitty (or Kitties)

Recently a Japanese internet company made the news when it brought in a new staff of nine rescue cats to improve productivity and relax employees. While most of the stories have treated this firm’s approach to office morale as a novelty, I think it should be the start of an exciting new trend in the workplace! I know my human benefits greatly from my presence. In fact, if I spend too much time downstairs, she will come and fetch me, claiming that I am “shirking off on my job!” Obviously she has a difficult time getting anything done without my help.

To prove just how useful we cats are in a work environment, I’ve listed 10 ways in which every office would be better off with a feline presence.

With cats in the office, employees will be less likely to goof off watching cat videos — why do that when you have the real thing right in front of you?
Employees will be willing to work more overtime because they can be around the cats longer.
It will improve employee organizational abilities. When they realize that the cats will steal their pens if they leave them out, or walk on keyboards that aren’t put away, they will learn to keep their desks a lot neater.
It inspires honesty among the staff — we cats will go into the trash and dig out the remains of anything contraband. We will also occasionally rifle through handbags and briefcases, and who knows what we’ll find there?
We cats are natural problem solvers, which will serve as inspiration for employees, who will attempt to live up to our lofty standards.
Instead of talking about boring and potentially argument-inducing things like sports scores, politics and random gossip, employees will spend their breaks talking about the cats instead.
Nobody will want to stress out the kitties, so there will be fewer office arguments in general.
Bosses will never have to micromanage staff ever again because we kitties will take over that job.
We offer purr therapy on bad days.
Kitties put everybody in a happy place. Happy place, happy workplace!

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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!

Breakfast Time

If you are wondering where Boodie was, she took the high road because she is much more patient!
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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 Office Chair

This is the office chair that I share with my human. As you can see, she has ruined one of the arm rests with her elbow. She says her left arm gets tired because she has to type the letter “S” (for Summer) so much. That key on the laptop already has a worn spot on it, and it is only a little over a year old, so maybe she has a point.

This is where I do much of my supervising, and I have to say, it is really tiring! And kind of boring sometimes too. I mean, how long can a human sit at a computer anyhow? I have to get her up occasionally to play or give me treats (which I have to work for!).

This “being a kitty” job takes a lot of skills. Being cute is only the beginning.

I usually don’t do Toesie Tuesday posts, but I thought you’d like this one of my back paws hanging off the office chair. I had them crossed and my human couldn’t resist reaching around and taking a picture.
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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 Tough Show

I competed in a one-day cat show near our house this weekend. But just because it was only one day and six rings, it doesn’t mean it was easy. Totally the opposite, in fact — the current season only has a few weeks left so cats who are competing for national and regional titles are trying to rack up as many points as possible. The maximum number of cats entered this show. There were well over 40 cats in Premiership (my class), and some of the very best cats in the country were there! I knew I had to work extra hard to be noticed.

I had to make extra-sure I was clean! My human always gives me a bath and groom the day before, and touches me up all throughout the show, but it takes my special touch to make it perfect. She does not always agree.

I also spent extra time doing all my facial exercises! I’ve been competing as an adult for nearly three months now, and there are younger cats coming up.

This is not just a facial exercise — it’s a stress reliever, to keep away stage fright. This was also a special show because one of the very top cat photographers was there, and my human had him take pictures of me! I have to say, though, I am not so sure I liked him. I mean, he seemed nice enough, but he said I was a brat because I didn’t want to stay on the table and look at his toys. I wanted to jump down and wander around with him following me, like my human does. For some reason, that was not allowed. “I bet she always gets her way at home,” he said to my human. Well, duh! Why wouldn’t I? In any case, he managed to get some really awesome pictures in spite of my so-called being “spoiled.” I can’t wait to show them off!

Here I am in the judging ring, waiting for my turn. I was 197. There were a couple of other Somali cats competing this time, but they were both just Premiers, not a Grand Premier like me. When you are a Grand, you have an edge over the cats who haven’t earned enough points to Grand yet. I was best Somali in every ring except the last one, and I knew the other cat was going to win it because she was having an extended conversation with the judge. Yes, he was talking back to her meows! That’s okay that she won and I got second, it was kind of a cute interchange.

But just because I got Best Somali Premier, it was no guarantee I would place in any of the rings. Like I said, the competition was fierce, and the best of the breeds were represented. Here is one ring I did final in. She put me on the table when she was talking about me during the final.

Here she was talking about my profile and ear set. Like I mentioned in my 20 Facts post, this is one of my good points as a show cat.

And here she is talking about my nicely wedge-shaped head. All the judges do that head crank to examine us, so breeders train us as kittens to accept it. I don’t mind it at all, but when my human tries it on Binga, she is a little stiff!

This is my favorite part of being on the judging table — just standing there and looking at the audience.

I came in sixth in that ring. If you are wondering who came in first, it was this guy, Cinema’s Liberace of Wishes. When the judge placed him on the table, it was like a cloud floating down! Maybe you remember him from a previous show of mine. That was his first show as an adult, and he became a Grand in just that one show! He came down from Idaho to compete, so his owners are working very hard to get him as many points as possible. He is younger than me by about six weeks, but he is already making a mark.

By the end of the day, I was so exhausted that when my human tried to get me out of my Sturdi enclosure, I didn’t want to move.

But it was a good exhaustion because I finaled in three rings altogether! For a show as tough as this one was, that was awesome!
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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: My Training Session

Okay, so I may not be Kaiser the Bengal, but I am learning a few tricks and this week my human filmed a couple of videos. In the first one, I’m Staying and doing a High Five… I admit, sometimes I miss the mark when I’m high fiving.

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

In this one, I’m being taught a new command, Up. As you can see, I had a hard time Staying — so my human makes me stay even longer! She makes me crazy sometimes.

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

I may never be an expert like last week’s cat, but I do practice a little bit every day.
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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: Pictures and Sounds Edition

This week’s Caturday Report features cat news that involves images and music.

Plus, as always, a couple of really great posts from my fellow bloggers!

A photographer who wanted to break the “crazy cat lady” stereotype (good for him!) did a series of photographs of men with their feline companions. The results are awesome!
Even more fun, these 32 cats recreate photographs from their kittenhood! You will adore these.
Scientists have created feline-specific music in hopes of using the tunes to calm anxious shelter cats. While I admire their intent, I have to admit I slept through the clips that my human played.
Here’s a great post from the Conscious Cat — it explains how to check your cat’s vital signs. Always a good thing to know, since cats’ vitals might not read correctly when they are stressed out at the vet’s.
The Fur Everywhere blog explains what ringworm is (hint: it’s not a worm!), and what the treatment is.

I had quite a week here!

I started off by interviewing blogging pal Crepes, popular video star and one of the authors of the cat anthology Rescued! What a fun interview she is!
I listed 20 random facts about myself. Some of them may surprise you!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a really good photobomb from Binga, so here you go.
I posted another installment of my ongoing series, “Human Things… and Their Feline Equivalent.” This time I look at the human version of litter boxes.
And finally, as sort of an un-Fashion Friday, I modeled some not-Mardi Gras beads.

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!

The Un-Mardi Gras Beads

Since I am usually pretty obliging when it comes to wearing stuff, my human wanted to put some Mardi Gras beads on me last week. Note that there was no Mardi Gras post last week because what she found were not Mardi Gras beads!

I didn’t want to embarrass myself, or my human for that matter. So I refused to post these photos on schedule.

Still, she persisted. She even made me sit up for more photos.

I was totally patient with her.

At least for a while. Now somebody needs to tell her the party’s been over for a week and a half.
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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!

Human Things… and Their Feline Equivalent: Litter Boxes

Now, here is something that totally mystifies me: humans go to the pet store and bring home cheap plastic boxes and whatever cat litter is on sale and expect us to be satisfied with that (and usually, we are). But when it comes to their own needs, they have these elaborate porcelain palaces that rinse themselves out with every single use! Isn’t that a little bit obsessive?

We cats don’t need anything fancy to relieve ourselves. In fact, when I went to the LA Feline Film Festival last September, when I needed to go, I just clawed at some grass and squatted. (Later on, I found out they had an actual litter box station. Oh well.) My human, on the other hand, used her fancy porcelain contraption at home a couple of times because she did not want to have to use the “porta-potties” they had onsite. When it comes to this type of thing, humans can be really high maintenance!

True, sometimes we cats have litter box issues, but it’s usually because we’re sick or something is stressing us out. Humans are way more particular about where they relieve themselves. I’ve been in public restrooms with my human when we’ve been on a trip, and the way she weaves in and out of stalls, looking for one that meets her exacting requirements, is enough to make you dizzy (at least, if you are in a cat carrier hanging from her shoulder). And if nobody else is in there, sometimes she starts muttering about how filthy other humans are. Does she ever hear me doing that if I need to use the litter box after Binga? Well, okay, maybe I will go use another one, and maybe I’ll cock an ear, but I don’t mutter.

But what really gets me is that after all this effort humans put into their own bathroom needs — the fancy human litter boxes, the pickiness about cleanliness and all — they’ll let our feline litter boxes go for a whole day without being scooped! Honestly, most kitties are okay with the litter box going for a little while without scooping as long as the stuff gets removed reasonably promptly, but if a human finds that somebody else has used their own litter box and not flushed, you’d think it was the end of the world!

Observing humans in this area makes me glad I’m a kitty. We take a very natural, everyday process and treat it as such. If we need to go, we find somewhere appropriate and relatively clean to do it, and that’s it. We don’t worry about appearances, or if the door’s shut, or who has been there before us. I’m surprised more humans don’t have litter box issues of their own, with all the complications they’ve added to their own habits.
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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 Classic Binga Bomb

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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!