Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 395

The Catuday Report – Silly and Serious Edition

I was really hoping to fill the Valentine’s Day edition of the Caturday Report with all sorts of kitty love news, but most of what I came across was pure silliness!

At least I start off with something cool… and as always, my blogging friends come through with great posts.

The latest place to have a cat cafe? The United Arab Emirates! The Ailuromania Cafe is scheduled to open in Dubai a the end of the month.
YouTube often cracks down when music copyright is being infringed, but this is ridiculous: the video site claimed this clip of a cat purring constituted piracy.
A teen impressed a group of scientists by proving that the type of cat litter made no difference in the bacteria it created. I think cats will be less than impressed by his findings, however, since it does matter to us which litter we use.
Do you want to make sure your cat has an awesome Valentine’s Day? These tips from the Pawesome Cats blog will set you in the right direction!
Has someone close to you recently lost a feline friend? The Fur Everywhere blog examines grief, and how to help friends and family cope with loss.

Even though I spent much of the week party planning, I did get other things done!

I started off the week by listing five things that Sparkle didn’t teach me.
I also got to go out on the back patio for the first time — and made an awesome discovery!
I started a series on how to harness and leash train your human! Lesson One was picking out a harness.
I looked back on my first few days with my human… was I ever that small?
And of course, I ended the week with my big Valentine’s Day party, giveaway and commenthon! The great news is that I’ve already hit my commenthon goal — but there is still time for you to enter the giveaways, if you haven’t yet.

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!

My Valentine’s Day Party

Welcome to my Valentine’s Day party! I am wearing a pretty new harness just for you! We are going to have lots of fun!

Even Binga is in the Valentine’s Day spirit! We are excited because this is not only a party, it’s a commenthon! Did you know that February is National Spay and Neuter Month? One organization we love lots around here is Fixnation, which supports Trap-Neuter-Return with free spay and neuter clinics for ferals, and also offers low cost spay and neutering services for tame pet cats. This is an awesome organization, and my human is going to donate to them, 50 cents for every comment left below between now and February 24, up to $50.

Now on with with the party — let’s see what’s in the pretty pink chest!

It’s a bunch of foam conversation hearts for us to bat around!

And I have heart bouquets to give out… although to be honest, they smell kind of funny.

I bet you are hungry, so I had my caterer hand make heart-shaped, artisan roast chicken pizzas!

I have some awesome treats for you too! Don’t worry, they are not chocolate.

They are all cat treats!

I bet you are wondering about the giveaway I promised — well, I have two! Here’s the first one: a Valentine’s Day gift pack that includes two cat toys, Canidae grain-free chicken treats (they are heart shaped!), and a copy of Rescued, hot off the press! Plus the cat toys come in a cool little Valentine’s bag. Enter to win it here — everyone is eligible, including my international readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And I have a special Valentine’s Day giveaway, courtesy of Triple T Studios: a really pretty necklace and a sweet pair of earrings, courtesy of Triple T Studios!

I even got to model the necklace! I think it looks much better on me than on my human!

Enter to win the necklace and earrings below — again, this giveaway is open to everyone, including international readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you enjoyed my party! Remember to leave a comment — and make sure you take a hug before you go!
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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!

TBT – August 2014

My first hotel room and my first couple of days in my new home. Was I really that little?

(Scroll over the photos for the secret messages.)

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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 1: Buying a Harness

I know a lot of you kitties really balk at the thought of wearing a harness and being taken out on a leash, but once you get used to it, it is really fun! And it’s nothing like dogs going on a walk. You don’t have to learn all that heeling stuff, and you are allowed to wander and explore more than a dog would, or just sit there if that is what you want to do. And you aren’t expected to go to the bathroom either… although there’s no reason you can’t!

You know what the hardest part of working with the harness and leash is? The human training part! So many of them do it all wrong. They bring home some weird, strappy thing, slap it on the cat, and then laugh when she flops over and refuses to move. What an unpleasant and humiliating experience! No wonder she winds up shunning the harness. Humans need to learn how to make wearing a harness a fun, rewarding activity for a kitty. And then they need to repeat the process with the leash. Getting humans properly trained in this area is a bit of work, but it’s really worth it.

This process takes a long time, so I am going to cover this training over several blog posts. First, I want to talk about the harness. This is in some ways the most important part because it will determine how everything else goes. If it’s the wrong type of harness, or a harness that is not comfortable for you, you will never get past the first step. So here are my recommendations. I hope you humans are taking notes!

It’s important to have a harness that fits you well. If it is too loose and you hear a car backfiring or a dog suddenly barking, you may impulsively bolt right out of it! And you don’t want that to happen because you know when you are freaked out, you may not readily come back to your human. But you want to be able to breathe too. One thing you never want is to have your human just hook up a leash to your collar — that could hurt you badly if the leash got pulled hard.

A good harness for a kitty has its D-ring for the leash on the back of it, just behind your shoulder blades. And it actually does not have to be a cat harness. My pretty pink harness is a Puppia that my human got at a store for dogs! Depending on your size, your human will probably get you a small, or an extra small if you are a kitten or a smaller cat like me. Your human should measure you around your chest, just behind your front legs, with a tape measure, and use that gauge when she is shopping for a harness.

Harnesses should be adjustable because all cats are a little different, and if you are a kitten, it will need to be let out as you get bigger. And you may also gain or lose weight — you know how it goes. Your human should just be able to put a couple of fingers under the harness when you are wearing it — that’s the right adjustment for you. I think a plastic release buckle or heavy-duty snaps is usually more secure than Velcro — if a flap gets caught on something like a branch or something sticking out, it might come apart. Besides, Velcro can get caught on my longish fur.

Having a good color that goes well with your fur isn’t going to make a harness safer, but it will make you look cuter!

I like my Puppia a lot and it serves me well, but my new favorite is the Sturdi Walking Vest. It is very secure. I would have a really hard time ever getting out of it! These aren’t the only harnesses around that are good for cats. There are a lot more — just remember to have your human look for something that is adjustable, very hard to squeeze out of, and has the D ring for the leash on top.

Next time, I’ll explain how to train your human to put the harness on you. I promise, it will be more fun than you think and it will have a lot of perks!
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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!

Prowling the Patio

See these double doors? On the other side of them are our scratch loungers and the living room! Can you believe I’ve never been out to explore the back patio? But I got to today because there is a surprise for me out here!

Maybe it was the time of day — late afternoon — but the birds were out in full force, creating a racket! It was fascinating.

See all that green field down there? It actually belongs to us! Except the wooden stairs to get down there are rotting and my human hasn’t been able to afford any landscaping. So it is kind of useless.

Here is my surprise — there is a whole outdoor planter full of catnip! Apparently it was really full at one point, but the plants died off and there wasn’t any growth last year. But anyone who has ever grown catnip knows it never goes away completely, and now it is coming back! I bet we have lots of fresh catnip this summer.

I’d say that deserves a high five!
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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!

Five Things Sparkle Didn’t Teach Me

Sparkle was a very wise cat, and I’m constantly in awe of everything she accomplished during her years as a blogger and an author. But while there is a lot I still have to learn, and I refer to her notes frequently, there are other areas in which I’ve had to figure out my own way of doing things. And there are some things I had to completely learn on my own. Here are five of them.

1. How to walk on a leash and harness! Most of the time I think it is pretty fun.

2. That if I sit and stay, I can get treats. I also get treats for high fives. Sparkle got treats for no reason, but I think this is a cool game.

3. That hotel rooms are all kinds of cool! I don’t think Sparkle ever got to stay in a hotel room. I bet she would have liked it. Okay, maybe not.

4. How to compete in cat shows! It is a good thing my breeder has been giving me and my human guidance, otherwise we would both be clueless.

5. That Binga can be a good pal and playmate when she wants to be.
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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: The Kitten Wormhole

I really have no idea what is going on here… kittens just seem to keep emerging out of these holes, and emerging, and emerging! It is like a kitty universe wormhole. See what I mean:

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: Scientific Kitty Edition

Scientists are fascinated by us kitties. It seems like they are always doing some sort of research in a (generally unsuccessful) attempt to figure us out! Sometimes cool inventions come out of their studies too.

I found some amazing science-inspired cat news this week! Just wait til you check it out.

Scientists are still trying to figure out the feline fascination with boxes, but this story from Wired makes a few guesses.
Here’s a new invention for you humans who want to understand us cats better… without bothering to learn our language: the Meowlingual Cat Translator! It’s available now — that is, if you have $169 US in loose cash and can read Japanese.
Okay, so he’s not a scientist, but this journalism professor has done a study on the frequency cats appear in the New York Times, and apparently it’s a lot!
There were loads of great, informative blog posts this week and it was hard to narrow it down to two. But this post from the Cats Herd You blog really stood out — it explains the Five Pillars for feline wellbeing, as named by human experts who study kitties.
I wanted to include this final entry, a blog post from Pepsi Max Addict, because one of our blogging pals is going through a very unusual surgery to treat an uncommon affliction. I thought Magic’s journey would be of interest to you — and she and her human could use some purrs.

It’s been a busy week here, as you can tell:

It started off with me assisting my human with her tax preparation. It’s a good thing I had Sparkle’s notes with me!
I had a big announcement… and a new dress!
I heard about a rescue group that is doing something awesome to help kitties find homes.
And at Kitten Rescue, they had to say good-bye to an old pal.
Finally, I showed off a cool new harness — and had an update on the crowdfunding campaign behind Rescued, the book that my human’s indie imprint just published.

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!

Fashion and Follow-Up Friday

Although my cute pink harness and my new butterfly walking vest are my main outfits for going out, my human has a few harness for me that she calls “indoor wear.” In other words, they aren’t totally secure, but they are good enough to wear if I am visiting inside in an enclosed area. Like this cool looking reflective harness! Although we tested it indoors and I did not get out of it, my human knows if I twisted just the right way, it could slip over my head, so I can’t go for walks outside or to stores with it on, just to be safe. But I can wear it to people’s houses, or maybe to an assisted living or nursing home… although the skull and crossbones might scare older humans. They might think I am a punk or a thug. Or a pirate! I do look tough in it, don’t I?

Okay, so maybe I don’t look that threatening. So my human decided to try it on Binga instead, even though she is not going anywhere except maybe the kitchen. Actually, my human made sort of a mistake — she had some errands to run, so shortly after taking this photo of Binga, she left the house and didn’t come back for hours… and only after she returned, did she realize she never took the harness off Binga! She was still wearing it when my human walked in the door. She felt kind of bad, even though Binga didn’t seem to care that it was still on.

I also wanted to let you know that the Pubslush crowdfunding campaign for the cat rescue anthology, Rescued, is drawing to a close! It ends on Wednesday, February 11, and it is a little less than halfway to its goal.

It’s made the minimum to fund, and that’s good, but it’d be nice if some more supporters joined up! There are some new reward levels, including graphics from Allie, Faraday and Maxwell’s human, a personalized pen and ink illustration by Rascal and Rocco’s human, custom bookmark and card designs or a memorial video by Magoo’s human and lots more! If you haven’t been over to the Rescued Pubslush page for a while, check it out and see what is new!
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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!

Good-Bye, Monster

I’m really sorry I never properly introduced Monster. He was a Kitten Rescue sanctuary cat, and one of the happy recipients of the Santa Kitty Toy Hop. But in my blog post, all you really got to see of him was this:

Monster was so entranced with the bag of goodies, he spent much of his time with his head buried in the bag. Eventually my human was able to coax him out to get a photo.

It doesn’t do him justice, though. You can see better photos of Monster on his page at Kitten Rescue’s Smugmug account.

Monster was a real sweetheart and all the sanctuary workers and volunteers loved him. He and his sister Domino had been living at the Sanctuary for a little over four years. The two of them were adopted in the early 2000s as youngsters, but were returned as older adults when their human had a “lifestyle change,” whatever that means, and could no longer take care of them. Some kitties eventually find second chance homes, but that was not to be for Monster. He developed kidney problems and a few days ago, his body began to shut down. The Sanctuary manager held him in her lap as the veterinarian helped him to a peaceful end.

My human also remembers Domino, with her wonky ear, patch of white on her chest and quietly pleasant personality. Even though my human only spent a little while interacting with Domino and Monster, it was clear they were a bonded pair, and the Kitten Rescue humans had wanted them to be adopted together. Now Domino is alone, and I think she needs love, and a person of her own more than ever. Here is Domino’s Kitten Rescue Smugmug page. If you know anyone who lives in southern California who might want to give this girl a home, please direct them to Kitten Rescue’s website.
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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!