Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 399

Sunday Catinee: Tree-Climbing Cat Men

I’m going to do something a little different for this week’s Sunday Catinee and tell you about these awesome guys named Shaun Sears and Tom Otto. Together they are Canopy Cat Rescue, and they save cats stuck in trees in the cities of Tacoma, Seattle, Olympia and surrounding areas! They are animal lovers (both live with cats and dogs) and certified arborists. They are highly skilled at climbing trees and rescuing cats. They videotape their rescues and post them on YouTube, and my human has been watching these clips for a long time. Now I am addicted to them too. Watching these scared kitties get saved always makes us feel good, so I wanted to share a couple of their videos.

I love Dawson’s rescue. He’s an indoor-only kitty who escaped from the new home his family just moved into. Somehow he wound up in a big fir tree, and his rescue drew a crowd.

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

Sky had been stuck in the tree for about a day last December (many kitties are in trees for several days before someone calls Canopy)… and just wait til you see that tree!

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

You can see lots more videos on the Canopy Cats YouTube Channel, and read about their rescues on their Facebook page. You know what makes these guys even more awesome? They work on a donation only basis “to ensure that all cats have an opportunity to be rescued”! Even so, I am sure their efforts are more often than not very well rewarded.
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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: News for the New Year

It looks to me like 2015 is going to be as interesting, dramatic and exciting for us kitties as 2014 was!

I have a variety of cat news for you, so let’s get to it!

Trap-neuter-return is coming to the cats of the UAE, thanks to animal rights activist Mahin Bahrami.
I love that the Consumer Affairs website has a story on how we cats need to eat differently than dogs or humans… and in fact explains that a feline diet would give humans heart disease!
How would you like a Star Wars Landspeeder cat bed? Here’s one to check out.
The Playful Kitty blog looks back on 5 great cat moments of 2014, all totally worth reliving!
Did you know that CJ’s Pawpad began after CJ’s human home was destroyed by a fire? She lost one beloved cat, and CJ himself suffered burns and barely escaped alive. Now, they want to pay it back by letting us know about a woman in Illinois who lost her husband, her four cats, and home on Christmas Eve. Yes, there is a link for you to help her.

Even though this was still a holiday week, I kept busy!

I learned a lot in 2014! (But then, I was born in 2014!) Here are 10 of the most interesting things.
I tried to review Santa’s Snow Cat, but there were interruptions.
Here is my blog recap for 2014. Some of it is sad, and some of it is really cool!
Binga had some New Year’s resolutions… but they weren’t for her!
Just when we thought Christmas was over… my human brought home some gifts (from a Petco sale, of course)!
Also I announced the winners from December’s giveaways.

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!

I Have Winners!

I have winners to announce from my giveaways last month! I guess that means I have to stop playing with this Busy Bee. I hope the winner has as much fun with the toy they get as I have with mine! So, without further ado, the winner of the Vitakraft Purrk! Playfuls giveaway is…

Carrie R.!

And I have a winner for the Neko Nappers Sleeping bag too! It is…

J.A.M.!

And I have one more surprise giveaway — well, it is a surprise if you don’t subscribe to my newsletter. See, I actually got two of each of the Purrk! Playfuls toys I reviewed. Plus, at my holiday cat show, I got a sample bag of awesome Taste of the Wild dry cat food. So I put it all into a little prize package for one lucky newsletter subscriber. The one whose name I picked is…

Cathy C.!

I do newsletter-only giveaways as often as I can, usually every month, which is why I’m always trying to get you all to subscribe! You can do that in the sidebar of my blog, or you can click this link to go directly to a subscription page.

Concatulations to you all! Your prizes will be off to you soon!

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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 Christmas That Didn’t End

My human really did feel badly that we cats didn’t have much of a Christmas, so when she was at Petco just before the New Year, she picked up a couple of holiday cat items on sale. Binga immediately claimed them as hers. Maybe that’s why Boodie’s head is cut off in this photo.

But I think she may be having second thoughts about wanting them for herself.

What was in the red bag? Coal, apparently. I think Binga is having second thoughts about those New Year’s resolutions.

Yes, the “coal” was really some black crinkle balls, but I don’t think she got the joke.

But even that was better than having to wear a Christmas tree hat! This was the only photo my human was able to get before she stalked off in a snit.

So she tried it on me, knowing that I’m more cooperative — but it was way too big! The packaging said, “One size fits most.” Most what, gigantic Tom cats? I’m not sorry it won’t be part of next Christmas’s photo shoots.
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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!

Binga’s New Year’s Resolutions for Everyone Else But Her

In 2011 and 2013, Sparkle made some New Year’s resolutions for her human. I was going to carry on this tradition for 2015, but Binga just told me that Sparkle gave her the job of doing New Year’s resolutions. I don’t know if I believe her. Do you? Anyhow, I figured I had better let her do it. You know how torties get when you try to tell them no.

Oh, and she says the resolutions are for everybody in the house. Except for herself.

1. From now on, I get treats before and after the dog gets walked, not just after. But just me, not the pipsqueak.

2. If my human is late getting up to feed me, I am allowed to bite her on the nose as punishment.

3. Boodie must let me taste her food, even if it’s same food as I have in my dish and I haven’t finished my dinner.

4. No more late dinners! Feed me promptly at 6 PM. Oh, and I guess the other cats too.

5. All new catnip toys must be given to me to pass my inspection first, and I decide if any other cat gets to play with them.

6. If the pipsqueak is doing a photo session, I am allowed to interrupt it, and no griping from her or the photographer.

7. I can do anything I want, so everyone had better stop complaining.

I’m not so sure these are in the real spirit of New Year’s resolutions. But whatever.
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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!

Goodbye, 2014

It’s a good thing New Year’s Eve comes just once every 12 months — I don’t want to have to wear this thing again anytime soon! I’m glad I talked my human into doing a post that looks back at the year, because in a lot of ways, 2014 made her very unhappy. But after looking through a year’s worth of posts from Sparkle and me, she realized that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all… and there was a lot of good! So let’s look back, one more time…

Our first stop makes my human both happy and sad. In January, she went to the San Diego Cat Show to share a booth with a couple of other humans from the Cat Writers Association, and Zeki the Cool Cat. Sparkle told her story here. It was a fun weekend, and my human sold quite a few of Sparkle’s books and cards. But it makes her sad because Zeki is no longer with us. She became sick and died right around the same time Sparkle did. Zeki was a big loss for me because I would have really liked to have met her one day.

Later on, in May, my human went to BlogPaws at Lake Las Vegas and hung out with many popular kitties, including the Katnip Lounge kitties and Coco the Couture Cat! I’m hoping that maybe I will get the opportunity to meet Coco at some point! She is one of my idols.

In June, Sparkle celebrated Cat World Domination Day, and her birthday. Nobody had any idea it was going to be her last. And she did not tell anybody, but she actually had to go to the vet on her birthday. She was not well, and you can kind of see it in some of the photos, even if my human didn’t at the time. I do want you to know that even though Sparkle is gone, we will still have Cat World Domination Day on June 24 every year. My birthday is March 19, so that will be a different party.

The first time you saw me was in late July, but my human had no idea she was bringing me home! She was visiting with my breeder at a cat show, which happened to be my first one. She thought I was adorable, but at the time my breeder thought she was going to keep me. While my human was at the cat show, she bought Sparkle an awesome cat bed. Boodie uses it the most now.

In early August, Sparkle helped my human pick out a bunch of her own cat toys to give to the kitties at the Cat House on the Kings. Maybe she realized she would not be needing them for much longer. In any case, it was an amazing visit and my human left several bags of toys for the kitties there.

Unfortunately, one of Sparkle’s last memories of her home was the retaining wall being torn down (the new wall being built was one of my first). Because of that humongous wall, and the furnace dying a few months later, the humans didn’t have Christmas this year.

Sparkle died on August 21, 2014. This was her goodbye post.

I had my first official blog post a week later. I still can’t believe how young and inexperienced I was! And I had so much responsibility — the first thing I had to do was organize Sparkle’s memorial.

I was off doing things right away! My first trip (other than getting spayed) was to Petco.

A couple of weeks later, I went to the L.A. Feline Film Festival!

I even went to Las Vegas to compete in a cat show! Hotel rooms are awesome.

But along with all the fun, there have been a lot of big responsibilities. Sparkle won Best Cat Blog in the Petties, and I had to accept the award on her behalf.

My human decided that MeowWorld was too far for my first plane trip, so she went without me. But she had lots of fun, Sparkle won a Muse Medallion for the blog, and I got a bunch of awesome swag for a giveaway.

Even with all the cat shows and fun giveaways, I have to say my favorite thing I have done so far was organize the Santa Kitty Toy Hop and host the linky! It was so amazing to see cat bloggers all over the world help out kitties at their local shelters for the holidays.

See? In spite of what my human thought, 2014 wasn’t so bad after all! And I bet 2015 will be lots better.
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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!

Book Review, Interrupted

This was going to be a review of Santa’s Snow Cat, a children’s book about a white cat belonging to Santa that, through a chain of events, gets lost in New York City.

Mainly, my human wanted to me review the book because so much of it took place in New York. It is her favorite city and she liked looking at the pictures.

I liked it too and was ready to give it my rub of approval…

When I thought I heard something going on behind the backdrop!

It was like the backdrop came to life or something!

I had to leave the set to see what was up.

Did you guess 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!

Ten Things I Learned in 2014

2014 has been my most exciting year ever! Well, it has been my only year ever so far, and since I’m just a few days more than nine months old, I wasn’t even around for the first two and a half months of it. So everything I know, I learned this year! Here are some of the coolest things.

I learned…

1. Tortoiseshell cats are unpredictable. At least the one I live with is.

2. Cantaloupe is yummy!

3. Counter surfing is best done in the absence of any humans.

4. How to walk on a leash.

5. Cat food comes from pet stores — a surprising number of cats think it just appears as if by magic.

6. Cat shows are awesome.

7. The baths I have to get before cat shows aren’t awesome, but they are tolerable as long as I get treats.

8. Hotel rooms are lots of fun!

9. Looking cute makes people happy, even when they are angry or sad… and I like making people happy.

10. Being a kitty is possibly the best thing anyone could hope 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: For Services Rendered

Do you humans take us kitties, and what we do for you, for granted? The cats in this CATastrophes episode take matters into their own paws and start charging for their services. Here is what happens…

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: Happy Kitties Edition

This week, every story I chose for the Caturday Report either involves a happy kitty, or is meant to help keep kitties happy!

I hope these news items make you happy too! Enjoy.

Why is Mia happy? She’s got an awesome job as a therapy cat at an assisted living facility — something she was clearly meant to do!
Stormy is happy because she was finally rescued from a storm drain after ten days! In spite of her pretty collar, she has no microchip and no one has claimed her. Here is an update on the Rivertown Cats Facebook page from just before Christmas, showing what an awesome cat she is.
Taylor Swift seems to spend more time keeping her cats happy than, um, actually having her singing career these days.
At the Conscious Cat, Fern Crist, DVM explains how to transition your cat to a healtier diet… while still keeping him happily eating
And once again, Cody and Caren have Nancy Peterson guest post, this time about how to keep community cats happy and healthy during the winter months.

I spent Christmas week doing mostly non-Christmas-y things, but I still had lots of fun!

My human did a pirate photo shoot with me… and there were lots of outtakes!
I started a new series: “Human Things… And Their Feline Equivalent.” The first installment has to do with the weird human habit of dousing themselves with water.
I featured my week — in pictures!
I shared all the cool eCards I got from fellow blogging kitties — and shared the true Christmas spirit (at least for us secular kitties).
Binga invaded my photo shoot… and here is what happened!

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!