Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 404

The Caturday Report: The Thankful Edition

Since Thanksgiving is in a few days, I wanted to fill this week’s Caturday Report with stories that will make you feel good!

Let the thankful begin:

Here’s the heart-warming story of an abandoned Alameda kitty who found a home, help, and lots of young friends, not necessarily in that order.
Cat ladies are crazy no more. In fact, they’re cool, according to this Care2.com story. But then, we all knew this already, right?
It’s a “secret” that most people know by now: Disneyland in Anaheim, CA is home to approximately 200 feral and stray cats. But did you know they have an Instagram account? You can see some of their photos here.
I bet you kitties are looking forward to chowing down along with your humans on Turkey Day! But there are some cautions. The Sometimes Cats Herd You blog lists several so that your Thanksgiving is safe and satisfying.
Lastly, I had to go against my thankful theme just once because we kitties need to keep our humans on track: the Pawesome Cats blog have a list of feline pet peeves. Make sure your human bookmarks this post for future reference!

It’s been an eventful week around my place, as you will see!

I’m having a giveaway, and the prize is a selection of toys from the Jackson Galaxy Collection by Petmate! If you haven’t entered yet, make sure you do!
I competed in a cat show last weekend, and not only do I tell you how I did, I show you some facial exercises to help you stay youthful!
While I was at the cat show, I reviewed the Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore line of cat food… that may not have been the best place to do that!
I have a review of a very charming book called The Nine Lives of Christmas. It a sweet story that is perfect for the holiday season!
Did you know I have a kitty castle? I didn’t either, until just recently.
I went shopping for some Secret Paws gifts at a cool pet store — it has a fish pond!

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!

Gift Shopping for Secret Paws

Here I am in my human’s Mini Cooper, in the Urban Pet parking lot to pick up a couple of last minute gifts for my Secret Paws recipient! Since it is not even Thanksgiving yet, you may think I’m early but I’m not because the kitties I was assigned live outside of the U.S. So I needed to get my shopping done earlier than many other kitty bloggers. My human bought a few things while I was competing at this past weekend’s cat show, but we had more to do.

Every year, we cat bloggers do a Secret Paws gift exchange, kind of like humans do Secret Santa at work. I am so lucky because not every kitty gets to paw pick Secret Paws gifts herself! Sparkle used to give my human very strict shopping instructions, but my human always got them a little bit wrong. This time, it is on me to pick something out! It is a bit overwhelming.

Uh-oh, I made a wrong turn and seem to have wound up in the dog food aisle! I had better retrace my steps.

This is much better! I see lots of fun toys and scratchers and cat trees, but I have to be practical because shipping overseas is expensive.

After I was done shopping, I paused for a moment at the fish pond! Isn’t is awesome that they had one at the store? I never saw anything like that before!

My human also picked up a few cans of food for us kitties to try out. She does this whenever we shop at a boutique type pet store because they usually carry brands that the chain stores don’t.

I am almost ready to ship off my package! I wound up getting a lot of smaller gifts instead of a few bigger ones, so I didn’t wrap everything separately. But I tried to make the presentation decorative once they open the box! These gifts will be going out today or Monday. I hope the Secret Paws kitties enjoy them!
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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!

Thankful for My Castle Thursday

Remember last week when I said that I didn’t want anything for Christmas? With the prizes I got from Sammy and all those cat toys from the Jackson Galaxy Collection, I don’t really need anything, that’s for sure! Plus this awesome Kitty Castle. There is a back story to this castle — I know you are probably wondering when it showed up.

The castle has actually been around here longer than I have! My human saw it on Amazon over the summer, and it always seems be selling at some big discount. Well, when she knew she was going to bring me home, she decided to get it. It is not big, as you can see, and only meant for kittens and small cats. Since I am probably only going to be a little over 7 lbs. full grown, that meant me, so she got it. When it arrived, she put it in a room that never gets used and assembled it (it was not hard)… and left it there. Once she had it, she had no idea where she was going to put it! She brought Sparkle in to look at it once or twice, but that was about it.

When I came to live here, my human still didn’t know what she was going to do with this castle, so it continued to sit in the unused room for months. What changed? The furnace dying! When the new unit was installed, they put a big air return where the old cat tree used to be, so it couldn’t go there anymore. After pondering what to do for a couple of days, she put the old cat tree in the bedroom, and moved out the smaller Kitty Castle and put it next to the return vent. I immediately knew it was for me!

There is supposed to be a cat bed on the top platform, but there was nothing holding it down, so it wasn’t very stable. Instead my human stuffed the bed in the bottom condo part, and that is where I spend some time napping at least a couple times a day.

Since Binga and Boodie are too big for the castle, I’m the only one who uses it, and I use it all the time! I hope you don’t think this makes me a spoiled princess. Although being a princess is actually kind of fun.
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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 Nine Lives of Christmas – a Book Review

The Nine Lives of Christmas

By Sheila Roberts

Ambrose is on his ninth and last life, and when he is trapped by a vicious dog, it looks like he’s about to lose it. Like any creature in a desperate situation, he begs for a way out… and gets it in the form of fireman Zach Stone, who chases the dog away. But Ambrose isn’t off the hook. If he wants to keep his ninth life for a good, long time, he needs to repay Zach’s good deed by helping him out. In short order, Ambrose discovers that what Zach needs most is a good woman. There is even one out there for him, the pretty but self-effacing Merilee, who works at Pet Palace. But Ambrose has his work cut out ahead of him if he wants a happy ending for them all.

This is the perfect light holiday book for kitties and cat lovers, a story told with humor and warmth. The narrative is divided between Ambrose, Zach, and Merilee, with Ambrose being the glue holding the whole story together, because in each of his past eight lives, he has run across just about every important character in the book, including Merilee’s cat Queenie. At just a little over 200 pages, this romantic tale is a quick read, but you are left wondering until the very end just how the couple will wind up together, and if Ambrose will fulfill his mission.

Instead of buying The Nine Lives of Christmas as a gift, I suggest getting it now for yourself to get in the holiday spirit. Curl up with some hot chocolate or eggnog, your eBook or physical copy of the book, and a cat. It’s a nice way to spend an evening.

The Nine Lives of Christmas is also a movie on the Hallmark Channel this season. My human and I haven’t seen it yet, but from the description, it sounds like the storyline is quite different from the book, which is usually the way it works out when books are made into movies.

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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!

Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore Too Tasty for Cat Show?

When Chewy.com offered to send me some Tiki Cat cat food to try out this month, I made a special request. Instead of the regular line of Tiki Cat, I requested their newer Gourmet Carnivore line of cat food. Most of the original Tiki Cat flavors are fish based, and we avoid eating too much fish here since it is so addictive. The Gourmet Carnivore line has many more poultry and meat-based foods.

Chewy.com sent me the variety pack, which had just three cans of fish-based cat food — the rest contained combinations of chicken, turkey, duck, beef, and lamb! Can you tell how excited I was when I saw? But my human didn’t open up any of the food right away. She decided to take a couple of cans along to this past weekend’s cat show for my lunch. That may not have been the best idea ever.

You see, I am a bit of a “foodie.” Well, I like to think of it that way. My human says I am a “little freak” when it comes to food. Can I help it if I love to eat? Anyhow, on Saturday, I got the Grain Free Chicken With Duck.

It took me about two minutes to eat the whole can! My human was mortified because she said I was acting like she was starving me!

Yes, I tried to eat the empty paper bowl too. I’m not really proud of that.

The next day, I tried the Chicken and Liver cat food.

I liked it even better than the Chicken With Duck! In fact, I didn’t even wait for my human to dish it up, I started eating it right from the can!

I, um, am not the neatest eater.

She finally got the can away and put the rest in a bowl, but the damage was already done. My fur was a mess, and I still had a ring to be judged in!

My human works really hard on my grooming for these shows, but there was nothing she could do to make my fur look as pristine as it did before lunch! She says it is a good thing she has a sense of humor. Or maybe not — she says next time she is bringing cat food that I don’t love as much. I hope that was a joke.

Bottom line: The Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore cat food line rocks! It’s grain free, with real, shredded meat in a tasty broth. But if you want to look your best, eat neatly!
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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!

Cat Show Report and Facial Exercises to Look Your Best

I’m not going to keep you guys in suspense — this is how I did at the TICA cat show this weekend in Arcadia. Out of 13 rings, I finaled in 6. In two specialty rings, I was Best Longhaired Kitten! With all the points I earned at this show, I might wind up as one of the Southwest Regional Kitten winners! I have to be in the top 25 to do that, and since this is my last show as a kitten, it all depends on how the other kittens do between now and next April, which is the end of the season. You can only show as a kitten between four and eight months, so we only have a limited time to make an impression!

Which leads me to the important part of this post: Kitty Face Exercises! To look your best, you need to keep your face in shape along with the rest of your body. If you start doing face exercises when you are a kitten, you will stay young looking for years and you will have a long career as a show cat. And if you don’t do shows, you will still dazzle the other kitties with how amazing you look!

The first step to doing your facial exercises is to relax and breathe! Let your emotions drain out of you. Become aware of your facial muscles.

For the warm up exercise, lift your chin slightly and focus on your nose. If you have a bit of food on your nose, don’t worry — that is actually very helpful for keeping your focus! You may even want to put some food on your nose on purpose.

Next, open your mouth as wide as you can, as if you are singing an aria in an opera and want the humans in the balcony seats to hear you! I don’t know why my human is pointing at me in this photo. Maybe she was impressed by my form.

Then, while keeping your mouth open slightly, move your whiskers forward. It will feel a little bit like you are flehming, but you aren’t trying to smell anything.

You should practice the warm up and the first two exercises for a few weeks before trying the exercise above! It is very advanced. I’m not even sure I can explain it properly. It’s sort of a combination of the warm up and the flehming-type exercise, but you also roll your tongue around in your mouth! You have to be careful not to put your jaw out of alignment. But once you get it right, it is so worth it because it is a wonderful full facial toner.

All these exercises may feel weird while you are doing them, but when you are done, the results are pleasing and you will always look like you are ready for a show!
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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!

Jackson Galaxy Toy Mania and Super-Awesome Giveaway!

We are huge fans of Jackson Galaxy here at my house, so we were really excited to hear that he had teamed up with Petmate to create a collection of amazing cat toys! Sparkle thought Jackson was part cat because it is almost like he can read our minds, and after watching his show My Cat From Hell with my human, I agree! So I really wanted to give his toys a try. Can you believe it — my wish was answered twice!

The first time was when I won a prize package of toys from Ernie, Wally and Zoey of The Island Cats!

The package consisted of a Comfy Cabana, a Go-Fish Slow Feeder and Puzzle Toy and a Motor Mouse!

That grey pad you saw in the first photo goes into the Comfy Cabana for a really luxurious lounging experience. Can you see Boodie behind me, waiting her turn?

This is called a Motor Mouse because when you pull the tail, it sends it off running for a fun catch and kill game! Plus it has catnip to give it an extra kick!

The Go Fish toy took some assembly. Fortunately, my human is fairly bright, but even if she wasn’t, it just took a little bit of brain power to push the plastic fish into the holes.

Once it was assembled, the resident human pours treats or kibble on it so it all falls around the fish. Then we kitties have to “fish” the food out! It is great for cats who are on a diet and should eat more slowly. Guess which of us got the most treats?

I bet 100% of you guessed right!

The great thing about the Jackson Galaxy Collection by Petmate is that the toys are versatile and can be combined! Here I am, in the Comfy Cabana and killing the Motor Mouse at the same time! Jackson’s toys cover all our kitty wants and needs: Hunt, Catch, Kill, Eat, Groom and Sleep.

So this was fun and we loved the toys… but before they even arrived, I got an email from the Petmate people asking me if I wanted to do a giveaway and of course I said yes! The best part, and one I didn’t know before, was that the Petmate humans wanted to send me toys that were appropriate for the kind of kitty I am for a good review experience.

Much as I enjoyed the Comfy Cabana it is even better loved by older kitties, like Boodie, and the Go Fish toy is good for treat stealers like Binga! Since I am an active kitten who likes jumping around, they sent me nearly a whole different assortment of toys! But don’t worry, Binga and Boodie loved the next package as much as I did!

This amazing assortment included a Base Camp Combo, a Mojo Maker — Air Prey, a Mixed Twisted Kicker and once again, a Motor Mouse (this must be an all-ages toy). I couldn’t wait to get these open!

The Base Camp Combo is a carrier and tunnel duo. This is the carrier — as you can see, Binga is modeling the inside of the carrier. Along with the traditional opening on top, it has three different, circular mesh openings on the front and sides that you can zip off…

And zip in an included tunnel! You can also get more tunnels, or use the tunnel on its own without the carrier. I thought this was totally brilliant — it turns the carrier into a fun toy so that kitties are less afraid of it when they actually have to go somewhere! I love this, because as a traveling kitty, I don’t think other cats should ever have to fear being in a carrier!

The Mojo Maker — Air Prey is a wand-and-string toy on steroids! The wand part is telescoping and you can pull it out to 32″. The string part pulls out to 30″ long. So humans can make the toy as long or short as their cat wants. The feather part, of course, is the fun part!

The string part is fully retractable — when you are done playing, all your human has to do is push a button and it zips right back into the plastic storage section to be put away for next time. No more tangled strings when it’s time to play!

The Mixed Twisted Kicker is made of extra-strong fabric, with a sisal center and catnip inside! It’s like a super-kicker! We all loved it, and it even stands up to Binga’s rough play.

A kitty could make up countless games with these toys! Here are Boodie and me in the Base Camp Combo, stalking the Mojo Maker — Air Prey! Not only do these toys keep us cats engaged, creating different scenarios keeps your human from getting bored too!

And you can have an assortment of Jackson Galaxy toys by Petmate too! I am giving away one awesome package to a lucky U.S. winner! (International readers can choose a U.S. individual or group to get the package if they want to enter.) The Petmate humans will surprise you with what they send, but I can guarantee that whatever the winner gets, it will be lots of fun!

And that’s not all! The winner also gets a copy of the best seller, Catification: Designing a Happy and Stylish Home for Your Cat (and You!) by Jackson Galaxy and Hauspanther’s Kate Benjamin! (I will be running a review of this really great book soon!)

I am thrilled to give away a package of such awesome toys! All you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post and say you did on the Rafflecopter widget below! If you have a problem with the Rafflecopter widget, just let me know and I will enter you manually. You have until next Monday, November 24, to enter. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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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: Kitten Cuteness

In just a few days, on November 19, I’ll be eight months old, and according to the world of cat fancy, that means I am no longer a kitten. Or rather, I will no longer be competing as a kitten in cat shows. I’ll be graduating into the Alter class (TICA) and Premiership (CFA). So as my good-bye to kittenhood, I wanted to share some videos I’ve found of kittens at their cutest. You don’t mind, do you? Ha!

This video made this little guy so popular he wound up in the paper and got his own Facebook page! I don’t know why he is named Fugly, because even with his wonky eye, he is impossibly cute!

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

I like Fugly best when he is amusing his humans by destroying something, like this roll of toilet paper. This video alone is a lesson on how to get away with anything if you are a kitten.

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

Here is another kitten who could get away with anything, including using her human as a chew toy! My human says that Binga was exactly like this when she was that age.

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: Better Kitties Through Science

Science and cats go together like chicken and my food dish! When scientists aren’t busy trying to figure out kitties, they are looking to us to help them with their studies — as you will see in this Caturday Report!

I also have some cool, informative posts from my fellow cat bloggers!

There has been a lot of discussion this week about how we “domestic” kitties bear so many similarities to our wilder brothers and sisters. But I particularly like this story about analyzing the domestic feline genome from The Verge, which points out that associating with humans has made housecats smarter… while it has made dogs, well, less bright.
Scientists are trying to teach robots how to fall (don’t laugh — it could help with search and rescue efforts someday). How are they doing it? By studying cats of course!
There is Kickstarter campaign for a new device that uses your cat’s litter box to monitor her health! Maybe my human can stop staring at me when I am trying to do my business.
We cats like to hide, and that is our prerogative, but honestly, sometimes it is not a good idea! The Pawesome Cats blog discusses dangerous hiding places for us kitties.
And no late fall report series is complete without at least once sharing a link about how to keep feral and stray cats safe during winter. CJ’s Paw Pad gives us some very valuable tips, courtesy of Alley Cat Allies.

It’s been quite a week here, although not as scientific:

I won my friend Sammy’s Sam-O-Ween funniest costume contest, and I was amazed by the prize package I won!
Tuesday was Veterans Day, and I combed the internet for profiles of U.S. kitty veterans. Here are five of them. (I’ll focus on the military kitties from other countries next year)
Although I am not as critical of my human as Sparkle was, I still see that she falls short of the Kitty Code of Acceptability. Here are some ways in which she needs to improve.
I got a new sling carrier… but is this really the best way to show it off?
Best of all, I announce the Santa Kitty Toy Hop! I hope you are able to participate, and help less fortunate kitties.

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!

Announcing the Santa Kitty Toy Hop!

Remember my blog post where I said I was going to announce something I am doing this year to help less fortunate kitties? Well, I actually had no idea what I was going to do — I just knew it was going to be good! But the next day, my human was talking with some other humans of blogging kitties on Facebook and they came up with an awesome brainstorm! Let me explain a little about its origins.

Everyone was wondering if there was going to be a Santa Paws Drive this year, and it turned out there wasn’t — as much as they wanted it to happen, Dorian and the elves couldn’t carve out enough time to make it happen for 2014. But instead of just sitting around being bummed about it, the cat blogger humans wondered what would happen if we all tried to so something similar, but for cats in our own communities? And that’s how the Santa Kitty Toy Hop got started.

To participate in the Santa Kitty Toy Hop, all you have to do is play Santa Kitty to a rescue in your area. Bring the kitties cat toys, treats, or other gifts to brighten their holidays. Take photos of your visit, and then write a blog post about the rescue and what you did. There will be a blog hop that I will host starting on December 12 and going through December 19. It will be a linky you will be able to share on your own blog if you so desire. We cat bloggers are everywhere, so we are hoping to bring the spirit of Santa Kitty to cats worldwide!

If there aren’t any rescues in your immediate area, you can still participate by giving gifts to a favorite rescue in another area and blogging about what you are doing. And if you don’t have a blog, feel free to spread cheer at your local rescue anyway, because it is a nice thing to do! You can even tell me in the comments about your experience on the blog hop day!

So let’s all join together to make the holidays a little happier for kitties who don’t have homes yet. Grab the graphic above (the one without me!) and get started! Here is a smaller graphic if you want to put it in your sidebar:

I hope you have lots of fun bringing cheer to rescue kitties near you!
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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!