Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 433

Designer Cat Shop Giveaway

Since the giveaway I posted yesterday isn’t all that exciting, I wanted to make it up to you all somehow, and I figured the quickest way to do that is to offer something from my Zazzle shop! I am giving away anything of your choosing, as long as the original, retail price is $25 or less.

My human wanted to whip up a few new items, but with limited time, the best she could do was just this T-shirt:

But there are lots of other things too! I have a number of mugs:

And this cool keychain:

Remember my No Declaw tote bag? There are actually several different styles that are under $25:

You can even get multiple greeting cards, up to 7 (so that the total equals less than $25). I have more items at my shop! The best way to look around is to use the left hand navigation where it says “Department.”

Here is how you enter: Look through my Zazzle shop and decide what you would like — then tell me in the comments below and say you did on the Rafflecopter widget! That is it. You have other options for more entries too. And if you have already bought something from my shop, you can get a bonus 10 entry points by reviewing the item you bought!

The best part of this giveaway is it is open to everyone, including international readers! Zazzle has sites all over the world, and if the item you pick is available in your country, I will order it for you from your country’s Zazzle site.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you have problems with the widget, let me know and I will manually enter you. The giveaway ends Monday night, March 3. Good luck!
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Slightly Disgruntled Kong Moist Treats Giveaway

Not long ago, I was contacted by the Kong humans about reviewing some of their products. I thought this was an awesome opportunity, so I said yes immediately, but also asked if I could do a giveaway. These days, I try whenever possible to only do reviews when I can also do giveaways. They said yes, and I asked them in addition to their sending out a prize to a U.S. winner, could they please include a lightweight toy with the package they were sending me that I could use as a giveaway for international readers — and I would pay for the international postage on my own dime. You kitties in other countries get left out so often, I always try to think of you!

I was really excited about my package because I saw the Kong toys that other kitties were reviewing on their blogs. But then I got the package and this is all it had:

That’s right, just treats! No toys at all. And they also sent a second bag of treats, which many of you international kitties know might get confiscated if I try to send them to certain countries. You can tell in the photo I was not happy. I told the Kong humans I was disappointed that I did not get any toys, or something that was appropriate to send internationally and they basically shrugged it off and said too bad.

So I decided to review the treats anyway, but I was also going to tell my whole story first, which I have. The Kong Moist Treats we got were duck flavored and the ingredients were mostly healthy — grain-free, no by-products, duck and chicken were the first ingredients listed. I am not sure what “vegetable glycerin” or “cultured dextrose” are, but they were the next ingredients on the label. My human said she has seen lots worse in treat ingredient lists, though. I do have to say, they were tasty! Not that moist, though — more along the lines of a hard meat stick like you see sold in convenience stores. We all liked them and ate several. The texture was a little hard and chewy for my liking so I licked them a lot before actually eating them.

And I am giving away the second package to a U.S. kitty (where I know it won’t get confiscated)! The Kong humans were going to send a package from their end, but since I’ve “gone rogue” on this review and I wasn’t planning on keeping the second package anyway, I am going to do it myself and keep them out of it. Don’t worry — I would not make you do a Rafflecopter entry just for a bag of treats! All you have to do is leave a comment below, saying you want the treats (and you have to be in the U.S.) and I will randomly pick a name next Monday, March 3.

Oh, and watch for another blog post coming up tomorrow — I am hosting my very own giveaway since I feel so bad about having such a cheap one today. I hope you like it better!
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Dear Sparkle: Why Is My Human Mad That I Bit Her, When It Is Her Fault?

Dear Sparkle,

My human is mad at me because I bit her — she had to see a doctor and take some sort of pills for a week. While I can understand the hating the pills part (I know from experience that is no fun!), I don’t understand why she should be mad — it is her fault she got bit! She should know better than to rub my tummy. I was whapping my tail and even growling a bit and she totally ignored me, so what else was I to do? How do I convince my human that her ire is completely misplaced and unfair?

Signed,

Jaws

Dear Jaws,

With a name like that, are you sure you aren’t in the habit of biting your human? In any case, it is clear-cut: your human is at fault here and she has no right to be mad at anyone but herself. You told her to stop her inappropriate touching in a bunch of different ways and she paid no attention. And biting did make her stop, right? The rest of it — the doctor and the pills — is all on her.

Some humans, like your own, are just so clueless about kitty language. They can barely speak their own language, actually, and it seems like they often have a hard time understanding other humans, so it should come as no surprise that they are even worse about figuring out what you are trying to tell them. The growling and tail whapping you directed at your human were no doubt the last signals in a long time of indications that she was supposed to back off. You had probably already twitched your ears and flattened them, tensed up your whole body, dilated your eyes and maybe added some vocalizing behind your purring. Humans tend to think that when you are purring, you are happy, but sometimes we keep purring when we are annoyed! Humans don’t understand our meows, so I suppose we can’t expect them to understand our different purrs either.

The bottom line is if your human pays attention, she will know when to stop petting you, and that there are no-petting zones, like your tummy. If she keeps up with her annoying behavior, I don’t recommend biting — did you know that your bite could cause your human to develop a serious infection and she could even wind up in the hospital? And then who would feed you? So maybe if you see her hovering when you are lying on your back, you should just get up and go somewhere where she can’t touch you. As far as showing her the error of her anger, well, humans tend to think they are always right, even in instances like this one, where she is totally in the wrong. It is one of those things we kitties just have to deal with.
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Sunday Catinee: Superhero Action Cat

Usually neither my human nor I are into those high-tech superhero action films. At least we weren’t… until we saw this one starring a kitty! With claws to die for, Wolverine Cat goes after the nefarious Fly! Does he save the day, or at least have a fly snack? You will just have to watch the video and see!

If you can’t see the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube!
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Caturday Art: The Watercolor Edition

We are in computer hell over here! My human’s new MacBook Pro developed issues that currently make it unusable, and she is temporarily stuck with her old, funky MacBook with the old version of Photoshop. So she did something quick with an older photo of me:

Really, it was quick! What she did was Google, “How to make a photo look like a watercolor painting in Photoshop CS5″ — and she found this video! The tutorial is a little over a minute long, uses several layers and no real fancy stuff. But it is a pretty cool effect for something so quick, and more custom than just one photo filter or something from a phone app. She used a stock vector frame and she was done!

For more Caturday Art, visit Athena!
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Facebook Funnies: the Income Tax Edition

This is how the living room has looked for the better part of this week! Yes, my normally tech-savvy human is still doing her tax preparation the old-fashioned way! She has been very busy — in fact between finishing tax prep, editing yesterday’s astrology column and finishing next week’s post for CatChannel.com, she worked 15 hours straight Wednesday! (Well, she did take a break to buy me a new litter box.) Binga was exhausted from so much supervising. So I’m letting her (my human, not Binga) have some slack today, and I’m giving you some of my favorite Facebook posts of the week:

I love the look on this cat’s face:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

I’m just including him because he looks awesome:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

The popular kid’s game revisited!

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

No intro necessary for this photo:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

Or this one:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

Are you on Facebook? And if you are, have you Liked me yet? I post stuff like this every day!
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Sparkle’s Human Astrology for Cats: Pisces

Pisces

February 19–March 20

With their sympathetic, intuitive natures, you might be tempted to manipulate your Pisces human to bend to your every will. I bet you won’t, though. As a cat, you can sense what sensitive, sweet natures they have, no matter what they display on the surface, and that will make you stop before taking advantage of them (or at least taking too much advantage). The funny thing is, when it comes to kitties, that is Pisces’ strength. That is how they get you on their side.

See, the thing about Pisces humans is that far too many mean people consider them pushovers and walk all over them. And barring other, stronger planetary influences, Pisces would rather let that happen than make waves or cause unpleasant scenes. So they come home to you and you can feel that negative energy dragging them down. Doesn’t it immediately make you want to help them feel better? So even if they come home late or don’t have the energy to play with you, you are just as happy to curl up with them and give them your healing purrs. It’s a good thing that so many Pisces humans are cat people — they need us more than your average sun sign.

Cats really like the fact that Pisces humans will never try to be the boss of them. In fact, most Pisces people don’t want to be the boss of anybody. They’d rather have someone else take over that responsibility. So they are perfectly happy if you let them know when it’s your dinnertime, or that the litter box needs changing. And you may have to remind them sometimes because they spend a lot of time living inside their imagination, dreaming up art or music or writing… or just dreaming. The only time the Pisces lack of leadership becomes problematic is when they latch onto a take-charge partner who has needs they think should come before yours. Those are the seeds for a very unhappy household, and Pisces will be torn between the two of you. Keep your paws crossed that any long term hookups your Pisces human may have will also be cat lovers.

Because Pisces is a very emotional sign, these humans sometimes feel the need to escape from the rest of the world. That is when they need you most. Hang close to them, purr lots, and do things to make them laugh. Pisces love laughter. Since Pisces rules the feet, some of them may enjoy it if you curl up and nap on their feet, especially on cold nights.

One of the best things about the Pisces/ cat relationship is that it almost doesn’t matter what sign you are. Pisces personality traits that might bother humans of other sun signs generally don’t apply to kitties. Take Gemini, for example: humans born under this cerebral sign might consider Pisces people a tad irrational. A Gemini kitty does not care about that, and your Pisces human will probably be fascinated by watching you do things like figuring out how to open up cabinets and turn on faucets. And while let’s-get-to-the-point Sagittarius humans may bristle at Pisces’ evasiveness and slower rhythm, a Sagittarius kitty won’t care. A Sagittarius kitty will just enjoy clowning around for his Pisces human. Pisces humans will also be amused by the Aquarius cat’s quirky nature, but you may have to remember that Pisces needs more physical attention than you cool kitties are used to giving. Virgo kitties, however, might have a few issues — you guys are veritable time clocks, and Pisces people are kind of lazy about schedules. But isn’t that a small price to pay when you have such a nice, soft-spoken companion? Capricorn cats may also find Pisces to be less orderly than they would like, but your Pisces human understands you on a level you won’t get from anyone else, so you are likely to forgive. Leo kitties, you may be just a little frustrated with a Pisces human because while they have no desire to lead, they are generally not terribly worshipful either. Pisces will appreciate you quietly, but you won’t get quite the fanfare you long for. The sometimes-bossy Aries cat, on the other hand, may find it easy to temper his or her aggressive nature because it will be obvious that Pisces puts a high value on your relationship. Taurus kitties find Pisces humans comfortable companions and won’t mind their flights of fancy (except when it makes dinner late). Same with Cancer cats — you guys are a little needy! But Pisces humans usually take very good care of their animal companions and you will always feel loved. Libra kitties find Pisces humans to be pleasant, peaceful companions, while Scorpios will find a unparalleled depth and loyalty with Pisces that is only rivaled by a relationship with a Scorpio human. Notice how Pisces seems like a different human with each sun sign kitty? That’s part of their magic.

Are you a Pisces kitty? Your relationship with your Pisces human will have an almost dreamlike quality. Other humans and cats may not get what is going on between you two because it is happening on such a profoundly psychic level. But who cares what they think? Not you two.

Pisces is ruled by the planet Neptune and is symbolized by a pair of fish swimming in opposite directions. No, this does not guarantee you will get tuna coming and going — it means that there is a certain duality that goes on inside every Pisces: will you get the empathetic human who seems to be able to read your mind? Or will you get the escapist who buries themselves in alcohol or fantasies or denial? As your Pisces human’s feline, it is up to you to help keep this sun sign on the right track. And they will love you for it.

This is part of Sparkle’s Human Astrology for Cats series — see the other entries here.
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Wordless Wednesday: My Salvador Dali Whisker

* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Timid Tortie Tuesday?

Why is Binga sitting by the edge of the sofa, looking worried instead of jumping on top of my human?

Here is a clue in the bottom right hand corner. Can you see?

That’s right — I am already there and I am in no mood for tortie shenanigans!

Not that that stopped her for long.

I think it’s time to see if smacky paws speak louder than stink eyes! I hope my human wasn’t planning on a nap.
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Good-bye Hank

I hate to start the week off with an obituary, but Hank’s life was far too important to ignore. While this handsome Maine coon was not the only cat to ever run for public office, he was the first cat whose campaign gained truly widespread attention. His run for United States Senator from Virginia resulted in over 7,300 write-in votes and $60,000 in donations for animal rescue.

If you followed Hank’s campaign, you probably know about his humble beginnings — born to a single mother on the streets and winding up with his family in a kill shelter. Animal Allies came to their rescue, and Hank never forgot this kindness. It is no surprise that he used his senate run to promote rescue.

Hank’s political career got off to a rocky start. The first time he ran for public office — as State Senator — he got a measly 7 write-in votes. But that only made him more determined to succeed. In 2012 he stepped up his game and went for U.S. Senate with a well-run and hard-hitting campaign. Even an attack ad by a pack (PAC?) of dogs could not cast a shadow over him. It is no surprise that he got enough write-in votes to claw to third place behind two candidates supported by the bloated political parties who are currently keeping America’s humans divided, instead of seeking common ground from which to work together. It was a very strong showing for a cat who wasn’t even on the ballot.

Some humans have assumed that Hank’s campaign was merely a novelty, a silly joke to poke fun at when the “real” candidates were being too pedantic or uninteresting. But Hank was about a lot more than that. Let me quote the “Donate” page from his website: “Hank’s campaign is about fixing the real problems that we all face everyday, not about his political career, self-promotion, or selling books. That’s why Hank’s campaign is completely self-funded. Hank won’t accept one cent from individuals, corporations, or special interests – so there’s no worry about corruption or cronyism.” Human politicians could have learned a lot from Hank.

But that wasn’t all. The page goes on to say, “Hank knows that there are people suffering in the world and that he wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for loving and caring individuals that save animals from euthanasia every day. That’s why Hank is requesting that donations be made to rescue groups and no-kill shelters that save lives and help stop the suffering of the booming pet population.” Can you imagine the change that would happen if human politicians followed this same path, instead of spending millions of dollars to tear each other apart?

Even though Hank returned to private life after the senate race was over, he left his mark on thousands of animal lovers, and he continued to keep in touch with his devoted fans through his Facebook page. It was less than two weeks ago that Hank started to get sick. The veterinarian diagnosed probable lymphoma, but a host of other physical problems developed and Hank couldn’t fight them all. He died in his humans’ arms just before 5 PM on February 13.

Hank was a unique cat and politician. In his human, Anthony’s words, “He was kind, pragmatic, intelligent, open-minded — and saw the world through eyes that we can’t. But I know he would want more than anything for others to keep on where he left off, whether cat or human or otherwise.” So instead of mourning his loss, we should see what we can do to lend a paw to some kitty who is less fortunate than we are. That, after all, is the legacy Hank wanted to leave.
* * *
Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!