Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 435

Yeowww! Catnip Cigar Tin Winners and Photobomb

I’m finally getting around to announcing my five winners of the Yeowww! Catnip Cigar Tins, and look who’s here. What, you are not surprised?

Even rubbing my scent all over them isn’t making her leave.

Sometimes you just have to say, “Enough already!”

Okay! Now I can announce the winners! They are…

Amy O.

Michelle S.

Angel and Isabella

Heather R.

And my newsletter subscriber winner is…

Cathy Keisha!

A big congratulations to you all! You should get your awesome catnip cigar tins very soon!

At least I’m done now.
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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!

Thankful Thursday: First World Kitty Problems

I know we blogging kitties do like to complain a lot! After all, our humans are always doing something unsatisfactory. But our problems are so small when you look at less fortunate kitties: the ferals who have to forage for food in a hostile world; the homeless cats in shelters and rescues who have no human at all to complain about; kitties who live with truly neglectful or even cruel humans — humans who might toss them out in the wintertime for scratching furniture or “inappropriate elimination,” or even maybe dump them at a kill shelter! So I thought I’d turn Thankful Thursday on its head today and vent about some First World kitty problems, just so we can see how ridiculous they are, and how much we have to be thankful for:

First World Kitty Problems:

• When my human holds me like a baby and kisses me against my will!

• When my human takes my nicely furred and scented-up cat bed and puts it in the wash!

• When Daylight Savings Time throws the humans off our feeding schedule. (Now, that is a real First World kitty problem!)

• If my human goes for a day without brushing me!

• All those car trips to the vet clinic for regular checkups!

• When my human says I can’t explore inside the closet, in the kitchen cabinets, or anywhere else she decides she does not want me to go!

• When Binga steals my leftover dinner and my human refuses to open another can because “it’s late!”

• When my human’s boyfriend pets me and he is not gentle enough!

• My cat tree is ratty and old my human still has not gotten me a new one!

• My human is notoriously lazy about “scooping!”

Now it’s your turn, kitties — tell me your First World kitty problems that pale next to the problems of less fortunate cats!
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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: Tunneling

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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!

How Come I Was Not in the Cat Art Show?

My human was in San Diego when the opening of the Cat Art Show happened in Los Angeles, but she made it there this past weekend.

It was everything she expected it to be, and more!

It was a big gallery, full of cat art, and even though the opening was the weekend before, it was still packed with hipster humans.

Some of the art was kind of weird, like this speaker full of cat hair.

Some of it was really awesome, like this huge quilt of punk cat art.

Here is a closer look at one of the squares.

This was my human’s favorite piece, and I would have loved for her to bring it home, but as you can see from the red sticker next to it, it was already sold.

Her other favorite piece was this huge QR reader by Ryan Metke. There were feral cats hiding inside! It was easy to find them if your phone had a QR reader app. When your phone read the code above, it led you to a cool video called Huxley Cats. It was shot right by New York City.

But what I want to know is, how come I was not part of this showing? There is cat art of me that would have looked totally cool.

See?

In fact, they could even fill a whole gallery with me! I need to get my human on this, stat.
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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!

Nose-to-Nose Nagging

Did you know I have never been a finalist in the BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose Awards? I am shocked too, and I hope things are different this year!

There are 12 categories, and I hope you will consider nominating me for the following:

Best Cat Blog

Best Humor Blog

Best Blog Post

Best Pet Blog Photo

To nominate me for these categories, you will need the following information:

Blog’s Homepage (link): http://www.sparklecat.com

Contact Name for Blog Owner: Sparkle Cat

Contact email for Blog Owner: sparkle AT sparklecat DOT com (of course, with the @ and . instead of the words)

Facebook Page of nominee: https://www.facebook.com/sparklecatfans

Twitter account of nominee: https://twitter.com/sparklecat

For Best Cat Blog, you just need the info above.

For Best Humor Blog, they want a “Direct Link to a Blog Post that best exemplifies this author’s style, creativity, and humor so that our judges don’t have to go searching!” So here are some you can use:

• What If There was Perfume for Cats? (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/wha...)

• Five Kinds of Guests, and How to Treat Them (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/fiv...)

• Author Is Wrong: Humans, We Know You Are Not Cats! (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/aut...)

• Anar-Kitty in the USA (http://www.sparklecat.com/diary/anar-...)

I have lots of Blog Posts to choose from for Best Blog Post (you of course have to supply a link to the post). Here are my own favorites:

• 5 Things Senior Kitties Can Teach Humans (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/5-t...)

• Twenty Years Ago Today (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/twe...)

• How to Pick the Right Human (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/how...)

• 10 Ways Humans Benefit by Adopting Cats (http://www.sparklecat.com/special/10-...)

For Best Pet Blog Photo, you have to supply a link to the photograph. I have so many photos, it was hard to find the ones I thought were really good. Here are the ones you could nominate:

From Wordless Wednesday: (Mostly) Black and White (http://www.sparklecat.com/diary/wordl...)

From Caturday Art: The By-Hand Edition (http://www.sparklecat.com/diary/catur...)

Wordless Wednesday: Peaceful (http://www.sparklecat.com/diary/wordl...)

From Tortie Poseur Thursday (http://www.sparklecat.com/diary/torti...)

Don’t worry about playing favorites — you can nominate the other kitties who have great blogs too! Nominations are open until February 12, 2014.

The Best part of the BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose Awards is that I only need to nag you about nominating me once! After that, they pick the finalists from the nominations themselves. I don’t have to stump for votes and I can go back to blogging as usual!

Thanks for the nominations, and I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my best blog posts of the past year again!
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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: Kitten Bowl and Kittens in Bowls

I hope you are all planning on tuning into the Kitten Bowl today on the Hallmark Channel.

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

In case you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, the Kitten Bowl is a three-hour event that blows doors on watching a bunch of humans crash into each other over a little piece of pigskin. There will be two primary playoffs between kitten teams, a championship match and all sorts of fun in between — player profiles and interviews, strategies and no doubt the “unexpected.” TV personality and animal activist Beth Stern is hosting. The best part? All the kittens who are taking part are guaranteed homes through North Shore Animal League’s association with the Hallmark Channel! For extra added fun, and to find out more, visit the Kitten Bowl here.

And as if the Kitten Bowl wasn’t enough entertainment for you, I also have an awesome Japanese video of kittens in bowls!

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,” 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 By-Hand Edition

While this just looks like a photograph, although a cool, dramatic one, there is actually some artistic work going on here. While my human uses filters like crazy when she is doing digital art, sometimes she has to dip in and do something manually, and this was one of those times. Here is the original photograph:

My human was trying to get a contrasty, late afternoon shot, but it wasn’t quite working. I was too dark.

But when she lightened the photo, the busy, messy background popped out too. She tried masking me and the highlights and darkening the rest of the photo, but with my fur, it was pretty much impossible to do it and make the edges seamless. So she used a tool she rarely needs anymore, but used all the time back in the “old days”: the Dodge and Burn tool. When she was shooting film and developing photographs in the darkroom, she did this all time. She would cover up parts of the image as she exposed the photo paper if she wanted to keep them lighter (that is dodging), or expose certain other parts for longer (usually by cupping her hands over the rest of the photo paper) to make them darker (that is burning). When she was first using Photoshop Elements over a decade ago, it had tools to do this digitally. Eventually she learned Photoshop techniques to adjust exposures that made dodging and burning by hand unnecessary… except sometimes, like with this photo.

With a big-sized “brush” tool, my human started “burning” in the background manually to make it darker.

Then, the closer she got to me, she began reducing the brush size, and was very careful around my ears and whiskers. She wondered if she should black out the window in the background, but figured that without all the other distracting elements, it worked all right because it was clearly the source of light.

So as you can see, there was a lot more going on with this photo than you might think!

You can see more from this week’s Caturday Art participants here!
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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!

Limited Valentine’s Day Card Special

While my human did sell a number of cards at last weekend’s cat show, she has lots of inventory left over. Most of the cards she will be selling elsewhere, but I thought it would be a good idea to sell the Valentine’s Day cards here on my blog. Otherwise, they will just sit around for a whole year.

There are a six different card styles (sadly, she does not have any of my favorite Valentine’s Day card). They are all blank inside. We don’t have a lot of any of them — the most we have of any particular card is six.

There are even some cards that feature Binga!

The cool thing is that you get the same deal my human offered the cat show humans: the cards are $3.00 each, instead of the $3.30 to $3.70 retail price on Zazzle. And the shipping rates are cheaper than Zazzle’s too. (Although sadly, First Class Rigid rates have gone up.)

Because Valentine’s Day is only a couple of weeks off, I am only selling these cards until Monday, February 3, and I am only shipping them in the U.S. to make sure they get to you in time! All cards will be mailed by Tuesday, February 4.

Limited time deal, limited number of very cool cards… go for it!

Be My Valentine Kitty Card

U R Cool Kitty Card (only 1 left!)

Valentine Kitty Heartbreaker Card

Tortoiseshell Cat and Rose Card

Valentine Kitty Kissing Booth Card

Kitty Candy Hearts Card

(And of course, you are always welcome to shop at my awesome Zazzle shop!)
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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!

Goodbye to a Special Kitty

This is a very sad post for me to write. We’ve lost some really special kitties recently, including our blogging friend Prancer Pie and internet sensation Colonel Meow. And as if things couldn’t get any sadder, I found out that one of my heroes, Tashi, is gone too.

Tashi was a paraplegic kitty who was a longtime resident of Tabby’s Place, the wonderful cat sanctuary that is home to so many special needs cats. Tashi was found as a kitten in an Ohio feral colony in 2008. It was clear this sweet young kitty would not be able to survive outdoors for long, and eventually he came to live at Tabby’s Place. I admired Tashi’s spirit and wrote about him a couple of times, once to profile him and his pal Dave (since adopted), and another time, a full on interview.

Although nearly all of the residents at Tabby’s Place are adoptable, the humans there sort of assumed that Tashi would be there always. Then, two years ago, a miracle happened and Tashi found a home. I was maybe less surprised than the humans because I knew with his strong spirit and great personality, his disability could never hold him back. And he wound up with an amazing family. They also adopted Gabriella, a kitty with sever cerebellar hyperplasia, and later on, they adopted Dot, another Tabby’s Place resident, who has spina bifida.

Tashi had a couple of awesome years living with his family, but earlier this month, he threw a blood clot that obstructed his breathing and there was nothing his humans could do but let him go.

Everybody is devastated by Tashi’s death — his family, the Tabby’s Place humans, and his many fans. Tashi did touch a lot of humans in his too-short life, and I’m sure he inspired a lot of them to give kitties home or donate to help special needs cats. My human is making a small donation to Tabby’s Place in Tashi’s memory. Maybe you would like to do the same.
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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!

Five Kitty-Savvy Human Care Tips

If you kitties have lived with humans for any length of time, you know they can sometimes be a challenge to cope with! They are willful creatures who often consider their own comfort before thinking about their cats’. They are unpredictable, occasionally loud and are known to eat really strange things. But even though they are quite a handful to manage, well-trained humans offer lots of rewards in playtime, treats and love.

Here are five tips that will help you, my fellow felines, unlock the mysteries of human behavior — and keep you sane at the same time!

1. Expect to be told “No.”

Humans mistakenly believe that the word “No” will have an effect on our behavior. They use it whenever they disagree with some way we are behaving. You are welcome to ignore this word — or not. Sometimes it is fun to surprise them and stop whatever you are doing. Of course, this does not mean you have to do a repeat. You can always go back to ignoring.

2. Passive-aggressive behavior will get mixed results.

Humans lack the ability to interpret subtle clues. So it may take them a while to figure out you are rusting that paper bag and making annoying noises because you are hungry. Usually, over time and after repeated, ignored “No’s,” they will figure it out, but you might want to consider a more direct approach, like walking to your food bowl and meowing loudly.

3. Humans do best following a routine, but you may have to teach them.

Like cats, humans are creatures of habit. But there are times when their routines do not match yours. In these cases — usually revolving around snack or meal times — it is up to you to stick firmly to your schedule. If you are not consistent yourself, you will get inconsistent results. This is especially true when it comes to morning routines. Don’t let your humans sleep in if it does not work for you. Be strong and persistent.

4. Humans can have annoying ways of trying to impose their will on you, but there are workarounds.

Do they pull out a spray bottle or speak in their loudest voice when you are trying to do something they don’t like? Perhaps your best tactic is to do it whenever they are not around to bother you. Yes, there is fun to be had in getting a rise out of them, but you also have to know when it’s just not worth it. Enjoying your most desired (and least human-liked) activities in their absence can help keep the peace.

5. Cuteness will overcome an amazing number of gaffes.

Did you accidentally break an expensive vase? Leave claw marks on the leather couch? Steal the roast that was meant for the human’s dinner? Roll on your back and wiggle around! Make that irresistible little “prrt” meow! Give with the innocent tilted-head look! All cats have something that they do that makes their humans melt, and the best time to pull it out is when you’ve done something that those humans are less than pleased by. But don’t just wait for those nasty situations to pull out the Cute card. When you want something, such as a taste of whatever the human is eating, big eyes a little paw pat on the leg will work way better than just jumping on the table and trying to grab it. Cuteness is your secret weapon, and the best part is, it never gets old.

Kitties, do you have any more tips you would like to impart?
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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!