Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 439

Sunday Catinee: The Return of the Engineer and His Cats

Things were quiet for a while in Wichita, KS, home of Paul Klusman of “The Engineer’s Guide to Cats” fame. But a couple of weeks ago, he and his assistant TJ reappeared with the 2.0 version of An Engineer’s Guide to Cats, with new experiments and feline insights. Klusman has lost none of his fun, felinity or engineer-ness (is that a word?). Yes, at over 8-1/2 minutes, it’s a long video, but you will be happy you took the time out to enjoy it!

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

The original Engineer’s Guide to Cats came out in 2008. Can you believe it has been nearly 6 years?
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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 Afternoon

I heard you wanted to know how a busy kitty like myself kicks back on a Caturday afternoon.

Usually I hang out here on the bed, where there are really good afternoon sun puddles.

Then I have a cheek scratch. See? You don’t need humans for this.

Then I have a sun bath….

What, you’re still 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!

Un-Tidy Announcement of Tidy Cats Coupon Winners

I have a bunch of winners to announce, but in spite of what you see here, I don’t need any help announcing them

If she doesn’t plan to help, then why is she still here?

She is spoiling my blog post on purpose! Well, I have only one choice:

Show a close-up of the coupons so she is cut out of the shot! My human just finished addressing the envelopes to all the winners! And they are:

The Island Cats

Kitties Blue

Delyne

Danielle M.(who also won the Friskies coupon)

Raine

Charpps

Cary H.

Pumpkin Puddy

Savannah

Plus one set of coupons for my newsletter subscriber:

Baby Tali!

One of the winners even asked me to pawtograph a coupon for them!

And the winner of the big pack of 50 coupons is:

Citizens for Humane Action of Columbus, OH, nominated by Kathryn!

Finally, Binga left! Congratulations to all the winners! But if you were not one of them, there are a couple of other bloggers that are also doing the same giveaway with their own branded coupons! Beaded Tail’s giveaway ends on Sunday, January 5, and if you are quick, you can enter the giveaway at The Tiniest Tiger — it ends at 8 PM Pacific time today, January 3!
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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!

Favorite Facebook Funnies

My human just got a new MacBook Pro and discovered, much to her dismay, that Adobe (the makers of Photoshop) don’t let you just migrate their programs from one computer to the next. They are so paranoid about their software being pirated that they make it way more difficult than it really needs to be. So while she is trying to get that sorted out (hopefully she is almost done), I thought I would entertain you with some of my favorite Facebook posts.

This one was Liked a lot by my Facebook fans:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

It’s true:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

Yes, there is a Ceiling Cat:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

You can tell this cat knows what’s coming!

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

This one reminded me of Binga:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

I MOL’d lots at this one… and so did many of my fans:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

If you like these, you should Like me on Facebook!
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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!

Favorite Wordless Wednesday Photos of 2013

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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!

Good-bye 2013: Highlights

While 2013 was not the best year ever (we members of the Cat Blogosphere lost so many good pals that I don’t dare list them for fear of forgetting a couple), it did have its interesting moments. Here are the times I will remember from this past year, when I look back.

The freaky thing that invaded our catio and upset me and Binga!

When my human crashed the Katnip Lounge catio and met all the kitties (except Scouty). I was even able to post a second round of outtakes.

My attempt to get 20,000 fans on my Facebook page was a big FAIL. Humans did not understand that it wasn’t just a random attempt at fame — I was trying to expand my reach so that when I wanted to promote something like a kitty in need, that it would find more eyeballs. The response was negative, so I abandoned it. Right now, my page is just a little under 7,000 fans.

I was part of the AmazeCats Next Top Cat competition! I made my way up a couple of brackets before losing, and it was an awesome experience! I knew I wasn’t going to make the cut, so I used the last bracket as an excuse to throw a surprise party, giveaway and a commenthon! I always try to throw at least one awesome party every year and this one was it. The commenthon resulted in a $50 donation to Tabby’s Place!

My Cat World Domination Day (also my birthday) party was pretty awesome too! The catering was fun and casual, and I gave away a cool Kitty-a-Go-Go! This was my second Cat World Domination Day event, and just to let you know, it is an annual feline holiday now!

Binga got her own punk rock song! This is my human’s personal favorite post of the year. Her year was actually pretty nice — she started writing for Catster, and she now has her own blog on CatChannel.com! She has been apprenticing under me for over a decade, and I thought she finally knew enough about kitties to write under her own byline.

I helped my human win a free trip to BarkWorld, and found out it was a pretty cat-friendly conference! So cat-friendly, in fact, that they are joining forces with the Cat Writers Association and holding their two conferences together! There will be lots of fun and cat swag in November, 2014!

Speaking of the Cat Writers Conference, look at the goodie bag we got this year! And I gave most of it away. I hope next year’s giveaway is at least as awesome!

My 2014 Wall Calendar is my best ever! Every year I think I won’t be able to outdo myself, and so far I have! And it is still for sale — you should get one!

And of course there was Christmas! And my Christmas gift to my readers: a children’s story written by my human called The Bad Christmas Kitty.

I had so many giveaways, and commenthons and donation pledges that it would take too long to mention each one! I will be continuing all that in 2014. Hey, you know what? I may not have had any really big accomplishments, but it was still a pretty good year! Onward to new adventures!
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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!

Kitties, Help Your Humans With Their New Year’s Resolutions!

I know many of you cats have humans who are making New Year’s resolutions that they firmly intend to follow. These are probably the same New Year’s resolutions they made last year (and the year before), and you know how that turned out. I know you don’t want your humans to face another year of abject failure. It makes them sad, grouchy and not much fun to be around. So this time, why don’t you lend a helping paw to make sure they actually stick to what they’ve promised themselves? I know they will be eternally grateful to you.

The Dieting Resolution

Humans are always failing this one, so it is up to you kitties to watch what they are eating. This starts right in the kitchen, the moment your human comes home from the grocery store. Go through her bags and pull out and destroy anything with bread or sweets in it. This is easily enough done — just chew through the wrapping and pull the soft, sticky stuff out with your paws. If your human wrestles the packages away from you, don’t worry. You can use your finely honed sense of smell to locate the offending items later.

The Quitting Junk Food Resolution

This is a fun one for kitties because junk food usually means hamburgers and fried chicken. Any time your human weakens and brings some home, just leap right up and take it from his guilty hands! Once you have it in your jaws, race under the bed or somewhere else that is hard for humans to reach and enjoy a few bites. By the time your human is able to get the burger or drumstick away from you, it will be disgusting (at least in human terms), and he will probably just chuck it. What if it’s something not as exciting, like a bag of potato chips? Well, the crinkly bags are fun, so you can always carry them off (still mostly full, of course), and use them for play.

The Exercise More Resolution

The only way to get most humans moving is to make them! Here is a great way to help them practice their agility and flexibility: hide under the bed or in some really tight, hard to reach spot and start howling like you are feeling sick. Your human will panic and do everything she can to crawl underneath wherever you have placed yourself. The moment she has almost gotten to you, run out and hide under something else to make her do another rep. Here is one that will get her moving fast: locate where she is, then start hacking loudly a couple of rooms away, like you are about to vomit! She will come running, especially if you picked a room with a valuable rug or delicate floor surface.

The Get Organized Resolution

Sometimes you have to goad your human into action, and this is probably one of them. If you live with a messy slob who wants to change his ways, you may have to make things even more disorganized first — jump on stacks of papers and knock them off desks, drag dirty laundry down the hallway, knock unwashed dishes to the floor. While your human is picking things up, it may occur to him that this is the perfect time to start straightening up! Oh, and hacking works here too — if your human does not want you to throw up on his things, he will be compelled to do something about putting them out of your reach.

The Spend More Time With Family Resolution

This one is easy — just lie on top of your human until she has spent sufficient time with 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,” 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: Big Cats Destroy Christmas Trees!

Kitties, while your humans are removing the ornaments from the Christmas tree and setting it out to be recycled, watch here with envy as the lions, tigers and leopards from Big Cat Rescue annihilate 100 unwanted Christmas trees for “enrichment.” Lucky big cats!

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!

Whole Paws Cat Food from #WholeFoodsPets: the Taste Test

As you might recall, my last post about Whole Paws, the new cat food from Whole Foods Market®, had Binga giving me the evil eye because she had to wait for the taste test.

Well, finally today is the day! And it didn’t come soon enough because Binga has been in a bad mood for the past two weeks.

We tried out the canned food first, since that is what we normally eat. Even though the Turkey, Chicken & Giblets Dinner contained some of my very favorite flavors, I did not like the paté texture and turned it down.

Binga loved it, though — and so did Boodie.

Next, my human thought she would give us the Shredded Chicken Dinner in Gravy. It’s actually more chunk like than shredded, as you can see, which is the texture I usually prefer. But I wasn’t that impressed. Again, Binga and Boodie loved it.

By the time my human pulled out the Shredded Whitefish, Chicken & Tuna Dinner in Gravy, I’d decided to bow out of the taste testing and leave it to more enthusiastic kitties.

As you can see, they hoovered it down! While all this was going on, my human had lost track of what I was doing, so when she looked over at the loungers by the French doors, she got a big surprise:

I was sneaking the Beef & Chicken Dinner! I also licked all the gravy out of the can of Shredded Chicken Dinner. And I was trying to be so blasé.

We don’t normally eat dry food except as an occasional treat (because of the way it is processed dry food can’t match the higher protein to carb ratio of canned food), but my human said we could try out the Indoor Formula Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe.

It looks like SOMEkitty, cough, cough, Binga, has already tried to get a taste test preview!

Since it was already open, I decided to help myself.

I thought it was awesome!

Unfortunately, so did Binga. As you can tell by my blur, I was quick to get out of there. But my human took the bowl away from her and let me eat the rest of it later in peace.

Boodie is a member of the clean plate club! So here is our assessment: Binga and Boodie loved everything from Whole Paws that was put in front of them. The only food I liked consistently was the dry. But then, I am famously picky. My human actually was shopping at Whole Foods Market right before coming home to help me on this post and she discovered that the Whole Paws line of cat food is very reasonably priced compared to much of the premium cat food she regularly buys. In fact, it is less than a lot of the other brands.

Whole Paws is the first time a private store brand has offered grain-free pet food, and even though only two out of three of us gave the canned food our paw of approval, one thing we all can agree on is that this is a great trend! Plus Whole Paws food ingredients are all sourced from the U.S. or Canada (except for lamb, which comes from New Zealand), which makes my human feel safer about feeding it to us. Did you know that 91% of pet owners consider their pets part of the family? Which means the other 9% must be humans who consider themselves lowly assistants to their cats… like my human. In which case, they should only supply their overlords with the best food possible — and Whole Paws is a line they should definitely check out!

Disclaimer: I have written this post on behalf of BlogPaws Pet Blogger Network for Whole Foods Market. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Whole Foods Whole Paws, but at sparkecat.com, I only share information I feel is relevant to my readers.
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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!

Share the Box (or Not) Award… and Boxes!

A couple of days ago, Texas (formerly of New York, now living in Austin) gave me his brand new award, the “Share the Love, Share the Box” Award. You all know how lax I am about reposting awards, but since this one involved a box, I actually stepped up this time! The requirements are few: I have to thank and link back to the awarder (done), post the award on my blog (done) and share the award with five other bloggers. So I am going to award it to the kitties who are writing stories for my human’s anthology, except for Nerissa, who already has been given this award: Rascal of Rascal and Rocco, Allie, Maxwell and Faraday of A Tonk’s Tale (actually their predecessor Ryker is writing the story, but he is no longer with us), Gemini, from Chey’s blog The Cat Post Intelligencer and Crepes of Cat in the Fridge. I still have one left over, so I’ll pass it along to my Finnish pals at Pikku Punapippuri in hopes that it might result in a fun box post!

The last — and best — requirement is to go find a box and have fun with it!

Well, I don’t know how much fun I can have with her in here! I mean, the award is called “Share the Love, Share the Box,” but really.

That box wasn’t big enough for the both of us!

No biggie. I figured I’d just take a nap on my FroliCat box. And wait.

That didn’t take very long!

That box went from too many cats to no cats in record time. I’ll just take over where they left off….
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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!