Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 442

Celebrity Cats Come Together for an Awesome Cause

My human has been to the iconic Capitol Records building before… about 20 or so years ago! Back then, she was just talking to boring musicians. But her trip there this week was way more important and celebrity-studded: she was there to see a supergroup of internet cat sensations introduce a new music video and make a very special announcement!

The event was put on by Friskies, who brought together Oskar the Blind Cat, Colonel Meow, Nala Cat, Hamilton the Hipster Cat, and of course the official Friskies spokescat, Grumpy Cat to benefit five different rescues… to the tune of up to 500,000 cans of cat food! It’s the largest donation in the brand’s history. Each of the five celebrity cats chose a rescue to share in the donation. There were about 1,000 cans of Friskies as part of the decor.

There were also treats for the humans.

They started the event with the video, “It’s Hard to Be a Cat at Christmas,” which stars all five of the celebrity cats. You can see the video here: Friskies.com/holiday or you can watch it below — and you will want to watch it a bunch of times and share it because each play means another can of cat food will get donated, up to 500,000 views!

Although the video “starred” Grumpy Cat, all the other kitties got a lot of screen time:

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

Then came the moment everyone was waiting for — the celebrity kitties emerged from the green room! Well, except for Hamilton the Hipster Cat. He appeared on Skype. The rescue Hamilton is supporting is the Humane Society Silicon Valley.

The rescue Nala Cat is supporting is Kitten Rescue… where my human has volunteered (although nowhere near often enough).

Colonel Meow is supporting the Seattle Persian and Himalayan Rescue — which is the group that saved him.

Oskar the Blind Cat is supporting Purrfect Pals… which is the very same rescue Gemini is supporting with her story in the cat rescue anthology!

And of course there was Grumpy Cat, who was supporting the Cat Welfare Association.

The photographers went crazy when the cats came out! For regular cats, it would be a kitty nightmare, but these celebrities took it all in stride. In fact, Grumpy Cat and Colonel Meow took some time for a casual chat.

Oskar just chilled out. His best kitty pal, Klaus, was back stage, cheering him on.

Then Santa Claus showed up, spreading good cheer and cans of Friskies cat food. He and actress Angela Kinsey posed with the cats, basking in their superior kitty fame and coolness. In addition to watching and sharing the video, you can join in the fun at the If You Feed Me website. Submit a photo of yourself, telling your humans what you will do if they give you wet food. I checked out some of the photos there, and frankly some of them sound more like veiled threats than promises… which I think is a good thing!
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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!

Help Me Pick a Charity for Christmas!

Every year about this time, my human makes her annual donations. Since she does not have much family, and she is not close to any of them (she is closer to her boyfriend’s family, in fact), this is the biggest part of her Christmas giving. She always gives the most money to Best Friends Animal Society, and then she has smaller amounts that she gives to other cat rescues and sanctuaries. She tries to pick a handful she hasn’t already donated to in the past year. This time we are doing something a little bit different — we want you to help her choose a rescue to donate to! Please tell me who your favorite rescue is in the comments below and why — it just needs to be U.S. based and a 501(c)3 charity (although you can be from anywhere to suggest a group). Next Tuesday, I will randomly pick a name and my human will donate $25 to them!

If you subscribe to my newsletter, keep an eye open for my mid-month blast today — you have another chance to suggest a rescue group that you like. My human will be choosing a second group to donate to, picking randomly from the choices given to me by newsletter subscribers only. So that is a total of $50 being donated with your help!
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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: How Binga Regained Possession of the Trapacat

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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!

Awesome PetBox Review and Giveaway!

Hmmm… no Binga around! Maybe I can check out this PetBox all by myself.

I knew it was too good to be true. So this is as good a time as any to tell you all about the PetBox. You have probably seen those services where you get a box of cool stuff every month, and PetBox is a new company that does this with a couple of differences: Their pet experts pick great brands that have healthy options, and you can choose what goes in your box (or be surprised)! Plus with each box sold, they feed a hungry rescue animal. This all sounded really cool, so when the PetBox humans offered to send me one of their PetBoxes for cats (they do both cats and dogs), I said yes! They didn’t tell me what they were putting in the box, so I am ready to be surprised. And I guess Binga is too.

Look at all those toys! Christmas came early to my house! PetBox has lots of healthy treat options too… it just so happened mine was all toys. Let’s see what is here: a Kong Kickeroo and laser toy, a fun feather toy from Nylabone, a Go! Cat Go! interactive door hanger toy and my favorite… a Big Ol’ Cosmic Catnip Sack!

Suddenly, Binga doesn’t matter so much anymore.

You could use an empty toilet paper roll to make the Nylabone toy more fun… my human added treats inside just to make Binga even crazier.

The two halves could be put together sans roll too.

So do you think we enjoyed our PetBox?

I’d say the answer was YES!

And of course, the PetBox box is a bonus!

You can get the PetBox monthly deliveries for yourself… or you can give them as an awesome holiday gift! And the PetBox humans said my readers could get a 20% discount through December 31 any time in the future with the code SPARKLE20.

And it gets even better — PetBox is letting me give one away! Just enter using the Rafflecopter widget below (or let me know if you want to be manually entered). If your name is picked, you get one month (one box) of PetBox! This offer is for my U.S. readers only, but don’t worry, international kitties — I have something special for Wednesday that will include you!

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,” 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!

Introducing the Blogging Kitty Authors

Although nearly all of you could identify at least one, only a pawful of you kitties knew all the blogging cats from Satuday’s post about the cat rescue anthology! So let me tell you about them:

Crepes

You may know Crepes from her blog, Cat in the Fridge, and you may also know her from her appearance in one of the Catdance Film Festival’s finalists, Catalogue. Crepes started life as a special needs kitty in desperate need of rescue (she had severe respiratory problems as a kitten, has herpes and is missing a foot), but she was too spunky to let that get her down. In fact, she works hard now to help other special needs kitties. The rescue she will be supporting with her story is Tree House Humane Society.

Gemini

If you ever look at the comments on the ManxMnews blog or The Cat Post Intelligencer, you are bound to know who “Ping’s Girl” is — of course it is Gemini! The other kitties in her family, Chey and Ichiro are a little more outspoken, so I am really happy my human gave this pretty tabby girl a chance to tell her story! There is a lot that might surprise you about Gemini. For example, did you know that she was blogging before Chey was? Or that she has two distinct sides to her personality? She came into her human’s life at a very distressing time and I think you will really want to hear all about it! Gemini will be supporting Purrfect Pals!

Ryker

Ryker is a very special kitty for me because I knew him before I knew these other kitties, back on Twitter, and he is no longer with us. In fact, most of you probably know the other kitties in his family, Allie, Faraday and Maxwell from A Tonk’s Tail. Before them, there was Ryker, and A Tonk’s Tail was originally his blog. If it hadn’t been for his human, Ryker would have been euthanized by his breeder because of his illnesses. See? Even purebred kittens desperately need rescue sometimes. Ryker has an awesome story, and the rescue group his story is supporting is the equally awesome Wayside Waifs.

Rascal

If you don’t know about Rascal and Rocco’s weekly Pet Parades, you should, because they are a fun way to share your favorite blog posts! Rascal and his brother Rocco were adopted twice by elderly humans who couldn’t take them when they had to go into assisted living. Then they found themselves in a completely different situation with the family that adopted them for good — a couple and their two young kids! Rascal, being the more adventuresome of the pair, is the one who tells the whole story. Rascal is supporting Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter.

Nerissa

I don’t think Nerrisa needs an introduction with most of you — so many of you follow his blog, Nerissa’s Life! My human was really excited to get a submission from him because he won this year’s BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose award for Best Blog Writing! She figured his story would be good, and of course it was. Nerissa really knows how to spin a tale, and since he is over 10 years old, he has a lot of tales to tell, starting with his parents (of the feline kind!). As befits a cat whose beginnings were on the street, Nerissa is a big supporter of kitties in need, and the rescue he has chosen to benefit from his story is Anjellicle Cats Rescue.

In the weeks to come, you’ll be meeting the other seven cats in the anthology. They are all very cool! There is even a library cat and a cat who wound up being a star in his human’s cozy mystery books! I am really hoping Rescue Me is a big success, especially since some of you are already asking for a sequel!
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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!

Trapacat Winner!

As you can see, I’ve gotten the Trapacat back from Binga, just in time to announce the winner of the Trapacat! And it is…

The Colehaus Cats!

Concatulations to you, Maxx, Newton, Tessa, Pia, Olivia, Quint and Ruby! I hope you kitties don’t wind up having smacky paws over it. I’ll have the Trapacat human ship your Beach Theme Trapacat off to you asap!
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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: Scaredy Dogs

You are about to see the wussiest dogs imaginable! They are so scared of a little smack from a kitty that they won’t even walk past the resident feline! It’s just more proof that we cats rule and dogs, well… you know the drill.

If you can’t see the video above, 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!

Photo Hunt: Creativity

A pile of contracts may not look like the height of creativity, but they are part of a very creative project! That’s right, the cat rescue anthology from my human’s publishing company is in the works! The tentative title (which may very well change) is Rescue Me: the Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes. A dozen writers have been chosen and we have all but one contract signed and back in the office (the last one is in the mail on its way).

The best part is… if you are part of the cat blogging community, you know some of these kitties! Here are photos of the blogging cats who will be contributing stories — some are more recognizable than others. Can you guess who they are? Don’t bother trying to right click — you won’t find their names on the jpegs because I’ve hidden them. If you scroll over the photos, I have dropped a hint, though!

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

I’ll tell you the answers on Monday!
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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!

Home Alone Kitty? The Kittyo Has an App for That!

“There’s an app for that” just got a little more awesome if you are a kitty! The Kittyo is a device that can keep us cats from getting too bored when humans are out of the house. It is only 7″ high, but with the help of an app that has versions for both iOS and Android smartphones, it does a whole bunch of different things for us kitties:

It makes noises to attract your cat — or you can use it to speak directly to your kitty (although recent scientific tests question how much your cat cares about your voice).
It has a laser pointer you can direct remotely! Boodie would love that.
It dispenses treats! Which worries me a little — Binga may never leave it alone! (But the Kittyo humans have thought about cats like Binga: it can easily be clamped to a shelf or attached to a wall to keep treat stealers at bay.)
Humans can watch their cats remotely with the Kittyo, and they can also shoot video and photos!

While the last item makes me a little suspicious — I am not so sure I want my human spying on me while she is not here — the other fun uses the Kittyo has are really appealing! We kitties can make our own fun when you humans are not home, of course, whether that’s breaking into the treat cabinet, getting on the counters or scratching the furniture when we know we won’t get yelled at. Will the Kittyo stop this from going on? Probably not, but it will give you humans something I know you’ve always wanted: a connection to your cats when you can’t be at home. Because we know how much you miss us when you are at work, or have callously packed your bags and left us for days or a couple of weeks. Here is a way you can have fun with us even when you are not around, and it is way better than having the pet sitter put you on speakerphone so you can chatter at us from afar. This is a technological innovation that, while it won’t replace your pet sitter, will make that silly trick obsolete.

Look for the Kittyo in 2014! If you sign up now, you will be notified when the Kittyo is available for purchase — and you’ll get an introductory price discount on Kickstarter! (Yes, you can actually buy things on Kickstarter — I didn’t know that either.) Sign up for the Kittyo list here.

Note: I was compensated by the Kittyo humans for this post, but nobody tells this kitty what to say — all opinions are my own.
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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!

Which Cat Quotes Are Your Favorite – Vote Here!

I have something fun and different for you today! For several years now, my human has collected quotes about cats, thinking that someday she would like to put them on either photos or artwork (or both!) for my Zazzle store. And of course, she has never gotten around to it, with the exception of the card below:

Cats Come and Go Card by Designercat

So just for fun, I decided to throw 15 of those quotes out there and let you vote on your favorites! You can pick up to five. (If you are looking at this in an email or a reader, you may have to go to my actual blog post to see the poll.) Note that one of the quotes is from me and my human included two of her own:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Maybe this will get my human in gear and she will actually do something with 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,” 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!