Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 447

Photo Hunt: Musical

Yes, I am mad! This is an awesome cat bed and it is shut. Somebody please open it up.

What?! Our cat bed has an unwelcome visitor! According to my human’s boyfriend, it is called a “Gibson ES335 1960 reissue” (from 1990). I call it an annoyance!

I do not care if it has a hollow body, or if it is my human’s favorite guitar of her boyfriend’s (along with his Gold Top) — take that musical instrument away! Binga is on a sit down strike until action is taken.
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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!

Facebook Funnies Friday

Since my human is busy at the Cat Writer’s Conference, I thought I would let her off easy and pick out some of my favorite, funny Facebook posts for you today! I hope they make you smile.

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

 

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

 

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

 

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

 

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

If you’re on Facebook and like this sort of humor, “like” my page! I try to post this type of stuff daily.
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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!

Tortie Poseur Thursday

Binga thinks she can be a model just like me. Let’s see how she does today.

Here she is trying to look dramatic and wistful at the same time.

This is her attempt at being adorable.

I don’t know what she is trying to do here!

So how do you think she did?
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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!

A Great Cat Anthology for Halloween

Well, Binga took over with her Tortie Thursday post, so I don’t have anything officially Halloween-like for my blog… but I thought I should at least put in a plug for this anthology of mystical cat stories. It makes for great Halloween reading! Even better, my human has a story in it — you might remember it from a couple of Halloweens ago on my blog. It was called “The Ghost Cat” then, but she changed the name to “The Promise” in the anthology.

It is only available in eBook form. You can get it at Amazon for Kindle and at Smashwords for any other digital format. If you are looking for some cat tales that will give you goosebumps, get it!

Buy The Mystical Cat for Amazon Kindle here.

Buy The Mystical Cat on Smashwords 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!

A Raspberry for the Paparazzi

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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!

Designer Cat 2014 Calendar Giveaway!

My human ordered a few of my 2014 Designer Cat wall calendars to give to family and they look awesome!

I think this may be my best calendar yet! I know, I say that every year… but that’s because they keep improving year after year!

You can see some more of the pages here!

You only have until October 31 to take advantage of the 30% discount Zazzle is currently offering on calendars! Just order one (or more) of my calendars from my Designer Cat shop and enter 2014CALENDAR at checkout!

But I also wanted to let you know I am giving away one copy of my calendar! All you have to do is comment below and let me know you want to enter and I’ll put your name in the drawing! The giveaway closes November 4 at 11:59 P.M., after which I’ll draw a name using random.org! My international readers are welcome to enter, along with my U.S. 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!

Fixnation Goodie Bag Giveaway!

Remember when I announced my commenthon results and mentioned that my human had been to Fixnation’s Feral Cat Day party? Well, my human did not come home with that cute kitten, but she did return with a goodie bag! The Fixnation humans were handing them out to visitors who attended the party. And we are giving it away to one of you readers! Let’s see what is inside this cool bag…

It’s a really generous goodie bag — there’s a 5 lb. bag of Natural Balance Indoor Ultra, Rabbit and Salmon Meal flavor; two 6 oz. cans of Natural Balance Ultra formula; Pet Organics “No Scratch,” that supposedly keeps us kitties from clawing things we shouldn’t (we don’t know if it works because my human hasn’t tried it); the September/ October issue of Best Friends magazine, a keychain with the Best Friend’s logo and a Fixnation button! (In case you are wondering, Best Friends and Fixnation are working together to help Trap, Neuter and Return Los Angeles’ feral cat population.) Plus while she was at the party, my human bought a Jackson Galaxy “Feral Power!” catnip Cat Buddy toy to add to the bag — this thing is huge! And fragrant! There were some smacky paws over the Cat Buddy until Binga and I realized that we weren’t getting to keep it.

All this can be yours, if you enter my giveaway! Just leave a comment on my blog post and say you did on the Rafflecopter widget below (or if you hate Rafflecopter, let me know and I will enter you manually). You have other options for more entry points too.

Because of how heavy the package is, I have to limit this giveaway to U.S. residents only — but everyone, including international readers, can enter my calendar giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway ends Monday, November 4, at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time. Good luck!
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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!

Sparkle’s Downloadable Calendar: November 2013

For fan members only — you must login to see this content. My downloadable monthly calendars are one of the perks when you join my fan club!
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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 Kitties Keep Their Claws With the Paw Project

I have something very serious to discuss with you today. I know most of you who visit me on my blog are already against declawing cats and know it is wrong. But last week, my human went to see a documentary called The Paw Project, and Jennifer Conrad, DVM, the veterinarian and director responsible for it answered questions after the screening — and she pointed out some cold, hard facts that I think you should know! And it is up to me to tell you because a lot of veterinarians out there won’t.

There are studies that found out every one of the items on this list. They are not made up. Some come from veterinary journals, so I don’t understand why some vets will not acknowledge them.

A third of cats who are declawed suffer one or more behavioral problems after being declawed. This is from a report in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA).
Another article from the JAVMA found that declawed cats were more (not less) likely to be relinquished to a pound, and that out of all cats taken to the pound, more than 50% declawed cats were said to avoid the litter box. Only 29.1% of non-declawed cats were said to have this same issue.
Forgotten Felines and Friends of Caddo Parish in Louisiana conducted a survey in 2003 and found that 70% of cats taken to shelters for behavioral problems were declawed. A Delaware animal shelter did a similar survey and put the number at 75%.
Up to one half of cats have acute complications right after a declaw surgery. Longterm complications from declawing are reported in about one-fifth of cats — this according to another JAVMA article.

For more information, you can go to the Paw Project’s website — there is lots to pour through there.

The bottom line is that declawing is painful and potentially crippling procedure. That last fact about longterm complications? Those were things like nail and bone regrowth and lameness. It did not include things like arthritis, phantom pain, or death from a cat escaping outside and not being able to defend herself against predators. Or cats being taken to a shelter because they started biting or refused to use the litter box after their declaw. Do not let anyone tell you declawing is no big deal. It is a very bad deal for both cats and the humans who live with them!

The Paw Project is a very thorough and well-done film about the fight to outlaw declawing in one of the few first-world countries that still allows it — the United States. It was a big fight, but the anti-declaw movement was successful in getting eight cities in California to ban declawing. That includes San Francisco and Los Angeles, so population-wise, this is actually a lot! But the battle is still going on everywhere else, and sadly, there are veterinary organizations that are trying to stop the no-declaw movement. These organizations have way more money than those who want to ban declawing, so it is tough going. Fortunately, humans are starting to wake up to what declawing really means, and how much it harms cats.

My human has been against declawing her whole life, and she and I want to help the Paw Project bring its message all over the U.S.! So I’ve created this tote bag for sale at my Zazzle shop:

From now until the end of the year, my human is going to donate 100% of the royalties from this tote bag to the Paw Project. I am aiming to sell at least 20 of them in that time — it’s not a huge amount, but it makes a statement. Can you help spread the word? And can you help spread the word about the Paw Project? It’s important that everyone knows about it!
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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: Silly Scary

I really wanted to give you a variety of Halloween cat videos for you today, but I couldn’t find much! It’s already the 27th — you’d think there would be something out there! But even though the pickings were slim, I did manage to scrounge up a couple of fun clips! First up is the awesome Shorty, who can do a Halloween Cat like no other!

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

And Simon’s Cat has a new video out, with a spider surprise:

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!