Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 451

Photo Hunt FAIL and Random Outtakes

This week’s Photo Hunt theme was “global,” and my human thought she could make it work for me by having me pose with various globularly-shaped objects. Unsurprisingly, I was not feeling it, and Binga and Boodie were similarly unthrilled. So in lieu of a Photo Hunt, I thought posting some recent outtakes was in order.

I look like I’m going to hurl on the CATbaret swag! Fortunately, it all remained unscathed and made its way to the winner a few days later.

I look like I’m giving the raspberry to the Nature’s Variety Pride food, even though I liked it!

I seem to do that a lot with my tongue! The Chewy.com humans would not have been pleased if I’d included this photo in my blog post about the Natural Balance Platefulls.

Remember when our first copy of whiskerslist got stolen at the post office? Binga seems to think the empty bag was tasty!

Remember to scroll over the photos for the secret messages!
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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!

Dear Sparkle: My Human Is Taking Up the Whole Bed!

Dear Sparkle,

My human says I am a little cranky, but who can blame me? I am not getting enough sleep! That makes anybody cranky, human or feline. And you wanna know why I am not getting enough sleep? Yep, it’s all on my human! She takes up the whole bed at night. She is always moving and thrashing around in her sleep and half the time I’m worried I’ll get thrown off the bed from all her flailing! You know what’s even worse? She says I’m the one taking up the whole bed! That’s a laugh — I’m probably one tenth her size, and you don’t need to be a scientist to figure out the ratio of mass to bed puts the blame squarely on her. Is there any way to get her to settle down? I’ve tried lying on top of her, but at 15 pounds, I can only do so much to keep her still — and that “so much” generally means “not much.”

Signed,

Sleep Deprived

Dear Sleep Deprived,

You have no idea how often I hear this complaint, from both humans and cats. And yes, it is always the humans to blame. They refuse to acknowledge that with their bigger mass, they are taking up more bed space than we kitties possibly could. But to listen to them, you would think we had the magical ability to morph into spreading, hyper-limbed creatures, capable of covering a whole bed in one simple stretch. I wish! Bottom line, humans are just being silly and letting their imaginations run away with them. Throughout the ages, kitties have tried any number of solutions: lying on their human (we don’t weigh enough to keep them still for long), biting and growing at them when accidentally whapped with a random limb (it only causes the human to wake up screaming – which keeps us awake even longer), and just toughing it out (and all that does is frustrate us). Now, the most logical solution would be to get a bigger bed, but for some reason, humans never come up with this idea. Granted, sometimes, the room is too small to accommodate a larger bed, but you would think that having more room for both them and you to spread out would appeal to them. But they stubbornly cling to their smaller mattresses. If you want to get all your beauty rest in, the best suggestion I can give is to sleep on the bed when your human is not there to disturb you. Fortunately, humans sleep a lot fewer hours than us kitties, so this is pretty easy to do. Of course, this means that you will likely be up most of the night, running around and getting in your daily activities — and keeping your human from getting a good night’s rest. But that’s what she gets for not coming up with a more satisfactory solution for 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!

Sparkle’s Downloadable Calendar: October 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!

Remember Them Today

My heart breaks every day for kitties caged up in shelters, waiting for homes that often never come. I see them posted every day, flying down my Facebook newsfeed in numbers far too large to share. My purpose is to make my readers smile while I enlighten them about proper human behavior (and how we cats can get our humans up to snuff). I can’t write about these cats in need too often or you guys will become as exhausted as I sometimes am. Yes, every so often a face calls out to me and I spread the word, either here or on my Facebook profile, and it is one of the best feelings on earth when someone who follows me or “Likes” my page reaches out and rescues that cat in need. But every single time I post one of these sad stories, I feel guilty — because I know that for every cat I share, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, who are going unnoticed.

That is why it is so important to acknowledge Remember Me Thursday.

There is a saying among rescuers, almost a mantra, which is meant to help them keep their sanity: “You can’t save them all.” Millions of pets in shelters die every year because nobody stepped up to adopt them. It’s a cruel truth, and one that rescue humans are working hard on fixing. It is not fixed yet, so there will be more deaths and more tears to come. But if we all keep working together, eventually we can turn around these ugly numbers and that depressing mantra will no longer be necessary.

Until that day comes, it would do us good now and again to acknowledge the lives that weren’t saved — pay respect to the innocent creatures who were victims of human cruelty and left to die in a broken system. Can you please light a candle for these lost souls today? It does not have to be a physical candle. You can light a virtual candle here: http://www.animalcenter.org/events/remember-me-thursday/lite-a-candle2.aspx

And while you are remembering these lost ones, can you do me a huge favor and also make a pledge to do something today, and every day from now on, to help those who are in shelters right now? They need 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!

I Have Winners!

I have winners for my BarkWorld swag giveaways! I am excited because they are both longtime readers of mine and I’ve seen them enter lots of my previous giveaways and have not won until now! First up, I am going to announce the winner for the PetCo Star Wars Collection messenger bag and swag! It is…

Raine D!

Next up is the BarkWorld swag bag! The kitty who won this one is…

Lionel Luthor!

Concatulations to you both!

My human had better pack this up fast before you-know-who eats all the treats!
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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: Binga Is Hungry

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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!

The Big Box Mystery

Look what arrived the other day! This box is huge! But my human says I can’t have what is inside, even though it is for me! She says I should wait until — get this — Christmas!

Binga is not happy about this either.

My human let Binga and Boodie play with the packing (I was not interested), but c’mon! Do you think that’s enough? I don’t!

Even Boodie thinks it’s unfair! What about you — do you think this is right? I mean, it is only September! We should get whatever was in that box now! I shared about this on Facebook and most of my fans there were outraged. So I thought I would put the question to you here, in the form of a poll. Now is your chance to tell my human she is wrong — because I bet you want to know what is in the box too! I separated the voting into species because I wanted to see specifically how you kitties or humans (or you other critters) feel.

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

Yummy Monday

I have another taste test to do today! My human has been very choosy about what we get, and so far, it’s all been good! That is why I’m so excited to see my plate filled!

This time it is Natural Balance Platefulls from Chewy.com! A lot of other blogging kitties have tried out this brand, but I am the only one I’ve seen who got the Turkey, Chicken & Duck Formula. Those are three of my favorite foods, which is why I am yelling at my human to open the pouch already.

’Bout time!

The Natural Balance Platefulls are grain-free, with no corn, soy, wheat or artificial flavors, with all ingredients made in the U.S. To be honest, I am not so sure about the peas and carrots. I prefer just meat, and I tend to eat around them! Humans are always being told to eat their veggies, but I am an obligate carnivore so I don’t have to if I don’t want to!

I sure do like everything else about this food, though!

I actually liked the Natural Balance Platefulls so much that I ate nearly the whole bowl, which is rare for me. There were three pouches, so Binga and Boodie got one each for dinner, and they loved it too!

But wait, there’s more! The Chewy.com humans also included a fun cat toy in the package!

Now that I’ve eaten, I think I will have some recreation and maybe some cat yoga.
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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: Mail Cats

The arrival of the mail carrier is always exciting around here because there is often a package for us kitties! But these cats take it one step further by fetching the mail themselves. I hope my human does not expect me to do this anytime soon.

Watch Captain Doctor Mr. Nibbles II, esq. fetch the mail in fast and slow-mo!

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

I’m not so sure about Duke here — I think he just wanted to look out the mail slot.

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

Sammy here fetches the mail in typical, laissez-faire feline fashion: grab it, drop it, walk on it on the way out. And he gets thanked for it anyway.

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!

Photo Hunt: Rousing

What does this picture have to do with this week’s Photo Hunt theme?

My human was rousing me from a very pleasant nap! And for no reason. How rude of her.
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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!