Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 454

Postal Thief!

Can you tell that I am mad? And disappointed? I was anxiously awaiting my copy of whiskerslist: the kitty classifieds. Well, the package came, but…

It is never a good thing when you get your package in a plastic bag.

It was empty! Somewhere in transit, a bad human opened up the package and stole our book!

Binga had to look inside to make sure there was nothing there.

Seriously, whoever stole this, you do not want to make Binga mad!

And even more seriously, this is really sad because it came from the author’s copies that she got from the publisher and she had to send us another copy (well, she doesn’t have to, but she is). When you get a book published you get a limited number of books to send out to reviewers and maybe some close family members. It’s not like you get an infinite amount of books. When she runs out, she will have to buy more. Yes, they are discounted to authors, but it still costs them money. So this is the equivalent of stealing from someone who is just trying to make their book a success. I hope the thief gets a dose of instant karma for their action.

BTW, the official release date for whiskerslist is tomorrow, September 3, but you can order it on Amazon 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!

Sunday Catinee: Treadmill Team

Kitties don’t try this at home! If you want exercise, convince your human to pull out Da Bird or some catnip mice. I do have to say, though, this kitty and her human make a great treadmill team. The cat’s name is Lyusya and she really does seem to enjoy working out alongside her human.

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

Incidentally, this is the original video, titled Кошка на беговой дорожке (loosely translated as Cat on Treadmill). Most of the videos I find have been reposted on YouTube several times and I always try to locate the source. I often get more information about the kitties and humans involved in the video that way. In this case, I didn’t find out anything new, but if you go to the girl’s YouTube Channel, you’ll see a photo of Lyusya in a very unusual pose!
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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: Model

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is all about me! I am a model, after all! I pose all the time for my human (not always willingly), and I do take a good photo:

This picture was the cover of my calendar a few years back, before the rug got destroyed by the humans exercising on it.

The photo above is from one of the greeting cards in my Designercat Zazzle shop!

Of course, I’m not perfect — there is always the random outtake.
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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!

Fun Without Facebook!

I know some of you aren’t on Facebook, and those of you who are — and who follow my Facebook page — don’t always see what I post there. Well, yesterday, my human learned a new trick where you can embed your Facebook posts on your blog! I don’t know if Facebook added this ability recently or if it has been around for a while. All I know is I can do it now. So you don’t even have to be on Facebook and you can see silly stuff I post there like this:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

And cool stuff like this:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

And sometimes I post photos or videos there that you don’t see on my blog, like this:

Post by Sparkle the Designer Cat.

The embeds may not work for my email readers, so you will probably have to go to my blog post on your browser to see them. But so far, this is a really fun feature, and from now on, I think I will post the best stuff from my Facebook page here every so often.
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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: A Legacy of Gratitude

Two very special kitties left us recently: one world-famous and another mainly well known to social media-savvy kitties. Homer, the star of the best-selling book Homer’s Odyssey, had been in ill health for many months and it was finally time for his human, author Gwen Cooper, to say good-bye to him. Jami’s death was sudden and unexpected. You might remember my blog post about him last October, when he was rescued and transported to his new home. He snuck out the door one evening about a week and a half ago and was killed by a car. While I was deeply saddened by these events, I’m not here to mourn these two wonderful cats. Rather, I want to honor their lives by celebrating their legacies instead.

Homer had two strikes against him: he was blind and a black cat. But it did not matter because his personality was so large it filled a book and changed the way people thought about cats with special needs. Homer passionately embraced life and was so loyal to Gwen that he even protected her fiercely when someone broke into their home. The thing about so-called “disabled” cats is that they have no idea there is anything the matter with them, so they don’t put limitations on themselves the same way humans might do. Homer helped the readers of Gwen’s book understand this, and as a result many of them went out and adopted special needs cats themselves. That legacy was never more clear than in the days after Gwen posted about Homer’s death on her blog and on Facebook. In addition to all the condolences, many people posted photos and told stories of the blind and special needs cats they had adopted after reading Homer’s Odyessy. That was beautiful to see.

Gwen’s latest book, Love Saves the Day, is coming out in paperback on October 22, and she will be donating 100% of her royalities from all presales and sales of the paperback through October 27 to a rescue (to be announced) through Homer’s Heroes Fund, which she is establishing in his memory. Buy Love Saves the Day by clicking my Amazon Associate link here, and I pledge to donate 100% of my commission for the book to the same rescue. (I just want to mention that it would make an awesome birthday or holiday gift!)

Photo courtesy of Brian Frum’s human

Now Jami. I felt so awful when I heard the news about him, not only because he died, but because his human felt so guilty. The truth is there was nothing she could have done. Jami was an escape artist, and the humans in his household frequently had to go after him and bring him back in. And even if they had known right away that he had gotten out that night, it was dark and it would have been very difficult to find him. There is no blame, and I hope his human has begun to understand that.

But Jami did leave us with a very valuable gift: his rescue back in October energized the feline social media community. He had been dumped at a dog rescue in Greenville, SC, a place where he could not be kept. Word got out all over Twitter and the Cat Blogosphere about his plight and many of us worked hard to get him rescued. Finally Mizz Bassie’s human, all the way down in Hollywood, FL, offered to adopt him, and a transport was arranged. Many of us watched on Twitter and Facebook as each leg of the transport was completed. Everyone who drove Jami fell in love with him! Heck, we all were in love with him, even though we had never met him in person. And his transport was so inspiring that many humans (mine included) signed up to be transport volunteers. Jami’s life ended too soon, but in the short time he was with us, he made a difference. There will be kitties who will get to their new homes, all because of the story of Jami’s transport.

Homer and Jami — thanks for the memories, and thank you even more for the legacy you have left us, and for cats yet to be rescued.
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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 With Binga: Following in Boodie’s Pawsteps

If you don’t know what this is all about, go 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!

Sparkle’s Downloadable Calendar: September 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!

Tortie Tuesday Treat Thief

You may have noticed (if you have very good eyes or if you read the secret captions in the photos here) that my human brought home some dog stuff from BarkWorld in addition to the cat swag. She figured that even if the dog here is too old for most toys, she might enjoy some treats, and there were plenty of dog treats to be had. After photographing us cats with everything she brought home, she stuffed it all back in the bag and went downstairs “just for a few moments.” That was long enough for Binga! When my human came back up, she had already dug through the bag and absconded with a sample bag of Zuke’s Jerky Naturals, which kind of made sense since the Zuke’s cat treats were already a hit around here.

When my human took them away from her, she tried grabbing them back! There was a bit of a scuffle over the bag, and Binga managed to snag the next to last treat… which left the dog with exactly one.

Boodie, meanwhile, parked herself in front of a promotional bowl and wondered why no one was filling it. Unlike Binga, she is not what anyone would consider a go-getter.
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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 World is Your Litter Box: Deluxe Edition

The World is Your Litter Box: Deluxe Edition

By Quasi

Do you know Quasi? Like me, he is a cat expert… who happens to be a cat. Which is great for you kitties who need tips on how to handle unruly humans and dominate your household. In The World Is Your Litter Box: Deluxe Edition, he has reissued his first book (The World Is Your Litter Box), included six important chapters from his second book (The World is Still Your Litter Box), and added in his very best and most informative posts from his blog. Want to know how to get fed anytime you want? Take advantage of your pet sitter? Get attention when you want it — and find good hiding places when you don’t want attention? Quasi has it all here. And crucially, he has devoted a chapter on how to get away with unacceptable kitty behavior. Quasi has presented all this useful info in a fun, humorous manner, which is awesome — it’ll give you a smile, and your human may even laugh out loud, never realizing that this is just another way to indoctrinate him or her into kitty serfdom. Yes, they are being taught how to better behave, even as they read it! How handy is that? The World Is Your Litter Box: Deluxe Edition will make training your humans a lot easier. You want the upper paw in your household? Get 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!

Putting the Meow in Barkworld

Even though I worked hard to win my human a trip to BarkWorld in Atlanta, GA, I did have my doubts. After all, its name clearly shows that the conference started off as a dog-centric event. But I heard rumors that they were thinking up ways to make it more cat blogger friendly, and I was not disappointed! It all begin when my human showed up at registration and they gave her this ribbon to stick to the bottom of her badge.

There were lots of exhibitors that catered to both cats and dogs, and the company that co-sponsored the contest, Pruven, had some cat-specific items.

PetCo was showing off its new Star Wars line of toys and collars for cats and dogs. They aren’t supposed to hit the stores until September 1, but my human saw them in our local PetCo before she left.

There was even a cat groomer there… in fact, it was the the president of the National Cat Groomers Association, Danelle German, who came with her kitty Petunia.

Petunia even agreed to a grooming demonstration.

I am not even sure what to say about this dog.

BarkWorld even set up a Meow breakfast for the humans of cat bloggers, and supplied feline-specific swag bags. There was also a later session only for cat and dog bloggers — no brands and no other types of attendees. It was a private session, so everyone there was sworn to secrecy, but I can say both sides discovered they pretty much had the same goal in common — to have awesome, attention-worthy blogs!

There was a brand block party after the first full day of sessions, and they even had kitty specific props.

While my human attended all sorts of sessions about things like digital marketing, “round tables” on newsletters (she wants to make my newsletter even better!) and viral stories, and talked to several brands, she took the most notes during the cat agility training session held by Karen Nichols, the human mastermind behind Mousebreath. Karen’s cat Tripper, at 24 pounds, is the biggest agility cat around. In fact, she couldn’t bring him because he was too big to fit in the type of carrier required for airplane cabin travel.

Karen gave detailed instructions on how to build inexpensive agility props. I have no idea when my human is going to actually sit down and make any of this; I’m just glad she does not expect me to learn any of it. You probably know who she had in mind.

That’s right — the cat who embarrassed me and Boodie by trying to dig into the bag of swag the moment my human returned from BarkWorld!

This is most, but not all of the swag my human brought home. We have a few things that aren’t in this photograph. One of them is going to be a small newsletter giveaway (so subscribe today — my newsletter goes out on Tuesday!). Some of it just didn’t make it into the photo. Will I be having a blog giveaway? Most likely! More to come. For now, I want to thank the BarkWorld humans for having a great conference, and for making sure we kitties got acknowledged!
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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!