Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 471

Decisions, Decisions… and an Announcement!

It’s Monday and there is another AmazeCats Next Top Cat bracket of cats to vote for — and once again, I have two pals competing against each other! Even worse, my human is friends with both Allie and Odin’s humans. I have no idea how to instruct my human to vote!

I can tell you who I fully endorse in the other set of four kitties to vote for today: Anakin! Do you remember him from my Sunday Catinee a few weeks ago? That’s right, Anakin is the amazing two-legged kitty, and he is a favorite in the competition. Good luck, Anakin! I am pulling for you!

Vote for my pals at the AmazeCats Facebook page today, until 2 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 9!

All the first brackets finish up this week and then the second brackets start! That is when you will get to vote for me again… and I have a surprise for you! I am doing something very special on my blog the day my bracket happens, and the best news is that it does not matter whether you are on Facebook or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you are voting for me or not! It is for everyone, and it will be lots of fun! Stay tuned.
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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!

Cats & Daughters: They Don’t Always Come When Called

Cats & Daughters: They Don’t Always Come When Called

By Helen Brown

Just so you know, Jonah — the quirky and strong-willed feline around whom much of this book revolves — does not officially enter the story until page 105. I am mentioning this now so that those of you who pick up this book don’t get mad at me for recommending a read that is about humans as much as it is kitties. The truth is that cats and humans co-exist, and when the human is the author, often the cat acts as a catalyst, symbol or teacher and as such, sometimes has to take a literary (although not necessarily literal) back seat to the humans’ doings. Mind you, if this were a cat-written book, things would be much different, but in this case the author is human Helen Brown, whose best-selling book you may recall — Cleo: The Cat Who Mended a Family. Cleo spent over two decades as a healing force with Brown and her family and after Cleo’s death, the author saw no need for another cat. But in the midst of a series of life’s upheavals — Brown’s son getting married, one of her daughters exploring life in a Buddhist monastery, and a breast cancer diagnosis for Brown herself — she wound up bringing home a wonderful and utterly crazy Siamese kitten. Unlike Cleo’s healing energy, Jonah is chaotic and determined, if ever devoted… not unlike Brown’s daughters. It takes Brown the better part of the book to come to an understanding of both girls and cat, and come to terms with accepting them for who they are and what they aspire to. While this is a book that has more humanity than felinity, there are satisfying doses of both for anyone who enjoys a good bi-species memoir.

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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: the Shell Game

My human downloaded some app to her phone to help her improve her brain by exercising her concentration and focus. I bet she only wishes she had as much concentration and focus as the following kitties! First up is Kido, who figured out the game on his very first try:

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

Next up is very bright girl kitty named Calista:

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

This cat did not get it right 100% of the time, but who can blame him? I bet if he was playing for treats or a bell, he would have been right every time!

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: Quirky

Sometimes it’s best with these Photo Hunt themes to just focus on the obvious. Quirky and Boodie are one in the same. She is a very strange cat, and always has been. Let me tell you a little about her. I’m not sure if I ever told you her whole story.

When they were five months old, Boodie and her sister were stuffed into a box and dumped in the parking lot of a vet clinic. Nobody knows where they came from, but judging from their appearance and behavior, they may have been kitten mill rejects. They were very fluffy and pretty, with Meezer points, possibly Ragdolls or Birmans, but almost completely feral. They feared humans and hissed at them whenever one came near. One of the clinic’s clients was a pet rescue, and they wound up taking them to the rented space in Studio City where they had their cats.

My human was volunteering for this rescue and around the time the cat before me died, the two kittens had been there for four months and were no friendlier than when they came in. Except for one thing: my human discovered they loved to play, as long as it was a wand toy, or a toy on a string — anything that kept humans farther away than arm’s length. With the cat before me gone, Binga was alone and my human did not want her to get used to being an only cat because she knew she was eventually going to get a Somali (I had not been born yet). So she offered to foster one of the kittens for a while. She was crafty. She played with Boodie for a few minutes and when she was off guard, she snatched her up and stuck her in a carrier.

Once she got Boodie home, my human put her in a room all by herself, and for a week, the only living, breathing being Boodie ever saw was my human, who came in there several times a day to feed her, play with her, change her litter and get her acclimated to being around humans. Eventually, she was let out and she immediately gravitated towards Binga. Even though she is fine with people now, although shy with strangers, Boodie has always been a cat’s cat. The curious thing is that ever since she has been here, no human has ever laid a mean hand on her, but she still sometimes cringes when someone reaches out to pet her on the head. Meanwhile, she lets Binga chase her around the house and beat her up mercilessly! But she likes the rough play Binga dishes out, because she always goes back for more. Once my human caught Boodie throwing one of her toys at Binga, totally asking for trouble!

My human would have been more than happy to see Boodie get adopted, but the rescue only called to have her brought back to be seen once, and after that my human never heard from them again! Boodie’s microchip is still registered in the rescue’s name, even though she has lived here since February 2002.

Boodie is everything that people who don’t like cats complain about. She sheds like crazy and she is the only one out of the three of us who uses the rug to scratch on.

My human also claims that she is the dumbest cat she has ever known. Remember the CatAmazing toy I reviewed and gave away a few months back? Boodie had no idea how to work it. She just sat there and somehow expected the treats inside it to come to her.

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

She also does not know how to meow. Instead she makes these strange space alien noises. And sometimes I think she really is from another planet.

But she is also the most playful out of the three of us! She will play with anything. Once she was caught carrying around a small bag of screws and hardware like it was prey. She also talks to her toys as she carries them around, in that weird, space alien dialect.

So now you know the story of my quirky roommate, Boodie!
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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!

Thank You… Now Vote for Cody and Daisy!

All of you are so amazing! Because you showed up and voted for me, I was one of the top two cats in my bracket (the other one is George the Handsome Deaf and Blind Cat). This is more of an accomplishment than some of you realize, because one of other the cats competing was City the Kitty, who has 23,000 fans and is a TV celebrity that appeared on My Cat From Hell! I did not think there would be any way I could get more votes than him!

The next competition will be even tougher, but I am not going to focus on that right now, because voting has started for a new bracket, and two of my friends are competing!

Yes, Cody and Daisy are both in the same bracket! Does this create as much of dilemma for you as it does for me? Let’s see if we can get them each enough votes to get into the next bracket!

To vote for Daisy or Cody in today’s Next Top Cat bracket, go to the poll on the AmazeCats Facebook page! You only get one vote per Facebook profile (pages don’t get to vote, so my human will be voting for me), but you can change your vote!

Good luck to both of 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!

Blog Award From Selina!

I am usually really bad about posting awards I get from my blogging friends, but the other day when Selina gave me the Liebster award, I thought it would be fun to answer the 10 questions!

Thanks, Selina! Here are the questions — I hope you enjoy my answers!

1. What is your favorite treat?

Kentucky Fried Chicken! Or Greenies. They are both pretty awesome.

2. Favorite toy?

I love Da Bird! Also pipe cleaners, twist ties and crickets. Actually, crickets are the best ’cause you can eat them when you are done.

3. Favorite place to sleep?

I don’t have a favorite — I sleep wherever I feel like. It is my house, after all, and I can do what I want!

4. Favorite TV show to watch with your humans?

My Cat From Hell, of course! New episodes start on Saturday!

5. What was your naughtiest naughty?

I am always a good kitty! Don’t laugh, it’s true! Binga misbehaves enough for all us cats here.

6. How did you meet your humans?

At my breeder’s house — my human and her boyfriend came over and played with me, my sisters and my brother. My brother bit her boyfriend, my bigger sister was crazy and my smaller sister was kind of quiet. I was the “in-between” kitten, so my human picked me, not realizing that I was also a diva.

7. What do you like most about being a cat?

That we get to be in charge and have servants. I mean, who would want to be anything but a kitty?

8. What shelter/rescue(s) do you give paws up to?

Any and all of them! But I have always had a soft spot for Tabby’s Place because they take such great care of their special needs kitties.

9. What is your favorite cat holiday?

June 24 — Cat World Domination Day, which also happens to be my birthday!

10. What is the one thing you do that makes your humans smile the most?

Eat! I am very picky, and I change my mind a lot about what I like.

I can never remember who has gotten these and who hasn’t, so if you think answering these questions would be fun, feel free to take this award!
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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!

Last Chance to GOTV!

Just one last reminder to vote for me in the AmazeCats Next Top Cat bracket! I am having my human schedule this post before she goes to bed and at that time, it was anyone’s guess who would wind up ahead! This is a very tight race and we have no idea what we will be waking up to! Only the top two cats will go to the next bracket, and voting closes at 2 PM Eastern Time!

If you have already voted for me — and so many of you have — you are awesome and thank you! If you haven’t, you have just a short time left to do so — and there is still time to share and ask your friends to vote! Whatever happens, I will be supporting my blogging friends in their brackets and I really want to see all of us make it to the next level!

Once again, the poll for voting is here: https://www.facebook.com/questions/443667785717475/
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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 Petfinder Promote Us Kitties!

Have you heard about Petfinder’s latest campaign? It is just for us kitties, and encourages humans to declare their love and worship of us!

You see, last year at BlogPaws, the Petfinder humans explained they had a dilemma: they had figured out all sorts of fun, creative ways to promote adopting dogs, but they were a little stumped about what to do to raise the number of cat adoptions! We kitties need our own special approach, and it is nothing like promoting dogs. So here is one thing they are doing: asking humans to spread the word about how awesome it is to be a cat person!

It is time to get rid of all the stigma and negative stereotypes some humans have tried to peg on cat people. Did you know that 33 million humans who live with cats are married? Or that 9.6 million are single men? So Petfinder has created a series of graphics cat humans can download and print out or add to their social media pages or blogs. One is above. Here is another one:

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I only have one problem with this… and if you know me, you probably have already guessed what it is: the confounded “cat parent” thing! My human is a lot of things to me — assistant, waitress, litter box attendant and servant. She is not my parent! So I am thinking that maybe we kitties should have our own campaign. What do you think:

On second thought, maybe we kitties should keep our own campaign private and let the humans think what they want. We’ll let ’em in on the truth later.
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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!

Falling Behind, Need More Votes (Direct Link Included)

I am third right now in the AmazeCats Next Top Cat Bracket I am in! Vote, if you haven’t yet, and if you have, thanks, and please share and get your friends to vote too! With enough support, I can make the top two and get into the next bracket!

Vote for me here: https://www.facebook.com/questions/443667785717475/
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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: Casting Shadows

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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!