Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 474

Photo Hunt: Footprints

I hope my paw print is a suitable replacement for this week’s Photo Hunt theme, Footprints! ‘Cause I have lots of paw prints! I frequently pawtograph my books for my readers. I know lots of you have my book, and if you don’t have my pawtograph, scroll down to the bottom of any page on my blog and click on “Contact Sparkle.” I will tell you where to send a self-addressed stamped envelope so I can get you one. I can also pawtograph your digital book! Just send me a request on my Authorgraph page!

Now, why do I have the creepy feeling that I am being watched?
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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!

Audubon Editor-At-Large Advocates Poisoning Ferals – Take Action!

How can someone who promotes the welfare of any creature wish such cruelty on other animals? Maybe that question should be directed to Ted Williams, Audubon editor-at-large and author of a shocking article in the Orlando Sentinel, in which he suggests controlling feral cat populations by poisoning them with Tylenol!

According to New Mexico veterinarian and author Dr. Jeff Nichol, a cat that ingests Tylenol and is not treated quickly will die painfully and slowly over a few hours’ time. Click on the link for details, but it involves vomiting, swelling of face and paws, and liver, lung and kidney damage over the period of time that the cat is dying.

Not only can Tylenol poison feral cats… it can also poison your cat, if it happens to get out and consume any left around for ferals. It can also poison your dog. Tylenol is as dangerous for pets as it is for ferals; in addition it is against the law to kill a cat in every state of the U.S. and in D.C. Williams’ hatred of cats is so deep that he wants to break the law to kill them.

Many humans in the bird community do not like cats, especially feral cats. They want to see all Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) programs shut down and all feral cats killed. But Ted Williams has really outdone himself with this editorial. Read it: it is obvious by its very tone that this man really hates cats.

Ah, but wait a minute! Where is the reference to Tylenol? After much outcry, the Orlando Sentinel quietly removed that section — without retraction or acknowledgement. Fortunately for us, Alley Cat Allies copied the story before it was changed. You can read it in full in their PDF file here: https://www.alleycat.org/document.doc?id=630 And here is the exact, unedited quote, if you don’t want to open the PDF document: “There are two effective, humane alternatives to the cat hell of TNR. One is Tylenol (the human pain medication) — a completely selective feral-cat poison. But the TNR lobby has blocked its registration for this use.” The paper also changed Williams’ end bio from “Ted Williams is editor-at-large for Audubon magazine” to “Ted Williams writes an independent column for Audubon magazine. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the National Audubon Society.”

I hope you find all this upsetting enough to want to do something about it because Alley Cat Allies is asking you to take action! Click here to send an email to the Audubon Society that asks them to denounce Ted Williams’ story, and to relieve him of his position with the organization. Somebody as biased and irresponsible as Williams only damages the integrity of any group he belongs to, and any paper in which his writing appears.

And speaking of papers… I suggest you also write to the Orlando Sentinel and complain about a) the clear anti-cat bias of the story and b) the attempts to whitewash the story in lieu of apologizing for it. This link leads you to the Orlando Sentinel staff contact list. I am not sure who is responsible for Williams’ story appearing in the paper, but I would wager that it is one of the editors in the Executive management list. If you do write, please be articulate, calm and factual (cite links from experts, not emotionally-written blogs).

We in the cat community need to fight for our own! So please take action 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!

Flashback Friday: A Taxing Time

For fun, I thought I would look back at March 2005 to see what was going on. And surprise! My human was working on her annual tax return. She does it in February now because she is no longer a “sole proprietor” and has to get it done sooner. But that is about the only thing that has changed.

What is a constant: while my human toils over numbers, we kitties have a paper party!

That year, Binga got to play with the calculator tape the most.

Boodie played a rousing game of Rattle The Papers. Note that in the background, in the hallway, there is a cat toy that is being totally ignored.

Every year, it’s the same thing — my human does all the tax preparation by hand, on the floor of her home office. One year, after we moved into the new house, she had room to do the taxes on her desk. But almost always, it’s on the floor, where she meticulously writes everything down. She does have Quickbooks, but she has never learned to use it.

The money she spent on Quickbooks would have bought a really nice cat tree, or several awesome cat beds. Just saying.

If you want to see what we kitties did the rest of March 2005, you can click here to see the original blog post!
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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!

Fitness Tests to Give Your Human

Kitties, as you know, humans come in all shapes, sizes and mental conditions. Some are younger, some are older, and regardless of their age, they may not be in the best shape. But never fear — if your humans are on the creaky side, you can help them get in better condition. Even if your humans work out and take care of themselves, there is always room for improvement! I have a few simple tests you can give your human that will help raise their fitness level in several different areas. They are fun and easy for us kitties to do! Try them out — you will be surprised at how much better your human functions after a few weeks!

1. Improve your human’s reaction time. Late at night, while your human is sleeping, hack up a fat, wet hairball on the bedroom floor, right where you expect her to step with her bare feet. Doing this randomly without any specific pattern of days will teach her to be quicker, more alert and at the same time, more careful! Some of you kitties may be doing this one already, and if you are, paws up to you!

2. The hearing test. This is another one you perform late at night. While your human is sleeping, go into another room, find something fairly heavy and/ or breakable sitting on a table, bookshelf or ledge, and knock it to the floor. If this does not get a reaction out of your human, next time try something at a location closer to where she is sleeping. If you do get a reaction, next time try doing it again in a room that is farther away. After performing this test a few times, I can almost guarantee your human’s hearing will get better.

3. Improving lung capacity. This is the same as the hearing test, actually. When your human talks in her Very Loud Voice, as she is likely to do when you knock things around late at night, it helps strengthen her lungs. You can also do this test during the day by performing any act she does not want you to do — as long as you are doing it far enough away that she can’t physically reach you.

4. The flexibility test. Crawl somewhere that is hard to reach — under the dining table or sofa, for example, and start heaving like you are going to hack up a hairball. Your human will get down on her hands and knees to try to get you. All this movement on her part will help keep her limber! Alternately, you can howl really loud. She will think there is something wrong with you and again, try to get to you.

5. Chest exercises. Here is another one to do while your human is in bed. While she is on her back, crawl onto her chest and allow your full weight to bear down. Your human will have to work her chest muscles extra hard so she can keep breathing. It helps if you purr loudly during this exercise — it will make her less inclined to move you.

This is just a sampling. The great thing about all these tests and exercises is that they don’t really feel like workouts to your human. Even humans who have difficulty fitting exercise into their lives will make the time — 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: Don’t Touch Me

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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!

Catio Crasher (and a Pop Quiz!)

Guess where my human was over the weekend? I will give you a clue:

That’s right! She was at the Katnip Lounge catio! She was in Las Vegas because her boyfriend was playing a show there on Fremont Street. Even though he was too busy to visit the catio with her, I am happy to report he did dress for the occasion.

But enough of him. Let’s get to the important stuff: my pals! Grayce was hanging out on a scratcher when my human arrived.

May Ling wanted my human to know not to mess with the tortie Meezer! Although she was generally agreeable, as long as the camera wasn’t pointed in her direction.

Rupert and Felix were much more willing to pose for the paparazzi.

Quill’s human showed up too! She and the Katnip Lounge human talked while my human prowled the house and catio, in search of willing victims. There was drama, like when Sweet Pea occupied the cat tree, against the wishes of Felix!

Maui was ever-present.

As was The Baby. My human tried to get arty with her.

There were photobombs galore!

But out of all the Katnip Lounge kitties, my human’s favorite was… Salem!

Yes, she is as round in person as she is in photos, but she is really a very tiny cat! Small, like me, only not narrow.

She spent the most time around my human and even played with her camera strap.

Now for the pop quiz! I am going to ask you some questions about the photos, and the first reader to answer all the questions right will get a little package of goodies from me! You have until next Monday, March 18! So if you do not know the Katnip Lounge kitties, you have time to meet them, because it will help you make the right answers. Here goes:

1. In the picture of Grayce (the third photo from the top), how many cats are there total? Who are they?

2. My human photographed 9 of the 13 Katnip Lounge cats. Which ones are missing? (Hint: one of the cats photographed is not mentioned by name.)

3. Who are the three photobombing kitties?

4. Which cat appears in the most photographs?

Bonus tiebreaker (in case there is a tie): Out of the four cats my human did not get pictures of, there was only one she actually got to touch. Which one of the missing cats is it? It’s a bonus question because you pretty much have to guess!

Good luck! I hope you have fun with the pop quiz!
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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!

Un-Tidy Announcement of Tidy Cats Giveaway!

So there I was, ready to announce the winners of my Tidy Cats giveaway and my human made a terrible mistake! Can you see what she did?

That’s right — she placed the jug of litter the wrong way! The back is facing the camera. And she didn’t even notice at first.

That’s better! But sheesh, even Binga was disgusted with her. Anyway, now it is time for me to really announce the winners! They are:

Julia S.

and

Jessie PrismCat R.!

Concatulations, Julia and Jessie! I will be in touch to get your mailing addresses. I hope you enjoy the litter! Apparently the jug works whether you are right or left-handed!
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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 Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

Here is a mishmash of videos, partly cool, partly cringe-worthy! Let’s start with the good: I am one of the contenders for AmazeCats’ Next Top Cat! I am in the video below… um, and so is Binga. Eeek! I hope she is not in the running too.

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

Next up is a cool video compilation of cats enjoying themselves with rolls of toilet paper! The only problem is, some human has created a fun-killing invention that threatens to put a halt to our games! If you are watching this with your human, you may want to stop the video before it gets to that part.

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

Now for the truly ugly! A week ago, my human turned on the computer cam and made me dance! Even worse, she put it up on Facebook, where it got well over 3,000 views! My campaign to get a new cat tree has since dwarfed this, but she also uploaded the clip to YouTube.

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

You may wonder why I am sharing this embarrassing video with you. Duh — I want your suggestions on what I should do to get back at my human for this gross humiliation! All ideas will get serious consideration.
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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: Monochrome (Sort Of)

This was a hard one for me because none of us kitties is monochrome! Typically tortie Binga, in fact, is anything but:

And Boodie, being Meezer-ly, is bicolor, not monochrome:

And my fur? Each strand is a bunch of different colors! The semi-technical term for it is “agouti,” or “ticking.”

Although I am a cat of many colors, to the human eye they do blend together. And I seem to blend into some of the furniture around here (which I like, because it makes it harder for my human to find me). So this is about the best I can do:

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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 Cat Tree Experiment

Just look at this cat tree! It is an eyesore!

It looks bad enough from the outside up here, but inside it is really disgusting! There is so much old, ground in fur and dirt I should probably just let Binga have the top tier.

Binga is actually mostly responsible for this damage. One of you (TBT?) suggested that my human recover the planks in sisal, but after nine years, aren’t I owed a new cat tree?

Annoyingly, my human has resisted buying me a new one. She has all sorts of excuses: business isn’t that great, she’s “broke” (trust me, she isn’t), my book didn’t go into royalties, vet bills, etc. I was getting sick of hearing it. In fact, I was sick of it a whole month ago, if you remember my Flashback Friday post. And I said I had a plan. Well, a month later there was no new cat tree, so I decided to put it into action!

I call it the Cat Tree Experiment. I bargained with my human that if I got a bunch more likes, that would qualify for my getting a new cat tree. She wanted to give it some ridiculous number like a million, but heck, if I could get a million likes, I might as well start up my own multi-national corporation and replace her. So she saw the light and decided on a more reasonable number.

The really great thing is that having more eyeballs seeing my Facebook page posts means I will be bringing smiles and joy to more kitty lovers. And when I have a commenthon or a photothon, I will pretty much be guaranteed to hit my maximum donation! Oh yeah, and it’s another step towards total feline world domination… but I probably shouldn’t say too much about that.

It took my human a while to get the photo right.

At first she was taking them from way too far away. But finally she got me and the card closer together and I offered up a determined, but slightly wistful look:

I posted this image on Facebook late yesterday afternoon. I started with 4,165 fans. Right before I published today’s post, my fan number was up to 4,739! There was even a human who called my human an “animal abuser” for exploiting me! (One or more of my fans — I don’t know who — marked it as spam so I only saw the comment by accident, but it gave me a chuckle.) But most everybody else knows I work for good, not greediness (well, except for getting a new cat tree in the bargain). So thank you to everyone who shares — this is going to be quite the adventure!
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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!