Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 479

Photo Hunt: Daub

My human is always on the lookout for high quality premium cat food that we all like. This is the latest food that passed our taste test so my human ordered a case. Usually she splits a can of food between Binga and Boodie for dinner, but this flavor has more than the usual can of cat food. So…

I get a daub of it!

You are probably wondering why I only get a daub, and not a whole portion.

It’s because I never eat more than a daub of it! Don’t worry, I get a whole can of my own food and treats too! It’s just not that common for me to like high quality food, so I get some whenever I want.
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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!

Humans Are Willfully Destroying Our Bird TV!

I know just about all you kitties reading this live with one or more humans, or at least live somewhere where you are taken care of by a group of humans, so you will be shocked by what you are about to read! Yes, I know humans are a very useful species — relatively easy to train, fun to play with, and they provide good food and housing. But they are not innocent creatures. Do you realize that the human you live with — the same one who dishes out your food every day, brings home fun cat toys and who lets you sleep on her head at night — is an unrepentant bird killer?

Okay, so maybe your specific human does not go around wantonly laying waste to your local population of birds, but the large numbers of humans that exist on this planet are helping to destroy birds in thousands of different ways. Let me give you some figures, conveniently provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Up to 976 million birds in the U.S. die by building window strikes each year, partly because humans insist on putting up plate glass windows in high rises that keep out the climate while opening up expansive views, and birds smash into them! Communication towers may kill up to 50 million birds, and high tension electrical wires electrocute up to 174 million of them. Cars — those vile things that humans consider a necessity and that take us kitties to the vet — kill 60 million birds annually. Pesticides account for another 72 million bird deaths. Birds die because of wind turbine rotors, aircraft, oil spills, by accidents in fisheries. This does not even take into consideration environmental encroachment — destroying native habitat to build factories and housing. Add that to the equation and we can safely assume that humans are responsible for billions of birds dying each and every year.

Are you as shocked as I am? Why haven’t humans invented ways to keep birds from smashing into windows, created farming methods that will not harm bird populations, found ways to keep them from being electrocuted, etc.? Are humans cruel, bloodthirsty creatures who enjoy watching a bird ram into a windowpane and laugh when one lands on a high wire and gets electrocuted? Are they selfish beings who really don’t care about the species that die off when new housing projects go up? Or are they just ignorant and think that turning a blind eye will make the problem nonexistent? Who knows? Humans can be very mysterious creatures, and sometimes it is impossible to explain their actions.

If humans keep up the direction in which they are going, all the birds we enjoy watching through our own windows may grow fewer in number and could even someday disappear. That would be a terrible tragedy!

The vast numbers of humans in the world are having a very negative impact on the bird population. What can we kitties do? Sadly, not much. While spaying and neutering are accepted practices among pets, humans refuse to do anything about their own population problem. And of course it would be inhumane to euthanize any — I think all us kitties can agree on that. However, there is something you can do right in your own home to help keep your Bird TV thriving: encourage your human to take steps to make sure your local birds don’t hurt themselves on your windows. There are a number of simple solutions. Because saving birds from deadly human behavior starts right here at home.
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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!

Authentic Kitty Sprinkles Taste Test!

A couple of weeks ago I got a message from a human who works with a company called Lincoln Bark. They make dog treats, so I was wondering what they had for a kitty like me! She explained that they have something called Kitty Sprinkles, which humans supposedly can put on cat food for “finicky” eaters. My human jumped right in when she heard that because I hate most of the food she sets in front of me. What can I say? I am discerning, very discerning, when it comes to food. I have a delicate palate, you know.

The company offered to send me some samples and I had the choice between chicken liver, salmon and shrimp. No one here is particularly into shrimp (shocking, I know), so I requested chicken liver and salmon. They are pure protein with a touch of rosemary thrown in — very simple!

To make this an honest-to-goodness taste test, my human dished up a can of food she knows I do not like! Sorry, but I have never been a fan of this venison-flavored cat food.

Boodie, of course, was all, “If you’re not eating that, can I have it?” My human had to shoo her away.

Then she sprinkled some of the chicken liver flavored Kitty Sprinkles on the yukky food.

Wow, I could not believe the change! It tasted awesome! Or at least the part of the cat food touched by the Kitty Sprinkles tasted awesome.

Sorry Boodie, you will have to wait your turn!
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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: Me as a Kitten

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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: February 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!

The Perfect Little Thing

My human went to the San Diego Cat Show over the weekend. My breeder was showing a kitten. I think you can guess which one was hers!

She was the most perfect little thing, and at six months already an experienced show cat. My human was bummed that she had to take photos from so far away, but she was late to both rings she attended and wound up behind the chairs.

There were lots of different kittens competing. One was this Maine Coon.

And this Russian Blue kitten.

But, as often happens when there is a Somali in the ring, people gasped in awe when she was brought out of her cage. There are not that many Somalis around, and humans are always enchanted by our beauty, especially when they see one this special.

I think the judge was a little bit in love with her too.

In the other ring my human attended, there was a second Somali kitten — a red boy.

I think bad thoughts were going through the boy Somali’s mind while the girl was being examined.

Here she is, admiring her ribbons. Only moments after this shot was taken, she was swept off to the airport! She is going to live in Russia, where they really need high quality Somali cats like her. The woman who flew out for her talked to my breeder for four years before she agreed to let her have one of her cats. I hope she had a safe flight… although I get the sneaking suspicion that she pranced through customs and charmed TSA. My breeder was so sad to see her go. She was very attached to her — but she also wants to make sure the Somali breed thrives.

My human asked if the kitten and I share any ancestry, and my breeder had to think really hard. We do, but it is several generations back. Still, I think there is a resemblance. Do 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!

Awesome New Cat Anthology… and a Favor!

Remember a year and a few months ago, I had my human write a story for my blog for Halloween? It is part of a new anthology of mystical and magical cat stories called The Mystical Cat: An Anthology of All Things Feline! The story is now called “The Promise,” and it is included with other authors such as Dusty Rainbolt, Lyn McConchie, Alma Alexander, Cynthia Ward, S. A. Bolich and several other writers! My human has written lots of articles for magazines, but this is the first time she has had fiction published.

Even better, my blog got mentioned in the acknowledgements!

There is only one catch: It is currently only available on Kindle and Smashwords, and a certain number of copies must be sold in those formats before the publisher will commit to printing actual paper copies! So if you like this type of story and you have an eReader, could you please pick up a copy? It is $4.99 on either format. You will be helping out a bunch of authors in addition to my human! And could you please spread the word about it? It would be awesome to have it in physical book form!

Here is the link to buy The Mystical Cat on Amazon Kindle.

Here is the link to buy The Mystical Cat on Smashwords.

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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!

Even Worse Than Mirror Kitty!

You all know how much I hate that conceited, annoying Mirror Kitty, right? Well, I discovered something that is even worse than Mirror Kitty!

It is Mirror Paparazzi! I can’t escape, no matter where I go!
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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: Catdance Festival Critic’s Picks

Did you know that my human went to film school, and that for a couple of years before she became a rock journalist in the 1980s she was an assistant editor on several feature films? So I allowed her to help me pick these favorites from Fresh Step’s Catdance Film Festival entries. I judged them on the inherent felinity of the entries while my human scrutinized the photography, editing, pacing and other film-type things. There were 17 short films that were finalists, and you will be able to vote on the top five for the winner of the $10,000 Viewer’s Choice prize.

Interestingly, one of our three picks was not one of those five, and it is really our favorite, mainly because it made both me and my human laugh so much… plus it is proof that cats should be CEOs, not personal assistants. I present to you, Hector Cat Assistant:

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

A Cat’s Guide To Caring For A Human gets four paws up from me for its feline-centric perspective and two thumbs up from my human for sticking so closely to its retro, mid-last century educational film model.

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

Here is a combination of home video, stills and animation that documents the life of the filmmaker’s beloved cat. You may want to have a box of tissues handy as you follow Dear Rocky on his 17-year-long journey.

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

To vote for A Cat’s Guide To Caring For A Human, Dear Rocky, or one of the other three nominees for the $10,000 Viewer’s Choice prize, click here. Voting is open until February 28, and you can vote every day!
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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: Knitted

It’s a rainy Friday afternoon at 3:30 and what does my human do? She tosses an old knitted sweater on the bathroom counter and makes me pose with it! Is this not the dumbest interpretation of a Photo Hunt theme ever? And there isn’t even any catnip on it to entice me to be here.

Maybe if I do a Dramatic Cat pose and totally ignore the sweater’s presence, no one will even notice it sitting there.
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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!