Crazy Kitty Chick

Hairball or Respiratory Problem?

2012-03-05T22:45:00.002-06:00

My furry cat Presto has had a hacking cough the past few weeks. It's the kind of cough he usually has for a few days, right before he yacks up a big hairball.

No matter how much Laxatone or how many hairball treats he has, we haven't seen one of these usual hairballs.

His hairballs are hard to miss.

Let's just say that Presto usually projectile-ejects 5- or 6-inch-long missiles, the diameter of a man's finger. He's been known to swoon immediately following the ejection.

We began to worry, and we've had him in to the vet twice (our regular vet was out of the office the first visit). Neither vet detected any back-up of hairballs when listening to his lungs or poking around his belly. In fact, the temporary vet said his lungs sounded fine. Dr. Burnett (the regular vet) gave him an injection, I believe cortisone. I don't think he coughed once in the next couple of weeks. When the shot wore off, he started coughing again.

Presto is overweight, but he is still active and will run and play (sometimes). He has a plastic allergy that manifests as a swollen chin when he decides to chew on something plastic. And he loves to chew on plastic.

We're not sure what could be causing him to cough more than usual, unless it's the same proliferation of allergens that are giving us all stuffy noses this year.

And I'm still concerned that I haven't seen (or stepped in) one of his usual projectile hairballs.

Has your cat ever had a hacking cough that sounded like a hairball cough, but wasn't?

Commercials That Remind Me of My Cat Kali

2012-02-08T22:07:00.000-06:00

In the past week or so, I've seen two TV commercials that remind me of my cat Kali Malicious. I should mention that Kali can be kind of vicious sometimes (hence her middle name), and she's also very creative and artistic.

The first TV ad I saw that reminded me of Kali was this one, for a new clothing line at Target from designer Jason Wu. This black cat runs around the art studio, tearing things up and knocking things around, and leaving beautiful and clever creations in her wake. That is so like Kali!

Just this morning, I spotted this Geico commercial, featuring a big black cat that seems to be hungry. I could see Kali Malicious looking at me like this. I typically find Geico commercials to be stupid and pointless. In a way, I suppose this one is, too, because after I saw it, I couldn't remember what product it was for. When I told people about it, I said I thought it was for A.D.T. Home Security.

Dark, mysterious, funny and talented. That's my Kali Malicious, to a T.

Book Review: Nurturing Paws

2011-09-20T23:46:00.003-05:00

Stories of beloved pets and cantankerous critters are what you'll find in the book Nurturing Paws. It's a collection of essays and poems about animals and their people. Reading each short piece will make you laugh or smile knowingly, and some of them will also bring a tear to your eye.

If you've ever seen the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of book, Nurturing Paws is very much the same type of book, and in fact, some of the authors included in the collection have previously been published in the Chicken Soup series. The stories are mostly about dogs or cats, sometimes dogs and cats. The occasional horse, rabbit and bird shows up, too. If you've ever had a pet or two (or dozens), you'll be reminded of your own four-legged (or feathered) friends.

The quality of the book seems very close to any other trade paperback, although something about the cover design just looks "small press" to me. It might be the font style and size that they chose. The print is not tiny, nor could it be considered large print. I feel like it's a good size for the average person.

This would be an excellent gift for the animal lover or for someone who prefers reading in short bursts. It's great to take to a doctor's office or anywhere you expect to sit and wait. I wouldn't give it to a fairly young child, because some of the essays deal with death, but it's a great choice for older children up to senior citizens.

Nurturing Paws is published by a small press called Whispering Angel Books. The company's founder, Lynn C. Johnston, is also the editor of the book and a contributor. Each piece is written by a different person of course, so the writing styles are quite varied. A couple of the ones I read were very sincere but didn't seem professionally written. Most were written at what I would consider a professional level.

The cover price of the book is $16.95, and you can order it through the publisher or from most major online bookstores. I received a free review copy of the book. The opinions expressed are my own.

TNR with a few laughs and a cool song

2011-09-20T22:39:00.001-05:00

TNR = Trap, Neuter, Release.

It's the humane way to keep feral cat populations under control.

Entertainer and cat lover Sarah Donner made a video showing how she provided TNR for two kittens in her neighborhood.

It's fun. You should watch it.

My Black Cats

2011-08-24T00:22:00.002-05:00

The adoption rate for black dogs and cats, when compared to lighter colored pets, is a lot lower. As someone who has been loved by three black cats in my life, I want to join in the conversation and share just how wonderful a black cat can be.

MIDNIGHT

My first black cat was Midnight. I don't remember how Midnight came into my life. I think I was in about second grade or maybe third. Midnight was a very calm cat for a little girl to have. She let me dress her up in doll clothes and push her down the street in my pram.

A pram is like a stroller, but the baby lies down in it, and it has a folding hood to keep off the sun and rain. My great aunt bought me mine while she was visiting us when we lived in Scotland.

How many cats do you know who would let an 8-year-old put doll clothes on her and then go quietly to sleep while being pushed down the street in a baby buggy? Certainly, none of the ones I have now would let me do that!

Midnight also loved to play with my stuffed tiger, which I'd had since I was a "little" girl! So, when my dad brought me home a puppy (Snoopy, a beagle mix), Midnight considered him her living toy. He would toddle through a door where Midnight was waiting to pounce on him, but he never minded. I think he thought he was a cat, except that he couldn't climb trees.

The only time Snoopy ever chased a cat was when he went to live with my grandmother (my dad was Navy and we moved someplace that we couldn't have a dog). My uncle lived two houses over, and his family had a cat (a black cat) named Ebony, who was kind of snooty I guess, and she didn't want to play with Snoopy. She ran from him. Snoopy was used to a black cat who would play with him, so he chased her. Nothing malicious at all, and I think if he'd ever caught her, he would have said, "Tag, you're it!"

We used to take Midnight (and Snoopy when he joined the family) camping with us. We had a motorhome, and my parents belonged to the Good Sam Club, so at least once a month, we went on a weekend campout. Midnight would stretch out on the front dashboard while we were on the road, and she'd play with the wipers if it rained. People seemed to get a great kick out of seeing her up there, especially when they realized she was a real cat! When we got to the campground, she'd walk on a leash, right alongside the dog.

I don't remember what happened to Midnight. I seem to recall my mom saying that she "disappeared." Maybe she did or maybe she got hit by a car or something. She's part of the reason my cats now stay in the house.

MYSTERY

We adopted Mystery on the first Saturday in May, 1978. My mom and I were going to yard sales that morning, and we'd just recently moved to someplace we could have a cat. I saw this beautiful fluffy black cat come walking around one of the houses, and I said, "Wouldn't it be great if she had kittens?" Turns out, she did. We asked, and the kittens were only five weeks old, but at that time there were no rules about adopting kittens only after they're 8-10 weeks old, and none of us knew any better, I guess, because we took Mystery home with us. My mom had a Navy wives party that night, and as it started getting later, the novelty of Mystery's new home wore off. She wanted her mother. After a couple of hours of her crying, I wanted my mother, too. My mom never stayed out late, but she did that night. I even called the party looking for her, and I imagined her dead on the side of the road with no one knowing she had a daughter and a grandkitten at home. By the time she got back, I was crying just as much as Mystery. Pretty soon, we both calmed down and went to sleep, Mystery with an old sock stuffed with other old socks to give her something fuzzy to curl up with.

During the period when I didn't have a cat and Snoopy was at my grandparents, well, I had to have a pet, so I got a mouse. Long story short, I had three mice and a rat by the time we adopted Mystery. She never tried to get to the mice, but she did enjoy watching them run on their wheels and play.

In 1979, Mystery had kittens. Two of them looked Siamese, and I named them Muffet and Meringue. After that, Mystery got hit by a car, Muffet disappeared, and Meringue also got hit by a car. One of Mystery's kittens was a tabby who went to live at my grandmother's house. She named him Tiger. Then another tabby, called Silver Cat, showed up at her house. In 1980, Silver Cat gave birth to Mystery's grandkittens. My great-grandkittens. Two of them looked Siamese, and I named them Martini and Taminar Rossi. Obviously at that time, none of us thought about having our cats spayed or neutered. Martini had several litters of kittens, and some of them had kittens, leaving me with a legacy of love for more than two decades.

Mystery's last living descendants, her great great grandkittens, were Mouse (1985-2005, pictured at left) and Allie (1987-2005).

Kali likes to be under things.

KALI MALICIOUS

During a road trip in October 2008, I found Kali at the side of a busy intersection. She was about five weeks old and literally less than a foot from the road, hiding in the grass. It took me just minutes to fall in love with her. It took two weeks to convince my husband to add cat #8 to the family. During that time, she lived in Tim's workshop out back, so she was all alone, locked in her carrier (for safety), except for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours at night. Is it any wonder that she turned mean? She could be quite a little terror when she started biting, kicking and clawing, but I always blamed myself for that.

She's calmed down a lot since her killer kitten days, but she is still very independent-minded. She will only rarely sit in my lap, even though she likes to be near me. When she is doing something wrong and I scold her with a sharp "Kali Malicious," she will usually stop. If she doesn't stop and I try to move her or spritz her with water, she just gets mad.

Kali makes me laugh a lot. When she was tiny and went into berserker mode, I found a caterpillar stuffed toy that was about the same size as she was, and I would extricate my arm and replace it with the toy. I wish I had video of her rolling around and kicking that thing. One day, she rolled right off the bed with it! I waited a few seconds and asked, "Kali, are you all right?" A moment later she hopped back up on the bed, dragging that caterpillar with her. As soon as she got settled, she started biting and kicking again.

Another time, she'd been playing rough with Trickster, one of her big brothers. He'd had enough and he let her know it. With a "Hmph!" Kali moved away about six inches and sat with her back to him. So he started playing with her tail. She jerked around like she was going to smack whoever it was, saw it was him, and said, "Hmph!" again and turned back away. That happened three or four times in a row. It was really funny to watch them together.

I remember teaching Kali to play with her first toy ball, an orange ping-pong type ball. She had no idea what to do with it when I sat it in front of her, so I started batting it around for her and she caught on very quickly. She now has a variety of practice golf balls (with holes, easy for cats to pick up), two sizes of whiffle balls, balls with bells in them, big balls with little balls inside them, a tennis ball, a mini-soccer ball, and a volleyball. One of the best toys, until she destroyed it, was a beach ball with the world globe printed on it. I won it in a "Get Smart" movie giveaway, and I had blown it up and tossed it in the closet. She kept sniffing around it, so I pulled it out and threw it down the hall. Now, this thing is regular beach ball size, at least 18" across, so much bigger than baby Kali, but she chased it down the hall and leaped on it, spreadeagle, and rode it until she fell off. As many times as I would toss it down the hall, she'd chase it down. Of course, being an inflatable vinyl ball, tiny pinholes began to show up all around it. I covered them with tape and kept going for as long as we could, but the beach ball finally died its last death.

Kali is also big about covering things up. She tries to cover the water bowl, meaning toys and scraps of paper show up in the dish all the time. If someone yaks up a hairball, Kali is right there, dragging any nearby toys, socks or garments on top of it.

One day after work, my husband walked into their room, saw a toy or two in the water, and said, "Your cat has left you another art installation." After that, I started taking photos of her Kallages and I've posted some of them on DeviantArt.

NO DIFFERENCE

Those are my three black cats, and as you can tell, they all had or have their own distinct personalities, just like any other cat. I believe it was good luck (and in Kali's case, a guardian angel) that brought my three sleek black cats to me. I don't love them because they are black or in spite of it, I just love them.

Target Brand Rips Off ModernCat

2011-07-31T23:19:00.000-05:00

I was disappointed, but not really surprised to learn that Target is one of those mega-corporations that delight in stealing ideas from smaller start-ups.

ModernCat is a terrific website with great information on cat products, and they also manufacture a few products of their own. Their products are produced pretty much by hand, with the health and well-being of cats in mind.

Target apparently liked their unique scratching post concept, but instead of asking for a licensing deal to manufacture them en masse, the corporate bigwigs decided that it's okay to rip off the little person, steal their concept, and run them out of business.

Either that or some low-life that's working for them saw the ModernCat scratching post and passed off the idea as their own. You can read more about it on the ModernCat site.

Whichever, ModernCat's artistic and functional product is now being mass produced in China to substandard specs, allowing Target to undercut the retail price ModernCat charges, without paying ModernCat a dime.

That complete lack of ethics and morals, the lack of true innovation in corporate America, and the propensity to steal from the little guys is what is ruining this country.

Target, you should be ashamed!

Make It Monday for Cats: HackyCat

2011-05-16T23:37:00.000-05:00

It's sort of a hacky sack for cats, this latest DIY cat toy is. It's very easy to make and it's environmentally friendly, because you recycle old socks or shirts to make it.

Basically, you need a fabric tube. The designer used the sleeve from a thermal shirt but also recommends making it with thin socks. Knot one end and trim as needed. Add a little stuffing and catnip. Knot the other end and trim. Voila! Instant cat toy. It looks like something my cats would enjoy, and next time I clean out my closet, I'm making some!

The complete instructions are free at Pets Advisor

Not Just for James Bond: Pussy Galore

2011-05-16T23:32:00.000-05:00

Well, not so much Pussy Galore as pussy vet bills galore. I've been quiet on the blog lately, at least in part, because of all the issues the cats have been having.

Remy still has extremely high liver enzymes. We are slipping him lots of extra treats and mini-meals, and his weight has been fairly stable over the past three weeks. Every so often we give him the lactulose to make sure he is not getting backed up again. He is having weekly B12 shots right now to see if it helps him.

Wicket began (late one night, of course) to pant heavily and his heart was racing. We took him to the emergency vet, and they found that one of his kidney levels was a little elevated. We took him to our vet in the morning for more tests, and at that time, his kidney levels were both fine, though he was a tad dehydrated and had some fluids before coming home.

Jynx, our FeLV positive boy, has had a bad case of feline acne. No idea why that popped up suddenly when there's been no changes in his environment or toys in about two years. He had the problem, seemed to clear up, then all of a sudden his chin was four times normal size. The vet cleaned it out and found crystallized pus! After all the digging around, his chin was about ten times normal size and he didn't want to eat anything for another 24 hours. He's doing a bit better now.

Trickster, like so many of the humans we know, is having major allergy issues.

Indy has now started on Humulin-N (replacing the Vetsulin that can no longer be sold in the U.S.) and he seems to be doing okay. He acted odd one night, after about a week on the new stuff, so in to the vet he went for a glucose check, and he was a bit high (I expected him to be low). Doc said that was not a bad place to be getting used to the new stuff, so to keep the dosage the same.

It's been a very busy and stressful few weeks. I was also leaving my old job and starting a new job, and that has its stresses as well. I will keep posting here, hopefully a bit more than I've been able to of late.

Try Business2Blogger for product review opportunities

2011-04-20T00:44:00.002-05:00

Have you heard of Business2Blogger? Perhaps you've seen their button on some of the blogs you visit. Do you know what they are? If not, keep reading, and I'll explain.

Business2Blogger is sort of like an eharmony or match.com for businesses and bloggers. Businesses large and small are looking to bloggers to review and promote their products through posts and giveaways. A lot of bloggers are interested in getting new products to try, and product giveaways are a tried and true way to pick up followers, readers and friends.

A couple of months ago, I signed up for Business2Blogger with my lifestyle blog Rhyme Schemes and Daydreams. Every couple of weeks, I get an B2B email listing a few businesses that are looking for blogs to review their products or services. It doesn't say who the companies are, but it gives an idea of what the product or service for review is and it includes any specific requirements.

The marketing folks at these companies are sometimes open to hearing from any interested bloggers, but others want placement with specific types of blogs - fashion, parenting or wedding-related, to mention a few examples I've see come up. They may not care what kind of blog you have as long as you have at least 10,000 readers a month. Some need people in a specific geographic location. There's never a guarantee that you'll see a listing that's right for you.

If you do meet the criteria for a listing, you click on the link, fill out a form, and submit. The form asks for the number of visitors your blog gets, how you'll promote a giveaway (if any), for basic contact information, and for an explanation why you think their product or service would be a good fit for your blog.

The whole process takes just a few minutes.

I've never gotten a review out of being in B2B, but I haven't been a member for long. I don't qualify for all of the opportunities. My blogs don't yet get enough readers for some of them. Many companies are looking for parents and I don't have kids. My blogs are focused on cats, hurricanes, and general lifestyle, and those topics don't come up too terribly often.

That said, I'm glad to be a member and have the opportunity to receive those lists by email. Someday, I'll see the perfect fit for one of my blogs, fill out the form, and get a product review opportunity out of it. Then it'll be worth it. If you're a blogger, you should consider checking out Business2Blogger.

Have you gotten your RecycleBank coupons?

2011-04-20T00:26:00.002-05:00

I received my coupons for free Friskies canned food today. We need to pick up more food this week, so four free cans will really come in handy!

Will Work for Cat Food

2011-04-08T00:42:00.000-05:00

If I had a cardboard sign, that's what mine would say. If you have hungry little mouths to feed, here's a deal for you.

I just found this site called RecycleBank that's all about ways that you can "green" your home. You earn ponts and then redeem them for various incentives. One of the deals they have going on right now, and I don't know how long it will last is free Friskies canned food.

I joined a few minutes ago and then I clicked on "Earn Points" at the top, and the very first thing is something about earning points and entering to win great prizes. That link takes you to a promotional page where you go into each room of a "house" and you click on the plus signs on the images and answer questions or play games, and it tells you right away how many points you earn for each thing.

Once you have some points built up (I earned 100 points in less than 20 minutes), then click on "Get Rewards."

They have a bunch of Rewards Categories, and if you scroll that mini-window all the way to the right, that's where the Pet rewards are. Right now, the Friskies canned food is "on sale." It's normally 75 points for a coupon for two free cans, but tonight, it's only charging you 10 points. They mail you a coupon.

I've looked around a little bit, and you can earn points for gift cards, discount coupons, magazine subscriptions and lots of stuff.

If you want to give RecycleBank a try, it's free to sign up.

Cat Lovers' Mouse Pad

2011-03-30T15:39:00.001-05:00

This is cute, if a little strange. It's a mouse pad in the shape of a cat's head. You put your hand in the cat's mouth to reach the mouse. I did say it was strange.

Just the design of it will keep your hands warm in a cold office or if you suffer from cold-mouse-hand-syndrome, but it also has another feature: a USB-powered heater.

I found one place that lists it for sale, but I didn't shop around so it may not be the best deal. The site is GeekStuff4U. I have never ordered from them, so if you're interested in buying one of these, please research it as you would any other product or company.

The mouse pad/heater is made by Thanko, the Japanese company that also brought us the Cat Face Allergy Mask.

All you need is a pair of cat ears to look like your favorite feline while breathing a little easier (theoretically). The mask also has a USB function - a built in fan. I'm not sure if it's to cool the air you're breathing in or to help blow away any allergens that might make it through the mask.

You can't say the company isn't imaginative!

The Loudest Purr

2011-03-29T13:00:00.002-05:00

My cat Indy has a loud purr, and he's a pretty happy cat, but I don't know if his decibel level matches that of Smokey, a British cat whose powerful purr can even disturb movie night!

So, what do you think? Are Smokey's raucous rumblings the loudest purr you've ever heard?

When Kitty Gets Sick

2011-03-15T23:37:00.001-05:00

Today, I saw a post from a woman, a fellow sweeper, whose cat developed crystals in his bladder. She asked for suggestions on how to bring in extra money to pay for his medical care. I know where she's coming from. A few years ago, when Quinn had his heart attack, I had the good fortune to win a Playstation game system. I'm not a big gamer, but I would have kept the system, if we weren't trying to pay off the credit cards we'd just run up at the emergency vet, our vet, and at least two other animal hospitals that could run tests our regular vet wasn't equipped for. Not to mention the meds he was on. Buying special foods and baby foods to try to get him to eat. Lucky for me, someone bid near retail for it, and getting that payment was a real blessing when we needed it.

This woman's cat's issue hit close to home, too. Several years ago, my cat Indy (left) developed crystals that blocked him from urinating. He's 11 now, and it's been at least 6 or 7 years since he had to have the crystals surgically removed. We started using an over-the-counter Urinary Tract dry food and Friskies Special Diet can. Over the years, Indy developed diabetes, so we started mixing in Hill's Prescription Diet dry, then his younger brother Remy developed a sensitive stomach (which is probably linked to the liver problems he's having now), so we began using Iams Digestive Care instead of the UTI dry. We still use the Friskies Special Diet canned.

KNOW WHAT'S NORMAL

The most important part of keeping your cat healthy is to be observant. It's even easier if you only have one or two cats. We have 9 now and have had as many as 12 at one time. It's hard to tell who's doing what in their litterboxes (or outside of the boxes in some cases) without isolating them.

If your cat urinates inappropriately (outside the box), s/he may have a urinary tract infection.
If s/he drinks a lot of water, it could be a sign of kidney disease or diabetes (my cat Allie used to get a big drink in their room, then he'd follow me to the kitchen and get another big drink almost immediately; it turned out he was in the beginning stages of kidney failure).
If your cat urinates a lot (leaves a really big puddle in the box), that's another sign of diabetes.
When you pet them, see it as an opportunity to casually examine their bodies. My husband found Mah-mah's breast cancer because he was running her chest and belly and felt a small lump he'd never noticed before.

Those are just a few examples. Basically, you need to pay enough attention to what your cat does, how s/he acts when normal, so that you quickly recognize the abnormal. Just like in people, the sooner you realize there's a problem and get treatment, the better your chances of a full recovery (and sometimes it will save you money over treating an advanced condition).

Update on Remy

2011-03-08T22:54:00.000-06:00

Remy has now been on antibiotics for nearly a month. First he was on Baytril tabels. Then the doc switched him to Clavamox, the liquid that smells like bubble gum. Who thought that was a good idea for cats?

When last I wrote, Remy was going in for x-rays of his liver. The images showed that his liver is abnormally small, so small that he was either born that way or at some point he had a massive infection that ate it away. X-rays also turned up that his colon is enlarged, which is not unheard of in cats or people, apparently. Basically, his digestive system is bottlenecked. To clear him out, the vet prescribed lacralose as a stool softener. That's also a liquid. At least it doesn't smell like bubble gum.


Remy doesn't like having his face washed, either.

So the procedure is, we give him 1.25 ml of Clavamox, a portion of which he mixes with drool in his mouth and then slings all over the room. Then we wait 20 minutes and give him 1ml of lacralose, which is thick and sticky, and he just lets that dribble out the sides of his mouth and run down his chin. He started that last Friday.

He finally made a sloppy diarrhea on Monday morning, which I witnessed, so I know it was him. (Multi-cat household and all. Misha won't come out of the bedroom these days, so we can't close Remy in there alone. We left him in their room alone all day Thursday and he seemed extremely unhappy and really looked sick afterwards, so we're trying to avoid that now.)

Today, we came home and I found a soft poop and a couple of big splats of diarrhea, along with some normal poops. I have to assume that at least some of the soft stuff came out of Remy. He acts like he's feeling a little better (except when he knows it's time for the double dose of ick).

We are feeling more hopeful that Remy will live through this and be okay. Hopefully he won't have to take the lacralose every day for the rest of his life. The vet said some cats have to take it regularly, but maybe that just means once or twice a week.

He took the last dose of Clavamox today, which should make the process a little easier going foward. Maybe I'll have even more positive news in a few days.

Our cat Remy is Sick

2011-02-25T00:24:00.001-06:00

Remy is 10 and a half years old. His mother had wandered up to our rural home a few months earlier with two kittens in tow. We took in the babies when they were weaned. Mah-mah was still too skittish, but by the time she'd weaned her second litter, she walked straight into the carrier. She spent the rest of her life as a well-loved indoor cat.

Remy has been throwing up a little more than usual, and we felt like he'd lost a little weight. He's also been acting like he's extremely hungry all the time. He's always had a sensitive stomach, and he really didn't like the Solid Gold food we recently switched to. He liked it at first, but after a while, he started turning up his nose.

We took him to the vet a couple of weeks ago, and he had lost a pound since he was last in a few months ago. The blood test results came back showing high liver enzymes. The doc initially thought it might be hyperthyroidism, which made sense to us (my husband had that), but the thyroid was fine. He was on Baytril for a little over two weeks and showed some improvement. Then he started throwing up again, always within a couple of hours of having his Baytril. He was down to 3 pills left and it was Saturday night, and I said, "Let's not give it to him again."

On President's Day, my husband took him back in and more blood was drawn. The test results showed that his liver enzymes were even higher. We stopped by and picked up some Clavamox, and made an appointment to bring him in for a liver x-ray in the morning. I gave him a small portion of dry (his favorite Iams digestive care) about 6:30pm or so. He had the Clavamox with some tuna for dinner. About three hours later, he threw up again. After he threw up, because we knew he wouldn't be able to have his usual late night snack or his breakfast, we gave him a little more dry, and he's been fine.

We lost Remy's brother Quinn to a heart condition in 2005. Mah-mah died of cancer in 2007, and a few weeks after that, Remy's brother Missy had to be put to sleep due to kidney failure. Remy takes heart medication daily because he has a murmur, but otherwise, he has been very healthy.

Has anyone else every had a situation like this?

Monday Make-It for Cats: Plush Critter Toys

2011-02-20T20:28:00.000-06:00

If you have talent with a needle and thread, let me steer you to instructions for a trio of really cute soft toys.

The patterns and instructions are available at CraftBits. You'll need to print two copies of the pattern, cut out the pieces as directed, and stitch them up. You'll need a needle and thread, glass beads for the eyes (or make some felt ones), fabric and fiberfill, and a little catnip, if you are so inclined. My cats get violent over catnip-filled toys. Once you have all the stuff, it'll only take a few minutes to make each one of these critters, and your cats will love them!

Valentine Cats

2011-02-14T22:19:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

In celebration of the love holiday, I wanted to share with you a link to a great collection of cat pics. Catsparella collected 21 photos of cats displaying all-natural fur hearts. They are guaranteed to make you say, "Awww."

Monday Make-It for Cats: Kitty Climbing Tree

2011-02-14T08:47:00.000-06:00

All cats like to stretch, sharpen their claws, and sleep, and a large cat tree fulfills all those feline needs. For some people, though, ready-made cat trees are a little pricey, and their configuration might not be ideal for your cat's preferences or the space you have available.

A terrific tutorial at PandECats.com shows you step by step how to build your own cat tree. Of course, this one is designed to meet the needs of the maker, but once you see how it's done, you can adjust the plans to be the perfect cat tree for your home.

Build It Yourself
Cat Tree

Judy de Passe of De Purrs Persians posted the tutorial and images, including the photo of the finished tree shown at left. It has places for four cats to sit, and three tall legs that allow the cats to scratch and claw to their hearts' content.

One of the best things about the tutorial is, it lists everything that you need, from tools to materials. Just a quick glance lets you know what you already have and what you need to buy.

I really liked that it explained how to attach the sisal rope with nails. We had looked at some sisal scratching posts at pet stores, and while we had seen nails or staples in the end, we weren't sure if they also needed glue to hold the rope in place. This tutorial didn't mention gluing it, which will make creating a sisal scratching post a lot easier.

This five-foot-tall climbing tree is great for younger cats, but we have cats that are 11 years old or older. Indy is overweight and has diabetes; sometimes he has a little trouble walking or climbing onto the bed. We wouldn't risk building a tree this tall. By taking the elements of construction, we could build something that's wider and shorter, and perhaps add a ramp to the highest point.

If you're not an experienced DIYer, maybe your tree won't look perfect, but as long as it's stable and sturdy, your cat will love it, even if it's not perfect.

New Winner Selected

2011-02-10T23:27:00.000-06:00

Sleppery did not contact me, no email was listed on the associated blog profile, and no email was listed in the entry. Therefore, I have selected a new winner.

Dave's email was clearly visible on his blogspot profile, and he has been emailed. He has until 11:30pm CT on February 13 to email me his shipping address or I'll keep going down the line.

If you enter giveaways, be sure to visit your blogger profile and make sure your email address shows up. It's easy to do.

First method: After you post a comment on a site using your Google/Blogspot login, click on your name. It should take you to your Blogspot profile, where you should see a Contact area with a link to your email address.

Second method: Go to your Blogger page and see if you can click on your profile there. For example, I would go to crazykittychick.blogspot.com and on the right there's an About Me section that has a link for "View my complete profile." If I click on that, I can see my profile with contact information.

I've seen a lot of other bloggers who host giveaways post that they've been unable to find a way to contact their first winner. I've won prizes because the first person either didn't leave contact information or never responded to an email. Please take the time to make sure your email is visible on your profile OR always be sure to leave your email address within your entry post.

Care and Feeding of Catnip

2011-02-08T23:10:00.001-06:00

Despite the cold, my tomato plants are still holding on, which got me to thinking about what other useful plants I could grow. We'd like to start some strawberries in the spring, and I thought it would be nice to grow some fresh catnip for our pride of cats.

Virginia Tech and several federal and state agencies produced a terrific fact sheet on catnip, which I'll summarize here. If you'd like to read the whole thing, click on the link.

The paper starts out with a history of medicinal uses for the catnip herb, formally known as Nepata cataria. Did you know that catnip is a member of the mint family? I just learned that. In ages past, it's been used to combat insomnia, fight the common cold, alleviate toothaches, and ease intestinal cramps and gas.

The catnip oil that's so attractive to cats also contains compounds that act as natural insecticides and fungicides.

The Virginia Tech paper includes some interesting advice for growing catnip. You can plant in fall or spring, and if you're growing from seeds, you should freeze and thaw them a couple of times, then soak them in water to soften the casing. The plants grow well in full sun and produce clusters of tiny white or lavender flowers on a tall stalk. Both the flowering tops and the leaves are used for medicinal purposes, and the leaves are dried and chopped for cat toys.

The fact sheet concludes with a list of books and websites that contain more information, including how to efficiently grow and harvest catnip on a large scale.

I visited several websites reading about catnip and its cousin catmint. One interesting bit of folklore has it that if you set out a catnip plant in its pot or plant a grown plant, it will attract cats, but if you grow it in the ground from seeds, the cats won't notice. I wonder how that would work, but then again, folklore is quite often built on the practical experiences of real people.

Have you ever grown catnip? Do you have any tips for growing it or preparing it for use in cat toys? Have you ever drunk catnip or catmint tea? I'd love to hear about your experience.

R2AGEDQV7VPN

Monday Make It For Cats - Cheap Cardboard Cat Toy

2011-02-07T08:27:00.000-06:00

Have you ever paid good money for a cat toy and within six hours, the toy is lost or destroyed? A project posted on Instructables demonstrates how to make a cat toy out of cardboard that's just going to end up in the recycle bin anyway.

Basically, you cut a vague mouse shape, including a thick tail, out of cardboard. Cut an extra mouse body. Slot both pieces and slide them together. The Instructables page has a template to help you get the shapes and slots right for a mouse, but I'm not sure how much the cats will care.

One sturdy cardboard box could be re-purposed into at least a couple dozen toys. You could cut all your A parts and B parts at the same time and store them in 1-gallon resealable bags. When the cat needs a new toy, pull one from each side and slide them together.

These toys are cheap and easy enough to make that you could whip up a batch and take them to your local shelter to entertain the homeless cats or give them as gifts to your cat-loving friends.

WINNER Harry Potter 4 Ultimate DVD

2011-02-06T00:19:00.001-06:00

**SEE UPDATE POSTED ON 02/10/11**

Congratulations to Sleppery who made post #20 on January 31!

Unfortuately, Sleppery doesn't have an email address her on blog profile or on her blog or in her post. Hopefully, she'll see the update to the original post or this announcement. I must receive her name and mailing address by 12:15am on February 9, 72 hours from now) or I will choose a new winner.

Sleppery, if you're reading this, you can find my email on my profile.

ALERT for pets on Vetsulin

2011-02-06T00:00:00.004-06:00

On Friday, the FDA dropped a bomb on our family when they announced that Vetsulin will be taken off the market.

Vetsulin is manufactured by Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health for diabetic cats and dogs. According to the official Vetsulin website, "Vetsulin (porcine insulin zinc suspension) is an insulin developed specifically for veterinary use in both dogs and cats with diabetes. Vetsulin has been used successfully by veterinarians in over 30 countries worldwide for more than 15 years."

Vetsulin.com still contains the assurance that the product is,"the only veterinary insulin FDA-approved for both dogs and cats." That's surprising because in November 2009, the company announced that a problem had been discovered:

The product has been found to be out of specification in regards to the long term stability of the crystalline, or long acting, component. Specifically, the concentration of the crystalline component is higher than what is outlined in the specifications of the product. Consequently, the amorphous, or short-acting, component may have a lower concentration. This could mean that diabetic patients on VETSULIN may experience a delay in onset of action, a delay in peak activity and an overall extension of the duration of activity. The product is remaining in distribution, but supplies will soon be exhausted. Veterinarians should plan on transitioning their diabetic patients to other insulin products and should not be starting any newly diagnosed diabetic patients on Vetsulin.

Indy

At the time, we had a new bottle, and the vet had a good supply available, so we kept using Vetsulin in hopes that the company would sort out the problem. Here's the big question: Our cat Indy has been on Vetsulin since at least early 2008. It's managed his condition very well. In fact, he had his latest glucose check on Saturday morning, and his blood sugar levels were, as the vet told us, "perfect." Why, after more than 12 years of successful management of small animal diabetes, was the product suddenly found to be of questionable efficacy?

In May of last year, Schering-Plough created the Vetsulin Critical Need Program. If a veterinarian determined that a dog or cat's diabetes could most effectively be controlled with the use of Vetsulin, the pet owner and vet could complete paperwork to join the Critical Need Program. When more Vetsulin is needed, I pay my vet, the vet orders it, and the product is shipped directly to the consumer.

I don't recall if Vetsulin ships via FedEx, UPS or USPS Express.

You know what that leads to? Indy's Vetsulin sitting in a delivery truck all weekend.

We stopped by our vet's office on Monday just before noon and paid for the order. Vetsulin, as with human insulin, is supposed to be kept at a constant temperature. From the client information sheet provided at Vetsulin.com: "Vetsulin should be stored in an upright position under refrigeration (2-8 Degrees Celsius / 36-46 Degrees Fahrenheit). Do not freeze." It's packed with ice, and we have it shipped to my husband's work, so it can be refrigerated instead of left sitting on our front porch all day.

Our vet's office faxed in the order Monday afternoon. We called on Thursday because we hadn't received it yet. The vet's office called Schering-Plough, and notified us that it didn't ship right away because of bad weather, but it was on the way and should arrive on Friday. On Friday at 4:30, my husband called, but the vet's office had not been provided with a tracking number. So, our Vetsulin is sitting on a truck somewhere. Maybe it's outdoors or parked in an unheated warehouse. Maybe it's between 36 and 46 degrees in the truck. Maybe it's below zero with snow packed around it.

We have maybe a week's worth left. It's a very stressful situation for our family all around.

I just visited felinediabetes.com and found some discussion of other products. The only one our vet had mentioned to us before and today is Humulin. The discussion on the Feline Diabetes Message Boards suggest that Humulin is a lot more difficult to dose and regulate than Vetsulin has been for us. Someone had also posted a link to an article about a lawsuit against the makers of Vetsulin. I think Mr. Friedman is to blame for the product being pulled off the market. I'm truly sorry that his dog died, but I wonder if he can prove that Vetsulin is to blame.

We have been very careful to give Indy his doses on time. He gets injections at 8am with breakfast and 8pm with dinner. The vet said we could be safe giving it to him within an hour of that time. I think maybe once we gave it to him nearly an hour late, and we skipped a dose one night when we went to an event out of town for a special occasion. We were back for his morning dose. On a typical day we might be 15 minutes early or late. We keep the bottle refrigerated. We use the syringes twice, with the vet's blessing, and after first use, we keep it in the fridge, too. We swirl the bottle carefully, mixing it with the least amount of air bubbles as possible. My husband doesn't trust the last couple of doses in the bottle, usually (though in the coming days that may not be an option).

I wonder if Mr. Friedman has been as careful with giving his dog injections on time. I wonder if he stored the bottle upright (in the photo accompanying the article, he's holding the box on its side). I wonder how careful he was mixing up the solution each day. The thing is, these things cannot be proven in court, for either side. If it goes to trial and Mr. Friedman testifies he did everything by the book every time, will the jury believe him?

And again, why this problem with the mix of long-acting and quick acting components not a problem for the first dozen years the product was on the market. Did someone else complain because their pet died? Did the FDA suddenly get stricter, or did the manufacturer stop paying off their government contact?

If you have a pet on Vetsulin, I'd be really curious to hear your thoughts and experiences. If you have a pet on Humulin or another alternative, I'd like to hear about that as well.

Monday Make It For Cats - Tetherball Court

2011-01-31T20:42:00.000-06:00

What cat doesn't like to climb into a cardboard box or play with a ping pong ball? I'm sure there are some out there, but most of mine are fascinated with either, that is if the younger cats don't monopolize them.

Here's an idea for making your cat his or her own playhouse with hanging balls.

You poke holes in ping balls and then use the string to hang them inside the box. Create a door in the box (either use the open end or seal the box and cut a smaller opening in the side). Most cats won't be able to resist going inside and batting the balls.

The one problem I see with the instructions posted on eHow is that, with my cats at least, the glue will never hold. Here are the modifications I suggest.

1. Use practice golf balls instead of ping pong balls. They already have holes in them. At Walmart, the practice golf balls are cheaper than the ping pong balls.

2. Use cotton rope or clothesline, and run the rope all the way through the golf ball. Tie off one end with a really tight knot. Depending on the height of your box, you could leave a couple of inches of rope dangling and fray it.

3. Instead of gluing the string to the box, poke a hole in the box. Poke the rope through from the inside (you can tape the end temporarily to make it easier to feed) and knot that end tightly.

You'll need to use a fairly heavy duty box, because I could see a cat grabbing the ball with both paws and pulling on it with his whole weight and crumpling a lightweight box.

I think this method will hold up better than the glue method, and you won't have to punch holes in the balls.

Make-Your-Own Cat Toys

2011-01-28T22:35:00.005-06:00

We all want our cats to be safe, happy and healthy. I don't know about you, but I don't feel safe buying my kitties toys and products that are made in China.

So many products made for people are recalled because they contain some kind of safety hazard, so what are the chances that some of the pet products are made with substandard or dangerous materials.

Anyway, I keep my eye out for easy ways to make things for the cats, so that I can control what they're made of. Here are some great projects I found recently.

Homemade Scratching Pad. Have you ever looked at the cardboard scratching pads and wondered why they're so expensive. I have. This step-by-step guide on Design Sponge shows you how to turn an old cardboard box into a scratching pad that any cat will love.

Make-Your-Own Scratching Post. Why pay $50 for a scratching post at the pet shop? Over at Craftster, I found a guide to making an inexpensive scratching post using cheap burlap shopping bags, an old cutting board and a wooden post. If your cat tears up the bags too fast, you can buy sisel rope at the hardware store. I saw rolls of it sold by the foot or the yard. The rope could be coiled around and stapled, tacked or glued. Just be sure that whatever you use is non-toxic for your pets and will not easily be pulled out of the wood.

DIY Pet Bed. Craftster also has a post on how to turn an old table into a beautiful four-poster pet bed. I could see adding a sturdy canopy to the top for a second cat to use as a hammock.

Isn't this cute? It's a lucky cat who'll have this to sleep in at night. Or in the morning, afternoon or evening.

Have you made any cat toys or furniture? I'd love to hear more about what you made and how you made it.

Year of the Cat

2011-01-27T00:23:00.001-06:00

I just learned that this is the Year of the Cat in the Vietnamese culture. I guess I've just never heard about a Vietnamese New Year's celebration or if I did, the animal of the year corresponded to the Chinese New Year (in which 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit).

I had to know more, so I looked up a little information on it. The Vietnamese calendar is a lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon, which is why the new year is being celebrated now; it doesn't quite line up with the European calendar used by the western world.

I found a description of people born in a Cat Year (like the Chinese horoscope system, there are 12 signs, changing each year):

Postage stamps commemorating the Year of the Cat

Cats are smooth talkers, talented and ambitious and will succeed in studies. They are in conflict with the rat. A cat person has a supple mind and patient personality and knows how to wait for favorable conditions before taking action. Cat hours are between 5am and 7am, when cats begin their prowling.

An article on a New Year's celebration contained this further information:

The Year of the Cat generally represents peace and harmony. There are three types of horoscope cats in Vietnamese tradition: water cats, wood cats and metal cats. This year is a metal cat year, considered good luck in Vietnam. The metal cat represents resilience, determination and strength.

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE CAT

Black Cat Licorice

2011-01-26T01:39:00.000-06:00

We ate at Steak and Shake by the mall tonight, so we walked back into the World Market and I bought some Katjes-Kinder. I thought they would taste like black jelly beans. I was wrong. They're very hard and chewy and sticky and they're not very sweet and the licorice flavor is a little bitter.

They're really cute though.

Black Cat Human Treats

2011-01-25T00:58:00.000-06:00

I just adore my black cat Kali, and I'm enthralled by black cat stuff - jewelry, clothing, signs & posters, you name it.

Last fall, World Market had a lovely black cat bottle of wine (left). It's made by Moselland Zeller, and it was on sale for $10.99 through Halloween. I thought maybe it would be marked down more after, but it just went back up to its regular price of $11.99. We're not wine drinkers, so it seemed like a waste to pay full price, but I surely did want that bottle.

I have looked several times since, and I think they've sold out and restocked at least once. They didn't have any Black Cat wine in stock today, but they did have a white cat and another color, green maybe.

On the candy aisle, I discovered a new black cat treat.

Katjes-Kinder are black licorice candies shaped like cats. It's a Dutch candy, and they also make Katjes-Ohren (I hope I'm spelling that right) which are triangular shaped and I'm guessing that ohren means ear in Dutch.

The bag of Katjes Kinder was just under $3. Not bad, but I am supposed to be on a diet, and also I would just eat the Kali candy, whereas if I bought the Kali wine, I would have the bottle forever.

Have you seen any cat-shaped people treats?

Win Harry Potter 4 from CrazyKittyChick

2011-01-23T16:14:00.010-06:00

**UPDATE #2** Sleppery never contacted me, and I checked again and no email is visible on her blogger profile, so a new winner has been selected and contacted by email.

**UPDATE** We have a winner: Sleppery! Unfortuately, Sleppery doesn't have an email address her on blog profile or her blog or in her post. Hopefully, she'll see this update or the new post that she's the winner. I must hear from her by 12:15am on February 9, or I will choose a new winner.


If you don't win, Amazon has a great price.

CrazyKittyChick's last Harry Potter DVD giveaway was a big hit, and I have another in the series to give away. Last month, I was lucky enough to win Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Ultimate Edition DVD. The company sent me two copies, with the idea being that I should share one with a friend. The people I know who like Harry Potter already have the movie, so I have decided to share it by having a giveaway.

First, let me tell you a little about this boxed set, because it's much more than the movie. Here's a list of the extras included in this 3-disc set:

Creating the World of Harry Potter Part 4: Sound and Music

5 Vintage TV Specials:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Behind the Magic
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Dark Matters, New Masters
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Some Animal Magic
Inside Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Preparing for the Yule Ball
Conversations with the Cast
Reflections on the Fourth Film
3 Challenges/Games
44-Page Sound & Music Photo Book
Year 4 Lenticular Card
Two Collectible Character Cards: Ronald Weasley, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
Bonus Digital Copy of the Theatrical Film

If you're a fan of the Harry Potter series, you'll enjoy these extra features. Here's how you can be entered to win this set (SRP $39.92).

MANDATORY ENTRY: Leave a comment on this post telling me what is your favorite theme or song from any film. Be sure to say which movie the song or theme is from. If your email address is not visible on your GFC profile, please leave it in your comment.

EXTRA ENTRIES: For each item you complete, leave another comment here and be sure to include the link to your tweets.

*Follow crazykittychick on Twitter AND tweet this message: Enter to win Harry Potter 4 Ultimate DVD set from @crazykittychick http://crazykittychick.blogspot.com (+1 daily)
*Comment on any non-giveaway post on CrazyKittyChick and leave the title of the post in your comment (+1 daily)

Eligible comments must be made no later than 11:59pm ET on February 5, 2011. Entrants must be 18 or older, with shipping addresses in the United States or military APO/FPO addresses. One winner will be selected by random drawing on February 6 and notified by email or direct message on Twitter. Winner must respond to this notification with mailing address within 72 hours or another winner will be selected. DVD set will be sent media mail.

Harry Potter 3 DVD winner

2011-01-23T01:11:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Joy!

You posted that you tweeted about the Harry Potter 3 DVD giveaway and you are the lucky winner with comment #72. I've sent you a DM on Twitter. I just need your full name and address by midnight Tuesday to ship out your prize.

Thanks to everyone who commented and entered. I hope you will visit Crazy Kitty Chick again. I'll be giving away another Harry Potter DVD set soon!

Keeping Pets Healthy May Keep You Healthy

2011-01-20T22:14:00.001-06:00

A couple of veterinarians have concluded that getting too close to your pet could be dangerous to your health. Dr. Bruno Chomel and Dr. Ben Sun created a report that analyzed surveys from different countries about how many pet owners allow pets to lick, kiss or sleep in the same bed with them, and statistics on diseases associated with close contact between people and pets.

The report says that even seemingly healthy pets can carry health risks for humans, including parasites, bacteria or viruses. For example, a pet with fleas can bring plague into the bedroom or saliva entering a wound can transmit meningitis.

The authors conclude the study by saying that the risks can be reduced by providing pets with regular veterinary care to ensure that they are healthy and free of disease and parasites. They also remind that sharing our lives with pets bring many benefits, such as relieving stress and encouraging physical exercise.
The complete report will be published in the February 2011 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the monthly peer-reviewed public health journal of the Centers for Disease Control.

Help a Pet-Loving Military Family

2011-01-17T01:35:00.003-06:00

Thousands of Americans serve in the armed forces, and they are often sent overseas. Sometimes they are going into a war zone, while other assignments have them serving at U.S. bases in Europe or Asia. They may go out to sea for months on end. Service members with pets then have a tough choice. They have to find someplace for their pets to stay, try to find a place at a no-kill shelter, take them to the pound and hope they find an owner before they're euthanized or simply abandon them, hoping they make their own way to a new family.

At PetSmart this weekend, we saw a beautiful cat up for adoption from the Humane Society. She'd been left behind in Navy housing when her owner moved. It's heartbreaking to think of that poor cat turned out into the cold winter, her regular meals and once loving family now mysteriously gone.

Photo by John Blackie for the Pensacola
News Journal.

Today, I heard a happier outcome for two dogs owned by a member of the Air Force. Technical Sergeant Michael Doane, his wife and young daughter moved overseas. Doane's new assignment kept the family on the move, and even if he could take his dogs, Sammy and Maggie, he knew they wouldn't get the care and attention they needed.

He searched for a new home for them, and had just about given up when he found Bill and Sherrie Daws. The Daws foster animals for the Junior Humane Society, and Bill is retired from the Air Force. When they heard about the Doane's dilemma, they quickly stepped up to help. For twenty months, they cared for Sammy and Maggie at their farm. Now, the Doanes are home, and they had a joyful reunion with their pets.

More about the Doanes and Daws at Pensacola News Journal

Click here to watch WEAR-TV's video news story and see the happy family reunion.

If you are in a position to care for an extra animal or two, check with nearby military bases and animal rescue organizations. Let them know you'd like to help. The NetPets website also helps find temporary homes for the pets of military men and women. Service members and their families sacrifice a lot to defend freedom at home and abroad. Caring for the pets they have to leave behind is a way to ease their minds and thank them for their service.

Clip Coupons for Pet People

2011-01-15T15:50:00.001-06:00

Times are tough right now for a lot of people, and sometimes even when we want to help others, we don't feel we can afford to give. Here's a perfect way to make a difference in the lives of pet lovers and animal shelters. Clip coupons and cut used stamps off envelopes and send them to PetCouponsCentral.

PetCouponsCentral was founded to help people with pets save a little money when they're struggling to get by every month. They also help animal rescue programs and shelters.

Here's how it works. You're looking through a magazine or the newspaper and see some animal product coupons. Maybe it's ones that you can use, and you clip them. But how often do you see coupons for dog food and you have a cat? Or maybe it's for a brand you don't use. For example, we feed our cat Solid Gold and Hill's Prescription Diet dry food. My mom uses Purina Cat Chow. Anything else, we don't use right now.

Normally, I would just pass those coupons by, because I don't know many other cat people locally. Now that I've learned about PetCouponsCentral, I'll collect them and mail them in. The coupons will be distributed to individuals who have asked for help as well as to PetsOfTheHomeless.org and other animal charities. If the coupon is expired, it can be sent to military families overseas, who can still use them at the commissary.

What about the used stamps? I'm glad you asked. They can be used by Nowzad, a group that helps dogs, cats and donkeys in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nowzad helps find these animals new homes and assists military personnel in bringing home that they adopted overseas.

Pop your coupons and cancelled stamps in an envelope and mail them to PetCouponsCentral and they'll take care of sorting them and getting them into the hands of the right people. It just takes a few minutes of your time and a couple of postage stamps a month.

I hope you'll visit PetCouponsCentral and take a look at their wish list -- they take coupons for all kinds of animal foods and products. It's a great way to help.

Cute Site: The Infinite Cat

2011-01-13T23:53:00.000-06:00

The Infinite Cat site gets its name from a photograph. It's a photo of a cat looking at a computer monitor that has on it a photo of a cat looking at a monitor with a photo of another cat and so on and so on and so on. Infinite. Cat. Get it?

When you get to the site, up by the header, on the left, you'll see a menu. See the item that says Cat Comics? That's the first page I visited on The Infinite Cat. I had done an image search online for "cat blog" and this is one of the images that popped up. Clicking on the image led me to the Cat Comics page, which has a lot of really cute cartoons on it.

The Games section has a whole host of cat-related games. I tried to save the kittens, but I kept falling off the tightrope. I guess I don't have the fine motor control needed. It is very late, and I'm tired.

I didn't read all the stories and poems in the Cat Tales section, but the ones I read were interesting, uplifting, and in some cases a little sad. I did not read "The Grossest Cat Story Ever." Let me know if I should take the chance.

The section titled The Cats contains all the photos of cats looking at the computer monitors. I looked at Group 1 - cats 1-50, and I started with #50 and kept clicking "previous" and it's really cool to step back through the photos. You kind of get previews of the next few pics that way. NRFTICP takes you to cat photos that didn't quite fit the bill to be part of the Infinite Cat series of photos.

Catsville is a collection of links to cat related websites. That one will take a while to explore. Movies has videos including tributes to departed kitties, clips from movies, public service announcements and much more.

The Infinite Cat is a great site for cat lovers looking for a little something to occupy a few minutes. Enjoy.

Quest for Cat News

2011-01-12T21:45:00.001-06:00

At the first of the year, I made a pledge to myself that I was going to blog every day. That's been tough to do sometimes, but at least I am blogging more than last year.


Photo: ToledoOnTheMove.com, enhanced with Photoshop.

In sparking ideas for posts, I sometimes do a search for news about cats, and unfortunately, a lot of times I just end up feeling sad. I clicked on a story from ToledoOnTheMove in Ohio, about a cat that had climbed up a power pole and was stuck there for two days in the freezing cold. The headline said the cat was finally down safe. Happy story, right? It is a good ending for the cat, who's being treated at an animal hospital and will have a new home when released. What troubled me was that a woman called rescue centers, the fire department, the power company - and no one would help until the local news ran a story and people got outraged about it. Strike two were some of the hateful comments on the story, about how it's only a cat and should be able to get down by itself, and other animals who ended up dying because no one would help, and about how it wasn't safe for the electric company to help the cat. Hello?! Flip a switch, turn off the power for a few minutes, go up in a bucket, and when you're done, turn the power back on. As I said, the company finally agreed to help and no one was harmed in the rescue.

That was the first story my search turned up. Scanning down the headlines, I found stories about people arrested for killing and/or abusing cats. I found stories about efforts to strengthen laws against animal abuse, which would be a good thing, but it still reminds me that sick people are deliberately hurting defenseless animals all the time. I saw stories about people debating how to handle feral cat populations, about a cat that tested positive for rabies, about a woman sent to jail for animal cruelty. It just breaks my heart.

Finally, I found a nice story, about a brave cat who helps dogs find new homes.

KRQE.com

Harley just retired from Animal Humane New Mexico. For the past three years, he has been helping determine which dogs that come through the adoption center can get along with cats. First, the dogs would visit Harley while he was safe in his carrier. If the dogs behaved, Harley stepped out of the safety zone and met the mutt face to face. Dogs who passed both tests were cleared to go to new homes that had cats in the family. The others had a note put in their file that they would not play well with felines. The process helps ensure that adopted dogs and their new families have a good experience. Three human years is over twenty cat years, so Harley has definitely earned his retirement, and he is now joining the ranks of the cats looking for a new forever home to live out his days.

Win with CrazyKittyChick!

2011-01-09T22:22:00.006-06:00

If you don't win, Amazon has a great price.

As a cat lover, I enjoy watching movies with cats in them, and here's a good one: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's the third movie (and book) in the Harry Potter series, and it introduces the character Crookshanks. He's Hermione's familiar, as it were, and while some of the character's think he's grumpy and mean, it turns out that he's much wiser than they are giving him credit for.

Last month, I was lucky enough to win Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Ultimate Edition DVD. Not only did I win one copy, the company gave me two copies, so I could share one with a friend. The people I know who like Harry Potter already have the movie, so I have decided to share it by having a giveaway.

First, let me tell you a little about this boxed set, because it's much more than the movie. Here's a list of the extras included in this 3-disc set:

Creating the World of Harry Potter Part 3: Magical Creatures
Tour Nick Dudman’s Creature Shop
An Interview in Spanish with Alfonso Cuarón
3 Vintage TV Specials
Additional Scenes
Creating the Vision: Interview with J.K. Rowling and the Filmmakers
Conjuring a Scene: Creating Buckbeak and the Dementors for the Screen
Johnny Vaughan and the Shrunken Head Lead Raucous Interviews with the Cast
Self-Guided Tours of Honeydukes and Professor Lupin’s Classroom
Meet the Animal Trainers in Care of Magical Creatures
3 Challenges/Games
48-Page Creatures Photo Book with Rare Images from Years 1-7
Year 3 Lenticular Card
Two in a Series of Character Cards: Hermione Granger & Sirius Black

If you're a fan of the Harry Potter series, if you love special effects, or if you're amazed by the work of animal actors, you'll enjoy these extra features. Here's how you can be entered to win:

MANDATORY ENTRY: Leave a comment on this post telling me what is your favorite movie with a cat in it and why. If your email is not visible on your GFC profile, please leave it in your comment.

EXTRA ENTRIES: For each item you complete, leave another comment here and be sure to include the link to your tweets.

*follow CrazyKittyChick on Twitter (+1)
*tweet this message: Enter to win Harry Potter 3 Ultimate DVD set from @crazykittychick http://crazykittychick.blogspot.com/2011/01/win-with-crazykittychick.html (+1 daily)

(Through 1/13 you could earn an extra entry by voting for my video in the CBS/Big Bang Theory
Soft Kitty video contest, however round 1 voting is now over and I didn't make the finals.)

Eligible comments must be made no later than 11:59pm ET on January 22, 2011. Entrants must be 18 or older, with shipping addresses in the United States or military APO/FPO addresses. One winner will be selected by random drawing on January 23 and notified by email. Winner must respond to this email with mailing address within 72 hours or another winner will be selected. DVD set will be sent media mail.

Please Vote for My Soft Kitty

2011-01-07T00:31:00.003-06:00

UPDATE: VOTING IS OVER.*

That's me, singing "Soft Kitty" to my cat Kali. She is not amused. I taped this at about 1:30 Thursday morning. See, I'd just found out about The Big Bang Theory Soft Kitty Contest over at CBS.com, and I really needed to get some sleep, and there wouldn't be any time in the morning and entries had to be submitted by 2pm, while I was still at work.

Sheldon, Penny and Leonard

Have you seen The Big Bang Theory? It's about these four friends, who are nerdy physicists, and they make lots of science fiction movie-comic book comments that I can relate to. It's hilarious. Anyway, in one episode, one of the nerdy guys, Sheldon, is sick, and the normal girl next door, Penny, is roped into taking care of him, and he asks her to sing to him, a song his mother used to sing to him when he was sick, "Soft Kitty." He proceeds to teach her the song and makes her sing it to him over and over. It's come up in at least a couple of other episodes, too; at this point, we've seen all of seasons 1 & 2 on DVD, and we're watching some of season 4 at CBS.com.

So, somehow I totally miss seeing the contest on the CBS website until hours before the deadline to enter. I grabbed my Flip Mino and tried to round up a cat to sit in my lap. I'm a terrible mommy and Kali is my favorite, so I really wanted it to be her. She sat at one end of the couch on the floor, and I sat on the other end and cajoled her. I sang "Soft Kitty" and her eyes drooped sleepily.

"Yes," I said, "That would be so perfect, Kali, if you would just sit in my lap!" I reached for her and she flinched like I was the mean overseer at the orphanage in Oliver! I reached for her again, and she leaped up onto the back of the couch. "Good enough, Kali. Just sit there." And that's how this video was made.

In a perfect world, I would have had more time. I could have put on make-up and worn something nice instead of wrapping a blanket around my nightgown. My husband would have held the camera. I could have set up something cute, like waiting for all the cats to fall asleep on the couch, getting a more accommodating one to sit on my lap and purr while I sang. Then I would have set the cat beside me, stood up and said, "I'll be right back, don't take my spot," and of course, the cat would have taken over my spot the instant I left.

I should say, in case you haven't seen the show, that Sheldon is very particular, almost OCD, about his spot on the couch. It freaks him out if anyone else sits there. So, that would have been really cute, and then I would have come up with a better title for the video, too. See, it said "caption" instead of "title" and I was tired, and then after I submitted the video and laid down to sleep, it came to me that I should have given the video a really cute physics kind of name, like the titles of the episodes of the show. Something like "The Trickster Tachyon" (Trickster's a good lap cat) or "The Kali Corollary." Alas.

Is the video my best work. No, but I hope you'll vote for me anyway. I really love The Big Bang Theory, and the prize is a trip to L.A. and a chance to visit the set. Yes, it's very geeky of me, but that's what The Big Bang Theory is all about. To vote, all you have to do is type in the verification code on the left side of the screen and click VOTE NOW FOR THIS VIDEO.

The first round of voting ended January 13, and unfortunately for me, I was not a finalist. Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for my video!

Kick that Scratching Habit

2011-01-04T22:11:00.000-06:00

Actually, this isn't about stopping your cat from scratching at all. It's about redirecting them from furniture and doorframes to appropriate cat furniture.

Cornell University's Veterinary College has prepared a series of short videos about cats and scratching. Titled Managing Destructive Scratching Behavior, the videos cover why cats scratch, how to choose the right scratching post, and proper claw maintenance. Each video is only a couple of minutes long, and they offer some useful tips. Although, they did not explain how to get your cat to sit still for the clippers; the cat they used is definitely not normal. Or, maybe mine are the abnormal ones. Hmmm.

Welcome to My World

2011-01-03T23:49:00.001-06:00

My cats are in tune with Stanley. When they think it's time for mommy to go to bed (or more like, time for mommy to give them their midnight snack), they climb under the desk, play with the power cables, climb on the desk, and try to help me type faster.

What do your cats do to get your attention?

Make Your Own Cat Furniture

2011-01-02T13:18:00.000-06:00

Cat furniture is expensive, and it can also take up a lot of room. Who wouldn't love to give their cat(s) one of those huge climbing tree-scratching post-condo toys? Money and available space may make that prohibitive.

Here's a great idea that doesn't take up much room. It's a project posted on IKEA Hackers, a website devoted to the re-purposing of IKEA products.

Grace in Philadephia used black and red Lack shelves to make a series of "stepping stones" on her wall. She adhered non-skid shelf paper to the shelves, so the cat wouldn't slip jumping from one to the other. The cat can sit on the small shelves or use them as steps to climb up to the wider shelf above the door.

You can find complete instructions and another photo at IKEA Hackers.

Have you made your own cat furniture? Please share your space- and money-saving tips here at Crazy Kitty Chick.

Lucky Cats

2011-01-01T21:59:00.011-06:00

On New Year's Day I always think about good fortune. That's mainly because my Pap-pa, Hoyt Cook, always said that for every black-eyed pea you eat on New Year's Day, you'll receive a dollar in the coming year. I figure it's worth more now. After all, the website Dollar Times says that a 1934 dollar, adjusted for inflation, will buy $16.36 cents worth of stuff today. Or maybe $16.36 today will buy a dollar's worth of stuff. That's more like it.

Anyway, that's why I eat a lot of black-eyed peas on New Year's Day and think about good fortune while I'm doing it.

Cats are associated with good luck, too. If you live in the U.S., you may have heard that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck, but in Britain, that's good luck; it meant that the witch or her animal familiar didn't have a grudge with you. One story has it that the first King Charles had a black cat that he loved dearly and considered his good luck charm. When the cat died, he mourned its loss, saying his luck had run out, and the next day he was arrested.

In Russia, blue cats are thought to be lucky, and bringing a cat along when you move into a new home is said to bring good fortune. In Canada, tricolor cats (aka tortoiseshell-and-white) are considered good luck. Calico cats like Misha (right) are a type of tortoiseshell cat.

In China, any old ugly cat is considered lucky. Since cats are considered food in China, a cat that manages to survive into old age would certainly be lucky.

In some parts of Europe, a cat who enters a house of its own free will is said to bring good luck with it. Buddhists traditionally believed that dark-colored cats attracted gold and light-colored cats attracted silver. In Japan, calico cats are good luck, and the Maneki Niko (left), a tricolor cat depicted with its paw raised in welcome, is said to attract good luck and money.

Whether you believe in these myths and superstitions or not, cat lovers know that at the heart of all these stories you find the good luck that comes from having a cat share your life, bringing laughter, joy, and happiness to their human families.

Cats in Cartoons

2010-12-30T18:35:00.001-06:00

When I was a little girl, I watched a Saturday morning cartoon series called The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty. It was a parody of the movie The Secret Lives of Walter Mitty, as well as parodying pop-culture characters from Tarzan to Captain Kirk. I don't remember it being great television, and according to Wikipedia, it was only around for 13 episodes. Each episode started out with film of real cats and dogs and a voice over. When it came to the pivotal moment and one of the cats was in trouble, Waldo would wish he was one heroic character or another and that's when the show would shift into cartoon mode. The series aired in the fall of 1975. Here's a look at the title sequence:

I don't know why Waldo popped into my head this afternoon, but remembering that series got me thinking about some other Saturday morning cartoons that involved cats.

Hong Kong Phooey (left) followed the adventures of a janitor-by-day-crimefighter-by-night. HKP was an anthropomorphic dog who talked to and worked with human cops. His sidekick was Spot, a striped cat who usually saved the day in such a way that all the credit went to Hong Kong Phooey. HKP was voiced by the incomparable Scatman Crothers. The series aired from 1974-1976.

Josie and the Pussy Cats (right) aired from 1970-1972. The characters, created first for the Archie comic books in the '60s, have a band and travel around the country performing and solving mysteries. It's sort of like Scooby-Doo with a girl band and a music video segment in every episode. The Pussy Cats' nemesis is Alexandra Cabot, the conniving sister of the band's manager, Alexander Cabot III. Alexandra has a pet cat named Sebastian, but he's the only "real" cat in the show.

Top Cat (below) was a cartoon series that first aired in prime time during the 1961-1962 television season, a little before my time. Cat-about-town Top Cat led a group of alley cats into get-rick-quick schemes and criminal capers that kept them hounded by the neighborhood beat cop.

The movies also brought us some cartoon cats who later made regular appearances on television.

The Pink Panther was designed for the animated title sequence of the 1963 Blake Edwards movie. In the film, clumsy Inspector Clouseau is searching for the cat burglar who stole the priceless pink diamond known as the Pink Panther. The cartoon was so popular that Warner Brothers, commissioned a series of cartoon shorts featuring the characters. In the late 1960s, the shorts were airing on Saturday morning television while new short cartoons were still being made for theatrical release.

Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes gave us one of the most fmous cartoon cats, Sylvester. The black and white cat was always trying to eat Tweety Bird, but the clever canary is wise to Sylvester's schemes. After uttering, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" the bird always manages to foil Sylvester's plots. Sylvester shorts started appearing in theaters in 1945, and since then he has had numerous appearances on television and in film. Some of the cartoons feature his precocious kitten, Sylvester Junior.


The adventures of Tom and Jerry have entertained audiences for 70 years.

The oldest cat on my list is Tom from Tom and Jerry. Between 1940 and 1957, MGM released 114 cartoon shorts featuring the cat and mouse. Seven of those received Academy Awards for Animated Short Subject. From 1960-1967, another 47 shorts were made, and from 1965-1972, those cartoons aired on television. The shorts had been criticized for its portrayal of a stereotypical black housekeeper, so in some cases, animators replaced that character with a white woman, and for other broadcasts, only the voiceover was changed. New stories for television were created in the '70s, '80s, '90s and the first decade of the 21st century.

Tom and Jerry cartoons have also been criticized for its portrayal of smoking and its use of extreme violence. Though the cartoons never contained any blood or gore, and sometimes Jerry and Tom even seem to be friends, in the course of their adventures, Tom gets sliced in half, flattened by a window, burned in a waffle maker and so forth. Those criticisms led to some episodes being heavily edited for recent TV broadcasts.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of cartoon cats. What are your favorites?

Catster - Best In Show

2010-12-28T23:35:00.000-06:00

Every year, the feline social networking site Catster has a photo contest. The winners of the 2010 event have been announced, and the pictures are great. Visit the World's Coolest Cat Show to view the winners.

Enjoy a Coffee with a Cat

2010-12-27T22:01:00.000-06:00

In Seoul, Korea, coffee shops are as commonplace as Starbucks in the U.S. The cafés are all looking for a gimmick to help them stand out, and one such shop, Kwon Hjuk-jin's Cat Café, decided it would stand out by hosting cats along with the people. Patrons enjoy petting the cats, and prominent signs remind them to treat the cats with kindness and respect.

You can read more about the Cat Café in an article at the Los Angeles Times.

DIY Mousie Toy

2010-12-20T21:34:00.002-06:00

Several years ago, I tried to make some catnip mice for the cats. What I ended up with were several little padded squares with tails. If only I had found this handy guide on All Free Sewing back then, the toys would have looked like proper mice.

Using their guide (it's not even a pattern, really), you can make a little gray mouse like the one at left, or you can use patterned fabric. It's a great opportunity to turn old clothes, towels or scraps from sewing projects into toys for your pets.

All Free Sewing has guides for other dog and cat projects, too, as well as human clothing, holiday crafts and home décor. The site has sewing tips and tutorials, too, if you're like me and don't have a lot of experience. This mouse toy is simple enough that you can even sew it by hand if you don't have access to a machine.

Have fun making toys for your cats, and please share if you have any other tips for making homemade toys or cat furniture.

In the CATegory - Now I've Seen Everything -

2010-12-19T00:32:00.000-06:00

Have you heard about the iPad game for cats? Seriously, someone has created an app that iPad owners can download to amuse their felines.

I don't have an iPad, but if I had one, I would consider downloading this game to see what my cats would do. I'm not sure I could trust them not to claw the screen though. They never seem to worry about the damage their claws do to human skin when I'm playing with them or holding them.

Has anyone tried this? What do you think of the game and, more importantly, what do your cats think of it?

Sign up for Dinovite Emails for a Chance to Win

2010-12-19T00:25:00.000-06:00

I received an email today about Dinovite's Healthy Pet Give-Away. I do not work for or have any relationship with Dinovite other than I have previously registered for one of their giveaways (I didn't win) and I am on their email list. I thought some of the readers here might be interested in learning about the giveaway and the product line, so here are the details:

One very lucky dog and one very lucky cat will win a 90 day supply of DINOVITE products specifically designed for him (or her)! Many other runner-ups will win selections of our all natural and organic pet products.

Here are a few things you need to know about our give-away. In order to enter:
* You must own a dog or cat.
* You must click directly through this email to be entered into this give-away. So, forward this email to your friends and family who own a furry friend! All information provided on the form must be valid to win!
* Limit of one entry per person please!

To register , simply click on the link below and fill out our Pet Health Guide questionnaire. This will serve as your entry. Within a couple of hours, watch your email for your pet's FREE Health Report! And, the week of January 24, 2011, watch your email for the announcement of our winners!

Dinovite Healthy Pet Give-Away

By submitting our Health Guide form to register, you are giving DINOVITE permission to email you additional information about natural pet products, pet food and treat recipes, coupons/promotions, newsletters, etc. You can opt out at anytime by simply clicking on the "manage email preferences" at the bottom of DINOVITE emails and choosing to unsubscribe.

100 Ways to Love a Cat

2010-12-16T08:51:00.000-06:00

It takes a while to get through all 100 ways to love your cat, and the tune will stick in your head after a few minutes. This video about nice things to do for your cat is well worth the time watching it and the time spent humming the tune to yourself for the next six weeks.

What Does Your Pet Mean to You?

2010-12-14T00:32:00.001-06:00

I just read a post over at Single Dad Laughing about the rude and insensitive comments people will make to an adoptive parent. People say similarly rude and insensitive things to people who love their pets unconditionally.

Jynx is Feline Leukemia positive so he
can't be around our other cats.

I don't have children, but I have a lot of cats. I love them as much as any parent loves a human child. When I have a big vet bill or buy them special food or medication, some thoughtless people ask how I could possibly spend so much money on an animal; they certainly wouldn't. I guess I'm a better person than them.

Some people have told me that I couldn't love my cats as much as I would love a child, because I didn't give birth to them. Hmmm. Tell that to an adoptive parent. Once, when someone made a comment about it not being the same, I asked her, why? Is it because you can have a conversation with your son and I can only talk to my cats, not with them? She said, yes, that's it. I thought, but didn't bother contining the conversation (because you can't change their minds), what about those parents whose children are born with a condition that keeps them from developing speech or other communicative skills? What about the child who has a head injury or develops severe autism? A lot of parents cannot have meaningful conversations with their children, and they spend a lot of time and money providing not just the medical care that keeps them alive, but also anything and everything they can to give the child some stimulation, some happiness perhaps, in a difficult world.

Would the people who question my love for my cats, my spending on their health and happiness, suggest to those parents that they just let their children die and move on? Get a different kid? Would they tell these parents they can't possibly love their children because they can't talk with them?

I have a lot of respect for people who care for disabled or sick children, whether it's their biological children or they adopted them. It takes far more work and more money than my cats usually require. My cats can reach the limit of their potential.

Wicket and Misha

Well, not the limit of their potential to the extent that they will never star in a movie, commercial or Broadway show, because they'd be hiding under something, drenched in the blood of the mommy who dared to take them someplace scary. But they can play with their toys, watch birds and squirrels through the windows, point out nasty bugs that come in the house, snuggle on a lap, and act deceptively cute when they've done something really bad.

We love each other - my cats, my husband and I - and we are a family. Perhaps it's not a traditional family, but sometimes, like the song says, love is all you need.

How to Wrap a Cat

2010-12-13T22:38:00.005-06:00

When I was a little girl, my cat Midnight would let me dress her in doll clothes, and I think I could have gift wrapped her. None of my current pride would sit still for it. Would yours?

Pill Pockets - A Miracle for Cat Lovers

2010-12-12T01:34:00.001-06:00

If you've ever had to give a cat a pill, you know how difficult it can be, especially if it's a maintenance drug or a course of medication that must be given over several days.

Finding Pill Pockets was a blessing. Our cat Quinn had gone through six months of heart medications, sometimes multiple pills several times a day, and many times he would run from us, even when we just wanted to pet him. It was heartbreaking, so when his littermate Remy was diagnosed with a heart murmur, we were so afraid he'd start to fear us as well.

Thankfully, by then we had found Pill Pockets. Made by an independent company at that time, Pill Pockets are now made by Greenies. Here's the way it works: Pill Pockets are very soft and malleable. It's shaped like a cup, so you can drop a pill in, however if you try to hide a whole pill in a full Pocket, unless your cat has a large mouth, s/he may have trouble chewing and swallowing it all.

Remy only has to take one quarter of a small pill per day, and we can easily hide it in half a Pocket. He's been on the medication for about five years and only recently did he begin turning up his nose at the Salmon and Chicken flavors. Fortunately, Greenies, which makes the pockets, has added a new Duck flavor, and he likes that just fine, so far.

We currently have nine cats, and we use the Pill Pockets for their regular worm treatments as well. Those are larger pills, so we quarter them and hide the pieces in half-Pockets. Same with allergy medicines.

It's very easy to break the Pockets into smaller pieces and press them around a small pill or piece of pill. The cat smells only the treat, grabs it, it's very chewy, and they usually don't notice the pill at all. Whole pills, though, tend to get bitten into, meaning the cat tastes the pill and spits it out. That's why we break larger pills apart now.

On the whole, I highly recommend Pill Pockets for helping the medicine go down. By the way, they're also available for dogs.

Steve Martin on Kittens

2010-12-03T08:42:00.000-06:00

I was thinking about the whole 92Y vs Steve Martin debacle this morning while looking at my cats, and my brain suddenly recalled a brilliant comic essay written by Mr. Martin and published in his book Pure Drivel. I looked up the title, and it's "Mars Probe Finds Kittens." I thought it might be posted on Mr. Martin's website but I'm not seeing any of his essays there anymore.

Do yourself a favor and look up this essay. It's not very long, but it's brilliant in its accuracy about the behavior of little catlings. I have often recalled it when I had insane crack monkeys tearing through the house and bouncing off the walls.

Steve Martin is in the center of weird

2010-12-03T00:16:00.001-06:00

I was looking at my Twitter today, and I noticed some odd tweets from Steve Martin. Stuff about how he'd be erasing his name from signed books and how he'd made love to his wife and she demanded a refund. Funny but weird, right?

Then I saw another tweet, with a link to an article. An NPR blog, actually, and that explained what happened. Earlier this week, Mr. Martin made an appearance at the 92nd Street Y, which I gather is a real center for arts and culture; they have a regular interview series featuring many well-known figures. He has a new book out which is set against the backdrop of the arts scene - you know, paintings and stuff - and so the interviewer, Deborah Solomon - a journalist, a friend of his, and if not an arts "expert," she has written on the subject - talked with him about art.

In the middle of it, according to this blog and an article in the New York Times, someone passed a note to Ms. Solomon (right). The note said that people watching the interview online were sending emails demanding that the interviewer ask more questions about Mr. Martin's movie career. Ms. Solomon read it aloud, and the live audience cheered. She took some questions from the audience, and the interview wrapped up on time.

That's all a little surreal, but here's where it gets downright rude.

The 92nd Street Y (seen at left) sent a notice to everyone who'd bought a ticket (apparently they were $50 a pop) and basically apologized for the interview and offered them a credit towards a ticket to a different event.

That's just crazy. Let me make a few points:

The patrons of the 92nd Street Y are supposedly interested in arts and culture.
The interview was, theoretically, not advertised as a comedy show.
Any idiot can Google "Steve Martin" and find video clips, interviews, and print articles about his career.
Any moron scheduling an appearance with Mr. Martin now should know that he has a book to promote.
Ms. Solomon has since said that the organizers gave her no guidelines on topics of conversation.

Switching gears for just a moment, I'm a big fan of Harrison Ford's. I know all his stories. I've read all about his career. I know how he got the scar in real life, how Indiana Jones got the scar, how Jack Trainer got the scar in "Working Girl," and I can tell the story verbatim of how, after his first movie role (a bellhop in "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round"), an executive called him into his office and said, "Kid," (he called him "kid"), "The first film role Tony Curtis had he was delivering a bag of groceries, a bag of groceries, and you took one look at him and you said, 'That guy's going to be a star.'" To which Harrison responded, "I thought you were supposed to think, "That's guy's a grocery delivery boy."

These things still come up every once in a while, but a lot of times, even when he has a new movie out, the interviewers will talk to him about his flying (he's a licensed airplane and helicopter pilot, if you hadn't heard), about his work with Conservation International, about his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and you end up with great stuff like, "Moose are the El Dorado of ungulates" and the story of how he went to a store on behalf of a friend with a young child, and he asked a stockboy where the diapers were, and the kid sent him to the aisle that had the Depends.

Then there's Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. I tuned in to his "Around the World in 80 Days" expecting a bit of a lark, but it was a serious attempt to recreate the journey described in the Verne novel. It had moments of humor but it was also educational and enlightening and quite enjoyable. On the flip side, I went to a history lecture by another Python alum, Terry Jones, and expected a somewhat dry and trying-to-be-funny-but-embarrassingly-falling-short talk based on one of his books, and it was actually quite entertaining as well.

The point of these digressions is to show that an open-minded, intelligent person sitting quietly and listening to someone who interests them for one reason may find new reasons to admire and appreciate that someone. The same tired stories may not be boring exactly (Harrison could read the phone book to me and I'd be happy) but why not break new ground. That would be even more stimulating. The people who complained had no right to complain. They paid to see an interview with a talented, well-rounded, intelligent artist and that's what they got.

The 92nd Street Y was well within its rights and responsibilities to its patrons to quietly provide refunds or credits to patrons who demanded their money back or even to those who actively expressed some displeasure. I have no idea how many emails the Y received or from whom. It could have been six guys sitting together in a pub firing drunken volleys every three minutes from their iPhones. The cheer from the audience, by the way, is not so telling; a live audience will cheer at anything.

Instead, the Y chose to send a blanket email that assumed everyone was unhappy with the interview and wanted their money back. It was a slap in the face to Mr. Martin and Ms. Solomon. It sets a dangerous precedent for their lecture series - in future, should interviewers and special guests shy away from new territory and open discussion and focus only on old news and the standard stories the guests are famous for? And what if I, upon hearing the same old stories, complain vociferously that I wanted something new? Will I get a credit to see another speaker? What if I'm only in New York for a couple of days - will you refund the money to my charge card? Why charge people to see it at all? You can't please all of the people all of the time, so what's the use in even trying?

The 92nd Street Y owes Mr. Martin and Ms. Solomon public apologies. And a credit to select another, more intelligent and discerning audience for their next interview.

Battery Pack Giveaway from Rayovac

2010-11-29T00:10:00.004-06:00

'Tis the season for buying and using battery-operated toys and devices. A lot of people will wake up Christmas morning and realize they don't have enough batteries to run everything under the tree. Rayovac wants to help out by giving away huge packages of batteries along with cash money to pay holiday bills.

Rayovac's "Mom Rocks the Holidays" sweepstakes will award three Grand Prize winners $1,000 cash from Rayovac. Twenty First Place Prize winners will receive a Rayovac Jam kit including a Paper Jamz guitar, drum, amp, guitar strap as well as 2 packs of Rayovac Alkaline AAA 24 packs.

Here's how to enter:

“Like” Rayovac on Facebook: Facebook.com/Rayovac.
Log on to Rayovac.com, complete the entry form and tell Rayovac in 120 words or less how you (or your mom) rocks the holidays.

The Mom Spark blog is spreading the DC joy & teaming with Rayovac to give five winners a $50 Visa Gift Card, Paper Jamz Guitar, and one pack of Rayovac Alkaline AAA 24 pack batteries! Visit Mom Spark to enter.

DISCLOSURE: Followers who promote the Rayovac Mom Rocks the Holidays Sweepstakes may receive gifts from Rayovac. Nothing has been promised to me at this point, but this post is an attempt to win a Rayovac prize package via Mom Spark's promotion.

Morning Glory movie review

2010-11-22T00:55:00.001-06:00

It was months, or maybe even years ago, that I heard Harrison Ford would be playing a morning show anchor in the movie Morning Glory. Now, I'm not only a huge fan of Harrison's, but I used to produce a 90-minute morning news show, so I've been looking forward to the movie ever since.

My husband and I saw Morning Glory Sunday afternoon. It drew a big crowd, and at least 2/3 were my age or older. I don't remember any really big reactions, like the whole theatre laughing uproariously or anything. DH laughed out loud a few times and so did I; some of my laughs definitely came out of my own experiences working with news people and on-air personalities.

Here's how the story goes: Rachel McAdams plays Becky Fuller, the producer of "Good Morning, New Jersey." When she's called into the boss's office, she expect to be promoted to senior producer, but instead he lets her go. Relentless job hunting gets her an offer from fourth-place network IBS. They want her as executive producer of last-ranked morning show "Daybreak." Network executive Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum) tells it's a next-to-impossible job, but he can't dampen her enthusiasm. She practically blackmails old-school journalist Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) to co-anchor the show, and he immediately clashes with female anchor Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) as well as refusing to do most of the stories Becky asks him to handle. Ratings continue to sink, but Becky is determined to turn things around. Through sheer force-of-will, she gets the team working together, the ratings start to edge up, and she gets the job offer of her dreams. Then she has to decide if that dream job is what she really wants after all.

Overall, it was a good movie, well paced and entertaining. The acting is great. Some of the directorial or editorial choices are a little strange, but not overly annoying. The music is mostly unobtrusive, except for a few music video moments, which play out okay.

I feel like the movie fell a little short of what it could have been. The script paints Pomeroy as a stodgy and arrogant newsman who only wants to do hard news; he thinks the softer segments of a morning show are beneath him. The movie would have been stronger and more relevant if it placed his debates with Becky in a broader context. I started in news production in 1999, and I was promoted to producer in 2000. By the time I left the industry in 2007, I had seen a lot of degradation in the news biz, both locally and nationally. Sensationalism and a fancy graphics package became more important than solid reporting. Celebrity reports often seem to overshadow the day's "real news" events. If Becky's a good producer, her show would have a good mix of hard news, information, and fluff. In her drive to get the show's ratings up, she was studying the "minute to minute" ratings, which my small-town station never had. In big cities, the major ratings company, Nielsen, has hooked up boxes to the TV's of willing participants, and it generates reports showing exactly when viewers turn on a show, switch channels, or switch off the TV. A young, single-minded producer could see a spike during an interview with a hot rap star, for example, and start booking more rap stars because that's what her viewers seem to want. That could have given Becky the impetus to reject a "boring" hard news story in favor of expanded music segments, thus earning the ire of Mike Pomeroy. All the same clashes and laughs would be in place, but the story would have a little more meat on it, relevant commentary about news in the 21st century.

A few technical things that bugged me:
When I was the only producer on my morning show, I was in at 11pm to write and assemble the show. At the beginning of Morning Glory, Becky is the producer of "Good Morning, New Jersey" and she's hoping for a promotion to senior producer of the show. She sets her alarm for 1:30am, meaning she couldn't have been at work before 2:00am. I think she mentioned having a story meeting at 4:00am, which is about when my news anchors started arriving at work, but they just read over their scripts and asked me if they had any questions. When Becky is E.P. of "Daybreak," I can accept her coming in early morning, then staying after the show to book segment guests and plan the next day's show. She had producers and reporters under her who presumably would have been in earlier. If anyone's reading this who's produced a morning show and didn't have to go in to work until 2:00am or later, I'd love to hear from you about how that works.

Mike Pomeroy's first day on the job, there's an embarrassing mistake on one of the over-the-shoulder graphics. The picture changed, but the caption underneath didn't. On the systems we used, the caption was part of the picture, so that's a pretty unlikely mistake. Not to say it absolutely couldn't happen, but it's unlikely. The most astounding part, though, was that Becky - who got hammered with at least nine questions, non-stop from her crew on her first day and kept them all straight - apparently got so flustered that she couldn't remember what an over-the-shoulder graphic (AKA an insert) was called. Again, unlikely.

When Pomeroy goes out to do his big live shot on a breaking news story, it appears to be just the driver/cameraman, Pomeroy and Becky in the satellite truck. When they arrive, they all jump out of the truck, the cameraman gets his camera, and they all walk up to the front door. When I was in news, we didn't have a sat truck (the station has since gotten at least one), but setting up a regular live shot required raising the mast and tuning in the shot with master control. Sometimes they had to move the vehicle in order to aim the transmitter in the right direction to hit one of our towers. I don't think it's much different with a satellite truck. Our set-up also required cables to be run from the truck to the camera. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that wireless transmission from the camera to the truck is possible, but "Daybreak" didn't seem to have a very big budget by network standards. It would have meant having an extra cast member -- allowing a driver/sat truck operator to do the set-up while the cameraman jumped out and ran some cable while Pomeroy and Becky argued.

The script wasted a lot of time developing a relationship between Becky and Adam Bennett (Patrick Wilson), who works at IBS but can't seem to understand the pressure of daily news. Becky talks about never having any long-lasting relationships because she's so career-driven, but she quickly opens up to Bennett and starts sleeping with him. When Pomeroy points out that if she focuses solely on her career, she's going to end up with nothing, we don't see her taking that to heart in her personal life. If we'd seen her with the string of dead-end dates that's referred to in the script, if she'd turned down Bennett before but finally accepted a date with him, it would show that she changed and grew. Also, it's always a little sad for me when movies portray everyone as being loose and having sex with someone as no big deal.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Morning Glory and recommend it. Some of the things that bothered me won't distract someone who's never worked in the news. Overall, it's a well-made film with a good and positive story that should appeal to young and old alike.

Cat v. Gator - what's your take?

2010-11-18T00:31:00.000-06:00

Have you seen the video of the Louisiana cat who takes on two alligators and wins? On the one hand, it's pretty awesome that this tough little fellow chased off the alligators, but on the other hand....

What were all those people thinking? I don't know if the cats are strays or if they live at the park. Are they someone's pets?

When I first heard about the video, I didn't realize that it was taking place at a gator park. That more or less explains why the people were videotaping in the first place. There's a grown man standing next to the gator, a child and another cat can be seen a few feet away. Do they not realize how fast an alligator can move when he wants to? The man makes a sudden move at one point, and I'm not sure if he was trying to shoo the cat away or the gator.

I guess the most disturbing thing, besides no one either realizing or caring that alligators are dangerous, is that I'm sure that even if the black cat, the Siamese cat, and the kid had all gotten eaten, the video would probably still be generating millions of hits on YouTube. Cell phone cameras and the internet have made everyone a "journalist" -- there simply to record images, not to interfere or take part in the event.

Finally, just hearing the description of this brave cat reminded me of my mom's little cat Bitsy. She was up for the world's record as the smallest living cat, but her health was just too poor. Despite her small stature, Bitsy was feisty. She took swipes at much bigger cats, and when we were at a rest area once, she looked like she was about to take off after the industrial lawnmower down the hill. She wasn't afraid of anything, and if she'd run into a gator, well, it's not an experience the gator would soon forget.

So, what are your thoughts about the video of the cat attacking the gator? Harmless fun? No one in real danger? Or a sign of how careless and thoughtless people can be these days?

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Cats

2010-11-07T00:31:00.000-05:00

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a heart disease that causes the heart walls to thicken, so that they can't work correctly. It strikes many people without warning, and it's also the most common heart disease in cats. In 2004, I learned about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy the hard way.

Quinn (August 2000 - January 2005)

My husband and I had spent the day working in our new house doing some renovations. When we got home, we found Quinn struggling to breathe. Trying to stay calm, we rushed Quinn to the emergency vet, and they managed to get him stabilized, although it took a while to get a correct diagnosis. Over the next several weeks, we took him in to our vet, as well as to at least two other animal hospitals for specialized testing our vet couldn't do. Quinn was on so many medications, we had to tape a chart to the wall to keep track of what he took and when. He didn't want to eat, so we bought baby food and begged him to "eat just a bite for mommy, baby, please."

At one of the other animal hospitals, he picked up a respiratory infection, which spread through our other cats before we realized he was infected. We added that antibiotic to the drug chart, and of course, we had to dose the others with that as well. Quinn's appetite got even worse. He began to run from us because he didn't want to take another pill.

It was heartbreaking for us. It hurt our bank account, too. In the middle of it all, we got hit by a major hurricane and basically evacuated into the new house.

A few months after his heart attack, Quinn's medications had been reduced significantly. He was finally starting to seem happy and healthy again. We thought we were on the home stretch to full recovery, when he had another heart attack. That time, we set him free. He was four years old.

Many people criticized the money, time and attention that we devoted to trying to get Quinn well again. They didn't understand that our cats are our children. We had to give him every opportunity to survive. Years before, I'd had a cat with an enlarged heart who exhibited the same symptoms. Allie was not diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy specifically, and I have no record of the central Florida vet who treated him. Allie not only survived, he thrived and lived to be 18 years old. I had no reason not to give Quinn the same chance to live a long life. The money we spent also gave us time to tell Quinn over and over again how much we loved him. Would we do it again? I don't know.

Remy

A few months after Quinn died, his littermate Remy was at the emergency vet for a urinary tract infection when he was diagnosed with a heart murmur. My husband, who was present when Quinn was put to sleep and witnessed the worst of his second heart attack, was ready to have him put to sleep to prevent him suffering. We waited, though, and took him to our regular vet for a second opinion. He listened and listened and listened to Remy's heart and finally found the murmur. He said it wasn't all that pronounced; he could only hear it if he held the stethoscope in just the right place. We had some other tests done, including a sonogram of his heart, and he now takes atenolol every day, but five years later, he's still doing fine.Hopefully, his heart will continue to stay strong.

You can learn more about feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from the Cat Fancier's Association. Certain breeds are more susceptible than others. If you find your cat gasping for breath, one possible cause could be HCM, and a rush visit to a veterinarian is in order. I hope it's something you'll never have to experience.

Stop Thinking Pink.

2010-09-16T15:13:00.000-05:00

If the Pink Panther got breast cancer, wearing a pink ribbon wouldn't help him.

The "pink" foundation - aka Susan G. Komen for the Cure - was created in 1982 to support breast cancer survivors and raise money to research a cure. Kudos to the Komen organization's marketing department, because the color pink is now synonymous with breast cancer. The organization and their network of survivors and supports have raised over $1.5 billion dollars, at least 75% of which has gone into their programs, such as research grants and scholarships. I'm sure it's a wonderful organization.

Today, I received a postcard informing me that Purina Mills, a company that makes food for horses, goats, chickens and rabbits, is packing that food in limited edition pink bags and a portion of the sales of those bags of food will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Purina is organizing at least 50 awareness and fundraising events for the organization. In the past, I have seen the pink ribbon branding of the Komen organization on Purina Cat Chow. Press releases and articles suggest that this decision is based on cancer victims' relationships with their pets.

Meanwhile, more pets are dying of cancer, and my internet searches today are not finding any evidence that Purina is supporting veterinary cancer research. If the company is donating to research into treatment of animal cancers, they're not very vocal about it.

Then I wondered if perhaps I was mistaken about the Komen organization. So, I did a search for "cat" on the Komen website and nine results came up. Not one of them had anything to do with feline cancer.

4 - references to the Purina partnership
3 - references to CAT scans
2 - references to an herb known as cat's claw

A search for "feline" found nothing. A search for "veterinary" found one reference to using pets for therapy.

This is Mah-Mah. She arrived at our home in the winter of 2000, with two kittens in tow. It took several months (and another four kittens) before she trusted us enough to go into a carrier. We had her spayed, brought her into our home, and loved her until she died of breast cancer in 2007, about three months after this photo was taken.

My husband found the lump on her chest while petting her belly one evening. She had two surgeries, and had just recovered from the second when she began coughing. The cancer had spread to her lungs.

Research is being done in the field of veterinary cancer, and many resources exist to help pet owners recognize the warning signs. Here are some links:

Veterinary Cancer Society - an organization for veterinary professionals & researchers
Pet Cancer Awareness - an organization created by Blue Buffalo Natural Dog & Cat Foods
New York Online Access to Health -health information site started by librarians

People who consider their pets to be family members buy quality food, treats, and other products because we want them to live long, healthy, happy lives. Purina should support that tradition by raising awareness of animal cancers and by supporting pet health research at the same levels and with the same marketing power that they are putting into this humans-only organization. Leave the pink ribbons for the people products.

Movies for Cat Lovers

2010-08-25T23:36:00.000-05:00

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with a movie about a cat. It was called The Three Lives of Thomasina. The title character is a cat who wanders around a small town to three different homes. I haven't seen the movie in years, but I still remember loving it when I was little.

I was a little older when a silly and fun science fiction film called The Cat from Outer Space came out. I read the book, and it was one of the few movies I saw in a theatre when I was growing up. I saw it again a few years ago, and it's by no means a great film. I still enjoyed it, though.

A few days ago, I saw the original That Darn Cat, with Hayley Mills on a rack of discounted Disney DVDs. I passed it by, but I might have to buy it. As I recall, Hayley's character says that her dad is the reason the cat is called D.C. It stands for "darn cat," except that dad didn't say "darn." It's a charming movie with a bit of a mystery to it.

A couple of films with cats in minor roles are Star Trek: Generations and Alien. Interestingly, both cats are orange tabbies.

In the former, Data's cat Spot is featured prominently early on. During an intense segment in which the ship is about the crash and everyone must evacuate into the saucer section, Spot disappears. We don't find out until the very end what has happened to Spot, and it really irritated me because I, of course, was worried.

Alien takes place on a spaceship, and Jones is the ship's cat. When the crew decides to evacuate due to the dangerous alien on board, crewman Brett is sent to find Jones. As he approaches, Jones starts hissing, but it turns out, he's not mad at Brett, he's warning off the alien that's right behind him. Jones and Ripley are the only survivers of the doomed flight. I tell you the outcome, because if you haven't seen this 1979 classic film by now, this blog probably won't make you rush to view it.

Finally, I'll just mention Mr. Bigglesworth from the Austin Powers series. Initially played by a Persian cat, Dr. Evil's pet loses all its hair after being cryogenically frozen, and henceforth Mr. Bigglesworth is played by a hairless Sphynx.

Are there any good, positive cat movies that I haven't mentioned here? I may have forgotten about it, or maybe I haven't seen it. I don't like to watch movies where cats are portrayed as evil or where they are the victims of cruel humor, but I would love to hear about movies featuring our feline friends.

"Your cat has diabetes."

2010-08-24T22:22:00.001-05:00

Years ago, when I first heard that cats could have diabetes and could be required to have insulin injections, I hoped it would never happen to any of my cats, because I didn't think I could handle giving them a shot. Now, I can give an injection easily.

Indy was a skinny kitten when he and his mother and sister found their way to our rural home. Unable to turn away a hungry nursing mother, we began putting food out for them. Indy was the bravest, or maybe he just liked eating too much to be scared.

We kept a close eye on him because we knew that his weight put him at risk of diabetes. When we noticed him losing weight around his hips, drinking a lot of water, and making very large puddles in the litter box, we had him tested and confirmed that he had diabetes.

The vet showed us how to gently shake the bottle of insulin to insure it was well mixed, how to load the needle, how to create a little tent with the skin on his upper back to give the injection. My husband tried it at the vet's office, but I didn't want to jab Indy unnecessarily. That night at home it was my turn, and I botched it.

I forgot to brush the hair forward a little so that I could see Indy's skin a little as I inserted the needle. Tim had said I'd barely be able to feel it entering his skin, because the needle is so small. I tried to gently insert the needle, and I asked if he thought I had it in place, and he did, so I hit the plunger. And squirted insulin all over his back, because the needle had not, in fact, entered his skin. Tim was a little mad, and I was upset, and we were both kind of nervous that maybe some of it had been injected but not all of it. We wiped his back dry with a paper towel and did not try again that night.

The next time, I was more careful about the procedure, and the needle went in just fine. We give the shot while he's eating a little Hill's W/D Prescription Diet canned food, and Indy usually doesn't seem to even notice the shot. Once in a great while it'll seem like there's a little problem with the needle or something and he'll flinch a bit, but he really doesn't seem to mind, and that makes the whole process easier.

We started with a very small dose twice a day, and we took him to the vet once a month to have his glucose checked. The levels were going down but were still high. Eventually, he was up to nine units twice daily. After just two or three days of that, we had trouble.

Shortly after Indy had his dinner and his shot, he began acting strange. He acted afraid of everything, hissed at Tim, then started stumbling around like he couldn't see.

The vet had not discussed what to expect from a hypoglycemic episode. That's where the body gets too much insulin and the blood sugar level dips dangerously low. Fortunately, right after Indy was diagnosed, I'd come home and read up on feline diabetes online. The site felinediabetes.com had described the situation perfectly. I didn't trust my memory entirely, though. I was pretty sure that we needed to feed him, though. When we put the food in front of him, he started trying to wolf it down, but he kept hitting the side of the bowl, whether because he couldn't see or was uncoordinated, I'm not sure. It might have been a combination of both.

I jumped online and quickly found the information on the site. I was right -- the site suggested offering maple syrup or Karo syrup, so I ran and got a tablespoon of it, and he lapped it up. As the sugar and food got into his system, he began to behave more normally, and we were able to relax.

As a precaution, we took him to the all-night emergency vet who confirmed that his blood sugar was extremely low. She said we'd done all the right things and to give him food every couple of hours throughout the night, then take him to our regular vet in the morning.

We ended up skipping a couple of doses of insulin, and with each successive glucose test over the next few months, his doses were reduced until he was able to go off insulin completely. Our vet had told us that in some cases, cats did recover from diabetes. Unfortunately, a few weeks later we noticed that Indy was losing weight again, and he's been on insulin ever since. His doses have remained fairly low, though, and he seems to be pretty well regulated.

TIPS

Always keep an eye on how much your cat is drinking and going to the bathroom. Excessive thirst can indicate diabetes or kidney problems.
Compare the prices of diabetes supplies from your vet and from other suppliers, such as American Diabetes Wholesale. We were paying 50 cents per needle from the vet, and it's about half that from ADW. Be sure to get the right needles; we use U40 veterinary syringes and were able to match the exact specs, such as the length and gauge of the needle against what the vet had sold us. When we received the shipment, we took one by the vet's office and had him look at it to make sure it was right and wouldn't affect his dosage. The vet has since started carrying the same brand, but ADW's prices are still a little better, and they ship very quickly.
Whenever your cat is diagnosed with any condition, it's a good idea to research it online. You can find very good information on websites, some of which have been created by veterinarians or universities and others by cat parents who have been through what you're going through now.
Most important of all: keep loving and playing with your cat. Even though it's sometimes frustrating to have to set your schedule around the insulin shots, it's worth it to protect the life and health of your trusted companion.

Hey Sly, zoom out!

2010-08-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

Today, we went to see The Expendables, the new action flick starring a bunch of the old action heroes from the '80s. I was interested in seeing the film, but probably we wouldn't have seen it at the theater if I hadn't won a free code for Fandango.

It was a good movie, and for the most part we enjoyed it. Our biggest problem came during the intense action sequences. One of the first fight scenes came when Barney (Sylvester Stallone) and Lee (Jason Statham) are scoping out the situation on Vilena, an island run by a corrupt dictator and an American mercenary. The fight seemed like it was well choreographed and performed, but it was shot too tight, mostly handheld, and with that stroboscopic "heightened reality" effect made popular by Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator. It not only makes it frustratingly hard to follow what's going on, but it kind of makes me a little motion sick trying to watch it.

Later fight scenes and a major vehicle chase and battle back in the U.S. all have the same problem because the camera is zoomed in, it's shaky from being handheld without a Steadicam, and the stroboscopic effect is used. I would have preferred more standard shooting, so I could tell what was happening.

The story is fairly simple, but that's fine for an action pic. Barney and his gang are hired by the U.S. government to go to Vilena and take care of the dictator. Barney and Lee go check it out and meet the

general's daughter Sandra (Giselle Itié), who's determined to fight him and free her people from tyranney. Barney and Lee fight some bad guys and blow up some things and leave. If I understood correctly from one throwaway line, they decided not to take the job, but I was never clear if they called the government guy and told him that or returned any of the money.

Barney, however, is haunted by thoughts of Sandra, who could have left with them but chose to stay. He decides to go back on his own to help her. Of course, his guys want to go with him. Meanwhile, Dolph Lundgren's character has a bone to pick with Barney and cuts a deal with Vilena's leaders to take him out.

After that chase and fight, Barney and gang leave for Vilena, fight some guys, blow things up, and rescue Sandra. Barney and Sandra have a poignent exchange in which he tells her to keep something, maybe some money she was trying to offer him, but I'm not sure what exactly, and then the plane takes off. I'm not left with the impression that he'll ever go back to see her, unless she calls on him for help.

It's definitely set up to be a "franchise" if it does well at the box office, and so far it is making a lot of money. The Expendables features the same kind of story and characters as a lot of the '80s action blockbusters, though it is a little more graphic in showing heads hacked off and such.

People, if you want to talk go to your house or a restaurant!

To anyone in the industry who wonders why people aren't going to the movies much and are watching films at home, I simply suggest that you walk into any movie theatre and try to watch something without someone carrying on a conversation. We moved once because the people behind us were talking in a normal tone of voice. Then a couple of people sat down in the same row as us, and they started talking and looked surprised when we shushed them.

Anyway, if you like action movies, I recommend The Expendables, but if you're prone to motion sickness, get some dramamine on the way to the theater.

Great cat toy found at Home Depot.

2010-08-21T21:08:00.000-05:00

Our cats love to chase the red bug of a laser pointer. The first pointers we had used watch batteries, which would only last for one or two play sessions. Later, we found a combination laser pointer and LED flashlight at American Science and Surplus for about $7.00. This one uses AAA batteries and will last a long time. It's also handy for finding mousie toys and balls behind or under heavy furniture.

Today at Home Depot, while Cat Daddy was checking out, I spotted a similar laser pointer-flashlight with the impulse buys. It's just $2.88 and comes in several colors. I didn't check what kind of batteries it takes, but surely not the old watch batteries. It's the best deal I've ever seen for a laser pointer cat toy.

Opening Soon

2010-08-20T19:07:00.000-05:00

The Crazy Kitty Chick will be posting product reviews, information, and discussion about cats and other aspects of life.