Adorable Big-Eared Kittens!

Look at these babies!

They are sand cats, born at a zoo in Tel Aviv.

They've been extinct in Israel for years; the kittens are the result of a European breeding program.




The sand cats' big ears help them dispense heat, and they can live on very little water.

Aren't they adorable?

You can see more photos and watch a video about the Sand Cats at Mother Nature Network.

EasyCanvasPrints Winner!

***UPDATE*** I never heard from Stephanie, so we have a new winner, comment #12 TAMAR, who plans to put a family photo in the family room. Tamar left her email address, so I have contacted her to confirm the win. Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Congratulations to STEPHANIE who posted, "I would put a picture of my son on it and I would put in on the fireplace." She won a free 8"x10" print from EasyCanvasPrints.com. Stephanie, your email address wasn't in your post or on your blogger profile. Please contact me by 10:00 p.m. central time on August 19, or I will have to choose another winner.

CrazyKittyChick chose to print a photo of her cat Kali.

EasyCanvasPrints puts photos on canvas, so that they look like fine works of art. The company provided me with a complimentary print to review, and it looks really good. It turns an ordinary snapshot into an heirloom piece, something you can be really proud to display.

Stephanie, I'm sure your son's picture is going to look fantastic over your fireplace!

If you are looking for a nice gift or something to hang on the wall at your home or office, look through your photos and find one you can turn into a beautiful piece of art at EasyCanvasPrints. The company also prints business signs and banners through its sister site BuildASign.com. So, pretty or practical, if you have large-format printing needs, please check out what one of those sites can do for you.

GIVEAWAY: Easy Canvas Prints

***UPDATE*** Congratulations to STEPHANIE who posted, "I would put a picture of my son on it and I would put in on the fireplace." She won a free 8"x10" print from EasyCanvasPrints.com. Stephanie, your email address wasn't in your post or on your blogger profile. Please contact me by 10:00 p.m. central time on August 19, or I will have to choose another winner.

Parents aren’t supposed to love one child more than another, but I’ll admit, I have a very special fondness for one of our youngest. In 2008, I found a little black kitten on the edge of a busy intersection in Kentucky. I named her Kali after the Hindu Goddess whose name means “the dark one” (although I pronounce it Callie.) Because she was a particularly terrible toddler, I gave her a middle name, so I could do that parental thing of saying sternly (when she was being bad), “Kali Malicious!” Like any doting parent, I’ve taken tons of pictures of her, but my favorite is a very artsy extreme close up.

When Easy Canvas Prints offered me the opportunity to review their service of printing photos on canvas, and they sent me a code for a free 8” x 10” print, that picture is the first one that came to mind. Trying to be fair to the others, I went through all the other cat photos on my hard drive, the more recent ones that I knew were really high resolution, and I picked out a few good ones and asked my husband for his opinion. You can read about the choices in my previous post. In the end, we both agreed to send in my favorite Kali picture for the Easy Canvas Prints treatment.

A few days later, I received the print back, and it is beautiful. It’s a very nice reproduction of what could have been a difficult photo to print clearly. I do find it a little bit glossy; the shininess of the print is not something you can choose. I probably noticed it more because of the flash bouncing off when I was photographing the picture. 

I don’t have photos printed very often, so I don’t know how Easy Canvas Prints’ prices are in comparison to anyplace else that offers a similar service. Their price is nearly $45 for an 8” x 10” picture. That said, they have a sale on as I type this, and you can find coupon codes online fairly easily.

I love my photo and I wish I could afford to have portraits of all my cats done up like this. It turns a nice digital snapshot into a beautiful keepsake portrait. You could use a photo retouching program to make it really look like it was painted on canvas. I can see family portraits or scenic photography being turned into fabulous art pieces for your own home, family gifts, or your office (speaking of which, Easy Canvas Prints is a division of Build a Sign, which prints signs, banners, and other promotional items.

Now comes the fun part. One of you is going to win the same thing I received, a free 8” x 10” photo on canvas. Shipping is included as long as you have a mailing address in what we call the lower 48 (sorry Alaska and Hawaii).  You have four chances to enter (limit four entries per household).

First entry (mandatory): Comment here with what kind of photo you’d have printed on canvas AND where you’d display it.  Is it a family portrait to display in your living room? A special picture of you for your mom’s “wall of glory”? A gorgeous landscape for your dining room? Post here and be sure that you either leave your email address within your post or it’s readily available on the website or blog you link to in this form. 

Nose to nose - Kali checks out her portrait.

Bonus Entries (leave one comment for each):

• Follow CrazyKittyChick on Twitter.
• Join CrazyKittyChick on Google Friend Connect.
• Subscribe to the Rhyme Schemes and Daydreams RSS feed.

Deadline for entries: August 14, 11:59 p.m. CT.


I'd like to offer special thanks to Easy Canvas Prints for the opportunity to try their service at no cost to myself, and for providing this giveaway opportunity at no cost to me or the winner (except possibly shipping as explained).

An Art Print from My Photo

A couple of weeks ago, EasyCanvasPrints.com offered me a chance to try their service for free so I could review it on the blog. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity. I've read about their printing service on other blogs and have been wondering how it looks.

The hard part was choosing the photo.

I have to admit, this artsy one of Kali is the first picture that came to mind. I didn't crop it; this is the whole photo the way I took it. I think it's beautiful, but I was worried it might be too dark. I kept coming back to it over and over.


But, I decided to look through the photo albums and see what else we had that might be a more "normal" photo.

Presto takes a nice photo, but a lot of the ones I have of him are dark, and trying to brighten them up in Photoshop, they end up looking washed out or grainy. I brought my husband in to review my "finalist" pics, and he said Presto looks fat in this picture (which he is) but also the way the light is shining in his eyes makes them look washed out.

Petra always takes a good picture, and she loves to give us a "centerfold" kind of pose. I don't think the colors are particularly good in this one; maybe it's something about the lighting or the camera settings, but the pose was cute.

She's daddy's girl, so I thought he might go for this one, but he said it looked kind of "snapshotty."

Finally, I looked through the pics that I have of multiple cats. This is Misha (on the right) with her little brother Remy (they have the same mother). It's a cute picture, but as with the others, it doesn't really capture any fine detail.

I have a great one from several years ago when all of our cats at the time had curled up on the couch for a nap. Unfortunately, it was taken with our first digital camera and isn't high enough resolution to think it would look good blown up and printed on canvas.

So in the end, I went with my first choice. Tim looked at it, knowing that I was concerned about it being too dark, but after looking at it carefully, we both decided that it has enough highlights and detail in that shot that it should look good.

The ordering process was very quick and easy. I uploaded the print, made a couple of choices about size and border, and in minutes, I had my confirmation number.

When EasyCanvasPrints sends it in a few days, I'll let you know how it turned out and give you a chance to win a free print of your own!

Trickster's Thyroid Adventure

A few weeks ago, Trickster started hassling more when he would run around and play. He's also lost a little weight, and because he drinks a lot of water, I thought he might be developing kidney problems.

Nope.

The test results came back on Wednesday, and he has a hyperactive thyroid. We're very familiar with the ramifications, because my husband had the same thing.

Hubby took a radioactive pill that killed his thyroid. The cats and I had to move in with my mom for a few days, because hubby was radioactive right after he took the pill. It would be a difficult option for a "normal" human family because no one could get close to care for the cat after he had the treatment. In our case, though, Tim would be able to be around him without much risk. We asked about that as an option for Trickster, but the vet said it's very expensive because you have to have someone who's certified for dealing with radioactive meds give him the pill. I'm sure the pill itself is not cheap either.

We also asked about surgery, but the vet said he didn't like to do it unless the gland was very swollen. He felt Tricky's throat when we had him in for the blood test but didn't remark on it feeling particularly enlarged. Doc said the throat has so many important features that make surgery there difficult.

So, our option is to give him Tapazole, a medication that helps suppress thyroid output. I believe hubby was on that for a few months when he was first diagnosed.

The Good - it's non-invasive.

The Bad - risks of side effects; twice a day dosing of a cat that doesn't like pills; and $400 to $800 annual cost, depending on the dose.

I think we're going to try it for a while, though. We're not ready to say goodbye to Trickster. He's a little punk, but we love him.