CAT LOVERS SITE

Here are my favorite THREE CAT photos:

Taco, Bella and Mango all anxiously waiting to be let out

Eclair the Bakery Cat, Mango and Taco

Three Cats In A Tree artwork by SETH

Dynamic Pet Products of Washington, Mo, manufactures a product called Real Ham Bones. Dog owners say the 8” hickory smoked pork femur bones have splintered and caused their dogs to become violently ill or even die. 

The Better Business Bureau of St. Louis said it has fielded consumer complaints about the Real Ham Bone from throughout the U.S. The BBB said Thursday that concerns arose after the bones splintered, then ulcerated or obstructed the dogs’ intestines. Consumers reported their dogs had become lethargic or were vomiting. One man came home to find his dog dead, bleeding from the mouth.

If you Google this subject there is story after story of dogs suffering and dying.

Dynamic has not pulled any of its chew bones or treats off the market and pet owners are likely to still find them on store shelves.

The company’s Web site states that it’s “proud” of its track record and reputation.

Hi there folks, this is Yours Truly, King Taco.  It has come to my attention that this blog focuses entirely too much on how “adorable” we cats are, without much thought to proper education for cats.  I mean, if you are a Cat Lover, surely you would want your cat to be an expert in the fine art of Human Training, no?

So, with the aid of my well-trained human, I will commence this series with a most important topic: Waking Your Human.

Be aware that Waking Your Human on time, every morning, is not only your duty as a responsible Human Owner, it can be both a challenge and a pleasure.  And, as we all know, it is vitally important that our food and water bowls be filled by the prescribed time of day and attention be given to us as we demand it, even if that may be quite “early” (by silly human standards) in the day.

For starters, choose the time that is the most convenient for you, say 5 or 6 in the morning.  Of course we don’t need those silly “clock” things, our ability to “tell time” is far superior to Humans.

1) Try gently nuzzling your Human, with a few quick mews added in for effect. This may work well and get your Human up in a relatively good mood…unless she’s doing the horrible “sleeping in” thing-NOT ALLOWED, it SPOILS them.

2) Walking on your Human is quite effective, though if you get nudged off the bed repeatedly it’s time to move on to more obvious and annoying tactics.

3) If there are blinds in your Human’s room, definitely go for the pawing and clawing at the blinds effect.  This can be quite loud and should do the trick.

4) If your Human is still asleep (more likely pretending to be asleep in the hope that you’ll go away) it’s time to get serious.  Jump on every piece of furniture and look for the easiest stuff to push off onto the floor.  Your Human might be getting a bit cranky by this time.  Ignore it.  If you’re still not getting results, try swatting bigger, heavier, more breakable stuff.  Trust me, it’s a waker-upper.

5) If your Human is not panting heavily swearing under their breath at this point, there is one other option: ripping and shredding!  My very favorite is pulling the calender off the wall and shredding it to bits.  Well usually I don’t get that far, since I have accomplished my goal.

Now, if you get tossed out of the room, of course the only option is to scratch frantically at the door.  You can get other cats to aid in this and other ventures (more than one cat makes for MUCH faster results) and Mango is my scratching at the door expert.  He gets down low and claws the heck out of the bottom of the door, while I lean up over him and claw the upper part.  It works!

Mango has another trick that works well for him, clawing on the carpet right by the bed.  Mango can do it really LOUDLY and I have to give the boring old boy credit for that!

Anyway, your Human should be up and moving (albeit grouchily) towards the food bowl by this time, so take the time to show thanks by acting loveable and “happy”.  This is a good control measure, and your Human should respond well (though slowly) to some well-thought-out “cutesy” antics.  This also ensures an affable atmosphere in the home.  Remember: Humans are easily distracted, and more easily controlled.  Just purr, “chirp” and do some silly stuff and your Human will be placated and ready to do your bidding.  We are all unique and have our own little “tricks”.  Mango, for instance, does somersaults when he sees the Mommy.  He’s got her wrapped in his own little old-fart Mango way.  Experiment and use your unlimited imagination!

Wishing the cat blogosphere much success in Human Training, next topic will be “Five Ways To Sneak Outside” so watch for another post coming soon!

Yours Truly:

King Taco

Mango fur SPIRAL: 

Taco fur SPIRAL: 

Mango in SPIRAL position:

Skaters in SPIRAL position: This is from our recital, last May.

Most commercial pet foods contain “meat by-products”. By law, “by-product” is defined as “up to 20% intestinal content”, or poop.

Most mass-produced pet foods are not made with human-grade ingredients. They contain cockroachs, rodent droppings, mold, intestinal products, floor sweepings and other discards from human food processing. “Animal digest” contains ground up euthanized pets put back into the pet food, pentobarbital and all.

From Wikipedia:  Many animals euthanized at shelters or animal control agencies are sent to meat rendering facilities,^[11] to be processed for use in cosmetics, fertilizer, gelatin, poultry feed, pharmaceuticals and pet food.^[12] The amount of phenobarbital in dog food has caused dogs to become less responsive to the drug when being euthanized.

Awwww….it’s just so cute!

This is a tough one! I actually had to go to an online dictionary to find a definition for foreign that I could work with, and I came up with:  Not natural; alien

OK, so here is my take on the subject: I like everything to be in it’s proper place, nicely decorated and harmonious.  So I really do prefer living room furniture and accessories in my living room.   Therefore, car parts, tools, greasy rags, greasy old car parts, greasy tools, and, did I mention CAR PARTS are FOREIGN OBJECTS in my living room. Definitely alien to my decor. Not at all natural to my living space.

Unlike me, Taco LOVES foreign objects, he immediately claims them as his own:

This cat can sleep on anything!

You may be curious about why these foreign objects appear in my living room (me too).  My most awesome and amazing (one of many) 19 year-old son is going to school to be an auto technician, and he does quite a few repairs out in the driveway (this drives the wicked witch into severe fits of agitation) and inevitably the car stuff gets tossed in the living room for a few hours days weeks.  On the bright side,  I get car repairs done for cheap…so I try to be patient…grease and all…*sigh*

I just came across an awesome blog, The Conscious Cat a resource for conscious living, health and happiness for pets and their people.  The author of this blog is Ingrid King, also the author of Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher.

In honor of their one year blog anniversary, they are having a fantastic giveaway, a gift basket from Whimsy Cats which includes an autographed copy of Buckley’s Story and lots of fun surprises for your feline family members.

If you’d like to enter the giveaway, go to The Conscious Cat and:

• Leave a comment on the anniversary post.
• Tweet about this giveaway or share it on Facebook for an additional chance to win and leave the link to your tweet/share in a separate comment.
• Subscribe to The Conscious Cat via  e-mail.  If you’re already subscribed, you’re automatically entered in the giveaway.
• Blog about this giveaway on your blog and leave the link in a separate comment.

The giveaway is open until midnight Saturday, March 15.

Casper the cat has become such a well-known user of a Devon bus service that the drivers know where to let him off.

Casper has been queuing with other passengers to get the number three service from his home in Plymouth for months, bus company First said.

The company says the cat often curls up on a seat during the ride.

I stretch daily, and Mango usually accompanies me.  My goal is to stretch 3 times daily, but I usually only get around  to 2 times.  

Mango looks forward to our daily stretching routine much more than I do!

Coal-fired power plants produce more than 100 million tons of the toxic-waste byproduct sulfur dioxide, the stuff that causes acid rain.

Called FGD gypsum, this synthetic powder is produced when coal plant “scrubbers”  remove sulfur dioxide from plant emissions.     

Last year, a coal ash pond just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, spilled and flooded about 300 acres of land with ash, killing many fish in the area. The spill damaged many homes as well, and cleanup costs are expected to be upwards of $1 billion. This catastrophe has prompted the EPA to draft regulations on how to handle toxic coal waste safely.  Guess what they came up with?

In 2001, the USDA together with the EPA began to promote FGD gypsum use in agriculture. Since that time, the amount of coal ash used by farmers on their fields has tripled. According to the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA), nearly 280,000 tons of the byproduct was spread on fields last year.

FGD gypsum contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, but according to the EPA, “the mercury contained in FGD gypsum does not affect plants and runoff into water supplies at significant levels.”  Guess they never heard of PHYTOREMEDIATION, a technology which uses plants to absorb heavy metals from the soil.

If the waste from coal plants is toxic and must be dealt with in a manner that keeps it contained, I’m just wondering why the EPA would promote the same waste for use on FOOD crops.  Perhaps it’s just more cost-effective to sell toxic waste to farmers than to stop producing it in the first place.

Food that’s USDA-certified organic cannot be grown with coal ash.  I’m sticking with organic for my family, and that includes my cats.


Nature’s Variety Raw Food Diets Organic Chicken Patties 6 lbs.

OK, this is a little weird…cute though.  Does it make you want to go right out and buy wigs for your cats, so they can be Glamourpusses too?

Our cuddly friend, Mariah, poses with our cuddly cats. 

As we all know, there has been quite a bit of controversy about BPA in plastics and can linings. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic estrogen petrochemical (synthesized from oil) used to harden polycarbonate plastics  and is used in can linings.

The ester bonds that link the BPA monomers together are not very stable. Over time, these monomers break down, which releases BPA into whatever is surrounding it, such as food and water. 

Over 7 billion pounds of BPA was produced in 2007. That’s a lot of poison, from a lot of petro.

Just a very short overview of the dangers of BPA:

Veterinary researchers have found a link between BPA in cat food cans and hyperthyroidism in cats.

Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic the body’s own hormones.

A 2008 review has concluded that obesity may be increased as a function of BPA exposure.

A 2008 study by the Yale School of Medicine demonstrated that adverse neurological effects occur in non-human primates regularly exposed to bisphenol A at levels equal to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) maximum safe dose of 50 µg/kg/day.This research found a connection between BPA and interference with brain cell connections vital to memory, learning and mood.

In vitro studies have suggested that BPA can promote the growth of neuroblastoma (cancer) cells.

It is fairly obvious that BPA, as well as any petrochemical, is not terribly healthy for your cat, you, or the Earth.  You can read some really great articles on my other blog, creating a better world.

Just for your information, EWG reports that the three human foods showing the highest levels of BPA is canned chicken soup, canned ravioli, and, most disturbingly, infant formula.

Of the more than 100 independently funded experiments on BPA, about 90% have found evidence of adverse health effects. On the other hand, every single industry funded study ever conducted  (14 in all)  has found no such effects.

My opinion is that we should avoid ALL synthetic chemicals, as much as possible.  Yes, it’s difficult considering we produce BILLIONS of pounds of these chemicals annually, they poison everything they come into contact with, and they NEVER bio-degrade or photo-degrade.  A good, but sobering book to read is:
Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story.
Basically, it clearly explains how we are killing ourselves and destroying our Earth with synthetic chemicals.

You can also read an article from Truth About Pet Food to try to figure out if the brand of canned food you get has BPA. Of course, if you feed you cat it’s natural diet of fresh, raw foods, BPA is not an issue!

This is a very informative video, and you can actually see the plants he’s talking about so there’s no confusion.