This is funny, but it is also a learning experience.  How calm, cool and collected would I be if something awkward were stuck on my head?  Something that maybe obstructed my breathing a bit, and completely blocked my vision….geez…I’d freak.  Yet kitty here stays fairly calm, trying to enjoy the last remaining drops of ice cream.  File this one under “Things we Could Learn From Our Cats”.

A Tale of Tails, or more aptly, a Tale of the Average Length of the Tails.

The teensiest little Cat Tail is owned by Sumari, the Itty Bitty Kitty:

The Sumari Tail is 24 cm in length.  It also flicks incessantly, so who knows how accurate this measurement is.

The next smallest tail is the Mango Tail: 

This Tail is 26 cm in length, and quite fluffy, so fluffy in fact that the last few cm are absolute fluff.  Next up is the Great Grey Tail at 27 cm, belonging to the Famous Taco Cat : 

And finally, the tail of Queen Bella herself a whooping 32 cm: 

24+26+27+32=109 cm of tail!  Divided by 4, equals 27.25 the AVERAGE tail length of our four fabulous felines!

Most of us think nothing of giving our cats a nice fresh bowl of cold tap water, but that may not be such a good idea, for either you or your cat.

Many pharmaceutical and personal care products are entering rivers from sewage treatment plants or leaching into groundwater from septic systems.

Antibiotics, painkillers, sunscreen, hormones, drugs and much more are routinely found in U.S. waters. In some parts of our nation, male fish are growing female parts because they’re literally swimming in hormones.

Tests have shown that American drinking water is contaminated with perchlorate – the chemical used to make rocket fuel, and pharmaceuticals have been found in the drinking water of 51 million U.S. homes. Perchlorate can interrupt the production of thyroid hormones, and lead to hypothyroidism.

Tests on U.S. drinking water routinely find the residue of legal and illegal drugs, poisons, and synthetic chemicals.

Heavy metals are also seeping into our water. These are inorganic chemical elements with relatively high density, such as mercury, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, nickel and lead.

Did you know that if you drink chlorinated water while pregnant, it can increase your child’s risk of heart problems, cleft palate or major brain defects?

Independent studies in such journals as Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; Environmental Health Perspectives; American Journal of Public Health; and Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health, as well as reports published by the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that millions of Americans become sick each year from drinking contaminated water, with maladies from upset stomachs to cancer and birth defects.

One recent study showed that 62 million Americans drink substandard water.  Many of the chemicals, drugs and toxins are unregulated, (meaning nobody checks to see if they’re in your water supply) so millions of people drink dangerous water that actually still meets U.S. government standards.

Water bottled in plastic is not really safer, and some has been proven to be just plain tap water anyway.  Reverse osmosis filtering systems are the best bet, and a less expensive option is a high quality water filter.

Here is Bella’s reaction to Quincy and Calley:

This is what she’s all poofed up about:

Taco and Sumari are in hiding, but Mango, the bravest of them all, calmly watches the wild antics of the doggies:

Bella, a somewhat spotted cat, is spotted spotting an intruder.

According to Will Falconer, DVM, the diseases that are quite common in cats now were virtually unknown in the late 70’s.

Cats didn’t have thyroid problems, and hyperthyroidism was not in the books or the exam rooms.

Chronic diseases such as heartworm (a dog disease originally), asthma, kidney failure, inflammatory bowel disease, dental calculus and decay, heart disease, and cancer are fairly commonplace now in the feline population.

Wild cats like the lynx and bobcat are not experiencing these chronic degenerative diseases. Wolves don’t die of heartworm disease or have dirty teeth.

We are actually causing these chronic diseases to become more prevalent by administering annual vaccines, feeding toxic food, and using topical flea poisons that warn us not to get them on our skin. You can read the full story by clicking on the following link:

The Cats are Talking… About Chronic Disease

I do believe a more apt description would be “eccentric”.  Web definition of eccentric: a person with an unusual or odd personality. He’s definitely odd, but he’s a cat.  Whatever.  It fits. 

Mango will switch from happy, purring kitty to slapping and nipping in a matter of nanoseconds.  The reason for the short-circuit is a mystery.  One of many.  He does not know how to emit a normal cat-type meow, he groans instead.  Maybe it’s a growl. It’s indescribable.

Mango does not like the litter box.  If I don’t let him outside when he demands to be let out (via groaning at the door) he pees by the door.  Or in the bathroom if he knows he’ll get caught squatting by the door.  Since he does not enjoy getting his delicate butt-furs wet, when there is snow on the ground he finds new and innovative places to do his business. Like on my neighbor’s porch.  Specifically, on the jacket left on the porch.  The jacket has been trashed.  My neighbor is NOT happy.

On the bright side, Mango is hopelessly, passionately, head-over-heels in love with me, and only me. He gazes at me with absolute adoration, purrs with abandon at the mere sight of me, and goofily chases after me when he’s not sleeping or peeing or doing something abominable. 

I’m thrilled that he is so smitten with me (nobody else is) but this can create some problems with the sleeping arrangements.  We have a nightly ritual: every night I put him outside my bedroom door and try to close the door before he can run back in.  For a cat who spends 90% of his time sleeping, he sure can run faster than the proverbial “greased lightening”. The process is repeated until I give in and let him sleep in my room.  On my bed.   The night goes like this: 10:00 goodnight Mango.  10:45 bath time, including vigorous licking and nibbling.  Back to sleep.  12:30, furball evacuation, usually near my head.  Definitely on the bed.  GROSS.  No I do not prefer cleaning up furballs to sleeping.  2:00, exuberant scratching session on my carpet.  5:30, I’m up, Mango is sleeping in.

No, he’s not a freak, as he’s been called by members of my family. He had a rough start in life, and I think he’s well aware that his adored mommy saved him (he was going to be “put to sleep”) and he obviously wasn’t “socialized”.  He’s adapted to the best of his ability.  That’s life with cats.  You love them despite the inconveniences, and they love you back.  I guess that’s unconditional love.

All of our photos relating to cats being balanced are of Sumari.  This is because little kitten-sized Sumari is a natural acrobat.  Here, she has just walked up the railing to the second floor porch, instead of using the stairs.

Here she is balanced on the third floor roof!

She seems to like balancing on the narrow dowels of the clothes-drying rack

Sumari balanced for a treat!

This is one of my favorite funny videos.  Whoever made this has a great sense of humor, wish I could figure out how it’s done.

Avocado: All parts of the avocado contain a toxin known as persin. It causes gastrointestinal irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory distress, congestion, fluid accumulation around the tissues of the heart and even death. Cats may be attracted to the oily texture, but should not be fed avocado.

Tuna, all tuna contains mercury which accumulates in the body until it reaches a toxic level. It also can cause nutrient deficiencies.  The BPA which lines tuna cans is an estrogen-disruptor and can play havoc with hormones, including yours.

Grapes and raisins, which can sometimes cause kidney failure in very low amounts.

Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine, which are both classified as methylxanthines; these can cause hyperactivity, increased heart rate, tremors, and potentially death (the more bitter the chocolate, the more toxic it is for your pets)

Onions and members of the onion family, such as leeks and chives; these can cause damage to red blood cells that could result in anemia in both dogs and cats.

Garlic, which is metabolized into a different metabolite than onions, is not toxic to pets. A small amount of fresh garlic fed to pets daily actually has some great health benefits, including killing parasites and repelling fleas.

Macadamia nuts may cause problems including weakness, depression, vomiting, ataxia, tremors, and hyperthermia.

Rising bread dough can be life-threatening – The bread dough itself is not toxic but the animal’s body heat can cause the dough to rise in the stomach, doubling or tripling in size and leading to impaction. The dough can also produce ethanol, which causes animals to stumble and become disoriented, lethargic and depressed.

Processed Milk, which has had all the vital nutrients destroyed. Pasteurized milk lacks enzymes and “good” bacteria and binds the calcium so that’s it’s unusable.  Homogenized milk has been molecularly changed so that it no longer resembles food and becomes a useless poison, causing allergies and other health problems.  See RAW MILK FACTS

Xylitol, a sugar substitute common in sugar-free chewing gum, can cause life-threatening hypoglycemia and liver damage in dogs; if your dog has ingested gum, bring your dog to the emergency vet immediately!

Taco has a jiggly “pudge-pouch” that really wiggles and jiggles when he runs,

Here is a close-up:

Mango has a smaller, less jiggly pudge-pouch:

Bella’s pudge-pouch is even smaller and hardly jiggles at all:

And little Sumari  has the teensiest, tiniest little baby pudge-pouch, that only jiggles when she has a wild and crazy bath-taking session:

Mango and Sumari are having a staring contest with the New Kitty:

NO, we are NOT feeding it.  NO, we are not naming it or letting it in the house.  It is clearly someone else’s well-taken-care-of kitty.

I really mean it.  NO food, names or warm house.  Really, absolutely, positively. 

*sigh*

Truth About Pet Food has announced it’s 2009 winner of the “Stupidist Act in Pet Food” and once again it’s our very own FDA.  The FDA wins hands-down on a few counts:

1) Ignored Federal Law (the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) with pet food for another year.

2) Pulled the Emergency Permit from Evangers Pet Food with no recall or information available to the public. A few months later Evangers was back in business.  No explanation of what happened or didn’t happen, what was corrected or wasn’t corrected, nothing.

3) Premium Edge Pet Food Recall was 18 days AFTER it was announced to TruthaboutPetFood.com from the company.  Pets continued to get sick while the public was NOT informed of the recall.

4) The FDA was found to ‘Not Follow Procedure during the 2007 Pet Food Recall’ by the Inspector General of the United States.  This error of the FDA not following their recall protocol is not only stupid,  it undoubtedly cost the lives of many, many pets.

5) During 2008, not one proactive move was made by the FDA to improve the safety of pet food.  During 2009 there has not been one step made to improve the safety of pet food.

…and she’s here to stay.  We called her ‘Happy Kitty” when she first showed up, but since she is now a permanent resident, she needed a permanent name.

The other cats, even Taco (who can be quite the bully), accepted her without complaint.

See the spots?  I think she is a Bengal Cat, she  also has the long, lanky body shape.

There just is nothing more entertaining than a cat!