Archive for the ‘Interesting Stuff’ Category

Apparently the dog’s owner forgot the dog was in the car.  After investigating the honking horn, she realized it was her DOG alerting her to the fact that he was locked in the car, and overheated.  That is one smart doggie!

Years ago I had a friend who knew how to card and spin wool.  She had quite a few llamas and made some extra money by shearing them and selling the finished yarn.  This gave her an idea to try saving dog fur and spinning that into yarn, which she then knitted into a sweater!  It was very soft, but the big problem was if it got damp, it smelled like WET DOG.  So I guess it wasn’t such a good idea.  I’ve always wondered if the same could be done with cat fur, and lo and behold, I’ve found a video about a woman who is a groomer and gathers up the cat fur, cards and spins it, then knits handbags with the yarn.  This is a very interesting video:

I found a whole website dedicated to dancing with your cat.  No kidding!  Here is the Dancing With Cats homepage, and it includes links to “The History of Feline Dance“,  “Pre-Dance Exercises“, and “Dance Tips”.

Here is the album cover to “Dancing With Cats” by David Parsons:

This album is $83 on Amazon!!   So there you have it, everything you need to know about the unique art of dancing with your cat.

I couldn’t find anything “cat” relating to “public”, so I decided to tell you about what I’ve been doing all last week at the PUBLIC skating rink that I skate at.  We had a four-day competition, and here are a few photos of this very public event:

Rebecca doing the Chula Tango (2nd place)

Masters Team Dance Winners

Intermediate Freestyle-my awful sit spin-

Showcase, 1st place

You meet some VERY interesting people at these competitions, here is one of the speed skaters from PA out in the parking lot.  As you can see he is very talented! I can’t even get on a darn unicycle or juggle ONE ball, and here he is riding and juggling at the same time

Alex juggling while riding the unicycle

It was a lot of fun but, a little stressful, and very tiring!

Taco is SIX years old today!  Taco Burrito Jablonski born on July 1, 2004, in a dairy barn at Rocky Acres Farm in Warren, MA

We brought him home on August 1st (my birthday) when he was only four weeks old, and he smelled like COW POOP for at least two weeks after that

who...ME?

Very Content Cat

I do not have any kitten photos of Taco because I didn’t have a camera back then, but if you look at his head now…well that’s about how big he was when I brought him home!

Of all four cats, he is the only one that we know for sure when his birthday is, but we just celebrate all four birthdays on July 1st.  Mango is probably 10, Sumari is just about 3 and Bella is a wild guess, maybe 3 or 4.

Here is a Birthday Video, it’s not of our cats, but it’s fun anyway!

After losing his two rear paws in an unlucky encounter with a combine harvester in October, Oscar, a green-eyed black cat, has been given metallic pegs for legs.

After Oscar’s farming accident, which happened when the 2 1/2-year-old-cat was lazing in the sun in the British Channel Isles, his owners, Kate and Mike Nolan, took him to their local veterinarian. In turn, the vet referred Oscar to Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, a neuro-orthopedic surgeon in Eashing, 35 miles southwest of London.

Together with biomedical engineering experts, Fitzpatrick gave Oscar two metal prosthetic implants that are a bit wobbly, to imitate a cat’s natural walk. But first, he covered the brown implants with black tape to match Oscar’s fur.

Fitzpatrick said he and biomedical engineers designed the artificial paws so that they would be fused to the bone and skin. “That allows this implant to work as a seesaw on the bottom of the animal’s limbs to give him an effectively normal gait.  Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do.”

The veterinarians then inserted the peg-like implants by drilling them into Oscar’s ankle bones in his rear legs. The metal implants are attached to the bone where Oscar lost his paws and were coated with a substance that helps bone cells grow directly over them. Oscar’s own skin then grew over the end of the peg to form a natural seal to prevent infections.

“This is a pretty lucky cat,” said Dr. Mark Johnston, a veterinarian and spokesman for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. “Giving a cat artificial limbs is a very novel solution.”

Here is a photo of Aggie, a blind cat from Mechanicsburg, PA

This is an amazing story of how a cat saved her family from possible harm by attacking an intruder, causing him to flee in fear.  CLICK HERE to read the story!

Let’s see, what do I have six of?

Hmmmm…I have SIX sons!

Elijah vaulting over table

Aron front-flip over table

Noah's high jump over trash bin

Ian

Seth playing music for Sumari

THANKS Sara Cat for sending me this lovely award! Sara Cat lives in Norrkoping Sweden and has a beautiful blog about cats, fashion and jewelry.

Along with this award, I must list five things that make me happy.

1) Something that makes me and also Taco, Mango, Sumari and Bella happy, is our FAMILY. When our family members come to visit we have lots of fun together, and the cats get lots of extra attention, which they LOVE.

2) Catnip makes the cats happy, and even more fun is stealing catnip and sharing it with a friend

3) And of course a good nap on mommy’s bed makes Taco incredibly happy

4) As for me, the mommy of the kitties (and kids) skating makes me happy (and sane)

5) And of course, just being outside in nature romping in the grass and trees makes us all happy

Now I get to pick some cat blogs to pass this award on to!

Meow Diaries

Marg’s Pets

Tom’s Cats

Babe Cattykins

Cats Who Twitter

This probably doesn’t look very fluffy:

But it’s a “hair broom” made with animal fur  stuffed into nylons and it’s used to clean up oil spills!  Turn this: into useful hair brooms to soak up oil spills!

Here is a “hair mat” also used for soaking up oil spills: 

You can CLICK HERE to donate your fluffy cat/dog/horse furs-or any fur or hair for that matter!  Help clean up the Gulf Oil Spill by donating today!  Here is a video on how to make hair brooms and it also gives info on what the program is about.

Please pass this along to groomers and hairdressers so they can help clean up the oil spill too!

Share your fluffy friends with us every Friday! Whether it’s a favourite stuffed toy or an adorable pet - basically anything fluffy, we’d love to see your pictures & stories! Leave ONLY the POST URL here and grab the Fluffy Friday badge at Meow Diaries. Any unrelated links will be deleted.

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This post is called…

16 of the Weirdest Things Dogs Have Ever Eaten

…and it is really amazing, it’s photos of x-rays of some incredibly strange stuff that dogs have eaten.

Here’s just one of the pics: 

Sure am glad that I have cats!

Look what you can do with FRESH fruit:

The fruit is actually balanced there without anything holding it together, thanks to my son Noah who has a knack for this sort of thing (yep, same son who leaves the greasy car parts in the living room). The really amazing thing is that there were no cats on the table waiting to knock it down while I raced to get the camera!

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.

This cat begging for money was spotted in one of the cities of Belarus. He stays on his mat with a note that reads “need money for meat and fish, bless you”.

He doesn’t leave his place and watches over the money. His owner, an elderly woman, was found nearby. She said that she had rescued the cat from the “slaughters”, but at that time she had already owned some pets and couldn’t feed them all, so she decided to let the pets earn the money for themselves.

I looked and looked but could not find any photos of cats doing anything even remotely fast. So I am posting photos of me going fast.  At least it feels like I’m going fast, but my coach is always telling me to skate even faster.  Here is a spiral:

And a spin which is a little blurry (because I’m spinning fast!)

Seriously! Do you ever feel like your cat (or dog, or other pet) knows they have done something unacceptable and cares enough about it to look or act apologetic?  Do animals have a conscience?

Taco has this habit of reaching up and hugging me when he wants attention or anything from me, he does it quite often when I’m in the kitchen working.  Since I clip his claws, it’s usually not a problem (but annoying). I haven’t had a chance to do his manicure lately so his claws have gotten awfully sharp.  Today when he did his hug/give me attention routine, it really HURT, and I yelled.  He is not used to me yelling! So he ran right out of the kitchen, but two seconds later came in slowly meowing very loudly and looking straight into my eyes.  I swear he was saying “I’m sorry, you’re not mad at me are you?”  Then he got VERY loveable.

Cats, as much as we all adore them, have some rather UNDESIRABLE habits.  Here is Taco’s favorite:

Looks content, doesn’t he?  Of course we can remove him from the table 100 times, and he’ll happily return as soon as nobody’s looking.  Sometimes even when we are looking.  Just for the fun of it.  No, squirting him with water doesn’t help, he loves water.

Mango has an undesirable habit of napping on the clothes that I set out to wear.  Being very organized, I set my clothes out a few hours before I’m due to leave.  Mango does a great job of warming them up for me.  Unfortunately he also does a great job of sharing his mounds of poofy orange fur.

1. When in doubt, nap.

2. Fur is a harmless addition to any meal, plus it adds texture.

3. It’s not a twist-tie. It’s a fantasy flying furless thingy with an amazing ability to vanish.

4. You might as well take a small bite of everything on the table, that way it’s reasonably safe from being    eaten by someone else.

5. Anything on the floor is fair game, including feet.

6. Curtains really can’t hold much excess weight.

7. The best way to get whatever you want is to act awfully cute.

8. Yes, doors DO open if you stare at them long enough.

9. You shouldn’t jump on stuff that has a slippery surface.

10. Bugs are actually quite entertaining.

11. If you’re little, it’s best not to stick your head in the refrigerator if the person closing the door is not looking directly at you.

12. Stairs are not a good place for nighttime naps.

13. If you’re in a really bad mood, a nap will take care of it.

14. Almost anything has entertainment value. Especially crinkly stuff.

15. If you want to get in bed with someone you love, just scratch on their door.  It’s irresistible.

16. Barfing is not as awful as you might think. It also adds color and texture to any carpet.

17. Be persistent. Really persistent.

18. A good nap can fix almost any problem.

19. Sometimes, inspecting someone else’s car can turn into quite an adventure.

20. A screen does not have to be a barrier between you and the Great Outdoors. With the right technique this obstacle can be removed quite easily.

21. It’s acceptable to pee in the shower or bathtub if your regular toilet is unavailable.

22. A barking pit bull is not easily distracted. Therefore, you can race right past the nose of one. They are too stupid to register the fact that you are mere inches away from them while they are barking. When they shut up, it’s a different story.

23. If possible, always take naps in a patch of sunshine.

24. You can easily wake someone up just by walking on them.

25. You can keep a pit bull barking for hours just by staring calmly at it while you’re just out of reach. You can even take a leisurely bath.

26. If it stings, don’t touch it. Especially don’t eat it.

27. When you yawn, try to remember to put your tongue back in your mouth, otherwise someone will end up taking your picture.

28. You can cheer up a crying person simply by patting them gently on the face, looking into their eyes, and saying, “mew”.

29. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t sweat the big stuff either.

30. If you curl up in the lap of someone you love and look at them with adoration, it will make you both very happy.

We have no cat sports photos, so I am posting Mommy of the Cats Sports, or one sport actually, which is artistic roller skating!  This is my very favorite sport, and I skate about 18 hours a week.

This photo is from the Memorial Day Meet in Hudson, MA. and it’s from my freestyle routine.

Karen McComb  is the lead author of a cat vocalization study performed at the University of Sussex. She got the idea of studying cat purrs while listening to her own cat purr, and noticing that cats seem to have a variety of purrs.

The University of Sussex study examined the acoustic structure of recorded cat purrs.  The researchers decided that all purrs are not the same; some contain an “embedded, high-pitched cry.”  Ten different cats purring were recorded and all human listeners in the study identified  ‘solicitation purring’ sounds.

McComb explained that what cats seem to be doing for the special purr “is producing the low fundamental frequency and its harmonics by muscular activation” (that has been associated with typical purring) “but also voicing a cry, probably with the inner edges of the vocal folds, which is then superimposed on the sound’s frequency spectrum.”

Virtually all listeners, whether or not they owned a cat themselves, identified the solicitation purring sounds as being more urgent than others.

They believe that human sensitivity to this type of purring may be innate in humans, drawing from a primal drive to respond to crying babies.  And you thought it was just purring…