Our angels leave forever paw prints on our heartsđź’•.
We are purrticipating in Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day.This special event and blog hop was established by Deb Barnes to honor our beloved fur kids. We invite you to join the blog hop or tell us about your Rainbow Bridge fur kids in the comments.
Happy Wednesday Furiends,
I hope your week is going well. Here at Tribe Headquarters we are getting ready for one of our favorite events of the year Remember Me Thursday This world wide event was initiated by Helen Woodward Animal Center and is a time to see the light on animal adoption.
Each year bloggers purrticipate in this event and, as feline bloggers, I feel it’s important that we purrticipate too. The first thing we did was send The Human over to enter her story (about us of course) in the Remember Me Thursday contest. We encourage all our furiends to enter as the three top prizes go the shelter the winners choose. This year they are adding something exciting and that is the public will be voting on the finalists! We sure would love to win any of these prizes for our local shelter Panhandle Animal Shelter:
1st place – $5,000 monetary prize, 1,000 pounds of Blue Buffalo pet food and 100 Kong toys
2nd Place – $2,500 monetary prize, 1,000 pounds of Blue Buffalo pet food and 100 Kong toys
3rd place – $1,000 monetary prize, 1,000 pounds of Blue Buffalo pet food and 100 Kong toys
So tell your humans to get out their cameras and enter your “rescued self” in the contest.
You’ll be seeing lots more fun stuff from us about this wonderful event.
But now it it’s time for us to get to the best of feline news on the web.
Lots of kitties l have eye issues. Our Angel Tucker had some serious depth perception issues that resulted in him plunging 35 feet down into a ravine, which is why we were thrilled to hear that the London Cat Clinic is launching the UK’s first and only dedicated ophthalmology clinic for cats. I sent our Purrsonal Assistant to google to see if there was such a dedicated feline ophthalmic clinic in the US but she could only find “animal eye clinics”, nothing specifically for felines.
The clinic will be headed up by Dr Ursula Dietrich, an RCVS Specialist in Veterinary Ophthalmology, who will be stepping down as senior lecturer in veterinary ophthalmology at The Royal Veterinary College to take up her new post. Dr. Dietrich has some impressive credentials! She said, “ “I am thrilled to take on this new role, heading up The London Cat Clinic’s new opthalmology centre. The clinic is doing wonderful things in feline veterinary care as the largest specialist practice devoted solely to cats in the UK. The ophthalmology service is the next exciting development in achieving our goal of being a centre of excellence in feline veterinary medicine.”
This is very exciting and for our readers in the UK, if you are interested in finding out about referring a case you can get information at their website.
Not every state has a state dog and fewer have state cats. I think this is a travesty that should be corrected posthaste!
Some states have even designated rescue dogs or shelter dogs but cats have been, for the most part ignored. The state of Maine is enlightened and their state cat is….you guessed it…the Maine Coon. Maryland selected the calico cat because the cat’s colors (orange, black and white) match the colors of the state bird, the oriole, and the state insect, the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly.
Massachusetts chose the Tabby as their state representative. The choice was given over to school children in 1998. Now there are some states that recognize shelter cats as their state cats but they are few.
My furiends, I call you to action! If your state does not have a state cat you need to start clawing a note to your elected officials!
The director of our local shelter (Panhandle Animal Shelter), Mandy Evans would love to see our facility emptied of animals because she believes there is so much more shelters can do than just house dogs and cats. Maneki Neko, a cat rescue charity in Preston, Australia felt the same way when a young woman preparing to enter drug rehab faced the dilemma of having nowhere for her two cats Brittany and Don to stay while she was away and rehoming them was not an option. She said, “They’ve been loyal through all the stuff that I’ve been through. They’re there when I’m upset. They’re steady and a comfort. They haven’t given up on me yet.”
The woman had no close family and couldn’t afford commercial boarding. Friends’ promises to look after her cats did not come through. In a “last-ditch effort”, the day before rehab started in March, she contacted Maneki Neko rescue.
The charity housed and fed her pets for two months, for free, while Karli went to rehab. Today she lives in a new home with her beloved felines. She said that Brittany and Don meant everything to her and she wouldn’t have gone into rehab if they hadn’t been looked after.
Crisis accommodation, or the Feline Friends Assistance Program, is a new arm of Maneki Neko Cat Rescue, which also offers adoptions and has a cat cafe, which is closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. A crowdfunding appeal aims to raise $15,000 for its Preston headquarters to continue boarding up to six cats at a time in cases such as Karli’s.
Other humans who are fleeing domestic violence, facing eviction or going into the hospital would be able to temporarily board their feline fur kids at Maneki Neko and help fund their cat café that had to be closed due to the shutdown.
We give the good folks at Maneki Neko our Paws Up award and hope other rescues and shelters will create a Feline Friends Assistance Program in their cities.
A visitor to the library in Tianjin, China had a pleasant surprise when visiting. The library is located inside Tianjin Tower, which rises to 415.2 meters (over 1362 feet). He found seven cats prowling amongst the bookshelves.
These seven cats began their duties as “intern curators” at the tower library on August 24th. The cats represent a variety of breeds－ragdoll, exotic shorthair and chinchilla, to name a few and all are about a year old.
After reopening the library recently, with the addition of the felines, the staff noted that it will be a place where lonely people can find feline friendship and encourage people to read more.
The library will be hosting activities, including some for the fans of the library cats such as photo ops, reader events with the cats and an event to celebrate the Chinese holiday Double Seven Day, which is similar to our Valentine’s Day.
Well I say it’s about time felines received some of these prestigious honors. Mittens, a feline from Wellington is in the running to be voted New Zealander of the Year, going up against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield.
The feline joins a host of nominees for the annual Kiwibank award, including figures from sectors such as politics, media, health, music and design.
Mittens, a handsome Turkish Angora, has his own private Facebook group with more than   52,000 followers.Â
The Wellington Museum has also dedicated a mini exhibition to Mittens and his adventures, named “Floofy and Famous.” And as if all this fame isn’t enough, the Mayor of Wellington gave Mittens the key to the city in May. The last key given went to “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson.
And how did Mittens earn this honor? The proclamation stated it was presented “in recognition of bringing happiness, laughter and coolness to the capital — and putting the city on the map internationally with his feline antics,”
Nominations close on August 30 and judging panels will evaluate the merits of all the candidates. Overall winners will be announced on March 18 2021.
I don’t know about you but this feline believes Mittens is a shoe in.
You always have a laundry buddy.
What’s your pet adoption story?
Happy Wednesday Furiends!
The heat is back in our neck of the woods but The Human has set us up quite well while she is away at that place she calls “work”. I hope you all are staying cool and comfortable. We are carrying on as usual on the upstairs deck because it is always shady there. You can see how “active” we are.
When the Human received the beautiful Muse medallion, we felt it was only fitting that we wear it for a while, after all, any product of this blog is thanks to the felines! The problem is that thing is HEAVY!
And now, on with the best about felines from the World Wide Web!
Meowza am I excited! It’s rare that I get to do a follow up on a previous feature. In my July 8th Walk Through The Wednesday feature I reported on a kitty that stowed away on a military cargo plane and landed in Bangor Maine.
Well, the cat has a home and a name! Cargo the cat was first fostered and then adopted by Nanci Hamlin and her boyfriend who both work at the Bangor airport and had been following the cat’s story ever since he was discovered hiding under a cargo pallet in the belly of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane.
Looking for Cargo’s family was difficult as the plane originated in California and made a stop in Colorado before landing in Bangor. Fortunately, the pilot of the Europe bound plane found the cat before they left for their next destination.
Finding a stow away cat was a first for the pilot and the staff at the airport. As I reported, Cargo was taken to the local Humane Society and they contacted shelters in California and officials at Air Force Bases as well as social media. No one came forward to claim Cargo.
When this kitty’s family could not be located the shelter put him up for adoption and that’s when he found his furever home.
Cargo now lives with four other cats and an Alaskan husky and fits in purrfectly. His humans say he took over the house right away and Cargo’s best buddy is the dog, Akiko.
Now, Cargo is allowed outside only with human supervision. His humans say that it seems he wants to know what is outside but she says,” He’s an indoor cat now.”
We are thrilled that Cargo has a home and Cargo my furiend, this feline advises you to stick to the inside and stay away from cargo planes!
I often get my whiskers in a twist when I search the web for my feline features. There are too many people who have too much negative to say about us felines! This article made me very happy though. Evidently three-quarters of Americans say they couldn’t have lasted through lockdown without their cats.
A new poll questioned 2,000 people (57% of whom also have dogs – we won’t hold that against them) listed the benefits their feline furiends provided them during their isolation.
Fifty-seven percent said that their feelings of anxiety were eased and they felt less alone. Forty nine percent said they felt less anxious with their in-house purr therapist by their side.
In addition 41% said their felines gave them someone to talk to and 35% said their kitties brought a feeling of positivity to their days.
The poll was conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Royal Canin following International Cat Day Aug. 8.
While spending more time together two-thirds (66%) of cat owners surveyed learned or noticed something new about their pet, and three out of four respondents became closer to their kitty as a result of the quarantine.
Being cooped-up indoors gave respondents time to uncover a new spot their cat enjoys hiding in (64%), notice a new behavior (57%) and discover a new food their pet likes (55%).
Despite all the good things humans found that their cats brought to them in the lockdown, 73% of those surveyed said their cat seems to be ready for some space. (Well DUH, who wants their human hogging their favorite spot on the sofa all day or constantly interrupting nap time??)
This makes my kitty heart melt. Imperfect felines will be in the spotlight at Cats Protection’s #AlternativeCatAwards, a virtual celebration of cats with impurrfections.
This event was created after siblings Kathe and Keller came to the Cats Protection’s Forth Valley Adoption Centre, in Ochilvale Terrace, Fishcross,. These kitties needed someone to see past their disabilities and fall in love with them..
Both kitties have mild cerebellar hypoplasia, a condition in which the brain does not develop properly, affecting balance and co-ordination and making them wobble when they walk. Keller is also deaf, but this does not hold him back, and he loves to play with his sister.
Thankfully, these challenges didn’t stop Elaine Baxter from adopting them. Elaine was looking to fill the gap left by the death of her beloved 16-year-old cat Vinnie. Elaine was already used to dealing with cats with special needs, as Vinnie had diabetes for eight years.
Roslyn McKay, the shelter director said “We are delighted Kathe and Keller have settled in so well to their new home. They are real characters and firm favorites with the staff. “Disabled cats really shouldn’t put off experienced owners. They may require a little extra care or consideration but they have plenty of love to give.’
And now, disabled cats have their own category for this year’s virtual Alternative Cat Awards. All humans of disabled cats are invited to share videos of their #PurrfectlyImperfect cats, enjoying happy, healthy lives with a disability, health issue or superficial aesthetic deformity. Videos need to be shared on Twitter and Instagram using #AlternativeCatAwards before August 21.
Bravo to all you humans who give love and homes to these special cats!
Okay, this story and the next one are targeted toward our very own Oliver. I’m not saying he’s fat but the Tribe has wellness exams next week and Oliver has “blossomed” quite a bit since his last visit!
This story is about a Philadelphia kitty who plays the piano for his food. Why is this you may ask?
Well it seems that Winslow, a former stray, needed to shed a few pounds but the famished feline would scream between his morning and evening feedings. And then one day, one of Winslow’s humans decided to use his fascination with a toy piano they had to attempt to help Winslow deal with his diet (and help the humans with his screaming)..
The human started splitting his snacks into smaller portions and began to teach him how to play for his snacks. Once she decided to video one of Winslows “concerts” he became a sensation. Now Winslow has been on the radio and even has a single on Spotify.
Winslow also has his own music video and song called “Bean Gotta Scream”.
And the best news is that Winslow has lost weight too! Oliver, I think you need to get a piano!
The Human is always meowing about the difficulties of a multi-cat household when it comes to putting cats on special diets. Neither Lily nor I have an eating problem but there is another feline (who shall remain nameless) who never met a food he didn’t like.
Well this new gadget in the making just might solve these problems. Psy0rz has joined with Meowton to create a weighing machine/feeder combo designed to regulate feline diets.
The system has a scale to weight the cat, a food area with dispenser and a scale for the food bowl. The cat has to stand on the scale to have the food dispensed. The feeder identifies each cat by weight and controls the quantity of food dispensed.
There is a live stream where you can see the device in action.
Oliver, your free feeding days may be coming to an end!
Hello Furiends,
I hope this week finds you well. So many of my feline buddies have suffered through hurricanes, tornadoes, wind storms and lightning storms. Meowza, it’s dangerous out there and purraying you all are safe.
The most important news of the week for our neck of the woods is that we won a Muse Medallion award from CWA! We are excited!
In other more boring news, the temperatures are back to what they should be here in the Northwest and it’s cool enough in the mornings for Oliver and I to cuddle in bed.
Well, enough about us, let’s see what wonders the world-wide web holds for felines this week.
Cat videos with classical mewsic. What more could you ask for? Here are a few of the internet’s favourite felines with aspirations to be the next Dame Joan, Martha Argerich, or Berliner Philharmoniker.
How cool would it be to be a cat living in the home of the writer of Cats? I’d say purrfectly wonderful.Andrew Lloyd Webber serenaded his cat with a brief performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on the weekend .Sitting in front of his gleaming grand piano, the Cats composer gave his own feline, Fez, a special musical treat.
It looks like Fez is enjoying the private concert!
Meowza! It seems like every week I’m reporting on another feline who has sticky paws. Last week it was a swim goggle stealing burglar, this week’s offender has a penchant for shoes,
Jordan the cat from  Pennsylvania has a human who is attempting to atone for Jordan’s sins. She has created a Facebook page to try and reunite the purrloined shoes with their owners. Now that a camera has been installed to catch Jordan’s thievery on film, he’s garnered quite a few fans.
The camera has captured the klepto cat jumping a fence with a shoe in his mouth-he is determined! Good grief, what will felines be stealing next – priceless art work?
If you want to eat French fries and keep your paws clean you’ll love these cat paw grips. The good news is you can use them to play with your cat after the fries are gone. The bad news is that, as of now, you can only get them from McDonald’s in China. IMHO I don’t think it’s too much to ask for our humans to hop on over to China to get us a great cat toy. Sadly, I discovered that this special ended in July so stop your humans before they book a flight.
Kamwei Fong loves to draw cats and his latest illustrations of black cats, called “Wonderfurryland” depict a plethora of felines with rotund bodies, puffy tails and whimsical poses. Fong even inked cat-shaped environmental fixtures, like a moon, sun, and mountain, into the black-and-white landscape.
The Malaysian artist said that it took him more than a month to complete this work. We say “paws up” for these wonderful pieces of art. You can see more on his Instagram page. Gee, I wonder if he’d be interested in a rotund model for his next series, Oliver is available.
If it’s not too much effort, Oliver invites you to join the celebration.
Hello Furiends,
Well, The Tribe has been languishing in the heat that we are experiencing in our neck of the woods. We have no desire to do anything except hang out on the upstairs deck, sleep and eat (and Oliver and I occasionally like to bully Lily, which we get in trouble for). This will explain why our photos from this week are almost identical to our photos from last week, it’s all about the cool deck time.
At least this week’s news items aren’t the same as last week. I hope you enjoy them!
I know, many of us feel a certain type of way about dressing cats. My regular readers will recall the disastrous dinosaur and sushi costume event that were my two (and only) kerfuffles with clothing.
Still, there many felines who love wearing clothes and Prunella is one of them. Often sphynx cats wear clothes to keep warm and, if you’re gonna’ wear clothes, why not make it fun?
That’s how Prunella’s human, Dee Kitsch, started clothing her. When Prunella arrived from the breeder, she was wearing a cute little sweater to keep her warm and the rest is history.
Five year old Prunella’s human is a photographer and it was a natural transition for putting Prunella on Instagram and have her pose in custom outfits.
The photos give people something to smile about and Dee Kitsch and Prunella love their photoshoot time together.
I know many cats who love to dress up and, if you have a feline who enjoys wearing clothing, let her fashionista flag fly. As for those of us who would rather go to the vet than wear clothing, please allow us to live happily au naturel.
Please take the time to read this story. It will bring (happy) tears to your eyes and reaffirm the truth that we felines love our humans and remember them.
Oh my whiskers! A cat detained at Sri Lanka’s main prison while allegedly trying to smuggle drugs and cell phone SIM cards has escaped, media reports said Monday.
How the feline managed to make it into the high-security Welikada Prison is a mystery.
This felonious feline had nearly two grams of heroin, two SIM cards and a memory chip in a small plastic bag tied around his neck.
That cat escaped from a prison room where he was being held.
I can only hope that this feline has seen the error of his ways and plans to stay on the straight and narrow from now on.
Playtonic1 is a Reddit user who happily announced the birth of his first child. The couple wanted a second child but decided that during the pandemic hysteria, it would be better to wait. They purchased the usual products to prevent unwanted pregnancy however they forgot about their cat’s habit of tearing up items found in drawers and cupboards.
When Mrs. Playtonic1’s pregnancy test came back positive they were shocked and couldn’t figure out what happened, until they found the shredded cause of the new pregnancy.
Being a feline who purrfers to be circumspect I won’t report on any more details but I am happy to tell you that the couple is delighted, despite the craziness in the world (and their latex chewing feline).
File this one under “human goes above and beyond to find a furever home for a cat.”
When Kyle Cassidy learned that a stray cat was frequenting his friend’s porch in West Philly, the longtime feline foster dad offered to take the girl in, certain he could find a home for her in three days or less. He posted her pictures on social media and asked his thousands of followers to help name her. The name Stabatha won.
When his “name that cat” contest didn’t get Stabatha a home, Cassidy, a West Philly writer and photographer started posting creative informative segments about Stabitha on Facebook such as, “ “She has an IQ of 122, speaks some French, and has put three stockbrokers in prison for insider trading.”
When this didn’t get Stabitha a furever home, artist Deanna Leist Aliano painted a portrait of Stabatha as an incentive for prospective adopters.
Inspired by that work, Cassidy created an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise money to pay out-of-work artists microgrants of $50 to paint Stabatha’s portrait, in the hope that the artworks might move someone to adopt her. “It was all part of a not really elaborate plot to keep her on people’s minds and have a street team trying to find her a home,” he said.
Since he began the campaign Monday, Cassidy has raised more than $600 ($100 more than his goal) and has given out seven grants. Artists from London to Italy have submitted portraits of Stabatha, portraying her as everything from a doctor fighting COVID-19 to an isolated kitty living in a surveillance state.
Still, affectionate, snuggly Stabatha, one of more than 4000,000 stray cats in Philadelphia, Â is looking for a home.
“She’s extraordinarily chatty. When I come down to visit her in the morning, she tells me the story of the entire night, of all the birds and opossums that walked past the window,” he said. “But when you sit down, she’ll curl up on your foot.”
Cassidy said he’s had people from as far away as Georgia and Virginia offer to drive up and adopt Stabatha, but he wants her to remain a Philly cat. “I think stray cat problems are local and perennial,” he said. “If you drive up from Georgia to get this stray cat, you’re driving past thousands of other stray cats.”
Those interested in applying to adopt Stabatha can contact City Kitties, the Philadelphia foster-based rescue service that’s handling her adoption. She’s received three local adoption applications so far, but Cassidy is hoping for many more, so City Kitties can find her the best home.
“This is a win-win-win situation. It’s a perpetual motion machine of joy. Everybody gets something out of it,” he said. “Artists get groceries. The cat gets a home. And I get my front porch back.”
I give Kyle Cassidy our Paws Up Award for one of the most creative adoption ideas ever!
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