Hey there furiends, The Human was asked to contribute to an article by the good folks at Rent.com so the FBD (Feline Board of Directors) at FelineOpines voted to allow her some space on our blog to share the article with all of you.
There are a number of her #Cat Writer’s Association furiends who share their knowledge as well. If you’re a kitty that resides in an apartment or have a furiend who does, there are some good ideas here. I purrfer to enrich my environment with a short stroll in the garden or a tour through the neighborhood in the cat stroller. What does your human do for you to get you some fresh air?
Click on the image above or here to read the full article.
Happy Wednesday Furiends! I must say, the weather in our neck of the woods is wacky! One day The Human put the chairs on the porch at the place she calls work. The sun was shining and everyone enjoyed the fresh air. By the afternoon there was LOUD thunder and hail. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m just glad I’m an indoor kitty!
There’s nothing much new to report except that The Human got a new phone and she’s trying out the camera. She attempted to catch me in a reflective mood. I think she should have practiced a bit more before she did the photo shoot.
Oh no, here comes the human with her new camera phone. Can’t a cat just get some alone time?Please Human, can you skip me? Oliver is a camera hound, I know he’d love to have his picture taken.I love you Human. Now please go away.
The Human did manage to get the phone out in time to document this very rare occurrence at our house, Lily commandeering the Chewy box. Lily isn’t really attracted to boxes so this is a rare capture.
What’s the big deal? I’m sitting in the box, get over it.
And finally, The Human did manage to take a portrait of Oliver with the new camera. As much as I hate to admit it, my brofur is a rather handsome fellow.
The Eastbay Hardware store in Charleston, South Carolina posted a photo on their Twitter account challenging people to find the hidden feline amongst the hardware. Emma, the store cat had found a perfect hiding place and it sure is hard to find her!
Emma is not the only feline employed at East Bay Hardware, she has a coworker named Max. Both these rather slothful employees find the most interesting places to sleep and photos of their nap locations are often featured on the store’s Twitter account.
Max shows the benefits of the pool special.
The furry employees don’t just cat nap in the hardware area. On sunny days the love to snooze in the garden center too.
And lest you think these cat’s don’t do enough to earn their kibble, they also work as spokes meowdels for some of the store’s ads.
Okay, I found where I stashed my treats, now all I need to find is my catnip mouse.
There’s yet another feline phenomenon on the internet and it’s all about what cats have collected and where they’re hiding their stash. Now the article uses the words “hoard” and “steal” which this feline finds a bit offensive. I prefer to look at myself as a collector.
Michael’s Cat on Twitter started a furor of discussion about a photo he posted with a cat, mouth open and rocks spread out on the windowsill with the comment, “She likes rocks”.
The thread shows that we cats collect all kinds of things. At our house Oliver is the master collector and his favorite collections are the plastic strips from milk cartons, and those colorful springy things. I prefer to keep my stuff in the toy box. Lily isn’t much of a collector at all.
It’s pretty funny when a big item in the house gets moved because what The Human finds underneath is a veritable hoarder’s heaven!
Sigrid the cat helps her human, Travis Nelson make sure no one touches his bike! Nelson is a former San Franciscan who now lives in London. The article provides a video where we see Sigrid enjoying her bike ride in her basket as she seems to warn everyone to keep their distance.
Nelson rides with Sigrid every day through the streets of London and she’s becoming very well known. Sigrid proved herself to be an adventure cat every since she was a kitten.
The downside of having Sigrid as a biking buddy is that she’s become so well known that people constantly want Nelson to stop so they can pet the cat despite her clear warning that petting is not acceptable.
Despite Sigrid’s grumpiness and “leave me alone” attitude, she’s made many friends in London.
Chichi the cat’s fatherly actions have become a Tik Tok sensation when videos were shared that showed he stayed close to the mother cat, Sophie when the kittens were being born and who still helps take care of the ‘kids”.
Male cats are not known for being attentive fathers and they are not normally involved in the raising of the kittens which is what makes Chichi a rare feline indeed.
He stayed close by Sophie’s side when she began giving birth to а litter of five kittens. And Chichi’s fatherly duties have continued as he cuddles and plays with the kittens.
This feline dad might be able to teach some human dads a few tricks and he gives “Cat Daddy” a whole new meaning.
And for my last news item I have another TikTok video that has launched a kitty to fame. Limón is one talented feline who sits and waits for his human to ask him to play and then begins pawing at the keyboard with gusto!
Since his debut as a mewsician, his videos have had about 8 million views. You can enjoy his videos at TikTok, @rochiylimon.
I do have to say, these over achieving felines are really setting the bar high for the rest of us. Looks like I might need to develop a talent!
Thanks for your patience and waiting for our feline news post ….a day late! As I mentioned yesterday, The Human has been a bit overwhelmed lately and this has spilled over into her photography time. As you will see in the photos below, there are issues of the lighting so Oliver and Lily decided that we should title this week’s photos of the Tribe as, “Lighting, What NOT to do!”
We hope you enjoy!
“Ummm, Human, nobody will even be able to tell this is me!” – Lily“Seriously Human?! I wanted you to capture me and my bravery and no one can even tell the photo is me!” – Oliver“I am the darkness, fear me!” – Oliver“I am so over this, catch me in this lighting, I always look more handsome in the firelight.”-Oliver
Let’s hope there are some better quality photos next week!@felineopines
I’m not a feline that is usually star struck but I must say Bobby Flay, a man deeply attached to his two cats Nacho and Stella, has given Nacho top billing in his cat food company, Made by Nacho. Flay worked on the food formulas for three years before it launched and it’s getting paws up from all over. And get this, the team at Made by Nacho have felines in their homes and they get to taste test the new products. If the felines give the food a paws down in the test kitchen, the item doesn’t make it into production.
As Flay and his feline partners travel to promote their company, he has some favorite feline travel products.
As his felines are on the CHONKY side, he likes an extra-large pet carrier(fits cats up to 50 pounds) with retractable privacy flaps, seatbelt safety straps and a comfortable fleece pad inside. And if your felines are finicky about color, there are a number to choose from.
Treats for travel are essential and it might not surprise you to know that Flay brings Made by Nacho treats. They’re all single-ingredient, freeze dried treats.
Now no matter how fastidious your feline may be, it’s a good idea to travel with Tidy Cat pads just in case there’s an accident as well as Earthbath All Natural Grooming Wipes. The wipes are fragrance free wipes and are great at cleaning mouths, paws, etc. and are safe for cats older than six weeks and contain no soap, gluten, DEA, parabens, sulfates, synthetic dyes or phthalates.
Traveling can be boring so catnip toys are a must. Refillable catnip toys are great for this and keep the ennui away in the carrier.
When humans travel with cats it’s a good idea to take PetLovers Extra Sticky Rollers because you don’t want people to know a cat is your traveling companion by all the fuzz on your clothes!
Shadow, a 10-year old cat is now in diabetic remission after her glucose are successfully tracked by a glucose monitor . Shadow developed diabetes due to her severe pancreatitis and is now on track to make a full recovery! Shadow’s treatment started after she ended up in the emergency room for severe pancreatitis and vasculitis which then developed into diabetes. After numerous veterinary consultations, Shadow was fitted with a permanent glucose-monitoring device at The Royal Dick School of Veterinary studies.
This device allowed Shadow’s owners to take her home and measure glucose levels on their phone via a Bluetooth reader. It also enables more accurate adaption of insulin dosages by the internal medical team.
Within three months of the device implant, Shadow’s pancreatitis has subsided and she’s in diabetes remission , no longer on a diabetic diet and has no more insulin requirements, And if that isn’t good news enough, she’s now had her glucose monitor removed. Meowza, that’s good news!
The detailed information these monitors give veterinarians has greatly increased the effectiveness of treatment. What great news!.
Adopted shelter cat loves his human so much he won’t leave his side
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All three of our Tribe are shelter kitties and meowza are we grateful that The Human gave us a forever home. This little guy seems to be extra grateful and hates to leave his human’s side. This has prompted the human to print a tiny feline 3-D helmet so Cathode can travel safely on his human’s bicycle. You can follow them on Instagram @mon_copain_ray.
As our readers know, when we talk about “our neck of the woods” we literally mean woods but we realize that many of our feline furiends live in the cityh. Still, whether city cat or country cat, we all like a little fresh air and outside time. City felines rejoice! You can all get some safe outside time too! Your humans need to assess porch dangers such as places on the balcony where a cat could fall, any plants out there that are poisonous and finally too much bright sun that might get them sunburned (I reported about cats and sunscreen in my May 5 WTTW feature).
Putting a net around the balcony will help keep cats safe (there are instructions in the article). If the balcony has bars, check the distance between the bars because we felines squeeze ourselves through the narrowest of spots. Also check the slats on the bottom of the balcony. Check every plant to make sure it’s safe. There is a list of plants that are poisonous to cats on Pet MD.
So my furiends, even if you you are a city kitty, you can still enjoy the great outdoors.
I interrupt this blog for an important announcement
Happy Wednesday Furiends! Our usual Wednesday feature has been moved to Thursday due to circumstances beyond our control. Our Purrsonal Assistant and General Lackey…er…Beloved Human has been a bit busy and overwhelmed. She’s running a bit behind and has requested a time extension from Feline Management to move my regular news feature to tomorrow.
Being the soft-hearted and considerate felines we are, we granted this request on the condition that she have something we can contribute to the blog today. Fortunately she had a bit of news. Her story, “Miss P. Saves Christmas” is being published in a new holiday compilation called, The Cat In The Christmas Tree that will come out mid-October of this year.
Now we were a bit miffed that this story was about a family feline we never met as Miss. P. crossed the Rainbow Bridge before we were born but she was featured in our book, Are There Head Bonks in Heaven? Miss P. is on the bottom right..
Here is a Christmas photo of Miss P. who, we are told, was quite a character.
Well folks, that’s the news for today and tomorrow I’ll be back with my regular feline filled news features.
Hello there furiends and happy Wednesday! We haven’t much to report in our neck of the woods simply because we can’t figure out from day to day what’s going to happen with the weather.
No this is not a joke. Notice snow on Friday and Saturday and thunderstorms on Sunday. Meowza this is crazy!“Who is the fool that ordered this weather?!”
Still, we felines aren’t too bothered as long as The Human maintains the temperature to our liking and what we like is a nice fire in the evening.
We haven’t been completely parked in front of the fire. Oliver and I are always on duty in the morning to help The Human get ready.
Seriously, THAT eyeshadow?!”
We hope things are going well in your neck of the woods and that you enjoy this weeks web wanderings.
Oliver is a bit put out that this woman in Bellevue, Washington didn’t contact him for his services. I mean, we’re only a mountain pass away. I think Ollie needs some marketing help. But I digress. This story is about a human who won a $125,000 settlement following a three-year court battle about her cat, Miska.
This poor human received more than $30,000.00 in fines over that that time for claims that Miska had “trespassed and taunted pets in the neighborhood”. At one point Miska was even taken away from her human and forced to do a stint in the feline penitentiary.
Well this human was having none of this and so she filed a lawsuit against King County, the city of Bellevue and other government entities.
The cat’s attorney, Jon Zimmerman, stated, “This case was about the unjustified and incredible prosecution of a domestic house cat in Bellevue,” This was really an historic settlement involving a cat in the state of Washington.”
It was alleged, a neighbor who is the manager of the Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC) was behind many of the complaints. Anna Danieli and her team alleged “governmental overreach” in the lawsuit. They also argued her violations should be voided because the City of Bellevue failed to update its domestic cat code.
The lawsuit also resulted in a court order for changes in Bellevue’s city code and the way civil offenses involving animals are heard.
Miska’s human stated on Miska’s website, “This case exposed how government officials can use their influence and positions to take unjust and unreasonable action against neighbors and other people in their personal lives. This victory affirms that citizens ought to be able to rely on the laws as written, and not on backroom agreements by politicians.”
I am a feline who believes in stopping government overreach and in punishing politicians who play dirty. Paws up to Miska and her human!
Sometimes you pick a cat, sometimes the cat picks you
Oh meowza, this little kitty made himself at home on a boat and he now shares his digs with his brofur
There is a subreddit called “What’s Wrong with Your Cat” where people share photos of their felines being weird. Some of these pictures made me meow out loud however there were a number of photos where Oliver, Lily and I found ourselves asking, “What’s wrong with that?” We’ll let you be the judge.
And while we’re talking about felines and legal issues, the British Columbia’s Civil Resolution Tribunal ruled that a woman can keep her three emotional support cats despite her strata’s ban on more than one pet. I had to dig out some info on what a strata is. It’s a form of housing where the owners own their individual strata lots and together own the common property and common assets as a strata corporation. If you want to learn more I got my info here.
It was undisputed in the case that the strata’s bylaws say an owner, tenant, or occupant may only have one cat or one dog and a complaint was received regarding three cats in the house. The tenant responded to the complaint stating that the cats were support animals and she attached a letter from a licensed social worker.
“Jennifer’s cats are a long standing and an integral part of Jennifer’s treatment plan in managing and regulating her anxiety,” the social worker wrote. “I would recommend that Jennifer continue to have her cats in her home for the ongoing emotional support they provide her.”
The strata respond saying it needed medical documentation. A doctor’s letter was supplied outlining the woman’s diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder and suggested she be able to keep her cats. Another doctor submitted a letter as well but the strata council denied the requests stating they didn’t have the expertise to evaluate whether the pets were necessary in the situation, and had “neither the expertise nor the authority to grant this accommodation.” Call me simple but wasn’t that noted in the letters from the medical professionals?!
The council told Lenius and Schlosser to apply to the Human Rights Tribunal and that the strata had to enforce the one-pet bylaw.
There were some more shenanigans from the counsel until Vancouver attorney Laura Track said human rights law are clear that stratas and other housing providers, like landlords and co-ops, must reasonably accommodate a resident’s disability-related needs.
“In this case, the medical evidence was clear that this person had been relying on her cats to support her with her mental health issues for many years, and would suffer significant detrimental impacts if the cats were removed,” Track said. “This kind of medical support is key to the success of a human rights claim.”
Second, she said, if a strata is going to refuse to accommodate someone’s disability, they have to be able to explain why.
“In legal terms, they have to show a bona fide and reasonable justification for refusing the accommodation,” the lawyer said. The article did not tell us what happened to the lady and her three felines; we hope they found a new place to live.
Evidently these cases are becoming more common in Canada. Purrhaps Oliver should move his law purrractice farther north!
The Buckman neighborhood in southeast Portland, Oregon has a ginger tabby named Andy who is always busy sharing his thoughts with the world. Andy’s human, Hayley Cassatt, has created clever or punny sayings that she displays on a window were Andy likes to sit or sleep. While Andy naps you might see a speech bubble on the window that says, “I’m craving a purr-ito” or “The feline is mutual.” Cassatt’s father was a cartoonist and he loved puns so in honor of him, she began the window comments. She changes the sayings every month.
Andy, a former shelter feline, has become famous and now has more than 2K followers on Instagram and her human says all this attention is making her a bit of a diva. We say bravo! Everyone needs a bit of feline humor in their day!
Happy Wednesday Furiends! Spring is here! The Human caught Oliver sitting on the chair in the foyer staring at three very plump robins sitting on the railing of the front porch. Now bird watching is always fun but I think Oliver’s interest in these guys has a bit of a nefarious purpose due to the recently implement D-I-E-T.
And how is the diet going? I am handling the reduction in portions just fine. Oliver, not so much.
“You want to know how the dreaded D-I-E-T is going , well let me tell you.”“The struggle and the deprivation is real!”“For the love of all that is fair and just, someone toss me a few extra kibble bits, a treat, something!!”“And that, my furiends, is how the D-I-E-T is going!” “Hey Oliver, you know those delicious treats The Human said she wasn’t going to order anymore because they’re too fattening? Yeah, not in here.”“Oh my whiskers, all this caterwauling about food! I’m just going to rest on The Human’s shoulder until Oliver settled into this idea of the D-I-E-T.”
And there you have it, I think I’m safe in saying it will be a while before Oliver is on board!
Let’s check out this week’s news.
Cat’s meeting with newborn will make you saw awwwwwwww.
I just love seeing human kittens and feline kittens interacting. This one is just too sweet!
Cat Jumps Onto Her Dad’s Shoulders For Bike Rides
This little fellow loves to sit on his human’s shoulders (kind of like Lily laying across our Human’s shoulders).
Meowza! Did you know that white or pale colored cats are at additional risk of getting skin cancer? Sarah Elliot from the Central Veterinary Office for Cats Protection warns that white and pale-colored cats don’t have a pigment called melanin in their skin, which is what protects humans from sunlight. The risk of irreparable damage over time, by the sun’s ultraviolet rays can increase the risk of developing skin damage and cancer.
‘Cats with unpigmented noses or ears are also much more susceptible to sun damage and require additional sun protection.’
Sunscreen is helpful but before you slap that gooey stuff on us, be sure to check with your vet first because we felines are very sensitive. If you do let us outdoors for brief periods, make sure there are places of shade for us to get away from the heat and for heaven’s sake, make sure we have access to clean water. Also you can set up a cool place for us to rest outside by wrapping a bottle in a towel and placing it near the outside place we like to sleep.
There is an excellent article about caring for us sun loving kitties and also includes tips of ingredients not to have in any sunscreen you might use on us.
If you’re a feline fashionista and not opposed to wearing hats, you might want to give that a try.
Cat rolls down the stairs this way at least five times a day
Posy, or Roly Posy as she’s known on Instagram makes a definite entrance when she uses the stairs in her house.
Here’s one of those “cat travels far away from home with happy ending” story that I like so much.
Ashley, a two-year-old Siamese, escaped through an open window of her home in Glan Conwy, Wales on 15 April and was discovered six days later in a garage of the Monk family in Essex, England by their dog Bobby who scratched and cried and insisted that the Monk family follow him and see what was in the garage.
When the family saw Ashley, they contacted a local group that helps reunite pets with their humans. The cat was scanned, microchip information was found and Ashley’s family in Wales received the happy call that Ashley had been found.
Ashley’s humans surmised that she made a break for it when the house cleaners left the bathroom window open. Ashley had a 15 foot jump from that window to the ground.
Ashley’s owner said that the entire village of 4,000 people were out looking for her, but couldn’t find her. They thought they’d never see her again.
Just how Ashley made her way from Wales to England remains a mystery although some have promoted the theory that she’d gotten into someone’s car.
Thank goodness this is another happy ending for a story about a wandering feline.
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