Hello Furiends!

I hope everything is great in our neck of the woods but I know many of you are suffering with bad weather and we’re also purraying for our furiends in Turkey and Syria after the devastating earthquakes.. I’ve reported on the cat-friendly folks in Turkey and we are devastated by the loss of so many lives in those countries.

The beginning of a new month is always exciting as we look at all the monthly, weekly and daily holidays are celebrated. Here are a few we like and we hope you’ll enjoy them tool

It’s National Hot Breakfast Month. I urge you to celebrate every morning and don’t forget the bacon!

It’s National Pet Dental Health Month and this kitty is here to tell you, your humans need to keep an eye on your teeth! The Human took us for teeth cleaning and I had to have a tooth extracted (Oliver had three taken out)! It wasn’t fun but we feel so much better. Take care of your fangs!!

Oh my whiskers, this is a holiday I love to celebrate! National Pizza Day is coming up tomorrow (Feb. 9) so make sure your humans are celebrating (and sharing)! And get this, some places will even give you free or big discounts on pizza.

What better holiday for elegant, graceful felines to celebrate? World Ballet Day is February 7.
““Elegance wanted body and life, which is why it turned into a cat.”
– William IX, Duque of Aquitaine.

We hope you enjoyed our holiday celebrations and now, on to the news!

Sometimes you have to take initiative to get the job

You humans who are seeking employment could take a page from Buster’s book. Be bold, be persistant and be adorable! Follow Buster and all his adventures on Instagram: http://thedo.do/buster_and_brothers, and TikTok: http://thedo.do/Buster_and_brothers.

Cat’s job has him living in the worst weather but he isn’t bothered

This one is for all my fireplace loving, heat seeking furry furiends. This working cat Nimbus lives 6,288 feet above sea level at Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. This is one of the coldest places in the United States, with a historic storm raging last week that had winds whipping up to 120 mph and the thermometer dropping far below -32 Fahrenheit. Fortunately, the job of the feline in residence, Nimbus,  is indoor morale booster for the human scientists who live with him and who have to deal with the brutal weather outside.

Meteorologist Francis Tarasiewciz said Nimbus slept through most of the storm unlike Tarasiewciz who had to get hourly readings in the extreme cold. Tarasiewcz and the other observers, spend a week at a time at the 91-year-old mountaintop observatory that, in 1934, recorded a wind gust of 231 mph, which as a world record for decades.

Cats have been a part of the observatory family since its founding in 1932. Marty,  the observatory cat passed in late 2020. A search for a new observatory cat was launched with the help of the Conway Area Humane Society (CAHS). The summit cat is a special part of the living environment on the summit, and the feline presence makes the place feel more like a home during the week-long shifts.     

Nimbus sailed through the job interview, competing with three other cats from CAHS.  The gray coated feline’s name was inspired by the large gray clouds that bring precipitation. Nimbus was officially installed in  his job at the Observatory on April 14, 2021. He is described as a friendly, chatty cat.

Fancy Feast Creates ‘Cuddle Collection’ for People Spending Valentine’s Day with Their Cats

I don’t know about your humans, but ours does not have what she refers to as a “significant other” in her life at the moment (human that is). She will be enjoying some time with Oliver, Lily and I and she knows a number of people who will also be celebrating with their felines.

Purina recently did a survey that showed that 1 in 5 cat parents prefer to spend Valentine’s Day with their felines over their significant others. This is why the good folks at Purina created the Cuddle Collection as it gives all those humans who share their hearts and homes with felines something special designed to “celebrate the special bond between cats and their owners and give cat lovers a way to show their cats just how much they mean to them.

This feline says get your Cuddle Collection, available now at FancyFeast.com/cuddle, right meow!

Nissan’s “Knock,Knock” campaign designed to save felines

Once again, those wonderful, feline loving folks in Japan are looking out for cats. Japan’s recent spate of snow and freezing temperatures has forced the nation’s feline inhabitants to seek shelter. Unfortunately, some folks find cats hiding under the hoods and the tires of their cars, sometimes after it’s too late.

Japanese carmaker Nissan hopes its new campaign will save those lives. Tokyo officials say there are as many as 60,000 stray cats in the city, and cats hiding in and around cars is not a new problem. The Japan Automobile Federation launched a similar campaign a few years ago encouraging drivers to knock on the hoods of their cars, but the trend never caught on.

Now Nissan is ramping up the message in order to save cats.  “There are lives that can be saved with a bit of consideration,” is the message on the campaign website. Nissan’s new campaign encourages drivers to share information about the campaign on social media and to place a campaign bumper sticker on their car.  Two paws up Nissan!

When life gives you cats, make a Cat Camp

More than 50 cats have been dumped at an outdoor park in Texas. These cats wouldn’t have been able to survive on their own but Wesley Felts have taken on the cause of these felines and visits the outdoor Texas Park on a daily basis to feed and bring housing.

Felts says, “If I had my choice, I’d want each and every one of them to have a good home,” adding that very few animal shelters in the area will take in cats.

Since he’s started caring for the now 55 cats in the encampment, he’s taken three home with him.

During the arctic blast that hit parts of Texas in late December, residents in the area expressed concern over the cats’ wellbeing. “Feeling concerned for all the cats at Bailey’s this weekend,” one person wrote in a local Facebook group called “Let’s Make Bailey’s Great Again!”

Felts reassured her in the comments the cats were safe with shelters, blankets and hay, later adding that all the cats survived the freezing weather.

These cats have been dumped by people at the park and local experts are suggesting to anyone who finds a stray cat take it to a shelter. If that’s not possible, people should contact local animal control. Laying out some type of shelter and cat food is also okay. There are also trap-neuter-release programs that can be notified, which take cats from the wild, give them basic medical care, and stop future generations from growing up wild.

The recreational area where the cat camps are located is in Orange County near Beaumont. We hope Mr. Felts will find some shelters to take the cats and that local TNR people will help too.