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.

UK’s first dedicated ophthalmology referral clinic for cats

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.

Some states have official state pets

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!

Saved by a whisker: Cat charity’s helping hand to owners in crisis

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.

Tower library in Tianjin is cat’s meow

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 24^th.  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.

Mittens the cat could become New Zealander of the Year

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. 

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.