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Keeping Outdoor Cats Warm this Winter

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Lucky Charms January 5 2017 b

Lucky Charms

Brrrrrr… it has already cooled off considerably and thoughts have turned to keeping our outside cats warm.  As you know, we have one inside diva extraordinaire (Alexa).  She claims “squatting rights” and insists that our other cats remain outdoors.  Truth be told, outdoors is all 3 of them know and they’re just wild enough to flip if we ever did try to bring them indoors.

I remember one year we were having a HORRIBLE storm and I was scared for our outdoor cat (Svenn).  He was also what you’d consider pretty “wild,” but I brought him in anyway.  After all, he was my wild baby and I wasn’t going to let anything happen to him.

He went NUTS.

He ran into the sliding doors – he screamed and meowed like he were being tortured and no amount of coddling or baby talk would calm him down.  I honestly thought he was going to have a heart attack!

Needless to say, I haven’t made that mistake since.

My husband keeps our garage door opened just enough for our cats to get inside (and short possums, but they seldom go in for long).  Fortunately we don’t use our garage for anything except storing Christmas decorations, yard work supplies, and other seasonal knick knacks – so the cats consider it a large, wonderful winter home.

Pretty soon, my husband will grab a bale or two of straw and put it up in the loft of the garage.  I’ve climbed up there before and am amazed at how warm it stays with the straw and old blankets.  Of course, when spring rolls around, I have a ton of sweeping and cleaning to do but…. are you kidding me, it’s SO worth it to keep my babies warm and comfortable!

I’ve been looking on Amazon this morning at some items Hannah, Jelly Bean, Queen Fatima, and Bullet would like in their winter home and I found the K&H Outdoor Heated Kitty Pad with Fleece Cover (pictured here) that they will love. Fortunately, they’re affordable, because we’re going to need four!

Product Features

  • Thermostatically controlled to warm to your cat?s normal temperature
  • Made of rugged ABS plastic
  • Ideal for sheds, garages, barns, or anywhere else your outdoor cats hang out
  • Includes 5.5-foot steel wrapped cord and fleece cover
  • 1-year limited warranty

Amazon.com Product Description

If your cat spends a lot of time outside, she needs the K&H Outdoor Heated Kitty Pad to rest in complete comfort. Just plug in the 5.5-foot steel wrapped cord to generate comfortable heat. The pad is thermostatically controlled to warm to your pet’s normal body temperature. Great for cathouses, porches, balconies, garages, barns, sheds, or even in your home. Made of rugged ABS plastic with fleece cover included. UL listed. 1-year limited warranty.

The Ultimate Cat Lover is a Must Read For all Cat Lovers

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Yesterday, my oldest daughter and book lover extraordinaire,  Emily, and I went to the Library. As always, I immediately headed to the books about animals and birds first. My route is pretty predictable: I look for books about cats, birds, polar bears, tigers, and other animals that fascinate me… then I look for new books in the Spiritual aisle… then I head directly for the cookbooks. When I leave, my arms are full of great new adventures.

One of the books I grabbed yesterday was The Ultimate Cat Lover: The Best Experts’ Advice for a Happy, Healthy Cat with Stories and Photos of Fabulous Felines by Marty Becker. This book is moving me mightily! First of all, there is a picture inside that looks a lot like my beloved Svenn and another one looks just like my beloved Bo. I still miss these little guys so much, and seeing the resemblances made my eyes fill with tears.

There’s also a picture of a cat that looks like my precious Prissy would have looked if she had eaten 2 pigs, 4 roosters, 18 hamsters, and Bo and Svenn.  It’s a big, beautiful baby!  It brought a smile to my face, which was most welcomed at the time.  Isn’t it amazing that our cats can affect us so strongly, even after they’re gone?

I also had a good old emotional moment while reading the second story in the book, “George and Gracie.” Powerful stuff!  Not all of the stories result in misty eyes – many result in smiles and even laughter.

These stories (and pictures) remind us of just how special cats are. They are utterly magnificent little creatures and I couldn’t imagine the world (or my home or yard) without them. I highly recommend this beautiful book for all cat lovers. I plan on ordering my own copy, so I’ll have it to enjoy long after I’ve taken the library copy back.

There’s also a great section filled with cat tips and little known facts.

Click the link above (or the picture, itself) to order this very special book on Amazon.  I know you’re going to love this book as much as I did.


Missing Bo and Svenn

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Lost. Not the Lost that I’m addicted to on ABC. Not the lost that I find myself when I’ve made a wrong turn. Oh, no, this lost is much worse than that. I feel completely lost after the blows that I’ve taken this year. When the year began, I had four beautiful cats that I loved with all my heart.

As you know, I lost Prissy earlier this year. A few weeks ago, I lost both Bo and Svenn. It’s the price we animal lovers have to pay, and after having, loving, and unfortunately losing animals all of my life – I totally get that. But three in the span of 5 months.

There should be a law against it.

Mornings are the worst because for years my morning thoughts have been:

  • Get out of bed.
  • Turn on the coffee maker.
  • Feed my cats! – I’d feed the girls (Prissy and Alexa) first because they are/were  inside and, frankly, because Prissy was the biggest eater of all.  Then I’d go out and feed my boys.  Bo would always be on the back step, looking up and meowing his adorable meow.  Svenn would be by his food dish looking back and forth – from me to it and from it to me.  Then Bo would jump up onto his shelf where his “cabin” and dish were and Svenn would step over to his area.

Mornings are so much different now and I just can’t quite get used to the feeling.  I get up, turn on the coffee, feed Alexa…. then miss my boys like crazy.

Two, at once.  I honestly just can’t get past that.

Needless to say, my heart is broken and I’m frightfully sensitive right now.  So, you’ll forgive me if I “deactivate” the beautiful pictures to the right for a little while.  Each time I see Bo or Svenn’s pictures, it sets off a crying jag.  It was that way with Miss Prissy for a long time too.  But my girl was so very, very old (and completely blind).  She didn’t even enjoy eating as much as she once did.  But Bo and Svenn were’nt at all old, blind, or sickly.  They were, however, beautiful, colorful, and hilarious, little guys.

And loved.  They were loved like crazy. Now they’re missed like two kinds of crazy.

*** I’ve decided to leave the pictures.  The crying jags are going to come whether pictures or something else sets them off.  Besides, I know that one day I’ll smile when I look at their’s just as I do when I see pictures of other cats that we’ve lost.

One day.

Our Cats Love Aristocats Cat Food

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This is an old post from the old blog. I’m moving a lot of these posts to this blog, so that I can delete the dinosaur. Precious Prissy was still alive when I wrote this post, so it’s pretty bittersweet to read it. It’s always good to remember her, but I’ll always miss her beautiful little face and graceful, dainty, perfectly delightful disposition. She was so laid back – such a contrast to Miss Alexa!

This particular post actually had over 20 comments, which I’m not moving here, although they were great. I think it was split – about half of the commentators gave thumbs up to this cat food, while half said their cats didn’t seem to care for it.

What experience have you had with this brand? At the time, I hadn’t given Fancy Feast to my cats before, but since then, Alexa has fallen flat out in love with it.

Disney (a name that brings a smile to just about every face, including mine) has jumped, mouse ears first, into the $75 billion global pet care industry ($36 billion in the U.S., alone) with lines of products for cats, dogs, fish, and hamsters. I believe they started with an Old Yeller line of dog food products.

I really first took notice when I saw their Aristocats Cat Food on the shelves at Kroger. Our babies love to try new goodies, so I bought one of each flavor. (On a side note, the cans are perfectly adorable, with scenes from the movie on the side.) This was, honestly, one of the only brands of cat food that our cats, unanimously, loved. Whiskas and Aristocats now stand as the only two “wet food” varieties that result in extremely happy cats and over-licked cat dishes around our house, inside and out.

Prissy and Bo will absolutely eat anything you set in front of them. As though she was determined to prove it, the other day an olive fell off of my pizza and Prissy ate it before I could pick it up. Then she wanted more but I just couldn’t feel good about myself feeding olives to a cat.

Svenn and Alexa are pickier than Bo and Prissy. Usually, he only likes dry food (and only some brands, at that), but he threw himself into the Aristocats cat food. They’ve all requested that I grab more cans on my next Kroger trip. I’m a soft touch, so OF COURSE I’ll do just that!

Apparently, Disney is also planning to launch a line of cat products from the movie “That Darn Cat.”  My test panel is looking forward to it.

Beautiful Picture of Alexa

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Our baby girl Alexa

My daughter Stephany took this picture of Alexa a couple of nights ago.  Steph was at the computer and Alexa kept trying to “catch” the cursor.  She got the camera to catch her in motion, but Alexa took it as a cue to pose.

This cat loves the camera like crazy!  All of our babies do – Bo and Svenn included.  Prissy also loved to have her picture taken.

Fortunately for all of them, they’re my girls’ favorite photo subjects.

Svenn and Bo, Always Into Something

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Emily and Bo

I love this picture of my daughter Emily and Bo. Bo has always been the biggest photo hog.  See how he poses and looks right at the camera?!  It’s like he’s taking a new picture for his Facebook profile or something.

Notice his little boo boo on his head?  He and Svenn, like most outdoor-sy male cats, get so many scrapes and cuts, they keep me shook up and worried.

I often go out each morning to find Bo with a new limp, too.  He’s favoring one of his arms this week – next week it’ll probably be time for one of his legs to show up gimpy.  They’re such beautiful cats, too.  It’s like they’re little boys on a playground and I’m fighting to keep them clean and straight.  It’s an uphill battle – they want no part of clean, straight, unruffled, or pretty.

My boys are such little angels with people, but are apparently holy terrors with each other and other cats.  I love living out away from the city, with all the raccoons, possums, cats, etc – but it makes everyday an adventure when you have nosy little boy cats on the prowl.

Svenn looks especially gruesome lately – poor baby.  His little face is swollen and he looks like he’s been on a ten week bender.  He’s still his happy, go-lucky little self – purring and meowing like he doesn’t have a care in the world.  But he looks really rough – even worse than Bo.

The frustrating thing is, I’m not certain they aren’t roughing each other up!  Neither one’s apparently much of a fighter, though, so I wish they’d just stick with sleeping.  THAT they do beautifully!

A Few Thoughts About the Reltionships We Have With Our Cats

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AlexaIf you’ve ever lost a much, much, much beloved pet (especially one you’d had for so long) you know how hard it can be. I’ve made it to the place where I can talk about Prissy and smile and/or laugh most of the time. For weeks, the of her little face or the mention of her name brought tears streaming down my face.

But now, when I think of my girl, I feel happy. She meant so much to us, for so long (over 20 years!), I feel entirely grateful and blessed to have had her in my life.

I’m also very blessed to have my adorable, mischievous little boy cats Svenn and Bo and my little angel girl, Alexa. They bring me so much happiness and love and, of course, fun. Alexa, as Prissy was, is a house baby. We don’t let her out at all. She is the perfect picture of a fluffy, beautiful, pampered cat and she lights up my world when she walks into a room.

I was reminded of something a few days ago. Alexa had apparently followed my daughter Brittany into the bathroom before she (Britt!) took a shower and began her lengthy process of washing her hair, drying her hair, flat ironing her hair, etc. I got to wondering where Alexa was because, quite frankly, she’s within arms length of me more times than not.

My oldest daughter, Emily, had gone outside earlier and I began to worry that Alexa had, somehow gotten outside. I looked in her regular hangouts – her food dish, a favorite bay window perch, my husband’s computer desk – all were Alexa free.

I didn’t even consider that she’d followed Brittany into the bathroom because she never does that (like all of us, we know that could mean being lost for hours!). Just as worry was really taking over, I heard the bathroom door crack open a little and Alexa came running out. Freedom!

She rushed over to me and I picked her up. We both purred.

It made me think. What if, when we’re gone to the store, out to eat, or out to work in the yard (for those who do that sort of thing!) – our cats wonder where we are?? That would explain why they’re so glad to see us when we come home. Alexa always comes running, meowing, as though to say, “There you are!”

It’s all the more reason to make sure we always pick our babies up and let them know that we’re just as glad to see them as they are to see us!

Remove Cat Urine While Pointing Your Little One Back to the Litter Box

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Dumb Cat Anti-Marking & Cat Spray Remover (32 oz.) Naturally, we all love our cats like crazy – they’re our little girls and little boys and they do nothing short of light up our worlds.

But when they forget all about the litter box and decide that, well, “Anywhere’s fine,” they drive us berserk.

Sometimes, especially when pets get older, they have to be retrained to use the litter box -as opposed to everywhere else! I’ve tried several products, myself, and have asked a ton of people online for their own recommendations. A name that comes up again and again and again is “Dumb Cat.”

No one is being offensive, it’s actually the name of the product most people recommend: Dumb Cat Anti-Marking & Cat Spray Remover (32 oz.). Alexa’s pretty incensed about the name – but Bo thinks it must be about Svenn and Svenn’s convinced that Bo started his own business.

From the website:
No product works faster to get cats back to using the litter box and remove messes from urine, vomit, hair balls, feces, marking scents, and cat spray. This is the only product that can remove the invisible sticky mucous & pheromones that remain after urination or spraying, permanently removes new or old scent & urine odors left behind even after cleanup with other stain and odor products.

Cats are very, very proud little animals and this product can help them retain the trait we love so much.

How Pampered Cats Roll

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My entire family (which includes myself, my husband, three human daughters, one cat daughter, and two cat sons) want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the sweet and kind words you expressed after we lost our little Prissy.   We all miss that little girl something terrible, but your kindness has honestly given us reason to smile.  Thank you so much, and much love to you and your cat babies.

Classic Cat Bed 29L x 19W x 11HThe bed to the left is something I thought you might get a kick out of.  I think it’s positively gorgeous (almost as gorgeous as the beauty that’s enjoying it).

It’s a solid cherry bed with poplar slats, brass accents and a red plaid fleece cushion.  The bad will compliment any room and will go with any home decor. The Classic Bed is a unique, handcrafted piece of furniture that has a durable finish and will give your baby years of enjoyment and comfort.  If our pets live as long as Prissy did, that’ll be at least 20 years of comfort and contentment in their very own bed.  How sweet’s that?!

The cat bed  is also actually ideal for small dogs – but don’t tell your cat.  It  measures approximately 28″L x 19 1/2″W x 11″H.

Each bed comes with the hand made fleece cushion, which is machine washable and has a zippered end for easy removal of the pillow insert. The Classic Cat Bed arrives completely assembled, ready for use.  The fact that it comes fully assembled is just icing on the cake.

Something else I love (and sometimes I honestly think I’m the only person who’d even worry about such things) – the plaid fleece cushion is just as appropriate for a feminine little girl cat as it is for a macho little guy cat.  Which means it’s just as appropriate for Bo as it would be Alexa.  PLUS, it’s just as appropriate for a feminine little guy cat – like, well… like Svenn.

I very much needed a reason to laugh yesterday morning and my boy provided it.  I was in the front yard, observing the damage the ice storm had done to our beloved trees.  I was carrying Bo because, truth be told, he may try to act a little macho, but he’s a total momma’s boy.  Anyway, I suddenly saw Svenn run around the corner of the house toward us.  I set Bo up on a safe window ledge and grabbed Svenn.  We live out of the city, so it could have been anything from a dog or coyote after him or a raccoon or rabbit (don’t laugh, it’s Svenn).

When nothing ever showed (in spite of his hair sticking straight up, eyes bugging out, and ears pinned back like they’d been gelled that way) – I walked around the corner to take a look. Just then the wind blew and our Grill’s cover flapped in the breeze, prompting my baby to jump out of my arms and flee the other way – running for his very life.  I had to laugh in spite of myself as Bo crept up for a closer inspection.  He and I both determined that we needed a new grill AND grill cover, and be both agreed that neither were anywhere near the biggest loss we’d seen this week.

Hug your cat(s) today and tell them your world wouldn’t be the same without them.  (That’s my new tagline for this site.  It’ll appear at the end of each future post because, quite frankly, truer words were never spoken.)

To take a closer look at the stylishly beautiful Classic Cat Bed, click the link or the picture above.

Lighthouse Cat Tower is Too Gorgeous For Mere Words

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Deluxe Lighthouse Cat Tower
The Deluxe Lighthouse Cat Tower is so amazing, I can’t even believe it.

One of the things we all love the most about cats is the way they’re certain the world revolves around them. This Lighthouse Tower would be the perfect way to let them know that… yeah, it pretty much does!

Details:
At just over 6′ tall and 4′ wide, this amazing kitty tower has an attached house, which connects to the main tower through a doorway in the house’s interior.  The colonial-style house has four windows and its own kitty doorway.

A wide base prevents the tower from toppling.  (Thank goodness for that!)

Dimensions:

73″H x 50″W x 28″D The image shown of this piece is a prototype model. Your actual piece will be made with beautiful high quality carpeting and carpet inlays. The carpet colors will be as shown in the photo.

These beauties are custom made to order and usually leave the warehouse in 14 – 21 business days.

Order one for your little girl or boy today and enjoy years of entertainment.

#1 Best-Seller on Amazon


The Curious Cat Cube, Cat House / Cat Condo is currently the #1 Best-Seller on Amazon in Cat Houses & Condos.

An Ingenious Litter Box…


The Open Top Cat Litter Box Kit with Shield and Scoop is a number 1 best-seller on Amazon and has excellent reviews.

Christmas EVERYDAY!


If you're like me, you love nothing more than seeing your cat(s) with new toys. This collection of cat toys will make everyday feel like Christmas!

Cat Tunnel..


The adorable cat tunnel will give your cat(s) endless fun as they explore every nook and cranny!

Photographs on the Blog

I do not claim to have taken all of the photographs on this website. I did not take any of the “product” or “affiliate” merchandise photos  (unless I am reviewing a product, in which case it will be marked “Review”), nor do I claim to own them. If you are a photographer that sees something you want removed, simply e-mail me.

Keep Your Indoor Cat Active and Entertained

Alexa

Tips for Keeping Your Indoor Cat Entertained!