Tales for the Pet Lover’s Heart™ is a TV special exploring the theme that people and pets make better lives together than apart. Here are the details:
Everyone has a tale to tell. Tales for the Pet Lover’s Heart™ is a celebration of our love for our four-legged friends. Pets. Partners. Companions. They answer to many names, play many roles. But whatever we call them, one thing’s certain – they have a special place in our hearts and lives.
Last year’s show included the tales of seven individuals and their four-legged companions. We shared the stories of Debi Stevens and learned how she is honoring Buff’s legacy… Larry King, Jr. and his 40-pound cattle ranching partner Mercy… Veterinarian Curtis Brandt and Taylor… Officer Tony White and his 2 ½ year old partner, Recon… Leesia Teh whose love for Becks led to a new career… World Champion Melissa Heeter’s seven flying dogs… and traveled across the country with Greg Matulionis and his dog scout cadet, Koda.
So far this year, we’ve captured Tales in Atlanta, Seattle, Cincinnati, San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix. We’ve met surfing dogs and feline showstoppers; elephants and arson dogs; racing greyhounds and revved up bassets.
More than just a TV show
“Tales for the Pet Lover’s Heart™” is a lot of things, including a television special, activities for kids and families, Kroger shopper giveaways and special offers, all centered on the theme that people and pets make better lives together. Purina is sponsoring the program again this year throughout the 16 Kroger divisions around the country.
And this year, Purina and Kroger are doing even more! In 2009, they will contribute $150,000 to animal welfare organizations located in Kroger communities to help them feed pets waiting for their opportunity to share a better life in a permanent home
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Everyone’s favorite cat guy, Paul Klusman, has some updates and news in this video clip, including the announcement of a new cat flatulence video coming out before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, Paul’s daytime job as a rocket scientist is really eating into the time he has available to make cat movies, so he is sending out a request that everyone send a letter to his employer, requesting that Paul be laid off (making him eligibile for unemployment) so that he can make more cat movies. Details are in the video.
A few yeers ago, my frend Mimi Lennox started a Blogblast for Peace movement, and it spawned a sub-movement of cats hoo join in and PURR FUR PEACE. We beleeve there is no more peaceful a sownd in the hole entire werld than the sownd of a purring cat. And if evry persun in the werld held a purring cat on his lap, we’d have peace evryware in abowt ten seconds flat.
Today is a Blogblast for Peace day, and as usual, lots of cats are pawtisipating, purring fur peace. My speshul frend Daisy the Curly Cat even rote a poem fur the occasion:
Through Cat Eyes
Coats of brown, black, white, or tabby
they are all the same to me
Our furs long, short, plush or curly
they are just coverings you see
Purebred diva or shelter rescue
we’re all one family
If a cat can make a difference,
then man can, too, surely
A world of peace and harmony
one day will come to be ~ by Daisy
Heer are sum of the others cats hoo are pawtisipating:
Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.
Charles A. Lindbergh left his kitten, Patsy, at home in 1927 when he made his famous transatlantic flight because it was “too dangerous a journey” to risk her life. But a kitten named Jazz crossed the Atlantic on the first dirigible flight from England to America.
Bouhaki, the earliest cat name on record, dates back to Egyptian writings of 2000 B.C. In the hieroglyphs of that period, bou signifed “house” and “hak” was the symbol for “divine ruler.”
In ancient Egypt, entire families were forced by law to shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.
There are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat and about 120,000 per square inch on its underside.
The largest litter ever documented was produced by a Burmese/Siamese mother. There were 19 kittens in the litter.
Besides smelling with their noses, cats can smell with an additional organ called the vomeronasal organ (or Jacobson’s organ), located in the upper surface of the mouth
Sir Isaac Newton is credited with the invention of the cat flap-door.
Cat’s ears can be rotated because they are connected to thirty (30) muscles. There are only six (6) muscles connecting human ears – we can’t rotate ours. [More info on the cat's ears]
The first modern cat show, featuring two dozen show classes, was held in London in 1871.
At top speed, a domestic cat can run over 30 mph.
A cat named Towser eliminated 28,899 mice while she was employed by the Glenturret Distillery near Crieff, Tayside, Scotland.
Every cat’s nose pad, or nose leather, has unique characteristics. Just as no two humans have the same fingerprints, it’s a fact that no two feline noseprints are ever alike.
Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.
Back in the late 1940s in Buenos Aires, a black female cat climbed a 40 foot tree where she resided for six years. Her name was Mincha and she wasn’t lonely for companionship. She had three litters while living in the tree. The local Argentinians fed her by putting her food on poles.
(Click PLAY button in upper right to start video.)
This month, Purina Cat Chow is supporting cancer awareness with the production of a series of videos on the unconditional love and support that cats provide to women suffering from breast cancer, and with a fundraising campaign for Susan B Komen for the Cure.
This glitter painting craft project was recently showcased at MarthaStewart.com, and is an easy project for memorializing your favorite pet. It’s also a great family project for you and your kids. Think of it as paint-by-numbers … with glitter.
I’ve included a summary of the instructions below. Go to Martha’s Glitter Painting Site for complete instructions and an easy upload tool that will prepare your photo for glittering.
Using the photo-conversion tool, upload a picture and print it onto card stock using an ink-jet printer.
Step 2
Prepare Glitter and Apply Glue
Prepare glitter: Pour small amounts into separate baking cups. Set out a few extra cups for blending more hues as needed.
Apply craft glue from a fine-tipped bottle to a color field (it doesn’t matter where you begin). If the area is large, outline it first, then use the tip to fill in the space.
Step 3
Add Glitter
Sprinkle glitter onto the glued area, covering it completely.
Step 4
Remove Excess Glitter
Remove excess glitter by standing the panel upright and tapping it lightly on the work surface.
Step 5
Save Excess Glitter
Curving the scrap paper like a funnel, pour extra glitter into the cup.
Step 6
Blow Away Stray Glitter and Finish Painting
Blow stray glitter away using air duster. (This won’t disturb glued sections.) Repeat process, covering each remaining color field. You can correct mistakes by gluing and glittering again right over affected areas.
Choose a satin ribbon that’s as wide as the panel is thick. Cut a length long enough to wrap around panel’s edge; affix it with paste-style glue.
I ran across these photos at AcidCow.com which appeared without text explanation. This is sort of Malibu Barbie Dream House for cats. It’s not as artful as Bob Walker and Frances Mooney’s iconic cat house, but I don’t think these cats mind — the shelves get a lot of play.
If you have several cats in your home, you might consider adding a few shelves to your walls. When we toured the animal research facility at Iams/Eukanuba where the cats are housed in a cage-free environment (with LOTS of cat shelves and hammocks), the behaviorist explained that the high shelves give the cats who are the lowest in the social hierarchy somewhere to get away from the alpha cats. The alpha cats stay low, and the cats who are lowest in the pecking order climb onto the highest shelves. Everyone’s happy. If you have problems with cats getting along in a multi-cat household, shelves might offer some relief.
If these don’t quite fit in with your design sensibilities, moderncat is a great resource for artful, aesthetically pleasing cat shelf designs. Check ‘em out. The Walker/Mooney book, The Cat’s House, is also an inspiration.
This weekend, I’m joining other Catsters in cheering on Catster Jeter Harris‘ mom as she walks 60 miles over 3 days to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research. Most of us have previously only interacted with each other online through Catster, so it’s a thrill to meet the people behind the cats and support a worthy cause.
The video above is one in a series produced by Purina Cat Chow to tell the stories of women who found support from their cats as they fought breast cancer. It’s worth investing a few minutes of your time to watch these testimonials to the power of the paw.
This year, Purina Cat Chow is donating over $200,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® to fund research. If you take the breast cancer awareness quiz provided on their site, they will donate $1.00, up to an additional $125,000, toward the cause.
This week, in a bonus giveaway, our friends at moderncat are giving away a Kitty Cot from Whisker Studio.
All Whisker Studio items are made of solid, furniture-grade birch and finished with non-toxic, water-based, VOC-free finishes. Choose from natural cherry stain, natural walnut stain or espresso paint finishes.
A few months ago, I published a post about a new rage in Japan: Cat Cafés. Like an Internet Café, it’s a place to hang out, but with furry felines taking the place of computer stations.
Recently, I ran across a first-person account of a visit to one of these cafés by Sarah Marchildon. Here’s an excerpt:
I went to a cat cafe in Osaka yesterday. Although, describing it as a “cafe” is somewhat misleading. It’s more of a cat brothel than a cat cafe.
Six hundred yen (about $5) gets you all the cats you can stroke for an hour. A few hundred yen extra gets you a drink to quench your thirst after all of the heavy petting is over.
After you have removed your shoes, sterilized your hands and paid your money, it’s time to get down on your knees and play with the cat of your choice.
The cafe is called Neko no Jikan 猫の時間 (or “Cat Time” in English). The 20 cats that work here have free range of the place, sitting and sleeping wherever they like.
The cafe consists of two large rooms. There is the cafe area, which is exactly what it sounds like. There are couches and small tables where you can sip a cup of coffee while a cat sleeps on your lap or at your feet. It is a cozy space with soft lighting and classical music playing quietly in the background.
The other room, attached to the cafe, is best described as a cat playroom. No drinks are allowed in this room. You can play with the cats or just sit on one of the many couches and watch all of the four-legged loving go down.
The cafe was busy but not crowded. The vast majority of customers were women. There were a few men but they had all come on the arms of their girlfriends. The most enthusiastic customer was a middle-aged man with a 1950s rock-and-roll pompadour. He made a point of talking to all of the cats, clucking and cooing over their every move.
“Oh look at you! You sure like to sleep don’t you? Oh, yes you do. Yes you do. You cute little sleeper you.”
Of course, cats being cats, it was somewhat difficult to seduce them into spending time with you. They would sit in your lap for about a minute before squirming out of your embrace.
If you wanted a cat to play with you, you were better off buying some tuna from the cafe in order to lure them in. These ladies bought some tuna and they were instantly the most popular people in the room.
The woman with the pink cell phone on her lap could tell I was feeling a bit left out so she handed me a piece of her tuna. As soon as I started waving the tuna around, I had no shortage of cats wanting to sit on my lap. But once the tuna was gone, so were they.
Everyone was pouring out love to these cats but the cats weren’t giving much back. Cats do not love stupidly and blindly like dogs. Cats can be affectionate and playful but they are also independent and solitary (or stubborn and uncooperative, depending on your viewpoint). I was happy enough just to be near them.
I had a brilliant idea: shelters in the United States should build cat cafés and populate them with adoptable cats. If I worked, say, in downtown San Francisco, and could spend my lunch break petting cats, I would so totally do that. How about you?
dirigible flight from England to America.
The cafe consists of two large rooms. There is the cafe area, which is exactly what it sounds like. There are couches and small tables where you can sip a cup of coffee while a cat sleeps on your lap or at your feet. It is a cozy space with soft lighting and classical music playing quietly in the background.
“Oh look at you! You sure like to sleep don’t you? Oh, yes you do. Yes you do. You cute little sleeper you.”
