We Heart Cats

Mornin’ cat lovers!

We’re honored to be nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award for Best Animal Blog. Woohoo! Get on over there and vote for us!

I’ve always been a lover of pithy quotes, and have been collecting cat quotes for years now. Here are a few of my favorites, along with a recent photo of Blanca, doing what she does best.

“One cat just leads to another.” Ernest Hemingway

“There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.” Anonymous

“There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast.” Unknown author.

“Beware of people who dislike cats.” Old Irish proverb

“You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.” Old American proverb

I guess that’s enough for today. Ginger has an appointment at the vet this morning for her annual check-up. She wasn’t feeling very well yesterday, so I thought I should take her in. We’ll report back later!

Until tomorrow,

Hisses and head-butts…

Bobbi C., Ginger and Blanca’s human bean

copyright ©2007 bobbi a. chukran. all rights to photos and text reserved.

cat quotes, Maine Coon cat photo, white cat photo, sleeping cat picture

Mornin’ cat lovers,

Just ran across a news item from Central Florida News 13 about the pet food recall. It’s good information because it includes all the varieties and brands of foods recalled so far. I think it’s a pretty good up-to-date list. Take a look, some thing have been added.

PET FOOD RECALL STORY CLICK HERE
My heartfelt sympathy goes out to all who’ve lost pets because of this. Let’s just hope, if nothing else, that it moves our government to put more rules in place for pet food manufacturers. There are some good guys out there, but they are few and far between. In general, buying organic pet food is a step in the right direction.

Roja says “howdy”….she’s still got the big head from being featured yesterday! Oh, and BTW, all the cats were quite miffed when they read about this new dog movie that’s coming out soon–Year of the Dog. You can read about it on Marlena’s My Friendly Pets site. (And yes, they read blogs. They are quite ‘net savvy!)

bobbi c. and the wild bunch
Copyright © 2007 by bobbi a. chukran. all rights to text and photos reserved.

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Mornin’ cat lovers!

Yes, she knows it’s a day late, but she was ever so busy yesterday hiding eggs in the yard (even though it was freezing, she insisted) and urging her sisters and brother Louie to get out and find them that she didn’t get a chance to post her annual Easter greeting until this morning! Ginger was too lazy, and Louie cheated, and Blanca decided she didn’t want to get cold so she stayed in bed. Missy Jane and Izzy June found enough to keep them in eggs for quite some time. Missy likes the yolks, and Izzy likes the whites, so they make a perfect egg-eating pair, don’tcha think? Roja says it’s sort of like Jack Sprat and his wife.

We all hope you had a good holiday! (And she also says to make sure you human beans bite those ears off those chocolate bunnies first–it’s bad luck if you don’t!)

Purrs and head-butts,

Roja (and the gang)
Copyright©2007 bobbi a. chukran. all rights to photos and text reserved.

Maine coon cat photo, Easter centerpiece with cat

Mornin’ cat lovers,

Since almost everybody loves kitten photos (and if you don’t, why are you reading this??), I thought I’d post one of Roja and Blanca’s baby pictures. They are much larger now, as you’ve seen. This was before I got the new camera with the red-eye feature, so poor Blanca looks like the Demon Cat from Hell! Oh well, we know better, right?

By the way, all of our current cats were either rescued from the wild or adopted from “kill” shelters. Help save some cats and baby kitten’s lives, and adopt from a “kill” shelter!

Purrs and head-butts,

roja, blanca and the gang

Copyright©2007 by bobbi a. chukran. All rights reserved to text and photos.

kitten photo, animal shelter, pet adoption

Just wanted to post this link to more information about the pet food recall. Please read it, and sign the petition to make it mandatory that pet food companies be held responsible for the foods they sell!

Click HERE.

Thanks!

bobbi c.

The question du jour this morning is….are calico cats nuts? LOL!

Mine are. Especially Missy Jane and Izzie June. They are the newcomers to the bunch, and it wasn’t long before the others learned that Missy doesn’t take any sass off of anybody! She and her sister, Izzie June, gang up on Mr. Big and have taught him a few lessons.

Here’s Missy herself, sitting on one of her fav mystery magazines, The Strand.

However (ahem), last night I noticed her using the old “butt in the face” move on him. The one where he runs in front of one of the girls, backs up and presses his butt into their face. When I first saw him do this, I thought it was just a fluke, but now I’ve realized that he does it on purpose, many, many times each day! I was horrified when I saw Missy do this (although I secretly enjoyed seeing the look on *his* face for once!) because that means that she’s learning from him. Oh dear, we’re in trouble now.

The wonderful lady that works at our vet’s office once told me that life wasn’t worth living without a few calico kitties in the house. I tend to agree, but one thing she didn’t tell me was that they definitely have a cat-itude. They rule, and they know it!

bobbi c. and the six pack o’trouble
Copyright ©2007 Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights reserved to photos and text.

calico cats, cat photos, calico cat photo, how cats learn

Mornin’ cat lovers!

Husband was not amused this morning when we got up, went into the kitchen, and found one of our calicoes in the kitchen window, behind the kitchen faucet with the water slowly running. No telling how long it had been that way. I freaked, because out here we have a rainwater collection system and harvest our own water. (I know, it might sound strange, but lots of folks in Texas and other drought-stricken parts of the country are doing this now.) Anyway, we have no idea how much water was lost overnight. It looks like we’ve lost our battle to outwit the calicoes. How does one put a lock on a faucet to keep cats from turning the water on? We already had to install baby-locks on our cabinet doors to keep them out. ACK.

About the pet food recall….just stumbled onto this article about how some folks are making their own pet foods now that many of the commercial brands have been recalled. I know a lot of pet owners who have been making their own foods for years, but if nothing else, this whole disaster really shows us how unhealthy and unsafe some commercial foods can be. Companies are left to their own resources with inspections…there are no national inspection laws when it comes to keeping pet foods safe. And frankly, many people just don’t trust the larger corporations to make sure the food is safe. I myself learned the dangers of having wheat and other grain products in our cat’s foods last year when Demi was diagnosed with feline diabetes. Grains in general just aren’t a good idea for cats!

Have a happy day….and no hissing!

Best fishes,

bobbi c. and the six pack o’ trouble
Copyright ©2007 by bobbi a. chukran. all rights reserved to text and photos.

pet food recall, homemade pet foods, unsafe commercial pet foods, cat food, wheat unsafe for cats

Mornin’ cat lovers!

I learned a new term not long ago…”obligate carnivores”. It means “true” carnivores, as in cats. Even though many of the commercial foods contain grains and other dubious ingredients like wheat gluten, cats are true carnivores and thrive best on a diet of almost 100% protein. Our cats eat a combo of canned (Wellness brand), grain free food and the occasional frozen meat medallion from Natures Variety.

Having said that, though, I will admit that Louie, AKA Mr. Big, AKA Catsanova, LOVES lettuce and spinach! We discovered this after bringing several bags of produce home one day from the local organic farm. We turned our backs for five minutes, and he crawled inside the canvas bags, found the lettuce, and pulled out a few choice leaves to chomp on. I caught him with the camera.

Turns out, cats frequently will eat grass if they are outdoor cats, and this is their way of getting a little chlorophyll in their diets. Since he’s an indoor only cat, I figure the lettuce is doing the same thing for him. I bought a pot of “cat grass” from the pet store, and he and the girls loved that! Since then, though, I’ve been going outside and snipping a few sprigs of grass that grows underneath our bird feeder, which I suspect is millet that’s sprouted. All of the cats gobble that up and I’ve noticed that their digestion is much better. The cat grass actually is sprouted wheat grass, but isn’t harmful to cats since it’s not processed into flour. It’s normal for a cat to eat grass, then spit it up later. This is a natural way of cleaning their systems.

No cat should eat a total diet of vegetables since they ARE carnivores, but the occasional snippet of grass, spinach or lettuce can’t do them any harm.

BTW, Louie says “eat your veggies”! (Yes, he talks. Doesn’t EVERY cat?)

Purrs and hisses,

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 bobbi a. chukran. all rights to photos and text reserved by author.

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Mornin’ cat lovers!

What’s that old saying? “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought her back”?? Caught Ms. Roja peering down into the kitchen while Husband was cooking. My goal in life is to be as curious as the cats, fearless, learning new things everyday, and maybe even making a little mischief!

What great role models cats are!

Purrs and hisses,

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights to text and photos reserved.

cat, curiosity, Maine Coon, cats in kitchen