Barn Cat Buddies

STEEL MILL CAT RESCUE UPDATE & BP SWAG WINNER

On July 5, Kitties Blue told you about cats living at a steel mill. You can read their post here. These kitties needed to be rescued, and I had a comment-a-thon and pledged $1 for each comment to raise funds to help with the process. A donation of $60 was made thanks to all those who commented.

Here’s an update from Barn Cat Buddies with the good news of what has occurred during the last three weeks.

 

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 CLICK HERE TO DONATE

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Our BlogPaws Conference Swag Winner

I am happy to announce that the winners of our BlogPaws Conference swag surprise package are good friends, Angel, Isabella and Mom Sharla from the delightful blog, Beaded Tail. We’ll leave it to them to show off what’s in their package after they receive it!

See you tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

 

THE LONGEST THIRTEEN PLUS TWO DAYS EVER

BlogPaws Booty Bonanza

Remember that BlogPaws Conference loot we were waiting for UPS to deliver? Well, it finally arrived last Friday evening. Then it sat for two days before Mom even opened it, turning 13 days into 15. Was it worth the wait? Yep! You bet! We have a little slideshow to show y’all a good portion of the booty. (To read the captions, do not have your cursor over or near slideshow.)

 

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Even though there are eight of us kitties, Mom says we cannot possibly keep all these goodies. She packed some toys and treats up today for cat sitter/housekeeper Chris’s kitty, Tinsley. She also gave him the zebra-striped cardboard cat cube we won from the Cat Style Lounge in 2015. She says we are running out of room with the addition of the pink kitty cube won this year. This was meant to be C.J.’s birthday gift, but she hasn’t even had the opportunity to try it yet. Mau and Astrid have found it to their liking.

Next Mom will let Mauricio and Lisbeth select some things to send to their significant others, Allie and Charles. After that she’ll put together a prize package to give away on our fourth blogoversary (Thursday, July 21). She’s also going to put some things aside for our local no-kill shelter, Angels of Assisi.

The only things we know we get to keep are the pink cube and the Original Hide and Sneak (craft paper cat tunnel) won from The Cat Style Lounge. Mom says that she also will be keeping all cleaning and odor relief products. And she’ll be letting us try the various foodables to see if there is anything the picky girls, Giulietta and Fiona, like.

Future posts will report on and review the products Mom received directly from Conference sponsors.

We are happy that our humans are generous with other kitties, but we certainly have our paws crossed that we will get to keep at least a couple of the toys. After being abandoned for five days, it seems only fair. Don’t you think? We’ll keep you posted.

GotMiceLogoDonation to Barn Cat Buddies

Thanks to everyone who commented on our post about the the steel mill kitties, Mom has donated $60 to our friends at Barn Cat Buddies to help rescue these poor cats. If you missed our post, “Please Help Our Barn Cat Buddies Friends,” you can read it here.  If you can afford even a few green papers, you can make a donation directly to Barn Cat Buddies by visiting their site. We’d like to thank our dear friend Marjorie from Dash Kitten for doing just that. If anyone else has done so as well, please accept our heartfelt thanks.

To Catch a Cat Giveaway

To Catch a cat book jacket.If you missed yesterday’s post, Mom reviewed this heartwarming book of kitten rescue by Heather Green. She has three copies to give away and is willing to mail worldwide. To have the opportunity to win, leave a comment on yesterday’s post. There’s a link at the bottom of this post. Winners will be selected using random.org.

If you visited yesterday prior to 10:30 a.m., you missed some really darling photos of the kittens. The publisher sent them to us after our post was published. Mom added them after several readers had visited and commented.

That’s it for us today. See y’all tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

LILY OLIVIA: PEWTER PET ART

Caturday Art Blog Hop

 

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Lily Olivia is entering Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty’s Caturday Art Blog Hop. Today’s entry was created by using posterize in Picasa and the Pewter filter from Dreamscope. The frame is from PhotoFaceFun.

IMG_4335-002As you can see, the original photo, taken in my suitcase, was super blurry. In this case, I believe that helped make the finished art more interesting. Lily O. hopes you like it.

This is our submission in Athena’s Blog Hop. To enter your own art and/or view the other submissions, click on Athena’s badge.

 

 

Helping Our Barn Cat Buddies Friends

GotMiceLogoA few days ago, I wrote about the plight of some kitties living at a steel mill. The TNR/Rescue group, Barn Cat Buddies, with which Tom and I volunteer are trying to rescue and find “homes” for these cats. To help out with funds, I am having a comment-a-thon to benefit the steel mill kitties. If you haven’t left a comment on my original post, you can do so by clicking here. I will be donating $1 for each comment made prior to 5 p.m. EST on Sunday, July 10.

If you can spare a few green papers, you can donate by visiting the Barn Cat Buddies web-site (link in header). If you cannot help monetarily, please share, share, share on social media. I really appreciate those of you who are already doing this. Thanks!

Cat4-001Sunday Selfies Blog Hop

Tomorrow will mark our 100th Sunday Selfie Blog Hop. Fiona will be your host. She has been rather puny lately. She has an appointment with our vet, Dr. Neel, on Tuesday. I am hoping to get the okay to give her the appetite stimulant more often. In addition to being here tomorrow, she’ll report on her vet visit and CKD on Thursday.

She hopes you’ll join her tomorrow.

 

PLEASE HELP OUR BARN CAT BUDDIES FRIENDS

This was not the post we planned for today, but some of our furry friends need your help. If you are regular followers, you know that Barn Cat Buddies is the alma mater of Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo. This is also the TNR/Rescue our humans support and for which they volunteer.

 

Barn Cat Buddies, Inc.
PO Box 111
Salem, Va  24101
540 344-8707  ext. 3

 

The Roanoke Steel Mill Cats…
We recently received a call from a very concerned young lady working at a Roanoke steel mill. Nine years ago this kind cat caretaker sterilized and vaccinated several adult cats living at the mill. In addition she found homes for over 60 kittens.
She did an amazing job but as it sometimes happens,
one pregnant cat eluded her & now there are
more cats and kittens residing at the mill !
Cat, one of our Barn Cat Buddies Co-Presidents,
was invited to tour the facility.
Imagine her surprise when she was required to suit up in steel toed shoes, safety glasses, and a hard hat !
    Nothing Prepared Her for What Came Next…
 
…She witnessed cats darting between massive, ‘heated’ steel plates, some racing to avoid
a huge industrial magnet that could come down
killing them instantly,
and living with ear splitting noise
from machines running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
After witnessing the living conditions of these animals,
Cat knew B.C.B had to find a way to rescue
as many animals as possible.
But Here Lies Our Challenge:  
We have taken in so many ear tipped cats
from shelters this season that there is literally
” NO ROOM AT THE INN “
We DESPERATELY NEED the public’s help
in adopting the MILL CATS
to barns or other non-traditional homes.
Once we have a plan, we can start trapping.
Cat says: “This was an amazing experience…one
I hope never to repeat. The cats living in this active
steel mill are a resilient bunch deserving of a future.”
If you can take in a pair of Mill Cats, please go to barncatbuddies.org & fill out an application.
If you cannot help please share this email with others…
And as always, financial help would be
greatly appreciated.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts…
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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Visit Our Website

Barn Cat Buddies

PO Box 111 Salem, VA 24153
(540) 344-8707  ext. 3

 

We know most of our readers do not live in our area, but even if you can’t help physically, any amount of green papers would help. You can visit the Barn Cat Buddies web-site to donate. Barn Cat Buddies is a 501(c)3 organization, and all donations are tax deductible.

In an attempt to help these furiends, we are going to make this a comment-a-thon. Our mom will donate $1 for every comment left on this post prior to Sunday, July 10, at 5 p.m. ET. So please tell everyone you know to leave a comment as she is not putting a cap on the amount.

Thank you, friends!

Purrs and paw-pats, Barn Cat Buddies alumnae, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

LILY OLIVIA IS A SURVIVOR

Lily Olivia Requests a Little Reiki

I’ve never shared Lily Olivia’s full “story” before; though, I think I have made mention of her “accident” in passing. What occurred at the house a few days ago gave me the opening I needed to tell you about Lily Olivia, the survivor.

Lily Olivia is not known for her warm and friendly personality. She has mellowed a bit as she has aged and doesn’t hiss and swipe at everyone who approaches her as she once did. But she surprised the heck out of her dad and me last week. I was sitting on our double rocker with our Barn Cat Buddies friend and original foster mom for Astrid and Calista Jo, Diane. Lily jumped up right between us. Tom and I were left with our mouths agape.

Lily went right up to Diane, checked her out and gave her some nose bumps. She then turned around and pushed her butt right up to Diane’s leg. Diane, a Master in the practice of Reiki, told us that animals needing healing will normally present that part of their body to her. She asked about Lily’s history, which we hadn’t shared previously.

Any 16-year-old kitty is bound to have some aches and pains, but Lily has more than the usual. The following photo is from 2001. Lily Olivia was two years old. The photo was taken after Lily spent several days in emergency vet care for a broken and dislocated right rear leg and three lung punctures.

 

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Lily’s chance of surviving was quite slim. But she’s a fighter. When she pulled through, I never expected her to have such a long and basically healthy life. We feel blessed for her to be with us; though, she can be a bit of a pain in the rear. She is a calico after all.

We have never known exactly what happened to Lily but suspect she was hit by a car in our back alley. After calling her for several hours with no response, I found her huddled against the back door. She would have had to climb an entire flight of stairs to get there. Definitely, a fighter.

Once I shared Lily’s background with Diane, she was not surprised that Lily came to her.  She only spent a few minutes with Lily Olivia, but Lily was quite relaxed afterwards.

 

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This most likely will not be Lily’s last Reiki treatment. I do notice that it is a bit more effort for her to jump the four feet to get to her bowl on the kitchen counter or the faucet in the bathroom—her favorite place for a drink when I get up in the middle of the night.

To find out more about Reiki and its benefits, you can visit Diane’s website, Reiki Pets by clicking here.

COLORFUL CATURDAY ART WITH CALISTA JO

 

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Today’s colorful rendition of Calista Jo was created using Picasa and LunaPic. I kept things pretty simple this week. First I maximized the Saturation and added the HDR effect in Picasa. In LunaPic I added the glass tile effect from DRAW and the beveled edge from BORDERS. Then it was back to Picasa for the mat and frame.

colorfulHere’s the original for comparison. C.J. was lounging in the condo on the catio when the photo was taken by her dad. I loved how it showed all the variations in her dilute tortie furs and thought it would be fun to enhance those. She really is a beautiful girl and so sweet. As I prepare this post, she is curled next to my side under my arm. And she is serenading me with her loud, rumbling purr.

Calista Jo is participating in Athena and Marie’s Caturday Art Blog Hop and encourages you to join in the fun.  You can do so by clicking on their badge.

Cat4-001So tomorrow is Sunday again already, which means we will be having our Sunday Selfies Blog Hop. Dad Tom got a new lens for his camera in order to take better PetFinder photos of the Barn Cat Buddies. Fiona immediately demanded to try it out with some selfies for tomorrow. We promise you will not be disappointed. She looks quite spectacular. Fiona and the other Kitties Blue hope to see lots of old friends and maybe some new ones as well tomorrow.

And finally…I am in the midst of migrating everything from my current laptop over to my new laptop. I am working between two computers right now and may not get in as much visiting as Kitties Blue would like until I have everything set up. Kitties Blue have their paws crossed that this won’t take more than a few days.

Until tomorrow…

♥♥♥!

BLOG THE CHANGE FOR ANIMALS WITH BARN CAT BUDDIES

 

BLOGTHECHANGE

 

As part of Blog the Change, we are excited to share the following information with you from Barn Cat Buddies (Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo’s alma mater).

Thanks to a generous grant from the McCausland Foundation, Barn Cat Buddies announces The FREE Feline FIX! The goal is to spay/neuter/rabies vaccinate approximately 600 felines this winter totally FREE to cat/kitten owners AND caretakers of managed colonies. The mission is to hugely impact the number of litters that would be surrendered to local pounds and shelters this spring and summer.

Making this an incredible offering for cat owners/caretakers is the lack of restrictions to taking advantage of this opportunity.

1. No income requirement.
2. No zip code requirement
3. No limit to the number of cats per household and
4. Open to community (feral) cats as long as a caretaker is feeding and monitoring the cat or colony.

PLEASE NOTE: This grant ONLY covers the cost of a spay or neuter, rabies vaccine and ear tip for cats in traps. The surgeries will be performed at Angels of Assisi (our Santa Kitty Toy Hop recipients). If the Assisi medical staff determines a feline needs additional medical treatment, that is the responsibility of the pet owner. To apply simply call the Barn Cat Buddies hotline at 504-344-8707 ext. 3* do not leave your message on Assisi’s line please.

Please spread the word through social media!

 

 

TORTIES REVIEW POOKAPET

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I have been teasing you for a few days about a company named Pookapet. Now, it is time to tell you about Pookapet and review their product. This is a Virginia-based, two-person (husband and wife, Stephen and Summer Hockman), one cat (Boo Boo) company.

With this being Tortie Tuesday, Astrid and Calista Jo asked if they could do the review of Pookapet. So…I will turn this over to them.

Astrid: With Pookapet you can create customizable pet photo decals.

Calista Jo: That’s right. Mom created one for each of us using her favorite photos of us. Those are our decals below. I look the best, don’t you think? That aqua color really accentuates my furs.

Pookapet decals

Astrid: Silly cat, everybody can see that mine is the best. Mom chose her two favorite background colors from nine available. The inner frame circles come in white or gray and the lettering in black or white.

Calista Jo: The decals can be ordered in two sizes: 2 x 2 inches for $4.99 and 3.25 x 3.25 inches for $5.99. Ours are the large size.

Astrid: You can select from 27 different phrases, four of which can be customized with your anipal’s name.

Calista Jo: Mom chose “Pawsitively Purrfect” since we are and because she planned to put them on her car which has a vanity plate reading: PRRFCT.

Astrid: Some of the other phrases available are: My Furbaby, Spoiled Rotten, I Own My Human and Snuggle Buddy. You can even chose a decal with a phrase for your angel: Waiting At The Rainbow Bridge or In Loving Memory.

Pookapet laptopCalista Jo: Mom liked our decals so much she decided to put them on her laptop so she can see them over and over again, everyday as she works on our blog.

Astrid: She’s going to order others (probably one each for all eight of us) to put on her car.

Calista Jo: This is not a flimsy decal that is going to peel or lose its vibrant colors, so use your imagination when it comes to displaying it. You might want to use them are on your car, laptop, tablet, cell phone, fridge, lunch box, mirrors or your furperson’s food bowl or litter box.

Astrid: What about your human’s forehead? That could be a good spot. MOL!

I think it is time to cut the girls off before they get too silly.

The idea behind Pookapet started when Summer had an epiphany while walking through a parking lot one day. She noticed a car with the decal, “I ❤ My K9″ with a cartoon of a German Shepherd. It was then that she grabbed her phone and called her graphic designer husband, Stephen.

This is what she said, “Everywhere I look I see these generic pet car stickers. Obviously these pet owners want to show off how much they LOVE their pets, but these decals are so impersonal. What if there was a way to put a picture of Boo Boo on our car? Some method of creating a personalized pet photo sticker! Can you create that for ME?”

The idea intrigued Boo Boo-obsessed Stephen, and after a year of ground work, Pookapet became a reality.

I am delighted to promote this business and their quality product. Please join us for Mauricio’s and Misty May’s Birthday Party tomorrow to have an opportunity to win your own decal and to learn about a discount for The Cat on My Head readers.

The holidays are right around the corner. With the reasonable prices, these decals would make terrific gifts for any pet lover: family, friends, co-workers or those Secret Santa exchanges. I know I am going to order some for my special friends.

Disclaimer: I received no compensation for this post other than two customized decals. I was not told what to write. All the opinions are Astrid’s, Calista Jo’s and my own. 

CATURDAY ART FEATURING LISBETH

I want to feature Lisbeth in our Caturday Art post today so I can tell everyone a little more about her. I will, however, start by showing off her lovely, bright white tummy in today’s Caturday Art submission.

Caturday Art featuring Lisbeth

I really didn’t want to do much to this photo as Lisbeth looks so pretty just as she is. I mostly played around with the edges using a Vignette filter and a Drop Shadow effect which makes the photo appear to be floating off the page. I did use a very small percentage of Boost on the photo as well to help keep her fur bright. I did all of this using Picasa.

photo 5-002I always like to show you the before photo. I am doing so with a photo taken at the conclusion of the photo session. Lisbeth is telling me, “Go away! You have disturbed my nap enough.”

So, Lisbeth is a rather solitary cat; though, as mentioned in other posts she and Astrid were adopted together from Barn Cat Buddies. They had different birth moms, but Astrid had been abandoned by hers, and when old enough, was placed with Lisbeth and her siblings and their mom, Tux.

They were bonded and inseparable when they came to us. Please click on the title, Cats = Love to see them when they were fairly new members of the Kitties Blue clan.

For whatever reason, Lisbeth and Astrid grew apart. Now Lisbeth hisses at Astrid whenever she sees her. I don’t really know why or exactly when this happened. They both love and interact with Mauricio, and as you know from previous posts, Lisbeth and Lily Olivia will occasionally sleep near each other. But mostly Lisbeth hangs out in the laundry room atop a makeshift bed (also a favorite place of Lily’s), somewhere on the catio or on”her” pillow on the bed.

Lisbeth will join in and play with the red dot or Da Bird or other toys, but she is not aggressive and tends to hang back.

But I couldn’t ask for a sweeter or more loving cat when it comes to human interaction. She will immediately roll over on her back when she sees me coming. But in is NOT an invitation to rub her belly, just her way of saying, “I’m happy to see you. May I please have some attention.”

Her absolute favorite thing is butt scritches. She never seems to get enough. Like most cats she likes her head, chin and neck rubbed and scritched. Whenever I do this to any of the other Kitties Blue, I always give them kisses on the top of their head. Lisbeth, however, would never allow this until three days ago. She would always pull away from me. But on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, when she was napping in the laundry room, I tried this, and she allowed me to give her several kisses. And in return I even got a head butt.

I feel I have broken down an invisible barrier between the two of us. I know that the next time I try the kisses, she may pull away again, but I feel as if I am making some progress in making her more social and open to attention. Now, if I could just get Astrid and her back together, I would by a happy mommy.

We are, as usual, participating in Athena Cat Goddess’s (Athena and Maria) Caturday Art blog hop. To participate or view the other submissions, please click on the badge at the left.

Feline FlagI also want to remind anyone who has not entered our giveaway for a colorful, appliquéd kitty, garden flag, that you can do so through Sunday midnight EDT. To do so, please click on the flag.

See you all tomorrow for Easy Like Sunday with a report on our new kitty quilt that I was shamed into buying from Ms. Stella O’Houligan and her Mom Stacy (on a more personal note) after keeping the BlogPaws commemorative one for myself.