winner

IMAGINE A WORLD WITH NO HOMELESS CATS

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

Our “poem” today for angel Sammy and Teddy’s Thoroughly Poetic Thursday is more of a dream and a plea than a poem. I did use one of the prompt words for this week, which features the letter “I.” Those words are (1 Imagine, (2 Idiot, (3 Iron and (4 Icky.

Imagine

Imagine a world with no homeless cats.
Imagine a world with no hungry cats.
Imagine a world where cats are not euthanized.
Imagine a world where shelters are unnecessary.
Imagine a world where every cat has a loving home.

Now stop imagining and do something!
Rescue, TNR, sponsor, foster, adopt, volunteer.
Together we can end the cycle
Of too many cats and not enough homes.
It’s not impossible.
It just takes time, dedication and effort.

Kitties Blue and I know those of you who read our blog feel the same way as we do and that most of you are doing what you can toward making this dream a reality. Maybe it won’t happen in my lifetime, but I pray this will become a reality in the not very distant future.

To see angel Sammy’s poem and find links to other poems, click on the badge below.

Comment-a-thon Winner

It’s taken a little longer than Mau and Allie would have liked to let you know the winner of their Anniversary Comment-a-thon. The first person selected by Random.org did not respond to our e-mails, so we moved on to the second name.

The winner is Linda Arthur Tejera from Living With My Ancestors. She selected Florida Poodle Rescue to receive the donation of $80. We are making the donation in memory of her Maltese, Emmy, who was adopted from Florida Poodle Rescue in 2000. Emmy got her wings in July, 2014. She certainly was a cutie.

Thankful Thursday

Finally, as we do each Thursday, we are joining Brian’s blog hop. This week we kitties are ever so thankful that the heat wave has ended. Our temps are in the 80s during the day. That’s hotter than Mom likes, but it is purrfect catio weather.

We also are thankful for the new screen doors on the catio. The old ones had solid panels at the bottom, but the new ones have screen all the way to the bottom (with mesh in between). Now we can lie on our bellies and watch the birdies land on the unscreened part of the deck and then scare them! So much fun. Calista Jo and Cooper Murphy joined up yesterday afternoon for this new game. Sorry, we don’t have photos.

To join the hop, click on Brian’s badge.

Hope your Thursday is a thankful one as well.

SPACE STATION WINNER

The petretary is having the “blahs” today, and so we have been forced to take over the blog. After all, we promised to announce the winner of Calista Jo’s birthday party giveaway.

You may recall that the prize is a Petmate® Jackson Galaxy® Space Station.

Cooper Murphy demonstrates how to play with the Space Station, while Giulietta observes. A day has not gone by that one or more of us hasn’t played with this meowvolous toy.

Oh wait, you didn’t come here to see us playing. You came to find out if you have won a Space Station of your very own. How about a couple of hints first:

This family has three kitties and one woofie.
One of the kitties is a ginger tabby like Cooper Murphy.
One of the kitties can never sit still for a photo.
Their mom is the artist who created Sampson and Astrid’s wedding drawing.
One of the family members is named Astrid.

If you haven’t guessed, we sure hope the winner has figured it out. That’s right, it is kitties, Evan, Thimble and Eddy, and woofie, Astrid, from Four-Legged Furballs.

We are curious as to whether or not woofie Astrid will try to play with it? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Congratulations to these friends. We hope they have as much fun as we’ve been having.

If you didn’t win, do not rend your furs in despair. We have two additional Jackson Galaxy toys to review and giveaway in the near future.

Until then…

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

June 27, 2017 by Janet Blue Giveaway Kitty Written Blog 20

DOOZY OF A SNOOZY, REVEAL AND WINNER

The Big Reveal

This week for our Caturday Art, we presented you with a psychedelic-like “artified” photo and challenged you to guess which kitty or kitties were pictured. Today we reveal the original (unaltered) photo and the winner of some BlogPaws Conference swag. To refresh your memory, here is the photo.

We figured at least one of the kitties (there are two) would be easy to identify. That is Cooper Murphy’s striped leg to the left side of the photo. To our surprise seven of the 28 commenters identified both Cooper Murphy and the other kitty, Mauricio. Remembering that we’ve posted a couple of other photos of them touching or snuggled together most likely helped those of you who guessed correctly.

Here’s the original photo with four back legs and two tails.

The Winner

So, who was the first to guess correctly? It was mom’s friend, Annie Morris, from McGuffy’s Reader. Many of you know her from the Friendly Fill-Ins blog hop. Mom has already packed up a box of BlogPaws swag for Annie and kitties, Grizelda, Chloe Jo, Maggie and George as well as a couple of things for woofies, Stella and Kenzie.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our little guessing game and congratulations to Annie.

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

June 13, 2017 by Janet Blue Doozy of a Snoozy Giveaway Kitty Written Blog 22

KITTIES BLUE ADVENTURES IN LITTER LAND

Week One: Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract and ökocat

Today Kitties Blue and I embark on a new series to appear on either Friday or Monday for the next several weeks.

If you have followed us for any length of time, you know that I am obsessed with finding just the right litter on which all the kitties, their dad, and I can agree. I know as a cat guardian this dusty, messy stuff is an evil necessity. And with eight kitties, many litter boxes are required as well. We have seven. They all prefer the same two.

Our current, primary litter is Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract. We have been using this for at least a couple of years. The kitties are happy with it, and I like that it is fairly low in dust. But when peed on it turns into cement and glues itself to the bottom of the litter box. If you have one or more kitties who like to pee in the corners, as we do, you need to call in the Incredible Hulk to scrape it out.

We currently are using four or five different litters. I honestly am having trouble keeping track. Just as some kitties are picky about what food they’ll eat, several of ours are just as picky about litter. Anytime I have the opportunity to try a new litter and review it, I do so.

Last year I spent quite a bit of time speaking to the representative from ökocat at the BlogPaws conference. I was impressed with the natural wood litter. When one of our affiliates, Propel Communications, gave us the opportunity to try it, I selected the ökocat Clumping Litter and the litter for Long-Haired Cats.

This post will cover the clumping litter. According to ökocat the benefits of their product are:

Controls odors for 7 days
Absorbs 500% of its weight in moisture
Coniferous wood (pine) fights bacterial growth
Free of harmful chemicals & synthetic scents
Offers little to no airborne dust to bother allergies

The litter is biodegradable and flushable. Even when a litter claims to be flushable, I just won’t flush it. I know this would be better for our environment, but I am afraid of clogging the plumbing. The biodegradability appears to be true, as any damp litter tracked outside the box usually turned to mush on the floor. I found that our users seemed to throw less litter out of the box when covering, but did track more when leaving the box.

Misty May was the only cat to use the litter with any regularity. Calista Jo and Lily Olivia were occasional users. I would have loved for every kitty to find this litter to their liking as it is unscented, made from a natural product and did control odor quite well, but alas that was not the case. Regardless, if you are looking for a new litter, I recommend you give it a try. If you do, and decide to flush it, please let me know how that goes. If anyone is already using ökocat, I would be interested in hearing about your and your cat(s) experiences with it.

Book Winner

I am pleased to announce the winner of a copy of the book, The True Tails of Baker and Taylor by Jan Louch with Lisa Rogak: Congratulations to Wally, Ernie, Zoey and Mom Sue of The Island Cats. For those of you who didn’t win, I recommend this book as one you’ll want to read and add to your collection.

Thank You

Fiona asked me to convey her appreciation for all the kind and encouraging comments in reply to her post yesterday: Weight Up & Numbers Down. Fiona, as well as her dad and I, are so pleased with her progress. We know the purrs, prayers and POTP so many of you have sent us are part of the reason for her improvement. Please keep them coming. I really want our sweet girl to have many more years with us.

May 13, 2016 by Janet Blue Giveaway Health Prayers Product Review 23

WINNER, WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Well, actually there was no chicken nor any dinner for that matter. MOUSES! But we did get this terrific badge which we will display with pride on our sidebar.

If you don’t know what this is, you need to visit Sammy at onespoiledcat next Tuesday. Every week he presents a mystery photo to identify by giving it’s exact location. A variety of badges can be won for first commenter, first right guesser, correct guesser but not first and the ever popular loser’s badge (the Greenie). We are proud owners of a substantial stack of Greenies.

We actually were first and correct once before back in 2014.

To celebrate this week’s win, we invited Sammy’s Teaser cheerleader, kitten SuzieQ, to stop by and recite a poem we wrote. Take it away Suzie.

We are the winners, yes indeed.

We never thought we would succeed.

Greenies seemed to be our fate

Whether guessing early or guessing late.

But finally we got the answer right

Without Googling into the night.

And not only right but first and only!

We guarantee this is not baloney.

We received this badge, and it’s a doozy,

Giving us bragging rights ’til next Tuesday.

So thank you Sammy for this fun game.

We’re no longer hanging our heads in shame!

Thank you Sammy and SuzieQ. We hope it doesn’t take another two years for us once again to be first and correct.

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

April 28, 2016 by Janet Blue Awards Kitty Written Blog Thankful Thursday 22

GIVEAWAY WINNER AND C.J.’S BIRTHDAY WRAP-UP

C.J. with mouth open to grab white mouse toy. I know you are stopping in today in order to find out who is the winner of my birthday giveaway. But first, I’d like to tell you a bit about my day.

My birthday started out with nommy bonito flakes added to my stinky goodness breakfast. And none of my fursibs got any, which made them taste all that much better! I played with my favorite toy…the white mouse that hangs from the door frame, spent time on the catio, and best of all, cuddled with my mom for a good part of the day. And, of course, there was nip!

I had lots of fun visiting with all of my friends who attended my party; though, I might have over-indulged on the noms a bit. It was that nip; it gave me a huge appetite.

I received a kiss on my nose from my special friend, Zorro (The Swiss Cats). I also got this really cute card from Pipo, Minko and Mr. Jack Freckles (WeBeesSiameezers and Barks from Mr. Jack Freckles).

My adorable woofie friend, LadyBird, posted this cute graphic on her blog. She’s wearing one of the tiara birthday favors I had for the ladies who attended my party. She was kind enough to say I could repost it her.

Birthday card featuring dog wearing tiara.

And the winner is…

Concatulations to our dear friends, Moosey, Gracie and Zoe, from Animal Shelter Volunteer Life. They are the winners (selected using Random.org) of our BlogPaws swag giveaway. Some of the items we brought home from BlogPaws and others are from the goodie bags we gave out at the conference. We really hope they enjoy the nip, toys, treats, food and tote bag.

Cat toys and other cat items from Blog Paws Swag bag.

Finally, I need to thank my mom and brother Mauricio for planning such a great Princess Birthday for me.

Purrs and paw-pats, Calista Jo

June 25, 2015 by Janet Blue Birthday Giveaway Kitty Written Blog Thankful Thursday 26

YOU
For Fiona

It seems like only yesterday…
You were just a kitten.
When I saw your pleading look,
I was completely smitten.

Now at only six years old,
You are getting ready to leave,
Soon you will have your wings.
I’ve already started to grieve.

You’ve fought hard for the past year,
And I’m not ready to say good-bye.
I can’t imagine you not in my life
I am so sad…today I had to cry.

I am grateful and blessed
For my six years with you.
You’ll live in my heart forever.
You’re one of the best ever Kitties Blue.

YESTERDAY

Many yesterdays have passed since
You gained your angel wings. Today
Is six months since you left us behind
To remember and mourn. Our hearts
Continue to hurt, and we miss
You as much as the day you left.
Giulietta whined from the catio
Yesterday as I worked in the yard.
I know you put her up to it. That
Was your way of getting me to,
Allow you to join me as I
Gardened. You were there with me
In spirit. With every meow
I thought of you and how much I miss
Your sweet face and disposition.
In these past few months, many friends
Have traveled your same path in your
paw-steps. I am certain you were
Waiting to greet them with purrs and hugs.
I pray you and your friends are laughing,
Frolicking and having fun together.
Picturing that makes me smile, but
Does not lessen my sadness at your
No longer being here to snuggle
And receive our love, care and kisses.
Fiona, please do not ever forget
You are still and always will be loved.

ONE YEAR MISSING YOU

One year has passed since you flew away,
And I still think of you everyday.
I see your sweet face in my mind’s eye
And wish we’d never had to say good-bye.
It’s nice you’ve sent us kitties needing a family,
But my dearest love, we are now at capacity.
You thought it would take more than one cat
To take your place in our habitat.
We love Cooper Murphy and baby Sawyer dearly
But thinking either could replace you makes me teary.
You were one-of-a-kind and will stay in my heart
Until the day I join you and we’re no longer apart.
When once again I can hold you in my arms
And revel in all your love and feline charms.
Together with you and all who have passed.
I will spend eternity contemplating how blessed
I was to share my life with my furry children,
Each and every one of you one-in-a billion.

UNTIL

I miss you each day.
Until we meet in heaven,
The pain will remain.

ONE OF A KIND

I don’t know how to say good-bye.
I thought you were invincible; though,
You used up many of your nine lives.
You ruled us all with an iron paw;
Never took “no” for an answer
And always got your way.
If not, you’d bark to signal your
Displeasure and sometimes raise a paw.
I always joked that you were bi-polar.
When I told people you were a calico
They immediately understood what I meant.
Today was unnaturally quiet in the house.
Can a home seem empty with eight cats?
I will miss waking up at night to find you
Sitting next to me and staring at me.
I will miss you yelling at us as you did
When you wanted breakfast and dinner.
I will miss watching you lounging and snoozing
On the porch settee on a warm afternoon.
But most of all I will miss your kisses!
When kitten Sawyer befriended you,
We suspect you were imparting your
Wisdom and secrets for controlling us.
Time will tell if he was a good listener.
But whatever he may have learned,
Neither Sawyer nor any other cat
Can or will replace you in our hearts.
Lily Olivia, you were one-of-a-kind.