Animal safety with Washer and Dryers

Nowadays homeowners are purchasing front loading washers and dryers for their efficiency power. While although they promise wonderful things for our utility bills, we need to take extra consideration to how this design change will affect animals.

Having the doors to the machines in the front makes it much easier for animals to jump inside and explore these areas. Especially for cats, the curiosity factor will get them every time. In our household, only one of our cats has a serious problem with his curiosity and the laundry room. I have caught him several times jumping into the dryer while I am transferring clothes from the washer. I have had to get in the habit of closing the laundry room door while I am working in there just to be sure that I was not being absent-minded and not double checking the dryer. Before starting the dryer, even with closing the door, I will still call his name every time to visibly assure me that he is out of harm's way.

This is food for thought. There is no need for there to be these kinds of unnecessary accidents. Let's protect our animals!

Kitties and our Toddler

Here's my little Lizzie. Classic Mommy's girl, needy like you wouldn't believe, sensitive like no other, and all around sweet kitty. 
She has had a hard time adjusting to life with a new baby, well, toddler now. She is in good company when it comes to a toddler coming after them, she's gone. Wants no part of it. She would never be aggressive towards her, all she wants is an exit strategy. So poor little Lizzie only gets her mommy during nap times and bedtimes.
 It's important to remember that we can't neglect our furry babies while we take care of our little ones. But it definitely isn't necessary to re-home a pet once a new baby comes into the picture, and it truly breaks my heart when I read such stories. It's not their fault, and they just need time to adjust.

 Here is Aubie. She is a good 'ole feral cat, being on the streets for about one and half years before we took her in. She has been with us for 3 years so she is well versed in the life of a house cat. And let me tell you something- she is princess personified! Attention when she demands it, and she requires her king size pillow top mattress as her bed. She's a brat and we truly love her for that. She has definitely come around when it comes to our toddler. Again in the beginning, when she would start crying she would leave the room (like the rest of the cats), now Aubie has taken a liking to her by rolling on her back and showing off her belly, and that's not to say that Aubie hasn't had her fair shares of tail pulling, but she has never once got upset with our toddler, just walks away until she has calmed down from excitement. When our daughter had tubes put in her ears she came home from the surgery and you could smell the anesthesia. That was when Aubie decided that she need to protect her toddler. It was an awfully sweet picture that made me a bit weepy... (cheesy, I know).
 So give your fur babies some time, they'll learn to transition!

Big Cat Rescue

(as first posted on That Design Gal)

I just have to tell you all about an amazing place that Chris and I visited when we were in Tampa, Florida. It is called the Big Cat Rescue, and it is a charity and sanctuary that saves exotic cats from roadside zoos and people who have these cats as pets.Their stories are absolutely heartbreaking with the conditions that they have been brought up in such as living in basements, cages that are too small that their noses gets scratched, being breed for fur mills, and being chained to concrete floors that the fur on their joints have been completely rubbed away. That barely covers the extent of the deplorable conditions that these cats have had to endure. As much as this yanks on the heartstrings, you have to be so very thankful that there are such wonderful people in the world that have made it their mission to reach out to these beautiful creatures to take care of them and give them a permanent home for the rest of their lives.
Please do not take this post as me on a soapbox about exotic cats. This is solely written as an informative post about these beautiful animals that have been saved and given a second chance at life. Although it is not the life that they would have in the wild, they have been given a chance to live their life out in peace and comfort while being loved and cherished by the volunteers and visitors. I had never heard about this sanctuary or even had a notion that there are people that would treat animals this way. I wish that there was more that I can do. So I’m hoping that spreading the word does a little something.

Here is the story of the cat that we “adopted”. “His name is Cheetaro and he is a Male Asian Leopard born 7/1/1998. Cheetaro arrived at the Big Cat Rescue in November 2003 for a roadside zoo. Cheetaro was confined to a corn crib with his mate and bred constantly so that his cubs could be sold. They braved the New England winters together where a chill factor of -18 wasn’t unusual. They had no way to escape the sleet and snow. They had only the shelter of the corn crib’s tin roof and a box. They had no choice but to survive by enduring their fate together. When the roadside zoo was closed in 2003, Cheetaro’s mate was sold off and Cheetaro, being male and of no value was sent to the Big Cat Rescue. Here he lays lazily in the sun on top of his cave mountain, or can hang out in his tree, but he has forever been separated from the mate he loved. One of the wiliest cats in sanctuary, he spends hours stalking the house cats, peacocks, and visitors from his large grassy cat-a-tat…Big Cat Rescue visitors are always captivated by Cheetaro as he sleeps or keeps watch on everything from high in his oak tree…That’s why we consider ourselves very lucky that we have many breathtaking photos of this ‘wild and crazy’ leopard lounging on the branches of his tree. This is his favorite spot. We can never make up for the life he had to endure, but we try every day to make life as enriching as we possibly can for him.” –Excerpt from sponsor packet.
If by chance there is anyone out that reads this and volunteers at the Big Cat Rescue or to any of the sponsors of this sanctuary, “Thank You” for all of the work that you have done! Just touring the sanctuary you can see how much these cats are loved and cared for. You all do such amazing work!
If you would like to know more about each of these cat’s stories, their website is: www.bigcatrescue.org

Thank you for reading this post.

Cheezbugers!

Cheezburger Wednesdays

Merry Christmas!

A Furry Show and Tell

You guys have shown a lot of love when I have posted about my feline family so I would like to extend that to all of your furry family members. YAY! I would like this place to be a "showcase" for lack of a better word where we can tell their stories, any great tricks they do or just how they are loving members of the family. And I am sure that at some point you have read some amazing and tearjerking stories about animals, so let's make this a heartwarming collection that will just make you want to go out and adopt a new pet!!!

If you like this idea and would like to join in, please the link to the right and send an email to me with story about your family member. Please include all of the information that you would like to share including pictures.

I will be making buttons that you can post on your blog saying that a member of your family has been featured!

I'm looking forward to sharing your stories!!

Cheezburger Wednesday

see more Lolcats and funny pictures