Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

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!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

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.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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!!! kenyit

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!!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

New addition to the family

I believe that most of you follow my main blog: That Design Gal. But in case you are just visiting, I wanted to share with you some posts that I had on my other blog about our new kitten. Her name is Molly we rescued her last Monday. She is doing amazingly well and starting playing last night. What an great transition she has made!

1●● Her first night
2●●An update

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Unsolicited Product Review

I have to share this find with you guys if you haven't tried it. It is the Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair. This review is unsolicited, I am writing to share with you this gem of a product.

I have done all kinds of obnoxious things to get the pet hair off of my couch. Going through an insane amount of lint rollers attempting to clean the entire couch. Not only does it takes me awhile, but it is a terrible waste of a lint roller. They are great on clothing, but since they have not come up with the jumbo roller, it is not efficient on furniture.

The other thing that I have tried is the vacuum. Yes, I am admitting to vacuuming the couch. And I am talking about the monster of a vacuum that we have. It isn't a pretty sight, and I won't do it in front of people. I was a little skeptical when I thought of Pledge taking on pet hair. But let me tell you, that this is a fantastic product! I am a fan! It is very easy to use, no mess, fast, and no sweat.

My only complaint about it, is that it is a bit pricey at $6 bucks per roller. And my only other problem is that it is not reusable. Once it is full, that is it.

Despite those small issues, this is a great solution for picking up pet hair!

Have any of you guys tried this yet? What do you think?

Enjoy!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hey Everyone!!

Please forgive my absence on this blog, I'm still here! My mom sent this video to me last night about a cat and a bath, and I have to pass it on. I don't know about you guys, but I know that the idea of a bath would not go over very well in this cat family. So it is something that I leave to the professionals!

But this just didn't even look right!? You will know what I mean when you see it!

Enjoy!



Monday, August 17, 2009

New Toy!

Hey Ladies!

I just have to share a new toy that I bought for the feline clan from Originality 123 on Etsy! Please stop by and check out her Etsy store, you can find lots of fun toys for your animal children!

Here are some pictures of the little ones having fun. It is a cute crocheted multi purple toy and a jingle bell. I took the toy and shook it in a container of catnip, and let me tell you that it was a big hit. But we did have to initiate some sharing, there was about to be a fight!

Jaeda:
Aubie:
Lizzie:
Thanks Originality!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Nora the Piano Playing Kitty

My dad sent this video to me of Nora the Piano playing Cat! What a talented little kitty, playing with the orchestra! Enjoy!



Thursday, July 23, 2009

Meet the Fam Part 1

Let me take a moment to introduce all of the kitties that make up this happy little family. I will have to do this in installations since we have a few felines that we love and care for!!This is Lizzie. She is a 3 year old female Bengal kitty that is a sweet little baby. She certainly has her Mama wrapped around her little paw. How can you not be a sucker for such a sweet face?!? Seriously! Her kitty mama was a stray cat in my parent's neighborhood that had the reputation of tearing through the garbage for food. More pictures and stories on her later, that story is a tearjerker (in a good way).

Let's see...Lizzie is a fan of me, her mama. (smiles). Since her mama joined the 10% or so of Americans where their jobs decided to quit them, Lizzie has been such a happy kitty with her mama around all of the time. She is a fantastic bug catcher, loves to have "chirping" conversations with you, a cuddle bug at night, and extremely curious. (which drives me crazy sometimes)
Here's Lizzie!

Monday, July 20, 2009

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Hello all! My fiance and I are big cat fans, so I here I am sharing some cat love! Please feel free to comment all things cat and share some of your favorite cat pictures. I thought that this picture was pretty appropriate for a new blog! If you are not familiar with I Can Has Cheezburger, it is the best collection of cat pictures with hilarious captions. www.icanhascheezburger.com. Looking forward to chatting with all of you!

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