Announcements

I'm not big on tooting my own horn. My efforts are all about saving cats. That said, it's been a very strange few days. I'm getting my 15 minutes of fame and then some...

Monday I asked my Director about doing a “Fur Raiser” for Matter of Trust. She liked the idea. Tom, the owner of our local pet food store liked the idea and offered to help by being the drop off location for any fur we collect. I began designing flyers and a banner, some web graphics and whatever else we need. I also wrote the Press Release and our Director sent it off to the local paper. I sent it off to the local News stations.

On Wednesday, a reporter for one of the local newspapers saw a comment I made on Facebook about the Brookfield Craft Center closing its' doors. She asked to interview me about it and I agreed. I used the opportunity to tell her about our “Fur For the Gulf” Fur-Raiser and she liked the idea and said she would talk to her Editor about it. The Editor liked the idea and asked her to interview me AGAIN and to send a photographer to my house to get a shot of me brushing the cats (easier said that done, I can tell you that!).

Nicky is going to star in the local paper in a day or two! Here he is just after the photo shoot, still looking like a model.

Out of three news programs I contacted, one, NBC, contacted me right away and want to do a story about us. With any luck, they'll be at Your Healthy Pet on Saturday, early in the afternoon. I've arranged to have our mama cat, Sally Sox there with her 6 kittens-just for the photo op and hopefully some viewers will fall in love with the kitties and adopt them. Why not? Kittens have to be brushed and can donate fur, too!

Today the article hit about the Craft Center. I think it's a hoot. If you want to read it, it's HERE. Tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday or who knows when, the articles about the Fur For the Gulf will be out.

How much fur will we collect? I already know a Vet and a groomer who is going to donate fur. I have a little bag from our photo session (most of it ended up on me) and I have a feeling we'll get a lot more. No one knows if this will work or not. If we'll be stuck having to cough up a lot of money for shipping or if we will scratch our heads and wonder why we did this. I wish we got all this press over our kitten programs, but it's a start. By doing something a bit unusual, I was able to get our group some attention. I have to say, the irony of writing a blog called: Covered in Cat Hair and knowing I'm about to collect cat hair on purpose, didn't go unnoticed.

So two newspaper articles and a tv news spot. Not a bad start. If anyone wants my autograph, just drop me an email. Hee hee.

I love what Matter of Trust is doing to help protect the shore birds and wildlife, who are in danger of becoming victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. If you haven't already heard, Matter of Trust is collecting human hair, scrap wool and pet fur to create “hair booms” and “hair mats” that effectively soak up the spilled oil.

Since I volunteer with a cat rescue group, I figured it would be a great fit to do a “Fur-Raiser,” where, instead of asking for money, we ask for “fur-nations”—fur that is groomed off dogs and cats that we will later ship to Matter of Trust. Even if I have eight cats, brushing them won't give me enough fur to make even one hair boom! We need lots more!

If you live in western Connecticut, USA and want to bring some fur-nations (dog and cat fur-only), we'll be accepting them at Your Healthy Pet starting this Friday, May 14 through to May 28, 2010.

YHP is also giving out treats to every pet (while supplies last) whose fur is donated and owners can also enter a drawing to win gift certificates and other fun prizes for pets!

And if you'd like a flyer to print out and hang up at work, you can do so by clicking the image, below.

Let's get brushing those pets and help the animals in the Gulf!

Looks like our good friend, Sockington made the headlines again. Fortunately it was not due to having many secret Mistresses. Socks was at it again, being featured for his Twitter follower-prowess, which is now at over 1.5 MILLION! Socks is so big, he caught the attention of THE People Magazine-May 17th issue, page 152! Are we proud of you, Socks, well, DUH, of course!

Would we be AS proud of you if PeoplePets didn't do an additional article about you called: “The 5 Things You Didn't Know About Sockington?” (that happened to include our former foster, Tweetie?) Well, yesssssss, yes. Of course!

See point number 2, above. Thank you to Helin Jung, my charming friend at PeoplePets for including Tweetie and moreso for declaring aloud that I'm a comedian to the general public! Maybe I can get a booking doing a “stand up comedy, socializing feral cats world tour,” next?

Who knows what's next? I know that Tweetie is doing well, hogging the food at meal time so he has to be separated from Socks and Penny Cat and that otherwise he's getting along well with his “Dad.” Of course what PennyCat thinks in another story.

Oh and WELCOME People Pets readers! I forgot my manners. Hope you'll come back and visit again, soon!

I promise. No more creepy close up shots of my feet! (see below a few posts..wait, no, don't look).

Anyone who visits this web site regularly knows there aren't enough cat photos. There just aren't. Thankfully, Davander Mobile just released the latest version of CatPaint for lucky iPhone and iPod Touch owners. For 99 cents it's great for creating absolutely absurd images using your own photos as a background. Then you simply add their pre-loaded cat images to any "catless" image or add more cats to an existing photo; if you feel badly that you only have 2 cats and want to seem more like a hoarder (like me with 8 cats).

I swiped a few examples off the Cat Paint Gallery so you can see the work of true “artistes.“ It's very simple to pick up on how to create your own Catserpiece, and during the creation, the cat art meows every time you place one! Great for taunting real cats while you do your art.

As seen on Cat Paint's Gallery Page! Nice job, whoever you are!

Of course if Taylor Swift can enjoy this, well, that just says it all. What it says, I do not know, but heck there's a CAT in the photo. WIN!

I just did my own Cat Painting. It might not have been Mewseeum quality and of course I would pre-fur an option to add my own cats. Maybe that will happen in a future version, but for now, I feel satisfied that my boring photo of the Tappen Zee Bridge has been transformed into a moving tribute to something. Maybe. Maybe not a tribute, but not a bad effort. Okay. Just look at the photo I made and like me so I can feel good about myself! I don't have Taylor Swift's legs...or anything else that she's got, for that matter.

©2010 Robin AF Olson. “The Bridge to Tabbybithia”

So go. Create art. Or bug someone with an iPhone to share this app with you. Just don't bug me. I'm busy creating another catsterpiece.

©2010 Robin A.F. Olson

Blitzen's dreaming of meeting his new foster friends, but for me, it can't come soon enough. I admit to feeling jealous that many of you have already gotten your first or second litters of kittens to foster, while my foster room is empty.

I was contacted by our friend, Jenna, in South Carolina yesterday and she needs help with two orphaned kittens. I don't know much about them yet, but will be getting photos soon. I know they're just old enough to eat on their own and are skittish, but we, rather Jennifer, (thank you for being willing to foster them!) is going to take care of them. She and her husband love the little ones. We'll see how they do and if they do all right, then I'll gear up for taking on fosters, too. I have to back Jennifer up in case there's a problem with the cats, so no getting fosters for me until the coast is clear.

Some of you might recall, I had to stop doing out-of-state transports after “Santa's Team” of 9 rescues from GA, became so very sick, for so very long. Their Vet bill was into the thousands of dollars and although the same thing could happen with any cats we take in locally, odds are that they will not be so sickly because they will not have had to bear the burden and stress of the transport, being moved from a shelter to quarantine, then moved again into a foster home. Cats are delicate creatures.

That left us with the option of not helping Jenna (it's just TWO kittens, who are being cared for by a VET and I have two empty foster homes!) or go “rogue” and care for these cats without them having the support of The Animal Center and do the fundraising, fostering, Spay/Neuter, adoptions on our own and with our own money.

I wish this wasn't the case. I understand that transporting cats into CT is not a popular thing with many many people, but if I can get two, well vetted kittens, does it really matter where they came from? If I pull them from a local shelter, then the cats won't have had the vet workup, they could be carrying something that will be transmitted to my own cats because local cats are not put into quarantine between being in the shelter and being in my home. I don't have this all worked out and there are valid arguments for either side of this subject, but at the end of the day, a life (or two) saved, is a life (or two) saved.

To My Cats:

Every day I make sure you get wholesome food to eat, a clean place to “do your business,” fresh water, open windows to watch the birdies from, sunny places to sleep and more beds than any human in this house has.

I ask for little in return; that you get along with each other, you find fulfillment and happiness here, that you show me a moment or two of affection from time to time.

What I really don't care for is when you lose control of your mind and decide to use my feet for traction in your attempt to escape each other's wrath.

Really. Do you need to aim for my feet when there's another 2599 sq ft (pardon the pun) of space to freak out in? Can't you just AVOID ME, ME, your dear “Mother,” when your claws are out?

You know I could do something about those claws. I could. But I'm a nice person, so instead of taking your claws, this afternoon while you're passed out asleep, under my desk, I'm going to get an air horn and “accidently” fire it off.

But first, let me put on my shoes.

I hope everyone has started brushing their cats or giving summer buzz cuts to their doggies-then SAVING ALL THAT FUR!

This morning I got a reply from Matter of Trust with a link to a video on how to make a hair boom that will absorb oil. It's pretty simple. You just need a lot of hair/fur and some used/or new pantyhose!

You don't have to make a hair boom to help the efforts to clean up the gulf, you just need to start saving hair. I haven't gotten my instructional email on how they want it shipped, but I did see them using cardboard boxes (duh!) and a plastic bag insert that was used to contain the hair/fur. I'll post more info. as soon as I get it.

In the meantime, check out this helpful video!

Get out your brushes, gang, the wildlife of the Gulf Coast region need our help!

Did you know that human hair and pet fur is GREAT at absorbing OIL? There's a non-profit organization, called Matter of Trust. They collect hair from salons, pet hair from shelters, rescues, schools, individuals-anyone who's got HAIR! They create hair filled "booms" using ladies nylon pantyhose, then drop them onto oil spills and the hair does the rest!

Photo by Matter of Trust

What a simple and wonderful way to help with this tragedy in the Gulf!

Here's the info from their web site:

Everyone can take part!
No matter where you are. No matter if you're with a salon or groomer or if you're a volunteer.

First, please SIGN UP to their Excess Access program. It's FREE and FAST.
It is their mass donation matching database system.

They cannot give out addresses for where to send hair, fur and nylons unless you are signed up, because as the spill moves so do the recipient sites and we don't want any boxes returned to you. And they don't want any boxes coming there after the spill.

START BRUSHING, GANG! LET'S SEE SOME PHOTOS OF THE CLIPPINGS BEFORE YOU SEND THEM OUT! Best pile of fur photo will be featured here and on our Facebook fan page!

I want to see at least 100 times better than this:

This is a bit of Nicky, Nora, Bob & Spencer, but I know I can do bigger and better (without the cats going bald!)

Get to it and PLEASE pass this info along to your friends! You can also visit Matter of Trust on FACEBOOK.

Isn't that sweet! Not only a big spill of cat litter to clean up, but a BONUS, HUGE, HAIRBALL! Wowie. The cats really missed me.

There's nothing better than walking in the front door after a long trip away from home...or...maybe that's not quite true.

Apparently, Blitzen likes to hang over the top of the cat litter box and dig into the litter, which ends up knocking it over, spilling it all over the floor. Why can't he play with the 10,000 cat toys just a few feet away from him in the living room? Is that too much to ask?

Also, please note, we have a contender to the biggest hairball contest! The tiles are 12" square, so this could easily be a 4-5 incher! Scientific investigation will have to be done to determine if this could be a winning hairball.

It's so good to be home!

COUGH.

If you read my last post, you know that Blitzen found his forever home yesterday. If you read my last post v-e-r-y carefully, you might have noticed something else, too.

I said I cried when the Adoption Agreement was signed, which was true. I didn't say whose signature was on the paper or if my tears were sad ones.

It's something to consider.

The other thing to consider is how sweet, friendly and loving this little cat has become. He always seems to have a sunny outlook on life. Everything is interesting and exciting to him, to be explored and enjoyed. Every time I look at him I smile. I could find a way to let Blitzen go, but life is too short. Why do I have to say goodbye? I have a lot of cats, what's one more? Will it ruin my life or ruin my other cats life? Probably not.

So the signature, one of two, is mine. The other, not seen above, is Sam's. I cried because I was happy and maybe a tiny bit scared to make this commitment.

My old boss said; “It is what it is.” I think that sums it up nicely. Sure, I could go nuts worrying about how this cat will impact our lives or do calculations that tell me it's going to by tough on our budget to have an EIGTH cat, but it is what it is. We'll find a way to manage.

I guess I got tired of having to say goodbye and longed to say something new.

“Welcome to the Family, Blitzen!”

...and it's with us.