Announcements

Part One of Two.

Here we are in April, almost May, and little Blitzen is not so little any longer. His siblings and Mama are long since adopted and he's been here with us, finishing up treatment for ringworm and mingling with our resident cats.

Just over 4 months ago, litle Blitzen, below right and his sisters, Donner and Prancer with their Mama, Cupid—just part of the 9 cat rescue from a Georgia Kill Shelter, I called ”Santa's Team.”

Sam and I have discussed whether or not we should adopt Blitzen. Of course, he's been here way too long and we've grown attached. We've wondered if we're being selfish and if we can really afford another cat (probably not). Blitzen seems to be getting long fine with everyone and they're working out how they get along with him.

Regardless of our decision, one thing is for certain. Blitzen needed to have a Vet check to clear him to be adopted. I brought him over to visit, er, get a check up with Dr. Larry. Super Deb spent some time with us before Dr. Larry got back from his lunch. Super Deb looked Blitzen over. He purred and purred as she weighed him, then sat with him on her lap and clipped his claws. Super Deb did something I rarely see-she smiled; a big, I-let-my-guard-down-smile. It was a Cheshire Cat smile-there and gone in the blink of an eye, but I saw it. Even though Super Deb said I shouldn't keep Blitzen, I didn't think she really meant it.

I came to understand she was concerned about the other cats and how they were doing. She imagined an angry piss-festival, lots of loud screaming fights and poor Gracie's skin erupting in blisters from being stressed out. It hasn't been a picnic in the park here, but it's not as bad as all that. I assured SD that the cats were working it out-and they are, but that I did agree, adopting another cat was NOT in our plans.

Then Dr. Larry came in to the exam room. He took one look at Blitzen then made some God-awful whistle-chirp-something-sound. Super Deb and I looked at each other with a “WTF” look on our faces. The sound freaked Blitzen out so we scolded Dr. Larry, who was oblivious to what we were saying. He was too busy focusing on Blitzen, who calmed down and went back to purring and looking around the room.

”You should definitely keep him.”

“You're kidding, right?”

“This cat is...a-w-e-s-o-m-e! He is a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l cat and what a sweeth-e-a-r-t!”

Then Dr. Larry asked Super Deb for her opinion and she said No. I would be nuts to keep this cat, but did admit that he was ”Okay, nice, but I really shouldn't adopt another cat.”

Blitz got cleared for takeoff. No more ringy-dingy-worm. No ear mites, fleas, URI, tapeworm, roundworm, blah blah blah. Now I just had to find him a great home.

I knew Blitzen would be adopted easily. What's not to like? He's completely confident in his fur. He is happy and loving and oh so adorable. If I adopt him, I really can't get my “dream cat.” I promised myself that next year I would begin looking for a BIG Tuxedo Maine Coon to rescue. That would put us at NINE cats if we keep Blitzen. Even for me, that's too many.

So, I need to do what's best for everyone. I lucked out and found the perfect home for Blitzen. The Adoption Agreement was signed today. I cried as the signatures hit the paper. How could I not? This adoption isn't something I'm going to be able to maintain my poker face over.

It's time for me to move forward. We have a few feral mama cats who have recently given birth. One had six kittens on Monday! It's been too long since I've had babies in the house and I miss fostering. It's Kitten Season, after all, and I need to get back to work.

As I get older, I realize that it would be selfish to adopt any more cats after I reach a certain age, yet I don't know at what point in my life I need to do that? What if I get a terminal illness in the next year, while I'm still young (-ish!)? I'd have eight cats to worry about.

One of my biggest fears is what everyone in rescue sees ALL the time-owners who die and leave no one to care for their pets. Those pets are often times geriatric, themselves, and are very difficult to place. What is their fate? You can guess the answer to that without my help.

After spending my life devoted to the welfare of cats, how ironic would it be that my own cats would suffer the same fate I fear most?

In 2003, a charitable trust was created to help solve this difficult problem. They're called Banfield Charitable Trust, a non-profit organization based on Oregon.

In addition to Pet Peace of Mind , they also make donations and Community Grants to local Non-Profits across the country. Their goal is to keep Pets & Families together, with a focus on increasing awareness to the vital role pets play in every family. They do this in a variety of ways, which you can read more about HERE.

What I'm most impressed by is their goal to work with Non-profit Hospice Caregivers to create programs where they can allow their patients to KEEP their pets with them, instead of being forced to give them up when they enter hospice. Or have to give them up because they are too frail to care for their pet. This not only gives a person dignity, but confirms that animals are a core part of our lives. Without them WE suffer and that is one thing that shouldn't happen when a person is facing their last days.

Photo from Banfield Charitable Trust

Right now, Pepsi is sponsoring the GOOD IDEA Campaign. The winner will get $250,000.00! Banfield is at the 12th position. You can help with a Mouse-CLICK and keep clicking, every day until April 30th. You can do good, without it costing you anything but a few minutes of your time.

Vote HERE

More Ways to Help

Ask your friends and business colleagues to vote as well. Use blogs, Facebook and Twitter to spread the word. It only takes three minutes to register. Once registered, you may vote every day. Voting for this project will take less than one minute per day.

Go HERE to see even MORE ways to help!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP! SPREAD THE WORD! Let's make Banfield Charitable Trust, Number ONE!

Google has come up with a nifty little video generator called Search Stories that allow you to create a quick video out of google searches. I made one in a few minutes. Let's see what you guys come up with! You can post the links to me via email and I will post them here (I have to give the vids a once-over and they need extra admin permissions for the videos to work).

Here's the one I created:

If you want to make a better world for pets, it takes more than just a wish. It takes putting your hand in your pocket and dragging out some hard earned cash. It takes the willingness to step up when asked and look out for opportunities where you can help-and be willing to do just that.

At BlogPaws, a group of great folks banded together to form “Be a Part of the Change.” They're asking all Pet Bloggers and Pet Lovers to stand together and focus their efforts on a specific non-profit pet rescue organization, to see how much money we can raise in a concentrated effort. Since there are so many groups who need help, a new rescue group will be chosen every so often, so we can spread our support across the country.

The first recipient of our efforts, fittingly enough, is in Columbus, Ohio, where BlogPaws was just held. Pets Without Parents was “founded in June of 2001, is a non-profit, no-kill, all-breed shelter for dogs and cats. Our mission is to place every pet that enters our shelter into a loving, permanent home; to motivate our local community to support our shelter, its no-kill mission, and spay-neuter efforts through donation, volunteer, and adoption opportunities...until every pet goes home.”

These noble folks are doing great things in their area. If you saw some of the boarded up neighborhoods (!), not just homes here and there, of Columbus, you would cry. These folks are facing very tough times indeed. What I'm going to ask you guys is to make me proud and donate $5 or more, if you can afford to do so. I know there are so many deserving groups that need support, but lets see what we can do when we focus our efforts on just one.

What difference can we make in the lives of some of these cats? Wouldn't it be FANTASTIC if we raised so much money, that this group didn't have to worry about how they were going to afford food or Vet bills for the next few years? Is that a dream? Heck NO. WE CAN DO THIS IF WE WORK TOGETHER!

These are just some of the almost 40 cats Pets without Partners has rescued who are looking for their forever home.

This is PC, an odd-eyed white kitty. Who wouldn't want to give this pretty baby a great home?

What about Goliath?

Or this stunning, Feline Leukemia Positive little baby, Bug?

Every homeless cat or dog deserves the best we can provide for them. We can be part of the change that makes life BETTER for these animals, and in return, gives us a better life, too.

Please consider donating at least $5 here or via this little widget.

Thank you, everyone! Now lets do something that makes our hearts sing!

AND PLEASE RE-TWEET & PASS ALONG THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY!

OK, OK, OK!

I realize that giving you guys just a week to procure a photo of an earth shattering, humungous hair ball was asking a bit too much. After all, it's not like we can command or predict when our cats will blast off a fur missile.

With that in mind, I have decided to open up the deadline to ONE MONTH FROM TODAY to May 15, 2010 midnight EST.. If your cat hasn't horked a hair ball, then you have a hairless cat or are very lucky.

Go forth and remember to STOP before you clean up the spew. Grab a ruler to add to the photo and send it off to info@coveredincathair.com .

Winning photos will be posted here and maybe I will send you something fun for your efforts or maybe I won't...if you don't send me your address or if you annoy me.

Bob Dole (my cat, not the ex-candidate for Vice President) has been coughing for about a week. I admit I didn't give him enough hairball remedy, but thankfully he, somehow, managed to hork this bad boy up.

Okay, it's gross, but you have to admit it's impressive, too! In all the years of discovering hairballs, I've never seen one this big.

So now, my dear readers, I challenge you. Can your cat blast a bigger hair hunk? You've got a week. You can't "make" a fake hairball with your hands or in photoshop. You need to include a ruler next to said hairball so we can see how long it is. It's gotta be the real thing. Also, include a photo of the cat who did the “horking.”

To enter, you must email a photo of the hairball w/ruler and photo of the cat who “made” it to: info@coveredincathair.com by Friday, April 23, 2010.

Prizes? Hey, do I look like I'm sponsored by a major corporation? I might have a Furminator or a box of Catnip Tea I can toss your way. Is it great motivation for you to send in pix? Heck no. Is bragging rights worth something to you? I think, YES! The winning hairball will be posted right here on CiCH, along with a photo of the now somewhat less hairy cat (if the owner provides one).

So stop cleaning up those messy hairballs and get out your camera, first!

Note: open to anyone who has a camera, a cat and a cat who just puked up a hairball. Please DO NOT HARM or otherwise induce your cat to vomit. I mean, really, do I have to put that in writing?

Wow. What a day.

Why is it every time something important is about to happen in my life that I can count on getting my period? What's up with that? Not only did I get it, but I GOT IT. You know what I mean? I swear my body is out to get me, but like everything else, perhaps it's a blessing in disguise?

Sure. Whatever you say.

So. BlogPaws!-my first Conference Presentation was this morning at 11:00 AM. I had practiced out loud, in the shower (hey, not that kind of practicing!), in the car, in my head when I laid down to go to sleep. I knew what I needed to say, but was worried I'd rush or fumble or both...or worse, forget the entire thing!

I knew I should try to be relaxed and calm. There are lots of nice folks here-about 250 of them. My PowerPoint presentation was only 10 minutes long, then I was to spend the remaining time on a panel discussion. The topic: “Leveraging Social Media.”

I promise I'll re-post this soon with photos, but for now, I can only write up some notes. Try to visualize...

...me. With bad cramps, feeling woozy. Slept for about an hour because I was an idiot and ate a HUGE chocolate cupcake before I WENT TO BED last night. Between the sugar and the caffeine, there was no hope I would really sleep. I DO know better, plus I'm worried that my Wii is going to yell at me when I get back home for eating like a moron while I've been in Columbus. Even now there's a HUGE vanilla cream puff from Schmidt's Sausage Haus sitting on the desk in our hotel room at the Westin!

Okay so back to visualizing me, sleepy, shaky, in my first session which was about how to do a product review without getting sued by the company whose product you're reviewing or get into trouble with the FTC. Basically, don't lie and be clear that you are reviewing something you were paid to review, if that's the case and you're off the hook if you didn't get paid, just don't be a twit and make declarations that are anything outside of simply “my own observation or opinion.”

Okay, common sense. What was dreadful about this session was one of the speakers was not able to show her slides. The computer locked up, then after restarting, they realized NO ONE knew the password to log onto the Mac! This poor woman, just calmly went on ahead and did her thing. Me, I thinking, “oh shit. I hope that doesn't happen to me. I'm dead meat if my presentation doesn't work—the same one that I still don't know if it got loaded onto a Powerbook or if it runs!”

I looked at my watch. My pulse was throbbing in my throat. My hands were trembling. Time to head to my session. I got upstairs and ran into Helin, one of the other presenters. I love Helin. She's from PeoplePets, so that make her super cool to know, but really without it I'd like her just as much. She's so cute and bubbly! She told me the room was still being used. They ran late! They ran SO LATE, it was 11 AM, instead of 10:45 am when we were supposed to get the room, get prepped and get going.

Ha ha ha. Another squeeze on my blood pressure! Those folks would not get out of OUR room!

They finally left and we started to set up. Jennifer Laycock went first. She ran her preso off her laptop. She was great. As I listened to her, I started to worry that she was going to talk too much about what I planned to say. I sat there and thought; “No..no..don't talk about analytics! Okay, yes, talk about Twitter, but no oh...don't talk about..ack!” Then I got so absorbed about worrying what she was going to say that I spaced out and thought I will have nothing to say! I am blank.

Then it was my turn. My Preso wouldn't run.

Oh $#$@#!

So I talked about doing stand up comedy. I made some jokes. They realized PowerPoint wasn't LOADED onto the laptop I was supposed to use. They tried MY powerbook, but the adopter (ha ha ha! I'm leaving that typo-I meant ADAPTER) didn't work. We used Jennifer's PC, but it took so long to get it working, I had to introduce Helin and she did her presentation while things were getting sorted out. What a mess!

I got back up to talk. This is it. I was shaking so hard, I could barely press the arrow key to advance the slides I designed. I told them about my journey blogging about Tweetie (remember him?!) and The Tweetie Chronicles. Sockington and Jason Scott. Instead of stumbling, it was smoothly delivered. I didn't go too fast, but I kept a good pace. I made everyone laugh and as I got near the end I was surprised it went so quickly. After the presentation was over, there was only time for a few questions. I was very happy that a few folks came up to me and told me to make sure I didn't give up on doing stand up comedy! Does that mean the presentation sucked? Hmmm...just realized that!

I think it went very well, considering everything that happened. It was so worth all the work and practice and looking back on it I can say I enjoyed it very much and hope to get the chance to do it again.

The rest of the conference was just fine. I learned a few things. I met a LOT of people. I need to sort through the enormous pile of cards I got and start figuring out who to check in with, who to follow on Facebook and Twitter and who to be real life buddies with. It was so much fun to meet Caroline, aka RomeotheCat on Twitter. She and her team kicked butt putting this conference together. For a first time event, it was great. Well put together, good food, good space, good folks. There's much more to write, but I'm just dead tired and I have a vanilla cream puff waiting for me.

I don't care if I have to face the wrath of my Wii, too. So there. I'm hormonal. I have my needs.

There's nothing like the excitement of packing up and going on a road trip with your beloved. The promise of the open road. Leaving your troubles behind you. The enjoyment of discovering more about the world around you, and yourself, while you're at it.

And...there's nothing like the threat of not going on the trip at all, just when you've finished packing and you need to load the car. But wait, first you must have a HUGE, blowout fight over the fact that you're stressed and short-tempered (because you don't want to leave late) and not being very nice. Okay. Let's have a big fight for two hours, so we can be certain to leave as LATE as possible, so the 660 mile drive will end around 12:30AM instead of 7PM! Great.

There's nothing like battling through CT, NY & NJ, followed by an endless drive across Pennsylvania. I swear that state GROWS while you drive it. All the up and down, curvy roads, the rain, the truckers who tailgate and the insane f-cker who almost hit us.

Yet, somehow, with all this, there's nothing like being able to find a way to work it out, to get over your petty/not-so-petty-but-you-don't-want-to-admit-it crap and attend to the task at hand. You make the 660 mile drive. You get to the hotel late. You eat a cold sandwich and pass out cold on the big, cat-less bed. You wake up to a new day, full of possibilities.

You awake to the purr of a garbage truck dumping something outside your window. You might be fearful that the shit storm is going to happen all over again, but you have that hope that today will be different. Today will be different! And if not, the trip was already worth it.

We made one stop yesterday, other than bathroom breaks. I scored a really cool 1950's lamp for my living room at the Atomic Warehouse, so that's good, right?

More from BlogPaws, life in Columbus, Ohio and The Sam & Robin Smackdown Show, soon!

Bags are packed. My first time leaving the cats alone in over two years. I have a great pet sitter, who is also a Vet Tech coming twice a day, but I know that all the hours between those two visits will give the little jerks plenty of time to destroy the house with their vengeful bladders and angry claws.

I've shut off my bedroom and a few other areas. Am hoping that allowing them access to my office, which is the prime afternoon napping location, will appease them. I fear I will find a spray coating of whiz on my keyboard, but so be it. It's only “stuff,” right?

I'm looking forward to having a break. I guess I just wonder what the price is going to be. I suppose it's not a good thing that I am bound to this place by cats. I thought I was the boss? How dumb am I? Don't answer that!

With any luck, I'll be blogging from BlogPaws with updates and pix from lovely Ohio and points in between.

The road is calling me...better get going.

Your fearful hostess,

Robin

I feel badly that I haven't been updating you guys on what's going on. I've been cranking to get ready for my presentation at BlogPaws next week! Also, my, err, birthday is on Saturday and I've decided to give myself a Tea Party with a few cat-lady friends and there's more to do for it than I imagined.

Why on Earth do I suddenly need to over complicate this “informal” gathering by making a late night run to Pier One and Target (Tar-Jay) to buy candles and treat bags? Hopefully, it will be worth it. If I had the funds, I'd invite you all to come over! That would be fun! All the cat lovers talking about cats. I might dare to think that it could be too much! Would it?

We got about five hundred feet of rain over the past week. I'm bloody sick of it. Our leaks have leaks. At least the trees, knock wood (hee hee), are still standing and haven't fallen over onto the house from the wet soil and lack of it. We're on lots of ledge here. Not much room for plants to thrive on stone. Sam almost collapsed last year when he had to dig a hole to plant a lilac in the front yard.

Rumors have it that the sun is due out any minute now and the temps will soar from the 40's up to the 70's! This weekend might be purrfect for a tea party outdoors on the deck. I hope it works out. It's been years since I did much of anything for my birthday, plus it forces me to clean off the center island in the kitchen, which is the repository for mail and other crap and it annoys me when it gets so messy.

Blitzen lookin' like a big boy! And yes, that's a FAKE cat/pillow behind him.

Blitzen is doing well integrating in with my cats even though he's not supposed to because he is still being treated for ringworm! Ugh. I can't lock him in a room. He's too big and would be too lonely. Now he spends his days exploring, getting into things and trying to find a way to fit in with the rest of the cats. It's cause some rifts between the other cats, some peeing where they're not supposed to, some fighting. I'm alarmed at the fighting, but I know it's not just due to Blitzen. In fact, I believe something else is going on.

Shhh...pouff asleep.

Spencer is going after Petunia in ways I've never seen before. He seems to be on the warpath, but he's not the only one. None of the fights have been serious, but Petunia overreacts and screams fairly easily. None of them have been hurt, but this is, of course, not ideal. I wonder if it has to do with the change of season and Bob getting older and Spencer maybe shifting his power. I have no idea just yet, but am keeping a close eye on the situation. Right now Bob and Nicky are passed out under my desk and Spencer is next to me on a chair, so it could be a lot worse.

Nicky passed out next to my feet.

Bob washing his face before settling down for his nap.

Kitten season has begun. Our pregnant mama had kittens and there's another cat who just gave birth, who may also be joining our foster care program. I have to sit on the sidelines for at least a few more weeks. I really hate it. I miss having babies here! I also seriously hate not being able to help in the south. That still bothers me a lot. I want to help all the cats who need it. I think I need to amass a nice cat-rescuing army. Anyone want to join?

Back to work. I want to make sure I'm dazzling at BlogPaws!