Allegra’s World: Overcoming Fears

Allegra's World| 19 Comments

Allegra_tortoiseshell_cat_at_window

Hi everyone, it’s Allegra! Today, I get to brag a little. I wasn’t going to even write about this, but Mom is so proud of me, and she said if I should share with all of you how brave I was last week.

Those of you who’ve known me for a while probably remember that I used to be very scared of bad weather. I know lots of kitties are afraid of thunder, but my fears went beyond that. I even felt afraid when it rained a lot. The way that rain sounds against the roof and windows – oh, it was just so scary!

Thankfully, I have a good, safe place for riding out storms. There’s a small bathroom in our basement. It has no windows, so it’s nice and dark in there. There’s a shower stall with a curtain, and that’s where I hide: in the far corner, behind the curtain. It’s cozy and quiet there.Continue Reading

Sunday Purrs: life lessons from a tortoiseshell cat

Sunday Purrs| 12 Comments

tortoiseshell_cat_playing_belly_rub

Guest post by Pat Wolesky

Memorial Day 2001, 11 years ago, I adopted a cat from a local humane society who has transformed our little family with her larger than life personality. To celebrate her adoptiversary, I wanted share some of the things Coco Bear has shown me.

  1. Each day is a wondrous gift, with the potential to be amazing: When the alarm goes off in the morning and my eyes aren’t even open, Coco leaps out of bed and starts rolling around on the floor kicking up her legs, just delighted to have a new day dawning. She makes me smile and share her optimism about a new day to live.
  2. Throw yourself 100% into everything you do: Nothing is done halfway with Coco Bear. Playing, eating, kneading, showing love, sleeping – all done with nothing held back, and no apologies.
  3. If you mess up, charm can help you make amends: Particularly as a young cat Coco was always doing something to make me tear my hair. Continue Reading
Pretty Litter

Memorial Day: a day of remembrance

Author's Life| 17 Comments

cat_collage

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. ― Thomas Campbell

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day when we honor the memory of the men and women who have died in military service.

For many people, it’s also a day to remember all departed loved ones, and for most of us, that includes our beloved felines. I’m remembering Amber, Buckley and Feebee today. All three of them changed my life in ways I never could have imagined. I miss them every day, and I treasure the legacy they’ve left behind.

As you remember your lost loved ones today, please take a moment to recognize the sacrifices of our military personnel and thank them for their service. I hope you enjoy this heart-touching slideshow of soldiers with cats:Continue Reading

Sunday Purrs: Play more

Sunday Purrs| 6 Comments

cat with toy basket playing

Guest post by Angie Bailey

How much of your day is spent “playing?” Really — think about it. In a world where working overtime is applauded and rushing our kids from activity to activity has become the norm, who’s got time to relax, laugh, and truly enjoy life?

One of the reasons I am writing about this subject is to remind myself of this very thing. I spend much of my day working from home. I love what I do, but I sometimes become driven and look past a game with my kids or a walk in the woods because there’s always “something I have to do.” Some days I even eat while I’m working. I have to remind myself to take breaks, read a book, play with the cats, or enjoy some music with my husband. It’s not that I don’t enjoy doing those things, I just desire more balance in my life where play comes more naturally.

Honestly, sometimes when I’m working at the computer and my cats are playing with a catnip toy, I feel inspired. Continue Reading

Pretty Litter

Allegra, Ruby and the moth

Allegra's World, Ruby's Reflections| 8 Comments

cats_on_table

The other day, I was sitting in my living room reading when I heard a commotion on the landing below. I got up to check, and found Allegra and Ruby intently following the movements of a small moth, and occasionally pouncing on it. They rarely play together, so even though I felt sorry for the moth, it was delightful to see the two of them in cahoots like this.

True to form, Allegra mostly watched and waited, while Ruby batted the moth around. Occasionally, Allegra would take a half-hearted swat at it, but she seemed to have more fun watching Ruby play. After a minute or two, I went to get the camera.

As I was filming the video below, I reflected on how this was a reminder of our housecats’ true natureContinue Reading

Sunday Purrs: aging gracefully

Sunday Purrs| 16 Comments

senior_cat_on_window_perch

After having just celebrated a birthday, the subject of aging was on my mind this past week. Even though this birthday wasn’t one of the “traumatic” ones – you know, the ones that have a zero at the end – I like to take time each year on my birthday not just for celebration, but also for reflection.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my age. Most of the time, it really is just a number to me. I haven’t felt my age for a long time, and I’m frequently caught by surprise when I look in the mirror. How is it possible that someone with grey hair and a few wrinkles is looking back at me, when, at heart, I still feel like a much younger version of me?

I won’t claim that I have the answers to aging gracefully, but I think maybe our cats do. When I worked at veterinary clinics, I was always drawn to the senior cats, especially the really old, grizzled ones. There was just something so beautiful about these cats who were clearly on a path of physical decline, yet their spirits were as full of life as that of a newborn kitten. Cats don’t care about getting white muzzles,Continue Reading

Allegra and Ruby’s surprise

Allegra's World, Ruby's Reflections| 36 Comments

Allegra: Ruby, do you know what day it is today?

Ruby: Of course I do, Allegra. It’s Mom’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! Allegra, do you think she’ll get mad at us for sneaking into the computer room in the middle of the night to post this?

Allegra: I don’t think so, Ruby. I think she’ll like our surprise. We should do some other nice things for her today. You know how she always makes our birthdays so special?

Ruby: We should make her a tuna cake! Yay!Continue Reading

Tortoiseshell cats, one blog post, and 10,000 comments

Author's Life| 124 Comments

tortitude tortoiseshell cat personality

Today, The Conscious Cat reached a milestone I never could have envisioned, not even in my wildest dreams. Today, one single blog post reached 10,000 comments.

It all began on August 17, 2009, when I wrote a post titled Tortitude – the Unique Personality of Tortoiseshell Cats. The post features one of my favorite photos of Amber and Buckley, and rapidly became one of the most popular posts on this blog.

Comments began pouring in almost immediately. Turns out there were a lot of people out there who loved these cats as much as I did, and who were sometimes delighted, sometimes puzzled, and occasionally frustrated, with their strong personalities. Within a few months, a Google search for “tortoiseshell cat” showed the post halfway down the first page of search results. A search for “tortoiseshell cat personality” returned the post as the first search result.Continue Reading

Pretty Litter

Happy Mother’s Day 2012

Author's Life| 29 Comments

mother_cat_with_kitten

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Wishing you purrs,
Allegra, Ruby and Ingrid

If you’re fortunate enough to still have your mother in your life, be sure to tell her that you love her today and every day. My mom passed away 18 years ago, and I still miss her. Even after all these years, I still feel a pang when I see Mother’s Day cards appear in stores.

Even though we never had cats when I was growing up, my mom was a cat lover. The apartment building we lived in did not allow pets, but luckily, whenever we went on vacation, somehow, every bed-and-breakfasts or rented vacation condo we stayed at would always have a resident cat or two, or there would be a number of stray cats hanging around the property. My mom and I both loved spending time with those cats.Continue Reading

Sunday Purrs: learn to be still

Sunday Purrs| 9 Comments

Allegra_learn_to_be_still

It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom. –  William Dean Howells

“Learn to Be Still” is the fourth track on When Hell Freezes Over, the first album released by the Eagles in 1994 after a fourteen year silence. The album title is a reference to Don Henley’s comment after the 1980 breakup that the band would play together again “when hell freezes over.”

The song became my anthem that year.

1994 was an extremely challenging year for me: within a four-month period, my marriage of thirteen years ended and my mother died. After emerging from the initial shock and grief, I went through a period of re-examining my life and beginning my journey of finding my bliss. Those of you who’ve read me for a while already know that cats have been the catalyst (pun intended) for some very major life changes for me. What you may not know is that music is also very important to me. Continue Reading

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Sunday Purrs: Finding Your Bliss

Sunday Purrs| 30 Comments

 Ingrid_King_The_Conscious_Cat

I was recently interviewed by Julie Shubin, a labor law attorney and adjunct professor at George Mason University, for her labor blog Helitzer Blouse Girl: A Modern American Labor Journal, where she features a “day in the life” series of people from all walks of life. In her profile, Julie called me “a modern day renaissance woman, finding a way to fit all her passions into a small business.”

I was incredibly flattered by this description, because I don’t really think of myself that way. But as I thought about it a little more, I realized that I’ve been on a journey of following my bliss for more than two decades now. Since my current bliss  involves writing about and working with cats, and since cats played a significant role in finding that bliss, I thought I’d share a little more about my journey today.Continue Reading