Expert Advice on Cat Health, Nutrition and Lifestyle.
No, Ruby did not start watching late night TV, but she insisted it was her turn to blog, and she wanted to share this list of “Top Ten Things About Ruby!”
10. I like sleeping on my back, with all four feet sticking up in the air.
9. I love my Mom!
8. I love my sister Allegra.Continue Reading
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 25% of Americans feel rushed all the time, and 50% do some of the time. What category do you fall in?
The times when we need to rush are actually a lot less frequent than we think. Rushing has simply become a habit for many of us, and many people even derive a (somewhat warped, in my opinion) sense of accomplishment from being able to say “I’m just so busy all the time!” When you are always rushing, your body is in a constant state of panic, which, in turn, has a detrimental effect on your mental, physical and spiritual health.Continue Reading
Hi everyone, it’s Allegra! I’m writing this on a calm, sunny day – finally! After the earthquake and the hurricane last month, I thought we were done with scary weather, but apparently, not quite yet.
I had a bit of a rough week last week. You know by now that I’m not particularly fond of rainy days, especially not when it rains really hard. I don’t like the way the rain sounds against the house, and I’m really not comfortable being upstairs when it rains, because it’s that much closer to that annoying stuff falling from the sky. I prefer to stay downstairs, close to my safe space in the downstairs bathroom. When it gets really bad, I go in the shower stall behind the curtain. It’s my little safety cave.Continue Reading
It’s my birthday today! I’m one whole year old – I’m a big girl now!
I can’t wait to see what Mom and Allegra have in store for me today. I know it’s going to be very special, because I’m special!
Graphic design by Robin A. F. Olson, Covered in Cat Hair
On Saturday night, Bob Dole, my dear friend Robin Olson’s beloved cat, died peacefully after a long battle with cancer. He was surrounded by those he loved.
Bob was Robin’s mother’s cat. When she died unexpectedly five years ago, Robin took Bob in, initially intending to find a good home for him, because she already had multiple cats of her own. Bob had not received regular veterinary care while he lived with her mother (a regular topic of dissension between Robin and her mother). When Robin took Bob to her vet, he was diagnosed as FIV positive and diabetic. Continue Reading
Then followed that beautiful season – summer. Filled was the air with a dreamy and
magical light; and the landscape lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
How is it possible that it’s Labor Day weekend and summer is officially coming to an end? Even though we have warm and beautiful weather in my part of the world until well into October, there’s just something about Labor Day weekend that marks a passage. Temperatures may still be summery, but the quality of the light, and the feel of the air, are starting to subtly change and take on a hint of fall.Continue Reading
It sure has been an exciting couple of weeks here since I last wrote. Earthquakes, hurricanes, my birthday, a Pettie win – I don’t even know where to start!
Last Tuesday afternoon, we were all just going about our business. For Ruby and me, that meant napping. For Mom, it meant doing some work on the computer. All of a sudden, this weird noise woke me from my nap. It wasn’t like anything I had ever heard before. Being the smart cat that I am, I immediately ran to my safe place behind the shower curtain in the downstairs bathroom. The noise didn’t stop, it only got louder. And then, the walls started shaking, and the ground under me was moving, too. It was really really scary. Mom was upstairs, and I could hear her crying out. I think she was really scared, too. Normally, when I get scared, I don’t come out of my safe place for a while, but I was so worried about Mom, I ran upstairs as soon as the house stopped shaking. I could tell she was pretty upset, she picked me up and hugged me and she was shaking. Ruby, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind that things got all wobbly. She looked at me and Mom like we had lost our minds. I think she was more curious than anything else.
As if that wasn’t enough change from our usual routine (I like our routine! I don’t like change!), Mom left the house very early one morning, and didn’t come back for a very long time. At first, I thought she’d actually gone away to sleep somewhere else, like she’d done once or twice before. I got really suspicious when Ronnie, our cat sitter, showed up to feed us dinner. We love Ronnie, but seeing her usually means Mom won’t be back for a while, and I don’t like that at all. But thankfully, Mom came home at night, even though it was really late. It was so late that she didn’t even play with us before she went to bed! She said she was going to something called BlogPaws, and that it was important for our blog that she be there. I don’t like it when Mom is not home, but if her being gone is good for our blog, I guess I can live with it.
Then on Saturday, things got really weird. It was my birthday. Mom said she’d be gone all day again, so Ruby and I were going to party while Mom was gone! Unfortunately, the weather turned really bad really fast. Some lady named Irene was responsible for a lot of heavy rain and wind, and I’m really scared of the sound of heavy rain. So instead of celebrating my birthday, I spent most of it in my safe place in the downstairs shower. Mom came home earlier that day than she had been the previous two days, and that made me feel a little better. She came and checked on me throughout the evening and even in the middle of the night to make sure I was okay. I love that she did that. I was trying to be brave, but every time I tried to come out of the bathroom, it was just too scary. It finally stopped raining Sunday morning, and life was back to normal for us. Mom also didn’t go away again that morning, which made me really really happy.
The best thing that happened all week, even better than my birthday, was that our blog won a Pettie for Best Pet Blog! Ruby and I worked really hard to get people to vote for us, and we’re so excited that all that hard work paid off. Thank you to all of you who voted for our blog. We’re so happy and proud!
After all this excitement, I’m ready for a couple of weeks of peace and quiet and nice weather. And lots of naps.
How many of you remember the theme song to The Partridge Family TV show? “Hello world, here’s a song that we’re singing. Come on, get happy!” And how many of you had a crush on David Cassidy?
But I digress. This post is about getting happy. Is there a formula for happiness? Is there one sure-fire way to achieve everything we want in life? Well, actually, there just might be. And it’s as simple, or as complicated, as getting happy. Simple, because we all have the power to do it. Complicated, because our conditioning tells us it’s not that easy.
Everything around us is energy, including our thoughts. If we focus our thoughts on things that make us happy, our energy shifts to a better place, and we tend to attract more happiness. But how do we do this in a world that seems to be so full of unhappy things?
We do it by making a conscious decision that we want to be happy. We have the power to choose our thoughts – so why not choose thoughs that make us feel good? We can make these conscious choices in every single moment – by choosing to focus on what is working in our lives rather than complaining about what isn’t, by choosing books and television programs that make us feel good rather than depressed or upset, by choosing to be with people who uplift us rather than drag us down into negativity.
Once we focus predominantly on that which makes us feel good, we’ll find that the world around us changes. Life flows more easily. We attract people and situations into our reality that are pleasant rather than frustrating. Our lives work better. We get happy.
And if you need a little help with feeling good, you don’t have to look any further than to your cats. They’re masters at making themselves feel good.
What will you to today to get happy?
It’s my birthday today! I’m two years old!
And I got the best possible present I could have wanted for my birthday: Mom, Ruby and I won the 2011 Pettie for Best Pet Blog!
And the best part of that present is not only that it made Mom ecstatically happy, it also means that it will help lots of other kitties, because Mom will receive two checks of $500 each to go to Casey’s House and Kitten Associates. Thank you from Mom, and purrs from Ruby and me for voting for us!
I can’t wait to see what Mom has planned for my special day. Come on Ruby, it’s party time!
Our Mews and Nips from Around the Internet feature will resume next Saturday.
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible
and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers. – Charles W. Eliot
Reading is as essential as breathing to me.
I’ve been an avid reader as far back as I can remember. My parents started reading to me as a very young child, and I surprised them by reading on my own long before it was taught in school. At first, they thought I was faking it and that I was only repeating the words from memory.
During all the changes I’ve gone through in my life, good and not so good, books have always been there to provide entertainment,inspiration, escape, advice and so much more.
It should come as no surprise that I particularly enjoy books about cats as well as other animals, and I offer a wide selection of my favorites on my Reading List.
My “to be read” pile is usually out of control, and I like it that way. In fact, I get a little twitchy when the pile gets too low. Between the books I see reviewed on some of my favorite book blogs, the books I find browsing at my hometown Barnes and Noble store, and the books publicists and authors send me for review, I don’t think I have to worry about running out of reading material anytime soon.
I usually read at least two or three books at the same time. Currently, I’m reading South of Broad by Pat Conroy, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and a German women’s magazine (a way for me to try and keep up with my native language).
What are you currently reading?
Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity.
Let’s love turbulence and use it for change. – Ramsey Clark
We live in challenging times. The economy, the stock market, political battles – everywhere you look, there’s turmoil. Mercury is currently in retrograde, and if you believe in astrology, it means that during this period, things can go a little crazy, and our reactions to the ever-changing situations can cause confusion and frustration.
We can’t control the planets, or what is happening in the world, whether it’s the world at large, or our own small piece of it. But we can choose how we react to what’s happening around us, and we can control what we focus our thoughts on.
Here are some simple steps that can help make navigating these turbulent times a little easier:
– Make a conscious decision each day to look for things that make you feel good. Look for things to appreciate. Look for the positive aspects in the people you interact with. By focusing on what’s good in your world, you’ll allow less of what’s not so good into your energy field.
– Go on a news diet. At the very least, stop watching the news first thing in the morning, and last thing before you go to bed at night. What you see first thing in the morning will stay in your consciousness throughout the day. What you see just before you go to sleep will make its way into your dreams and spoil a good night’s rest for you. Consider foregoing the news altogether. If you feel you must be informed, be judicious about where you get your news. There are ways to get the news without the hype.
– Practice simple acts of kindness. This is a fun and easy way to take the focus off yourself and any fear and worry you might experience. Yield to the car in front of you trying to merge into your lane. Smile at the harried clerk at the store. Take an unexpected small gift to someone in your office. Trying to make someone else feel better feels good. You’ll be surprised how much these simple little acts can shift your consciousness to a better place.
– Spend time with your cat! Spending time with cats is one of the best ways I know to instantly shift your vibration from negative to positive. It’s impossible to be fearful and worried when you watch a kitten play or when you have a purring cat in your lap.
– Find serenity in the middle of chaos. Breathe, take a walk in the fresh air, unplug, read; any or all of these will help you feel calmer. Or follow Merlin’s lead in the photo above: find a bench in a park or in your backyard, and enjoy the calming beauty of nature.
What are you doing to help you navigate these turbulent times?