Expert Advice on Cat Health, Nutrition and Lifestyle.
Each year, the National Capital Cat Show invites local shelters, rescue groups and animal awareness organizations to the show, and each year, these wonderful groups find forever homes for a large number of kittens and cats. I’m proud to announce that for the second year in a row, Spirit Essences is partnering with The Conscious Cat to be the Rescue Cat Sponsor!Continue Reading
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun
it and call it hard names. – Henry David Thoreau
I frequently write about adopting a positive mindset in my Sunday Purrs columns. I believe that it helps you cope more easily with whatever life throws at you. I think Einstein had it right when he said “the most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” Adopting a positive mindset is a conscious choice.Continue Reading
Summer is my favorite season, and I always feel that it passes much too quickly. So far, it’s been a great summer. Even though up until last week, I was buried in a deadline for my two new books (I turned them in to my publisher last Friday), I still made time for summer pleasures. Now that my schedule isn’t quite so intense, I’m going to make sure that I savor each warm, sunny day and make plenty of memories to get me through the cold, dark days of winter.
Think back to some of your favorite summer memoriesContinue Reading
Last Sunday, I wrote about feeling overloaded. This week, I tried a little experiment: every time that overload feeling crept in, I stopped for a moment and asked myself: why do you feel so overloaded right now? And I’m sure I’m not alone with the answer I came up with: more often than not, it was because of the never-ending influx of email.Continue Reading
I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take
so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up. – Erma Bombeck
This past week, I’ve been feeling a little overloaded. The manuscripts for my two new books, Tortitude: The Little Book of Cats With a Big Attitude (due out February 2016) and Purrs of Wisdom: Enlightenment, Feline Style (due out spring 2016) are both due to Mango Media the end of this month. I’m in the final stages of revising, editing and polishing, and I know I’ll make the deadline, but I’ve been working much longer hours than I normally do. Continue Reading
Puzzle toys are a great way to keep your cats entertained and mentally stimulated when you can’t play with them. The toys are designed to be filled with treats, and they challenge kitty to retrieve the treats through varied openings in the toys. Most puzzle toy manufacturers recommend using dry food with these puzzles. Since I don’t recommend feeding any dry food, not even as treats, I recommend using freeze dried meat based treats such as Pure Bites or Whole Life.Continue Reading
I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the
wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit.
Henry David Thoreau
For most of us, life these days is anything but simple. We live in a world where being busy is considered a badge of honor. We’re drowning in information as we’re trying to manage the endless flow of it from our multiple devices. We’re urged to buy more stuff, get more done in a shorter amount of time, and do it all while being bombarded with messages from the media that are designed to scare us into complicating our lives even more by trying to protect ourselves against every possible calamity that might befall us. Many of us are stressed, overwhelmed and frightened.Continue Reading
As you celebrate America’s birthday today, please remember that this may not be your cat’s favorite holiday. Noisy celebrations can be scary for many cats. By planning ahead, you can do a number of things to help your cats cope.Continue Reading
Yes, I need more of your cat photos! First of all, thank you to all of you who have submitted photos of your torties for Tortitude: The Little Book of Cats With a Big Attitude. I received close to a thousand photos, and I loved “meeting” all of your torties. It was really hard to reduce the number of photos to only about 75 – if I could, I would use all of them! My publisher will have final say as to which of the photos will be used in the book, which will publish in February of 2016.
Now it’s time for a second round of photo submissions!Continue Reading
Father’s Day can be a bittersweet day for those of us whose fathers are no longer with us. Depending on how fresh your loss is, even seeing Father’s Day card pop up in stores, and getting countless emails with Father’s Day gift suggestions, may bring sadness and even tears.
Last year, I shared some reflections on what it’s like for fatherless children, no matter what our age, to commemorate our fathers on Father’s Day.Continue Reading
Let go of fear, embrace change, and move toward joy. – Buckley
I have a love/hate relationship with change. I often think that one of the many reasons why I love cats is that they are creatures of habit who don’t like having their routines disrupted. I like my life, and I like my routines. At the same time, most, if not all, change in my life has always been for the better. And yet, I still can’t quite seem to embrace the fact that change is good.Continue Reading