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December 27
This is our final blog post for 2014, and we'll be
taking a bit of a hiatus while we redesign the 2015 blog. So
we're grateful to Molly Davis
for yet another wonderful photo showcasing Chris's crafting skills.
Here's Molly, "guarding" the nativity
scene, one of his favorite spots to nap. Note his fluffy tail and the
paw hanging off the edge of the shelf!
December 20
The Japanese island of Tashirojima is
populated almost entirely by cats. They were brought to the island
to keep mice from devastating silkworm farms, but when industry left
the island, so did the human population. That's when the cat
population boomed. The locals feed and care for the semi-feral cats
believing it will being them good luck and prosperity. The fishermen
also believe that the cats help predict weather patterns.
Another tidbit we noticed this week is that Jordan,
a tuxedo cat who lives with Catholic
friars in Edinburgh, spends most of his time at the Edinburgh
University library. The library has issued him his own library card,
and students set up a Facebook page for him.
The eight-year-old was adopted by the friars as a
kitten, but has always preferred the company of students, and the well-heated
library. He only returns to the friary to eat supper.
December 13
Santa clearly read our list this year, as we
now have our 6th continent, 23rd country, and three more species in
our Fan Club.
Thanks to Craig McMahon, who had been working for
NASA in Chile, we have a hairy armadillo, a vicuna, and six penguins!
Hairy Harper is shown at the right. For the
others, go to the Fan Club page.
December 6
With Christmas creeping closer, you
may want to check out our many pages of fascinating facts, including
things you may not have known about Christmas. Scroll to the bottom
of the main Facts page for those.
Of course we have a page of Cat
Facts, with many links to interesting sites, as well as
information about cat characteristics and origins, recent studies and
statistics, and tidbits about other feline species.
November 29
American members of our MEWSical
Society and Fan Club celebrated
Thanksgiving this week, so in honor of them, we're using a photo of
Terzo in his pumpkin bib.
Don't forget that December 4 is Santa's List
Day. We've already received one gift, an I-Go2 Traveler, made by
Pet Gear in Rutland, Vermont.
This combines a carrier with a roller bag, and can
be used as a car seat, tote or back pack. We're eager to try it out!
November 22
We're featuring a lovely bench made by Chris Davis,
whose charming tuxedo, Molly, is a member of our MEWSical
Society. Chris created this to celebrate National Cat Day.
The new company SpokesCat for Simon Teakettle Ink
is expected to arrive any day. In the meantime, we've been adding
lots of fascinating items to all our facts pages. If you start with Facts
you can then click on the links to all the other pages,
including Animals, Inventions, History, etc.
November 15
Some cats live in the lap of luxury. Chuck Blazer,
a member of the FIFA Executive Committee from 1996 to April 2013, has
a $6,000/month apartment in the Trump Towers just for his cats,
next to his own $18,000/month unit.
There's also a luxe cat hotel in Montreal just for
dogs and cats. Muzo,
which is French for "muzzle,"
offers private rooms and various amenities for lucky guests.
Meanwhile, abandoned cats live outdoors, getting by
using their wits and natural instinct. Cuddles is one of the
cats found on an abandoned farm in Chelsea, Quebec.
November 8
MEWSical Society member Tulip Adams proved
she understands actual words, not just the intonation of Sylvia's
voice. Every morning Tulip enjoys a treat in the kitchen, which
Sylvia calls her "crunchies." The then settles in beside
Sylvia in the office, next to the computer.
Last week, Sylvia was watching a video online in
which a man described his exercise routine: leg lifts, sit-ups,
crunches, etc. When he said "crunches" she gave an
approving little "mew" and ran off to the kitchen.
October 31
October 29 was National Cat Day, and National
Animal Shelter Appreciation week is November 2-8.
We're celebrating Hallowe'en with a photo of one of
our Fan Club members, Sunny Mao, who models for dog costumes
created in Suzhou City, Jiangsu province, China.
She seems pretty happy to wear a hooded pumpkin coat!
October 25
Visitors to our household are often surprised that
we not only have LOTS of cat figurines, photos, and stuffed animals,
but also many elephants and giraffes. Bobbi has collected both since
childhood, so we were thrilled to find two more animals from Kenya to
add to our Fan Club.
We already have two goats, who are helping to
support orphaned boys in Kenya, but have just discovered a wonderful
sactuary for orphaned elephants and giraffes. They're supported by
donations from "foster parents" and you can read about them
on their website.
October 17
Yesterday was Feral Cat Day, which brings attention
to the many cats who spend most or all of their lives outdoors. Many
are the result of multiple litters from cats who were abandoned by
their owners, and it's a growing problem in urban areas, as well as
on farms.
We have many ferals in our MEWSical Society, as
well as in the Fan Club, where a colony of ferals, almost all black
or black and white, live in the barn on a farm owned by a close
friend. The McElroys have created a safe haven for these cats,
providing beddding, water and food, but many ferals aren't so lucky.
One of our affiliates, Alley
Cat Allies is a major supporter of feral cat rescue, as is Alley
Cat Rescue, which is based in Maryland. Also, the creator of
The Pride Cartoon maintains a colony of ferals on Long Island,
New York.
It's really important to support these
organizations, and also to encourage everyone to spay or neuter their cats!
October 11
Fuzzy Rohde, who
took over from Wuffy as the dog who rescues kittens, has a
close bond with his latest pal, Trixie.
They live in Los Angeles, CA, but much
further north, in the NWT, Mowka Katz
keeps his pal, Tempe, out of harm's way by following her
everywhere. If Helena wants to know where Tempe is, she just looks
out in the pasture to find the huge Great Pyrenees dog.
Tempe is a member of the MEWSical
Society, and Wuffy was one of our first Fan
Club members.
October 4
We tend to think of black cats this month, leading
up to Hallowe'en. In fact, many shelters refuse to place black cats
in the last weeks of October.
That's why Natasha Lennick wasn't adopted
until the first week of November, 11 years ago next month.
Nat the Brat, as she's affectionately known,
has been a member of the MEWSical Society since the beginning. David
Lennick, whose computer Nat commandeers on occasion, was the CBC
radio host who first began to feature Simon Teakettle on the air.
September 27
We have a bear in our Fan Club!
Bella lives at the Montana Grizzly Encounter, a grizzly bear
rescue and education sanctuary.
We've also heard from a woman in China who creates
costumes for dogs. Gloria Mao's company
is in Suzhou Industrial Park, and sent photos of a variety of
adorable costumes she's created for dogs. We'll feature a Halloween
costume next month.
Great Canadian
Theatre Company has opened their 40th season with a stunning
play, the world premiere of Boy in the Moon, by Emil
Sher, from the award-winning memoir written by Ian Brown.
It's received excellent reviews.
September 20
If you thought Lily Fry was cute, take a look at
the latest addition to the Fan Club. Nefertiti
was
rescued from the streets of Cairo to join MEWSical
Society member Miss Noha Hagenguth, and the other Fan
Club members in this busy household.
Heike Hagenguth is a German national who has lived
in Egypt for many years, and works with rescue organizations there.
Her son, Jan, goes to school in Germany, but misses his pets in Cairo!
September 13
Next month The New Yorker magazine is holding their
annual Festival. On Saturday, Oct. 11, at 7pm, there will be a public
debate called: You, the Jury: Cats vs. Dogs, which will
feature supporting arguments and readings from notable authors and
other luminaries, with live cats and dogs taking part. Some of people
on the podiumand in the audience may very well be New York
residents we see regularly on TV.
For example, Meredith Viera, Joy Behar, Whoopi
Goldberg and Jon Stewart all have cats, as do Sting (who is in New
York preparing for his new musical),
Bernadette Peters and Howard & Beth Stern.
It's pretty certain that Paul Krugman, who writes
for The NewYorker will be there (his cats are named Doris Lessing and
Einstein) and Joyce Carol Oates is one of the speakers listed on the program.
There's a huge list of Celebrity Cat owners HERE.
September 5
Welcome to two new feline members of our great
Fan Club, both of who are related to MEWSical
Society members.
Mr. Finn MacKool has joined the Zobel
household in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Ginger
Reardon has taken up residence in Ottawa, Ontario.
Meanwhile, the first cat cafe in Montreal has been
so popular the owners are planning a second location. Hope they
consider Ottawa soon!
Sometimes we come across something for the Cat
Facts page that we want to share here:
Hodge, Samuel Johnson's favorite cat, has
his own statue at Number 17 Gough Square where Dr. Johnson lived from
1748 to 1759. Hodge is sitting on Dr. Johnson's famous
dictionary, as any respectable cat would, with a couple of tasty
oysters. On his death, Hodge's life was celebrated in An Elegy on
The Death of Dr Johnson's Favourite Cat by poet Percival
Stockdale: Who, by his master when caressed, warmly his gratitude
expressed, and never failed his thanks to purr, whene'er he stroked
his sable fur&ldots;
August 30
The secret is out! Bobbi wrote a blog post
called, Make Your Pet a Celebrity,
which garnered her a permanent spot as a contributing blogger at The
Publicity Hound. Read it on the blog page, at:
http://publicityhound.com/blogs
The Virtual Assistant who
helps out at that site applied for a job with us, but Shelby
seems to fall asleep on the job! She and her brother, Sylvester,
have joined the Fan Club, however.
August 22
We have our first fans from Vermont! Zorro
is a feral ragdoll, and his brother, Norton, is a laid-back
orange tabby. They live with Catherine Holm
(whose nickname is Cat)
and her husband, who moved from northern Minnesota last year.
We're still missing a few states, so if you're
reading this and know of any pets in North Dakota, D.C., Hawaii,
Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Utah, Oklahoma or Tennessee, ask them to join!
We've had a lot of rain here this summer, so if you
have to spend more time indoors, watch this video of the Duet for Two
Cats by Rossini:
http://tinyurl.com/6uh5lpq
Or watch this cat figure out how to get a drink out
of a water cooler: http://tinyurl.com/pftyrre
The premier pet magazine in India has just
published Bobbi's award-winning article, Training Your Cat Like a Dog.
Read the article in the current issue, beginning on page 40:
http://www.creature-companions.com.
August 15
Sunday is Black Cat Appreciation Day. We have many
black cats in the MEWSical Society,
and both Simon Teakettle the first and the second (Tiki) were all
black. In fact, the first Simon was quoted in The Beside Book of
Celebrity Gossip (Crown, 1984) as calling Morris and Garfield
those phony Americans in their loud orange suits.
Simon was becoming known as the classy
cat in the black fur tuxedo, and had already been on CBC radio
for three years.
Another Society member, Molly Davis, will be
helping out at the New Renaissance Bookshop in Portland this week,
when Chris Davis presents a special workshop called Dancing With
Your Dragons, as well as participating in a forum of authors
talking about using magic and imagination to conquer fear.
On the right, you'll see Molly sitting in the tent
Chris has created for her presentation. Note that the teddy bear and
sword are larger than she is!
August 8
Today is World Cat Day! To celebrate, we're posting
a new photo of one of the members of the MEWSical
Society, Tulip Adams,
who was enjoying visitors who brought presents for Sylvia's Big Birthday.
We're also celebrating a new member of our Fan
Club, an addition to the famous Acro-Cats,
who has proven to be a quick study, learning all the tricks in
record time.
Here's Nola, sitting up on command, and
"singing" along with the Rock-Cats. That means she's
technically a member of the MEWSical Society as well, because the
Rock-Cats are our Featured Performers.
One of our other featured performers is Aragon,
aka Lord Tubbington of Glee fame. There's an article
about Aragon on the Conscious Cats website, at: http://tinyurl.com/kjnxg8k
August 2
We received a wonderful present
this week, mailed all the way from Taiwan! Eric Lo,
the exceptionally creative wire artist who has a page on our
website, created this lovely card holder.
Meanwhile, we've added the 100th dog to our Fan
Club! Minion is the new puppy in the Buchanan household in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
July 26
It's often tempting to add another species to our Fan
Club, even if they aren't actual pets, or don't have names. One
such candidate is this young osprey, which Helen Russo was allowed to
hold while a wildlife official in Montana tagged it.
We're going to bend the rules for this magnificent
bird, because there are so many Russo fans already, including cats
and dogs who live in Panama City, their cousins in Spokane,
Washington, and our first turtle!
We'll get back to featuring cats in this blog in
August, as August 8 is World Cat Day, and August 17 is Black Cat
Appreciation Day.
July 19
Steve Pitt
continues to add to our Fan Club. His former dog joined, then his
current dog, Chocka, along with her cousins and neighbor dogs,
our first robin, our first otter, our first calf, and now our first
deer. Rosie is a white-tail who is a frequent visitor to
Steve's sister's property in Astorville, Ontario. When nobody
chased her away, she returned with her daughter, Rosette. See
them together on the Fan Club page.
Keep in mind that Steve is also responsible for
both of the goats in the Fan Club. They both live in a small village
in Kenya, where they provide both milk and baby goats so their young
owners can go to school.
July 11
This is Pet Photo Day, and we're featuring another
adorable black and white cat. Molly Davis likes
to lounge inside the bird feeder!
She recently joined the MEWSical
Society after sending us so many hilarious photos we had to make
her the Casting Director for our virtual production of Alice
in Wonderland.
July 4
Happy Canada Day earlier this week, and Happy
Fourth of July today, to all our Canadian and American fans.
But we now have fans from 19 other countries, and
have finally received a photo of our first fan from Costa Rica. We
added that country to the list a while back, but the photo took
longer to arrive than we anticipated.
The good news is that Trony has three siblings.
It's fairly obvious, however, that he's the Lord of the Manor, given
his position on top of this planter.
June 28
We've just added South Dakota to the list of states
where we have Fans. This adorable Yorkie is from Natalie's
Little Yorkies, true teacup and parti Yorkies that are
both healthy and AKC Registered.
Since this seems to be a Dog Week, we should
mention that Rosie, a deaf pit bull mix, was recently adopted by
Cindy Koch, a woman who also happens to be deaf. When Rosie first
arrived at the Central Nebraska Humane Society, workers
couldn't figure out why she wouldn't respond to them. But one shelter
volunteer realized Rosie couldn't hear them, and set out to
teach the 3-year-old dog sign language.
June 21
Tomorrow the Just
for Cats video festival is playing in Ottawa. Our Prime Minister
is a huge cat fan, and his wife is a key supporter of the Ottawa
Humane Society.
We entered Terzo's video,
but it may be that they wanted silly, funny video clips instead of
the "day in the life" our video depicts, which is also a
demonstration of cat training.
However, a couple of photos of Terzo are in the
Facebook page for the festival. They asked for "unusual sleeping
positions" and we thought this one, with Terzo on his
back, holding two mice, might garner some Likes.
June 13
It's Friday the 13th, and also a Full Moon, which
only happens every 20 years or so. Fascinating facts about the moon
(and lots of other things) on our Facts page.
When you do there, you'll see links to facts about Culture,
Animals, Food, History,
and Inventions. And, of course, there's
a separate page just for Cat Facts.
You may notice we've revised this page a bit this
week. We moved the old blogs to the Site Map,
and streamlined things a bit.
Meanwhile, we're expecting our 213th cat fan to
join us, making Costa Rica the 21st country hosting our Fabulous
Fan Club.
June 7
John Koensgen,
one of the Human Advisors in the MEWSical
Society, is among the cast of the world premiere of a new play
by award-winning playwright George F. Walker. At the right he's
shown with Eric Coates, GCTC's Artistic
Director, who is a fan of Simon Teakettle. So is Arthur Milner, the
play's director.
And in case you didn't know, June 4 was Hug Your
Cat Day.
May 31
We've added a second goat to the Fan Club, another
donation from Steve Pitt to a boy
in Kenya. This one is another female, who will provide both milk and
baby goats to help this young boy go to school.
The earlier goat Steve donated was named Bobbi,
and this one is Terzo. We don't know if these boys live in
the same village, but like the idea that Bobbi the Goat and Terzo
the Goat might see each other occasionally!
Support the Get Your Goat program by going
to the website called Creation
of Hope.
May 24
Our MEWSical Society's new
virtual musical production is Alice in Wonderland.
We've managed to cast all the members of
the Society in this huge show, and have even added a few affliate
members to help us out.
Willow Atherton has been cast as Alice, and because
it's such a significant role, she has an understudy, Aimee Arden.
Bungie Quesnel, the first rabbit to join our Fan
Club, is coaching the March Hare and the White Rabbit. You can
see Bungie's picture if you scroll down to the blog entry for Easter.
Many fans of the book forget that Alice has a cat
named Dinah. We've cast Lily Fry
in this role, although she seems to be dozing in rehearsals.
A production this large needs a transportation
coordinator, so we recruited Sanchez, who seems at ease behind the
wheel of the truck on the Katz-Couvrette
alpaca farm in the NWT.
Check out the whole cast on the Alice
cast page. |
Our dancing penguins fans, in Chile.
The first vicuna in our Fan Club is named
NASA, and appears to be looking for the
satellite in the distant sky.
Hairy Harper, our first armadillo fan.
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Above is one of the first photos ever taken of Tiki (Simon II), as
a tiny kitten.
He lived to age 19! |
 And
we couldn't resist this "kitten on the keys" |
Terzo's mouse friend in hungry, too!
Cuddles
Tulip waiting for her "crunchies."
Mozart Russo, who lives in Spokane, Washington
Snuggles Jamone, hiding in Ottawa, Ontario
Fuzzy and Trixie Rhode, in Los Angeles, California.
Nat the Brat proofreading David's copy at
the computer in the Lennick household.
Bella, the young grizzle who has just
joined the Fan Club.
Nefertiti is so tiny she fits on this glass plate!
MEWSical Society member Lily Fry
trying to get into the treat jar.
Mr. Finn
MacKool Zobel
Ginger Reardon, in Ottawa, Ontario
Shelby Buffaloe, sleeping on the job.
Zorro lying on his back, paws in the air.
Zorro and Norton head to head on the couch.
Natasha Lennick, aka Nat the Brat,
refusing to read the newspaper.
Tulip (above), greeting Ottawa
visitors in July,
and Nola (below) performing with the Acro-Cats.
Molly Davis, relaxing just outside Portland, Oregon.
Trony Solorsano, Uvita, Costa Rica
Rosie Nelson, Fan
Club member from
Watertown, South Dakota.
Terzo with two of his favorite mice.
Aimee Arden,
purring on Darlene's lap.
John Koensgen and Eric Coates on the GCTC stage.
(photo by Andrew Alexander)
Willow rehearsing for the Mad
Hatter's Tea Party.
Lily Fry as
Dinah, Alice's cat. |
