Blog the Change: July 15, 2012

Today's post is special, because it is sponsored by Blog the Change for Animals. Today I am writing about feral cats and a program called Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR). 

Face it, we all know there are a lot of cats out there - many of which are feral. There are many places with great feral cat colonies. Some of which, are maintained by kindhearted people. They feed the cats and make sure they have fresh water.

I've grown up in a cat household - whether it's my cats inside, or a random cat outside - there is always a cat to be found where ever I am. So, I just happen to find myself today, July 15, on vacation in Cape May, New Jersey.

Cape May is known for their feral cat populations, the ordinances to keep cats inside and also known for the Cape May Bird Watching. I know many individuals around town, who help maintain the colonies through TNR, as well as placing adoptable kittens. 

I shared this on Facebook yesterday.

One of cat rescue groups in Cape May is the Animal Outreach of Cape May County. 

"Animal Outreach is a 501(c)(3) organization of dedicated individuals who work every day to help animals throughout our South Jersey communities. We assist owners in need, sponsor strays, foster cats, kittens, dogs and puppies awaiting adoption, and provide humane education to the public.

In addition, Animal Outreach has purchased a parcel of land on which to build a no-kill shelter and sanctuary."

Cape May is a wonderful example of the benefits of the TNR process; saving cats, returning them to their domain, without destroying them. That's all us cat rescuers ask for!

Another local New Jersey feral cat situation is in Atlantic City, NJ. This blurb, from the The Feral Cat Project: 

"With an estimated 350-400 cats living under the boardwalk, complaints were plenty. Slated for euthanasia, the Cat Action Team was formed to protect the cats and offer TNR alternatives. Once trapping began, approximately 60% were removed for adoption or socialization. The other 40% returned to their homes under the boardwalk. Signs posted by the city educate newcomers of the do’s and don’ts. DO enjoy the cats. DO NOT feed them or dump new cats."

And local to where I live, in Virginia, is the George Mason (University) Cat Coalition. Over many years, and many cats - some of which lived to be over 15 & died of natural causes (granted there were a few hit by cars), has been a very successful TNR program. They are currently down to two "feral" cats. Annie, and her sister Catnan. And if anything says "feral" about Annie, it would be this picture...

How many feral cats do you know who dress up?

So I will leave you to think about this: The next time you find a feral or stray cat outside that you don't know what to do with, think about the Trap, Neuter and Return program. It has been working wonders - yes, it is not always an option - but when the opportunity is available, seize it!

Moki the Wobbly Cat: Changing The Word Disabled

My photo of Moki at BlogPaws SLC 2012. Showing all the cat ladies his grass walking skills!

This blog is coming to you live, from one of the hottest days in June (June 29, '12), as well as the worst storm of the summer in Northern Virginia - which was later known as a derecho. Writing by my Hello Kitty lantern in the dark, I am telling you about a special little soul that I had the pleasure of meeting at BlogPaws in June.

Disability. It’s a word that many people, many Americans, many pets such as cats and dogs are associated with.  It is a word that comes with a stigma, words like handicapped and unable are often mentioned with disability.

Want to know some words not associated with disability? Moki the Wobbly Cat. Moki, a differently abled cat, is a little brown tabby who overcame all odds to live to his fifth birthday.

A little background about Moki...

My photo of Moki - BlogPaws SLC 2012

Moki’s owner, Crystal Fogg, took Moki in as a feral kitten. When he was all of three months old, he developed a virus that caused a neurological disorder. Moki has been to multiple vets, including the vets at UC Davis (and on an unrelated note – they have worked very hard on FIP research), and even they have not been able to diagnose what caused the neurological disorder. It is possible it was a virus caused from a strain of the Panleukopenia vaccine, but there is no evidence proving this speculation.

I had the pleasure of meeting Moki and his mom Crystal at BlogPaws on June 21-23, 2012. I was so excited that Moki was attending the conference. I had seen Moki on an episode of Animal Planet’s Must Love Cats, where I learned about Moki’s condition and the rehabilitation he does.  Moki does acupuncture – or acupoky as he calls it – as well as hydrotherapy (in water!!) and other climbing therapies to help his muscles in his legs. Crystal works at the non-profit foundation Scout’s Animal Rehab Therapy Fund, which helps underwrite therapy for service animals. Moki gets his therapy at Scouts House.

I even got to hold Moki!

Mom and Moki

If you had heard about Moki and his condition, you might call him disabled, but he is not disabled, but differently abled.  What does that mean? I have to explain it to you in my own personal story.

My late grandfather, Lester Shubin was a WWII veteran, and the developer of the Kevlar © Bulletproof Vest. He always struggled with disabilities, but none as great as becoming a double leg amputee. And of course, when you’re in a wheel chair, spending oodles of time in therapy and learning how to drive with hand controls – the word disabled rings in your ears. And I’ll admit, at first to me, my grandfather was seriously disabled.

But after meeting Moki this past summer, I realize my grandfather – like Moki – was not disabled, but differently abled. Just because he was confined to a wheel chair, didn’t mean he wasn’t going to learn how to drive a car again. So he had a red Cadillac SUV installed with hand controls that he drove, up until the day he died.

Moki’s message of being differently abled is the best message anyone could send to handicapable people and pets, all over the world.  Meeting Moki opened my eyes to the abilities of differently abled people and pets, and how they really are just like anyone else.

Check Moki out on Facebook & his website!

Season 3: My Cat From Hell

It just so happens that I love watching TV, I mean, who doesn't? I watch a lot of shows, so many that I have to DVR them all, just to watch them - since I'm usually not around when they are on TV. One show, that I try not to miss, is Animal Planet's My Cat From Hell, featuring Jackson Galaxy! The newest season starts tonight, Saturday June 30, 2012 at 8 pm EST.

I'll be watching, will you?

And make sure when you watch MCFH, you watch out for Miss Modern Cat, aka as Kate Benjamin, my friend who will be on the show! Kate owns Moderncat, which is a cat lifestyle blog featuring the creme-de-la-creme of cat products. 


Jackson will be checking in all night on Twitter (@JacksonGalaxy) and Facebook and tweeting live during the West Coast premiere.

BlogPaws 2012: Airplanes, Catification & Moki, oh my!

For the first time in seven years, I found myself on an airplane - heading out west to Salt Lake City, Utah, for BlogPaws! Besides being a nervous flyer, I had never been so far away from home, so going to SLC was a big (graduation) treat for me!

My suitcase, back pack, Tiny Tiger purse and flat Piper!

For those of you who don't know, BlogPaws is an online pet blogging, social media community, which holds an annual conference every year. I was lucky enough to attend my first BlogPaws in 2011 in Tyson's Corner, Virginia. There are amazing keynotes, raffles, opportunities to network and talk to popular pet brands such as PetSmart and Hartz (to name a few), as well as interact with fellow bloggers and their pets! Not to mention...the SWAG!

Left to right clockwise: Swag from PetSmart including Furminator!  Mulitple BlogPaws treats, trying to organize swag to go home.

Mom won an amazing basket from Hill's, including a Flip Camera!

I found myself doing many things at BlogPaws. I got to reconnect with many blogging buddies, such as Ingrid King of the Conscious Cat, Deb Barnes of Zee and Zoey, Stephanie Harwin of Catsparella, Angie Bailey of Catladyland, Janea Kelley of Paws and Effect,Robin Olson of Covered in Cat Hair, Teri Thorsteinson of Curlz and Swirlz, Caroline Golon of the Happy Litter Box, Pamela Haines with Moo Kitty Finds a HomeKate Benjamin of Modern Cat to name a few, as well as first time meeting Dorian Wagner of Your Daily Cute, Tamar Arslanian of I Have Cat, Amy Palmer of Seabass Cat, Peter Wolf of Vox Felina, Joanne McGonagle of The Tiniest Tiger  and Debbie Glovatsky of Glogirly and so many more (if I forgot you, it's because of tuna brain)

Hanging with Stephanie of Catsparella!

I even got the amazing chance to meet Crystal and Moki, of The Wobbly Cat.

Moki walking around in the grass.

I will soon be doing a post all about Moki and his different ability.

Thanks to Crystal for getting this great shot of Moki and I!

 A special place set aside for bloggers while at BlogPaws, was the Catification Lounge. The lounge was brought to BlogPaws by Kate Benjamin of ModernCat, as well as Jackson Galaxy!

The lounge was full of so many wonderful cat products! I was lucky enough to win a upright cat scratcher and my mom won a shed monster. We have a huge shipment of the swag that we couldn't fit in our suitcase, somewhere in the mail, and I can't wait until it comes.

I would consider BlogPaws 2012 an utmost success! It was great to reconnect with so many of my fellow cat bloggers and make so many new connections. I am ecstatic that BlogPaws 2013 is in Tysons Corner, VA - only 20 minutes away from me, making an easy commute and I can even go home and snuggle with my kitties at night. 

Thanks for reading my review and look for the next few wonderful BlogPaws inspired posts that are yet to come!

The Mormon Temple in Temple Square. Had to get a little sight seeing in!

We Have an (embarrasing) Situation

So embarrased...I can't show my face!

Piper here. We iz so embarrased...we haven't posted in over a monthz! We waz so busy becuz da blogger here Rachel had to graduate from high school!

But don't fear and stay tuned, because Rachel haz some exciting posts coming  your way! 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (3DBBB) which Rachel started in September, finally started up again and tasks 25 to 31 will be posted soon!

Rachel is headin' to BlogPaws this year, without me again! But she says Utah is too far for me to travel, because she doesn't want me to get lost and be stressed on flying on something called and aero plane. I don't like the sound of that. But she said she will bring back lotz of cat nip toys for her little nip head. I hope that's mee!

Book Review: Cat Daddy by Jackson Galaxy

While there may be many books about cats out there, few are written by men, especially a tall, balding, earring wearing man with a goatee, and arms covered in thick sleeves of tattoos. Coming tomorrow to cat lovers everywhere is Jackson Galaxy’s new book, Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean. I was super excited to get a chance to review Galaxy’s book before it came out for the public.

               

Available on Amazon.com!

What can you expect to find in Galaxy’s book? How Jackson started working with Spirit Essences, that before he was bald he had dreadlocks (and read what he did with them when he cut them off), his food addiction, the Cat I Love You method and most important, the impact of his cat Benny, on his life.

               

When Iinterviewed Jackson Galaxy in January, Jackson told me: “Basically the cat in the book, Benny was dying and our time together was ending. I was just struck by how his presence in my life guided my knowledge about cats and the work I do with them and the techniques I have worked on and the theories that I have used.”

“And in our time together [Benny] was there to witness and help turn me around. I just told him at that point that I just wanted to honor him and would write about him. It’s our story about our life together and how the techniques became shaped by my life with him. It’s a memoir but there are a bunch of tips and how to’s with things inspired by him,” he said.

If you’re looking for a typical cat book, this ain’t your cup of tea. If you’re looking for the story of how cats can change people and shape our lives – then this book is for you.

Cat Daddy is available on Amazon.com here.

               

I started reading Cat Daddy the day it came in the mail...Henry enjoyed reading it too!

This book was sent to me by the publisher. Receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

"Cat Girl's Day Off": Interview with Kimberly Pauley

Being able to communicate with cats would make my life so much easier. Who wouldn’t want to know when their cats are actually hungry, when the litter box is too dirty to use, or when someone is not giving kitty enough attention.  In Kimberly Pauley’s new book, Cat Girl’s Day Off, she explores the life of Natalie Ng, whose ‘Talent’ is being able to talk to cats.

Set in present day Chicago, Cat Girl’s Day Off starts off with Natalie and her cat Meep discussing the Class A Talents of Nat’s family. Dad has super smell, Mom has laser vision and ability to retain extraneous information; twelve-year-old sister Emmy has the highest IQ in the Western Hemisphere, and older sister Viv has truth divination, levitation and X-ray vision. Viv and her dad work at the Bureau of Extrasensory Regulation and Management (BERM). All Nat can do is talk to cats, a “Class D – as in totally dumb – talent,” as she puts it. However, Nat’s talent sure comes in handy when a well known blogger, Easton West, goes missing…and the only one who can help Nat find her is Easton’s cat, Tiddlywinks.

Cover of the book. Image from Facebook.

Being a huge reader, and a fan of Kimberly Pauley’s Sucks to be Me series, I ordered Cat Girl’s Day Off when Amazon emailed me a recommendation for it. After finishing the book and absolutely loving it, I got to interview Kimberly Pauley and pick her brain about Cat Girl’s Day Off!

Cat Girl’s Day Off has a plot line based on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, what inspired the Ferris Bueller take?

“Um…my random brain? Seriously, the original nugget of an idea didn’t have anything to do with Ferris Bueller or movies or anything. It went through several iterations until I finally chanced upon the idea of working in Ferris (which is one of the most awesome movies of all time). Then it really took off,” said Pauley.

“I was living in the Chicago suburbs (like Ferris) at the time and knew I wanted to set the book there and then once I figured out how Nat (the main character) was going to get pulled into this crazy madcap adventure, the movie led me to the locations where the action was going to take place. Most of it wound up at Wrigley Field, but I’d thought about incorporating some of the other movie locations as well originally.” She said.

I love the idea of “Talents.” Did you always wish you could understand what cats think?

“The talent was actually the first thing I had. The original idea was to think up some “useless” super powers and then go from there. I was thinking about a whole series of books, each told from a different person’s point of view and all of them having a really “stupid” power. I would actually love to be able to talk to cats. I think they’d have lots of things to say about…well, about everything,” Pauley said.

My cat Pearl wishes she could hang out with Meep, Rufus and PD!

In Cat Girl’s Day Off because Nat can talk to cats, the readers learn that the cats have an actual name, and the name given to them by their people. Readers learn that Easton’s cat, Tiddlywinks, is really named Rufus Brutus the Third.

How did you come up with the idea of cats being called a name by their person, but having a different name – such as Tiddlywinks being Rufus Brutus the Third?

“I can’t say I came up with that originally. It was T.S. Eliot that said that cats had three names: one everyday name, one particular/peculiar name and lastly:

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,

   And that is the name that you never will guess;

The name that no human research can discover -

   But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

   The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

   Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

       His ineffable effable

       Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

Image from Facebook.

That’s from the poem The Naming of Cats from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. You know the Broadway play Cats? It’s based on that collection of poetry. Definitely worth a read for cat lovers,” said Pauley.

The main cats in the book, Meep, Rufus and Purr Daddy always have great, witty banter between them. Did you find it hard to write in the voice of the cats? Is there anything you did to prepare to write in their voices?

“Perhaps sadly (just ask my husband), I had no trouble been cat-snarky. I’m probably part cat myself,” she said. No worries Kimberly, we all like to think we know what our cats would say if they could talk!

It seems that all authors put a part of themselves in their books, in which character do you most identify yourself?

Well, like Nat, I am also half-Chinese. And short. And a bit quirky. So probably her. Though I do SO love Oscar. He’s based on a few friends of mine that I knew in high school and college. Some people will probably think he’s a bit over the top, but he’s actually pretty tame compared to some of the friends I had…

 Is there a question that you’ve wanted to be asked in interviews, but have never been asked before?

Yes. “Would you like to have dinner with Johnny Depp?” I’m sure you can guess what the answer to that question would be.

Only kind of kidding…always seemed like he would be an interesting guy to talk with (at least based on his choice of movie roles and you gotta love a guy who’s not afraid of eyeliner and wears so many hats so well). Though I did have dinner once with Harry Harrison (one of the grand masters of science fiction) at a convention and I’d love to do that again. He’s awesome.

Visit  Kimberly at www.kimberlypauley.com, On the Cat Girl Facebook page

or follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KimberlyRPauley

Newsletter: www.kimberlypauley.com/newsletter/

This review is solely my opinion. I was not given a copy of this book to review, but did so of my own accord.