What A Slacker!

Snow Day

Add comment February 10th, 2010

Snowed all day today. I had to go out and shovel twice. The path in the snow was at least up to my thigh. So glad I did not have to go to work or even think about going out in that snow. Heck it was bad enough just going out in it to shovel, i couldn’t image having to drive in it. Think I will stay in where it is warm and dry for awhile.

Cute Kitty in a Sticky Situation

Add comment October 1st, 2009

Last week, September 22 to be exact, we saw a horrible image on the news. It was of an adorable little brown tabby cat all wrapped up like a mummy in duct tape. We could not bear to watch the whole news clip to find out what, who or why it had happened.

The news is just to darn depressing to watch especially when it shows poor helpless animals or children who have suffered at the hands of an adult that should know better. (That is why I have such a hard time forgiving Michael Vick or the Eagles for signing a dog murderer.) We treat all life with respect and wish the rest of humanity would too.

The following day we learned that the little kitty would be okay and that the PSPCA was offering a reward for news leading to an arrest in the case.

The PSPCA had named the lil tabby cat Sticky (how appropriately cute). While we really wanted to run into Philly and adopt her on the spot, we already have four cats in our little city home. We just couldn’t offer a proper home to another cat at this time. So we silently wished her well knowing she would be quickly adopted since her horrible ordeal was aired on the news. Turns out more than 100 people had called in wanting to adopt her!

Today we got the good news from the PSPCA that not only did Sticky get a forever home, but the bad man that had done this to her had been arrested and is now facing criminal charges.

Our hope is that the 99 plus people that did not get to adopt Sticky could open their hearts and their homes to another kitty cat awaiting adoption at the PSPCA.

32nd Annual Walk for the Animals 2009

Add comment September 28th, 2009

This past Saturday was the Humane Society of Berks County’s 32nd Annual Walk for the Animals and Walktoberfest at the Reading Phillies baseball stadium. The weather was really nice and sunny (first time in a few years for them).  Lots of dogs and their people showed up to walk, have fun and raise money to help the Humane Society. I wasn’t going to do it again this year because I had heard they were leaving Reading, but I spoke with someone at the Dogs Days of Summer Fest and that was not the case. So a week before the event I signed us up for the walk and to raise funds through FirstGiving.com like I did last year. Since I had only started looking for sponsors a week before the walk I did not expect to raise too much money, but thanks to my best bud Boris and his online pals over at Twitter and facebook I was able to raise over $300! ($320 in sponsors + my $20 for registering not a bad contribution if I must say so myself). I am very honored to know these amazingly generous people and their pets here on the net. Thank you all!

Don’t worry if you missed sponsoring my walk the fund raising page online is available and we’ll be taking donations until December sometime. So please consider a donation no matter how small. Every little bit helps.

 There’s even more photos over on facebook.

Kitty Cats and Their Duckie Club

Add comment June 18th, 2009

Boris and his pals on Twitter are at it again! They started a way fun Duckie Club and all you need to join is a Ducky with a rather interesting name.

Boris Named his Kong Ducky Sir Quacky McGee. (He had to have a little Simpson’s in him since he is so yellow.)

These are great, fuzzy little refillable cat toys that kitties and their humans will like since you can refresh the catnip inside the toy any time your cat seems to lose some interest in it. Being so fuzzy gives them a great texture to lick and bite.

Stores like CatToys.com and Supplies Just 4 Pets are chipping in and donating toys to needy cats and kittens in rescues too. How cool is that?

Want to have your cat join the club too and help cats in shelters have fun at the same time? All you have to do is visit either Boris’ Blog or Manxington’s Duckie Club and buy a Kong Duckie through CatToys.com (the links on this blog work too — and you save 10% off your order). For every 25 Kong Duckies sold through those links they will donate 1 ducky to charity. While you are at CatToys.com you can do even more for the charities by adding one of their donation items to your shopping cart as well. You’ll get your items and CatToys.com will ship the donations out to shelters already waiting for toys and treats from animal loving people like us.

Check out the Offical Duckie Club Members list managed by a sweet dog Shawnee the Shepherd.

Even if you don’t join the Duckie Club you should join them on Twitter

People Pets and the Internet Pt2

Add comment May 3rd, 2009

People and their pets seem to be flocking to social networks. Most can be found on sites like Twitter and facebook, while many are still holding out over at MySpace although it is dropping in popularity.

Popping up all over the internet is a new breed of social networking sites. These new sites are catering specifically to the pet owner and their pets. Sites like YouPet, Cute as Hell and Pikapet are strictly on Topic pet only sites. And yes, your pet is welcome, actually expected, to have his own profile. There are other sites to like People Pets that are offshoots of the human centric sites. So if your pet, like mine, is so inclined set him up with his own profile on Twitter, facebook or the like and watch his virtual friends pile up.

People Pets and the Internet

Add comment May 2nd, 2009

Pets on the interwebs. Search any social network on the internet these days and you will most certainly find a bunch of pet lovers. Search MySpace, facebook or Twitter just a little harder and you will find the pets that belong to those very same pet lovers. Yes, there is a growing number of pets who blog or have their own web pages, and they connect with each other on these social networks.

Take my big boy Boris for example. I blog about him quite often, what is he does, his new toys, etc. When we first got him I even started a blog about his care and growth. Then we both got sick and the blog fell to the wayside. Recently I started dealing more with facebook and Twitter (as MySpace is yesterdays news) and found myself one night setting up accounts for Boris. So now you can follow the exploits of this kitty cat across the web via his blog (he took it over how), twitter and facebook.

I will continue to write about him here, as he is just too darn cote not too (besides he tends to ignore the fact that he has three older sisters who don’t play on the web — you know how it is for us older folks).

RAID Doesn’t Kill Just Bugs; Keep Away From Cats

Add comment April 29th, 2009

Wired magazine had an article a little while back that caught my eye, it was titled “Kills Bugs Dead, And Cats Too.” The article tells us what’s inside RAID. If you are a cat owner like me, you will be removing this dangerous substance from your home. I absolutely hate spiders and relied on RAID to rid my house of these eight-legged monster, I’ll just have to find a new way to kill those spiders.

Raid contains Pyrethrin and Pyrethroids, which are poisons that cause nerve cells to remain open too long, according to Wired this makes “the neurons fire repeatedly resulting in paralysis and death.” They also go on to say that these two poisons are supposed to be the least deadly pesticides to mammals. However, you still have to keep it away from your cat as cats’ livers cannot process Pyrethrin fast enough and will die.

I don’t know about you but I would rather keep my cat healthy and deal with a few bugs than hurt my bestest best friend.

I will keep my eyes open for an alternative to RAID. I have been looking at a few natural pesticides and hope they will work and be safe for my cats.

Kitties Playing with the Panic Mouse Cat Toy

Add comment April 25th, 2009

Today after coming home from a long hard morning of shopping (we went to the Black Creek Greenhouse to get loverly flowers since it was such a loverly day) the kitty cats and I sat down to have some fun with the Panic Mouse cat toy. It is a pretty funny toy that they all seem to enjoy to some degree.

First up was Bela she had a good time going after the “mouse” (that’s what they call all the attachments for this toy), but her favorite mouse was the feathers.

Next up was Abby, she really got crazy over the Panic Mouse’s original pom pom mouse. She even got so crazy she ripped the wand right off the toy a couple of times (no problem as they are real easy to swap out and put back on). Although I learned a valuable lesson…there is a reason the manufacture gives you the additional support legs to attach under the toy. She knocked the toy over once. So I made sure to get that support n the bottom for Big Boy’s turn.

Boris came in from outside (he helped put away the flowers) and was a bit tuckered out from all that “hard” work and could not really play with the Panic Mouse too much today (I have seen him go at it a lot better than this). He actually got the string from the original wand wrapped around his little paw (he asked me not to show that video as he is a bit embarrassed by it). Boris’ favorite wand seems to be the spring mouse.

Overall I feel this toy is a big success and I am glad I got the additional “mouse” attachments as each kitty seems to like a different one. (If you folks go buy one of these, we recommend getting it from CatToys.com and picking up the other replacement wands/mice for this way cool cat toy.)

Boris and the Mouse in the House Cat Toy

Add comment April 20th, 2009

Quite a while ago I got my kitty cat, Boris, a really cool cat toy from CatToys.com called the Mouse in the House. This is an automatic cat toy that will entertain your kitty while you are away from home and even while you are home with him.

 A little mouse runs around a little house via a track. You can do this with your cat by pushing the red button on the toy. There is a warning squeak and then the little mousey runs the track twice. (The first couple of times you and your cat play with this he might be a little afraid of it, but curiosity wins out.)

 To use the toy while you are away simply set the timer so the toy runs every 10 minutes or every hour. We actually got Boris to push the button all on his own with the help of his favorite treats (he bites at the button instead of pawing it, but it still works for him). One night while I was recovering from the accident and still sleeping on the sofa I was awakened by him playing with the toy ALL by himself!

Here’s a video from early on (I will have to get some new and better video soon)…

I Want It Wednesday: Zombie Pets

Add comment March 18th, 2009

 I saw these and thought I have to have those. These are just TOO funny. Little Zombie pets for your pockets. Set includes a zombie cat, zombie dog, zombie rabbit, zombie bird and zombie fish. I think they should do even more zombie animals. I would like to see a zombie farm set with a zombie horse, cow, sheep, goat, chicken etc.

So go ahead and run out and buy the Zombie Pet Shoppe figures before I do.

The Magneticat - Boris Gets a New Toy

Add comment March 11th, 2009

Boris got a new toy the other day and he LOVES it!

It is called the MAGNETICAT (get it magnetic cat — LOL). It has a magnet in the toy and magnets in the base so when the toy moves it keeps going for a little while to tease your cat back to it for more play.

Boris goes over and rubs the steel pole the toy is attached to and then the magnets get to moving the toy and he thinks, “what the heck, I’m here might as well play now” and plops down and kills it. See the video for how much fun he has.

And thanks to the folks over at CatToys.com he’s going to be a star! (They have posted his video on their site for the whole world to see!)

Update: Boris’ Magneticat video is on their blog too!

Pet Cemetery Makes It To Top Ten Places of Rest List

Add comment February 27th, 2009

The Hartsdale Pet Cemetery near New York City has made it to the Top 10 Places of Rest list “alongside the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt” according to ZooToo Pet News website. Lonely Planet published the list in their book 2009 Best of Travel (I assume it is a book of lists about traveling in 2009). I don’t know about the rest of the book but this list in particular interests me quite a bit and I will be adding it to my TO DO LIST (which may or may not ever get done).

The Hartsdale Pet Cemetery is the world’s oldest operating pet cemetery started way back in 1896 by Dr. Samuel Johnson. It also happens to be America’s first pet cemetery.

Poking around their website they have a war dog memorial at the cemetery that I would really like to see at some point. Maybe this summer we can take a trip up there (if my car can make it that far).

Steelers Fans Are Ready

Add comment February 1st, 2009

So as not to break any NFL rules I will refrain from posting any pictures or writing any descriptions of the game (what a load of crap that is). But I will post pictures of my little super bowl party (alright so it isn’t a party in any sense of the word party — more like me and my kitties).

So he woke up for the game, but that won’t last last.

Go Steelers!