Her Majesty's Mattresses

To make our new house feel more like our home, we have been looking on Etsy, where some really talented people have some of their work for sale.

We got this print of 'Her Majesty's Mattresses' by Helen Dalgairns, from her shop Cattoo , and we are in love!
The colours are beautifully rich, and the little crown on the kitty is so cute. Doesn't she have the prettiest pattern on her furs?
This is a great little detail- the little mouse house at number 64!:)
I think if this kitty came to life, we would be great friends! She reminds mum and me of me!:) Helen has some lovely work in her shop, and if you're looking for some great art, we definately recommend having a look :)

Rick James

We have been lucky to get to know a wonderful range of kitty personalities. Some of the kitties we have fostered have been very girly girls. Katie and Trixie were girly girls, all dainty and cute. Others, such as Stella and Sally have been very laidback and just liked to hang out. There were also the pretty boys- the floofy Oscar boys come to mind. They were most concerned with posing and keeping their furs neat and tidy. Or the clever kitties, Evie being the prime example.

Then you have this little boy. Rick James. The best way to describe him is as a real man's cat. He was rough, tough and ready to rumble! I had a ball with him! When he first came to our house, he wasn't too happy. He was an only kitten (we have only ever had a single foster at a time four times, and those four times were all in a row!). He didn't get a wonderful start. The 'people' who owned his mumcat had kept him in a box most of the time. They tried to sell him through the paper, but weren't able to. When they dropped him off at the shelter, they said if they couldn't leave him there, they would get rid of him themselves. It horrifies us to think people like that are walking the streets. As a result, he wasn't very well socialised, and wasn't the healthiest of kittens.
For us, Rick was a lesson in the resilience of kittens. For the first day he was with us, he stayed on a blanket on the couch and barely moved a muscle. With the dawning of the next day, however, he seemed to realise that he had a new life now. And my how he decided to embrace it! He would have to be one of the most joyful, enthusiastic kittens that we knew.
Rick and my dad became great mates. Rick liked to shadow him around and try and be involved in whatever dad was up to. If dad had let him go to work with him, Rick would have been thrilled! He even wanted to help dad with the ironing!!!This is when Rick crawled into the pocket on dad's jumper. Yep. They were buddies those two.
After he learned to relax and eat well, Rick got a lot healthier. He was stronger and more energetic, and his coat took on a new shine and softness.
One of the best things was the chance to show Rick how to play, and have fun! We used to have such fun wrasslin'. He liked playing rough, which was fine with me! We had a great time together, and he always came back for more. He was always really gentle with people though, which was cool. This video shows us having a great rumble. The quality of the video is not great, but it shows what a tough little nut he is:)

Rick went to a great Forever Home:) Have a happy week!

Comfort

I haz it.
And I have no shame in showing off my floofy belly.
Or my loaf shaped mid-section.
It's great to be a mancat!

Fun Times!

Fui and I loved our backyard in Townsville. We loved our garden and our grass and our bushes and our sweet air. We miss our outside time now that we are in Sydney. We have talked our mum into finding a way to secure our courtyard out the back! It will be mutually beneficial, because downstairs in our townhouse we have four doors without screens and no windows! So it's hard keeping the air nice and fresh without us trying to do a runner. This way, we can get outside time and we can get a good breeze through our house. Win win:)

Bobby Dazzler

This gorgeous little boy is a very special little boy indeed. He was trapped by a council ranger in a public park. He had sustained a nasty injury to his poor little tailWhen he got to the shelter, the vet decided it would be best to amputate the end of his tail, as it had been degloved and was broken. When mum arrived to pick him up, he had been named Tailer.Mum and dad tried to call him Tailer but it just never felt right. Mum had started calling him Bob Tailer, and it kind of stuck. It was dad who later added the Dazzler- because Bob was such a stunning, wonderful happy little boy. And such a little trouble maker!:) He needed a sparkly, jazzier name.
He was a little bit nervous in the beginning, which is understandable given all he had been through in his short life so far. He soon figured out that he was safe, and developed into the cuddliest of cuddlepusses, and the troubliest of troublepusses!
While he was staying with us, mum had a nasty virus that just wouldn't quit and managed to damage her ribs from coughing so much. Bob helped Suey and I look after mum. They recuperated from their wounds together!
Bob did develop an infection in his tail. He was a very good boy in always taking his medicine, and didn't put up too much of a fight. He soon got back to full strenght, and managed to avoid the need for further surgery. Bob and I then developed a special relationship.Bob loved me and I loved him. He was always very interested in what I was doing, and I taught him well. We liked to play together, and he would watch me have my dinner, use my litterbox and go about my business.
While he was initially reluctant, I soon taught him to value of just hanging out and relaxing. We briefly had a second kitten stay while Bob was with us. Her name is Missy, and she was a friend's kitten. Bob fell in LOVE! They had a wonderful time wresting and chasing and rumbling.
Sometimes they settled for a bit of a cuddle, too. (Missy is the one with the white paws).
Bobby was with us for dad's birthday, and he nearly caused a disaster! He leapt at the birthday cake! Dad grabbed him just in time. He was very sneaky!
He was also terribly cute. After several days of non-stop racing about with Missy, he conked out and fell fast asleep when she left.
He grew into a very cute young mancat, and looked like quite a manly little boy.
We are very thankful for the hard work of the ranger, and his determination to get Bobby Dazzler safe, as well as the vet and shelter staff who ensured his injury would recover. It was terribly hard taking him back to the shelter for adoption, but we were good, knowing that his Forever family would be looking for him!:) We are beyond certain that his Forever family are pleased as punch with their gorgeous tabby boy.

Angus asked whether we are able to hear about how our fosters are going now. There are lots of privacy rules that mean the shelter can't tell us who adopts the kittens, and they can't pass on our details either. We just have to have faith that the shelter staff have done a good job in making sure they go to great families. Some of the families do keep in touch with the shelter, and they let us know if they've been in touch. Pipi's family stayed in close touch with the fostering boss for a while, so it was cool to hear that she was going well. They even kept her name! Blitzen Claus and Tom Kitten both live with people who volunteer at the shelter, so we know they have gone from strength to strength.

After seeing pictures posted by Banshee and Cory and Ellie's mums of them before they were adopted, we made sure to take photos back when Stella, Ellie, Angus and Calvin went back to the shelter. They were included with the adoption paperwork. We wanted Stella's new family to see what a truly remarkable little ladycat they had. She saved Calvin's life! We also thought they and the families of Ellie and Angus would enjoy seeing the babies when they were tiny little squirmers.

For my last words in this post, Suey has only been to her litterbox twice today:)

The Truth About Pet Food

Mum has been looking to introduce some raw food into our diet. Now that we are in Sydney, we have a lot more to chose from, which is nice. She was doing some research online to try and find out about the differences in brands, things to look for and things to look out for, and came across a series of articles from Urban Animal magazine. This is a magazine that is published in Sydney, and often has quite good articles in it. The articles are a guide to figuring out what all the labels on pet food actually mean.

It is pretty heavy going in some parts, and thoroughly mind boggling in others, but we learned quite a bit from them. Although, we will need to send mum off with an instruction list and note book when she goes to get our food next time! Some of the articles are a couple of years old, so some of the links within the articles don't work, but the principles behind it still stand. There are also a lot of ads to wade through on the page, as they are screen shots of the actual magazine page. The information on the recall and what was behind it was interesting for us.

We did like that this seems to be an unbiased look at food. So much of what we read or hear about pet food seems to be sponsored by specific companies. As a rule, Urban Animal refuses to do editorials for companies, and they would not allow companies to pre-read anything in the food analysis. While they don't recommend specific foods, they make it a lot easier to see what is good when looking at a label.

Treats (includes recipes for a K9 Cooler and Kitty Kookies!).
Raw Foods (fresh cuts, rather than pre-packaged).
Would You Feed it to a Dog? Part 1 (dry food).
Would You Feed it to a Dog? Part 2 (understanding the recall).
How Do You Choose What Your Pet Chews Part 1 (understanding ingredients).
How Do You Choose What Your Pet Chews Part 2 (understanding ingredients).
How Do You Choose The Wet Food Your Pet Chews Part 1 (about the preservatives in raw and wet foods).
How Do You Choose The Wet Food Your Pet Chews Part 2 (understanding ingredients and labelling).
How Do You Choose The Canned Food Your Pet Chews Part 1 (ingredients and minimum standards).
How Do You Choose The Canned Food Your Pet Chews Part 2 (nutrients and guaranteed analysis).

The part in the articles that we saw as key are these two lists. We finally understand what a meat by-product actually us! We also understand now that there are different kinds of by-product, and different grades within those different types!
This was also really informative for us. We didn't know that there would be such a big difference between 'Salmon cat food' and 'Salmon flavoured cat food'.

We hope we haven't addled your brains too much:)

Katie

I've had Fui write about our fosters, but for Katie, I wanted to step in. Katie was my favourite, the foster kitty I got along with best of all. She was sweet, gentle, and had excellent cat manners. She was also the first foster we had on her own.
Katie arrived kicking and screaming! She cried the whole way home from the shelter!
Once she was allowed out and about, she was a lot happier. Katie had great litter box habits. As she was an only kitten, she spent most of the day downstairs with us, whenever mum was home. She spent the night in her room.
She was a very playful little girl, and loved to climb the scratching post. Sometimes she would just hang on to the post and watch what was going on around her.
She also had a great tabby pattern, don't you think?! :)
Katie was a real snugglebunny, and mum said she was nearly as good at cuddles as I am. That's some pretty high praise right there, as I am the master of cuddles.
She was also a clever girl. The first time I was ever in my carrier, I realised that I could attack the zip to escape. Katie saw this too, and immediately went for the pipe cleaner that secures them.
Yep. Katie was a special girl. I probably even would have let her stay if she wanted! I was not at all surprised when she went to a jolly good Forever home.

The Crazy Boys

These three kittens were very scary. Yes, I said it. Scary. Even for a big tough mancat like me. Terrifying. They were wild and crazy and loopy and nuts!Manuel.
Basil.
Archie.
Each one as terrifying as the other. It didn't help that I couldn't tell Manuel and Basil apart, and they worked together to give a very good impression of a kitten who could come at you from several angles at the one time!!!!! Archie was a little bit quieter, but given that he was still a hellion, that probably isn't saying much.
They didn't stay with us for very long, so we didn't get much of a chance to get to know them. Other than to know to give them a wide berth. Because they were scary.
Mum tried to run them ragged, but it didn't work very well. They had a neverending supply of energy and craziness tucked somewhere in their tiny bodies. They were also very clever escape artists, and were constantly studying the doors looking for an escape route.
Each of the boys went to their Forever Homes soon after going up for adoption. We hope their families were prepared!:)

Pipi Saurus-Rex

This little lady is from our second official litter. She came with her brothers James Bond and Charlie Brown, and Trixie. Her name is Pipi Saurus-Rex.
She earned her surname by being a bit of a tyrant! She was a bit of a scaredy cat, and a bit of an enigma. She would occasionally fly off the handle at both human and kitty alike. Tom Kitten stayed well clear of her!
She had a beautiful coat. Mum is still not sure what it is called, but the people at the shelter called it velvet colouration. A beautiful chocolate colour came through the black in the light. Pipi was the only kitten we had who had anything like it!

While Pipi could be a bit of a skitty kitty, she could also be a silly billy. Here she is blowing raspberries at nobody in particular!
Pipi was adopted soon after going back to the shelter, but things didn't work out with that family. After about 10 days, they returned her to the shelter. She spent another fortnight up for adoption, before finding a new home with a young couple that the fostering boss at the shelter said was absolutely perfect for her.

I also wanted to tell you that Suey is doing much better. She seems a lot more comfortable, and her litterbox trips have reduced significantly. With cystitis, the bladder gets inflamed, and urine makes it hurt. So when her body produced urine, she immediately wanted to go to the box so it wasn't stinging her. It is very good that she is not feeling that bad anymore.