LIVESTRONG October 2, 2010

We Furrydance cats, and Teri join MILO AND ALFIE AND JAN in focusing awareness of those affected by cancer, by going Yellow for LIVESTRONG Day 2010. We didn't know we had any yellow outfits, but we do and to show our support, we dressed up!




LIVESTRONG Day helps raise awareness of cancer, those who are fighting the good fight and those who are survivors...both human and animal! While our Teri has not lost a family member to cancer, she has lost two kitties to cancer.

Her very first kitty, Cascais, had intestinal cancer, as did one of her Cornish Rex, Skiddy. They both lived many months after their diagnosis, and Teri knows each extra day with them was a gift.

And brave Trevor, who lived in a home with heavy smokers for most of his life, came back home to Teri when he was an old cat and not too long after that, he was diagnosed with nasal cancer, most likely due to inhaling all that cigarette smoke for so long. To think that his cancer might have been prevented makes Teri sad to have lost him to it.

We are proud to GO YELLOW for LIVESTRONG Day and spread the awareness with the message:

We believe in the Power of the Purr!

To learn more about LiveStrong, visit http://www.livestrong.org/

Disco's Up 4 oz...Week 8

There's an explanation, honestly and it just goes to show that even a little more food, even with a little more activity can have it's consequences!

Our Teri was away with Disco's buddy Brighton, at a cat show in Ohio last weekend and she was gone for 4 days! Coco and Kiki were confined to the bedroom and Disco had free run of the house...but it's pretty obvious he didn't RUN anywhere!


Teri even had our petsitters come in twice a day instead of once a day so they could measure out Disco's food instead of just leaving a bowl of dry food out for him to gorge on. She also asked them to get him to 'Stairclimb' twice a day, too...which is more than she'd been doing! To make it a little easier on them, she had them feed him 1/4 cup of dry Nulo in the morning and evening, and 1/4 can of Nulo each time, too.


That's a little more dry than Teri had been feeding him (1/8 cup of dry and 1/8 can of wet in the morning and in the evening, 1/4 cup of dry and 1/8 can of wet) but she had asked them to also exercise him for 5 minutes twice a day, so she thought that might make up for the extra food.

Guess not...


But she knows she is feeding a food she feels good about and she knows that eventually Disco will drop the excess weight he has packed on. She loves visiting the Nulo website and learning more with each visit. Nulo’s Resource Center is dedicated to your pet’s optimal health & wellness care, with articles written by leading veterinarians exclusively for Nulo. And it gets shipped directly to our house, in a fun red box!


They offer newsletters and tips via e-mail and they have the first online weight loss program for pets including fitness programs, guided menu planning, tools for measuring and tracking weight loss, and an online support community,

And the every blog post is informative for both woofies and meowzers. And they are on facebook, too and if you visit them there, you will see they are getting lots of attention from both TV and newspaper articles! CLICK HERE TO VISIT NULO ON FACEBOOK

Here's a great video from their website, talking about 'What's in the Bag':

So, even though Disco had a little bit of a gain, now that our Teri is back home, she will put the toys into action, every day, and she hopes that by next week...His Chubbiness will be a have shed some more ounces and she'll know she is helping him get fit!

Disco's Diet, Week 7

As you can see by the photo above...Disco is holding at 15# 8oz this week and that is probably because I was home over the weekend and his constant yelling about STARVATION had me feeding him extra kibbles from time to time.

That, and the fact that he needs to hire a new personal trainer to help him 'feel the burn' computes to another standstill in weight loss for Disco! I told him I keep having to buy longer belts because my midsection seems to be expanding, too! But then, I am not blogging about my weight loss or lack of such...


He is enjoying the canned food more, and when I placed my second order for Nulo, I decided to just get the turkey canned instead of the salmon variety too, as I am not a fish fan and the term 'Stinky Goodness' is what Nulo Ocean Fish canned food is! Now when he yells for food, he gets a spoonful of canned, not dry, and I think he will make some progress in his weight loss!

But I did get more of both the Nulo Chicken and the Salmon dry as Disco likes both of those, and he is continuing on the restricted amounts that his vet recommended and I am trying to increase the canned and cut back on the dry even more, in hopes of getting him on mostly canned Nulo eventually.

I bought a couple of new cat toys at the last cat show and they are great for getting Disco to run up and down the stairs after...I just need to do it every day not a couple of times a week! I wish I had someone to film him as I was getting him to use the 'Stairclimber' but he does get pretty excited about 'catching' the dragonflies and I make sure to let him rest between reps, hahameow!



One thing this Nulo campaign has shown me is by monitoring Disco's food intake and his activity level, I realize just how INACTIVE he has become due to his obesity! Where the other cats run and chase and 'Stairclimb' on their own, Disco is more than SEDENTARY...he is more like a Pet Rock in terms of activity.

Of course, due to his obesity, I do worry about the strain on his joints when he climbs the stairs and watching him almost makes me cringe...not a pretty sight! But I hope that when (not if) he gets down to 12 pounds (and though it may not be by Thanksgiving as we hoped as his progress has been so slow) that he will be able to once again join in the fun and games with the other cats in my house!


Just as it says on the Nulo website 'Cats get varying degrees of exercise, depending on their lifestyle. Indoor cats often don't get enough exercise on their own and it's up to you to encourage your resident felines to be more active'and I feel guilty that I am not making more time to help get my cat healthier. But I do know I am feeding him what I think is the best food out there and just need to make the commitment to do better from here on out with getting him to exercise every day!

Nulo tells us that 'By encouraging your cat's natural attraction to these types of games, you can increase his activity level significantly. These games may not be new ideas but the concept of making them a regular habit may be. Make a point of setting aside time each day to play with your furball and soon you'll both look forward to this fun and special time together.'

Stay tuned for next weeks installment of the Road to Simply Fit!

Pet Finder's Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable Pet Week, Sept 19-25th

As a breeder, I thought about how I should talk about adopting 'less adoptable' cats, knowing that one of my greatest fears is that one of the kittens I bring into the world will somehow end up in a shelter, dumped there without me knowing; turned over with no history, no explanation of any behavior or health issues so that even if it does get adopted, the new owners may not take care of it either...

In fact, that happened to me once but luckily the story has a happy ending, but part of it was because I pursued finding this kitty...The original owner had two kitties from me, a mother and her daughter. The daughter kitty developed a urinary tract disease called FIC (Feline Interstitial Cystitis). The owner kept in touch with me and cared for her cats well, with help and advice from me.

Then she suffered a series of nervous breakdowns and was hospitalized on occasion and eventually moved in with her son and daughter-in-law. Through all of this, she had friends take care of her cats when she was unable to.

But on the last time she was hospitalized, her son took the cats to the shelter and just dumped them. He didn't tell them of the FIC or give them any information as to how to get in touch with me (as I would have arranged for them to come home to me).

When she got out of the hospital, she was devastated and afraid to call me as she knew how much my cats meant to me. But after many months, she got up the nerve to contact me. She told me that they had adopted them out, but of course they couldn't tell her to whom.

I was sad though could not be angry, except with her family, but fortunately in the town she lives in there was just one shelter. But it had been over a year since they were relinquished to the shelter and I wasn't even sure if they had really been adopted or if that was some story her son made up to make her feel better.

I wrote to everyone on the shelters contact list...AND one of the veterinary assistants at the shelter hospital had adopted them and she called me! My heart rested easier! We talked and talked, and the cats are happy and healthy and their new owner now knows how to get in touch with me should they have problems!

...And the next two kitties could have just as easily ended up in a shelter, too, as their owner was having their home foreclosed on and was having to find someplace to live. But she contacted me, saying she was needed to give up her cats to be able to afford to live and finding a place that accepted pets was difficult.

She flew Skiddy and Trevor back to me and they were both older with health issues and I thought I would have them for the rest of their lives, as I couldn't ask someone to take on caring for their heart and asthma issues.

But a woman contacted me a year or so after they came back home to me, and she was looking to adopt a Cornish Rex through rescue and I told her about them, not really thinking she'd want 2 old cats with major health problems...

But she came to meet them and me and decided to adopt Trevor, but I was reluctant to let Skiddy go as she was frail and I thought Trevor could still have some good years left...As it turned out, about 6 months after she adopted him, he was diagnosed with nasal carcinoma (he had lived most of his life in a home with heavy smokers!) and had to be euthanized before a year had passed.

Skiddy remained with me and lived out her days in comfort and ease (she was painfully shy, so she was my 'guest bedroom kitty' and she was happy and content there)

SKIDDY

TREVOR

Then everyone who has been following Curlz and Swirlz for a while knows of Nani...Nani of the Pink Kitty Wig fame and who will always be my 'Avatar'...


Nani has a rescue story of her own to tell, too. I did not bring her into this world but brought her into my home to be a future momcat. She was a very successful show cat but when she retired to become a mommy, we found out she had developed HCM, the inherited heart disease that took Pixie and Luxor from us.

Her breeder did not accept responsibility for her, and so I spayed her and was fortunate to find a young man who was willing to adopt a second Cornish Rex and care for her health problems...but 12 years later I get a call from this man, now married to a woman with multiple dogs and cats and he said Nani was aggressive with the cats and he needed to give her up.

Again, I was glad he contacted me, instead of turning her into a shelter. I didn't bring her into this world, but I was there for her, this time paying for her flight home to me as he refused to accept that 'penance' for not giving her a furrever home.

When I got her back, she had multiple setbacks--she developed fatty liver disease and was difficult to treat due to her severe heart condition. But she pulled through that, and was happy taking 'Skiddy's' place as the guest bedroom cat, because yes, she would stalk and fight with my cats, too...but I wouldn't have given her up because of that!

As it turned out, a couple nearby that have a cat from me, had a friend who was looking to adopt a Cornish Rex, but because of her involvement with small dog rescue, she wanted one that no one else would adopt...

Oh my, could I let Nani go? Knowing her heart problem was so severe that she could succumb to it at any time. Could I feel ok about her living with kids and dogs and would she be happy?

But they lived close by, and they came to meet her and fell in love with her. I said ok, we'll give it a try, but that they would just be 'fostering' her and I would take care of her medical care. Nope, they wanted to take that on, too!!

They gave Nani a loving home for over a year, before her heart gave out, and they found her lifeless at the bottom of the stairs one morning. We all morn her loss, but we all feel glad that we 'made her acquaintance' and that she had a happy life in her 'golden years'...

Here's some links to posts about Nani, including her Memorial post:
http://furrydancecats.blogspot.com/2010/02/fenway-nanjizal-bay-of-furrydance-july.html
http://furrydancecats.blogspot.com/2010/02/help-nani-win-photo-contest-pleeze.html
http://furrydancecats.blogspot.com/2010/02/nanis-winner.html

So, there are my 'Rescue' stories on four kitties I accepted lifelong responsibility for. I kept my promise to be there for them their whole life. It is part of my contract that if for ANY reason, someone has to give up a Furrydance cat, that they contact me so I can bring her back to the home they were born in.

I think most people who have filled out my 4 page adoption application and waited many months for a kitten and I have gotten to know well BEFORE they get their cat, know how much my cats mean to me. But people change, lives change, divorce happens etc etc and oftentimes the pets come out on the losing end, too!

I have lost track of 2 cats due to divorce, and I still keep looking for them, googling names, searching facebook, calling the references they listed on their adoption applications...to no avail. But I will never stop thinking of them or checking on Petfinder and craigslist and stay active on all the Cornish Rex Yahoo groups just in case they show up there...but in 21 years of breeding cats, those have been the only 2...

I always get sad when I see Cornish Rex in rescue, because to me it often signifies that the breeder was not there for that cat, either because the person giving it up did not notify them, of they had no interest in taking the cat back, or did not keep in touch with the person they sold the cat. I have also been involved in rescuing 3 cats that I did not breed, because the breeders were not 'there' for their cat. And I was able to rehab and rehome all three and keep in touch with their families still!

Once I started looking around on Petfinder, looking for just one special needs kitty to talk about, one that kept being overlooked...it was pretty overwhelming how many kitties in need there are!

So, I narrowed my search to Cornish Rex, and while there were 14 Cornish Rex seeking homes, this one boy, Grover, touched my heart with his story and thought I would 'present' him here on my blog as so many of our followers are taken with this breed, and just because he is a purebred, doesn't make him any less needy of a furrever home.

Here's Grover's story (from his Petfinder page)


GROVER was found as a stray wandering the streets, so his past or WHY he was on the street is an unknown. That he survived is a miracle since he is deaf, is a naturally thin cat with a thin coat. He is not drawn to other cats and he seems to prefer men.


The Old Man is a fussy eater, and will only drink water from the bathroom faucet. He will perch there until you turn it on for him. He is a very loving and curious cat who enjoys being with and near you at all times.

He is quiet until he feels ignored -then he sounds a LOUD voice. We are seeking a calm home for this loving 7ish year old boy! He is fully vetted and in good health minus a few teeth - well minus all but TWO teeth! Look on the bright side, lower cost on dental bills!

If you think you might be interested in this Cornish Rex in need of a furrever home, here is the link to his Petfinder page:

CLICK HERE TO MEET GROVER

Simply Sunday Morning...Afternoon...Evening

Well, Teri was busy on Caturday! She got halfway packed for her and Brighton's trip to Ohio next weekend, and got her new Mac Laptop up and running (easy, but she was putting it off as she says she can't handle anything technical during the week) and she got the backyard spiffed up--weeded, mowed, planted...looks nice and relaxing, doesn't it?




Once she was done and relaxing a bit, TomTom wandered up and she snapped a couple of photos of him, and then put out some food for him, as she was going to be gone later on when he usually comes around.



Saturyday night, she met up with some friends to have dinner and listen to a couple of 'tribute' bands--Monkey Business (you guessed it--The Monkees) and Apple Core (...The Beatles). She had fun listening to her friends tell stories about being Monkees followers--even flying to England to see them once! Teri even had a funny 'Monkees' story of her own to share.

She got a little sad when Apple Core started to play cuz the Beatles were Mike's favorite band and she kinda wished Mike was there to enjoy it. But the weather was great, the company fun and the ribs and Pina Coladas yummy, and it was good to meet up with friends and find a fun place close to home that she can go to again.


This morning, she took some photos of us, doing what all cats should do on a Sunday, relax! In between making some repairs to the Cornish Rex display she will take to the cat show next weekend, she kept the flashy box handy so she could surprise us before we wised up to what she was doing!


That's Coco mothering her growing kittens. She spends a lot of time when I am home having a time out from them, but still is very attentive to them. Kiki and Coco sometimes share mothering duties, too. That is something that is nice for kittens here when there are two litters at the same time--they get lots of attention and playtime, something that is especially good as Fifi will benefit from kitten play and lots of 'environmental stimulation' from Dot, Spot and Coco and that'll take some of the responsibility off of Kiki, too!


And here's Brighton, laying on the couch in that pretty new cat bed, having pushed the furry blankie aside and sitting right on the heating pad. It is a pet safe pad and only gets up to 100 degrees, but his belly must be pretty toasty!


And Disco, he is enjoying a sun puddle in the kitchen...not too far from the food bowl he might add (it's empty). You can see how much fur he's sprouted in this photo!

These next couple of photos are of Brinkley and Percy, Furrydance alumni you've seen here before as their mom loves taking photos of them (thanks, Dianne!!), spending time in their home in North Carolina...pretty much doing what all cats like to do...




And the kittens had fun on Sunday too, playing til they wore out and napped! As you can see from the video...they have short attention spans and never take a bitey personally!

Caturday Saturday

What's under your sofa? This is a cute facebook post by a couple who have 2 Furrydance kitties.


Cat treasures, fished out from under the downstairs sofa... 2 rubber bands, a milk bottle cap, yellow fish, various cat chewy toys, a popsicle stick, bits of paper, blue porpoise, 2 armbands from my eye surgery, a pot scrubber, etc., etc., etc.....


When we visited Boris Kitty's blog this morning, we found out that World's Best Litter is donating cat litter to shelters and rescues, just like 'Give Kibble'!! We didn't even know about this, but looks like the campaign started in June this year and the first area included was Washington DC...right near where we live! And we weren't even aware of it!

World's Best Cat Litter launched it's World's Best Cat Litter Charity. By clicking on the banner on our sidebar, you can vote daily for 45 days to donate pounds of World's Best Cat Litterª to shelters and organizations devoted to helping cat communities.
This time it's 3 shelters and rescues in the Los Angeles area.

You might think about adding the banner and link to your blog page, too and make some needy kitties very happy!

Frootbat Friday!

Wow, it's been a busy week round the Furrydance house, and while mewmie should be outside right now, planting the rest of those butterfly bushes she bought us 3 weeks ago (she did get 2 in the ground last Sunday and it's rained nicely during the week and the plants loved that!)...instead she is here at the puter cuz we asked her to post some mews for us!


First off, Spot and Dot are 100% back to being bouncy kittens again! In fact, they had their first vaccination yesterday and their physical exams were perfect! Good weight gain, no heart murmurs heard, clean eyes-ears-noses and bums, hahameow! Their personalities are starting to show now, with Dot being the purr machine and sweetest head bunter ever. Spot is more independant---probably cuz she just assumes she is the center of the universe and it's all about her!




Little Fifi is now 3 1/2 weeks old and make her transition this week to the open kitten box in the birthing tent and she is quite adventurous--one time this week mewmie left the tent unzipped while she went downstairs for something and when she got back--Fifi was nowhere to be found. Mewms got a bit anxious but she knew she couldn't have gone far and the bedroom is very kitten safe. She found her hidden under the edge of the bedspread and kissed her all over and made sure she was ok.





The big cat show last weekend was fun and Brighton and his new Pet Gear AT3 stroller were a big hit! He was Mr Congeniality all weekend, and showed no signs of being afraid like he did at the last show he was at (we were right next to a metal grate on the floor and it made a loud clanky sound everytime someone stepped on it and it freaked Brighton out--at least Teri thinks that was the reason he was so jumpy).


There were lots of cats, lots of kittens, lots of toys-art-clothes to look at. Mewmie bought a pretty print of a cat sleeping on a bed (for our guest room) and a new purse...but since she had just bought us some new Casbah Cat and Kong nip toys...she didn't buy us any goodies this time.






Next weekend, Teri and Brighton are off to Ohio to a Cornish Rex specialty cat show, so this weekend she has to clean house, and prepare for the road trip (about 9 hours) and get packed, and pull stuff down from the attic that she's been collecting for a fund raising raffle at the cat show... cuz she says she never gets anything done during the week, no matter how much she plans to be productive!

She doesn't have an iPod or a Kindle, but she got some Audio Books to pass the time which she will donate to the raffle at the cat show. She has to set up the new laptop (she says she's too brain dead during the work week to tackle anything technical) so she can take it with her on the trip and use it to play the slide show of Cornish Rex pix for the display at the show.

So, sounds like our mewmie might be a bit too busy this weekend to nap with us much, but she always takes the time to give us extra scritches and kisses on the days she doesn't have to go 'day hunting'. We hope you have (as Miles' says) a purrfectly Bronky weekend with your families, too!

Here's a couple of cute videos starring Fifi and Spot 'n Dot...enjoy!