Frootbat Friday, Those Who Came Before...

This is the very first Cornish Rex kitty that our Teri ever had. Her name was Trident Rusey Beach of Furry Dance and it was she that began Teri's love affair with us Cornish Rex cats! She was born April 18, 1988 and she lived til she was 22 years old!

And this is Demelza, she was one of Rusey's daughters...she long ago crossed the Bridge, too, at the age of 19 and Teri will never forget her...

And this is Bo, Furry Dance Bossiney... He is the cat Teri calls her Heart Cat because she loved him so...We lost him in 2005, when he was 15 years old. But he lived a wonderful long life considering he had Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Demelza was his sister. 

And here's Trevarren, Bo and Demi's brother. He lived most of his life with a couple who smoked and he eventually developed nasal cancer, so Teri certainly knows that 2nd hand smoke is a serious threat to pets, even more so than humans because of their small size!

Teri named most of her Cornish Rex after places in Cornwall, where the Cornish Rex originated in 1950. A barn cat had a litter of five kittens, and one had wavy fur and that is how the breed began!

Back in the year 2000, before Teri and our CatDad got married, they traveled to England for the Furry Dance festival and we'd like to share some of those photos with you, in honor of the first Cornish Rex Frootbats!

Wordless Wednesday... Wake Us When Winter's Over

All cats sleep an average of 15 hours a day...

And somehow winter makes burrowing under a blanket and sleeping a nice way to avoid the cold and dreary days...

Burrowing with a friend is nice, too...

Even if your napping companion is a pillow with some exotic looking cats on it, hahameow!

And when you wake up refreshed, how about joining in on the #BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop? Then you can take another nap and soon it will be Spring!

FrootBat Friday

Teri always says we Cornish Rex are like works of art...

She says we make every setting more beautiful...

We have to agree, especially in these shots of our outstanding Frootbats!

Teri especially loves it when the light shines through our ears! She grabbed these photos of some of our extended family for Frootbat Friday's post!

Not So Wordless Wednesday...Remembering a Kitty...

This week, a beloved kitty was helped across the bridge...It was time to say good bye...But this sweet cat had more love in the last half of her life than many of us have in a lifetime...

Try not to be sad for her passing, but smile because she was rescued and saved, and went on to have a lovely life with a lovely family, who misses her deeply...

This is Bigg's story.

As a former breeder, one of my greatest fears is that one of the kittens I brought 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 kitty with FIC to the shelter and just dumped her. 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 call me. She told me that the shelter had adopted her 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 she was relinquished to the shelter and I wasn't even sure if she 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 her and she called me!

My heart rested easier! We talked and talked, and she is happy and healthy and her new owner now knows how to get in touch with me should they have problems! 

We became friends on Facebook and I would see photos of Bigg's and read about this young woman's life and love, and I was so grateful that they saved each other, and in that way, saved me from grieving, too...

Those we have loved remain in our hearts forever...Fly Free, Sweet Biggs

Today is the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop...Share the Love!

ManCat Monday

No, we didn't eat all the freeze-dried chicken treats you left out on the table... without the lid on the container... while you were downstairs bathing the new arrival, Pixie!

Pixie, who is one of Coco's daughters, came back to live with us because her family is getting divorced and Pixie has had a pretty long history of FIE - Feline Inappropriate Elimination.

It is for the best that she come back to her birth home, so Teri can put her through her Rehab program and hopefully she can become a happy, healthy cat again. 

You will be hearing more about Pixie in the upcoming weeks, but today...It's all about us ManCats!

And our Bromance, hahameow!

Wordless Wednesday-NationalDress Up Your Pet Day!

We know there are other cats out there who dress up, but we kinda think we stand in a league of our own...

We have custom made clothes and we just ooze Cat Style!

We can go from High Fashion Paris Couture to Grunge Street Wear, although we never go out in the street! 

Here's to National Dress Up Your Pet Day!

And since it's Wednesday, why not Hop over to the #BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop and find out who else might be dressing up today (or running around naked, hahameow!)

ManCat Monday, Disco Style

Teri went back in time to find some ManCat photos she may never have shared before on our bloggie...back like almost 10 years! 

Yep, this fine young ManCat is none other than Disco, looking fit and trim, something we haven't seen around here in years, hahameow! 

But even though Disco's girth has changed, his absolutely endearing face has not, and that's why Teri falls in love with him over and over again every day (just like some other ladies and LadyCats out there!).

Simply Sunday Evening #BlogPaws Style

On the #BlogPaws Facebook page last week, there was a shout out for photos of anyone who had attended any of the 5 BlogPaws Pet Blogger/Social Media Conferences, so I went looking through my five BlogPaws Conference folders looking for photos from that first conference I went to in Columbus OH in 2010.

It brought back lots of great memories and gave me some smiles when I thought about how I made the decision to attend, and I'd like to share that story here and some photos, hoping that it will make you smile and give thought to coming to the 2015 BlogPaws Conference!

I hadn't been blogging very long at that time and I posted a query on my blog asking if anyone in the DC area was going. Here's a link to that post, and if you read the comments, you'll see someone said 'I'll go'!

http://furrydancecats.blogspot.com/2010/02/whos-going-to-blogpaws.html

And here's an excerpt from a post I did on my 'human' blog, talking about what I expected from going to my first BlogPaws Conference:

In a couple of weeks, I will be heading off to BlogPaws--a pet bloggers convention, with a blogger from DC who I 'follow' and it will be something fun, still cat oriented, but not like cat shows in the level of stress and unfriendly exhibitors! Carol, of Meir Cats, Chats and Fiber, is a fellow cat lover, and so much more! We have chatted and met and I am sure we won't run out of things to talk about on our  8 hour drive up to Columbus! In fact, we may have to feign napping just to hear quiet!

We both love good beer and German food, both are nearby the hotel in Columbus, so once we get settled into the hotel, we may be able to walk where ever we wish to go. The hotel has quite a history itself, and I'm looking forward to staying there. 

We are both taking cats with us, of course we are! We are getting adjoining rooms to make socializing easy and we are hoping to come away with lots of info and new friendships. When I retire, I would like to blog more, on a more health and behavior oriented cat blog and some of what I can learn at this conference would be helpful in learning how to 'market' myself and about blogging do's and don'ts, but mostly I am just looking forward to being around like-minded people and learning from the experience, stepping into something new with a feel of familiarity...

So, if that sounds like fun to you, and you want to start off the new year pursuing a goal of personal and professional growth, register now for the best and biggest national educational conference for pet blogger, May 28-30 in Nashville:

http://blogpaws.com/events/2015-conference/ 

and don't forget to use my special 10% discount code when you do! BP15-Amb-Teri-10

And to keep up with the latest posts about the upcoming #BlogPaws 2015 Conference, just take a look at the linked posts below!