Hi there and a very warm welcome, head butt and belly rub to everyone who subscribed since the last Mewsletter went out.
Hey – guess what?! This is our 100th Mewsletter – woo hoo!!
So – are you getting used to your new look Daily Mews website? I’ve had some terrific feedback from you although there were a few who couldn’t quite navigate the new drop down boxes and find what they were looking for. But I’m sure, in time, you’ll get used to it and if ever you can’t find something, please just email me and ask – I’ll show you where it is.
A MEGA huge ‘thank you’ to those of you who very kindly sent donations to help offset the costs of the Mewsletter and the redesign and general upkeep of the website. Your names are now in the Hall of Fame; click on ‘Info’ then scroll down to ‘Subscribe to the Mewsletter’ where you’ll see a box with ‘Friends of the Mewsers’ – your name – and anyone else who would like to donate something – will be there for all time, for generations to come. Thank you again for your kindness.
Recently, two cats that I’ve been in correspondence with sparked my next idea. Princess Sophie of Southampton and Mischa of Torquay, in Devon (both UK) are 18 years old and 19 years old respectively. That got me thinking. (You can smell burning rubber – can’t you???)
Wouldn’t it be good to find out who is the oldest cat subscriber to the Daily Mews Mewsletter? To find out, this month – with the help of my technical wizard and guru of all things pc, I’ve put up a poll to find out your cats’ ages. Please go to the home page (www.thedailymews.com) where you’ll see Spring Poll. Just click on the link relating to your cats’ age, won’t you. I will report back in a future issue how old the oldest feline subscriber is. We might even do a feature with pictures – like a magazine interview kind of thing.
Mischa has also very kindly written a review of a product that Sam and Ollie sent her. I’ll give you the link a bit later in this Mewsletter.
Now something I’d like to ask you. Well, in fact, I have 3 questions to ask you – they’re not difficult – mainly yes or no answers.
- Would you - if I could figure out a way to do it – like a forum where you can chat to others when you visit the Daily Mews website?
- Would you – if I can figure out a way to do it – like to be able to upload your own stories/poems/items of interest – has to be cat related, of course – direct to the website? Obviously I’d have final choice – Editor’s rights, and all that gubbins, and you’d have to follow the submissions for guidelines before uploading anything.
- I forget what the third thing is at the moment. I got so excited at the prospect of doing a forum and having people upload their writings, that it clean went out of my head. I’ll come back to it!
But do give me your thoughts won’t you and I’ll see what the general consensus of opinion is. It may not be viable, but we can give it a go perhaps.
I’m sure some of you watch the genealogy programme on television: ‘Who do you think you are?’ – Well, Ollie and I tend to watch it while Sam sleeps nearby. But did you know you can find out your cat’s ancestors?
Leslie Lyons, who runs the well-known feline genetics laboratory at the University of California, believes that her £75.00 cat genome test can determine if a pet’s parents or grandparents belong to one of the 29 ‘major fancy breeds’. The test is primarily aimed at US cat owners but full details are available from the website:
For me, personally, I love my Sam and Ollie and am not bothered if they came from the wrong side of the tracks: a cat is a cat is a cat!!! But do let me know if you take the test and what you find out!!!
Obesity in Pets
Now you might just think that your cat is nicely rounded but you could be deluding yourself and underneath those layers of blubber lurk hidden dangers of aching joints, heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure; in fact all the illnesses and diseases that we humans can get if we our middles are too round and our bits and pieces dangle rather too near the floor!
The PDSA introduced a Pet Fit Club last year and you can see before and after pictures of very obese dogs and cats. It might open your eyes to the realisation that little Twinkles is not ‘fluffy’; he’s got a problem and it’s down to you, as his carer, to give him a better quality of life.
While I was looking for something else not remotely related to cats, this next link popped up. I loved it and was hooked watching all the other links connected to it. Hope you like it too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH2-_YCtSoU&feature=fvo&ad=25483279174
It’s very clever how it’s been done; hats off to people who are creative and can make us laugh.
This next link relates to Puppy Mills which should be banned in every country where they operate. Please click on the link below and make your voice heard:
http://www.capwiz.com/bestfriends/issues/alert/?alertid=62479306&type=CO
Robert Blau sent me a link to something that made me cry with outrage and disgust but then I started writing letters to everyone I hoped would listen. Please act – and act now – this HAS TO STOP!!!
Cats Killed in Gruesome Experiments:
CALENDAR COMPETITION:
This is a heads up for a 2014 cat and kitten calendar competition which comes from Cats Protection’s Derby adoption centre. Volunteer fundraiser, Rachael Gooding, is looking for print photos initially and 12 winners will be chosen by a panel of judges. The entry fee is £1.00 per photo. For more information email:
Not a million miles from my house – and further out in the wilds of Kent – is a sanctuary for endangered big cats. Last May (2012) two Amur leopard cubs were born, which offer hope for the future of the Amur leopard which has been hunted, virtually to extinction, for its fur. You’ll love this You Tube video of the cubs playing with their new pool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WReQIl_dTjM
OK – on with the MEWS:
ARTICLES:
Dan Weiss sent me an adorable photo of Johnnie II the other day. She looked really fed up and bored. Then Dan wrote a little something to go with the photo and you can see both here:
Debra J White who wrote this month’s story about Luke, an abandoned dog, in Canine Capers, has also written a two-parter about cats living in a rescue centre.
The Cats of 40th Place – part 1
John Grafton’s story ‘What is the cat doing in your mouth?’ (last month) garnered lots of praise – which I was happy to pass on to him. Because I like John’s style of writing, I’ve taken Clancy’s story out of Cat Chat and given him his own section. You’ll find it in the Articles link – scroll down until you see his name: John Grafton. This month I’m including two stories that he has written; one is another story about Clancy which I’m sure you’ll enjoy and the other is about Riley:
BOOK QUIZ:
Congratulations to Jared Kline in Belgium who won last month’s book quiz. The answers were:
Big Ginger: the life of a remarkable cat by Sylvia Murphy
Too narrow to swing a cat by Steve Haywood
Ships’ cats in war and peace by Val Lewis.
Now for this month’s quiz: Book Quiz
CAPTION COMPETITION:
Sandy Ash (from the US) submitted the winning entry to last month’s caption competition. You can find a list of all the entries here on this link:
All the entries last month were from the US. So come on the rest of you – from all around the world – have a go. If you don’t enter, you won’t win! Simple as that.
CANINE CAPERS:
Debra White is a wonderful writer; we’ve already featured a couple of her feline stories in Cat Chat before but this next one – about an abandoned dog who helped homeless children in Arizona – will inspire you.
CAT CHAT:
Sandy Edmunson wrote a little piece about her tabby Manx cat – Bob, who has a predilection for inspecting cupboard and bags.
FELINE FITNESS:
Do you have the right insurance for your pets?
A staggering number of people do not have pet insurance for either their cat or their dog (or bunnies). And often, when a decision has to be made to treat a cat without insurance, sometimes a heartbreaking decision determines the outcome – the cat is either left at the vets or is taken somewhere far from where it lives and dumped.
Equally, a huge number of people DO have insurance but it’s the wrong one. I found this out to my cost when Sam had to have dental treatment last year. Thinking I was covered, I told Kevin, our wonderful vet, to go ahead and treat Sam. Then when I made a claim I found I wasn’t covered.
The whole point is that when I got the policy originally either I didn’t read it properly or I didn’t understand it correctly – either way I wasn’t covered for lifetime cover and that’s not a good policy to have.
I can’t change Sam and Ollie’s policies now because they’re over the age of 8 so they’re stuck. But I was pleased to come across this article on insurance in a cat magazine that I get from www.fabcats.org. Here’s an extract:
Top tips for best cat insurance:
PET FIRST AID
Diana Sichta has written a timely piece on your cat’s safety when outside.
MEWSERS’ MEWSINGS:
Little Dumpty Roo has written another batch of her diary entries which you’ll enjoy. She is a Himalayan Lynk with attitude – bags of it – but she’s still adorable.
She lives with her Maid, Manservant and two other felines who are way beneath her in class, Willi Whiskas whom you already know because of his book and Dippi Duck. Now Dippi is severely disabled but when I asked her if she’d like to write about her life with a snooty upperclass Madam and a Gut Truck called Willi Whiskas, she readily wobbled to the challenge. She didn’t much care for Willi Whiskas but he is fascinated by her – probably because he’s never seen a disabled cat before.
You can read the first chapters of her Memoirs here on Dippi-Duck’s Demon (Wills, being her ‘demon’.)
Dumpty Roo’s Maid, Carol, has a radio show on Sunday afternoons from 4 – 6 and on Easter Sunday she is going to interview me on the radio. Can you imagine – MOI – on the radio!!! Like my mother always said ‘You have a face for radio!’
Naturally she is going to be asking me all sorts of questions to do with Sam and Ollie and the website will be under the spotlight as well – so if you’re interested – and I know you’re purring with anticipation, click on this link on Easter Sunday afternoon at 4.00 pm: (GMT)
Jimmy, who is our resident feline columnist, doesn’t shy away from unpleasant truths. He says what many of us fear to voice. This month he reflects on his home life.
Stormy has plenty to celebrate in her diary entry this month – quite apart from St Patrick’s Day on Sunday 17th March, she’s brought in a whole feast of celebrations world wide worthy of a mention.
NAPPING ON A SUNBEAM:
When a brown tabby started frequenting the front lawns of Lynn and Jerry Schiffhorst’s house, they called him Andy. And when he was tragically hit by a car and killed, they didn’t realise how deep their grief would be.
Helen Dowd has written a lovely, though-provoking piece on Rainbow Bridge. She meets all the animals she’s ever known in her life – they all come to meet her – but is it all what it seems …?
PRODUCT REVIEW:
Mischa, who is 19 years young, has written her review of a Kong Catnip filled Carrot:
If you have read any good cat books and you’d like to write a review, send it to me please at Pauline@thedailymews.com If your cats have enjoyed playing with a new toy or eaten a particularly delicious meal or a treat and they’d like to write a review, please ask them to contact me at Pauline@thedailymews.com
To everyone who asked about my cataract operation – all is good now thank you but I may have to have the other eye done later on this year!
That about wraps it up for this month. Happy St Patrick’s Day to every one who celebrates it; Happy Easter to everyone and I’ll see you sometime in April. Don’t forget – I value your feedback, good, bad or indifferent.
Take care,
Love
Pauline – Editor-in-chief
Sam – Hearing Impaired Special Advisor
Ollie – Mischievous Imp and Special Advisor to Sam
A Cats Purr
"Cats make one of the most satisfying sounds in the world: they purr ...
A purring cat is a form of high praise, like a gold star on a test paper. It is reinforcement of something we would all like to believe about ourselves - that we are nice."
Roger A Caras