The Scratching Post: issue 3 September 9 2013

Hi everyone and a warm – if a bit belated – welcome to the 3^rd issue of The Scratching Post, your ‘In-between Mewsletter’. 

We’ve had a glorious summer here in the UK, peppered with a few colossal thunderstorms but the best and longest stretch of unbroken sunshine for several decades. I can’t believe I’ve been wearing my shorts and skimpy tee-shirts for over 2 months!

HOT NEWS:

Laura Dumm (who has illustrated many of my articles and has her own section in the Humour Bit on the website) and her husband, Gary, are having A GRAND UNVEILING of their incredible mural ‘Love letter to Cleveland’ on Tuesday 10^th September at The back of Orange Blossom Press, 3 doors down from the West Side Market
1935 West 25th Street, in Ohio City, Cleveland, Ohio 44113
from 5.00 pm – 7.00pm. If you live in the area stop by and say ‘hello’ and stand in awe at such wonderful talent!

It was Robert Burns who said: ‘The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!’

And this past week – knowing that I had millions of things to do and very little time to accomplish everything, I had a severe attack of the ‘something nasties’ which knocked me off my feet and laid me so low I lost 8 pounds in weight in 3 days and rendered me weak as a kitten for 5 days. I’m going to be off line from Wednesday 18^th September until Friday 4^th October and in addition to the several writing projects I have outstanding, there are also 2 manuscripts that I’m editing for two different people. So unfortunately, I have not had sufficient time to update the website or organise the articles I was intending to write. Ho hum … I think Rabbie Burns was on to something.

As I won’t be online for that period, please do not send me any forwards UNLESS it is cat related, or you’re entering the book quiz or caption competition. Just 5 days of not being on my computer yielded me over 1,000 emails when I logged on this morning. I just can’t cope with that number, so please accept my request in the spirit in which I’m asking it and just hold on to any thing of note until after 5^th October.

Thank you.     

The upside of being laid low (there is usually a silver lining to these things) was that I caught up on my reading. I managed to read ‘A cat called Norton’ by Peter Gethers in 2 days and began reading ‘For the love of Norton’ the following day. What delightful books; what a sweet little kitty cat! Has anyone else read these books? What do you think of Norton?

OK; on with your Scratching Post items:

Marilyn Edwards, whose fabulous new book ‘Magnificat’ I’ve reviewed (see link below), has kindly donated two signed copies of her latest books: White Chin and Magnificat as prizes. So enter the quizzes and you may find yourself winning one or even both book! 

BOOK QUIZ:

Last month’s Book Quiz had two joint winners: Helen Bilowus and Jared Kline who both submitted 3 correct entries. Both will receive a prize in due course.

For the latest Book Quiz, please check out this link and submit your responses by 4^th October to p.dewberry@ntlworld.com

CAPTION COMPETITION

The Caption Competition netted some interesting captions and it was quite hard to pick a winner as they were all really good. However, Suzanne Milowych just tipped the scales for me with her winning entry. To see Suzanne’s caption and all the other great captions, please click on the link below:

Caption Competition 37   

For this month’s caption competition please click on the link. As always, you can enter up to 5 captions – nothing smutty please – by 4^th October. Send your captions to p.dewberry@ntlworld.com.  My thanks to Dan Weiss for his beautiful picture of Johnnie II

LINKS:

Just once in a while I am privileged to be sent a book which I really, really enjoy. Marilyn Edwards’ latest book, Magnificat, is one such book – I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it. Here’s the link to the review I wrote which is in the Book and Product Review section:

Magnificat

Pam in Australia sent me this link of a cat dressed in a shark’s costume on a Roomba chasing a duckling:

http://youtu.be/Of2HU3LGdbo

This is incredible – you will truly be amazed at the ingenuity of people making something out of nothing:

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UJrSUHK9Luw

Britta in Canada sent me this stirring link:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/a6W2ZMpsxhg?feature=player_embedded

And this one which I just loved:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/18F_sIaimGM?rel=0"

Robert Blau (US) sent these:

http://felinefriendschicago.org/www.felinefriendschicago.org/Feline_Friends_Chicago_Fostering.html

http://felinefriendschicago.org/www.felinefriendschicago.org/Feline_Friends_Chicago_Home.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=thylacine&rlz=1CAACAC_enUS550US550&oq=thylacine&aqs=chrome..69i57j5j0l2.5704j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

http://www.pcrm.org/media/online/sep2013/experiments-will-expose-beagle-puppies-to-rabies

There is a link to a petition at the bottom of the page so do please sign it.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10379/10-things-we-can-all-learn-from-animals.html

My thanks, as always, to everyone who sends me links each month.

I hope you’re having a very enjoyable summer and hopefully the main Mewsletter will be with you sometime mid-way through October. I welcome feedback as you know: good, bad or indifferent – bring it on.

See you soon.

Take care, and lots of love

Pauline – editor
Sam – hearing impaired, meowing loudly, personal assistant to the editor
Casey – mischievous little tyke hell bent on making our lives as madcap as he is – and personal assistant to the personal assistant to the editor 

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