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MEWSLETTER 65 APRIL 18 2008 Hi there and a very warm welcome to the new subscribers who braved the sudden snow falls over Easter here in the UK to clatter through the cat flap to rest by the hearth in the Daily Mews Mansion. You are very welcome, and please feel free to send this Mewsletter in its entirety to all your feline loving family members and friends. We also had another more concentrated burst of snow on Sunday 6th April and I woke up at 7.00 am to several inches of snow. There is something really magical about snow – there is that muffled quietness that while you’re still lying in bed, you can tell from the tentative flow of the traffic outside that something is different about the day. It’s strange how the weather can be so different. In Monday’s (7th April) newspaper there were two pictures: one from April 6th 2007 when the UK was basking in a heat wave the like of which we hadn’t seen for zillions of years which showed people on a packed beach in Brighton and one from the previous day which showed various parts of the UK under several inches of snow with people sledging, building snowmen and generally having a jolly time! I was in hospital throughout March and April 2007 trying not to die of the flu so I missed the heat wave. By the time I came out in mid-late April it was still very hot but I was not able to go out in it. Our summer – if you can call it that – was then a very miserable affair with most of the country being under several feet of water. Still, this is the year of La Niña which has the opposite effect to El Niño, so let’s hope we ALL get a good summer this year. But it just goes to show what a difference a year can make! Ollie rushed out and raced up the pergola and then walked like a tight-rope walker along the two-inch wide beams which were thick with snow. Every now and then he’d shake out a leg and I held my breath in case he lost his balance and fell. The sky was falling all round him and it reminded me of when he first began writing his diaries and he first discovered snow. He rushed back inside to tell Garfield that the sky was breaking into little pieces and making a mess in our garden – and who was going to clear it all up? http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/kittendiaries12.htm Billy and Timmy took one look through the cat flap and decided that a day inside was on the cards and they each took to different ends of the sofa where they both settled down to a thorough wash and brush up. Sam was very clever. He walked in the footsteps of Ollie’s earlier foray and didn’t actually tread in any of the snow. He had a dilemma though when he wanted to go in one direction but the footsteps went in another. He decided to brave it and with a poignant little mew he ran up the garden path crying and shaking out his legs as he ran, before thinking better of the whole thing and then running back until he found the footprints which he then stepped into. As he came back through the open door he looked up at me and meowed. I told him I was sorry about the snow and hoped it would disappear quickly so that he could go out to the toilet. Sam’s problem solving abilities are not unique to our animal companions but many humans don’t recognise that their cats or dogs can and do often solve problems coming up with some very ingenious solutions of their own. How did Sam know that it would be better to tread in the footprints in the snow rather than just tread in the snow to get to where he wanted to be? When little Ellie lived with us, she had this funny habit of waiting on a chair in the dining room. She would sit there for ages until someone – usually Timmy – came by. And for some inexplicable reason, Timmy would always walk under the chair she was waiting on and as he drew out the other side of it he would stop and Ellie would get on his back. He would then walk with her to the kitchen – only a few yards away – where he would then stop by her food bowl and she would get off. It was almost as if she had hailed a taxi to take her to her favourite restaurant! My one regret is that I don’t have any photos of this to show you. Have any of your cats (or dogs) done something which made you realise that they created a solution to a problem? I’d love to hear your stories. Write to me in the usual way. Kim Cady has a blog where she is investigating kitten mills – you’ve no doubt heard of puppy mills but did you know that mills exist for virtually every single animal you can think of? Visit Kim’s blog and get informed – then write letters to try and get this dreadful practice stopped: http://network.bestfriends.org/Blogs/PostDetail.aspx?bp=7816 The Humane Society contacted me with a petition to sign to support an EU ban on the seal product trade. To sign this petition, please click on the link below. Thank you. https://community.hsus.org/campaign/protectseals_pledge_challenge/forward/ieke8nb4h75e3mix? Our amazing vet, Kevin, ran in the London Marathon on Sunday, 13th April completing it in a very respectable time of 4 hours 33 minutes and 55 seconds. He managed to raise over $6,000 dollars (£3,000) which is a fantastic achievement. The Cats’ Protection (formerly The Cats’ Protection League) has a wonderful magazine called ‘The Cat’ which - if you subscribe to the Cats Protection for £15.00 a year - you’ll receive quarterly. It has some great informative articles, news, features, reviews, celebrity interviews from the feline world, picture competitions, giveaways and lots of other good things – plenty of reasons to subscribe and help the cats in the care of the charity. For more information please click on this link: The Blue Cross is an animal hospital and charity which tries to home all animals in its centres. On Friday, 16th May they’re holding another ‘Tea Party’, and they’re inviting animal lovers and pet owners to get together and hold a Tea Party in aid of the charity’s work. Apparently we Brits love any excuse for a cup of tea (apart from me that is – I can’t stand tea!) and we consume a staggering 185 million cups a day! If you like the idea of taking part, simply invite your friends, neighbours or colleagues to your Tea Party and then ask them to make a donation to the Blue Cross. For some novel ideas to make your Tea Party both eventful and successful visit: www.bluecrossteaparty.org.uk or you can telephone 08444 993 663and ask for a free Tea Party Event pack. It’s a great joy living with cats. You live on the edge, never quite knowing when the next unexpected thing will take place. I get up each morning and most of the time my cats are all in their little beds dotted around the dining room, curled up in ‘C’-shaped balls, grudgingly opening one eye to acknowledge that I’m up. Occasionally, though, they are already up and walking around and I wonder if they’ve been up to mischief and they’re waiting for me to tread on the entrails of some poor despatched field mouse or bird, with their paws clasped over their mouths to stifle their giggles. The wonderful thing about having cats is that – like people who walk their dogs every day – you get to meet people of like minds and some of my friendships have been brought about because of someone’s cat first. One such friendship I made earlier this month was with an absolutely wonderful writer of cat books, Marilyn Edwards, who has written 4 amazingly brilliant books based on her own cats – the Cats of Moon Cottage. Marilyn graciously allowed me to ‘interview’ her and you can see the results of this interview here on this link: http://www.thedailymews.com/bookproductreviews/marilyn_edwards.htm *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* BOOK QUIZ: The answers to the last quiz are as follows: 1. The Language of Miracles : Amelia Kinkade 2. Animals and the Afterlife : Kim Sheridan 3. Embracing the Beloved : Stephen and Ondrea Levine The super-sleuths who got the answers right are:
Well done, both of you. Now for our special quiz which is courtesy of Marilyn Edwards. All the answers can be found on Marilyn’s website: www.thecatsofmooncottage.co.uk
The prize will be either a hard-backed copy of one of Marilyn’s four books (you get to choose) which will be signed by her or a paperback copy – which will be unsigned. Marilyn would like to offer another prize for someone who has read one of the books. So the prize for the correct answer will be a signed dedicated hardback of choice by the winner made out and posted to whomever they would like to receive it. The question is:
Send your answers to p.dewberry@ntlworld.com *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ARTICLES: Having two cats is nice. Having three cats is even nicer as you’ll see from this article I wrote when Charlie first came to live at The Daily Mews Mansion: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/doublethepleasure.htm It’s that time of year when us hardy and stoic gardeners face the overgrown flower beds and try to create some order out of the chaos. Read what happened when I attempted to garden with the help (or should that be hindrance) of the Daily Mewsers: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/gardeningfeline.htm Lynn Schiffhorst has written the next instalment in the Honey series about the blind girl, Malkah and her little cat Honey. You can read it here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/matzo_with_cats.htm James Colasanti Jr. has written another great story for us to delight in. Click here to read it: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/say_goodnight_gracie.htm BOOK AND PRODUCT REVIEWS: Daily Mews Subscriber Slim Haines reviewed ‘A Prince Among Dogs’ which was edited by Callie Smith Grant: http://www.thedailymews.com/bookproductreviews/prince_among_dogs.htm Cat Fables by Vernon Coleman: http://www.thedailymews.com/bookproductreviews/cat_fables.htm BREED PROFILE: The wonderful Russian Blue is our featured breed this month. Click here for more information: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/Russian_Blue.htm CAPTION COMPETITION The caption competition for April can be found on this link: http://www.thedailymews.com/KittyBits/caption_competition2.htm The winner to the first caption competition is Sandy Harris from America. Sandy wrote: "Oh Romeo, whyfore can't you openeth this window?" Well done Sandy. Sandy has a great website called: www.sundropdesigns.com CAT CHARITIES: I’ve written in the past about EMRO which is an organisation based in Cairo which cares for the Egyptian Mau cats. They are in desperate need of additional funding in order to keep doing this much-needed work. Sadly, the Egyptian Mau, whilst being a national treasure is much-maligned and is routinely rounded up and killed in horrific ways. One way to support EMRO is by sponsorship. The Daily Mews was going to sponsor Eskander a couple of years ago – that was before my health situation took a decided wayward turn and all charitable thoughts sadly flew out the window. However, the Daily Mewsers have ALL dug deep into their PAWKET money and have offered to sponsor a Mau. We will bring you news hopefully in a later issue of the Mewsletter. Please click on this link to read the latest report from Gloria Lauris, who is the treasurer and co-founder of the EMRO organisation and do what you feel you can to help. http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/emro_update.htm CAT CHAT Clara Wersterfer in Texas, wrote the delightful story about her cats showing great interest in the baby ducks that the Mama Duck had brought along to show her. http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/cats_and_ducks.htm HUGE thanks go to Gary and Laura Dumm for the fantastic illustration to go with Clara’s story. Thank you! Annette Maraist recently sent me a postscript to a story she’d written sometime last year. At the time she’d written about what happened when her cat, Crystal, had passed away and how she was driving in the rain when she saw a rainbow. This extra piece is at the foot of her original story so scroll down to read it: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/promiseofrainbow.htm Lady Cat in Colorado sent me an amusing piece about her cat, Sweetums. It would seem that Sweetums loved the mobile phone and would take it and lie on it. If the phone wasn’t available, she’d take the remote control! Could it be that she was trying to tell her Human, Lady Cat, something!!! Here’s the link: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/phone_fetish.htm Lady Cat would welcome the Daily Mews’ Subscribers comments on this and you’ll find her email address at the foot of her article. She also has a great website, check it out here: http://community.webtv.net/RUFFIAN333 Seema Shahane, in India, sent me an interesting account of a sad situation which happened recently. Her father rescued a tiny kitten which had been mauled by a stray dog but her two cats and dog reacted very strangely when they saw that the kitten had died. Here’s the link to Seema’s story: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/when_they_saw_death.htm Seema asked if animals know when one of their own dies. Do they recognise death as we humans do? Write to me with your views – I’d be very interested in your comments. ED KOSTRO: A new little stray cat has made her home in Ed Kostro’s family and in his heart as this lovely poem tells: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/funny_little_valentine.htm FELINE FITNESS: Litter is a bone of contention for many responsible cat slaves. Which is the best type to get? I’ve done some research to help you find the best one for your cats. http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/litter_comparisons.htm Following on from litter and litter trays, Mike Kolonel in Canada sent me a link to an interesting website where Dodie Stevens has designed a fabric cover for her cat’s litter tray. You can check it out on this link and if you want to buy one, just follow the links. http://www.kittypretty.com/index.htm The article I wrote in November about Litter Tray Blues prompted someone to tell me about a poor cat who’d begun to toilet behind the television set. Her tray had been positioned right near the front door and she'd been in the middle of using her tray when the post had arrived through the letter box. One item - a rather heavy book - actually fell on her head which naturally frightened the life out of her. She ran to the only hiding place she knew - behind the television - and carried out her toilet there. Her owners were advised to move the litter tray well away from the front door and as a precautionary measure a guard was placed over the letter box so that no further mail could fall out to scare her. It took some time but she now goes in her new spot quite happily. So please, consider very carefully when positioning your cat’s litter tray and remember to have one tray more than the cats you have. Therefore, if you have 4 cats, you’ll need 5 litter trays in different places, not all lined up in a row like a bank of latrines! MEWSERS’ MEWSINGS: Jimmy, our very own Daily Mews Roving Reporter, has written another very thought-provoking article this month. As all felines know one of life’s great worries is whether or not they will be fed. Read what Jimmy has to say here: http://www.thedailymews.com/mewsersmewsings/dish_full.htm PURRFECT POETRY Slim Haines in Kent sent me this poem a little while ago about a sheepdog’s final moments at the vets. http://www.thedailymews.com/poems/sheepdog_passing.htm That seems to be it for this time. I do hope you’ll enjoy this issue of the Mewsletter and remember that your feedback – good or bad – is always very welcome. Take care until the next time … Your friend Pauline, with Billy, Timmy, Sam and Ollie giving you all high fives! BACK TO THE MEWSLETTER Archive Index
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