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MEWSLETTER 66 10 JUNE 2008 Hi there and a very warm head-butting, belly-rubbing, purry-rumbling welcome to all the new Subscribers who visited by way of the open-cat-flap policy we here, at the Daily Mews Mansion, adopt. Sorry this Mewsletter is slightly later than anticipated. This was due to gremlins attacking my editing package so that I was forced to look at the computer screen and yell incomprehensibly at it hoping it would understand and sort out the problem. I also had to attend a number of hospital appointments recently which made me too tired to do anything after wards so I do hope I’m forgiven for the tardy arrival of the Mewsletter. I won’t go into too many details here because I know some of you don’t really want to know about my health issues – this being a Mewsletter about cats – but for the next 10 weeks I’ll be attending hospital up to 4 times a week for treatment. So the next couple of issues of the Mewsletter may be sent out later and may be shorter. Hopefully you’ll stick with me through this little ‘blip!’ Once again, I appreciate all my prayer warriors and those of you who do contact me on a regular basis to see how I am. A strange thing has been happening in the Daily Mews Mansion. All the cats have been spraying willy-nilly around the house. Obviously, something is upsetting them and I think I know what it might be. A friend has recently been over to decorate my dining room. Gone is the little sofa which was part of the Mewsers’ territory for over 22 years; many of the items that were cluttering up the dining room were spread throughout the other rooms in the house so that my friend Gary had more room to work in. I got quite depressed as the house looked like a garbage truck had exploded disgorging all its contents everywhere. However, it was a good opportunity to start sifting through unwanted items and recycle them or give them to charity shops. One website I found to enable me to do this is called www.freecycle.org and I believe it’s available worldwide. You type in your area and find a local community. No money changes hands and all items that are offered are collected by the person who wants them. It’s really liberating to create more space. The shelves are now sporting wide gappy smiles where I took out huge numbers of books to make way for the mountain of other books that needed a home. Once I have the dining room back to ‘normal’ I shall get a Feliway diffuser so that the cats will feel more relaxed about life and hopefully, they will stop spraying. I will also get some Walnut Bach Flower Remedy (which is used for change) and sprinkle a few drops in their drinking water. Having used it before, I know it works. As cats hate change to their routine I can only hope that the spraying is a temporary thing brought about because they’re unhappy because of the changes, not because they disagree with my choice of colours in the dining room! I asked in the previous Mewsletter if any one has a clever cat, one that can solve problems, for example and I mentioned when Sam walked in the paw prints in the snow so that he wouldn’t get his feet wet. Well, while my friend Gary was decorating the dining room, he was moving the step ladder around and it makes a horrible clanking noise. None of the cats like this noise – and neither do I! Ollie had come into the kitchen through the cat flap but once he heard the noise of the ladder, he went back out again. It was obvious that he wanted to come inside but was too frightened to pass through the dining room because of the ladder being moved around. What did he do to solve this problem? I went upstairs a few moments later to the back bedroom and there he is, sitting on the windowsill waiting for me to open the window to let him in with a look on his face as if to say: ‘what kept you?’ So he solved the problem of how he could safely get into the house and avoid the clanking ladder at the same time. Who said cats were stupid???? The Daily Mewsers certainly aren’t, that’s for sure! And cats – and dogs – aren’t the only animals that are clever and solve problems. In Japan, for example, crows sit patiently on the kerbside at a zebra crossing on a university campus. As soon as the lights go red, the birds, following the other pedestrians, hop onto the crossing and place walnuts in front of the stationary cars before returning to the pavement. The lights change to green and the cars trundle over the walnuts, cracking them open. When the lights return to red, the crows simply amble back onto the crossing to retrieve their ready-served meals! Billy and Timmy had their annual boosters last week and both have been pronounced A1 and in perfect health for their almost 12 years. Both have teeth in good condition with very little tartar and both have lost a few grams of weight since their last weigh-in. They never were overweight but now they are in the ideal range and Kevin, our wonder-vet, is very pleased with their overall health situation. Both Timmy and Billy were grateful that the micro-chips they had last year enable Kevin to take their temperature without a cold thermometer going into places that no thermometer should ever go! So that was a good choice as well! Gloria from EMRO informed me that GiveMeaning are allowing them until the end of July to raise the much needed funds to keep the shelter open. So if you can give, please follow the links on the Home Page: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/emro_update.htm With the emphasis on the credit crunch and the financial troubles affecting all of us, Jamaka in the US wrote this to me in an email recently: ‘Not everyone knows people and not everyone even cares to try to find sanctuary for their furry family members when faced with such traumatic developments as losing their house and being forced to relocate. With that in mind, numerous groups are trying to pass legislation and do other things to ensure that cats and others so affected are not made voiceless victims. Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, USA, has on its website (http://www.bestfriends.org) a link to an article describing this sad situation and true to form, they have a toll-free telephone number listed for those facing this situation: 1-888-995-HOPE(4673). This is the number of The Hope Now Alliance, and a call to them might help with resources and ideas on the subject. Also on the same theme, Paul Gifford sent me a link which shows that people can get cat food from a Food Pantry system. Here’s the link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080602/ap_on_re_us/uneasy_economy_pets *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* BOOK QUIZ: The quiz last time only elicited one intrepid entrant: Jared Kline in Belgium, who won an autographed copy of Marilyn Edward’s book: ‘Cats of Moon Cottage.’ Here are the answers to the quiz: 1. Why does Marilyn apologise to the author and playwright Tennessee Williams? 2. Why is the grey cat called ‘Pushkin’? 3. At the last count (Spring 2007) how many cats were allowing Marilyn to share their lives with her and what were their names? 4. Why is Nora the pianist so special? Who is she and where does she live? 1. Because of his book called ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ 2. Pushkin is called after Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, the greatest of all Russian writers and poets. 3. Fannie, Titus, Pushkin and Gilly 4. Nora is a cat from Philadelphia who plays the piano and ironically she’s on our tv shows on Channel 5 this week under ‘Extraordinary Animals.’ I want the author to the book titles below and if you have a website you can nominate it, or you can nominate a favourite site (apart from the Daily Mews!) A modest prize will be given for the first respondent so hurry up and don’t miss out! Who wrote the following:
Send your answers to p.dewberry@ntlworld.com *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ARTICLES: Continuing the theme about clever cats, Marjorie Dorfman writes about smart cats and wonders whether we are smart enough for our cats? Here’s the link: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/how_smart_is_your_cat.htm Lynn Schiffhorst’s latest story in the Honey series is about Honey’s grandson, Schmaltzy and his unique gift. You can read it here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/schmaltzy_sees_the_spirits.htm Jim Colasanti Jr has written another beautifully crafted story about Buster, the Hospice Dog who stays with patients until they cross over into the next world. Read it here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/the_hospice_dog.htm CAPTION COMPETITION: The competition drew a wonderful response with some really great captions so that I had a hard time picking a winner. However, I chose Barbara Schatz from Oakland, California, for her entry: ‘Oh no, you didn’t!’ Well done, Barbara! A prize will be sent to you shortly. Check here for this month’s caption competition: http://www.thedailymews.com/KittyBits/caption_competition3.htm CAT CHAT: Clara Wersterfer in the US wrote another lovely story about her cat Honey Girl and the day she brought in not one, but two, baby squirrels. You can read about Honey here: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/honey_and_the_squirrels.htm Judy Murphy in Canada had an accident recently and her cat Clara didn’t leave her side. Read about Kitty Nurse here: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/kitty_nurse.htm Joyce Briscoe in the UK wrote to tell me about her little Siamese boy, Ollie, and how it took a while for him to win round Millie, her big brown cat. You can read about what happens here: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/Ollie_and_the_big_brown_cat.htm Christopher, a 12 year old boy asked his mother for a calico (tortoiseshell) kitten for his birthday. Little did they know that Pollyanna would save Chris’s life. Read about Pollyanna, the angel cat here: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/pollyanna_angel_cat.htm Technical Problems, by Lady Cat, in Boulder, Colorado, made me smile because Sweetums, the little cat, was sick in the remote control unit which meant her Mama couldn’t watch television or go on line that day. Have your cats done something like that to stop you doing something you wanted to do, so that you’d spend more time with them? http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/technical_problems.htm Robin Wagner in PA, USA, wrote a lovely story about Tess, a little calico cat who landed on all four paws when she was given a second chance with Robin and his family. You can read it here: http://www.thedailymews.com/catchat/tess's_dream.htm ED KOSTRO: June is ‘Adopt a Cat’ month and Ed has written a poem as a tribute to all cats, in the hope that many of them will be found loving homes with new families. Did you know that millions of cats are born each year in the US and only a handful survive in a family home? Isn’t that shocking? Here’s the link to Ed’s Author’s Den poem: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/ViewPoetry.asp?id=227394&authorid=14300 JIMMY: Our resident Feline Correspondent, Jimmy, has written yet another thought-provoking piece for you to inwardly digest and ruminate on this month. You can read him here: http://www.thedailymews.com/mewsersmewsings/pawerful_beyond_measure.htm WILLI WHISKAS: We’ve all been on holiday and encountered the local feline population who hang around you with pleading eyes and forlorn faces. Carol Turner and her husband, John, were greeted at Paphos airport, Cyprus, with most of the island’s resident strays inviting them to part with their money. Read Carol’s hilarious account here: http://www.thedailymews.com/Williwhizkas/Barnham.htm That about sums it up for now. I apologise that this is a much abbreviated Mewsletter and many of the items that would have gone onto the website have been omitted. All being well I shall include them over time and I ask for your forgiveness and compassion. Times are a wee bit difficult for me right now. Please continue to send in your feedback, good, bad or indifferent, and if you have any comments regarding anything written here, just send them in. Take care and until the next time Have a happy summer, Love from Pauline, Billy, Timmy, Sam and Ollie BACK TO THE MEWSLETTER Archive Index
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