Between Naps
a blog by Simon Teakettle III (Terzo)
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Terzo's
Virtual
MEWSical
Society
FAQs about Terzo's
Virtual Musical Society
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Training Your Cat Like a Dog (Bobbi's award-winning article, free to download for your PURRsonal use only) |
A new year, a new blog! If you
missed my December entries,
click on the 2011 blog above (or HERE).
LINKS:
The Cat Site
Spoil
My Kitty
Sugar
Plum's Shoppe
The
Discount Pet SuperStore
The Pride Cartoon
The Cat House
in San Diego
February 18, 2012:
Some of our MEWSical Society members keep in close touch, sending letters (Tyler) and photos. You'll see Willow doing yoga at the right, and Bailey in his basket.
Many of us were "rescue" cats, either adopted from a shelter or "found" somewhere. Bailey and Cuddles were among a colony of cats and kittens living on a business property in Florida. They were adopted by the humans who owned the business, and taken with them when they moved to Montana.
Bobbi found me at the Ottawa Humane Society I hadn't been living outdoors in a feral colony, but rather in a home with my mom and siblings. That may explain why I'm such a Well Behaved Kitty.
Or it could be that she's such a good kitty-trainer. Everybody should read her award-winning article, How to Train a Cat Like a Dog. It won $1000 from Sticky Paws at the 2002 Cat Writers' Association annual conference.
Here's a clever kitty book reviewer named Melon, reading a book written by one of our fans: http://tinyurl.com/6qqakt7
February 11, 2012:
We're celebrating Valentine's Day all next week. I'm wearing my "I Love Hugs" sweater, which is very cozy, and waiting for Bobbi to give me some Valentine treats.
Have you checked out the Cat Facts page? Bobbi keeps adding stuff there, and just included something about how brave cats are. A friend send us a quote by SAKI: Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance. Many people see this in action all the time, along with big dogs and tiny kittens who have become pals.
February 3, 2012:
February is Pet Dental Awareness Month. I'm not going to fib and say that this makes me Happy. I'm Very Good about letting Bobbi clean my ears and clip my nails, and I love to be Brushed. But I'm not crazy about having her stick a toothbrush in my mouth!
However, last fall I had to spend an Entire Day at the vet to have my teeth cleaned, and I know the only way to keep that from happening again is to let her brush my teeth. Fortunately, she found a little rubber Finger Brush that's soft, and the toothpaste tastes pretty good.
I'm sure everyone knows you shouldn't use Human Toothpaste, but if you don't have the Special Pet Toothpaste on hand, you can use some baking soda. It seems to be the brushing that's important, not the paste.
Bobbi also adds something to my Water Bowl. It tastes great, and is supposed to help keep my teeth clean.
Speaking of Bobbi, she was interviewed on a local radio station this week. She spoke to Mitchell Caplan on CHUO's popular program, Click, discussing how Prose to Go was produced and her role as the Managing Editor. She read the beginning of Crickets, one of her contributions to the book, in which Simon Teakettle plays a Significant Part. Listen to the interview HERE.
As you can see by the photo to the right, I slept throught the Whole Thing.
January 28, 2012:
When I first started my MEWSical Society, I had no idea how popular it would become. We capped the membership at 33 cats (and the parrot, Mrs. Doyle, who was one of the founders). But cats and other animals clamoured to join. So I agreed to create a Fan Club. Now that group has 66 cats, 35 dogs, 2 birds, 2 alpacas, 1 llama, 1 horse, 1 rabbit, 2 beta fish, and 4 hens.
A few of our original Society members have retired, resulting in a couple of replacements and several promotions. See the new line-up on the revised MEWSical Society page.
Meanwhile, despite valuable assistance from the world-famous percussion group, NEXUS, I found that providing accompaniment for our Virtual MEWSical Productions was a daunting task. I have just four paws, after all, and Mrs. Doyle has just two claws to drum on her cage, perch, and any other object she can find.
So I've enlisted a few of my jungle pals to help me out. You'll see that our Virtual Orchestra includes a camel, a rhino, a ram, an elephant, and a giraffe, and two hippos. The blue one is an offspring of the blue hippo in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
You'll see bongos and a rectangular wooden drum tuned so that it produces different tones, along with a rainstick. Off to the right is a large one from Kenya.
January 20, 2012:
Many years ago, my predecessor (Simon II, aka Tiki) wrote an article for CATS Magazine called Cats vs Dogs: A Continuing Controversy. It later appeared in Mewsings. Now, one of our favorite authors, Allia Zobel Nolan, has expanded that idea, canvassing cats around the world to share why they'd rather be cats than dogs. With charming illustrations, this little book is just large enough for a feline to sit on, holding a page open to something they want to share, such as Cats don't beg. It's not our style. We simply put on our "if I don't get a treat this second I'll die face." See a full description and a link to the publisher on our Favorite Cat Books page.
January 13, 2012:
This is the first of three Fridays this year that fall on the 13th. The other two are in April and July, and this year they're 13 weeks apart! There are lots of Fascinating Facts about why 13 is considered unlucky, which you'll find on our Facts page, and information about black cats on the Cat Facts page.
Sammy Olson is just one of the black cats in my MEWSical Society. He looks a lot like Tiki, who also had just a tiny white locket. Other black members include Tyler Coxon, Natasha (Nat the Brat) Lennick, Charlie Heenan, Jorgito Jacobson, and Pigeon Stowe.
January 7, 2012:
I am a Very Good Kitty. For that reason, we don't need Steve Dale's terrific new ebook, Good Cat! But Steve's cat, Roxy, is a member of our MEWSical Society, so it's only right that I promote his book. As another MEWSical Society human pal, Darlene Arden, has said, Dale ferrets out the answers from internationally known experts, as well as from his own expertise as a Certified Animal Behavior Consultant.
She also mentions that Tribune Media, who host Steve's award-winning column, has published both this and a companion ebook, Good Dog! Bobbi was on Steve's popular radio show in October, 2007, when she left me alone (yikes!) to visit Chicago.
Bobbi promised me she'd put a full description of Good Cat! on the cat books' page, HERE. Steve also has a great website and blog.
January 1, 2012:
Happy New Year!
We're celebrating by announcing that we now have 66 cats, 35 dogs, 2 birds, 2 alpacas, 1 llama, 1 horse, 1 rabbit, 2 beta fish, and 4 hens in our Fan Club!
One is a Bengal kitten, who likes to sleep upside down. Here's Kyara Seguin, who lives in Gatineau, Quebec, with her older sister, Nala.
Another is Mactavish Cameron, a Sheltie who has been nicknamed Tavarotti, because he likes to sing! He lives in Nova Scotia.
And we have two darling Rottweilers, Max and Marley Preston, from British Columbia, who like to cuddle on the couch.
We've been asked about our hens. They live in Santa Monica, with a dog and three cats, and are named after legendary sit-com stars. Here are Lucy & Ethel (named after the I Love Lucy friends), admiring each other.
Their sisters, Laverne & Shirley, make up the rest of the Halperin Hens, much loved by the dog Huxley, who belongs to the Fan Club along with Halperin cats Salem, Boo and Claire.
Willow Atherton-Reid doing yoga:
Bailey Russo relaxing in his basket:
Sitting in the February sun.
And curled up on my fur bed (which is on top of my paw print blanket.
Some of my percussion instruments, laid out on the piano bench.
And the members of my Virtual Orchestra:
Sammy Olson, Thunder Bay, Ontario.
