Cats Are Good for your Health

06/27/2014

For those who don’t know, my life mascot and furry soul mate, Hobbes, passed away in early June. He was 17. It was completely heart shattering. I felt closer to him than anyone, having him near me for 17 years, a constant in my life and losing him was very tough.

I allowed myself time to mourn and fall apart for several days and then began to pick myself up the following. In the midst of this was my daughter’s birthday and other activities so to be a good mother I took maybe one to two days to completely grieve (alone) and nothing else.. the next few days I maintained a positive outlook for our children before they arrived back home.

The days following that we began to speak about whether we would want another pet and if it would be a dog or a cat.. David was eventually open that he would want another cat because his bond with Hobbes turned him into a full blown cat person. We waited until we could have a family meeting about the passing of Hobbes and if we would want another pet. We looked online the next whole night for babies to adopt and found a little Manx which looked like a relative of Hobbes. We adopted the next weekend and David named him Calvin in honor of his big brother. It took him maybe one eve before he was completely obsessed with David and I. He is crazy, kittenish and hyper half the time while snuggly, cuddly and a nap lover the other half. He is officially our new baby boy.

So what is it about cats that steal our hearts and soothe our souls? We all know petting our cats helps us relax and feel comforted like no one else, unconditional love and admiration for every pat, but did you know they can also detect your feelings and even medical emergencies such as seizures? That they lower blood pressure and instill a feeling of safety and security?

I’ve read about quite a few cats detecting seizures on the web these days and I know my own cat always knew when I was upset or sad as he would meow to me and lay on me for hours if needed. I read up about this and scientists don’t really understand much about it other than the cats are able to detect biochemical scents. Many cats even alert family if an owner is beginning to have a seizure. Did you know cat purrs encourage the mending of broken bones? Cats have also been known to wake and alert families of house fires while they sleep. Yes, cats can save lives AND improve your health and happiness. In fact, read 8 Benefits of Being a Cat Owner by Mental Floss.

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Visual Splendor

Cat Ladies Are So Vogue Right Now

06/13/2012

The mize-en-scenes in this May 2008 photoshoot for Vogue Italia by Miles Alderidge (who I also found out shares my love for the photographic beauty of a toxic cigarette) make me foam at the mouth. It makes me excited that so many artists continue to be as inspired by cats and their beauty as I am. I used to be made into such an outcast because my art was focused on cats and would often hear both unintelligent and negative comments about them and the assumed shortcomings of their personalities. Today cats are in Vogue, on jewelry, on clothes and in your home stealing your internets.

4 Comments

Escapeland

Cats Are a Girl’s Best Friend: My Story

07/07/2011

I have a small confession to make – When I arrive at my boyfriend’s house, my main priority is not a kiss and a cuddle with him. My main priority is his ginger cat, Greg. I will sit and question the household about Greg’s day. How is he coping with the heat? How much sleep has he had? And – most importantly – is he around for a cuddle? My boyfriend will sit in the wings, patiently waiting his turn.

I’ve not always been so generous with my feelings for cats. In fact, I used to hate them. They would stroll into our garden, stare at me, hiss and declare their hatred of me. Terrified, I would flee in hysterics. Convinced I was a dog in a former life, I accepted cats and I would never live happily together in this world. But this was before an old ginger cat called Sandy made an appearance in my home. Senile, narcissistic and solely focused around food, I realised that cats were actually incredibly comical. And that was the start of my love affair.

This love affair has slowly spiralled (some say into madness – I beg to differ.) I reckon I’ve come to the conclusion that cats and I understand each other very well: we both appreciate the wonders of comfort, the freedom of just doing what we fancy, when we fancy, and welcome cuddles. Cats truly are inspirational creatures. You could be having a bad day at work with someone shouting in your face and you could think “You know what? I have a cat at home that’s infinitely nicer than you, and softer to stroke.” They also offer a sympathetic ear to any of your problems (read: they don’t judge you as they don’t understand a word you say).

So I’m unashamedly a crazy cat lady in the making. I’ve done a 180 degree turn. Cats make me incredibly happy, and I’m only slightly hesitant to admit they are often a lot less hassle than humans!

Let’s pass it on over to you – why do cats have a special place in your heart?

Mull it over whilst gazing into the eyes of Greg –

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Design Your Life

Five Ways to Make Your Cat Smile

05/15/2010

Bond with your pets by enjoying the same activity together are as often as you can. Make sure you set apart special time each day specifically for them — this will only strengthen your relationship and improve both of your health.

1. Cat Nap

Choose a cozy spot on the floor, couch or bed and curl up with a comfy blanket and pillow — cats enjoy snuggling at all hours of the day and a little sleep doesn’t hurt either! Keep a little nook near your body for him/her to lay in and bond with you.

2. Catnip Playtime

It’s always fun to grow a little fresh catnip in your balcony garden if your cat happens to enjoy the bitter scent. Although I’ve heard that some cats actually aren’t affected by it, I’ve never seen one!

If yours is fresh, dry it, if not it’s likely dried and crumbled. Bring out a cozy rug and sprinkle catnip all over it.. let kitty smell this! Grab some pompoms, little rattle balls, mice and string. Sprinkle them around the rug if catnip. Chill out with kitty and toss him/her pompoms and ribbons to delight her cat-nipped senses!

3. On the Hunt for Cookies

Give your cat something fun to do and eat at the same time. Purchase some healthy cat treats that are great for teeth (Hobbes loves Greenies!) and hide them around the room — one on a chair, one behind the table, etc. Let your cat explore the room for his favorite snack while at the same time encouraging his hunting instinct.

4. Cat Massage

Most cats appreciate attention from those they love, let alone a great massage session. Make sure you always make time each day to scratch behind his ears, scratch his back and of course cause the beloved elevator butt!

5. Smell-a-thon

Ha! So cats love to smell, if you can it’s great to take yours outside (on a harness) to sniff the plants and flowers around the home. My cat *loves* to do this.

Make sure when you come home from anywhere you let your cat smell your hand — it’s like shaking hands for them and they get all kinds of information about where you were.

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Escapeland

A Kitty for your Thoughts

03/12/2010

The cats in our lives are special, that’s no understatement. When people can share their homes with unconditionally loving little characters it’s always a plus. Not only do they improve emotional state but also health and help lower blood pressure. What’s better than hearing a purr lul you to sleep?

The Special One in My Life

mrrrow~ i’m hobbes! i’m a fluffy little house cat. you might think i’m a little feminine but that’s just because i’m a momma’s boy and she happens to spoil me crazy with cute, pink kitty goods.

i was born in september of 1997, the 8th to be exact! a little country cat full of spunk and covered in long, fluffy hair. because of my adorably-unique looks my owners allowed me to stay inside while my short-hair brothers and sisters continued on the country cat lifestyle. my birth mother, squirrelly, was a little bit wild and didn’t stick around too long to see me grow up~ i felt i hadn’t met my real momma yet.. i waited patiently.

when i was 5 weeks old a woman came to the country home looking for a tiny kitten as a gift for her daughter. she saw a lot of semi-wild kitties running around and worried they might be a bit sickly. the gem, myself, was kept inside and when she started to give up she spotted my handsome mane! a bit of pleading later and i was allowed to be adopted by this woman! oh oh oh, i was going to move away~ but where?

i was brought to a strange house, through a door and placed on a yellow, satin bed. a young girl walked in and squealed. oh my! i knew she was my mommy. i immediately started mewing and kneading the soft blanket as my new mommy talked to me. “do you have a name?” , she asked. her mother told her my name was hobbes, it was given to me by my first owners. she loved it and thought it fit me to a T!

i soon got very sick and they took me to the vet to realize i had an upper respiratory infection — very deadly and serious for tiny kittens! mommy to the rescue ~ with medicine and a lot of love i made it through! it wasn’t even time for my baby shots yet, i toughed out surgery as a tiny puff.

i lost a few other lives throughout the years including being hit by a car once when i ran outside and refused to come in and having a tumor removed from my butt! i’m still going strong and my doctor says i’m sooo healthy and youthful! i’m 13 years old and he says i still got a lonnngg happy life to lead, meow meow meow. everytime we come in to the office he says, “My what a healthy cat!”

we moved to the city in september of 2007 after my mommy married her high school sweetheart. oh yeah~ here i come indianapolis! i’ve never been so happy and after every poop i race up and down the spiral staircase. our apartment is soo fit for a kitty and i’m king!

i’ve been famous in the 90s on my mom’s website miseducated and i’ve had gifties sent to me for my birthdays and emails and web friends and have even had websites and blogs! i’m happy to meet you! now give me a pat and let’s share a tuna shake!

Daily Mews

If when I’m running a bath Hobbes walks in before I close the door he remains, with worry as the bath fills. When it is time to get in, he edges towards the tub in absolute shock, why would I get in the TUB?!?! Don’t I know it’s wet in there?? He sits on the edge of the bath carefully, watching as though the water may inflict some horrible pain on me. He mews and smells the water, wondering when I’ll come to my senses. If he gets stuck outside, which is most often the case, he continually howls in pain and scratches at the door until I’ve come from the terror tub. Are all cats this scared of water? I’ve heard that Sphyinxs (hairless cat breed) like water, that’s so cute.. they’re adorable.

Critter Story Submission

Cat stories and critter stories are as pleasing to tell between owners as they are to listen to. Have a sweet story about your little one? Go ahead and send it to us along with some photos to be published at Miseducated.

6 Comments

Escapeland

The Cat Haiku

01/09/2010

An oldie but a goodie. 😉 We used to plaster this one on our kitty-themed websites along with tons of adorable information — how I miss the old silly days of web pages and graphic design!

The Cat Haiku

by Unknown

You never feed me.
Perhaps I’ll sleep on your face.
That will show you.

You must scratch me there!
Yes, above my tail! Behold,
elevator butt.

I need a new toy.
Tail of black dog keeps good time.
Pounce! good dog! good dog!

The rule for today.
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow.

In deep sleep hear sound
Cat vomit hairball somewhere.
Will find in morning.

Grace personified
I leap into the window
I meant to do that

Blur of motion, then-
Silence, me, a paper bag
What is so funny?

The mighty hunter
Returns with gifts of plump birds
Your foot just squashed one.

You’re always typing
Well, let’s see you ignore my
Sitting on your hands.

My small cardboard box
You cannot see me if I
Can just hide my head.

Terrible battle
I fought for hours. Come and see!
What’s a “term paper”?

Kitty likes plastic
Confuses for litter box
Don’t leave tarp around

Small brave carnivores
Kill pine cones and mosquitoes
Fear vacuum cleaner

Want to trim my claws
Don’t even think about it!
My yelps will wake the dead

I want to be close
To you. Can I fit my head
inside your armpit?

Wanna go outside.
Oh, no! Help! I got outside!
Let me back inside!

Oh no! Big One
has been trapped by newspaper.
Cat to the rescue!

Humans are so strange.
Mine lies still in the bed, then screams!
My claws aren’t that sharp….

Cats meow out of angst
“Thumbs! If only we had thumbs!
We could break so much”

Litter box not there
You must have moved it again
I’ll crap in the sink

The Big Ones snore now
Every room is dark and cold
time for “Cup Hockey”

We’re almost equals
I purr to show I love you
Want to smell my butt?

3 Comments

Visual Splendor

Remembering Rainbowlicious and 1990s Web Design

08/09/2009

My beautiful, creative best friend and maid of honor happens to also be the queen bee of whimsy online in the late 90s. If you don’t remember her because you aren’t a computer geek artist, then you definately missed out on a piece of bubble gum ball history that you’ll never be able to get back. Because she was so often direct linked, she allowed no direct linking.. so her websites aren’t even on the wayback archive! I had to dig deep into the depths of cat*e//Miseducated rainbow, stuffed old skool folders. This was quite a treat of course because I am a nostalgia whore and cannot relish in the colorful creations that we once lived for enough. (don’t look in my closets, Rainbow Brite dolls are stuffed in there waiting to be loved)

Kimi, the girl who forever has my heart:

From the mouth of the kitten of a different flavor comes some bits and pieces that were on Kimi’s collective from waybackwhen complete with everything cute, sweet and colorfully perfect. Absolutely no one could compete with the queen of the eye candied, pixel perfect palaces. Enjoy these images and descriptions by kimikat herself and immerse yourself in delish 90s web nostalgia.

luna’s luna page

..my very first page, established in january 97, and to my knowledge is the very first sailormoon website made entirely by one of the feline persuasion, that of course being my very talented and MUCH*ly* loved luna daisy =)

not just a sailormoon site, luna’s page includes a cornucopia *hehe!* of kitty information, and tons of interactive activities ^_^ plus a good dose of moonkitty madness!

this page started out on geocities of course and remained there for over 2 years until rescued by the amazingly wonderful cheerbear*chibiness we all call coki!! =) coki has saved me from a ton of popup ads and headaches, and has become a wikked friend as well *waves!!*

i have the most fun with luna’s page and it really is my true love out of them all ^*^ i update it daily for the most part 🙂 you can read more about luna’s page if you’d like to here (link closed).

Rainbowlicious

..this is my (kimikats!) personal page, one that i left neglected for ages and am finally getting around to revamping and resituating 🙂 if you want to see just how messed up i am in the head, this is the perfect place to do just that! ^*^ being messed up in the head is a good thing by the way .. just so you know =)

most might be surprised to find out i’m not some 13 year old playing with mind expanding drugs but am actually in my mid 20’s, i was a preschool teacher at one time, and before that … well i’m not saying *lol* .. though above all, i’m just a twisted lil raver girl from los angeles :))

Diana’s Divine Designs

..my lil free graphics shop, consisting mostly of insane/neon/daisy/sanrio-ish backgrounds and also includes a ‘topsy turvey table tutorial’ 🙂 started on easter day 99, for a couple of reasons; one being just to help out others and spread some of my trippy lil backgrounds around. ive never been sure why, but some people seem to like my loud graphics and the requests for a place like this was overwhelming, with sometimes over 10 mails a day asking for just such a thing!! and secondly, heck, it was easter!! and i simply didnt have any eggs to pass around ^_^

thank you for stopping by to peer into the world of luna*C! =) if anyone actually reads all this, i’ll be one happy kitten! =^*^= and if not, ah well bonnebell, i had fun writing it =) call me easily amused but hey… and if your amused just as easily, then you’ll REALLY enjoy the pages in luna*C to a tee!!
*giggles on her caffeine high and waves!*

Quilting Bee

Everyone’s favorite community in the old skool web days! Swapping patched with friends to build a colorful and unique quilt you were to display on your website in a super special space!

Leave XOXOs for Kimi

Simply post the link to an image/graphic or message you’d like Kimi to have or that you made inspired by her to your reply and submit! It’s that easy! .. and soon we’ll be gazing upon your delicious art~ the very best, most eye-popping gifts will be specially displayed here for the kitty kat queen herself!

ALL gif graphics used in the article are (c) Kimi/kimikat, keep stickypaws clean.

25 Comments