Mr. Nekkid Fridge

Jan glanced at the envelope, noted it wasn't addressed to any of us, and dropped it on the desk, expecting it was for the neighbor with the same house number across the T street. As she did, the strange name hit her. She looked again. It really was addressed to "Mr. Nekkid Cold Box," care of her at this address. "Uh-oh," she thought. "I wonder what Randy thought when he saw this?" (Randy is our regular postman.)

She found out a couple weeks later when she ran into him delivering another envelope to MNCB.

"Have you figured out who Mr. Nekkid Cold Box is yet?" she asked.

Randy raised his arms and exclaimed, "I don't ask any questions!"

"I know, but have you figured it out yet?"

He thought a moment. "No."

"It's my fridge. Some bloggers are dressing my fridge," she explained.

For a moment, he appeared on the edge of suggesting she was a lunatic pulling his leg, but then he shook his head and said, "I never would have guessed that!"

This began when we posted a photo of our fridge for the cold box meme. It was naked. So Auntie Deb and ML sent out an SOS email. We thought they were joking. They weren't.

About that time, Black Cat tagged us for the cold box meme. We were tagged earlier by the Taylor CatSSSSS (and caught with a nude fridge) and then again by Poppy Q, so we did a joke post to spice up MNCB. But this time we're prepared - with a lot of help from the CB.

Since this is our third tag, we won't tag anyone else, but we do want to show you our non-nekkid (dressed) fridge. We waited for all the responses to arrive, and then for Auntie Deb to feel better, and then for one final adornment.

Jan says we are definitely moving some of the valuables to the other side so little whapping paws can't reach them as easily, (HA!) but for easier photographing, we posted the cards on one side and everything else on the front.

Are you ready?

Are you sure you're ready for this?

Okay. Here is Mr. Non Nekkid Cold Box. Please excuse the quality of the photos. We told Jan we should move to a bigger home with better lighting first, but, no, she wouldn't listen. You can click on any picture to enlarge it.

These are the lovely cards.


Bottom row of freezer and fridge. See the bag in the lower left? There were 2 bags. We opened one right away and scattered the toy springs throughout the house. Guess Auntie Deb shouldn't have mentioned her cats like to play with them. Hehehe.


Freezer view.


Mr. Nekkid Cold Box was dressed by (in no particular order) --
The Taylor CatSSSS
KC & Missy
Not the Mama
Kelly Cat (and all the Good Cats)
The Cat Realm
Moki
Zoolatry
Asta
Miss Peach
Pearl, Bert & Jake (PB&J)
Millie

Thanks to each of you who participated in dressing Mr. Nekkid Cold Box. He certainly does look more cheerful now that he's had a snazzy makeover. And we are too. Jan wouldn't let us dress MNCB until she took the photos because she has some crazy idea we cats would have the decorations scattered in no time. We would never do such a thing! (Hehe. Snort.)

Buddy: Guess I'll just finish this post. All the cats suddenly raced for the kitchen. Uh-oh.

Percy: Cameron and Cotton, you take the freezer door. Crystal and Cyndi, up on the counter. The cards are yours. Rusty, you and I are the best jumpers. We'll take the fridge door.

On the count of three...two...one. Wahooo! Let the whapping begin!

A New Life for Ode

Animals don't know how to spell or the dictionary meaning of "forgive." But they often live as if they do.

This is Ode, a puppy whose ears were deliberately burned. This video was made of her first month in foster care through Pet Haven.

Despite her disfigurement, she's a beautiful dog, and will make someone a wonderful companion.

Not the Mama Monday

We were not planning a post for today, but when we received this email .....

I'm hoping that you'll all join me in celebrating "Not The Mama Monday". Our dear friend Morgen (Mo) has done so much for kitties and their humans and we wanted to recognize him for all that he's done - rescuing strays, fostering, fundraising, donating, working so very hard with the CFHF and the CB, helping his local rescue organizations, and being the kind-hearted and wonderful guy that he is. There will be a special award on the Cat Blogosphere to honor Mo and what he does and has done. Only the CB (or Mo) can actually pass on the award, and it must be to a very deserving recipient who also is a "carer and giver". Ann (Zoolatry) and Robyn (HotMBC) have made the wonderful graphics attached. Please include one, or both, on your Monday post if you would like to join in on Not The Mama Monday. Thank you!

Love, purrs & Hugs,

Karen

Grr, Midnight & Cocoa

Rascal & Riley

Max

.... well, how could we not post. We are always pleased to participate in honoring one who works hard to help animals. So this post today is in honor of Mo, a.k.a. Not the Mama.



And, Mo, we're looking forward to seeing your special award (we're writing this Sunday) on the CB. Congratulations. You are loved by many.

Boycott Four Paws

There is another thing that has concerned all of us over these tragic and needless events and one of Jan's siblings, an RN, has the same concern......what if a small child picked up one of these balls and put it in his/her mouth? That is what children do!

Four Paws, for what appears to be negligence, lies, lack of empathy and total lack of regard for your customers' safety or welfare, we hope you get your butt whipped soundly!

(s) Jan/Crystal, Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Samaritan

Latest update!!! We have just checked Chai's blog again and we are biting back rude words that Jan says we are never to say. This is not a new problem. The company has been aware of the flaw in the toy's design AT LEAST since July 2005 when Cole was euthanized for the same type injury. At that time the company assured Cole's owner the problem was being taken care of. The company's offer is being rejected by Chai's owner, evidently a man of greater integrity than has been shown by Four Paws.

Zinger left a comment on our last post, asking if we had heard about Chai. We followed the link and were so shocked, we unanimously decided to put a warning on our journal, hoping to help other woofies avoid the same situation.

All toys are not safe for cats, dogs or even for human children. But when a danger is found, manufacturers do not want to admit the problem or remove a product from the shelves. Why they would rather endanger lives and risk lawsuits rather than warn the public and recall a product is beyond us. Isn't life - and quality of life - more important than green papers?

That's another rhetorical question. We all know what is most important to too many humans.

We feel that reading the story that goes with the 2 videos is necessary to understand the full severity of the problem. So we are not posting the Chai videos here. We want you to go read the story and watch the after videos together.

Chai is a lab mix who had a serious injury while playing with a small ball with a bell inside. His human chose surgery rather than euthanasia for his woofie, even though this has changed the human's ability to earn a living for the moment. We commend him for loving Chai and investing so much time, effort and green papers in his welfare.

And although we are not surprised, we are appalled that, although Chai is not the only dog to have this same injury, the company refuses to recall it and apply a simple fix.

There is a link to an older case of a German Shepherd getting his tongue caught in one of those balls, but the vet hospital has removed the link. (We would guess there was too much traffic following the link and consuming their bandwidth.) We did manage to google it and see the cached page, which will not be available after the next Google web crawl for pages. That case was not as severe and the Shepherd's injury healed. But the same short video of that dog is available.



For this reason, Chai's human is calling for an international boycott of all Four Paws products. You can read the original story on The Chai Story. And the updates here.

And if you read to the end, you will find a way you can help save other woofies from the same injury.

PA, Awards, Raffle & Love

Sometimes humans are beyond belief.

A few months ago, Oprah Winfrey aired a show dedicated to puppy mills and opened a lot of eyes to the squalor and abuse these breeding dogs and their puppies endure. The ones investigated for her show were located in Pennsylvania, mainly Amish country. And evidently some of those puppy mill owners don't have a lick of kindness in their bodies, as evidenced by the fact that recently, when two Mennonite "kennel" owners were told after a state inspection to get medical attention for 39 dogs with flea and fly bites, they shot all 70 dogs in Elmer Zimmermans E&A Kennel and all 10 dogs at his brother Ammon Zimmerman's neighboring A&J Kennel.

Now, this flea treatment might sound despicable and way over the top extreme to us kitties and woofies, but it is currently legal in the state of PA. Still, the breeders could have turned the dogs over to a shelter. Or to a rescue group. Thankfully, the Zimmerman brothers have surrendered their kennel licenses. This will save any future mass killings at their hands but how many other dogs have they killed in such a manner?

House Bill 2525, which was introduced in May and is supported by Gov. Ed Rendell, would require that only veterinarians euthanize dogs in commercial kennels. It doubles the minimum floor space for cages, requires outdoor exercise and solid flooring, prohibits the stacking of cages, and requires veterinary checks annually or during each pregnancy. It would also make other changes, such as set kennel temperature standards and mandate 24-hour water availability. (What's with the current law that water only needs to be available to them for 6 hours a day?)

There is also H.B. 2532, introduced by Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, to prohibit owners and breeders from performing tail dockings on dogs more than 3 days old, debarking, removing the dewclaws on dogs more than 5 days old, or cesarean sections. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these procedures should only be performed by a licensed vet, so why were the unskilled and untrained performing them? (That's a rhetorical question.)

So, any of you kitties or woofies who live in Pennsylvania, please ask your human to call and/or write your elected state officials and let them know you support these changes to the current crappy PA dog laws. There are good kennels and breeders there, but let's do whatever we can to stop the low-life, abusive "kennel" owners.

*******************

The Great Percy Toe Raffle at Cat Stephens has been extended to Wednesday, August 20, 8 AM, EST. The winner will be announced before 10 P.M. Wednesday. So if you haven't purchased your tickets yet, you better hurry over and check out the beautiful fleece blankets his grandma made to help raise money for his upcoming toe surgery.

********************
We received the from Tesla, "fur always keepin us all up ta dats on da worlds surroundins!" Thanks, Tesla. We try hard, but these naps eat up a lot of our days, and we often fall behind.

The rules for the Brillante Weblog Award are as follows:
* The award may be displayed on a winner’s blog.
* Add a link to the person who you received the award from
* Nominate up to seven other blogs.
* Then add their links to your blog.
* Add a message to each person that you have passed the award on to in the comments section of their blog.

We would like to pass this award on to Milo. Milo is new to the blogging world but he has a nifty blog.

**********************

And JFF received the Gold Card from Socks, Scylla & Charybdis because "they are always working to make things better for all cats and doggies." Whew! No wonder we're so tired all the time.

We now must give the award to 5 friends. Four of these friends must be dedicated followers of our blog. One should be a new blogger and live in a different part of the world. Each awardee must link back to whomever gave the award. That sounds easy enough, except it is really hard to just pick 5 friends but here we go.

Poppy Q. We used to read blogs but were afraid to leave comments. She challenged lurkers last year and lured us out of anonymity.

Sassy. She hired Percy for the Christmas CCSI and we met even more bloggers.

Millie. She was the first blogger we actually met when we found the story of her rescue and followed her to mom Lynne's.

Castle, the late Storm's brother, who has a fairly new blog and lives in the UK.

The Taylor CatSSSSS. Sam, Sassy, Seaborne, Spats and Summer - we enjoy your blog and auntie Deb is a caped crusader in disguise .... she helps so many.

********************
And if you can spare a few moments, drop over to read Dream Mom's first post after taking some time off from blogging this summer. Despite the trials of life, a positive outlook and her love for her disabled son shines through her words.

********************
Pee Ess: We had such a time fitting a post in today, we forgot to post this. Moki's post reminded us. This is an email we received and if you'd like to participate .....

My name is John Carson and I handle all the social media work for GCI Canada, a PR firm in Toronto.

One of our clients is Mars Canada, the producer of Whiskas Temptations. They recently filmed some cat-training videos hosted by trainer Rick Parker that you can see here:

Mars Canada is considering filming a second series of videos, so I am identifying prominent cat bloggers to get their opinion on the format. Please would you take a few minutes to watch one (or all) of the videos and let me know (1) what you think worked, (2) what didn’t and (3) any other suggestions on what you’d like to see included. If you could post a link to the video on your blog for other cat lovers to see, then that would be appreciated, as the more opinions we get the better.

Mars Canada wants to reach the people the videos are aimed at to ensure good quality information, and using social media as a new way of doing that.

Please let me know at your earliest convenience if you can help as part of the cat-blogger community ... all my contact details are below if you need further info.

Many thanks,
John (click on name for email address)

Violet for Sprout

It is always sad to lose a furry friend, and we are sad for the families of all those blogging furries that have been lost. There have been several just within the last week.

But nothing, we have been told, can equal the pain of parents losing a child.

And so, in honor of 3-month-old Violette Noelle, and at the request of her mother, many in the Cat Blogosphere will wear violet Saturday, the day when little Violette - affectionately known as Sprout - will be laid to rest.



We send {{{{hugs}}}} and love to all of Sprout's family. They are in our thoughts and Jan's prayers.

We include {{{{hugs}}}} to all our friends - old and new. We appreciate you and we know losing Sprout has affected all of you too.

Spunky's Rescue Waggin

We hope you will take a couple of minutes to stop by Pedigree and watch a short video because Pedigree will donate $1 for every viewing (one per person), up to $10,000. So please click on the link to watch Spunky take the ride of her life - from certain death to adoption. It's a very positive video.

Now, in order for your viewing to qualify for the donation, you have to stay until the video ends and the thank you message appears. You will be given the opportunity to send an email to your friends to suggest they view the video. We suggest you use good internet security and copy and paste the url if you want to share the video with your friends or readers.

Click here to meet Spunky.

A Sad Day

Violette Noelle, affectionately known as Sprout. Tragically gone, at the age of three months. With deep condolences to the family of Monty Q.

And to Violette's godmother, Millie's mom.




Sprout, You were here for too short a time. May your family find strength and peace during this terribly difficult loss. We can only begin to imagine their pain.

Tears of sorrow from all of us at JFF!

(s) Jan & Crystal, Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty and Samaritan

PS: Details at the Cat Blogosphere. Scroll down for earlier Saturday and Sunday posts. Stop by Monty's and Millie's to leave condolences.

Awards, Accused and Cloning Update

We would like to thank Chef for the following two awards. We're glad he thinks our blog is well-done. Jan thinks we're well-done too, but more along the lines of being left out in the sun too long.

We'd like to pass the premio on to Zoolatry for the beautiful graphics they share with the blogosphere.

It's been a rough week for them. Maggy & Zoey's human is currently on probation and under a warning to ship up or shape out (No, that is not a typo.) before her next purrformance appraisal. On top of that, their human has lost many of her jpg files in a computer meltdown. No, wait, the human had the meltdown. The computer sprung a photo leak, possibly from M & Z playing on the keyboard? (We ask because a certain nameless cat with the initial Crystal recently hit a key which politely asked Jan if all of certain files should be deleted. Jan was not nearly so polite when she responded.)

Seriously, Zoolatry, we hope you are able to rescue your photos. Although you have been joking about it, we know this is a serious loss to you.

And we're giving the Big Red Puffy Heart to Charlie, Chase, The Zoo and Willie.


Now, this one we know we earned -- Daisy May's Wacky Rosie Award, given to friends of Katie and Da Katz for attending their movin partee.

Ooooh, was that fun. Especially, since our ac went out that morning - the hottest day of the summer, at least so far. It was over 100 dripping tongue degrees in here all day. But our landlord saved the day. After work, he changed into his superhero costume, located a new unit and flew over here to install it. Too late, we were due at Da Katz's. But before we set to work, they let us fill their bathtub with ice water, where we could soak hot paw pads and cool down our bodies.

We're sorry about the drippy spots through the house. We didn't want to get the bath mat wet, so we shook ourselves damp in the master bedroom.


**********************
For any of you who haven't heard the story of the black Lab that is imprisoned at the shelter, falsely identified as killing a cat and biting the cat's owner while the dog was home sleeping, you can read about it here. As cats and dogs, it's scary to think someone could accuse one or two of us and we could be taken away from Jan without hope of bail or rescue, even though we were falsely identified. No one in authority who could and/or should help her will help her. Jan would be freaking out too. Any ideas to help this blogger?

Upate: Thanks to Deb and ML and .... we don't know who all was involved. But Cheyenne is home! We would guess an update will be posted on Leigh's blog but meanwhile a very brief update is posted on Cat Blogosphere.

PS - Yes, an update is posted on Leigh's blog, Thoughtprints. Go Leigh, and kick some butt there in Logan County, CO!

******************

After reading our last post which included the story of the woman who sold her house to raise the $50,000 to clone her deceased dog, Whicky Wuudler sent us a link to a related news article. We googled the names and found this is a legitimate news story, so we're going to post a link. You have to read it to believe it, but Bernann McKinney, the woman who now has 5 puppies cloned from her beloved Booger, is suspected to be Joyce McKinney, a bail jumper accused of sexually assaulting and kidnapping a male Mormon missionary more than 30 years ago. Story here.

And while we understand a little more of why Booger was so special to her from reading this article, we still disapprove of men trying to play God and "create" animal life. Not a one of these puppies is or ever will be Booger!

Blogging and Cloning

We received this award from our Canadian friends Momo & Pinot. Thank you both for thinking of us. (We can't wait for the baby human to arrive at their home so we can see photos posted by the proud mom & dad.)

We would like to pass this on to Billy SweetFeets. We love Sammy and Miles too, but we think Billy SF is old enough and has been doing enough blogging and leaving comments around the blogosphere to have an award of his own. And also to Deetz the Airedale. Deetz's sister Charlotte has been missing since late last week. We hope she is safely home soon.

****************
We picked up this beautiful plumeria at Socks, Scylla & Charybdis' NOMS Day picnic yesterday. They were given to all the guests "as a token of our friendship for coming to celebrate NOMS Day with us." We hope you remembered to pick up yours.

***************
We understand how hard it is to lose a dearly loved pet. But we can not understand why anyone would sell a house to raise $50,000 to clone a deceased dog. Or a cat, a bunny, a guinea pig, a bird, or .....

It doesn't make any sense to us. There are several million animals in the United States alone that are killed at shelters every year because there are too many animals and not enough homes for them. This does not include the numbers of puppies and breeding dogs that are killed at puppy mills or animals killed by other means.

If Jan dies before us, we don't intend to clone her, much as we love her. And besides, this lady in the news ended up with 5 cloned puppies. What would we do with half a dozen of Jan look- alikes? Cloning her couldn't give us a Jan who falls down while being walked, or who yells out of the way as she walks through the house, or who hogs the computer when we want to blog, or .....

Well, you get the idea. None of them would be Jan. So why would we want to help overpopulate the world with more "Jans" when there are plenty of people out there who would just love to take us all in and comfort us. Okay, maybe not plenty of people. But surely, someone!

So while we feel for this woman's depression over losing her pet, we totally disagree with her comment: "I had to make sacrifices and I dream of the day, some day when everyone can afford to clone their pet because losing a pet is a terrible, terrible loss to anyone."

We dream of the day when there will be no reason for kill shelters because all cats and dogs will have a home. But that will never be even a remote possibility as cloning increases, which according to this article and many other sources is on the near horizon. "RNL has said it expected to clone about 100 dogs next year and for the price to drop as technology improves."

We aren't in any rush to leave, but when we do, we don't want to be cloned. And if anyone had asked this woman's dog Booger, he would probably have barked the same sentiment.

You can read this article- well, not any more, it's gone. 

(s)Crystal, Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Samaritan

NOMS Day 2008

In honor of the one-year anniversary of NOMS Day, Karl of the Cat Realm has declared today NOMS Day, an international public holiday.


To celebrate, Scylla, Socks & Charybdis invited us woofies to be their noms friends and to join them for a picnic at their pond. They said it was okay for us kitties to come too and to invite our new noms friend River the Beagle on the picnic.










(lower left, clockwise) Charlotte, Buddy, Myrna the Wheelie, Sassy, Merci, Momo, Asta (in water), Charlie, Samaritan, Scylla, Socks, Charybdis (center). Photo by Asta

Scylla, Socks & Charybdis' mom thought River was such a helpful and thoughtful guest. He volunteered to help her set up for the buffet. So we kitties helped him, and we missed out on the group photo. But that's okay. We had fun helping and we still had plenty of time to swim and visit at the pond.. And helpful guests get invited back. Or at least we hope they do.

We finally got to meet Myrna the Wheelie from Asta's. She has quite a sense of humor. Asta does too. So it's no wonder she and Asta are such close friends.

We had such a great time today with NOM friends, we think every day should be NOMS Day!

(s)
woofies: Buddy, Merci & Samaritan
kitties: Crystal, Cotton, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron & Rusty