Christmas Ornaments and Dr. Tweety

Hey, Cameron here. I'm just popping in to do a quick post.

In case you aren't aware, last Christmas Us 4 Cats sold candle tarts as a fundraiser.  The money they raised went into their adoption fund.  Yes, they are planning to adopt a little human.

This year they are selling homemade baked ornaments for the tree.  You can read about them and see some samples of their Homemade Holiday Ornaments.  The prices and shipping information are posted in Bakery is now Open, as well as photios of their cat ornaments.

Go by and check out their ornaments and remember if you make a purchase, you're helping a great cause - their adoption fund..


We love Dr. Tweety of the Fab Five and are sad beyond words to learn he has been diagnosed with cancer. We hope he will have a good bit of quality time with his family. 

Ann of Zoolatry made the lovely graphic.

Percy Leads All Creatures

Hey, Blogger, this is Percy. Are you there? I'd like to report an annoying glitch in your pic posting procedure. It doesn't work half the time! First, you wouldn't load me, then you installed ten copies. Yes, 10 oopies of this same photo! And when I deleted 9, you threw in #11. Now I have no problem having my mancatly handsomeness displayed ten - well, 11 times in a row, but our readers might not stick around to scroll down far enough to see what I'm posting..

And I have a furry appropriate - yes, furry appropriate video for our Sunday post. 

Cotton suggests I begin with a favorite quote from St. Francis of Assisi: If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

If there are no more interruptions or suggestions, let's get to the main feature.  It's a beautiful slide show of animals and human scenes to compliment the song "All Creatures of Our God and King."  The arrangement is by Fernando Ortega.

The song is based on Psalm 148:7-10: Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it.  It's such a pretty tune, I haven't been able to resist standing and waving my paws to lead the orchestra.  And now that I've got the hang of it, I'm thinking of applying for a job as a conductor. Would any of you volunteer to give a reference for me?


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Prison Break and Blogger

Today it is the dogs' turn to provide a little humor to help digest all those scrumptious Thanksgiving meals many of you ate yesterday.  After all, laughter is good exercise. And what could be funnier today than watching a prison break?


If the video doesn't play, click here.

We have mentioned before about having a problem visiting and leaving comments because blogs load slowly - some more so than others.  Many bloggers and visitors lead a hectic life and have a limited amount of time to visit, so the easier it is to load your/our page, the more grateful we/they are. 

There are things we can all do to help Blogger blogs load faster  For one, we can clean up our sidebar. (Yes, we will be cleaning up ours again soon.)  With Blogger, we can have 10 pages on any subject.  We can make a page for the blog links we keep in our sidebar.  (We deleted our links when so many blogs were being locked over a link to a site that had been hacked.  Setting up a page for links is on our to-do list.)  This is a major loading holdup.  But if we make a page for our friends, all those links will only load when the friends page is clicked on.  We can make one for bridge friends or awards - or whatever subject fits our needs.  This helps the blog to load faster since you've cut down on the amount of links that must load on the main page.

The other day we posted on being careful because using some cute decorations found on the internet could get your blog hacked or hijacked.   Today The Real Blogger Status has a post on how adding holiday decorations can impact your visitors.

"Besides the long term and subtle computer hacking, your readers, visiting your blog decorated with the latest animation, will have a more immediate and obvious problem to consider - browser freezes and other computer overload problems." (Read the full post, Holiday Decorations & Your Blog, #2)

We clicked on a few blogs including our own with our homemade background and header and found loading any of them requires 100% of our CPU. Since there is no 101%-plus CPU, it's no wonder some blogs take FOREVER to load and let us scroll.

This post helped us understand why loading a blog uses 100% of our CPU ---

"The new templates feature the blog content housed in a transparent layer, so you can see the background beneath the content. As you scroll through the blog content, the background is displayed, in its glory. Your computer has to redraw the background, and the blog content, constantly, as you scroll. That takes computing power."  (Read the full post The New Designer Templates Have A Downside)

If you have music that loads too, we are less inclined to return.  You see, when it's quiet in here and music suddenly blasts, Jan screams and we all become very nervous.  The only place our speakers can sit is way behind our monitor so one of us has to get up and go alter the volume, then get up again when leaving the blog.  That isn't going to happen!  If we want to leave a comment, we get blasted out each time we click and the page changes. It makes us so nervous, we just want to get off that blog.   It can chase away other visitors too.

"Unexpected music can create both a bandwidth annoyance, and an audible distraction. People surfing blogs in a shared environment, for instance a library, won't appreciate any audio content in any blog.  

"If you want to decorate your blog with your favourite playlist, to complement the mood of the blog, that's OK - as long as you make the music optional." (Read the full article, Including Music in Your Blog.)

We're posting this for our own information too.  We want our visitors to have a pleasant experience and hope you would tell us if you have a problem on our site.

Don't Call Fred on Thanksgiving

Laughter won't help you digest your meal, but if you fall off the chair laughing, it will count as exercise.  So we have a short video for you today.

We hope Buddy doesn't get any ideas from it. He hates the answering machine and has always howled when it came on. A few years ago he started howling on the first ring of the phone.  He stopped waiting for the answering machine to come on.And he taught Sam and Merci to "howl" with him. They aren't hounds so they aren't as skilled at it as Buddy is but Merci sings soprano and Sam sings tenor, so together they make a lot of noise! 

This is Fred and he doesn't like the telephone to ring. So he answers it. Good thing he can't howl. No one would ever call back.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Huan & Jerry and News

It always intrigue us to watch a video of interspecies friends.   Huan and Jerry are two such friends - an unlikely pair. 


If the video doesn't play, click here.

The Tabby Cat Club's first activity is Whisker Wednesday, so be sure to post your whiskers on the TCC blog tomorrow.


Marg has posted a warning about PayPal Donate buttons that are used on blogs. Evidently, if you are not a licensed/registered non profit, PP will close your account and you could lose all or at best a big chunk of your donations.  This has been happening to a number of bloggers. 

We found this 2009 short post on the subject - Thinking About Using a PayPal "Donate" Button on Your Blog?.  Please note that it has a good suggestion and you don't need a button - anyone care to buy us some kibble?  We strongly suggest you never use the words "donate," "rescue," "TNR," or anything that could even remotely suggest you are a licensed non profit or a business.


We know that many of you have a Zazzle store and we're wondering if any of you who do have read the new terms of service and what you think of them? They are instituting major changes, including renaming some items "accessories" for which sellers would not receive a royalty and raising the payment limit and instituting fees for payment under the limit.  If you haven't read their email introducing it yet, we suggest you read it and click the link to read the entire terms of service.  UPDATE:  Chey's human has explained that the list of "Accessories" on the Zazzle site are not included in the list of "accessories" Zazzle won't pay a royalty on.  Jan is breathing again so we won't get to practice CPR today..

Buddy's Surprise and Sunny

Yep, we love our Buddy and he wasn't forgotten yesterday.  Heeheehee.  But he didn't know that.

We were shocked to read Sunny of Mommy's Little Fat Boy's blog last night.  He died November 17th, only a couple of days after a cancer diagnosis. Sunny had not blogged in over a year but we had hoped he would return to blogging one day.  We all know how hard it is to lose a furry, so we hope you will stop by and leave an encouraging comment for his mom.

Well, this post was scheduled last night to auto post at 9:30 am this morning.  It's now 11:37 and when we checked, it was no longer scheduled.  Guess the surprise was on us.  Since it's already late, we're going to add one more item.

Blogger Buzz has a warning to be careful about decorating your blogs with animated accessories. It could get you hijacked, if not now, down the road.  Be careful and have a safe blogging holiday season.  .

Buddy is 7, Jan Unprepared

Ducks, TCC, Rusty & Percy

We just loved watching this video of an officer protecting a mama duck and her babies as they crossed a busy Interstate. Thank you, Officer!.

If the video doesn't play, click here.

Calling all Tabbies!  The new Tabby Cat Club is accepting members. To join, just send a photo of yourself so Gracie can make you a badge and include a link to your blog.  You can grab her email address from her personal blog or the club blog.

Rusty's badge.

Percy's badge.

We're looking forward to seeing more of our friends there.

In case any of you have noticed we haven't been around much lately, there's been a lot going on.  Jan's been a laggard.  (She says she's been under the weather, but aside from the 50 degree cold in here a couple of times lately, we haven't seen any weather flying loose in the house.)  She's been working on designs for a couple blog sites - including Furriends of the CB auctions and this new Tabby Cat Club (good practice for her) - and  a t-shirt logo for another one,  Plus trying to catch up with our  her own commitments.  It's been hectic around here. 

So please forgive us if we aren't able to leave comments for a while.  Jan is a voracious computer hog!  But some of it is to help us, so we're not going to say it's all Jan's fault again.  Even though it obviously is.

Buddy Squeaks His Post

Hey, Buddy here with today's post.  Finally.  We've been wanting to do this for a couple weeks but Jan -  Well, let's just say this is Jan's fault.  Again. 

Oh, good.  We received a package in the mail from Baby Patches.  Jan opened it and it squeaked.  Squeaks are always welcome around here.  Sam and I are the Squeaker Kings.  

 See, I already have it singing.  Cyndi came over to see what Sam and I are up to.  

Percy came over to see what all the noise is.  It's a gecko and it's got 4 large squeakers in the body and they're supposed to keep on squeaking even after we tug, bully and puncture the toy.  As if we would ever!

Okay, so Sam and I have chewed a few squeaky toys into rags.  But I was not looking for the puppy trapped inside when I did.  And rumors that I talk back to squeaky toys is greatly exaggerated.  Maybe somewhat exaggerated.  Okay, the rumors are almost true.

Jan took our squeaker away so Merci could have a turn.  (Ignore the egg crate pieces on the carpet and the holes in the bed.  Buddy dug holes in it and spread egg crate all around the living room for Jan to pick up.) 

Here I am trying to take it away from Jan.  She likes to play with the squeaker too.

Jan had some video of us chasing the toy in the pen outside, but she deleted it .  Something about looking ridiculous with the camera panning in every direction every time she bent over to pick up the toy to throw.  (We never look ridiculous in a video so we'll give you one guess who did.)

We love the multiple squeakers.  I love to poke them hard with my foot or use my teeth to make them talk .. uh, squeak.  Sam does too.  And we love it when Jan squeaks the gecko and throws it for us.  We chase it and mock fight over which of us gets to poke the squeakers. 

The drawback to these is that the toys are not stuffed and we couldn't pick them up by the head or tail.  (The tail has a nice rattle, by the way.)  And we couldn't get a grip to pick them up around the squeakers either.  We found this a drawback, since we could chase them but not fetch them when Jan would try to play with us.  Some stuffing for our big jaws to latch onto would be welcome.  (Hint, hint.)

The toy is our size - large.  Merci is a small dog so this was too large for her but the gecko comes in two sizes.  This is the larger 4 squeaker size. You can read more about the gecko dog toy in Baby Patches' store.

This is our first product review for Baby Patches' Tester Team. We were supplied with a gecko to test but we were not paid. This is our personal experience with the product.

Sam Intros Rhino Flights

Hey, it's a very frustrated Sam here.  I've been trying for ten minutes (yes, I can tell time - when I want to) to post a photo. This isn't the photo I wanted to post but, hey, I do what I can.

Anyway, we recently shared a video with some of our offline friends, so I thought our online friends might enjoy it too.  It's not something you see or hear of every day.  At least not in this house we don't.

Imagine transporting rhinos from one area to another to save them from extinction. How would humans go about moving them? (They're HUGE! Jan says they're even bigger than I am.)

Well, you put them on a military helicopter and fly them from the field to load them into huge containers and truck them to their new home. You have to see it to believe it. So enjoy the video.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Veterans Day 2011

Today is Veterans Day in the US

It is also Armistice Day for our friends in the UK

And Remembrance Day for our friends in Canada

In the US, thousands visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier every year, but the Tomb is not a "tourist attraction."  The guards do not speak but the one in this video did. And we thank him for demanding proper respect for those who are buried there and those they represent.. 


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Those resting at the Plaza represent the missing and unknown service members for our military from four wars: World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War.. It's a place where friends, family and strangers can go to grieve or pay respect. A picnic or party atmosphere is disrespectful.  Take a moment and read a short history of the Tomb.

Visit the FAQ page of The Society of the Honor Guard,The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for interesting facts  --  not the mix of fact and fiction widely circulated in emails and posted on forums!

And when you see veterans selling poppies this weekend, we hope you will not only give a donation but thank them for their service to our country.

Cotton, Tober, Mayzie and Rescues

 

Hey, Cotton here.  I'm posing in the box for the Martha Stewart/Petsmart Designer Feeding Station we won from Skeezix  recently.. Jan said it's my bowl because I'm the oldest and I prefer to eat on the washing machine instead of the dryer. I even get my own little bowl of water so I don't have to drink from the large bowls on the floor if I don't want to. 

Jan hated that she had to clean pieces of cat food out of the washing machine before she can wash laundry., so she was happy we won this.  She especially loves the silicone feeding mat.  It keeps my food and water from being knocked over or being vibrated off the washer or counter when the machine is having a tantrum, which is every time it's on.

Here I am debating.  Am I hungry or thirsty?  It sure is nice to have my own feeding station.

Wait, what's this!  Percy is sneaking around my bowl.  Jaaaaaan!

Well, I had my own feeding station for an hour or so.  Then the other kitties found it and now it's "ours."  And the small bowls just aren't big enough for multi cats, so Jan replaced it with larger bowls.  But we get to use the mat.  Jan loves it!

Tober the Thorntown Library Cat held a poster contest for Tocktober, his found month.  Jan helped us make a poster and we entered the blogging friends category..  We're excited because we won our category.  Check them out. There are some talented submissions from kids in their categories.  .

This week is Mayzie's Rescue Me Week, held in honor of  Grampa J who passed away in May.  Mayzie is going all out for Grampa J.

THEN – oh gosh, I LUVS this part – the very next week, we’ll draw FIVE names outta everybuddy who pawticipated. And each of those 5 furends will get to choose a rescue for us to donates 100 green papers to! That’s 5 rescues that’ll gets 100 green papers each!

We decided to feature rabbits in need of homes. We found two good places in central GA so we are going to feature some rabbits from both.

These are Mama B, Baby B & Little B.  They were turned into PAWS Humane in Columbus, GA when their owner could no longer care for them.   Contact information for PAWS Humane is on their Petfinder page.  Just click on their names above.

Smudge & Dutchy are at the Georgia House Rabbit Society in Marietta, GA.  Smudge and Dutchy are both rescues, one from Marietta and one from Nashville, TN, and need a forever home.  HRS does not sell rabbits, they only adopt them out to a good home.  (We were not aware Petfinder shares their pet listings with eBay classifieds.)  Click on their names above to read more about them and to find contact information.

EzyDog Buddy

Hey, Buddy here with today's post.

We were given the opportunity to do a review for the EzyDog product company, and since my last harness was too big and too stiff for me to wear comfortably, the Funny Farmers decided to let me test the EzyDog Quick Fit Harness.  It's a single buckle system, where Jan just slips it over my head and fastens one strap behind my legs. It's so simple Jan can do it in ten seconds instead of the ten minutes it used to take her to figure out how one old harness went on - every time I had to go out!

Furries, never trust a human to do things the right way without your guidance. Read the directions yourself, so you can teach your human the proper way to fit your harness.

 

This was the first fitting result.  See how tight my new harness was behind my legs and how crumpled it was on the side?  (And see the tag with the directions on my back, still attached to the harness, instead of in Jan's hand where they belonged?)  It barely went on over my head.  Hint, hint, Jan. Think it could be too small?  Get it off!  Now!  Jan freaked out thinking she had measured wrong, but she'd just missed a step.

This is my new harness after the second fitting.  See how flat the harness lays now?  There are two adjustments: one around my girth and one in front of my chest.  (So if you purchase one, be sure your human follows all the instructions.) Since Jan adjusted the harness properly, it fits very well and is quite comfortable.  I even slept in it the first night.  Jan thought that would help me adjust to it.

See, I can sit comfortably and it doesn't pull.  I'm all ready to take Jan on a squirrel chase here.

 

Just to be nice, I posed for the camera. I'm still a handsome dude, even though I'm about to turn 7.

Jan likes my new harness because I don't give her a hard time about wearing it.  She's not happy that I have returned to my old habit of rushing her, Sam and Merci down the road by pulling hard, but, hey, isn't that what a harness is for - freedom?  I hope she's kidding about a manners review.

Okay, Jan, we're ready for your workout now.  What do you mean I walk too fast and pull too hard?  I'm your exercise trainer.  Let's move!

You can learn more about EzyDog Products by visiting their website.. Here is a short video of the EzyDog Quick Fit Harness.  You can see how simple it is for humans to help us put it on. 

If the video doesn't play, click here.

We were not paid for this review, but a harness was provided for Buddy to test.  Any opinions expressed are from our own experience with the product.

Andrea Bocelli and the MTC

Who doesn't love the voice of Andrea Bocelli?  Put Andrea Bocelli and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir together and you have music to relax and soothe you any day of the week.

Sit back, close your eyes and enjoy this beautiful version of "The Lord's Prayer."


If the video doesn't play, click here.

** Sorry for the thump in the middle of the video. Percy closed his eyes, relaxed and fell off the typing chair.**

Have a great day!

Snoozing and Deviled Ham

Gracie talked us into entering Kat's Kats' 2nd Annual Sleeping Contest. It was extended until the 7th, so if you haven't entered yet, you still have time.  It's for cats only, though, and Buddy is sad he didn't get to enter his sleeping picture.

We tossed a piece of kibble to choose which of us to enter but Sam caught and ate it before it could land near one of us.  So we decided to just vote.  And Cameron's photo was chosen.

Here's Cameron snoozing away in a we-don't-have-a-clue what this is position.

In case any of you haven't yet met Pyewacket the piglet, stop by and say hello.   And don't miss her Halloween costume - deviled ham.

Dona Nobis Pacem

As long as humans are not at peace with themselves, they will not only torment and kill each other, they will torture and kill animals.


Tips for today from Mimi Lenox, if you are on Twitter and/or Facebook -


Tweeters -- USE HASHTAGS #blogpeace #peace #blogblastforpeace #blog4peace at the end of your tweets to keep us organized and viral
Facebook -- Post your peace globe and submission to your Facebook wall and tag (Mimi).


Make your status "Dona nobis pacem". Some people even make their peace globe their profile pic for the day. Visit the groups and pages already set up on Facebook. They are for the express purpose of connecting and networking with other peace bloggers. Fan Page is here - http://www.facebook.com/BlogBlastForPeace

Cat Nip Trip

 Rusty here.  I heard there was nip available.  But, hey, this isn't nip!  I've been gypped. I was promised a nip trip.  Jaaaaaaan! 

Have you ever wondered what cats are thinking when stoned on nip?  Well, Jupiter is about to let the cat out of the bag.  Here he is tripping out and sharing the experience. 


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Don't click on the graphic.  Click here for details.  

 
Hope you are prepared. Tomorrow is Blogblast for Peace. Be sure to title your post "Dona Nobis Pacem" (without the quotes), which is Latin for Grant Us Peace.  And if you're on Facebook and/or Twitter, Mimi Lenox has information on her blog (link under graphic) as to how to participate as a unified group on either.


We don't really have any news.  We're still trying to adjust to the changing temperatures. There's a lot of shivering (all of us) and creaking (Jan) going on around here.  And we're still running behind in everything.  Well, not exactly running.  More like stumbling, lurching and barfing (cats).  We really feel for those of you who had the snowstorm before Halloween. Hope you already had your heat on. 

Halloween Spooktacular Voting

Voting has begun at Hansel's Halloween Spooktacular contest and will run through November 1st and 2nd.  We have two entries in the contest but we don't want you to vote for us just because we are friends.  We want you to vote for whichever entry you like best in each category..  So go vote and have some fun.

 

Buddy Says No to Costume is Buddy's entry in Hansel's Halloween Spooktacular.  We figure it only takes one glance to get the message Buddy is sending in this photo.

Bag Lady Jan is Jan's entry.  If furry faces can turn red with embarrassment, ours are flaming.  We're thinking of disowning her.  But then who would we pick on?

By the way, if you happen to need a few plastic bags, we have a good idea where you can find some.