Cats of Herman's Hideaway

This week we interviewed the kitties from Herman's Hideaway.  They're a special needs group with a special mom who takes in FeLV positive cats so they can have a home.  The blog is named for Herman, Karen Jo's first cat.  Herman, Emma and Austin have all gone to the bridge but at this time Spyro, Oja, Rocio, Bambino and Jose share the home.

Their interview, Herman's Hideaway … A Legacy of Love, is posted exclusively on Mousebreath, the ezine for cats by cats.

Orijen and 3 Droolateers

Hey, we're Buddy, Merci & Sam, the Three Droolateers with a tasty *smack lips* post.  We're trying to appear nonchalant here but we were actually very frustrated with Jan taking so long to prepare to take photos one-handed again.  Something about her being so uncoordinated she can't hold the camera and push the button with the same hand.

When Mr. Chewy asked if we would like to do a treat review, we jumped at the chance.  Crazy us, we had visions of this - 

Instead, we got this -

Yeah, sitting and waiting and waiting and ... you get the idea.

Buddy:  Hey, Jan, you need to get coordinated.

We were told to choose any Orijen treat, so we chose the flash freeze-dried Ranch Raised Lamb treats.   Orijen treats are made with 100% meat, poultry or fish. No cooking or preservatives.  And no grain.  Our lamb treats are made from boneless lamb, lamb liver, lamb tripe.

Okay, Jan says they should be healthy.  But how do they taste?

Sam:  Can you see my frustration?  My ears are back and I'm squinting.  Hurry up, hurry up, hurry ...

... up.  Snagged one intended for Buddy!  He who turns his head loses his treat. Hey, this is good.  How about another?  I'm a big boy, you know.

Oh, please stop teasing us and push the button to take the picture.

Buddy:  It's about time!  Umm, tastes pretty good.

Merci:  If you're wondering where I disappeared to, I was nearly trampled by the big guys, so I moved too far away for Jan to reach.  She did toss me a couple, though. Tasty, worth waiting for.

Thank you, Chewy.com, for letting us taste test these Orijen dog treats. 

We really enjoyed it and Jan is always happy whenever she can give us something healthy.  Hmmm, wonder how the Orijen dog and cat food tastes? 

Chewy.com provided us with a bag of treats for this review.  We were neither paid for it nor told what to say.

It's Thankful Thursday and we're sure thankful for so many things, so we're joining the Pepi Smart Dog's blog hop.

Memorial Day Angel Flight

In the US, Memorial Day is a day we honor military men and women who died in service to their country.

A while back we did a post on Angel Flights, flights that bring soldiers killed in combat (heroes) home.

We'd like to post the shorter version instead of the remix today. (If you'd like to know how the song came about, check out our post USAF Angel Flights.)  This is a beautiful song and we feel it appropriate for Memorial Day.  Listening to it still gives us teary eyes and chills.

There's a dedication flashed onscreen to the "Red River 44."  If you'd like to know who this refers to -
"On September 17, 2008 seven soldiers from the 2-149th Aviation Task Force 34 were killed in a CH47 Chinook crash near Talil, Iraq."

This is for them.  And for all our military who have fallen in the line of duty.




If the video doesn't play, click here.

Sunday Smile by Cyndi

Hey, it's me, Cyndi.  I got a dog joke ... or maybe it's a horse joke...  whichever, it's Sunday so I hope to make you smile.

 Two horses were walking back to the paddock after a days training.

One says to the other "I can't understand why we are so slow, we come from good stock, we have the best of food, great trainers, and yet we come last in every race."

There was a dog running along side them who overheard and said "I know what your problem is. I have seen you race and it looks to me as if you race off at the start really fast and use up all your energy and then you have nothing left. What you should do is pace yourselves and when all the other horses are knackered, put in a spurt and you're sure to win. What do you think of that?".

The horses looked at one another and said "WOW, a talking dog!"

Sam:  That's your idea of a joke, Cyndi?

Cyndi:  You don't like it?

Sam:  Naw.  Who ever heard of a talking horse?

Three Woofers Win News

Hey, the 3 Woofers here, Merci, Sam & Buddy.  The Funny Farmer Felines posted their weekly interview yesterday (click here if you missed Tommie, Gracie & Mickey Mouser of Shelter Cats.) so we figure it's our turn today.

Before we go any further, perhaps we should mention that the blog title doesn't mean we won any news.  We just prefer concise, to the point titles.  Three Woofers and their Siblings Win BlogPaws Swag and Talk About Their New News Column just doesn't have the same pizzazz, does it?

We are so excited.  We won some of the Island Cats' swag from BlogPaws. That's really nice of Wally, Ernie, Zoey and the lady with the yellow hair to share with us Funny Farmers. Um, do you think Jan will want some of ... we don't actually know what it will be yet, but if Ernie has been eating it, we figure it's edible.Well, hopefully, it won't be edibles Jan likes.

And for those of you who missed the announcement Sunday, the Blogville Chronicle is back and they are looking for columnists. Do you have furry blogging news or a hankering to write it?   K9Katastrophe posted Thursday so please go welcome Ruthie back.

We're going to be doing a column - we're thinking of calling it Meet & Greet - so we can use your help. Perhaps you have a better suggestion for a small weekly column?  Do you know of any furry - newbie bloggers you'd like us to introduce?  There are many we don't know - cat, dog, pet pig (Coccolino, for example) Are you a new furry blogger who would like to introduce yourself or, if your human has his / her own blog, perhaps he / she would like a mention.  Do you know a blogger - a furry or a rescue - you'd like to tell others about  Send us an email with a link and a little introductory information to jansfunnyfarm AT gmail DOT com.  We're happy to take suggestions since we're still trying to fashion the format. 

You can get daily news events at the Blogville Community Calendar, so be sure to send your news there too.  Sarge the Cop works hard to keep you informed.

The Cat Blogosphere posts daily cat news and Mousebreath posts the cat news you won't find on the other news blogs.

Are there any furry news blogs you know of that we missed? 

Support your furry blogging news sites by visiting and reporting news.  Blogville / blogosphere is a huge community..  Let's continue to meet new bloggers and get to know each other better. 

Tommie, Gracie & Mickey Mouser

Tommie, Gracie and Mickey Mouser are the photogenic cats from the blog Shelter Cats.  They seem quite content to take a back seat to the kitties that are more often posted there.  Most likely they're happy to share their blog because they have a home.  The other kitties are looking for one.  You can read their story - Talking Tabbies Tommie, Gracie & Mickey - exclusively on Mousebreath, the ezine for cats and cat lovers.

Roses for Micah

Hey, Micah here.  Sorry we missed a couple of Thankful Thursday posts.  Last week I wanted to post about what I was thankful for but Miss Computer Hog ... well, hogged the computer.

On Mother's Day Jan came home from church with two long stemmed red roses.  They were given to everyone there for their mother or in her memory, if she had passed away.  I never met Jan's Ms Mother (Jan says we have to be good Southern cats and call our elders Ms or Mr) but all the other Funny Farmers knew her.

Jan put them in a vase of water on the kitchen table.  If you remember, I've been living in the kitchen for a few months now (by choice; it's near food and water and my warm bed) so I just knew she'd put them there for me to play with.  So I did.  At night I'd take them out of the vase and we'd play games.

Their leaves kinda fell off and they started looking a bit punk.So I took them out of the water more often but nothing helped.  I even tried to resuscitate them. Then they shriveled up and after one big sigh of good-bye, they both died.

I miss my friends and wish they could have hung around longer, but I'm very thankful they were here long enough to become my friends. They were fun to play with.  And they smelled good too.  Not like tuna, but with a flowery kind of scent.

This post was prepared before the F5 tornado ripped through Oklahoma the other day. We joined the BlogPaws Disaster Response Network when it was set up.  We received some information from them yesterday and posted it on Facebook but forgot to add it here.

The largest need at the moment is cash. BlogPaws is reaching out to the BDRN and all the sponsors of the 2013 conference to pledge a commitment for Oklahoma. This collective donation will go to the World Vets who are assessing the needs on site to make the best decision on where the money will go – based on their work in past disasters.

Donations will be collected by World Vets through 11:59 PM Tuesday, May 28^th. The collective donation will be announced when the money is ready for delivery. A badge with a direct donate link is at the top of our right sidebar.

http://blogp.ws/16O9ofk. Here you can find hings from who needs what to donations to where to look for lost and found pets. 

Many of you have lived through a tornado, but we never have, so we can not truly imagine the shock and devastation of such a powerful storm.  We pray for all those affected, especially for those who lost a loved one.

Good News by Rusty

Hey, Rusty here.  I'm a bit excited, kinda like when I'm outside in my doghouse ... I mean, cathouse. Lots of good news.

First, congratulations to all the award winners from BlogPaws 2013.  And extra special congrats to Skeezix's Food Lady, the editor of Mousebreath ezine.  As you might already know, she won in two categories. Best Video and Best Cat Blog for Mousebreath.  You can read her short post on the subject here.

And you can watch Karen accept the award for Mousebreath here. She has a "crazy" sense of humor, so if you'd like to watch her award winning video, it begins approximately 17 minutes into the video.  The Mousebreath award acceptance begins at approximately 27 minutes.


We're very proud of Karen.  She ad-libbed her acceptance speech and remembered all the Funny Farmer Felines except Cyndi.  But she's forgiven. Whenever Jan lists our names, she has to think and count - and she lives with us.  In fact, she named us!  But if she can forget our names on occasion, so can Karen. the surprise was she remembered and mentioned us.

We were very pleased and surprised to receive the versatile blogger award from Daddy Kiril, Nikita and Elvira from the Opinionated Pussycat.  Pay no attention to Jan's name being listed as the sole recipient.  Jan asked and was told, "Tell the funny farmers the award is just as much theirs as yours!"  That's a relief.  We're the talent.  Jan just supplies the ... um, I'm not sure what she supplies.  Meals?

We're a bit short of time, so we'll have to do the 7 facts another time.  But we would like to pass this on to one Blog.

The Tabby Cat Club - This club was started by the lovely Gracie and her hu-mom.  The club is active and the members come up with some interesting ideas for events.

We're very proud to receive this award from Purrime Ministerettes Shiva and Jaya.  If you haven't read our Mousebreath interview with them, you're missing some fun.  Click on their name and you'll find a link to the interview in their post.  Or click here and find a link in our post.  However you get there, you won't regret it.

And the Winner Is

Hey, it's me, Sam.  I drew the short bone so I get to make the announcement.

*Yes, Buddy, drawing the short bone does too make me the winner!  If you want to argue about it, I'm the biggest and heaviest, so I'll be happy to sit on you until I'm finished posting. You already had a recent turn anyway.*

As I was trying to say, last Monday we all posted on Seasonal Allergies and a Giveaway.  Readers had until midnight Friday to leave a comment to be eligible for a FURminator giveaway.

I  - well, we are pleased to announce we numbered all of the eligible (US & Canada) responses in the order in which they were posted and let Random.com choose the winning number.  Random.org picked #1.

Since our first eligible commenter was Quinn and Angel Brandi from Catitude, I hereby declare Quinn the official winner.

*Um, Percy  ... do I have to crown her or just make the announcement?  Okay, I got it covered then.  No crown.  Just a FURminator.*

Quinn, please ask your mom to send us your snail mail information so your FURminator can be shipped to you.

Many thanks to all of you who entered.  We wish you could all win.

And thanks to Novartis' Atopica for providing the winning FURminator.  We did receive a FURminator for helping to raise awareness about seasonal allergies among pet owners, which we were glad to do since Buddy claims to be allergic to Jan, but we were neither paid nor told what to say.

Amadeus the Shark

Hey, Percy here with today's Sunday Smile.

I know some of you would consider yourself a pool shark but I doubt you could beat Amadeus.  Amadeus is a chihuahua who can clear the table every time without another player getting a turn.  Don't believe me?  Well, watch him go to it.  And for those of you who once thought you were a great pool player, we have  lots of tissues handy.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Mousebreath Auditions A Success

Hey, Cameron here.  I'd like to do an update on our recent  Mousebreath casting call. But first, I'd like to remind you, if you haven't read yesterday's interview of the lovely Purrime Ministerettes Shiva & Jaya yet, please go meet them now.  Don't worry, I'll wait.

Okay, now that you're back, I'll give you the update.

When we posted the Casting Call for Mousebreath interviews, we were pleasantly surprised at the response.  We were afraid you'd all be too shy to volunteer or suggest another blogger. But we now have a list that will carry us through the next however many (we didn't count) weeks. A good variety of blog personalities - from old friends right down to a brand new mama blogger with babies. We hope you will all bear with us.  We will interview all of these.

Since it will take us some time to get through the list, we thought we'd introduce you to the newer bloggers, new to us anyway.  If you haven't already met them, we hope you will stop by and introduce yourselves. 

Nermal, a farm kitty with babies is brand new to the blogging world.

Complete with Cats and Dogs is written about the pets by the human, but the pets write their own funny blog on Tumbler called Dogs and Cats Texting.

Sam's Scratching Post opened this month.

Cheshire Loves Karma is new to us, but some of you might be familiar with it.

Swiss Cat Blog is written in French with an English translation below it.

Yes, our Mousebreath auditions were a success and we can't wait to get to know more about all those who came so we can share their stories with you.  Thanks.

Shiva and Jaya Purrime Ministerettes

Have you met Purrime Ministerettes of Planet Purrth from Shiva and Jaya's blog?  They'll make you smile.  You can read our exclusive interview with Purrime Ministerettes Shiva and Jaya at Mousebreath, the ezine for cats by cats.

Seasonal Allergies and Giveaway

Hey, Buddy here with a PSA and a giveaway.  Don't let the post title fool you.  I'm not giving away seasonal allergies. But one lucky reader will win something invaluable for this time of year when we furries are shedding heavily and cats are prone to hurling furballs more than usual- a FURminator.

You might remember this photo of me protesting Jan making me wear a lampshade / bullhorn on my head.  

Or this more recent one.

Yes, I suffer from allergies and when they flare, I am prone to licking and chewing myself raw.  Jan swears I am allergic to myself but how could anyone be allergic to this handsome .... well, I am handsome when I'm not dressed like a party pooper.  More likely, I'm allergic to Jan

Seriously, this has been a bad year for humans and pets with allergies and we've been asked to help raise awareness of seasonal allergies in pets, so I was elected spokesdog because I know firsthand how an allergic reaction can affect the skin of a cat or dog (allergic dermatitis).  We furries can be allergic to just about anything: pollen, dust mites, fleas, household chemicals, mold, animal or human dander, tobacco smoke ....    Jam was quite surprised to find cotton and wool fabrics on the list.  She was aware of wool but  ... cotton?  She hopes I'm not allergic to it.  (Not as much as I do since Jan likes cotton!)  Check out the interesting facts on the pet allergy infograph.

Is your pet scratching, licking, chewing on his paws more than you consider normal, perhaps he has red skin, recurrent skin infections, or is losing hair, and you suspect he has an allergy?  Cat and dog symptoms vary.  You can take this simple vet-created 1 minute quiz at itchfreepet.com (one quiz for cats and one for dogs) to determine whether your pet might be at risk for atopical dermatitis and needs to visit the vet for testing.

The rules for our FURminator giveaway are simple.  To enter, just leave a comment stating you'd like to enter and whether or not your pet has seasonal allergies.

We know that some of you have a pet that has been diagnosed with and is being treated for allergies. And just as many of you, Jan prefers to avoid steroids and drugs for all of us as much as  possible. So feel free to include in your comment what works for your pet.

You can enter this giveaway till midnight EDT Friday. We will use random.com to choose a winner and post the name on Monday, May 20.  We're sorry, but the giveaway is limited to residents of the US and Canada. 

We are not being paid for this post but Novartis' Atopica has provided the quiz and is sponsoring the FURminator giveaway for the primary reason to raise awareness of the issue that pets can have allergies just like people, and many owners don't know the signs. 

Mother's Day 2013

We made you this card with our own little paws.  And a few extra large ones (Sam, Buddy, Rusty).

Okay, truth be told, Jan made this card but we asked her to.  That's the same as making it ourselves, isn't it!  If we hadn't asked, she wouldn't have thought of it till after Memorial Day.  So it's our card to all mothers - birth mothers, adopters, hu-moms of furries - from all of us.

Happy Mother's Day!

Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty, Sam & Micah
and Jan too

Cat Blogger Auditions

Yes, we are making some changes in the way we handle cat blogger interviews and we're  holding auditions for cat bloggers.  Don't panic if you can't quilt or play the trumpet.  These aren't real auditions.  We're just going to give readers a chance to become more involved in which bloggers we interview.  So far, our system has generally been ... well, strange.  We'd like to interview all the bloggers and don't want to be biased, so we've been mainly picking them at random from our bookmark list.

Despite months of juggling several prospects at a time, things happen beyond our control (and those being interviewed) and the unthinkable happened.  Last week none of our prospects responded and we didn't have an interview to publish.  This week we had one but this was an inconvenient week (for them) to publish.

So here we are again without an interview to post.  And this is why we came up with the idea to hold a casting call, which basically just means we are offering more reader participation. 



We have several upcoming bloggers at various stages of the interview process  - anywhere from delayed because of personal circumstances  to only just accepted. 

You can read more about our casting call post, Cat Blogger Casting Call, on Mousebreath. 

No Picasso Either

Hey, Rusty here.  Excuse me one moment. Jan gave me a treat so I need to eat it before the ants find it first.  Not polite to talk with a full mouth, you know.  Not that this tiny treat would fill any kitty's mouth.  But waste not and you might get seconds.  (Except around Jan.)

Today is the Thankful Thursday blog hop.  Last week Cameron posted Not a Rembrandt and mentioned there would be a second part to that post.  This is it.

Jan actually had an opportunity to design TWO canvases for our walls - the 16x20" we posted last week and a smaller one.  This is the 8x10".   It's kind of hard to read the print in this small version of it but there are 4 grace-related Bible verses on it. 

Now if we can just motivate her to hang them, preferably not in front of the computer screen or we won't be able to post.  But somewhere she can see them and be encouraged to look upward on those days when her head is dragging on the floor.

Sunday Smile with Percy

Hey, Percy here with a reminder of my Fix it or Fry it business.  Whichever you want, I aim to please.  So call me at .... *um, Jan, what is our phone number?  It's just been disconnected?  This minute?  I don't think so!  I can hear it ringing, a bit muffled, but ringing.*

Sorry, I'll have to get back to you on the phone number  Meanwhile, you can leave a comment for me.

I wanted to show you the really delicious morsels I'm having for lunch.  *No, I didn't say anything, Jan.  Just thinking out loud.*

These little guys were orphaned.  Aren't they cute?


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Happy Sunday.