Island Cats Swag

Hey, it's me, Rusty, with some exciting news.

You might remember the Island Cats recently held a giveaway for some of the swag their mom brought home from BlogPaws.  We were very excited when we were notified we had won. 

Friday the package arrived.  There were a couple of toys, some yummy kibble samples, some treats, a bottle of pet medication and something for Jan.  Yep, she gets the bottle of odor eliminator.  Not for her personally, for the house.  Don't know why the house would need it, unless it's because Jan's been sweating so heavily.  Our litterbox certainly doesn't have any odor!  Maybe it's the dogs' feet?

Jan opened the box on the washing machine in the kitchen.  Micah has been living on the dryer, so he was first on the scene.

And Cameron was second.  This is a first for both of them.  Usually Percy and / or I are first on the scene to investigate incoming packages. The contents smelled so appealing, Cameron rubbed his scent on the box to claim it.

The usually reticent Cameron tries hard to chew into a sample kibble pack. 

Micah does a double take as Percy arrives on the scene. Although Percy seldom tries to bully him any more, Micah goes into high alert state. Cameron is too busy trying to grab some nibbles to notice.

Cyndi shows up and totally ignores the guys and the box of goodies.  Instead she poses for the camera and waits for Jan to open a package to share among us.

Where was I during this?  I was helping Jan take pictures so we could get a taste of the goodies sooner.

Thank you for sharing your swag with us, Wally, Ernie & Zoey.  And thanks to their lady with the yellow hair who mailed the package.  

PS -  Quinn won our recent FURminator giveaway and she posted about it yesterday.  Her mom must be very happy she likes her new brush since Quinn is long-haired.  You can read her post here.

Merci's coat was so thick this year Jan couldn't even get a rake through it.  But Saturday she finally managed to "FURminate" Merci.  You should have seen the handfuls of hair blowing around the backyard pen.

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.

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. 

National Hairball Awareness Day

Today is National Hairball Awareness Day.  As Jan says, if you live with a cat, you're aware of hairballs.  (Cat hairball problems are just naturally common in cats, all cats, because of their self-grooming habits. Their rough tongues are made to clean themselves thoroughly and , in doing so, they ingest a lot of hair.)

Jan complains, if you live with a number of cats, you wish someone would invent a self-operating hairball sucker machine so you don't have to use a toothbrush to clean the air conditioning unit in the window, or step into a wet slipper in the middle of the night, or -.  As Buddy, Merci & Sam explain, if you live with cats, don't eat those icky things!  Let your human clean up the mess. (Hairballs generally consist of compacted fur, but they often also include food and a coating of mucus.)

We received a FURminator and Jan used it to brush the cats and create a Fur-lebrity.  (The most important and most effective way to prevent hairball formation is frequent grooming to remove the dead undercoat before it is swallowed.)

You might remember that we fired Jan because she isn't very creative and this was the best could come up with for the contest. 

We had a complaint from Bill Gaither's Homecoming Radio that we set Bill's popularity back 40 years.  Well, maybe not 40 years, but at least 40 minutes worth.  No one recognized him.

UPDATE: Um, before readers start stoning Bill or the Homecoming crew, the above is a joke.  No one - neither Bill nor anyone from HR - has complained.  In fact, Tori Taff, one of the co-hosts laughed so hard when she saw it, she asked permission and then posted it on Homecoming Radio's Facebook page.earlier this month.  Thankfully, they all have a good sense of humor, one of the reasons we picked Bill as our Fur-lebrity.  We'd seen Jan's previous artwork.  :)

Sam is still laughing at Jan's first attempt.  Cameron was our biggest fur contributor this year and he couldn't help it that he's a black tuxie dude.

The winner of the contest will be announced today, so be sure to check out FURminator's Facebook page. Even if you aren't on FB, you can still use the link to view their wall.

Thanks to Romeo the Cat and Furminator for allowing us to participate in the contest.  It's been fun.

Jan is So Fired

Hey, this is .... um, sorry, I can't tell you who I am.  I'm incognito, pretending I'm not me.  None of the other Funny Farmers were willing to do this post, not even with a paper bag over the head.  I'm just here to do an introductory post.  And then Jan is so-o-o-o-o fired!

Last year Jan agreed to help us join again with Romeo the cat and participate in National Hairball Awareness Day, which will be on April 27 this year. All she had to do was brush the kitties with the FURminator provided and make a fur creation with their fur.  Click here if you need to refresh your memory of the fur creature she made for us last year.  You'd think we would have learned by now the only thing Jan can create is chaos.

This year Jan collected kitty fur and spent 3 days making our celebrity entry, even stayed up till 2 a.m. one night.  Are you ready?

We doubt you can recognize this guy, so let us give you a hint.  Never mind, forget the hint.  You'd never guess, so we'll just tell you.  This is Bill Gaither.  Yes, the Southern Gospel singer / musician.

There was a shortage of light fur, as our kitties are mostly dark, and Rusty was most uncooperative about shedding at the time.  So, if we are to be honest, our Bill (not the real Bill ) is an honest-to-goodness Mr. Potato Head. 

Bill, we hang our heads in shame.  This looks nothing like you.  Well, except for the nose.  Jan did get that right.  But we chose you because we like to watch YouTube videos of  the Gaither Vocal Band or listen to your Homecoming radio show online sometimes.  We hope you will forgive us for Jan's ten thumbs and lack of imagination.  But, hey, who knows but you might become famous after appearing on our Funny Farm blog!

People.com posted 10 of the entries today.. (Ours is not included.) Just click on the "Next" button to view them.

If you have a Facebook account, FURminator will do a Facebook page, with one tab with the five finalists where people can vote, and another tab with the complete gallery.. (It's not up yet.)

UPDATE:  FURminator has now posted all the fur creatures on their Facebook page.  Just click on "Fur Creatures Contest."   You can click the link to view all the entries individually.  (Hover over bottom of any photo and it will tell you name of celebrity and who created it, plus if you click on that info, you will go to their blog.)  If you aren't on Facebook, you can get an overview of all the entries here but can't view them individually or vote.

Sam regrets laughing at Jan's first Bill Gaither attempt.  In retrospect, it wasn't so bad.  It just didn't resemble anything remotely human.

Notice Sam's what's-this look.  And on the table beside Sam's head Cyndi is trying to cover her face with a paw so she can't be recognized.

Sam's eyes ask, You're not really going to turn that in, are you Jan?

Whew, Sam laughed,  for a minute I thought Jan was serious.  But it's a joke ... right?

Well, Jan, we are serious.  You are so-o-o-o-o fired!

Unless you promise not to volunteer and embarrass us again next year.  The choice is yours.

National Hairball Awareness Day

I am the perfect choice to present today's subject. I'm Rusty, and my coat is the floofiest - longest and thickest - of all the Funny Farmers. I'm also uncooperative and won't stay still when Jan tries to brush me. She wants to keep me from swallowing my hair and hacking up hairballs. I prefer to hack up hairballs in unexpected places. I'm a hack cat. Being obstinate is natural to me. Enough said.

We joined with Romeo and FURminator for National Hairball Awareness Day -  Friday, April 30 - with a badge in our sidebar through the month of April.

To observe the day, we'd like to give you a few facts on the cat: feline wellness, aging, instincts and the dreaded hairball! *Provided by FURminator, Inc.

Did you know?:

• When a cat coughs up a hairball, it is actually choking. This hacking can be dangerous and can cause death in some cases. Cats will over-groom themselves, especially in the spring during peak shedding season. To reduce the amount of hair ingested, and the corresponding hack that follows, many veterinarians recommend the FURminator deLuxe deShedding Tool for cats; it’s a safe, natural and holistic way to lessen the amount of hair cats ingest.

• Cats have primal instincts and the location of their water bowl can prove it. In the wild a cat would never drag its kill to a watering hole to eat and drink at the same time. House cats have inherited this same instinct. Owners should keep a cat’s water bowl in a separate location than their food bowl. Cats will drink more water (and this increase will help their system clean itself of ingested hair).

• A cat’s age can affect how they shed. As a kitten matures their coat changes in several ways - texture, thickness, curl and coloring. This transition may take up to two years depending on the breed. Once a kitten’s coat has matured they will begin to shed more by dropping their “kitten coat”. Consult with a veterinarian or groomer on when a cat’s grooming needs change.

• Keep cats active to stay healthy; they’re athletes at heart. A healthy cat can jump as much as seven times its height and yet 21 percent of cats are considered obese or overweight by their veterinarians. Interactive toys with feathers on the end will encourage cats to leap, stretch and stay active. Keeping cats active will help them maintain a healthy skin and coat, as well as increase balance and coordination.

Even though Jan has a mind like a sieve, she's still doing something right. She keeps our food and water bowls separate. We have one cat food bowl hemmed in on the dryer so the dogs can't reach it and one high on a shelf. The giant water bowls sit on the floor.   Now she knows why we drink more water than some cats do.  Of course, she'll forget why this is a good thing before breakfast, but our water bowls will still remain on the floor.  Because except for Buddy, the dogs do not climb on the furniture - we're not talking couch here, we mean desk or washing machine type furniture.

For those of you on Twitter, Romeo's human will be conducting a Twitter interview “twitterview” with FURminator’s cat expert, Dr. Arnold Plotnik at 12:00 p.m. EST on Friday the 30th.  If you can make it, tune in.  Dr. Plotnik's twitter handle is @thecatexpert and the Twitterview hashtag will be #NHAD.  And when you get a chance, stop by Dr. Plotnik's feline blog, Cat Man Do.

And if you haven't already voted for Tivi, please pop over and vote for his photo. You won't need to sign up or to vote daily. If you don't know Tivi or why we're voting for him, we have a post on this here.


Have a purring and tail wagging day.

Romeo and Awards

Romeo is having another National Hairball Awareness Day promotion! They are accepting a few more kitties to help display a badge throughout April. For every badge posted, FURminator will donate a tool and cash donation to Romeo's May FURPOWER organization. You will also receive a tool to either keep for yourself or use as a giveaway on your blog. He is accepting cat bloggers into the promotion through Wednesday April 7.







Romeo is also participating in Cats Against Clay.  Cat bloggers wanting to participate in this fun  would display this badge through April and May.  Romeo will be accepting cat bloggers into this campaign for the next two weeks.







We have been given a couple of awards recently and we need to post them before we lose them again. Tut, tut, Jan is moving everything around on our her computer and we can't find anything. Actually, neither can she.




We got this award from the Kool Kittie Krew. Thanks, all of you, for such a beautiful award.
 

Noll's Nip was correct. We have gotten the Sunshine Award before but we're still thankful they gave it to us now.







And we were tagged by Old Kitty's blog. Old Kitty recently went to the bridge but there's a very happy and grateful new kitty named Charlie who needed a home and got one that lives there now. 

We started this post so long ago we've forgotten what the tag was and we have to go now. Blogger was having epileptic fits and wouldn't let us do a post, so we're way behind schedule. But we wanted to be sure to thank Kook Kitty Krew, Noll's Nip and Charlie of Old Kitty's blog for thinking of us.

Furminator Furball Winner

Today is National Hairball Awareness Day.


And the winner of the Who's Your Favorite Furball contest is Madison.


Madison and her staff Cindy will receive a FURminator DeShedding Tool, courtesy of FURminator, Inc. to keep her coat beautiful and hairballs to a minimum.

You can read her winning entry on Romeo the Cat's blog.

Thank you, Romeo, for doing so much to help raise money and awareness for animal needs.

National Hairball Awareness Day

Don't forget! Tomorrow, Friday April 24, is National Hairball Awareness Day!

To celebrate, www.RomeotheCat.com and FURminator, Inc. are sponsoring the "Who's Your Favorite Furball?" contest.

The winner will receive a free FURminator deShedding Tool and will also see their favorite, funniest, furriest furball featured on www.PeoplePets.com and popular pet blogs across the Internet.



Have you entered Your Favorite Furball contest yet? See entry rules here.

FURminator Tips on Preventing Hairballs in Cats Fuzzballs, cat scratches and dirty litter boxes may be top complaints from cat parents, but paws down, hairballs are among the worst of the worst. With peak shedding season underway, our cats are in full swing when it comes to grooming themselves, which means an increase in hairballs (since hairballs are caused when the cat grooms itself).

Friday, April 24 is National Hairball Awareness Day, and to help both cat and parents alike, below are some tips on how to prevent hairballs in cats:

1. Regular Grooming: Hairballs occur when cats over groom. To help cats look and feel their best, it's essential to regularly brush them. The FURminator deShedding Tool for Cats is recommended by vets and nominated by Tufts University School of Veterinarian Medicine as the number one product to reduce hairballs in cats. Using the tool on a regular basis, as well as the FURminator deShedding Shampoo for Cats, will help reduce shedding, thus reducing the amount of hair your cat ingests.

2. Home Remedies: Try adding a little butter and canned pumpkin to your cat's meals once or twice a week. The butter may loosen the hair clod and the fiber in the pumpkin can help move it through the system.

3. Stay Hydrated: Encourage your cat to drink plenty of water by placing various bowls throughout the house. The water will help flush out the hair before it has time to clump in the stomach.

4. Consult Your Vet: If you believe you cat has chronic hairball problems, ask your veterinarian to recommend a laxative supplement to help prevent ingested hairs from forming hairballs.

We're excited to see who wins the contest tomorrow. Have you sent in your entry yet?

Your Favorite Furball Contest

Friday April 24 is National Hairball Awareness Day!

To celebrate, Romeo the Cat and FURminator, Inc. are sponsoring the "Who's Your Favorite Furball?" contest.


The winner will receive a free FURminator deShedding Tool and will also see their favorite, funniest, furriest furball featured on www.PeoplePets.com and popular pet blogs across the Internet.


Romeo and his Furminator.




Entering is easy!

1. Visit www.romeothecat.com and click on the FirstGiving link to donate $1 (or more if you choose!) to Romeo's FURPOWER beneficiary of the month, Kitten Rescue of Los Angeles.

2. Submit your favorite, funniest, furriest furball photo (cats only, please!) via email to romeo at romeothecat dot com and tell us how winning a FURminator deShedding Tool will change your life (and your furball's life!). Make sure to include the following information:

" Your Favorite Furball's name " How winning a FURminator deShedding Tool will change your life (and your furball's life!) " Your name " Your email address " What name you used with your FirstGiving donation

Entries must be submitted by 9 p.m. EST Thursday, April 23, 2009.

3. A Favorite Furball gallery will be posted on www.romeothecat.com leading up to the big announcement.

4. The winner will be selected via a random drawing.

5. The winner will be announced on www.romeothecat.com, www.PeoplePets.com and participating blogs at 12 p.m. EST Friday, April 24, 2009.


Contest parameters: " Contest is only open to cats (sorry doggies!) " Entrants must be located in the U.S. or Canada " Entries must be submitted by 9:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, April 23, 2009 " Entrants agree to allow their photo to be posted on participating blogs

If you have additional questions, please contact romeo at romeothecat dot com.

Good luck!