7 things made much more difficult with a cat:
- Tying your shoes
- Making the bed
- Packing
- Cooking
- Typing
- Sleeping
- Putting laundry away
But… then there’s this:
And this:
And – swoon – this:
Oh, and this:
But best of all:
Who knew I was a cat lady… 🙂
CANIDAE canned cat food review and giveaway
I should start this review with full disclosure: Newt is NOT a picky eater. Truly, this cat will eat anything. Plus, she insists on being fed with the dogs, so she gets breakfast and dinner with them and wolfs it down. If she finishes first, she pokes her head in their dog bowls and starts to gobble up kibble.
So, when CANIDAE reached out about Newt testing the new formulas in their Grain Free PURE and Life Stages canned cat food lines, I wasn’t worried about whether or not she’d eat it. Instead, I wanted to focus on the nutritional quality of the food… on Newt’s behalf because she is NOT a discerning kitty.
When I popped open the lid on the PURE can, the first thing I saw were whole entire chunks of meat. The formula is grain-free, so all you get is the meat simmered in a broth. On the salmon can, for example, here are the first five ingredients: Salmon, fish broth, vegetable broth, chicken liver, chicken fat.
One unexpected benefit to the big chunks: It forced Newt to eat slower!
We also received a can from the Life Stages line, and it arrived at exactly the same time as Petey! It’s designated for any age from kitten to senior, so we fed the little lady this can. She gobbled it right up! In fact, the little booger dove right into the can before we had time to scoop it into her dish.
(Quick aside: Apparently I didn’t TRUMPET it enough! 🙂 Miss Petey found a lovely, wonderful home right before we left Louisiana. She is settled in, happy, and – by all accounts – mischievous in her new home!)
I love that these are made in the US with no wheat, corn, soy, fillers, antibiotics, hormones, artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.
These are all-around solid cat foods, and Newt highly recommends both lines!
And, thanks to the generosity of the folks at CANIDAE, one of you lucky cats will get to try out the food that Newt tested!
This is a Rafflecopter giveaway. The widget sometimes takes a few seconds to load, or if you’re reading this via email or in a feed reader, you may have to click the link.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you, CANIDAE, for giving us this opportunity!
Tell me: Is your cat a finicky feline? Or will she eat anything and everything like Newt?
DIY no-sew cat bed
So, I have this issue.
From what I understand, this is pretty typical.
Newt wants to be in the middle of my workspace, no matter what I’m doing.
I love her company. I really do. My problem comes in when she settles in, and then decides that me doing my work is disturbing her! I reach over her to get to my binder or to type on my keyboard… and she bites me!
So, I had to devise a solution.
Now, I’m no crafty Jodi. But I had a pile of green felt leftover from another project, and I had a little box. I didn’t want to just stick a box on my desk, so I decided to cover it with the felt. (Plus, Newt nibbles on the cardboard edges of boxes, and I’m not sure that’s good for her.)
Were I craftier, it would’ve occurred to me to take in-process photos, but it’s really so simple that they’re not needed.
Basically, I cut the top flaps off the box, then wrapped it like a Christmas present and hot glued the edges down.
What did the princess think?
She liked it!
So, now when she gets in between me and my keyboard, I drop a little treat in her box. She climbs in, gobbles the treat, and then, since she’s already there… she curls up for a nap. Problem solved!
Simplest DIY no-sew cat bed ever!
Have you made any crafty projects for your cat? Any other solutions to kitty-related problems?
Creating a cat habitat: What are we missing?
If you’ve been following along, you may remember last summer when I moved down to Louisiana with the boys and had to introduce them to Newt. Emmett ignored her immediately. Cooper thought we got him the best toy ever. And Lucas? Well, Lucas wanted to eat her.
So, over the course of nearly six months, with daily positive training, we’re now a 100% fully integrated household! Yay!
But, during those six months, Newt had to spend a lot of time by herself – and, in truth, she still likes to spend a lot of time by herself. Since we knew that would be the case, we wanted to create a cat habitat for her that would be comfortable and stimulating. We were very lucky that our rental had extra space, and we used that to our advantage.
Here’s what we did:
First, the top floor of the house is off-limits to the dogs, but Newt has her little cat gate to get through. On occasion, like if we have company using the guest room/guest bath, the gate will be open, so she has another gate in front of her room with a little cat door. (See Teddy in the pic on the left?)
In her room, we have little areas for her. The middle is a rug with a scratch post (we quickly learned that a house of hardwoods is hard on a kitty), and one side is a mat with a water dish. We used to feed her there, too, but now she eats with the boys.
In the window is her tree, which is where she spends most of her time.
She has a separate bathroom in the room’s closet.
And we have boxes and toys scattered around the room, plus two different puzzle toys that we fill with dry food when she’s going to be alone for a while.
She seems fairly happy with her space, although she’s much happier now that she’s fully integrated and can go where she please. She does retire to her room throughout the day – if I can’t find her, she’s almost always asleep in the top basket of her tree – and even though she sleeps in our bed, she sneaks up there overnight to shuttle Teddy from one place to the next.
We’re total cat newbies, so we tried to put this together as best we could. With Molly here, she’s spending way more time in there than she had been, so I want to make sure she feels fulfilled… even though we dog people have very little idea what we’re doing!
Cat experts: What are we missing? What could make her space even better?
The Newt, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Newt’s been getting neglected around here. She’s up to a lot of shenanigans, and I’ve been working on some cat-centric projects, but I never think to post about it.
Poor, Newt.
Anyway, I’m stating publicly: If I can get my act together Newt will get a “Caturday” post from now on!
Starting with her most recent shenanigan…
You can’t misplace a dog in the house. Not my dogs, anyway. Everywhere I turn, they’re there. Even if I’m not paying attention to them, I can’t not see them. They’re big. They’re loud. They’re demanding. I know where all three of them are at every second of every day.
Not Newt.
She’s wily. She’s a creeper. She likes to hide and pop out at exactly the right moment to stop my heart.
When I put laundry away, I tend to leave the drawers open so that I don’t have to keep opening and closing them. On occasion, in the midst of the task, I get distracted – the phone rings, UPS arrives, one of the dogs goes ballistic at a squirrel out the window, whatever. And I don’t get the drawers shut.
See that pic? That’s nothing, right? Like, a couple inches of open drawer.
But at some point I realized… Newt is nowhere. None of her usual spots. Not biting Cooper. Not biting me. Nowhere.
I call and call and call. I jingle her treat jar. I call some more while jingling her treat jar.
And then…
“I’m Aslan, bitches.”
She somehow wormed her way in those few inches and gotten BEHIND the entire chest of drawers. As in, not behind the actual piece of furniture, but IN it, behind the drawers. As in, had I pushed it shut, she would’ve been squished.
And it’s her new thing now.
She sees the drawers open even just the tiniest bit, and she’s on it, ready to head back to Narnia. She sees a drawer not 100% shut, and her paws are down in there pushing the clothes around to make room for her to squeeze through.
This would never. ever. ever. happen with Lucas.
(BTW: I’m obviously the witch in this scenario since I pull her out of there every time.)