These cat fashionistas know when to work and when to party — and it’s time to party if you can’t tell! The latest catreprenuerial concept to hit the big time has a lot to celebrate headed into the new year looking sexy and feeling on top of the world. With top role models like these. watch out Victoria’s Cat’s Secrets!
Photographer Terry Deroy Gruber’s 1979 release of Working Cats is a cat self-help classic, a book-length photo-documentary of the modern economic lives of cats. Everything from fruit-selling cats to porno film company office cats are brought to light in this bold study of felines in their work-a-day environments. There are cat careers I would never imagine documented here! Here are a few examples:
Outdoor jobs: Race track cat, stadium cat, taxicab cat, shoe-shine cat.
High profile career tracks: boutique kitty, public tv kitty, talent agent kitty.
Nontraditional careers: fish-shop kitty, butcher kitty, taxidermy kitty.
Artsy cat jobs: Opera wig shop cat, theater cat.
Special-case cat jobs: Penitentiary cat, disco kitty.
Gruber’s photographs are timeless, full of personality, and each evokes the cat’s engagement with the workplace. In an Internet bio, Gruber is credited for changing the way cat pictures are seen by the world. We at Self Help for Cats appreciate that!
First came the house cat, then came the house designed for the cat. Progress, no?
The blood-curdling howl ripped me from dream state, and I awoke knowing someone was doing something horrible to something else out there in the night. Then it all snapped into place like two Legos and my feet flew out of bed bringing me along running with them. It was five AM and I had to stop the painful sounds of torture — if not any actual torture itself. I had to consider, what would the neighbors think?
Sure enough, I had awoken to the horrible sounds of another battle-supreme between the two cats who otherwise can’t get enough (sleep on top) of each other. The “brothers” who are not related, the boys who fill our days with joys have lately become a troubled duo. Call them Paul and John, they ain’t getting along, at least not all the time like they used to. Read the rest of this entry »
Just because I channel my cats’ self-improvement tips here at Self Help for Cats does not mean my household is beyond having its own seasonal and other feline challenges. The trouble started a few years back…
When Herman saw Santa Claws out the window on our first Christmas morning at the house where I now live, he went utterly ballistic and turned on his very best friend, Brody. I had to jump out of bed to separate the fighting madcats with a broom and sweep Herman Panther into another room, closing the door on the devil cat he had become. Peace on Earth it wasn’t.
Herman, we have since learned, was suffering from his first case of displaced aggression. He saw a cat outside (ever since known by the name Santa Claws) and got so upset and confused, he failed to regonize the friend he sleeps on top of every day of the year. Read the rest of this entry »
Picture a quiet night by the Christmas tree. You sink into your comfy recliner and think about how nice it is to feel so relaxed, and then, wait, what’s that? The Christmas tree starts to shake violently, all the baubles banging and clanging. “What the hell?” you blurt! The tree is absolutely possessed. Like at any moment it could split open and give birth to the alien.
You stare deeper through the pine needles and the tinsel and something is –staring back! Then you recognize it. That’s not the alien glaring back at you; It’s the very wide eyes of your cat having the closest thing to a back-to-the-wild experience he is ever going to have in your living room.
Now you see him ratcheting his way up the Christmas tree trunk, branch by branch, causing the entire tanenbaum with trappings to undergo something like a 6.0 catquake. The moment you realize it’s your cat causing the localized hurricane is the moment your cat finds your extremely-precious heirloom ornament. You watch in horror as he winds up to give it a good bat with his paw to send it flying across the room.
“Nooooo!” You yell, hurling yourself into space like a wide receiver to save the small piece of family history.
Okay, maybe this hasn’t happened to you. But whether your cat ignores the Christmas tree, climbs it, or silently sabotages it by drinking all its water, you can watch other people’s cats climb their Christmas trees at a little place called youtube.
Just don’t place your cat in the Christmas tree like some you-tubers obviously did, because this is just asking for trouble. These people would open Pandora’s Box if they came upon it at a garage sale.
Snow banks are one effective
and pretty way to keep kitty from climbing the tree.
Those big black cats wandering around outer Reno – don’t worry, they are only Puma’s, although their black fur may lead you to think they are panthers. It’s cool, we have everything under control. Just go back inside and go into lock-down mode and everything will be fine.
I don’t know about you, but it’s hot enough here to shave a Maine coon cat. Hot enough to give a cat a bath. But why go to such extremes during such extreme temperatures? It is much better to simply send your cats to camp, where swimming, running through the sprinklers, and riding horseback will give kitty all the cool stimulation he could want, and without the messy razor residue.
Ask yourself, what kind of city cat summer camp fits into your busy summer schedule? Does the Fluffster need a basic day camp to tramp through the parklands, make friends and mud pies, build forts and chase flags? Or does your cat prefer to feed his own special creative habit? If so, possibly explore a specialty camp, like cool cat-art camp or kitty outward bound. The possibilities are endless when you make them up yourself as you go along!
Whatever camp you choose for your cats, the important thing to do is remember to always wake up every morning and get your cats ready for another day of fun. Do this and everyday will be a huge success. I hope this helps clarify matters during this thought-smashing heat. Thanks for your time, and as always, feel free to please share your cat’s own summertime aspirations and pursuits, if you like.
Cat airline travel, formerly a feline right of passage, may soon go the way of the Hindenberg, if what the lady from Southwest says is true.
In a recent phone conversation with my partner Hank, the Southwest lady said the airlines are “straying away” from companion animal travel on their passenger planes. I swear, that’s what she said and that’s the words she used.
This news comes as a major shock to me. It just can’t be true. How are Brody and Herman ever going to see Niagara Falls, the Big Apple, and the remnants of the Berlin Wall if they can’t fly?
Anyway, maybe it’s not true, because I just read another story about how incredibly misinformed some airline employees are about cats and travel. In fact, as it turns, one new worker was actually telling folks they would have to get their cat fingerprinted if it traveled through Los Angeles International Airport. Read about it here.
Well, I obviously need to get to the bottom of this one. How about you, do you find that the airlines are “straying away” from pet travel, or has your little kitten been wracking up the free flyer miles no problem visiting a hot little Persian they met in Miami?
I’d love to hear what the real story is for jet-setting kitties, and the people who pack for them.
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