If you a cat(s) and an iPad, Friskies has developed several games for cats for use on the iPad. They even developed one for cat and owner to play together. So far, the cats have a whopping lead on humans. You can see a sample of the games below. Here is the website for those who might be interested in have their own game(s). Games for Cats

I'm getting that for the abys' 3rd birthday next month!

You people are nutz

My dog thinks the iPad is something to put her ball on to get my attention.

She's right.

Guinness' Brilliant St. Patrick's Day Commercial

Lovely!

I'm not a big commercial watcher but that was well worth the viewing!

For Stern...It can work...I'm having a good time with mine.

How to beat Cat Allergies.



More at link.

This year I have a new strategy for keeping the neighbor cats from using my (very small) tomato garden as their litterbox. (I did not plant any kind of cover crop this year over my 3X12 feet garden so they had open access once I pulled out last year's tomato plants). I had my gardener dig out the cat-poo infested dirt, put in new garden soil, and put chicken wire flat on the ground on top of the new soil. The idea is, they won't try to do their business there anymore, because they don't like the feel of the chicken wire on their delicate little feet, and they can't dig to cover up their poop . The gardeners just did this yesterday, so we shall see how well it works. I don't mind the neighbor cats hanging out in my yard, drinking from my pool, lounging on the deck, watching the birdies at the bird feeder, and taunting my indoor cats, but I would prefer they do their business somewhere else besides where I plant my tomatoes.

Around here we gots deer. A gardening buddy put up motion detectors on the trees around his garden. If anything comes too close, one of those really high power sprinklers explodes into action, scaring the bejeebers out of the intruder and watering the garden at the same time.



Some version of that would work on kittehs. Wouldn't need to be high powered, even. A little mist machine would do the trick. Water them tomatoes, too.

That very device -- motion detector coupled with water sprinkler (or noise-maker) -- has been tried around here to scare off the same predator, the ubiquitous white-tailed deer. Most people seem to prefer (a) fertilizing with Milorganite* so as to drive off both deer and people, (b) spreading wolf urine in a perimeter around the bed (yes, they keep kennels of wolves for this purpose), or (c) spreading human urine in the same pattern but in a different manner (no kennels required). None of these works all season for deer; the Milorganite loses its stink, and the deer learn not to fear the scent of wolves or humans. I am not sure that any of them would work for cats. Cats are hunters; deer are not. The wire mesh might work better.

* Now said to be safe for use in vegetable gardens. I still don't like it for that purpose. For bulb gardens yes, except that deer will eat tulips no matter how bad the smell around them.

One of the high points of my cat Lucy's day is her morning Skype call with my mom. Lucy recognizes the Skype ring on each of my devices and runs to wherever I am so she can participate. "Is that call for me?"

Lucy isn't interested in TV and pays no attention to any screen -- except when it's her Skype call, on my iPad or on my computer. When my brother calls on Skype, he gets the same attention.

Today's Kindle special ($0.99) is for dog lovers, Amazing Gracie: A Dog’s Tale by Dan Dye. Recommended for dog-loving teenagers, especially "reluctant readers." It sounds like a true story, although that is not claimed in the blurb. The author is a founder of Three Dog Bakery, cultivating a skill quickly learned when he discovered that Gracie would not eat commercial dog food.

That is just so cute. Between that and the iPad games Friskies developed, added to the millions of cats obsessed owned, Apple needs to develop a catnip covered iPad and they might have a new line of very expensive cat toys. They call used older, no longer used versions of iPads just for that purpuse.

Nature's Variety Instinct Cat Food: white specks on surface of newly-opened cans

This is a super-premium-priced grain-free cat food. I bought two cans each of the duck and venison flavors as a trial. Upon opening the venison can, I found small white specks unevenly distributed over the surface of the product.

According to a review, Instinct is manufactured by some families in Nebraska who have been practicing sustainable agriculture for years. Instead of grains, the products contain tapioca and/or pea starch, but the first four listed ingredients are meat products (the venison includes pork liver). The manufacturer adds live cultures to the food to aid in digestion.

A consumer has raised a question about those white specks. The responders seem to converge on the idea that the white specks are harmless, with the most popular response being

Nature's Variety had not yet responded to the consumer's query, although voice mail activates, and an e-mail says that they are doing random testing of batches. This should be normal practice.

The above "fats" explanation seemed a possible explanation to me until I found that one of the cats (or both) had "accidents" at various places. I know that CIsco, the Birman, cannot eat beef, so perhaps he also cannot eat venison. He mostly focuses on wild-caught salmon, which my vet says is an excellent food for him to be fixated on. However, I try to trick him into eating other meats such as chicken and turkey. Sammy, the Korat, is far less picky about his food, although he is restricted to a non-carbohydrate diet (as close as we can get to one).

The idea that fat could have risen to the top to form white specks is not entirely persuasive to me. Any other ideas? Frankly, it looks like something that I would not be surprised to see in a Petri dish.

Tolland, you comment about salmon and your cat reminded me of a funny story. My girlfriend had a Bichon that she loved like it was her child. When Christmas came, I decided to buy the dog, Jackson, a Christmas present. Since he was an elderly dog with arthritis, I thought that a special treat made of salmon might help him. The package clearly had a dog on the front. When my girlfriend opened the package, she was thrilled with it. She showed me a picture of her sister and made the comment that her sister's skin was beautiful and her sister attributed it all to the salmon she ate. I was a little confused about the comment but simply thought I had missed something.

It wasn't until the next day that my girlfriend told me that she thought the salmon treats were for her -- and she didn't realize they were dog treats until she opened the bag to eat one and the smell -- very doggy treat like smell -- stopped her . It was only then that she saw the great big dog picture on the front.

Omg majbabs, that store had me chortling. Glad she didn't eat it!

I laughed so hard when she told me the story, I almost had an accident. We both laugh about that a lot later.

Oh, dear. I've been worried that all the birthing stuff might be a little too complex for the dogs to understand. You know, we babble and we gripe about Orly this and Berg that, and who's the idiot of the week and why.

But I think they've been listening. And I think they are getting the wrong message.



(They were very sweetly sharing the task of ripping the cover off. They can't share a chair, but this they can share.)

The kittehs may just be objecting that that's the Fourth Edition. It's up to the Ninth now.

It was a hand-me-down from my ex-mother-in-law back in the day. (Back when I did real transcribing.) She gave me all her old reference books, with her margin notes. This thing was a treasure in its day!

And I don't get rid of much.

ETA:

P.S.: It was holding the grate down so that the littler dumber dog wouldn't slide into it on the slippery floor and cut her foot open. I think I'll try a rock next.

If they cared that much, they should "object" in the proper manner!

But now we have the "ebidence"!

Oh man, is it time to put out another Daffydavid????

Our newest members of the family. Yes, I like the cats on my bed - finally got them to stay off the counters though. Aluminum foil & Mousetraps. Works every time.
It is kinda funny, but when I get home from going out sometimes they both have that "guilty" look and act when I see them. Then I see the foil & mousetraps (anyone tried to get old newspapers lately??)

Had to step up to foil.