![Image of Restore. Recycle. Repurpose.: Create a Beautiful Home (A Country Living Book) [Hardcover]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21ucTqSOSsL._SL160_.jpg "Restore. Recycle. Repurpose.: Create a Beautiful Home (A Country Living Book) [Hardcover]")
May 13, 2012
Whatever your heart desires, we wish it for you today.
Happy Mother’s Day!
~BigSisHappy Mother’s Day!
~BigSis
Camouflage Cat
September 16, 2011
Camouflage Cat
Camouflage: I haz it! You no can seez me!
~BigSisYour Donation to the In-Sync Big Cats Doubles Today ONLY!
September 15, 2011
Cerella the Cougar
You know we’re big cat fans at BigSisLilSis! We talk about cats all the time. But did you know we’re really BIG CAT fans? ^..^
My favorite animal of all time is the mountain lion (also known as the cougar, puma, or panther), and I’ve been dying to take a little road trip to In-Sync Exotics to visit their mountain lions, tigers, lions, leopards, lynx, cheetahs, bobcats and servals. In-Sync is a wildlife rescue and education center in Wylie, Texas which is only around 30 miles from North Dallas. They’ve been around since 2000 and specialize in big cats.
I’m not a fan of zoos, circuses or any other organization that scoops animals out of their natural habitat to be used for our entertainment. In-Sync isn’t one of those groups; quite the opposite actually. They provide safe, caring homes for these big cats who need it for whatever reason. It seems neglect and abuse are the common thread in many of these cats’ stories. They will be loved and watched after for the rest of their days at In-Sync.
What that means is that In-Sync needs operating capital, and their needs for cash will only grow as they take on more and more of these big kitties.
Now for the good news! Today only – September 15th, 2011 from 7am to 7 pm – is your opportunity to leverage a gift to In-Sync Exotics. Your donation to In-Sync will be matched dollar for dollar via Donor Bridge. Your $25 gift becomes $50, $50 becomes $100, $100 becomes $200. You get the idea!!
Just do what I did. Go to In-Sync Exotic’s Donor Bridge page and click on Donate Now. You can also go to Donor Bridge and search for In-Sync Exotics.
If you have big love for big cats as we do, please don’t let this day pass without checking into this great opportunity before it gets away!
Moses the Bobcat
Note: I saw on Donor Bridge that the company who processes credit cards for their charities charges a fee of 2.9% for the service. If you donate $50, your fee will amount to $1.45. To me, that’s a small price to pay for an extra $50 for the charity.
Photo credits: In-Sync Exotics
~BigSisCook for Your Pet Day!
November 1, 2010
Did you know that November 1st is officially Cook for Your Pet Day? Yesterday, we humiliated them by dressing them up in costumes to amuse ourselves, so I guess it’s only fitting that we cook for them today to apologize!
I’ve never cooked for my cats before, and don’t really want to since they’re meat-eaters and I’m vegan. I’m not going to try to veganize them since they’re carnivores by nature, but I can’t see myself cooking up a big ol’ batch of meaty goodness for them. I love ‘em, but I gotta draw the line somewhere!
If you, however, are a more selfless person than me and have the urge to cook today for your furkids, here are some ideas for you:
- Foods to avoid when cooking for your animals
- Tasty dog food recipes from Linda West Eckhardt, coauthor of The Dog Ate It: Cooking for Yourself and Your Four-Legged Friend (via www.womansday.com)
- Dog food and treat recipes from www.thepoop.com
- How to cook for your dog from www.lovetoknow.com
- Catnip Cookie recipe from www.eHow
- Kitty Cuisine from 50 Simple Ways to Pamper Your Cat
by Arden Moore (via www.care2.com)
On a very serious note, if you plan to cook for your cats beyond occasional treats, please do your research before considering feeding them a homemade diet. They have very specific nutritional needs, including a necessity for the amino acid taurine, and neglecting these nutrients can result in illness and even death. Vetinfo.com can get you started with the basics on essential feline nutrition, but talk with your vet and don’t underestimate the importance of your kitty’s needs!
Photo credit: CaptPiper’s Flickr Photostream
~BigSisFURminator is THE Hairball Solution!
July 20, 2010
My cats have never been so beautiful! Look at this shiny coat on my Gaby:
Ashy’s coat is just as shiny. In fact, these two are SO beautiful that I contemplated making a third cat out of the massive blob of hair that the FURminator
Can you believe this?! And this pile wasn’t even from their first session with this miracle tool; it was the second!
I’d never even heard of the FURminator
I know what you’re thinking. “BigSis, you probably don’t brush your cats. We should probably report you to the authorities for animal neglect. No wonder you got so much dead hair out of their coat! And your poor cats are probably Persians that you let get matted! Shame on you, BigSis!”
Honestly, that’s not it at all. My cats get brushed regularly with a slicker brush, and I STILL got this much hair out of them! Plus, they’re short-haired guys, not long-haired dudes!
I’m thinking my hairball problem just got solved with the discovery of the FURminator. Voila. Simple as that. I paid over $35 for mine at PetSMart, and after seeing how well it works, it’s pretty much invaluable to me. I don’t care how much I paid for it. If you follow the FURminator links we’ve given you though, you can get your FURminator
I don’t RAVE about that many products, but this thing is unbelievable. Do yourself a favor, and FURminate the dead hair out of your animal’s coat instead of cleaning it off your carpet!
~BigSisCaturday Christmas Cat Memories
December 12, 2009
My little 20 pound Warren Bitey…what a funny cat he was. Lots of people thought he was mean, but he really wasn’t. He was actually very sweet, but insecure and fearful, which he sometimes showed as aggression in scary situations. When he was a kitten, he was really a biter but we worked through that with the Tellington T-Touch.
He’s been gone for a year and a half now, but I think about him a lot. We were buddies for almost 17 years, and I miss him. One of my favorite memories of Warrie was the Christmas when he was my Christmas card cover boy. No kitty could wear a Santa hat like Warrie. I need a kleenex now.
~BigSisLife with a Cat: Part 1
November 28, 2009
Why, yes, I did dry those clean dishes with a pink dishtowel. Why do you ask?
~BigSisCrazy Cat Lady Moment
November 22, 2009
It’s no secret that I love animals. I’m vegetarian because of my love for animals. I don’t really like squirrels, but I still wouldn’t hurt one OR eat one. 
I live in Squirrel Heaven amidst oodles of mature trees, and have slammed on my brakes plenty of times to avoid squishing one of the little varmints.
I especially love cats of all kinds and all sizes, so it makes sense that my cats are a couple of my favorite models. It amazes me to look at a cat – or any animal – really closely, and notice how wonderfully they were made. We saw your boys yesterday, LilSis, so now here are mine…the furkids!
Ashy's beautiful whiskers and freckly nose
Gaby's green-eyed profile
Ashy's transparent Siamese ear
Gaby with a squirrel or gecko in-sight
~BigSisLoving the Litter Locker
July 27, 2009
A few years ago, I still had 3 cats instead of my current 2, and I really was getting tired of the daily litter box scooping routine:
- Find a plastic bag without holes
- Scoop into the bag and tie it up
- Take the filled bag to the dumpster – rain or shine, light or dark, Africa hot or Antarctica cold
If I was too lazy to make the trip to the trash, I’d occasionally leave the little bag of presents sitting on the front or back porch for later, and that’s just gross. There had to be an easier way to handle this chore, which had to be done every day with 3 cats. I started thinking and wishing that someone made a contraption like the Diaper Genie, but for used cat litter instead of disposable baby diapers. I went online, and voila! Someone does make that contraption. It’s called the Petmate Litter Locker
Litter Locker
This little jewel does everything I want it to do. I don’t have to dig around for a plastic bag and I don’t have to schlep the filled bag to the dumpster every day. You just scoop the used litter into the Litter Locker with the provided scooper, and then turn the handle. There is a long plastic bag in the Litter Locker, and when you turn the handle, you’re essentially coiling the bag and it’s contents around itself. When the Locker gets full, you just empty the coil into the trash.
There is no odor, and you never have to touch anything yukky. If you have several cats and like a really clean litter box, or your cats demand a really clean box, you can scoop several times a day if you want to. It’s super easy! And anything that makes my life easier is a winner in my book! I’ve been using the Litter Locker for around 3 years now, and am on my second one. After a while, I think the plastic does absorb a bit of odor from storing all that poo, so I replaced mine when I moved a year ago.
You can buy the Litter Locker and refills at Amazon.com, PetSMart, WalMart, Petco and several online pet supply companies. I highly recommend it!
~BigSisIt’s Hairball Time!
May 1, 2009
LilSis Disclaimer: This is a first here; but I would like to make it known that I am not responsible nor did I contribute in any way to this post. (I think BigSis is trying to get back at me because she thought the YouTube video was crude that I posted once with the 80s workout queen farting throughout her entire workout.) I have a weak stomach and never would have been able to take these photos. So, with that said, continue reading this post at your own risk…
You read that right. I didn’t say “Hammer Time”. I said “Hairball Time”. If you have cats you know exactly what I mean. The weather is warming up and that means only one thing…shedding and lots of it! And shedding means hairballs, no matter how much I brush these guys. This time of the year, it’s commonplace for me to come home from work and find a little “present” on the carpet waiting for me.
Even though my carpet is new and light in color, I don’t freak out. If I’m gifted with hairball barf, I let it sit and get dry and crunchy. Sorry to be graphic, but that’s the best way to clean it up in my experience, and if there’s one thing I have massive experience with, it’s the gross things that come out of cats!! I’ve seen two very elderly cats through kidney failure to the end, so there isn’t much that turns my stomach when it comes to cats. I’ve learned to breathe through my mouth and to go to the happy place in my head. Nuff said. 
I talked before about how to clear up cat urine odor and also my magic potion for barfage and poopage. I really wanted to share some before and after photos from this week’s Hairball Fest, just so you could see that my potion works and there is hope for your carpet if you’re in the mist of Hairball Time!
But when LilSis heard I was doing this post, she said: “NO!! SAY IT AINT SO!!” She isn’t down with this topic, so out of respect for her and her sensitive stomach, let me add a warning. If you’re easily offended or grossed out, or if you’ve never experienced the joys of these little kitty issues, then come back to BigSisLilSis tomorrow. If you’re brave and want to see the evidence, read on, friends!
So these are my darling furkids:
Gaby Baby
Ashy Poo
And these are the presents they left me recently:
From Gaby...actually a hairball and not poop
And from Ashy
After the evidence had dried and was removed, here was the damage left on the carpet:
Gaby's stain...
And Ashy's stain
Now, after applying my magic potion just once, here are the results! And with no chemicals!
Gaby's mess all gone...
and Ashy's mess all clean!
Voila! Sorry LilSis, but if this post could help just one person, it was all worth it!
~BigSis
