November 18, 2012

Ashy Poo in 2009

If you had come to my door sometime in the last twelve years, my official welcoming committee – consisting of one rescued FlamePoint Siamese lover boy – would have greeted you with something like this:

“My name's Ashy Poo, what's your name? Do you have any cheese in that bag? Do you think I'm pretty? Do you have any dogs? Are you going to sit down so I can sit by you? What's that smell on your shoes? Do you want to pet me? Do you have any chips? Isn't my blonde hair stunning? Can you get me some treats? Can I play with your shoelaces? Did you know I used to live on the street? Have you ever seen a tail as long as mine? Don't you think my mom is nice? Do you want to brush me?” And on and on. Rapid fire, without a breath. Ashy Poo never met a stranger, and loved everyone.

Ashy showing off his blue mani

Ashy dealt with a LOT of challenges in his life, and I wonder what our attitude would be if we faced all of this in one twelve-year period:

• Allergies
• Asthma
• Bartonella
• Chronic gum disease which left you with three teeth
• Heart disease
• Out of control hyperthyroidism
• One blind eye from a cataract
• One displaced kneecap
• Early signs of kidney disease
• Anemia
• IBS
• Car sickness every road trip (involving both ends!)
• Multiple gunshot wounds from a childhood attack, which left a pellet in your hip and probably caused the cataract and knee problem too

Beautiful freckle-faced one

Just imagine how many doctor visits and how many medications were involved in all that! I can tell you my state of mind would probably be “poor, poor me” if that was my life, but Ashy Poo didn't feel that way at all.

God's handiwork

Life – according to Ashy Poo – is beautiful.

Ashy with Warren Bitey and Gaby in 2004

Ashy Poo had a pretty simple list of life principles, and no one lived them out like he did:

• Never stop purring, no matter what. No. Matter. What.

• No one is a stranger and everyone is your friend. Why wouldn't they be your newest fan? You're awesome!

• Trust everyone, even if people have proven to be untrustworthy. Even if you get hurt, keep trusting.

• Never let anyone see that you don't feel well. It only upsets your family if they think you're puny. Just hide under the bed for a little while and sleep til you can act well again.

• If you have to wear a silly hat from time to time, so be it. It's a small price to pay to make people smile. Besides, you look so darn CUTE in hats! Draw the line at wearing a sweater though.

• There's nothing to be afraid of! Not vacuum cleaners, not hair dryers, not car rides, not strangers, not even death. Just live and don't be skerd! Fear is a waste of energy and emotion.

• Don't give up. Fight through whatever comes your way…starvation, homelessness, illness, gunshots. Whatever. Just push through it and don't give up.

• Bounce back and be a trooper! When everyone gives up on you, you bounce back like the Energizer Bunny and keep on ticking. Prove the doubters wrong.

• Show gratitude for your family and your home. Not everyone is blessed with a safe home with a warm bed, yummy food and people who love you. Always be thankful and remember where you came from.

• Choose a mom with a couple of credit cards with high limits if you can. You never know what the future holds.

• Never get hissy or huffy with your mom. If she says eat, you eat til you're full. If she says go to the doctor, you go to the doctor and make new friends. If she says take medicine, you take medicine cheerfully and spit it out when she isn't looking. If she calls you, you come running. She might want to kiss you.

• Always remember that you're special. There's no one else like you. God made you unique and the world needs you to be you.

• Never lose your dignity. Dignity isn't dependent on your situation, it's dependent on your attitude.

• Rule your house with a soft voice and a velvet paw. Keep your brothers in line. Someone has to be the boss!

• Leave your mark on this world so no one can forget the difference you made. Leave blonde hair everywhere too.

• Love everyone. That's all.

Ashy with HayHay the day we brought him home from the Siamese Rescue in December 2000.

That's the walk that Ashy Poo walked for the twelve years he spent with us. His long list of challenges finally got to be too much for his fragile body, and we suddenly lost him last Monday.

We miss this boy like crazy. We invested so much hope, emotion, time and love into this precious soul, and we fought his challenges together for a long time. It's weird that all that is just gone now, and our lives feel off balance in every way.

I'm very thankful that he knew how much we were all madly in love with him, beyond a shadow of a doubt. He knew he was cherished, and as he was taking his last breaths I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to tell him that again and again.

Ashy leaves behind his lonely furry brother Gaby, and a huge extended family of hoomans who loved him and won't forget his sweet spirit and the lessons he taught us. We'll do our best to follow his example, and even thought we're beyond sad, we're going to purr again.

That's what Ashy Poo would want us to do. Keep on purring. Because life according to Ashy Poo is beautiful, and the life he's living right now is more beautiful than any of us can imagine. We'll see you again, Ashy Poo. We love you and we miss you, sweet baby. Forgive us if we can't find our purr just yet.

~BigSis

May 13, 2012

Whatever your heart desires, we wish it for you today.

Happy Mother's Day!

~BigSis

September 16, 2011

Camouflage Cat

Camouflage:  I haz it!  You no can seez me!

~BigSis

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

~BigSis

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 think I better get in touch with a pet treat manufacturer so I can get them some of their favorite treats and hope they don't hate us for dressing them up!

I've never cooked for my cats before, and don't really want to since they're meat-eaters and I'm vegan. I have done a lot of research into what my cats would really appreciate through looking into their nutrition needs (via upn reviews and videos), so I think I have a good idea of where to begin when it comes to giving them the right nutrients. 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. Whatever I decide to cook them, at least I will be able to ensure that they have a good portion by using a feeding calculator.

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! And the same thing also goes for dogs. You may want to test your dog for allergies before tweaking their diet, and info about the how and the why can be found on portals like Jack's Pets and the likes.

~BigSis

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 pulled out of them!

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 before, and now I'm the biggest cheerleader for this thing.  Do you know about the FURminator?  The purple tool in the photo above is the cat version with a 1.75″ edge that literally grabs onto the undercoat and gently pulls it out.  There is also a dog FURminator with a 4″ edge.

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 for a whole lot less than what I paid locally!  That's a sweet deal!

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!

~BigSis

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.

~BigSis

November 28, 2009

Why, yes, I did dry those clean dishes with a pink dishtowel.  Why do you ask?

~BigSis

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

~BigSis

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 ($21.87 at Amazon).

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!

~BigSis