Good evening!

Taking my evening bath-before-nap on the lake cottage sofa.

All is good, though no fish has been caught. Mom suspects that I've had my share of mice here anyways and she just might be right... Have a lovely Caturday!

The Six Best things about Cat-Man- Do & Travel Tip about Beardsley Zoo

CatManDo  according to the "urban dictionary" refers to something that only a cat can do.  For example, when a person attempts to do the same thing, such as falling on their back and landing on their feet the outcome is a "catmando"...and, too bad he broke both his legs on that fall!"  The most famous "catmando or catmandu" hails from the United Kingdom.  Catmando   a ginger colored tabby  served as joint leader of Britain's Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) from 1995-2002 along with his owner, Howling Laud Hope.  He was the only cat ever to have led a political party, I am sure Henri le Chat Noir would be proud of him.  My guess is that Catmando would go "loony" over the Dried Bonito Flakes offered by Cat-Man-Doo  and easily available at www.chewy.com.

When I saw the brand of  Cat-Man-Doo and particularly the Extra Large Dried Bonito Flakes, offered at 20% off by www.chewy.com I just had to try them.  Bonito is a fish whose home is in the waters of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is a schooling fish that is part of the "tuna" family. Unlike a tuna, a bonito is a bony fish that is rarely eaten for its meat; rather this dark oily fish is dried and shaved into very fine, intensely flavored flakes; the Japanese use these flakes in a savory broth.  As for cats, well, my cats beg for them everytime they see the package or hear me take it out of the cabinet... they will do almost anything to get one of these treats... usually I hear a chorus of meows until they get one!

The package says these flakes are extra large -- and they really are.  They are a beautiful pinkish tan color and shaved to perfection.  The company has developed technology that extracts the oxygen from the packaging ensuring that the flakes stay fresh.  When I opened the package, the fresh wholesome fishy fragrance was amazing and I felt like they had just come out of the drying process.  Not only are the flakes large, after a month of opening and closing the package, the flakes have not shrunk or become brittle and they have amazingly retained their color and fragrance.

The  Six best things about Cat-Man-Doo  Dried Bonito Flakes are: 

1. They are all natural  and made with one single  quality ingredient, 

2. There are no preservatives

3.  They are high in protein and low in fat

4. The natural fish oil is great for keeping your cat (or dog's) fur shiny and beautiful

5. www.chewy.com offers them at a discount .... 

6. And most importantly... my four footed furry cats Love them!

Don't forget to  like our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/catsandproductreviews101 and to check out www.chewy.com

Travel Tip

Coral reefs are widely appreciated for their beauty and spectacular biodiversity, which rivals that of tropical rainforests. Unfortunately, coral reefs are in decline worldwide due to both natural and human impacts. On Aug. 17 at 7 pm  the Beardsley Zoo  located on 1875 Noble Ave. in Bridgeport  is hosting  Dr. Joshua Idjadi from Eastern Connecticut State University to discuss the community ecology of coral reefs in Jamaica and French Polynesia. A $10 donation is suggested. There will be Refreshments.  This program will be held in the  Zoo’s  Hanson Exploration Station.

Summer we love you

The heat is on outside, and we keep enjoying the best time of the year. I've been outside too, but it's also nice to nap  inside where it's a bit cooler.

Vacation mode continues...

Paw Lickin Good new cat treats by Weruva

Two years ago, I never heard of freeze dried cat treats. Thanks to  www.chewy.com, my cats are becoming  connoisseurs of natural gluten free cat food, and now, freeze dried treats!  Freeze dried treats seem to be favorites of my Tonkinese.  As a matter of fact, I didn't  really know very much about "natural" pet food until Great Pines Cattery, that specializes breeding Tonkinese and Siamese cats (some imported from Thailand) turned me on to it.   I like  the thought of wholesome healthy food and treats for my cats and was excited to  try a new treat ordered from  www.chewy.com called  Paw Lickin Chicken Freeze Dried Treats by Weruva.   As you can see from the photo below... it is a game of who gets it first!

The  process of freeze drying locks in freshness and flavor with the added bonus of being high in protein, nutrients and enzymes.  The new favorite in my household is Paw Lickin Chicken Freeze Dried Treats by Weruva.   I love the fact that there is just one ingredient  --- white boneless chicken and no mystery ingredients --- the Tonks, Mocha and Sabu like that idea too! My Himalayan kittens.. like this broken into smaller pieces.  At www.chewy.com you get a 10% discount on this fabulous treat and if your order is more than $49 shipping is free... if you schedule auto ship take off another 5%.  The great thing about auto ship is that you get an email before your items ship so if you need to  adjust shipping dates you can.

When choosing  a freeze dried food, I look for a good balance  of protein, fat and fiber and Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken Freeze Dried Treats delivers.  This treat has 78.8% crude protein, 3.78 crude fat, 0.2% crude fiber and 5.2% moisture plus they are grain free and gluten.

 The treats are light and airy and  you can break them up easily... although  for my Tonks... that is out of the question... they savor these tasty morsels!  I like the fact that there is just pure white chicken.  Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken Freeze Dried Treats  treats come in a variety of sizes in a handy cardboard container with a tight lid to keep all that goodness fresh and easy to store.

A recent study from GfK* shows that 34% of all pet food consists of grain free pet food and that 48% is in the "natural" category.   As a relatively new offshoot of the natural grain free trend in pet food, freeze dried pet food/treats saw a 33% growth rate.

*About GfK
GfK is the trusted source of relevant market and consumer information that enables its clients to make smarter decisions. GfK’s public affairs division specializes in customized public opinion polling, media and corporate communications research and reputation measurement globally. In addition to delivering a broad range of customized research studies, the division draws from GfK’s syndicated consumer tracking service, GfK Consumer Life, which monitors consumer values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in around 25 countries each year. The division is also the official polling partner of the Associated Press, conducting the AP-GfK Poll 

The Dog Aging Project

Please welcome today's guest contributor, Dr. Silvan Urfer, a veterinarian with a background in population genetics. He is based at the University of Washington and currently working on the Dog Aging Project.

As a researcher working on the Dog Aging Project, I am glad to share some of our current work and results with the readers of this blog. Our project is based at the University of Washington in Seattle under the direction of Drs. Daniel Promislow and Matt Kaeberlein, and we are interested in studying aging in privately owned dogs – both descriptively and by testing interventions that we expect to increase healthy longevity in our four-legged friends. By following 10,000 companion dogs from homes throughout the United States over their lifetime, the Dog Aging Project aims to discover the genetic and environmental factors that determine whether a dog will live a long and healthy life. Moreover, through an intervention study we describe here, we will explore the potential to actually increase the likelihood that a dog will live a healthy long life. 

Meet Zeke, a canine citizen scientist in the Dog Aging Project

Aging is the single most important risk factor for a variety of diseases that affect both dogs and humans, such as cancer, heart disease, cognitive decline, arthritis, or kidney failure. Thus, addressing aging can be expected to result in a wide variety of potential health benefits: In fact, the potential benefits of targeting aging lead us to believe that this approach can be called “The Ultimate Preventive Medicine”, as it would have beneficial effects across the wide spectrum of otherwise unrelated diseases that share aging as their common risk factor.

Interestingly, the basic mechanisms of aging appear to be very similar across species, which has allowed scientists to identify risk factors and interventions in species with very short life spans, which can then be translated to longer-lived species. Thus far, this process has led from yeast through worms and flies to mice. We now argue that establishing the privately owned domestic dog as a model for human aging is the logical next step to take.

Dogs are a very interesting model in that they share our human environment, develop many of the same age-related diseases that we develop ourselves, and also receive comparable medical care, which we argue makes them an ideal model for aging in humans. In addition, the dog’s comparably shorter life span also means that it is better suited as a model for evaluating genetic and environmental risk factors as well as potentially beneficial interventions on healthy aging, seeing as the results will become apparent much more quickly than they would if such studies were to be performed in humans. With this in mind, our goal is to establish a generally accepted definition of what constitutes an aged dog, and then investigate the factors that contribute to that phenotype – be they genetic, epigenetic, metabolic, or environmental.

Apart from their usefulness as a model for human health, identifying interventions that have the potential to make our dogs live and stay healthy for longer would be a highly desirable goal all in itself, and there is also the aspect of keeping service and other working dogs healthy for longer, which has the potential to generate substantial financial savings.

Shadow, of the Dog Aging Project

One such potential intervention is a drug called rapamycin: It is the product of Streptomyces hygroscopicus, a bacterium that was originally discovered in the soil of Easter Island/Rapa Nui in the 70’s. Rapamycin has been FDA approved as an immune modulator since 1999 and has more recently been shown to increase longevity by 30% when given to mice that were biologically about as old as a 60-year-old human. We know that it achieves this effect by activating some of the same metabolic pathways that are activated by eating a low calorie diet, and we also know that feeding dogs a low calorie diet makes them live and stay healthy for longer. Based on this, it follows that giving rapamycin to dogs could be an interesting and potentially very valuable intervention to increase healthy lifespan in our dogs.

We recently completed a double-blind placebo-controlled pilot study on 24 privately owned middle-aged medium size dogs that received either rapamycin or placebo for 10 weeks. This being a pilot study, our main goal was to make sure there were no side effects at the doses we used. In addition to clinical evaluation, we also did bloodwork before, during and after the study, as well as heart ultrasound before and after because rapamycin has been reported to have positive effects on heart function in aging mice.

The results are now in, and we are pleased to report that rapamycin did not cause any clinical side effects in our study population at the doses we used. The bloodwork showed some changes that may indicate longer red blood cell survival and some changes in metabolism, but all blood parameters remained within normal limits in our population.

However, the most interesting part of our results – especially considering our relatively small sample size – is that rapamycin seems to have significant beneficial effects on heart function. Even more interestingly, those beneficial effects seem to be highly specific to the measures of heart function that we know are deteriorating with age, and they seem to apply to both the contraction (systole) and the relaxation (diastole) phases of heart function (Fractional Shortening and E/A Ratio). In short, rapamycin seems to be able to reverse some of the changes that are characteristic of an aging heart when given to dogs for 10 weeks, which is certainly encouraging within the context of improving healthy aging in our dogs.

We are currently seeking funding for a larger, longer term trial of rapamycin in privately owned dogs, which will allow us to determine whether it has a beneficial effect on life expectancy and healthy aging in them. We predict that rapamycin will not only allow the dogs to live longer, but will reduce their risk for several types of cancer, cognitive decline, kidney disease, and other age-associated disorders. For this study, we are planning to recruit several hundred dogs to study over a period of several years, which will allow us to collect more extensive data on health and mortality. More information on the project and how you can help can be found at our web site at http://dogagingproject.com. 

Silvan Urfer, Dr. med. vet., with contributions by Matt Kaeberlein and Daniel Promislow

Dog Aging Project

University of Washington Medicine Pathology

1959 NE Pacific Street

Box 357705

Seattle, WA 98195

Waiting Wolfhounds. Credit: Silvan Urfer

Further Reading

Gilmore, K. M. and K. A. Greer (2015). "Why is the dog an ideal model for aging research?" Exp Gerontol 71: 14-20.

Kaeberlein, M., K. E. Creevy and D. E. Promislow (2016). "The dog aging project: translational geroscience in companion animals." Mamm Genome.

Kaeberlein, M., P. S. Rabinovitch and G. M. Martin (2015). "Healthy aging: The ultimate preventative medicine." Science 350(6265): 1191-1193.

Urfer, S. R., K. E. Creevy, T. Kaeberlein, D. E. Promislow and M. Kaeberlein (2016). The Dog Aging Project: Rapamycin as a Potential Aging Modulator in Dogs. 5th Canine Science Forum. Padua, Italy. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1979.0326 

Pitt, J. N. and M. Kaeberlein (2015). "Why is aging conserved and what can we do about it?" PLoS Biol 13(4): e1002131. OPEN ACCESS

Harrison, D. E., R. Strong, Z. D. Sharp, J. F. Nelson, C. M. Astle, K. Flurkey, N. L. Nadon, J. E. Wilkinson, K. Frenkel, C. S. Carter, M. Pahor, M. A. Javors, E. Fernandez and R. A. Miller (2009). "Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice." Nature 460(7253): 392-395.

Kealy, R. D., D. F. Lawler, J. M. Ballam, S. L. Mantz, D. N. Biery, E. H. Greeley, G. Lust, M. Segre, G. K. Smith and H. D. Stowe (2002). "Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs." JAVMA 220(9): 1315-1320. 

Flynn, J. M., M. N. O'Leary, C. A. Zambataro, E. C. Academia, M. P. Presley, B. J. Garrett, A. Zykovich, S. D. Mooney, R. Strong, C. J. Rosen, P. Kapahi, M. D. Nelson, B. K. Kennedy and S. Melov (2014). "Late-life rapamycin treatment reverses age-related heart dysfunction." Aging Cell 12(5): 851-862.

Intake is a community process

Ever wonder how our pets find their way to adoption through Berkeley Humane?

In a sense, Berkeley Humane’s adoptable animals are a special, curated selection of animals that we believe would be a great fit in the right home. We focus our attention on relieving overcrowding at other shelters in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Each week Berkeley Humane staff collaborates with these shelters in a process called “intake” to identify adoptable pets as well as injured animals who might thrive under our excellent medical care.

1. Intake step one is to visit a partner shelter. 

There, we discuss how Berkeley Humane can help them with potential overcrowding and whether any of their animals would be a good fit for us. Occasionally a Berkeley Humane veterinarian offers expert medical advice to help us determine which animals might benefit from our excellent on-site vet care — for instance, our new radiograph helps us diagnose injuries that other shelters might not be equipped to discover.

2. Step two is the all-important evaluation process. 

Every animal at Berkeley Humane has passed a behavioral assessment to gauge traits like friendliness to humans, tolerance for being handled, tendency toward overstimulation, general health, and, for dogs, their sociability with other dogs.

3. Step three is transferring the animals to Berkeley Humane.

A great deal of community service and partnership drives our intake process. One of our closest partners is Berkeley Animals Care Services (BACS), located just a mile away from our shelter. Adult animals, whether surrendered or stray, must be held for a while at a public shelter like BACS. After the mandated hold period, Berkeley Humane steps in to help. An exception is made for litters under six months old. Few shelters have the resources and the community support to provide round-the-clock care to underage kittens, for example, so it can benefit the kittens to come directly to Berkeley Humane.

“BACS and the animals it brings in are a huge priority,” says Berkeley Humane Pet Program Manager Carly Skonnord. “We both mutually benefit.”

On a sunny day in late March, Carly drove to BACS in a roomy van with plenty of space to transport multiple pet carriers. Her goal was to bring back two young cats, including a three-month old kitten with undiagnosed dental/cranial issues. Berkeley Humane’s veterinary staff guessed that an infection from a broken jaw might be the culprit. That might be the best case scenario, as kitten bones are still growing at three months and the jaw might heal itself.

“It could be anything at this point and we don’t yet know what our treatment options are,” said Carly. “There’s only so much you can safely do with a kitten’s mandible. But our new radiograph machine gives us the best shot at helping her.”

Carly Skonnord, Pet Program Manager, holding Tippi

This injured kitten (who would get the moniker Tippi later that afternoon) is a perfect example of the community service that Berkeley Humane provides.

“When it comes down to it, we have the technology and resources to give the kitten her best shot,” explained Carly. “It’s our moral responsibility. With an injury this uncertain, bringing her to Berkeley Humane is best for BACS, best for the kitten, and best for the community.”

As Carly carried the kittens through the halls of BACS, staff paused to talk to her. Most expressed joy that Tippi would receive diligent medical attention and get a great shot at a loving home. All of them said goodbye to the kittens. However briefly they may have worked with these animals, they knew and cared about them.

“Staff at BACS is so great to work with,” said Carly. “They are so compassionate and professional.”

Tippi expressing herself as she settles into Berkeley
Humane after transferring from BACS

 Back at Berkeley Humane, the newly-named Tippi and Chuck settled into new homes. They explored their fresh towels, new toys, and clean litter box. Later that day X-rays would confirm Tippi’s broken jaw (not that this stopped the extroverted kitten from meowing for attention from all the vets in the room). Surgery would remove a necrotized bone fragment.

“We wanted her to spend an additional week or two in foster care before putting her up for adoption to make sure she was healing well, and she did great!” said Carly. “She wasn’t in as much pain, which allowed her to eat more freely. She put on a lot of weight, which she needed desperately. Now she’s nice and plump, and is very playful and cuddly. Basically, she now gets to be a normal, healthy kitten!”

Tippi was deemed ready for adoption — and she went home almost immediately. Read more about Tippi’s successful journey to adoption in this East Bay Times story.

Tippi fully recovered and preparing to go home with her adopter

In the month Tippi spent in Berkeley Humane’s care, she was a perfect illustration of how Berkeley Humane collaborates with the community, provides expert medical care when necessary, and helps pets and adopters find each other.



Every week Berkeley Humane helps pets find homes. Some, like Tippi, first receive medical care. Help us help animals! Consider donating today so that we can help more adoptable animals like Tippi overcome injuries and go up for adoption.

A new routine

I've adapted a new routine for the evenings. While the kids are going to sleep in their rooms, and mom is reading/listening to radio/playing Candy Crush in the upstairs lobby, I relax and take a nap on the fluffy rug.

Very nice. For the night I usually move to one of the kids beds to sleep, so here I'm always figuring out which one it will be for tonight.

Good night friends!

Going Home: Molly the cat

There's no set timeline to true love! 

Sometimes you're ready for a new pet — but don't find the right animal right away.

And sometimes an animal is suitable for adoption but doesn't meet the right adopters. 

Carina Alia Earl‎ knows all about waiting for stars to align. She got in touch with us on Facebook to tell us how happy she and Molly the cat are together:


Lazy afternoon with my little lady from Berkeley Humane. Love my Molly (formerly known as Hyacinth) who was waiting for a home for almost a year.

Don't overlook the black kitties. You might be missing out on the greatest love of your life.


Thank you for letting us know that Molly's wait for a home was worth it! She looks so cozy in your arms.


Looking for your stars to align? Come visit us this weekend!  We're also gearing up for Bark (and Meow) Around the Block, our exciting annual block party, where we hope to find homes for even more animals (and not just dogs and cats!). We'll welcome over 20 Bay Area animal rescue groups and feature over 100 adoptable animals. Get ready for a great party!

My very own fishpond

At the lake cottage there isn't fish only in the lake, but also in my very own fishpond!

There are a couple of small perches in there, that the kids have cought for me. It's so much fun looking at them and touching them with my paw. They have lived on the pond for many weeks already, and seem to be fine. There were also loads of frog babies, but they have either grown up and jumped away, or then the perches have, well, eaten them up... Oh the circle of life and nature!

Dogs Playing Together: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Guest post by Nancy Frensley, CPDT,CAP2, CNWI, CGC Evaluator, Senior Behavior and Training Manager, Berkeley Humane

One of first things adopters from Berkeley Humane want to do is take their dogs to a dog park. It’s easy to assume that all dogs both want to play with other dogs and have the right temperament and social skills to do so. However, everyone will benefit by considering a few things before beginning this particular adventure.

Pixie and Cinnamon chase a friend. Photo by Pär Winzell.

Until puppies reach maturity, between the ages of eighteen months and two years, most of them enjoy playing with other dogs. Good dog play can teach young dogs valuable lessons. Play enhances bite inhibition, develops communication skills, and maintains friendly responses to other dogs. As they mature, most dogs become less universal in their desire to play.

Even though some parts of each puppy’s play style are inherited, each of them goes through distinct developmental periods during the first two years of life in which social and play styles are formed. Puppies (under four months) can be very rude but are generally tolerated by adult dogs as well as their human parents. Between the ages of about five and eighteen months, almost all puppies start to push their boundaries with both people and their own kind. In addition, puppies experience distinct “fear periods” during this time of their lives. Unsupervised play as well as harsh corrections can cause pups to develop fear as well as the inappropriate play styles of chasing, body slamming and persistent wrestling; styles that can lead to aggression problems.

Photo by Pär Winzell

Most dogs reach full maturity at about two years. After that, they are less likely to engage in play with dogs they don’t already know and may become more reserved with people as well. Most are content, at this point, to play with previously established dog friends. Sometimes, they lose their desire to play with dogs entirely. Dogs adopted as adults have often had limited social exposure and may never enjoy playing with other dogs.

From the very first day, you should carefully monitor all your dog’s playtimes. By supervising, you can shape your dog’s play style for the rest of his life. The most important part of supervision is being able to recognize when play is appropriate and when it is not. The second most important part is being able to interrupt questionable or inappropriate play and call your dog away before it goes bad.

There are three kinds of dog play—good, questionable, and totally inappropriate. Here’s how to tell them apart:

Good dog play.

You don’t need to interrupt this play. The dogs are monitoring themselves.

• Healthy play is balanced. There is a lot of give-and- take. Both dogs are clearly having fun. 
• Dogs have loose, relaxed bodies, and their movements are silly and inefficient-looking.
• Chase games exhibit a sense of sharing. But, if one dog is being chased into hiding or is becoming defensive, interrupt the play.
• Both dogs are making friendly play gestures. These include play bows, turning and hitting with the hips and both dogs stopping when things get too rough.

Questionable dog play.

You should always interrupt this play before it goes too far. Any of the following behaviors can lead to a fight.

• Wrestling can be appropriate but is questionable and should be interrupted if more than two dogs are involved, or if one dog is always on the bottom.
• Tug-of- war if one or both dogs become possessive.
• Stalking postures. These postures are not play behavior. A stalking posture is significantly different from play bow and is often the first stage of a body slam.

Rude and totally inappropriate dog play.

This “play” is not play at all; it is aggressive behavior and must always be stopped. After you intervene you have a good opportunity to play one-on- one with your dog while he settles down. Rude behaviors are:

• Neck biting and collar grabbing.
• Excessive barking and harassing another dog. Rude puppies often do this relentlessly at adult dogs that do not want to play.
• Body slamming. This is only fun for the slammer.
• Pinning. Bull breeds do this routinely, but others do it, too.
• Mounting other dogs. Both males and females do this and it is almost guaranteed to start a fight.
• Snapping. A dog that is scared or aggravated may snap; so may a dog that is guarding a toy or a bone.
• Standing in a “T” position (head over another dog’s shoulders). This is never play; it is always a challenge. Don’t let it happen at all.
• Ganging up. Two or more dogs ganging up on one.
• General over-arousal, resulting in a case of the crazies, growlies, or snappies.

If you cannot call your dog away quickly and effectively as soon as play becomes questionable use a long line (20’-30’) and practice calling your dog with rewards every day. Once you call your dog away from play, give him time to calm down before releasing him to play again. If your dog has gotten into a scuffle, stop all interactions with other dogs for the remainder of the outing.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to supervise their dogs to keep play friendly.

Photo by Pär Winzell

If you have questions about your dog's behavior, please feel free to email training@berkeleyhumane.org. Learn more about Berkeley Humane's training approach, led by post author Nancy Frensley, and peruse our list of upcoming classes under Nancy's expert guidance.

Fair play

Mom was thinking solitaire with a deck of cards to spend an evening at the lake cottage.

I was thinking, mom giving me skritches while I wash myself on the table. I won.

Gone fishing!

The big one bought himself a new case for his lures and other fishing gear (no worries, this is not a new PTU for me!) so it would seem that lakelife shouldn't be too far away. I'm ready!!

Have a happy weekend!

Going Home: Riley and Cameron

While treats, toys, and fuzzy blankets might not be at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of canine needs, there's no denying that it can be fun and rewarding to spoil our pets. 

When adopter Yue Lin got in touch with us on our Facebook page, she showed us an adorable new way to honor her Berkeley Humane-adopted dogs:  

Riley and Cameron are both from Berkeley Humane and recently got their own pillows:) 

We had some questions about these awesome crafts, and Yue obliged us:

Dear Berkeley Humane, I got the pillows at Crafty Wonderland on a recent trip to Portland. They are made locally by an artist. Well, I just couldn't resist:). Thanks again for all you guys do! Riley and Cameron are the stars of our home. Here they are on a typical day:)

That's a special pair of dogs that deserves a special set of pillows, Yue! Thank you for this glimpse of the happy life you share with Riley and Cameron.


Looking for your own dog to spoil? From puppies to adults, we have a variety of personalities available for adoption right now. Come visit us Friday through Sunday, 11-5.

Collateral damage

Sometimes mom makes the mistake of changing things around. She should know better, that when she does that, it might cause some collateral damage. 

She rearranged some plants and souvenirs on a table, which happens to be on my speeding route. I think you can guess what happened to a poor ceramic elephant, a souvenir from mom and dad's honeymoon in the Dominican Republic yyyeeeears ago...

It fell on the floor and lost one of its legs. I guess mom should have kept it safe on the kitchen window sill where it used to be... Change is no good, ask any kitty and they will tell you that.

I don't admit anything...

So there are tiny holes in your curtains, that alledgedly match my claws? I don't admit anything. Check the fingernails or teeth of your kids, might just as well be their doings. They could have been...*cough*...for example chasing a fly behind the curtains and trying to catch it. I'm just saying...

Two healthy treats for cats

Chewy.com is a large internet petfood company that offers five hundred plus brands, many at discounted prices that offers a range of great choices with the click of the send button.  Another big bonus for doing business with chewy.com is that you can set up an autoship program for the food you need and tweak it if necessary up to a few days before your order ships.  Best of all, if your order totals  $49 or more, two-day shipping is free.  For first time customers there is even a 20% savings on their first auto shipment.

As the owner of five cats, two tonkinese and three himalayans, chewy.com made life convenient; rather than having to run to the petstore to purchase their favorite dry food, Royal Canin for Persian cats.  The kibble of this dry cat food has a special shape making it easy for my cats to eat it as himalayans have small mouths. This food also contains a series of special nutrients to help maintain the gorgeous long coats that this breed is known for.  Best of all, chewy.com offers this food at a 34% discount with an additional 5% discount if you sign up for auto shipping.  For well over a year, the auto ship has worked like a charm and the food has arrived like clockwork, even when I have had to change the shipping dates.

Feeding cats healthy snacks help to give their diet variety keeping them from getting finicky and freeze dried snacks are a source of healthy grain free protein that are easy for cats to digest.
A great find on the chewy.com website  are  freeze dried wild salmon treats by Haro. My cats fell in love with them. These treats, called "Live -A -Littles"  are  all protein, and made of 100%  "wild" salmon. They can be broken into little pieces making it easy to put as a topper over food or just to serve as a treat.

Another great snack alternative is the turkey lover raw freeze dried treats by Sojos. The single ingredient is freeze dried turkey is a high source of omega-3s and amino acids and this treat doesn't have any preservatives or artificial colors or flavors, plus it is high in protein. Chewy.com offers this treat at a 14% discount. This is the second favorite healthy treat that is enjoyed by all my cats.
For more cat food reviews and information about Himalayan and Tonkinese cats visit the adventure and review website