Waxing Poetic

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Long haired beautiful ginger cat, Rudy, one of the real life cats of Catberry Tails.

Imagine if you weren't allowed to have a cat where you lived.

I've been aware of the growing number of Cat Cafe's in Japan and Tokyo. They're very popular because so many people cannot have cats in their apartments and if you love cats...what to do, what to do? You go to a cafe or tea house and visit with the resident cats!

Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium opened in London on March 1st of this year. And it is a huge SMASHING success!

I've always said that our pets have a very important job! They make us smile and give us love. I cannot imagine my life without cats.

I love to watch people interact with animals.

Smiling woman looking through the window at one of the cats of Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium.
Through the window at Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium

Their faces soften and the love is so evident. Even our body language changes and softens when we are spending time with pets.

Beautiful photo of young woman petting a cat in a very lovely corner of the cat emporium.
Lovely, quiet moment inside of Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium

Inside Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium

Had to laugh...recognize the cat exercise wheel Lady Dinah's has for their cats?

Awesome cats! Excellent idea! A small slice of happiness in a world that often seems so off-kilter, no?

Hop on over to their website. They have a blog, too!

Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium

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Featuring Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott and Kashka, the cat

We've heard and seen so many happy stories about our servicemen and women being reunited with their beloved dogs when they return home from a tour of duty.

So often, people quickly dismiss cats as not being loyal. They're labeled as aloof. Most people who've loved a cat know that cats are loyal, too, and oftentimes feel their cats have saved their lives.

This particular story about Staff Sgt. Knott and his rescued Afghan cat, Kashka, captured our hearts at Catberry Tails. This is a cat who helped save a soldier's life while on duty in Afghanistan and he in turn was determined to save his cat's life.

Photo of Staff Sgt Jesse Knott with the cat he rescued.

During Knott’s darkest hour when several of his buddies were killed by a suicide bomber, the cat began mewing and head-butting him and pawed his forehead. Knott, himself, was contemplating suicide. But Kashka had other plans.

“He would just not leave me alone,” Knott says.

Then the cat jumped in the soldier’s lap and produced a low, vibrating sound that Knott had never heard from him before.

"You lose faith in a lot but sometimes it's the smallest things that bring you back," Knotts said.

 

Koshka’s purring pulled the soldier off his emotional ledge and back into reality. He realized he had a job to do, and that was to get that cat out of Afghanistan.

From then on, Knott's determination to keep Koshka safe was absolute.

"He pulled me out of one of my darkest times so I had to pull him out of one of his darkest places," Knott has said.

The journey back to the USA was filled with danger. It entailed a long ride through Afghanistan, through numerous Taliban check points, many plane flights and finally arriving safely into the waiting arms of the Staff Sgt. Knott's family back home in Oregon.

"He was my saving grace. He kept me alive during that tour."

Sgt. Knott and Kashka have received numerous awards for the love and compassion they've shown towards each other.

The ASPCA in New York City recently announced Kashka as Cat of the Year for 2013.

 

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It's That Time Again!

Time to wax poetic over the marvels of our feline friends! And just to prove I'm not alone I 'll continue to post uplifting stories from other souls who've found the love of a cat to be life altering.

First, I'll wax poetic over my gang via photos from the past week (taken with my cell phone). Many of these photos end up on Instagram and I'll be attaching that account to the blog soon!

And now on to Bob The Street Cat

Bob the street cat sitting at the feet of James Bowen, his human companion, as James plays his guitar on the streets of London.

Bob is a British cat who is credited with saving the life of James Bowen, a musician and recovering drug addict. Truth be told, James also saved Bob's life and Bob has never forgotten it.

Bob the cat poses with James Bowen.

Bowen is blown away by the amount of love, loyalty and trust Bob gives to him, despite the fact he has had so many struggles in his life before meeting Bob. Bowen says

"If a cat can give that kind of love, why can't a human help in that kind of way. But people look the other way so often."

This touching story has been turned into a best selling book that I've just purchased. As one fan waiting in line to meet Bob and James in a bookstore remarked:

"A young man who lost his way and then found his way because of a cat...to me that is always going to be amazing."

Cover of the book entitled A Street Cat Named Bob

This first video will fill you in on the history of Bob and James.

The marvelous video up next is shorter and features Bob "on tour" helping  James promote the book. The joy, the love, the happiness that one small creature has created is marvelous!

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

TOUCHY SUBJECTS AHEAD!

After the previous post from the Kreatrix wherein she describes her love of cats, I said to her

"Wow, that was verbose and rather romantic".

She replied

"You mean I was waxing poetic?"

Huh?

Why would you ever want to use furniture polish on a poem?

I guess I was a little envious, so today I am going to wax a poem about my gang. Here goes:

"Oh most wonderful, adorable tufts of fur in our ears and above our eyes."

Adorable soft sculpture cat doll with tufts of hair above its eyes and in his ears.

"Oh, real life cats that have a pink, shriveled dot under their tail and we have a pretty little flower under ours. BOOYAH!"

Cute little flower button sewn under the tail of soft sculptured cat doll.

"Oh, how we DON'T shed, as evidenced by this photo I took yesterday."

The Chairman photographs a big dust bunny on the floor. A dry piece of cat food lies on the floor in front of it.

By the by, the photo above caused a curious reaction from the Kreatrix. I thought she'd be impressed with the improvement in my photo skills.

Suddenly she's waxing proper things like the furniture and she's even vacuuming dirt off the walls. I sense she might be upset.

She stopped working long enough to take this waxy photo of Dude and I. She helped get us in place.

The dolls cat tail is in a rather inappropriate place. A modesty patch has been placed over the general area.

I was slow to catch on with Dude's tail. In fact, I didn't until Dude pointed out what a gifted "Tom" he was.

"Oh, Kreatrix. We doth protest your sense of humor being displayed as such. "

Clearly a redesign on our tails is in order.

Seeing as the Kreatrix'  back injury has been miraculously cured, perhaps we can return TO MY CAR??? And my cool vintage iMac? Ya think??????