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Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Difficult Darlings

I’d like to say that I haven’t met a cat I haven’t liked in my work at the cats only boarding facility. Sure, I have my favorites. There are some cats I just bond with and some cats I don’t. Then there are the cats who like to mess with my head. We’ve got one guest at the boarding facility now who has been driving me crazy. She’s a striking Persian mix, with a calico coat. Perhaps the most amazing thing about her looks is her eyes: they are a dark amber/orange color. Quite a lovely little cat! When she … Continue reading →

Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Feral Cat Efforts

At the cats only boarding facility, they welcome cats of all shapes and sizes. We get some “mostly outdoor” cats whose owners bring them in to stay when the weather is bad. We get some pampered princes and princesses who require daily brushing and like to eat from fancy dishes. I know for sure that my coworkers are cat lovers. But more than that — they really care about the welfare of cats. All cats. Even the feral ones. Every day, we take all the leftover cat food and empty it into a big dish. After each shift, somebody brings … Continue reading →

The Tabby Cat: An Uncommonly Common Delight

Although the tabby cat may not be an unusual sight, it is indeed as special as the individual animal sporting the colors itself! The word has fascinating roots. It derives from the French, tabis, which in turn comes from the Latin attabi. Both words refer to the original meaning, which is even further away, hailing from the Attabiyah section of Baghdad where it refers to a type of striped silk. This was later used (no one knows exactly when) to describe the marking on a cat’s coat. Whatever the origins of the word, the tabby cat is often mistaken for … Continue reading →

The Calico Cat: A Patch of Joy

Have you ever wondered why some cats are calico and why they are almost always females? Well, wonder no more. Coat coloration in cats is a complex equation, but simply speaking, calico coloring and tortoise shell coloring are controlled by several genes. Both are a combination of color patterns resulting from genetic traits, and neither is specific to any particular breed of cat. A blend of colors creates the coloration; the result almost like the accidental slip of an artist’s palette of black, chocolate and cinnamon. The sizes of the patches differ greatly, ranging from a fine, speckled pattern to … Continue reading →

The Cymric Cat: Another Tale of No Tail

The tailless Cymric, whose name is derived from the Gaelic word for “Wales,” along with its short-haired cousin, the Manx, are among the oldest breeds of cats known to man. Native to an island in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland known as The Isle of Man, these cats lost their tails as the result of a spontaneous mutation. The isolation of their origins and centuries of inbreeding easily established the genetic nature of the tailless trait, and both long and short haired cats existed on the Isle of Man before the appearance of this strange mutant gene. The … Continue reading →

Unfaithful Pets

Once upon a blog, Aimee wrote about pets who prefer people other than their owners. I got to thinking about this yesterday when I was writing about my friends who have been adopted by cats lately. In both instances, the cats technically belong to other people. But they’ve adopted new ones, which technically makes them unfaithful pets. Or does it? Cuddles Cuddles is a little calico that really belongs to the people who moved in to the house next to Cindy and Michael, our across-the-street neighbors. But Cuddles has decided she likes to camp out at Cindy and Michael’s. She … Continue reading →

Spice The Survivor

She’s not the newest member of the Spice Girls… Spice is a calico cat who spent three weeks in a shipping container without food or water and lived to meow the tale. The Escamilla family was moving from Waikoloa Village, Hawaii to a new home in Southern California. While packing up a large shipping container, three year old Spice mysteriously disappeared. The family couldn’t find the cat before their flight to their new home, and kept calling neighbors back home to see if she’d turned up. She didn’t. It turns out Spice spent the nearly three week long journey across … Continue reading →

Awards, Bodyguards, and Weimaraners: An Interview With Christy Tillery French

Christy Tillery French claims she always loved writing but then “life got in the way (I got married and had two kids) and didn’t begin writing again until I started my own business and during unbusy periods would write to amuse myself. Before I knew it, I had written five novels….” An interesting way to start on a track that has brought her many acclaims, including Who’s Who recognition on lists like Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women (just to name a couple), a 2006 Reviewers’ Choice Award, and a Maxwell Award nomination. Oh, and she’s … Continue reading →