Thank you all very much for your wishes for my/my human’s Gotcha Day and for coming to my pawty and for visiting my bloggie! We are late on visiting again but we do our best to visit you every time we can!
Today we celebrate Kitshka’s first birthday! Are you ready?
Kitshka: Smile, Texas, this is for my birthday Texas: I think I had too many mojitos…
Kitshka received some nice cards from Furriends. Sammy and Easy sent her these lovely cards:
I thought that I would do a short review of my representative’s human’s experience at BlogPaws.
“Better late than never,” say the humans. This is a very wise human saying, except when food, treats and play time are concerned. We, kitties, need the attention when we need it (often this moment is now). This review is overdue but what can I do? I work with a human (you know, the species that invents sayings to excuse themselves for their mistakes).
Also, I would like to paraphrase a very wise human, Jackson Galaxy, who, at the Strand Books event a couple of weeks ago, said something to the effect that animals don’t make excuses, there’s no “yes, but”… they just go (my human is not sure – see what I mean?! – of the exact quote, hence the paraphrase).
So let’s not sugarcoat this short review (kitties have no appetite for sugar anyway), but let’s also give the applause when it is due.
Let’s start with the positive.
My human really enjoyed her time spent at the conference and I really enjoyed what she brought back to us. Most of of what she brought back (see “bad” section). Mostly treats, and also some litter that she won from the cat lounge. We really, really liked the Natural Balance Perfect Bites Rabbit Formula!
My human said she learned from each presentation she attended (and there were many options).
Among those bloggies, there are some that we discovered thanks to my human going to BlogPaws and meeting their humans! My human also talked and exchanged with many doggie bloggers.
And we have to give extra special thanks to my furriends from Curlz and Swirlz and their human who gave my human a special treat bag for me us kitties (and the human)!
Isn’t it super nice?
My human really enjoyed talking (mostly cats, she claims) with my furriends’ humans and said it was a well needed break for her (whatever that means… she’d better not talk about a break from us!).
She also liked to be able to see some of my furriends’ blogs win an award!
This is Plush Nerissa, with her Best Blog Writing award:
[If you cannot see the video on this blog, click here to go to YouTube]
Overall, she said it was pretty well organized (she organized events before so she says she has a special eye [what?!] for this). She thinks that some of the communication could have been done a little better though and there is some room for improvement (the details are boring, so I “ctrl + X-ed” here – You’re welcome! She mentioned this in the survey).
Now for the Furries.
Here are some of the pics she took (they’re not all good, I wasn’t there to snoopervize!) of furry friends:
It is said that my human held a ferret, but I have yet to see the evidence. My human did meet with Odilia, and I am fine with this =^.^=
I am very disappointed that my human did not bring me one of the chicks that were there though.
My human felt that kitties were not set on an equal footing paw as doggies (a dog swag bag for cats?) and here too, there is room for improvement! This is a Cat’s World tootootoo too! Stop adding the “too,” human!
Anyway, if you have read through this, thank you! Here is the real short version of this review (What do you mean I could have started with this? Humans are never happy!!!)
Was it worth it? Yes.
Did my human have fun? Yes.
Did she learn something? Yes.
Can BlogPaws offer an even better experience? Yes, we’re sure they can (hint hint… kitties!)
But what about the bad, you may ask? (You did ask, right?)
BlogPaws’ humans are not responsible for the “bad” part. My human is, and since she brought this from BlogPaws, I mention it here.
Can someone tell me what THIS is supposed to mean?!??
We all know that humans can make some strange food choices. While some good humans would prepare yummy food like the Greenies humans, some humans eat citrus and oranges and these smelly stuff that have no interest. My human also loves chocolate. Chocolate! But we kitties cannot eat chocolate!
Granted, my human did try and bake for us. Sometimes it was good. Sometimes it was so-so.
But sometimes, when humans bake for themselves, it’s plain meh!
The past weekend, my human decided to bake what she calls a Tiramisu Buche. We didn’t know what it was so we decided to investigate.
Well, guess what? Not only did we not taste what mascarpone was – although it did look like something quite good – but she sprinkled the buche with… yes, you guessed it! Some kind of chocolate powder! Oh, the humanity!
I mean, look at this!! Doesn’t it look plain meh?
So, when she tried to take a picture of us from above, well, she got what she deserved:
You can click on each picture to biggify them or use the slideshow below by clicking on any of the pics!
Today is a holiday here in the U.S. It is Labor Day. So my human will be working for me, since it’s LABOR Day. Heh. Happy Labor Day, human. She’s happy with that apparently =^.^=
Here is a video of when I ate my first can of wet food. It was very yummy and I wasn’t about to let Milou eat it for me. Although my human bought even better food since then, like with entire pieces of tuna or chicken. But I digress.
I was almost 4 months at the time. It was in my human’s boyfriend’s tiny apartment in Paris.
It’s a bit long but Milou is patient and also, if you wait til the end, you can see that even Grouik had a hard time having a bit of my leftovers.
450 cats and 200 dogs are in a full board hotel in Elven. Twelve years ago, the company Diana Pet Food set up one of the biggest testing centers for pets in the world there, in order to assess what food they like best. Kibbles and pâtées makers love it.
According to the article, cats live the good life in this place similar to a “3-star hotel” and can choose the food they prefer.
That’s exactly the goal of this “3-star hotel” for dogs and cats, based in Elven (Morbihan, France) . . . . to test the attraction of the pets to the ingredients that Diana Pet Food prepares in order to go with kibbles and pâtées. Powders or potions, “made with natural ingredients,” that the company will sell to Purina, Mars Royal Canin, or retailer groups brands…, the biggest names in animal food. “We hold 55% of the global market of appetence factors,” explains Jean-Pierre Rivery, Diana Pet Food’s President.
Apparently, there are 200 dogs and 450 cats living there. It is kind of like human homes only with a lot more food options.
What bothers me a little is that dogs and cats come very young from breeders and “work’ there only for a period of 4 to 5 years. Then they are “given for adoption.” But we all know that adult cats (and dogs I guess?) are less wanted when they are already adults…
They also say that the food has to smell good to… humans!
In Elven, humans give their opinion. “We must give satisfaction to the animal and the smell must please their owner” [sic!] analyzes Isabelle Guiller, R&D Director. “If it smells bad he [the human] won’t buy it again.” But owners [geez!] are received in white, sterile cubicles. For in Elven, the VIP room is for [pets].
There’s a video in the article. It’s in French but you can see a little bit the testing center.
