Mary, queen of cats

the day-to-day of a grey, furry thing

Feline labelling

buried in the ' , , , , , , , , , ' sandboxes by zsh at 22h57 on Thursday, August 27, 2009

As any pet owner knows, a collar and tag are essential pieces of equipment.  If your favourite, furred friend is a wanderer at heart, chances are they could get confused on their way home. As any cat owner knows, the tendency of felines to squish themselves into the darnedest of places knows no bounds.  Often the smaller the entrance, the better.

This leads to a bit of a concern regarding the cat’s collar – not only must an owner make sure the collar itself is stretchable, so it can easily slip off if their wearer is in danger of choking or worse, but it should also be ultimately able to tear or snap to get them out of a jam. That being said, the collar not being as fixed as it could be does lead to the more rambunctious feline losing more than their fair share.

And this presents a difficulty in and of itself – what about the tag?  One can only have so many collars around the house, especially with a cat that goes through them like most people go through underwear.  And of course there’s no way we would allow Mary out without a tag on her collar.  If she were lost and someone picked her up, they’d have no recourse but to deliver her to the SPCA, which (like many well-intended animal organisations) is animal welfare- and not animal rights-oriented, and largely a bureaucratic farce, so definitely not a place I’d like my girl to ever see the inside of.  This is assuming, of course, that those who find her have good intentions and aren’t just out to steal her for themselves.  And who wouldn’t want to?  You’ve seen her pictures, right? ;)

To cut a long story short, the pain of having to have a set of pre-engraved tags, or having to rush about looking for an engraver and/or pet tags while her majestic-ness sits at home growing more inclined to pommel any people-flesh she sees exposed with her incredibly long claws while we sleep, is not conducive to a healthy cat-and-person relationship.

Imagine our glee (srsly, glee) at finding a little collar called the Rogz – it’s a little plastic tag doohickey that allows one to scribble/print down the relevant details and snap the tag together themselves.  Also handy if you need to change said details.  You can check out their site for more info (and no, we’re not getting commission from them, just appreciating the product), but the pic below gives an idea of what it looks like:

Plastic Rogz tags

Plastic Rogz tags

The following images show Mary wearing her own Rogz tags – obviously they suit her rather… er… active lifestyle:

Cat and tag caught unawares

Cat and tag caught unawares

And from another angle

And from another angle

Waking with a camera up the schnozz

Waking with a camera up the schnozz

Cat, unamused.

Cat, unamused.

LOL cats

buried in the ' , , , ' sandboxes by zsh at 21h15 on Monday, August 10, 2009

For those of you who’ve been hidden under a rock for the last few years, one of the most far-reaching Internet memes is that of the lolcat.  Since 2007, icanhascheezburger has been the single most influential disseminator of lolcat material, and while not all are winners many are… especially those that highlight feline behaviour:


funny-pictures-cat-asks-you-to-open-door

funny-pictures-cat-is-excited-about-ribbons

funny-pictures-kitten-is-watched

So if you haven’t already, visit the site or subscribe to their feed – well worth it.

How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you

buried in the ' , ' sandboxes by zsh at 11h48 on Sunday, November 16, 2008

Long time no post.  Still evaluating the usefulness of this medium.  But while we’re in limbo, still had to share this with all cat-lovers out there:

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

Hope to be back soon.