Don't make me use it.

Welp, this morning it took longer than expected to obtain BREAKFAST.

First, crawled up onto female staff member’s pillow. Put paw on her head. No response.

Then, sat down on her pillow, aligning furry body with the side of her face. A little bit on her cheek.

Nothing.

Finally, stood up and sat back down, with entire furry butt on her head and face, over her forehead and left eye. Shimmied butt around a little bit to get comfortable (and render her less so) and made sure a piece of tail was squarely on her mouth.

And, voila! The staff member was up! And BREAKFAST was served shortly.

All’s well that ends well but I still do not understand why staff continues to insist we do this the hard way.

Happy New Year, fur-iends!

I think staff should make a New Year’s resolution to set her alarm so I don’t have to do all this work getting her up. Speaking of staff’s New Year’s resolutions…..my friends at Halo, Purely for Pets conducted a survey of 1,000 pet staff members to find out about what they plan to do to improve the lives of those they serve. Here were my favorite responses:

88.7% of pet parents plan to help their pets get more exercise, including:
68.3% say they will play with their pets more, 30.3% said they will find a new game to play and 15.8% of those who serve cats say they will run my cat up and down stairs (super fun if you’ve never tried it!)

69.4% plan to feed their pets higher quality food (woo hoo! That’s one Pug and I believe in wholeheartedly. Wish they had all said MORE food but whatever)

86.8% plan to groom their pets more regularly and, of those, 80.3% are going to brush their pets more regularly (better be with the FURminator, just sayin).

And, LOVE this:
94.1% plan to help pets in need by adopting a new pet, fostering, donating, playing Freekibble.com or Freekibblekat.com.

Finally, really big important point….when given the option to “fill in” their own resolution on the survey, lots of pet parents said they will spend more time with their pets (YES!) and love them even more than they did last year. More love is always a good thing!

Personally, I have one resolution: continue building this blog so I can help more pets in need.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

P.S. you guys probably know this but my staff works with Halo, helping them with their PR. Even if she didn’t, I would still share this survey with you but, well, just lettin’ ya know.

Have you heard about the book, Unlikely Friendships, by Jennifer S. Holland?

Jennifer’s 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom showcases tales of friendships between animals that you’d never expect would be buds. Some of these adorable interspecies friendships were brought together by human intervention, like the runt of the litter piglet rejected by its siblings but given a second chance with a Dachshund, while others happened on their own, like the Tortoise and the Hippo who were discovered one morning cuddling with each other (OMG how cute, right?) There’s even a hamster that was intended to be dinner for a snake, but the two declared peace instead.

Each story is accompanied by a scientific outline of the species involved with the phylum, class, order, etc. It would make a fantastic gift for your animal loving friends. Or for you.

The thing I love about this book is it shows how animals can transcend what they are “supposed” to do and hang with anyone they darn well choose. Sometimes I wonder why humans make everything so complicated. If cats ran the world there would be fewer wars and more naps. Take note humans, if your animal pals can find contentment and friendship, so can you.

Pugsley and I have even made peace with the Crawling-Drooling-Pooping-Crying Creature. She pulled my tail the other day and got a fistful of fur but it’s all good. She does get the staff up earlier these days, so we’re cool.

Unlikely Friendships is also a Unlikely Friendships 2012 Wall Calendar! Twelve months of awesome photos and stories reminding us that we’re all in this together, dudes.

AND I am giving TEN of them away to lucky readers! That’s right! Ten! Just leave a comment below telling me a story of an unlikely friendship you’ve experienced or heard about or witnessed. If you don’t have your own story, tell me what you think would be a hilariously unlikely friendship!

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT BY TOMORROW, NOON EST THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 so I can make sure you get your calendar in time for the new year (maybe even by Christmas!) Then check your email tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. so I can get your address if you are a winner!

Good luck and Happy Holidays!

Today, my staff is on Pawsitively Pets Radio at 11 a.m. CST, 2 p.m. EST, talking with host Sandy Robins about holiday gifts that give back. If you’re looking for gifts that benefit pets in need, look no more! We’ve done some research for you and everyone on your list this year. (P.S. Be sure to listen in to Pawsitively Pets every month for my new special guest segment. I’ll let you know when the next one is coming up!)

Here are my top picks for gifts that keep on givin’……

1. Rescue Calendars
Calendars published by rescues as a fundraiser are a great gift for your pet loving friends. You can find almost any breed, type or style to tickle your giftee’s fancy!

Some examples I found:

Blind Cat Rescue
Florida Boxer Rescue
Found Animals My staff says their 6 Packs, 9 Lives hot guy with cats calendar is quite the treat!

North Shore Animal League If there are any Howard Stern fans on your list, this calendar is perfect! It features photos taken by Howard of his wife and animal advocate, Beth Ostrosky Stern.

2. Books! Mimi and Maty to the Rescue

This is a fantastic new book from the creators of Freekibble.com and Written by Freekibble.com Mimi Ausland’s mom, Brooke. Read my review here. For every Mimi and Maty to the Rescue book sold, Freekibble.com’s pet food sponsor, Halo, will donate 5 meals to shelter pets.

3. Big Paw Designs
Big Paw is a wonderful online store that sells unique gifts for pet lovers has a very sweet line of charms and keychains and other items that benefit Used Dogs Rescue in New Orleans.

4. Christmas Bulbs from Shelter Partners
I love this. This is a program from the Shelby, Alabama Humane Society. The
Shelter Partners program transports dogs from the area’s overpopulated location to various shelters in New Hampshire and Maine, where affordable spay/neuter services, enforcement of leash laws, and other animal welfare legislation have kept the dog population at bay. Since its inception in November 2006, Shelter Partners has saved the lives of nearly 5,000 dogs, each one oblivious to their narrow escape from death. Several times per month, the shelter’s van is loaded with 30 to 40 dogs and sent northward on a 24-hour journey that will take them to one of several shelters in New England. Volunteer drivers come from all over the southeast – Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia – in order to be a part of this experience.

$50 helps transport a dog to the Northeast. For every $50 donation you make to help these dogs to a better life, you will receive a Christmas ornament with that dog’s photo on it. I think this is such a great idea. I actually gave myself an early Christmas gift and asked my staff to make a donation. I’m super excited to get my bulb. If they keep doing this every year, we will keep donating! How cool will it be to have a bunch of bulbs over the years to remind you to always do what you can to help pets.

5. December Doodles

Courtesy: BZTAT

One of my favorite artists, BZTAT, has an awesome December Doodles program where, from December 1-15, she draws a new drawing each day and auctions them off. A portion of the December Doodles program goes to a non profit that participants get to suggest by making a submission on BZTAT’s facebook page. BZTAT is extremely generous all year round and does so much to help animals. And her work is absolutely wonderful. She has done portraits of both Pugsley and me.

6. Purchase all of Your Gifts Through AdoptaShelter.com.
This wonderful program lets you shop at all of your favorite online retailers while giving a percentage to the shelter of your choosing. Visit their site to find out more. There’s no cost to you and it’s easy peasy. One shelter in Virginia just earned $800 in a month because a supporter mandated that all of her company standard holiday gifts be purchased through the site. Ta da! It’s easy. Do it. All year round!

7. Simply Make a Donation in Someone’s Name.
You can never, ever go wrong with a donation. Give to an organization your friend or family member cares about. Do something fun with it – wrap up the receipt or hang it on the tree. I know I would love to receive a gift like this, wouldn’t you?

Do you have others to add to this list? Tell me all about them!

A few weeks ago, my friend Dr. V. over at Pawcurious conducted a 24-hour blogathon to raise money for a wonderful Lions, Tigers and Bears sanctuary near San Diego.

My contribution to the event was a guest post called The Cat’s Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, which I thought I would share with you today.

First of all, not all zombies will go after pets. Here is a list of those that will and those that won’t.

Here are my top five tips. You’ll have to visit Pawcurious.com to view the rest!

The Cat’s Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
By Romeo the Cat

1. Stockpile your food before the zombie attack happens. If you can set aside a little bit of kibble every day, you may be able to build yourself a nice little stash of food in case you must stay inside because of a zombie attack and/or if your staff has already been eaten by zombies.

2. Use your skills. Luckily, zombies can’t climb. But cats can. In case of a zombie attack, get high, baby, and stay there!

3. If you happen to find yourself outside and there are zombies about, you can probably outrun them for a while. When you do take cover, get your furry butt to a Petco, Target or somewhere that sells cat food. You don’t want to hole yourself up in a Macy’s; that would be foolish.

4. Stay out of the windows. I know it’s hard not to hang out in the windowsill and observe everything going on outside but don’t draw attention to your bad self.

5. You know what they say about curiosity killing the cat? This couldn’t be truer during a zombie attack. Keep a low profile.

Read the rest of my tips here.

Enjoy! And then come back and tell me if I missed anything!

Rawr!

Because the Running-Jumping-Screaming-iPadObsessed-Creature and the Crying-Crawling-Teething-Pooping Creature are both now a (sigh) big part of our family, my staff feels it’s very important to raise them to be animal lovers and advocates.

They are still young but the staff says it’s never too early to get them started.

Teaching little humans to be compassionate and gentle with animals is the first step to teaching them to be advocates for helpless, homeless, abused, and neglected pets.

So we love, love, love the new book, Mimi and Maty to the Rescue! A children’s book inspired by Mimi Ausland (the 15-year-old founder of one of our favorite sites, freekibble.com) and her special three-legged dog friend Maty.

The book was written by Mimi’s mom, Brooke Smith, and illustrated by Alli Arnold.

This is a fun, snappy story about Mimi and Maty who are dedicated to helping pets in need! In this adventure, Mimi and Maty help find their friend’s lost rat, Roger. Both kids and adults will enjoy Alli’s engaging illustrations and, by the end of the book, be inspired to help pets in their own special way.

It’s not surprising the book has been a super duper popular e-book, with more than 40,000 downloads. Now, it’s available in full-color on amazon.com. My staff just purchased a bunch for holiday gifts!

And the best part is that, for each book sold, Freekibble.com is donating five delicious, nutritious meals of Halo’s Spot’s Stew to shelter dogs and cats at a Best Friends Network Shelter!

Also, big bonus: For the first 100 copies sold, the Freekibble Foundation will donate 100 books to schools, to inspire young readers to help animals!

Purchase your copy here and help pets!

ALSO, I have one signed copy to give away to one lucky Romeothecat.com reader! All you have to do is leave a comment below, telling me who on your holiday list would love this book (even if it’s you!). I’ll do a drawing on Monday, December 5!

We already can’t wait to see what’s in store for Mimi and Maty in their next book!

This is the life.

1. My choice of any number of warm spots to sleep on. Sometimes even heating pads.

2. Scritches.

3. Belly rubs.

4. Butt scratches.

5. Chin scratches.

6. Matt-free coat and regular brushings so the knots don’t hurt me.

7. A trip to the vet any time I have a sniffle so I don’t ever get really sick.

8. No fleas.

9. Soft floors to walk on.

10. Four delicious, nutritious meals a day. Yes, four. Albeit small meals that are never served on time; there are still four.

11. Anything I want to make into a toy.

12. My snuggly brother Pugsley.

13. The wonderful feeling of safety and security.

14. This blog.

15. YOU.

These are the things I am thankful for. Let me say again, I am INCREDIBLY thankful for you, my sweet readers. Together we’ve raised nearly $60,000 for pets who don’t have all of the wonderful things above that I (admittedly) take for granted.

Thank you for continuing to read and support RomeotheCat.com!

What are you thankful for?

xo

Double Trouble.

The campaign to promote multiple pet ownership continues…Today is National Get a Pal for Your Pet Day! Sponsored by American Pet Products Association’s Pets Add Life (PAL) program, November 19 is the official day to encourage us all to bring home another little buddy. Hmmm. I don’t know about adding a third cat to our household. Could be interesting. Or not.

When Pugsley came to live with us, I wasn’t too happy. But I quickly changed my mind about the little black guy, so maybe I’d change my mind about a third cat.

Regardless, in honor of my bestie, Pug, here is a list of why I like having him around:

1. Flat-faced Pug snuffles his food off his plate, then I can snatch it.
2. Pug always knows the best napping spots.
3. With two of us, the running-screaming-jumping creature AND the new crawling-pooping-crying creature have two of us to chase so no one has to take the brunt of it all.
4. Sun Puddles seem to follow Pugs around.
5. Pugs gets black fur on all white clothing and I get white fur on all black clothing. It works out GREAT.
6. There’s always someone to stalk.
7. Two cats meowing for dinner is much more effective than one.
8. Playing hockey with a milk cap is more fun with a partner.
9. Pugs lets me groom him.
10. The more persians the better. Period.

Tell me your reasons why two (or three or four+) cats are better than one?

xo!

R

It’s Petside’s Annual Pet Net Day! This year, a group of bloggers have come together to write about pet adoption and rescue. Today, I’m letting the staff take the reins to talk about breed specific rescues. But first, a few housekeeping issues.

MOST IMPORTANT, please visit Petside’s page and VOTE for this post as your favorite! If we win, we will get $500 to donate to the organization of our choice. I say “our” choice because, we’re in this together. You guys cast the votes and you guys get to choose the rescue if we win. I will ask YOU to submit your fave rescue and then do a drawing! Wheeeee!

There are other ways you can help raise food for shelter and rescue pets. You can see how right here.

Okay, staff. Go:

On Facebook recently, a friend posted her desire to find a good breeder because she wanted a black lab. Her family had always had labs and her sweet old baby had recently gone to the bridge. I love this friend but I was near hysteria. Trying not to sound like a crazy zealot (because that never works, my friends) I emailed her privately and said, “OMG go to your local shelter or find a lab rescue!” She was skeptical at first. “There are lab rescues??” Uh, yah.

Here was this smart, fabulous, kind and caring woman who didn’t know that, according to the ASPCA, 25 percent of dogs in shelters are purebred. And, with the many breed-specific rescues out there, the number of adoptable pure breds is quite a bit higher.

It’s okay to be obsessed with a specific breed of dog or cat. I’m not quite sure how it happens but for some of us humans, a certain breed creeps into our hearts, lays down and stays put.

This woman loves her labs. I love my persians. My friend Bev loves her bichons. My brother and sister in law love their bostons. And there are plenty of people out there who couldn’t live without a series of wonderful loyal mutts (a breed of their own, in my opinion!) in their lives. It’s okay to have a preference. You can find almost any breed in a shelter or breed-specific rescue. And we need to spread the word to help these breed-specific rescues help more pets in need.

Neither of my persian babies would have survived without a breed-specific rescue.

Romeo was two-years-old when he was brought into a shelter in Kentucky for the second time. He was covered in scabs and deaf in both ears. He had litter box issues. He was a mess. And probably would be hard to adopt out. But a shelter worker who knew of a persian rescue in Ohio called them and asked if they wanted him. Of course they did! So Renee drove several hours to pick up this little matted, flea ridden ball of misbehaving fluff that would completely change our lives.

Sweet Pugsley was an 11th hour rescue. In a shelter in Indiana, he was (incorrectly) diagnosed with a life-threatening and contagious disease and slated for you-know-what. The eve before, one of the workers who wasn’t entirely sure he had the disease in question, called the persian rescue. Within hours, he was in a carrier, headed to Ohio and, several months later, into our home.

What if these shelter workers had not known about The Forgotten Persian Rescue & Friends? The more people who know about breed-specific rescues, the better. Most organizations out there are wonderful and do everything they can to save the dogs and cats in their care. But often a breed specific rescue can take it just one step further, as in Romeo and Pugsley’s cases.

So tell me, do you have a specific breed of cat or dog that you love? Do you have a story you want to share? Please do!

Hello dear readers!

We are getting ready to make some changes around here but won’t do a thing until we hear from you, our wonderfur, fantabulous readers.

Could you take a minute or two to fill out this reader survey to tell us what you like about the site and get some feedback on some new things we’re thinking about adding.

Click here to take survey

We would SOOOOOOOO much appreciate it!

xo, R & P