About cats, ours primarily . . .
Posted by terrepruitt on September 7, 2018
I know I just posted a picture of Teagan LAST Friday, but I was going through some pictures and I found this one. WOW! Now you know why we changed her name from Smokey to Teagan. This was taken in February 2016. So, I guess I do have some good photos of her, just not as many as I have of her sister. And this one – in 2016 – was an anomaly. She wasn’t fond of getting her picture taken. She is getting more used to it now, as I stated last week.
Here is Teagan again for the Friday Photo.
Posted in Cats, Friday Photo, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: beautiful girl, black cat, formerly known as, Friday Photo, shiny coat, silky cat, Smokey, Teagan | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 31, 2018
Wow. This cat was letting me take her picture. She was moving the entire time, but she was letting me take her picture. This is kind of a new thing. I think she is beautiful. Remember that black cats have a more challenging time being adopted due to the superstition that surrounds black cats. For cat lovers that is very puzzling, but for those with the beliefs that a black cat is bad it is an actual deterrent. So . . . if you are in the market to adopt a cat, please consider adopting a black one.
Teagan is my Friday Photo.
Posted in Cats, Friday Photo, Teagan and Nessa | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 9, 2018
I can’t remember why exactly . . . I think it was because when we adopted Teagan (Smokey) and Nessa (Esmeralda) The Dancing Cat used pellet litter . . . . so I started researching litter. I liked the litter that we used when we first got Spot, but Costco stopped selling it LONG ago and we had switched to Arm & Hammer. I liked it. It clumped well and it — the unscented kind — did a good job of keeping the smell in check . . . at least with Spot. But I got very tired of the dust. I share a room with the litter box and just regular dust is hard to deal with, but add cat litter dust on top of that and I just was tired of it. My research revealed that Dr. Elsey’s Ultra Litter was pretty much dust free. Of course, that was the old formula . . . according to the reviews. Seems like about the time I was thinking about buying it they switched their formula/litter and loyal customers were upset because the dust free litter now had dust. I decided to try it anyway because there were a few reviews that said it was good. Well, I think it is a lot less dusty than the litter we used to buy. It might be more dusty than it was at one time, but it is still less dusty so we use it. And the cats had no trouble at all adjusting from pellets to one litter the the next. They are such good girls. This story is all leading to #Orangeinside.
The last litter bag we opened had an orange collar inside. (Ha! That is not what #Orangeinside is about. 🙂 ) I picked up the package and read “Share a photo with #Orangeinside on Instagram for a chance to win a year supply of Dr. Elsey’s Ultra cat litter.*” And I said to my husband, “Will you do it for me? I don’t have Instagram?” And then I went on to say what a brilliant way to market. Send out an orange collar with your website on it and have people take pictures of their cats in it and post it on Instagram! I thought that was brilliant. I don’t even HAVE Instagram and I was going to do it — or have it done. I could use a free year of cat litter. Heck yeah!
But then I flipped the bag over 
and read the other side of the enclosed card. It said that less than 5% of missing indoor cats are returned home, that a cat with an orange collar is an indication of an indoor cat, a cat with an orange collar should not be outside. Ha! I hadn’t read past that because I thought that was a great idea. Now that I am reading the entire thing I understand what the white strip on the collar is. It is a space to write your phone number so someone can call you when your cat is found. This is cool. I like this program.
I also noticed once I really looked at the collar that, there is a little kitty face on the breakaway buckle and if that kitty face is facing outward the website does not show, only the spot for the owner’s number.
The thing is . . . my cats are indoor cats and they don’t wear collars. That is one reason I love indoor cats, they are unfettered by collars. I was planning on putting the bright orange collar on our black cat for a photo because I thought the orange and black would really stand out. But when I thought about it I don’t know where she was and her sister was right there. So I tried it on her. Well, I am not posting all the blurry shots I have. She wouldn’t really sit still. She was trying to get it off. I did manage to get one or two, but not of her face.
Today as I was preparing to write this post I put it on the black cat. She was in mellow mode so she just laid there and actually let me get a few photos.
When I googled Orange Collar the result was a lot of sites selling orange collars. The few articles that came up showed a year of 2015 in the summary . . . so I am thinking that this orange collar for indoor cats has been around since at least 2015. I think it is a neat idea.
Have you ever heard of the orange collar thing? Do you have an indoor cat? Does your indoor cat wear a collar? WOULD your indoor cat wear a collar?
Posted in Cats, Misc | Tagged: Arm & Hammer Litter, clay litter, Costco litter, Dr. Elsey's Litter, Dr. Elsey's Orange Inside Collar giveaway, dust free litter, Esmeralda, indoor cat program, Nessa, Nessa with Orange Inside Collar on, orange breakaway collar, orangeinside collar, pellet litter, Smokey, Teagan, Teagan with Orange Inside Collar on, the dancing cat | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 6, 2018
Sometimes I take pictures of the cats and I – selfies – and text them to my husband. Sometimes I do post them elsewhere, but most of the time I just end up with a bunch of pictures of me and a cat. Today they were both too close to the slider for me to get behind them and put the camera in front of us. But I did get a few shots of Teagan’s eye. You can see a bit of my head. Failed selfie.
Today’s Friday Photo: Cat’s eye selfie.
Posted in Friday Photo, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: beautiful girl, black cat, Failed Selfie, Friday Photo, selfies with cats, sending husband love, Teagan, Teagan's eye | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 25, 2018
I was going to post this picture as the Friday Photo, but I decided to save it for the actual anniversary. Today, June 25, four years ago our beloved cat was called back to her original posting as an angel. She is missed everyday. She was a very unique cat. Our current cats are great cats. They are so sweet. They are entertaining and very funny at that. But I still miss Spot. I can love new kitties but still miss kitties we had previously.
It was a beautiful day when she died. I snapped this photo as I looked up. John and I sat in the yard for a while. The house was so empty.
I am just going to point you to some of my Spot posts. And post a few pictures. The pictures have nothing to do with the posts, except they are of Spot and the posts are about her.
My Assignment As A Cat Is Now Done, she was an angel.
Sweet Memory. We used to call her Circle Kitty.
This post was when we got a bunch of new hummingbirds in the neighborhood. They didn’t know what to make of this. Assessing The Threat Level – Can It Eat Us?
It is so difficult when a beloved pet dies, huh?
Posted in Cats, Spot | Tagged: angel cat, angel kitty, death anniversary, Friday Photo, June 25, pretty kitty, Spot the cat | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 26, 2018
Here is our cat before she got annoyed with me trying to take her picture. There are two main reasons I have a lot more pictures of Nessa than I do of Teagan. One, Teagan is black and very difficult to photograph. The lighting has to be right in order for her features to show. And two, she hates it. It used to be that I could NEVER get a shot of her. She just didn’t like it. Nessa doesn’t care. You can be in her face or across the room and she is like, “Whatever.” Or she may not even notice. But Teagan used to have a NO-radar. She could be dead asleep and her NO-radar would wake her up and she would leave. “NO! You are not taking my picture!” She is better now, but she is still difficult to photograph. You might imagine how many far away (so she hopefully wouldn’t notice I was taking a picture) or blurry (because she noticed and is leaving) pictures I have of her. She is beautiful so I would try!
Teagan is my Friday Photo today!
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: best cats, black cat, Friday Photo, Nessa, Teagan | 25 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 4, 2017
We do somethings that we think deter the cats from the tree. As with most years we put our tree on a table. This helps keep it out of the cats’ way. With our first cat the weekend we brought the tree in the house she spend two days throwing up. My husband is convinced that she ate a needle and it bothered her stomach so ever since then we are fastidious about needles on the floor. I vacuum often when we have a tree that sheds a lot. One year, when the tree was on the floor, I was vacuuming ALL the time because the cat would walk by with tail up and knock a load of needles off the tree. Another reason why we put our tree on a table. We are fortunate to have a very tall ceiling where we put the tree. We have also experienced cats drinking the tree water. That can’t happen.
BC, as in Before Cat(s), I had purchased some “Tree Saver”. It goes in the tree water and supposedly it helps the tree last longer. Well, can’t put that in the tree water with cats. Don’t know what it is in, but I bet they shouldn’t be drinking it. And so we don’t do that, but also, “they” say that the pesticides and chemicals that the trees are grown with shouldn’t be ingested by cats. So it is not a good idea for cats to drink the water that the tree is in. Plus, even though we replenish the water daily the dish doesn’t get washed and the water is just sitting in there for a month . . . cats don’t need to be drinking that. So my hubby came up with a simple cat deterrent. He just cut some cardboard and put it over the tree’s dish. Normally, it can’t be seen. But this is a different kind of tree, it doesn’t have any low branches, so the dish can be seen. But that is ok. It not THAT noticeable and it keeps the cats out of the water.
The cardboard keeps them out of the water and since they can’t get to the water they don’t jump on the table. That means neither needles nor ornaments get knocked down.
Now this is only the third Christmas that we have had these cats and so far so good. In fact, what I did this year was so out of the ordinary, yet they didn’t bother anything. I was in a rush to get the boxes emptied and put up so I just pulled a bunch of the stuff out of the boxes and left it lying around. And we had boxes in the house for weeks. And to my knowledge, they didn’t bother anything. Nessa liked to jump in and sit in the middle of some garland that took me days to hang.
I do play with them A LOT during Christmas. I make sure I get up early so we have a lot of play time. Also, since I am home, when they ask (and they DO ask) to play, if I can, I stop what I am doing and play with them. I figure if they are not bored then they will not mess with the Christmas tree and decorations.
I also tell them “No!” for just looking. If they LOOK at the tree, I say, “No.” They are really good girls because not only is there a tree in their house it displaces their tower. I figure we have about 30 days. At least we did with Spot. Day 31, she let us know she was done.
How does your cat handle a tree inside the house for a month?
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: cats in the Christmas tree, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Tree, Christmas tree and cats, Christmas tree ornaments, Nessa in garland | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 25, 2017
Ahhh, I was looking up black cats, because I was curious. When we were thinking about adopting the cats we have someone mentioned to me that it was hard for black cats to get adopted and she had to explain it to me. I mean, I am aware that there is a superstition around black cats, but I didn’t know that was what she was talking about. I think it is sad that a lot of black cats don’t get to live because of superstition. So I looked up Black Cats and Wiki told me otherwise. I mean in addition to there being a superstition that black cats bring bad luck, there are some countries that think black cats signify good luck. So YAY!
If you are Scottish you may believe that “a strange black cat’s arrival to the home signifies prosperity. In Celtic mythology, a fairy known as the Cat Sìth takes the form of a black cat. Black cats are also considered good luck in the rest of Britain and Japan. Furthermore, it is believed that a lady who owns a black cat will have many suitors. However, in Western history, black cats have often been looked upon as a symbol of evil omens, specifically being suspected of being the familiars of witches, and most of Europe considers the black cat a symbol of bad luck, especially if one crosses paths with a person, which is believed to be an omen of misfortune and death. In Germany, some believe that black cats crossing a person’s path from right to left, is a bad omen. But from left to right, the cat is granting favorable times. In the United Kingdom it is commonly considered that a black cat crossing a person’s path is a good omen.”
Some believed black cats could 
shape shift into human shape. Some thought they were so evil that there were mass killings of black cats. But some sailors thought having a black cat on the ship brought them luck. And some sailor’s wives kept one at home thinking it would protect their husband’s at sea. Pirates believed that the kind of luck brought by a black cat depended on the direction of its path, if it walked toward a person they would have bad luck, but if it were walking away they would have good luck. But in the United Kingdom they thought the opposite, coming towards a person good luck and walking away bad luck.
So, really what the superstition of cats being bad luck equates to is black cats having lower adoption rates as cats that are not black. If you don’t have any sort of hang-up about a black cat and you are going to adopt a cat, I would encourage you to look at black ones first. Some people prefer to have black cats.
I’ve never had any superstitions about black cats so aside from not wanting two cats, I didn’t have a problem adopting a black cat. Although, I will admit that both me and my husband had a period of adjustment when the cats came home and were allowed out of quarantine. It was odd to have dark cats walking around. We were used to a lighter cat . . . a tabby. So a black cat and a tortie was kind of odd at first.
Our black cat is a super sweet girl who always has a lot to say. We are LUCKY to have her!
What do you think about black cats?
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: black cats, black gets get adopted less, lucky cats, shape shifters, superstition, Wiki | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 18, 2017
Seems like I am posting a lot about cats. I recently posted about how you can use a box and/or packing paper to entertain a cat or two. Either the box itself will do the trick OR your can bring life back to a forgotten toy by using it in conjunction with the box. Well, a couple of days later I was given a bag with something in it and when I empty the bag I left it on the floor. Next thing I know I hear a cat diving into it. Then she hides. We played a bit. Then a couple of days later I am in the room and I THINK I see Nessa come in the room, but I don’t stop what I am doing to look. When I finished what I was doing I looked around and there was no Nessa. And I think, “Dang, I really thought I saw her, I must have been mistaken.” I go to move the bag and I am surprised by a cat in a bag. She loves this bag.
Here is Nessa in the bag with Teagan playing from the outside.
Here is Nessa in the bag getting my finger.
Then on FaceBook I saw someone post a video about a guy who built his cats a maze made up of 50 boxes. I watched it without reading the story attached to it only to find out at the end of the video it was Cole and Marmalade. Awww. I love Cole and Marmalade! Many of us do! Click the picture to go to Youtube to the video in which Cole and Marmalade’s dad builds them a maze made out of 50 boxes. Then he throws treats in the boxes so they jump into the boxes to get their treats.
See? Boxes make the best cat toys! It is great exercise for them, too.
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: bags as entertainment, boxes as entertainment, Cats, cats and boxes, cats toys, Cole and Marmalade, Nessa, paper as entertainment, Teagan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 11, 2017
I probably should have warned you . . . I have a few cat post brewing. They have been swirling around my head. I thought it would be best (for me) to just get them out. You may have seen me mention that we have two cats. You may have also seen me mention that one cat is tiny and the other cat is big. They are actually about the same size, as in, the same length and the same height. And in fact, they are not large cats. I would say they are medium, if not small. The are NOT large. But one is heavier than the other. The heavy one makes us think we should try to have her eat less and the thin one makes us think we should feed her ALL the time. But I think she is comfortably thin. I mean, when I look at her or pick her up, I kinda freak out because she is soooo tiny. She is thin . . . her bones stick out and they knock together when you pick her up . . . but . . . she is in charge of her eating. It is not as if she doesn’t have access to food. She is just a very lean cat. If she had any issues that I notice about moving or toileting, I would be concerned, but she moves like the wind. Just last night I heard my husband make a flabbergasted noise in another room and I asked him what that was about. He proceeded to explain how Nessa, the thin one, just moves like there is no stopping her. It doesn’t matter what is in the way she will get around it, she will jump over it, fly past it, sail under it . . . just MOVE. She moves in very amazing ways so I am confident that she is pretty healthy despite her small frame. But . . . I still try to get her to eat more.
I probably have mentioned how I will put the wet food down and Nessa will lap up all the liquid. Then she will go away. Teagan will come in and eat off one plate. Then sometimes she will go away. Then later on Nessa will come back in and eat some. Then Teagan will come back in and sometimes she finishes what is left . . . but sometimes not. It is really difficult to track who eats what. When you try to watch them and monitor them then they don’t eat. So leaving them to their own devises, probably ends up that one eats more than the other. So with that in mind I discovered that Nessa likes one brand of cat food that Teagan does not. In fact, Teagan will only eat one kind that I have purchased so far. Nessa will eat others, but not Teagan.
One day Nessa was in licking her empty plate and I thought, “Hmmm. Maybe she will eat these fish flakes I have. (And have had for a long time.)” Oh my word! She gobbled them down. I thought, “Well, I don’t even know if Teagan likes them because Nessa just sucked them down.” So I decided to buy more.
Well, Teagan does not like them, but Nessa will gobble them up. She will gobble up a pile then look at me and make her little squeak for more. So I will give her more. Teagan will not touch them, even though they are bascially tuna. So . . . this is another thing that I can feed Nessa and not fear that Teagan will eat it all. But then I feel bad because Teagan asks for something, too. But the whole point it so get more food into Nessa.
Anyway . . . I just thought I would share this treat that my one cat considers crack-like. I think they might make us go broke because we are down half a bag already. I thought we had gotten them a while ago, but we just got them Friday.
Do you have a treat for your cat that they LOVE? What treats do you give your cat?
Posted in Cats | Tagged: cat food, cat treats, Cat-Man-Doo, Dried Bonito Flakes, Nessa, Teagan | 4 Comments »
