Muffin pt 5 - Muffin loves Mario

So Mario has a tendency to (sorry Mario, but it's true) be a little too friendly with kitties and forces his affection upon them usually 'til they hate him. He has been doing this to Muffin every time he sees her, and calling her "Cookie" (though I think he might actually genuinely believe that's her name). SHE. LOVES. HIM.When he approaches her at first, she does her usual hiss hiss rigidbody thing and backs herself into the wall as much as she can and flattens her ears and all that other regular madkitty stuff, but then he starts scratching her back. And she starts kneading. And then her eyes close, and her ears come back up... and tonight she even PURRED! Only for about 3 seconds, but she...

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Muffin pt 4 - Days 4-6

So here's a photographic summary of Muffin's first 4 days in my studio:She was barely detectable on day 1...She was still barely detectable on day 2, but she made friends with a LADYBUG!And then she ATE and DRANK! And then I started finding kitty debris all over the place... so she must have been around cleaning herself and lying on things!! I imagine she started rolling at some point on the carpeted scratch post... I bet it felt WONDERFUL for a kitty who's been semi-matted from lack of personal hygiene for the last... well, who knows how long she's been that way?! In the last two days, Muffin has really been doing well! She now realizes that when I go into the studio I'm not going to touch...

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But Sara, I feed my dog ULTRA PREMIUM PurinAWFUL/BeneFULLOCRAP! And my cat gets complete and balanced WhiskASS!

So I'm taking some time this afternoon/evening to do just a LITTLE more reading on a topic I never seem to get bored 0f: pet food. I know, I know - boring, boring stuff. And it is, in a sense, but it's also IMPORTANT if you have pets!!!! First things first: the AAFCO is the Association of American Feed Control Officials, and is the group that deems pet foods "nutritionally complete and balanced", which truly means nothing, 'cause they don't seem to actually know anything about pet nutrition whatsoever. Let's start with some common ingredients found in commercial cat and dog foods (taken from www.dogfoodproject.com):Meat"Meat is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals and is limited...

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Muffin Pt 3 - Days 3 and 4 - SHE MOVES!

SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT!! SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT!!!Both yesterday morning AND this morning, when I went over to check on Miss Muffin, she had eaten, drank, used the litter box, and was out in the open in the middle of the room lying in a sunbeam on one of the beds I set out for her on a table. AMAZING! She still cringes like crazy when I go over to touch her, but her first instinct is not to run from me - it's just to look at me. And not even hatefully! She just looks at me when I open the door and walk in, and when I go over to her dishes to replenish them, she goes back to sunbathing and pays no attention. I think this is fantastic. After only three days she's already semi-comfortable in her new...

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Muffin Pt2 - Day 2 update.

Not much of an update, sadly... Muffin still has not eaten, peed, pooped, drank any water, or moved on her own account. She found a new hiding spot that I found her in lastnight when I went to feed her, and was still in it this morning when I went again to attempt the food thing. I moved her to the litter box to see if she'd hide in it for a while or something similar... no dice! Totally reluctant to go in it at all and DEFINITELY not interested in staying in it - she bolted out of it as soon as I stepped away and hid under a table for a while. Later I found her in her 'spot' again. Poor Miss Muffin. I hope she decides life isn't so terrifying so...

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Muffin Pt1 - Foster Season 2010 has officially started in my zoo.

So, every year (starting a couple years ago, that is) I seem to find myself with a few foster cats from where I work over the late winter-spring seasons, and sometimes into the summer and beyond. Normally these only include tiny orphaned kitties, ranging from 1 day to 5 weeks old or so, perhaps with a mother in tow. It works for me 'cause my 3 kitties will accept tiny kittens as a minor annoyance, whereas other adult cats in their home are, to them, 100% intolerable. They let me know about this by hiding, growling and hissing for days on end, or until said kitties have disappeared from their home.This year, however, is DIFFERENT.Now I have a studio that my daddy graciously gave to me, which...

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Buying Puppies and Kittens (and how I despise this world we live in!)

You hear it all the time - even OPRAH's saying it - NO PUPPY MILLS NO PUPPY MILLS NO PUPPY MILLS NO PUPPY MILLS!! But does it actually MEAN anything to you? Do you know what a puppy mill IS? If so, do you know how puppy mills make their money? I'll tell you this - it's not from having families come to their properties and buying their pups on site! Ever seen puppies and kittens at flea markets? In pet stores? Ads in the paper and on popular internet trading sites (ebay, craigslist, kijiji...)? Chances are, if you have, the faces behind those ads were puppymillmasters and backyard breeders. These are people or associations with NO business producing more animals when so many are wasting away...

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