The Saturday Pet Blogger Hop

I just couldn't resist sharing this video of a young elk playing in a puddle of water, via @MrTibbsatAP of the Whiskas Liberation Front #WLF. It makes me happy. Have a great Saturday!

National Hairball Awareness Day & Anipal Photo Hunt!

Welcome to my blog, if you're coming here from People Pets! If it's your first time here, please sign my TV Guest Book below, opposite the Cokie Fur Pet pic.

Yes, it's that time of the year again, National Hairball Awareness Day! And I'm not talking about the way my Mom's hair looks right now. (She could really use a little FURminating, herself. I'm just sayin'.)

This year, People Pets is even featuring a gallery of fur creature photos - created from pets' FURminated hair - and one of my fur Cokie pics made the cut! Check it out, and see all 23 fur creatures here, including some submitted by my friends Romeo the Cat, The Island Cats, Jan's Funny Farm, Boris Kitty, Sea Bass Cat (Sebastian), Sparkle Cat, Your Daily Cute, Nikita Cat, Embrace Pet Insurance, and BZTAT.

I thought it would be fun to make this the Anipal Photo Hunt theme for this week, as well! So feel free to join in with your own Hairball Awareness post, and link up at the bottom of this post so we can hop over to your blog! (Click here for instructions, if you haven't joined the Anipal Photo Hunt Blog Hop before.)

Romeo the Cat's mom invited us to join in the fun, and Mom and Dad were happy to oblige. (Surprise.) They used my awesome FURminator shedding tool on me (which I love - and I even got a new one free just for participating) and in a minute combed off a good bunch o' fur to work with.

Dad started molding, pinching and pulling at it until he came into the bedroom where Mom was, holding his fur pet like an offering to the Gods, and Mom about died laughing. It looked just like me! Right  down to my Ragdoll cream flame point coloring. LOL!

Cokie Fur Pet

Then they had to photograph my fur doppleganger. They set up some pillows and took various angles and poses, but couldn't move him too much or he'd fall apart into the pile of whispy fur he was. It was like posing a dandelion.  ; )

Cokie Fur Pet with ball
My FURminator in the background

Drumroll  :::::::  People Pets!!

The little guy really bears a pretty good resemblance, don't you think?? 

The Real Cokie

We all know hairballs are serious business, though. If we're not careful, we ingest shedding fur when we groom ourselves. It gets all bound up inside and we either have to cough it up on your bed (not pleasant for us or for you), or it can get stuck and cause constipation, which can be very uncomfortable and even dangerous to our health.

My FURminator removes tremendous amounts of loose fur every time Mom and Dad comb me with it, and I LOVE it (unlike getting my toe nails cut), and it's cut back significantly on the amount of creamy white fur on the sofa.



This YouTube video demonstrates how the FURminator works- and how much cats hate it. NOT. ; ) 

Thank you, Romeo and Caroline, for including us. We're still laughing at some of the other fur pet pics!

Disclaimer: As much as I know this all sounds like an advertisement for FURminators, it's all 100% true. I LOVE mine, and my mom's given several to family members as gifts, and they all love them, too!

So happy Hairball Awareness Day! If this post prevents just one unnecessary hairball, I'll be able to nap easier.

Zzzzzzz...

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Art Auction for Japan Animal Relief

My good friend and co-worker at The Anipal Times, Cheshire Kitten (@cheshireK), is hosting The Art Auction for Japan Animal Relief on his blog, Cheshire Kitten Loves Karma. The auction has already raised over $300 US for the pawesome World Vets organization. 

1st item in the Art Auction for Japan Animal Relief:
'Parasols for Japan' by @cheshirek's mom! 

The auction will feature a new art work daily, indefinitely, so sign up for email updates on CheshireK's blog to be notified of each auction. It's a great way to support animal rescue efforts in Japan, check out or buy some great art, and/or learn about animal-loving artists. 

Mom donated a framed, matted Limited Edition print of her portrait of @Mariodacat, signed and numbered 2/5. 

She presented Mario the first/original print at the recent #NipClub Pawty in his honor on March 3rd, 2011. 

This Mario portrait auction ends at 8:59 pm EDT, April 5.

From Cheshire Kittens Art Auction for Japan Animal Relief site:

"As I told readers a few days ago, we have a very special work up first in this week’s auction. Yes, we’re kicking off round two of the Art Auction for Japan Animal Relief with a portrait of one of the pillars of the anipal community, Mario (@mariodacat on Twitter).

Limited Edition 2/5 signed Mario Print

In addition to encouraging everyone in the anipal community on Twitter, Mario and his human mom are big supporters of animal rescue in their community, in particular of Happily Ever After Animal Sanctuary in their home state of Wisconsin. Mario has also been instrumental in re-homing kitties all over the United States. Mario is a loyal follower of this blog and blogs himself on Mario’s Meowsings.


The artist — Cokie the Cat’s mom Kristin — is also an active member of the twitter anipal community. In addition to working in the movie industry, Kristin is a great artist. She also types for Cokie at his blog, Cokie the Cat: Hollywood Insider.


Kristin has donated the signed, numbered print of her portrait of Mario that we open bidding on today. The print is 5×7 and matted in an 8×10 black frame. This print is one of a limited edition of five signed prints, the first of which is owned by Mario himself.


The auction proceeds go to World Vets for their relief deployment in Japan. If you would prefer not to participate in the art auction but would like to support World Vets, head off to the donation page at the World Vets website. If you want to encourage the artists and bidders, we encourage you to leave comments with or without bids!

World Vets in Japan

The auction opens tonight and runs for 48 hours till 8:59 pm EDT, April 5. To bid on the portrait of Mario, leave a comment with your bid. Opening bid is $25. Please bid in increments of $5 or $10.


Bidders, enjoy yourselves and remember that you are giving to two causes at once. You give support to the relief workers in Japan AND to the creative work of our artists at the same time. AND you get a cool artwork for your own house."

Anipal Photo Hunt: Grazin'

Grazin' in the grass is a gas, baby can you dig it??

I may have a small lawn, but it's mine!

If this is your first time, click here to learn how to join the Anipal Photo Hunt!

It's Pawty Day on Twitter!! #ATPawty

Forgive my repeating myself, I am a 17 year old cat so I do that a lot, but I may be having a few new visitors this week, so please indulge me! And welcome new visitors from The Ultimate Blog Party and The Saturday Pet Blogger Hop (though I've been on the latter for some time, there are always new visitors...)

One year ago, The Anipal Times was born. It's come a long way since then, and we're pretty proud of it as a real newspaper for the anipal community with high standards, wonderful all-volunteer staff, and generous advertisers who donate to our designated animal charities in lieu of ad fees.

This is my personal blog, but being the Editor in Chief of The Anipal Times, it does tend to pop up in my blog a lot!

The Anipal Times Publisher @Snick_the_Dog

We're throwing a Twitter #Pawty for 24 hours from 11am PST on Saturday, April 2nd through 11am Sunday, April 3rd, PST. Our last #ATPawty was a blast, very highly attended, and anipals kept pawtying on for most of the day on Sunday!

Since it will be the day after April 1st, our theme will be APRIL FOOLS! So come dressed in your finest, most foolish regalia, and we'll try to get everyone's avatars on a Pawty Wall for posterity.

Da Shibbering Cheetos, Twitter's first rock band, will be performing at 11am PST on Saturday April 2nd, so be sure not to miss that!

Please join us, get to know our staff and advertisers, dance, drink, be merry - win fun prizes (we have a quiz & pet related prize giveaway every 30 minutes!), and help a good cause. I know we're all tapped out, but the AT's current charity is the Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue, where our Managing Editor, @BrutustheDane came from! If you can make a donation, it would be much appreciated, but is not by no means mandatory. Please come whether or not you can spare a dime.  ; )

Our Pawty webpage is here,  in case this is your first Twitter #Pawty! I can't begin to count how many I've been to. They're like Grateful Dead shows. LOL.

See you there!

Cokie the Cat
Editor in Chief

The Anipal Times