Thrifty Thursday: Old children's books about cats

This is actually a gifty Thursday. A friend of mine has given me two old children's books that are about cats. One is from 1915, and is a cut-out book shaped like a tabby cat.

The inside has some pages with two colors and others with full color, like this one.

This book is pretty special. It's from 1886! Please excuse some of the photos. I did not want to fully press down the book's spine because of its age.

The cover has some amazing cat drawings.

The back cover has some great illustrations also. I adore the kitties in the sea shells.

Inside are several different stories and a number of amazing illustrations.

It's neat to think about this old book and where it may have been all of these years.

Some of our silly cat language

Come on, admit it. You have special words or terms you use just for the cats. We sure do! Here are some of ours:

Dresser pets: When Ringo is placed on a tall dresser for special pets. We did a post about this yesterday.

Getting dresser pets.

Skitty: A combination of street + kitty, used to describe Lucy's past. However, it has recently become a verb. Sometimes, when Lucy is spooked, she gets a wild look in her eyes and she runs and hides. She becomes skitty.

Who you callin' skitty?

Scrunch: When a cat gives you closed eyes as a sign of love. Benny gives good scrunches.

A good Benny scrunch.

What words do you have?

Dresser pets

A number of months ago, I noticed that Jim started a new routine with Ringo. He would carry Ringo around on his shoulders and eventually put him on top of a dresser. Ringo would get pets and just purr away. Jim dubbed it "dresser pets."

I finally got some photos of the routine. He does not get to stay up there because of the fragile and special items (Tucker's ashes are in the brown box on the left.) But for a few minutes, Ringo gets some special one-on-one attention, and he loves it.

We celebrate Benny's half birthday! He's 18 1/2!

On Saturday Benny turned 18 1/2, so I decided to celebrate by buying some gourmet vanilla cupcakes. Happy half birthday to Benny!

We're so blessed to have him in our lives!

A happy little moment

It's a good feeling when your elderly kitty jumps up onto the counter and into a laundry basket by himself.

Thrifty Thursday: Kliban greeting cards

Most of you regulars know that I adore Kliban cats. I was thrilled to find two new greeting cards at the thrift store recently, dated 1983.

The inside sentiment shows his sometimes odd sense of humor.

Last year for my birthday, a friend gave me another new Kliban card.

A most unusual place to sleep

Our house was built in the 1920s, and it has the neatest laundry chute. At the bottom of the chute is a wooden hopper that closes with a latch. I had been doing laundry and had left the hopper door open. I come into the basement later and find. . .

Ringo using it for a bed!

Chewy.com review: Weruva Cats in the Kitchen canned food

Our second review this month is the Cats in the Kitchen variety pack. There are four flavors in this pack, each in big 6-ounce cans: Goldie Lox (chicken, tuna, salmon), Funk in the Trunk (chicken, tuna), The Double Dip (chicken, beef), and Chicken Frick 'A Zee (chicken).

Each flavor has a pate/broth mix with chicken shreds in it. This is the Goldie Lox:

This is the Double Dip:

The ingredient lists for these is quite good--no by products/fillers or anything unusual. No rice, corn or wheat.  Nothing odd, no veggies or fruits. The only odd ingredient we noticed was sunflower seed oil, which seems pretty benign. We appreciate a meat-based food, that given that cats are carnivores.

Three out of four cats ate this food (Ringo being the only holdout). Even picky Benny ate it up.

Lucy was so excited about this food that she sneaked in to eat some of Benny's portion.

I'm busted.

We give this food three paws up (out of four). The texture of it is interesting and it would be a good food to feed a kitten. We know that cats get their "ideas" of what food is as a kitten, so feeding different types of food is important, and this food is one we haven't encountered before. It could also be something you mix in with other foods or use as a topper to entice a picky kitty.

Disclaimer: We received some food in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are our own.

Benny's vet check up

In December, we learned that Benny's iron levels were low, and he was nearly anemic. A week or so later, based on a suggestion from our friend Connie, we started him on a supplement of Liqui-Tinic 4X. We did a blog post about it here.

On Friday Benny had a re-check at the vet. I'm pleased to say that his iron levels have improved by 5%, pretty good for just 8 weeks! His overall blood work looked pretty good, the only downside being that his kidney values continue to worsen over time due to his age.

We are pleased that he is doing decently for being such an old kitty! Go, Benny!

He got to snuggle with me in my lap later that night. (He gets a sedative before his appointment to make it easier on everyone, and he zonks out pretty hard afterward.)

Still a shoulder kitty

Ringo wants you to know that he is still a shoulder kitty. In fact, on this particular day he was up on my shoulders four different times!

Happy kitty.

A cup of coffee with Lucy

Sometimes Lucy demands cuddles, and it doesn't matter what you are doing. . .

Chewy.com review: Tiny Tiger Chunks food

#chewyinfluencer

Our first review this month is for Tiny Tiger Chunks food with extra gravy, beef and poultry assortment.

This pack contains three flavors: beef (pink can), turkey (orange can), and chicken (yellow can).

The ingredients aren't too bad. The first three or four ingredients are either meat or organ (liver), followed by meat by-products. There is potato starch and some dried egg product further down the list, followed by supplements/minerals/vitamins. 

The description touts this food as having "extra" gravy, but it didn't seem like more gravy than other chunky foods I've seen. Some brands of food with extra gravy are more soup like, but this is more like the "old style" of chunks covered with gravy.

Ringo would not go near this food. He sure is a strange boy sometimes.

Sadie ate it so quickly I could not get a photo!

Benny dug right in.

Lucy started eating the food. . .

.. but then left behind most of the chunks, licking most of the gravy instead.

Overall, we had a mixed reaction to this food, but at least three out of four were willing to give it a try. In my experience, it can make many feedings of the same food before a cat will accept it as "food." Chewy is offering an amazing 50% off your first pack on their site right now, so you could try this food for a good price.

Disclaimer: We were given some food in exchange for our honest opinion. The thoughts stated here are our own.

We want our bird tv back!

This isn't fair.  My mom said she won't be refilling the bird feeder for a while. This window faces the bird feeder quite nicely and I can watch all of them from here.

She said the backyard is very icy because of our winter weather.

She said she fell on the ice a couple of days ago because she was trying to fill the bird feeder. (She is ok but has a nasty bruise on her knee and hip.)

While I don't want my mom to slip and fall, it seems unfair that we won't have as many birds to watch for a while. I sure hope spring comes soon so mom can refill the feeder again safely.

People are strange sometimes

This is Lucy. My mom was squeeing about how cute I was.

She thought it was so cute that I was holding down my tail with my paw. People sure can be happy about strange things sometimes.

Benny the food snatcher

Once in a while, Benny decides that dinner time is whenever the fridge door is open. I finally got a video of it.

Sharing the laundry basket

Lucy and Benny don't mind sharing a laundry basket. In fact, Lucy looks quite happy with the situation.