Tails from the Foster Kittens are winners!

So I tend to enter giveaways by my fellow bloggers. I won two of them recently. The first I am going to blog about was the Creepy Critter Cat Toy giveaway over at IHaveCat.com.  Tamar handed my information over to Patti who was very nice in the emails and very promptly returned my reply. Customer service is huge for me, and Patti totally wins that.

How it came packaged

The products I chose

You need a tester for that there product, right mom?
I volunteer ~Skippy

This snake needs the bitey!!

I kills it, I kills it dead.. eventually..
even though it is already not alive.. 

Muffin was lovin the paper.

and then there was the Purrfect Play giveaway over at The Island Cats

The carrots were in the bag with the cat and dog face on it, and the bigger round ball (which is a dryer ball btw but I so intend to give it to the cats) was in the middle package. The bit of catnip came with the 'dust bunnies' which is so uber cute!  I love that the packaging is all recyclable.  Even the cat face on the top of the tea bag originally came off of a calendar (I noticed when I took the cat nip tea bag out of the packaging)

These are so super cute and eco friendly.

You have got to love giveaways to help you try new products. I probably wouldn't have purchased either one of these on a review alone since I already have a laundry basket full of cat toys, which I very much need to go through and clean out, but I am thrilled by both of these. If you are in the market for cat toys, you can't go wrong with either of these.

Thank you Cabot Cheese!

A while back I entered a giveaway for Cabot Cheese for volunteering.  I didn't give it much thought, because I rarely win things from companies these days, so I entered and pretty much forgot I did..

Until a package showed up on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago.

disclosure, they gave me the cheese, but asked for nothing in return.. did I mention I got no notice I won save for it showing up on my doorstep?

In the box were six other boxes..

and in each of these boxes, was a box..

And inside that box...

so 600 units of cheese!!  Talk about overwhelming!!

talk about your boxes..

You thank us Cabot, we thank you for these boxes we are about to enjoy.. 

I donated five of the boxes to the shelter.  I told them I would like to use it for the Kitten Shower that is coming up next month.  Unfortunately they don't seem feel the need to use the donation as intended.  Last I heard they were seeing if it was feasible to use it to give medications to the dogs.. (The dogs! *sigh*  not that I hate dogs, I just really feel the cats are under supported and that is where I intend my donations to go)   There was also the thought that since they are all individually wrapped there is the belief that wrappers would end up on the grounds (aka people wouldn't dispose of them properly) so instead of using my donation as is, there is intention to unwrap them and put them on a platter.. *sigh*  I guess I will have to re-evaluate my donations in the future.

I'm glad I saved one box out and gave it to another organization who was THRILLED to have it.. and near the end of the day all but a handful were left.. Considering there were less than 100 volunteers and there was fruit and chips and pizza and chocolate up the wazoo, I would say the cheese was VERY appreciated.  Not everyone wants high sugar snacks..

So thank you Cabot for doing this!  I totally appreciate the donation and the chance to help..

and I thank you for this box.. 

The Crew vs The Snoozzy

A while back I won "The Snoozzy" from BlogPaws and it showed up today.  It really is pretty cool, the outside has a very nice hand feel.  I thought I would put it down and see what happened.

which is more interesting, The Snoozzy or the box??

It looks like the box.. but wait..

Skippy sees something interesting..  which of course bring everyone else*..

*OK, to be honest they were investigating it cause I stuck one of these in there.
Skippy did before I put the treat in there

So after they found the treat and started to thin out, Skippy went to investigate again..

Doesn't this last image of Skippy remind you of those silly ostrich napping pillows..

I like it, but it is a little small for The Crew, so I am going to end up giving it to the fosters.  I can't wait to see what it is like with kittens run in it and out of the little hole in it.

CatCam!!

I have been hearing about the CatCam for a while now.  I thought it would be so much fun to get one and put it on Jack.  I thought he might be able to even start his own blog!

But I put it off.  There were other expenses that were more pressing.  *shrug*  But then Ingrid at the ConsciousCat.net had a giveaway of one, and I was so excited.. and when I won I was thrilled.. and a little scared.  Thrilled because I would get to see what Jack did all day, and scared because I'd get to see what Jack did all day.

It showed up pretty quickly, but it took me a while to get it to work.  The small pamphlet of instructions weren't overly helpful, and each time I thought I had it right I was rewarded with no pictures.  Finally I just googled it and found very helpful instructions and we were off.

I first put it on him at night.  I had set the camera to take photos every two minutes.  I tend to only have lights on in the house in the room I am in, so a lot of the photos were completely black.  :(  Next I put it on him Sunday morning and went about my day.  Unfortunately I didn't consider what a camera dangling from Jack's neck would do when he ate.  No pictures of him eating (that I'm aware of) but a lot of food debris ended up on the cam.  Looking at the pictures was fun, but then we had a lot of black shots followed by a picture of the pillows on the bed, then a long span of more black pictures while he slept on top of it.

I tried putting it on Fleurp, but she tried to eat it.  It was uber cute to watch her, because she sat up on her hind legs took it in both of her paws and then went to nom on it - much like a bear might.  While I had changed the setting to take a photo every minute, the camera didn't go off at this time.  You can set the camera to go off from 2 seconds to 8 hours or anywhere in between.  There is setting for seconds, minutes and hours, so if you like two hours, two minutes and two seconds, you can do that :)

Sadly the camera isn't the highest of quality.  If the cat is moving the picture is fuzzy.  While I call this a negative, it is also a pretty interesting positive, I got some really interesting shots of light dances.

This is opposite of the entrance to the kitchen..
he spent quite some time sitting here

a bad capture of his considering MirrorJack...
but I think MirrorJack only is worth considering if the doors are closed

Fleurp Cam

Fleurp considers the snow.. 8 inches at this point

Kitten update and "I'm a winner"

So the five of them are so active and LOUD.. you would be shocked to realize we have a serious issue going on.  Two of the fab four started to lose weight.  The girl and the white faced boy were down almost an ounce in a day.  They also produce stool so odorous that it could probably be used to strip paint off walls.  

I was concerned enough to take a temperature and fortunately there wasn't a fever, if anything it was a little low.  I tried force feeding them baby food.  Their brothers loved it, these two however were very much not interested.

Girl is screaming at you to do...
something..
and do it NOW.. 

They are talkers, that is for certain.  You walk in they yell at you, you pick them up they yell at you, you feed them, they yell at you, you pat them they yell at you.  They tell you they are going to the litter box in a VERY LOUD VOICE.. (get the picture)   The four of them are very very people orientated and can almost always be found in a lap the minute one produces itself.

Little Miss Independant

Little Miss Independent is perfectly content to be on her own.  She's fine not getting patted, not being held, in fact she is perfectly happy having the fab four there because it means less attention on her.  Every time I pick her up and give her attention she looks totally freaked out and gives me airplane ears..   I'm hoping she gives up on that quickly.

Anyway, I took those two into the shelter with a stool sample.  Nothing was detected, so I was sent home with instructions to deworm again on the off chance they were so infested the first dose didn't take care of it all, and we gave them both some fluids.  When they got home they had a few bites of food, which was wonderfully encouraging, but not nearly enough to sustain.  Kittens have that horrible window where they should nurse AND eat, because neither one alone gives them enough calories to sustain them, and when you throw in just one other little thing, it can so easily tip the scales in the wrong direction.

I also got a package this weekend.  Cats & Co had a surprise giveaway, meaning they offered up "something" for us to win, with out telling us what it was.  It was so fun to win and wait to find out what it was.. well here it is..

The catnip is very strong, and smells great!   I was also excited to see the straw thing (at the bottom - it is purple) because Love-and-Hisses recently talked about what fun they were and I wanted to get some to try because every time I go down to the kitten room with a drink with a straw I end up losing the straw to the kittens :)   So far these kittens are more interested in ping pong balls, but I'm sure it will be chewed to pieces before summer.

This was hiding in the pict above.
I have yet to figure out where I'm going to put it, but I do love it.

Would you stop blogging and give me a lap already lady!!

A good day..

Well despite the fact that yesterday was Monday and my husband was out of town, and I had a killer headache for most of the day, I have to say that yesterday was all in all a good day.

It started out with Jack snuggling with me, licking my nose, wanting to be close to me.  He was avoiding being on the bed while he was having his medical issues, so to have him  up there when I woke up was really nice.

Then the shelter called to let me know I could bring the kittens in to be neutered.  I was so pleasantly shocked that they did.  Not only because there was space for them, but that the message got through the chain of staff and someone followed through.  Part of me was kinda hoping the phone call wouldn't happen and they would still be here, but they do need to go back so off they went.

During the day I made adoption cards for them, so after work I ran to the shelter to drop those off, and my boys did very well and looked very good.  Hawkeye and I cuddled, Trapper ran free and said hello to another kitty in a different cage.  Radar was just looking for mischief.  Talking to the staff it turns out Radar already has a home.  One of the staff members has a brother who saw him before I got him and wanted him.

so good for him.  This just means Hawkeye and Trapper needs a new home.  Together would be awesome, but if not that's OK too.

I stopped off at the grocery store on the way home.  I found large cans of pumpkin on sale for half price.  So I got a bakers dozen.  There were a few more left, but I just couldn't face carrying them to the car then into the house. (big headache.. remember)

I got home and had two packages waiting for me.  The first from a friend of mine..

How cute is this??  It is one of those mini books that are the size of a coaster.  I can't wait to read it once my head stops hurting..

and I also got a very large package sent priority mail from Purina.  I couldn't stop giggling because I knew exactly what it was.. the tote I won at the end of last year..

 it is nice and roomy, and I can imagine it will be awesome for all kinds of things.  CatLadyLand is one of those blogs I adore, and I love that I can tote around her logo.. cause Cats Are Funny.. (Of course this spurs me to want to make my own logo.. I just need to find someone willing to do it for little to no money.. )

I'm looking forward to bringing it to BlogPaws..

Kitty’scape™ Cat Tower

WAAAY back on October 7th I won a Kitty’scape™ Cat Tower from Cat Chat with Caren & Cody.  I was so excited because I love bringing in new enrichment for my own cats and also for the kittens.  It was hard to tell which this product would work better for from the pictures, so I figured I would wait till it showed up and decide once I got my paws on it.

First it needs a cat scan

and a second opinion

We got the Deluxe Playscape Kit

Seriously guys, what's with all the cat scans??

Snoopervising?  really?  don't you trust me??

Guess not.

How the base looks from underneath.  I like how it is well finished.

The set up I chose.
You can configure it any number of different ways.

adding the padding and the support for the cabana

Fleurp was the first one on, and the first to deposit her scent.
Keep your eye on the kitty on the floor.

Floor to cabana roof in a single bound

I shall call this.. 

KITLANDIA!

Hey, what about us??

You may join me in KITLANDIA any time.. 

Twee scratching on the scratching post

Muffin wanted to get in on things

Muffin says she fits in the Cabana..
 Kit tries to pretend it isn't happening

See.. I fits.. 

Even Eli wanted to check it out.

Kit is in the 'hammock' under Skippy

Three out of four of the girls.. 

I will say I am pretty darn impressed with this.  For a modular tree it is impressively sturdy and while I wouldn't say it was overly roomy, as you can see it did work fairly well for Muffin who is 14lbs.  Both my husband and I agree it would probably be better for the kittens in general, but there are some major MAJOR issues with giving it to them. Since baby kittens aren't always the cleanest things I quite often have to launder anything that can't be bleached.  The wood is slightly rough - I should probably say not as smooth as I would like.  It isn't so rough that I'm worried about splinters, just that I am not sure that if I end up with poopy footprints on them that I'd be able to clean it well enough.  The scratching pad (green) would be impossible to clean because it does not come off, and the "hammock" would require me to disassemble the whole thing to get it off to wash it.  Then the pad in the hammock is attached to wood, so again washing is not really an option.  I would have much prefered it if these items were more like the cabana which in my opinion was well done.  The pad in that is much like a shower cap and can be taken off pretty easily.  If they had put a zipper around the top of the hammock instead of just across the bottom it would have been much easier to remove and launder when necessary... because I am going to assume even my adult cats are going to get it dirty at some point.  I'm also not overly thrilled with the cat toy attachment because it is proprietary.  The end of the toy has a plastic bit on it so it fits in the collar that goes around the pillar.  So when they destroy the toy, which I know they will, I will have to buy another one from them instead of being able to use one I happen to have.  If they had made the collar accept a round pole toy I would have liked it better.  I think the bit might have been an attempt to keep the toy in a little better, but it doesn't lock and it is easily pulled out.

So The Crew has pretty much determined that they hozied it.  Muffin wants to call it the KittyCabana and was singing the Copacabana song (you are welcome for that earworm).  As you saw, Kit determined it is KITLANDIA..

Thank you Carin and thank you to Solvit Products

This review is 100% of my own accord.  I wasn't even asked for it.  I was not compensated in any way, but I did win the product so I didn't pay for it.