Watchin X-Files with the lights on

We are watching the roach episode now, which is one of the episodes we like a lot, that and the one with Charles Nelson Reilly.  Not sure what caught Fleurp's attention about the credits to the previous episode, but I couldn't resist capturing it.

It looks like the cats are starting to feel the stress of the move. I took yesterday off from packing and did my best to make myself available for snuggling and love. They took me up on it frequently and flagrantly. I am hoping now that we aren't taking full days away from the house once and twice a week they'll relax a little. I know the stacking of boxes in the guest room and my office is not helping. There will be some nip parties going on and rescue remedy will be applied liberally if I suspect it isn't getting better.

Speaking of nip, I walked into the kitchen the other day in the middle of the night and heard a scraping sound. It was a slow *scrape* pause *scrape* and I was a bit weirded out wondering what it was. Turned out that Eli had found himself a nip nanner and was giving it lots of love..

Scrapnipping catnip toys for sale.

We have had a few expensive trips to the vet and we have a few more coming up, so I thought I'd attempt to replenish my cat fund and attempt to make a dent in the fabric I have in my craft room. I made some of these for my last fundraiser and I received quite a few compliments.

I was originally hoping to get these up for sale before Halloween but that didn't happen, so hopefully someone will not mind.  I'm not quite ready to set up a real shop with actual ordering so if you are interested please email me and tell me what you would like and how many. It will be a first come first served situation and if this takes off I'm more than happy to set up a 'shop' with actual inventory.

The catnip toys are 100% cotton fabric. They are various sizes that are about one inch by two inches or two inches by three. They are filled only with a heaping tablespoon of premium catnip that most cats really love.

If you see something you love, mention it. If you want Christmas mention that. I have two Hanukkah ones and I might have more fabric if you would like more. If you don't care, feel free to tell me it is my choice. If you would like larger ones, or smaller ones..  I aim to please.

Price? $2.00 each shipped.  $10 for six, and $20 for a baker's dozen (13)

Update: I have run out of silvervine but I have plenty of super premium catnip toys. I can also make alpaca stuffed toys if you are interested in those as well.

I also made a few toys that are filled with raw alpaca fur and silvervine  They are about the same size, but my silvervine supply is limited so I'm going to sell those for $2.50

If you would like alpaca fur stuffed toys without silvervine I can do that, or if you would like fur and nip, I can do that too. Just shot me an email with your requests.

I'll accept PayPal or mailed in payments. Email me what you want and I'll email you out an invoice once we settle on inventory.

Muffin thinks that her fans want to see another photo of her

Wordless Wednesday - Muffin and her nip

Toys from The Natural Pet Company - Sponsored

Back on 1/29 I was contacted by Florina from The Natural Pet Company inquiring if I might be interested in helping them market some of their products. They would send them to me for free in exchange for an honest review on my blog.

I had seen these products being reviewed over at A Tonk's Tail and over at It's all about the cats! and was of course very interested.

Florina offered me a coupon code to purchase these items from Amazon directly. I found this to be a very interesting and unique way to handle this, and actually more than a little fun. I mean how often do you get a coupon code for 100% off??

They arrived a few days later. I was a little bummed that Amazon decided to use air pillows as packing material instead of the brown crinkle paper they had been sending recently mostly because I know how much The Crew love that paper. Ah well, we got free toys, we can't get everything right? :)

The Haul

It was not all that easy to get this photo with out said cats investigating..

Muffin clearly wanted some nip! What is not to like about nip. This product has 4.4 star rating on Amazon and comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. One thing I like is the eleven 1 star reviews all have comments on them from the company offering refunds or suggestions. I mean when a company goes out of their way to find unhappy customers and attempts to make them happy - well that means a lot to me. I go out of my way to do business with companies that have good customer service and actually try to make things right.

My one complaint is one thing they advertise as an asset; the nip is "fine cut" meaning it has been cut so finely that is just a step or two above a powder. This way any stalks that were in the nip are ground down so they are not a hazard to your kitty - a good thing. Stalks are still nip, but they aren't as potent, so I would probably prefer they simply not use stalks, but that can be very costly. Often leaf only nip is much more expensive, if you can find it at all. My other issue with this fine cut is it gets everywhere. When I opened the bag there was a bit of a nip cloud. I poured some out and then went to pick it up and there was a fine coating on the counter where I poured it. When I brought it to Eli who is a complete and utter nip head he started to lick it right off my hand but when he exhaled with nip joy he blew part of the pile right into Skippy's face. My last issue with fine cut is that while it is great smelling while it is fresh (man that package smelled great when I opened it - I adore the smell of nip myself) it releases its volatile compounds and will go 'stale' faster, and it will be much harder to 'refresh' it by crushing the leaves since they are all very finely cut. All of the 1 star reviews on Amazon were that cats weren't reacting to it, if the package was a little older it would completely make sense.

The pack I got was very fresh, the nip was nice and green, the cats ADORED it and ate it willingly and then started rolling in it and there was much rejoicing. To make sure I get the most out of this package, I will make sure they get this nip before some of the others I have until it is gone to prevent it from losing its appeal if it were to go stale. I will probably also use it to mix it in food to encourage the kitties to eat, and put it into refillable cat toys instead of making toys with it.

We also have the 32" Interactive Feather Wand Cat Toy and the Cat Toy Mega Pack to review... I know The Crew is itching to do so..

Super Potent Cat Nip - Thankful Thursday

So the wonderful Rene over at It's All About the Cats! saw I was growing cat grass for The Crew, and asked if The Crew really liked it.  I replied that that they do and she said she had some left over when she tried it for her kitties and they weren't interested in it and she wanted to send it over.

Well one to never let a mail package go with out adding a few extra goodies (just like me) I got several really cool things when it showed up.

She also made that towel which says "Nice Hat"
She also made the card.. She is so crafty!!

Now I have to say that catnip - that she grew herself with out any chemicals - is so strong that I think *I* got high off of it... I think you'll enjoy watching Fleurp being introduced to it in the first video, and her reaction to it in the second..







Btw, I've been told I should give warnings when I have super cute photos coming up.. Well for Friday consider yourself warned..

power puff kitties

I'm sitting here watching Eli attack the catnip sack from a few posts back. He is loving it. chewing on it.. sucking on it.. attacking it. Muffin jumped down to see what all the fuss was about. Eli let her sniff it.. she didn't seem as motivated as him to enjoy the nip, so he took back over.. almost as if to say "you're doing it wrong!" he started attacking it again.. it made me think of buttercup from the power puff girls... I mentioned that to the hubby.. then I said muffin is definitely Bubbles.. making Jack be Blossom. Ollie then jumped down from his perch high a top the cat tree, and walked over to "bubbles" and "attacked" her.. in that slow I'm not really motivated to hurt you, but I wouldn't mind showing my dominance right now move. So I said, well I guess that makes Ollie Mojo Jojo... I looked at Emmy and said, and does this make Emmy the professor? Hubby said no.. Emmy is the Mayor... which would make me Ms. Bellum... and of course, that means the hubby is the professor.

We had a really good giggle over that one. Hope you've watched the power puff girls cartoon at least once to enjoy the humor of this post.

Catnip pad

btw.. there were a couple of comments about the catnip pad.. cat nip is very easy to grow.. its like any other herb.. in fact its part of the mint family. There are cases of cats who don't really react to cat nip that love mint... one person I read about gives their cat herbal mint tea bags.. :) I had a small problem with growing it because I failed to keep the container watered.. and it dried out, but that is what your supposed to do anyway, so I just clipped off the roots and gave it to them. Fresh nip is great too. Be aware though.. they eat it. totally not a problem, its good for them, but it freaked me out the first time one of my kitties actually ate it. Before they had just rubbed around in it.

kittens often don't react to nip at all.. its something they grown into. some are more prone to it than others. Eli is a nip o holic.. my first kitty Tigger was as well. he tended to get vicious when on nip.. not violent.. just in such joy he didn't want you to interupt it, even if you were just giving him more, he didn't understand... man I miss that kitty.