Chirpy Cats, Author at Chirpy Cats

What is the Difference Between Catnip and Catmint?

Cats walking among the catmint plants — Mr Jack, the leader of the pack.

Happy Caturday Furriends! It’s Mr Jack here, and today I feature in our Caturday Doodle blog hop, hosted by Athena Cat Goddess. Well, it features Baggy too, the brown tabby on the left, and Jimmy Fancy Feet on the right, but as you can see I’m the centre of attention. All my pals follow my lead, somewhat. You see, Baggy thinks he’s the leader, as he always powder puffs my other housemates when they’re in his path. He tried that once with me and never again! I’m also known as the social facilitator because I like to groom my friends and spread the communal scent. It’s all about keeping the peace and spreading the love. Sometimes.

Like most cats, we love catnip, but we also like sniffing the catmint plant and watching the bees and butterflies as they circle around the purple flowers. Our big lady cat likes to plant this around our tunnel too, because it looks pretty and we like to watch those fuzzy black and yellow flying things. They have a strange purr. But the catmint that we really go crazy for is the one with the white flowers. The big lady cat explains below.

Hi, my name is Ollie and I love pansies!

14/08/2016
Chirpy Cats
17 Comments
Sunday Selfies
edible flowers, kitty fun, pansies, sunday selfies

Hello everyone! I’m Ollie and I’m happy to be featuring in our first Sunday Selfie ever, hosted by The Cat on my Head – Kitties Blue. This is a momentous event for me so I will be putting my best paw forward. So in keeping with selfie culture on the inter-webs I have a few great angled shots and I think I have found my ‘good’ side. But here’s the thing, I absolutely love pansies and when faced with a bunch, I have to shove my head right in and start masticating like a cow. Those beautiful petals are wonderful to behold, but tastes pretty darn awesome too. Now before you go thinking that I am being a naughty boy, I can assure you that our big lady cat plants them especially for us cats! It’s safe for us to eat and guess, what? It’s so irresistible that the big lady cat herself uses it in summer salads and ice cubes. Now let’s get right to my photo shoot…

13/08/2016
Chirpy Cats
24 Comments
Caturday Doodles
Caturday art, drawings, hats for cats, summer, sunflowers

Happy Caturday furriends! Jimmy is the subject of today’s Caturday Doodle, wearing a sunflower hat and like most cats, Jimmy doesn’t like wearing hats. For our Canada Day post photo shoot, his hat lasted a mere six seconds on his head! We also have one of those lion hats for cats and no way was that going on his head. So I thought I would be sneaky and draw him wearing a sunflower mane. There are quite a few outdoor cats around our area sporting their summer ‘lion cut’ and this is as close to a lion cut that Jimmy will get. So this gets me wondering, do your cats like wearing hats? Anyway, back to the sunflower and why we love it…

Jimmy the cat, cat wearing sunflower hat

“As long as the furless lady cat doesn’t put anything on my head, I approve this drawing” (Jimmy)

What’s so special about sunflowers anyway?

Everything! It’s almost the end of summer and there’s a whole lot of activity in the catio garden. Bees are pollinating, birds sing and those garden bandits, the beloved squirrels, are waiting in line for some ripe sunflower seeds. We like to plant giant sunflowers each summer, where they grow on the perimeter of the catio, creating shade for kitties on a hot summer’s day, as well as gracing us with their smiling bright faces. There is something so childlike and innocent about the modest sunflower, yet something so powerful and majestic at the same time. As we enjoy the garden with the kitties, the giant sunflower blooms are not shy with their showy bright petals as they follow the sun until sunset, making their cheery presence known. Sunflowers are incredibly easy to grow and just need some staking as they climb their way up very rapidly. They are non-toxic to cats and most animals, so plant away!

Smiling sunflowers put on a cheery show all day long for the cats and the humans.

Artwork created using an iPad and drawing stylus called Pencil.

We are joining the Caturday Art blog hop, presented by Athena Cat Goddess.

An InLinkz Link-up

Battle of the kitty tunnels

10/08/2016
Chirpy Cats
28 Comments
Cat Enrichment, Wordless Wednesday
catio, environment enrichment, multi-cat household

When we completed our catio is was a 12’x10′ area with ramps, perches and a cascading vine surrounding it. We wanted to add more ‘places of interest’ for the cats to explore without modifying the layout completely and doing minimal adjustments to the catio.

Building cat tunnels is the perfect solution to extending an existing structure. We added a ground tunnel which eventually became the ‘catnip tunnel’ where cat-safe nasturtiums and catnip form a canopy of shade in late Summer. You can imagine this is the most sought-after hangout!

Our elevated tunnel leads to two other secondary catios and meets at the ‘central station’ which is off limits to the humans. Anyway, we now know that what happens in the central station, stays in the central station!

Sly Pie waits at his ‘pretend’ ticket booth at the entrance to the ground tunnel and he takes his job quite seriously. Anyone who tries to pass without paying the fee gets a powder puff.

31/07/2016
Chirpy Cats
12 Comments
Catnip Chirps
catdad, catmom, forever home, rescue cat

Charlie loves his garden and likes his picture taken next to the flower pots.

As we have highlighted in our Canada Day post, we bring you another ‘moving day’ rescue story of how Charlie joined the Chirpy Cats crew. It was December 2014 when I received a text from my husband with a photo of a cat behind bars with large alert eyes and a confident stare. The text read “Our new cat, see his big head”. He must be joking. I thought our Chirpy Cats clan of five was just the right number, you know, like the “Big Five”, in fact, we called them our “Little Big Five” and now he decides to adopt another. That was not in the memo, that was not the plan! He was supposed to just take two of our cats to the vet for their yearly checkup and vaccines, not to be looking at adopting more cats. But what struck me was the reason for abandonment, he was a July 1st cat or as I call them, ‘moving day’ cats, yet another of the many that are abandoned on ‘moving day’ in Quebec. Once my husband has his mind made up about something, he follows through with it all the way, so I knew Charlie was coming to stay and that was that. He wasn’t joking. Below, Charlie speaks his heart out about his brief brush with homelessness and how he spent five months in a shelter before coming to stay with us.

01/07/2016
Chirpy Cats
7 Comments
Catnip Chirps
abandoned cats, Canada day cats, rescue cats, shelter cats

Canada day is also “moving day” in the province of Quebec, Canada, where leases expire and there is a mass exodus of people moving to their new apartments. Great news if your new lease allows you to bring your pet with you. But not so great if you are faced with the gut-wrenching decision of having to give up your cat or dog due to a no-pet clause. This is common in Quebec where only 4.2% of landlords accept dogs and pet-friendly accommodation is very hard to come by.

According to the Montreal SPCA, during the months surrounding moving day, July 1st, the number of animals abandoned at The SPCA nearly triples, from around 600 a month to approximately 1600.

09/04/2016
Chirpy Cats
13 Comments
Catnip Chirps
cat tips, geriatric cats, playtime, Senior cats

It’s Caturday and it’s my Birthday!

Hello friends! Today is Caturday, the day when I get to spend extra long morning snuggles with my humans. But what’s different about this Caturday is that I am officially a geriatric cat. Today is my birthday and I am 15 years old in human years which means I am actually 76 years old in cat years. Although I have slowed down in recent years I am still King of my castle. Being the oldest of the bunch certainly has its perks like having access to my favourite sun puddles and getting extra supplements for my old bones. I would like to share a few tips that my humans do to make the latter part of my years as comfortable for me as possible and to keep me young and healthy at heart.

What’s the craic, my friends? I’m excited to be wishing you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I have many good memories of my home country of Ireland, where I stayed with my The Lady Cat in green and hilly Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. My friend, Sarabi and I, used to go for long walks on the nearby beaches, climbing over boulders and savoring the sand between our paws. Those were the good old days of my youth.

leash walking cats — Walking on a beach near Letterkenny, Ireland, 2002

I’m a retired show cat who was born in County Cork, Ireland and I used to travel all over to strut my stuff and show off my good looks and temperament in shows around Ireland and once in England too. I got to travel on a ferry! I am an Asian Blue Ticked Tabby, originating from the silky Burmese breed and we come in all color types. I don’t get too caught up in titles but I have earned a few. My full name is Coomakista Ninh Earl Grey and I am also a Supreme Premier and Tara Grand Premier. I am also the first Asian Ticked Tabby to hold these titles and to have three Best of Varieties at Irish Supreme Shows. Despite my grand titles, I’m a very mellow and down to earth old chap, preferring these days, to rest in my catio condo and watch birds. Although I have a calm demeanor I am not a pushover and when the young punks need some training on proper kitty etiquette and basic house rules I’m always showing them the ropes with a firm paw.

14/03/2016
Chirpy Cats
7 Comments
Catnip Chirps
cat health, geriatric cat, multi-cat household, pi day

March 14 is celebrated annually as Pi day and the tradition of eating pie is welcomed and encouraged by Math geeks and non-geeks alike. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and this number, regardless of the size of the circle, is always the same: 3.14159….an infinite decimal. It’s a great excuse to get away from your desk and join your colleagues and indulge in a slice, or two. But I’m a cat and I don’t work so I’m hoping I will be handsomely compensated when the humans get home from work.

I have discovered I have a lot in common with Pi or π (the symbol). Like Pi, the ratio of my circumference to my diameter was also a mathematical constant, and like Pi, eventually, I lost approximately 3.14 lbs. But before you go ahead and stuff your face, please read my story…

Author - Chirpy Cats

What is the Difference Between Catnip and Catmint?

Sunday Selfie: Pansy Buffet for Ollie

Caturday Art: Summer mane in bloom

What’s so special about sunflowers anyway?

Battle of the kitty tunnels

How Charlie found his forever home

It’s Canada Day! But what does that mean for our furry friends?

12 Tips for keeping your senior cat comfortable

Happy St. Patrick’s day, with Love

So it’s Pi day – A Cat Weighs In