Artsy Catsy has gone Artsy Coltsy!

Rocky here. You'll remember that a few weeks ago a colt arrived at our house after our human artist Suzanne was selected to paint it for Horsing Around In Terre Haute , a city-wide event celebrating our city as host of the Indianapolis Colts' training camp. Union Hospital sponsored Suzanne to paint the colt wearing surgical scrubs and a stethoscope.

Yesterday both our artists attended the champagne reception at Swope Art Museum for the unveiling of the all the colts. Here they are with Suzanne's colt, titled "Scrubs":

More than 30 artists participated, and their colts will be placed in public locations throughout the city. Here are some samples of their magnificent work:

Well, all this horsing around has given me an idea! Cowpainters, the company that manufactures the fiberglass colts, also makes cats! ...

So .... I think when we launch our web site, we should have a similar promotion to raise awareness of the serious stray/feral cat problem in our city and donate the funds to the organizations who are helping to address it! What do you think?

Mancat Monday: Il Gatto Italiano

For Mancat Monday, we travel to Italy to present a photo gallery of Fred, President of Artsy Catsy's European Division:
Fred and his Catministrative Assistant, Holly, live in Cerenova, Italy, 30 minutes north of Rome, where they maintain a balcony office overlooking palm trees, Mediterranean pines and, in the distance, the sea. Holly keeps Fred organized from her own efficient cubicle.





Fred and Holly are currently in the process of moving from their Cerenova location to a new office in the center of Rome. Fred is directing the move from his executive office chair:



Fred and Holly were both adopted from the Bloomington, Indiana Humane Society ten years ago by Artsy Catsy's human musician, Tiffany. After traveling the U.S. to train for their important post abroad -- and learning to meow and purr in Italian -- they boarded an intercontinental flight to settle in Italy.

After living in Italy for four years, little of his Hoosier heritage is apparent. Fred is now an urbane, sophisticated mancat, il gatto italiano, living la dolce vita in Italy. He looks forward to relocating in Rome, where he plans to escape his office whenever possible to roam the same streets walked by Roman emporers such as Julius Caesar and prowl structures that were built before the time of Jesus Christ.

P.S. from Fred's human:

Buona sera a tutti! This is Tiffany, official Artsy Catsy musician and owner (slave?) of Fred and Holly. I've just returned from a long, hot day in Rome ... a morning full of teaching, practicing and playing piano for MY teacher's lessons (I do it all; it runs in the family!) and an afternoon and evening of trekking Rome, looking for accommodations that meet the standards of my finicky felines. For the same rent I pay in Cerenova, outside Rome, where my Boobies (my special name for my 'Quitty Quats', or, well, cats) have been living la dolce vita in a 2-story, 2-bedroom spacious apartment with balcony one mile from the sea, I can get a nice ... ROOM in an apartment in Rome. Sigh .....

I think I may have found a place, though. It's in a well-connected area (lots of buses & trains & subways); it has lots of windows and, more importantly, it has a balcony with a kitty door built into the human door, as well as a litter cabinet under the bathroom sink with a kitty door built into the human cabinet door! Very kitty friendly! And, for their human, there is 24/7 WiFi included in the rent.

Now I must get the Fred go-head ... !

If Fred & Holly only knew how much I love them. I could live at my voice teacher's house FREE ... but he doesn't want cats in his house. Now, he's a lovely person, so no hissing and growling is called for. He loves animals, but just isn't as 'catsy' as we more evolved humans are .... so, I'm basically renting a room just for my kitties!

Okay, it's time for our nightly romp with the feather on the stick!

Caio!

Tiffany, Artsy Catsy Rome Correspondent & Musician

Close Encounters of the Kitty Kind

Rocky here. As everyone knows, I was rescued from the woods when I was only one day old, so my ancestry is a mystery. Well, no longer -- the secret of my heritage has been solved!

Every morning, my human artist takes a long walk around our city's 177-acre Deming Park (something to do with her not wanting her belly to look like mine.) Well, this morning she made a momentous discovery in the park that finally reveals my true origins ... and, my human says, explains much of my behavior. Please know that many obstacles were deliberately put in the park to deter anyone from making this important discovery .... gardens and swimming pools and playgrounds, and scenic distractions such as these:

But as you know, my human is an artist and, therefore, does not follow the beaten path. She seeks out the hidden trails through the woods, such as this one:
Some mysterious force drew her into this dark path, so she ignored the warning sign (put there by Cats in Black, as you will soon discover) and proceeded down the forbidding road:
Then, deep into the woods, she noticed something strange at the side of the path ....
Intrigued, she stepped closer to the odd, disk-shaped object ....
Noticing that its dome was the perfect size to carry a cat on a long journey, she stepped even closer to investigate ....
Suddenly a thought burst into her mind, as if implanted there by forces outside herself ... "A UFO: Unidentified Feline Object! Rocky!!! All those times I've called you a 'weird little alien' ... I think I was exactly right!!"

She came home and related this revelation to me, and when I tried to deny that I was an alien, she presented me with this indisputable proof:









Yes, it's true. The time has come for me declassify this top-secret information and confess that I, Rocky, am in truth a superior CatBeing, transported to Earth from the farthest reaches of the galaxy. I boldly came from where no cat has come before, to explore new worlds and select a suitable one upon which to set up my e-commerce business ... and to bring as many EarthCats as possible into my human's home to assist me.

But please have no fear -- I come in peace. I have no desire for world domination. I have a simpler mission: manage a few humans, run a successful company, live long and prosper, and retire with a nice golden parachute -- full of nip!

Artsy Catsy International Catvisory Board

Fracas here. I was finally able to get our CEO Rocky to take time from his busy schedule (eating, napping, chasing cat bookmark strings, thwapping Callie, staring into space, etc.) to approve my selections for our Catvisory Board. And now we're pleased to announce our illustrious International Catvisory Board! Yes, Catvisors have come forward not only from all over the United States ... but also from Australia, Austria, Canada, England and Germany!

Everyone here at Artsy Catsy is so excited that these highly qualified kitties are going to share their wisdom and insight with us as we build our web site and launch our business. And we might even let their beans give us a token opinion now and then :-)

And now, please give a big round of appaws for ....

The Artsy Catsy International Catvisory Board:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Bad Kitty Cats

Cheysuli

The Crazy Meezers

Derby Sassycat

Dragonheart

Faz

Kashim & Othello

Kaze, Latte & Chase

KC & Missy

Kimo & Sabi

Lilly Lu

Marie the Defender

Mia & Ghost

Mr. Hendrix

Oscar the Puppy Cat

Parker

Samantha & Tigger

Sanjee

We are so honored that you've joined our effort to share our human artists' work with the world and share our proceeds with cat rescue organizations to help fellow kitties in need. With your help, we believe we can make a difference!

We Thank You All!!

Photo Hunters: "Hair"

Rocky here. Well, thanks a lot! I'll have you know that all work around here came to a grinding halt when my staff found out that today's Photo Hunters theme is "HAIR." Just look at them ... even worse, listen to them! NO WAY are they going to drag me into this nonsense:

(*Fracas sings*)

"Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair,
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen,

Give me down to there, hair!
Shoulder length, longer (hair!)

Here baby, there mama, Everywhere daddy daddy,

Hair! (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair) .... "

(*Callie sings*)
"Let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees,
Give a home to the fleas in my hair,
A home for fleas, a hive for bees,
A nest for birds, there ain't no words,
For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of my
Hair! (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair) .... "

(*Lucy sings*)
"I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy,
Snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty,
Oily, greasy, fleecy, shining,
Gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen,
Knotted, polka-dotted; Twisted, beaded, braided,
Powdered, flowered, and confettied,
Bangled, tangled, spangled and spaghettied!"

(*Rocky leads chorus & grande finale*)
"HAIR! (HAIR, HAIR, HAIR, HAIR, HAIR, HAIR)
Flow it, Show it;
Long as God can grow it, My HAIR!!!!"

Join Artsy Catsy's Catvisory Board!

Hello everyone, it's Ivan, Information Technology Director at Artsy Catsy. I don't post often because I'm totally occupied with designing and implementing our upcoming e-commerce website, ArtsyCatsy.com. Quite frankly, it's going to take more than one meezer geek to accomplish this task, and I'm running WAY behind. So Fracas, our Vice-President, and I had an idea. Let me bring Fracas in to tell you about it so I can get back to my bits and bytes:

Hey there, Fracas here, a bit wiped out from all the work around here! As VP, I'm in charge of market research and megatons of other stuff, so I told Ivan our new web site needs to be designed by the people who will visit it --- CAT LOVERS! --- not just by a geeky meezer and a couple of crazy human artists! So here's the plan:

I'm forming a 30-member Artsy Catsy Catvisory Board, and I'm here to invite you to participate! I promise to make it fun, and I'm throwing in some incentives. Everyone on our Catvisory Board will receive:

* an ArtsyCatsy.com Gift Certificate for $25;
* the pride of knowing you helped cats in need by helping Artsy Catsy succeed (we donate 10% of all proceeds to organizations that help cats in need)
* our eternal gratitude!

There are only two requirements for you to join our Catvisory Board:

1) You love cats (or you are a cat)
2) You have made purchases from two or more e-commerce websites.

I also promise not to overwork you. Here's what you'll be doing: From now until September (when we plan to launch our website) I'll periodically ask your opinion about elements of the website and/or our products. I may sometimes email questions to you, and sometimes I will post an assignment for you on our blog. Your very important input will help us make decisions about color choices, design elements of the site, products to create, services to offer, etc. It will also help prevent us from making fools of ourselves!

If you would like to join Artsy Catsy's Catvisory Board, just send an email by Monday, June 18 to ArtsyCatsy AT Yahoo DOT com, and provide the following information:

1) What is your full name?
2) Name two or more websites from which you have made purchases.
3) What payment method do you most often use for online purchases?
4) If you have designed a blog(s), please tell us the URL(s).
5) If you have ever designed a website(s), please tell us the URL(s).

That's it! And remember, we will be selecting only 30 members for our Catvisory Board, so get those emails to us by Monday, June 18!

To Bee or not to Bee

Rocky here. Yesterday my human artist was taking me for my evening constitutional in our backyard, when we had an emergency! Our neighbors, who are painting their house, came running over for help with this BIG problem: Can you tell what that spot is? It's a colony of BEES, and it just showed up on their house overnight! Here's a closer look: Since my mom and the neighbors are very worried about the problem of all the bees in the world disappearing, they didn't want to kill the bees, so they called everywhere to find somebody to come move them to a better place - and nobody could help. So, they ended up moving those thousands and thousands of bees themselves! They swept them up into little aerated bags and drove them out to a farm in the country with fields of crops in bloom. It took all day!

Did you know that honeybee colonies are disappearing at rates up to 80% in the US and Europe? More than half of the colonies in the US are just ... gone ... and the wild bees you used to see in your yard are disappearing, too. Experts have named this Colony Collapse Disorder and many are calling it the beginning of an ecological apocalypse!

Why? Well, Albert Einstein reportedly said, If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more man. That's because one out of every three bites of food our humans eat comes from plants that wouldn't exist without bees pollinating them. USDA officials are worried that if this mystery epidemic isn't solved soon, humans could be reduced to a diet of grain and water (Unlike blossoming plants, grains are pollinated by wind.) Already many gardeners are having to hand-pollinate their vegetable plants.

Reports to Congress say the disappearance of bees is assuming catastrophic proportions and consequences for agriculture and the economy will be disastrous: honeybee pollination generates more than $15 billion a year in produce.

Scientists haven't figured out what is causing Colony Collapse Disorder but they're leaning toward a new kind of toxin or chemical used in agriculture and/or the widespread use of genetically-modified plants.

I've posted some links below so you can learn more about the frightening situation with our bees. In the meantime, if you're lucky enough to see one of these ....
.... be smarter than our humans and DO NOT put toxins on it, step on it, swat it, or put the bitey on it!! Make it your friend -- our future nip crops could depend on your actions!

Learn more:

Mysterious, Massive Death of Bees

Bee Colony Collapse Disorder: Where is it heading?

Ecological Apocalypse

The Mysterious Death of the Honeybees

Our Vanishing Helpers

Dona Nobis Pacem

"If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr." ~~ Barbara Diamond

"If we treated everyone we meet with the same affection we bestow upon our favorite cat, they, too, would purr."

~~ Martin Buxbaum

"The cat seldom interferes with other peoples' rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life." ~~ Carl van Vechten

"What are the chances of a cat starting a nuclear war? Pretty negligible. It's not that they can't; they just know that there are much better things to do with one's time. Like lie in the sun and sleep. Or go exploring the world." ~~ Unknown

"He who rides the tiger finds it difficult to dismount." ~~ Chinese Proverb

"Maybe in the future we should ask presidential candidates where they stand on cats. Better still, we should demand to see the cats these candidates say they have raised, just to make sure we are not having the fur pulled over our eyes." ~~ Gilbert Gude

"There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing, and the world quietly reshapes itself ..." ~~ Ivy Dodd

UPDATE on new toxin in pet food

An ABC station in Texas reports that experts warn that the contaminated pet food scare could be far worse than first thought. The doctor in charge of EperTox lab in Deer Park, Texas, who found acetaminophen in dog and cat food samples, believes the problems with pet food are far from over.

Even more disturbing is there are no regulations that require manufacturers or labs to make it public when they find lethal toxins in pet food - in fact, quite the opposite! As the ABC report states,

"Due to a confidentiality agreement, the lab cannot reveal which pet food samples tested positive for the drugs. At least on sample was Pet Pride cat food [Kroger's house brand.] All test results were reported to the pet food makers, which should have been reported to the FDA. [but were NOT.]

"It may be up to owners to police pet food because, according to the lab manager, no one from the FDA has investigated their positive findings. In fact, to date not a single government inspector has asked to look at one of the tainted pet food samples tested in this laboratory."

Oh no! More contaminated pet food!

Texas lab finds pain medicine in pet food

Click on this post's title for the full story, but the FDA is investigating a Texas laboratory’s finding of acetaminophen in cat and dog food … the highest level found is eight times what a 10-pound cat could safely consume!

The story says, "The pain medication is the fifth contaminant found in pet foods during the past 2-1/2 months and can be toxic or lethal to pets, especially cats."

FIVE?? We knew about melamine and cyanuric acid, but what are the other three??

At least five dog and cat food samples tested contained acetaminophen, and these five were NOT among the 150+ brands recalled since March.

The highest level of acetaminophen was found in a dog food sample submitted by a manufacturer ... who got the results well over a month ago and was supposed to notify the FDA, but they DIDN’T DO IT!

I say it's time for a massive uprising against the pet food industry!

ROCKY RELEASED FROM PRISON!!!!

The Department of Blogland Security has announced that Rocky, CEO (Cat Executive Officer) of Artsy Catsy, was wrongfully accused of operating a spam blog and was being held without cause at AbuBloggerGhraib prison.

A reliable source within AbuBloggerGhraib (who declines to be named while torturing innocent bloggers) states that it was the squillions of meowmails sent by enraged cats that forced Blogger to release Rocky and uncuff his paws so that he may once again blog with impunity.

While incarcerated, Rocky suffered horrific torture at the hands of his captors. Upon his arrival at AbuBloggerGhraib, still wearing a bag on his head, electrical wires were utilized to urge him to confess to spam crimes he did not commit. But the stalwart CEO refused to confess to any wrongdoing, furiously shaking his head and shouting, "No, no, no, I don't know anything about Spam ... anyone can tell you I'm a tuna guy!!"

Even when subjected to waterboarding, Rocky held strong, maintaining his innocence throughout his ordeal: Upon learning of his imminent release, Rocky immediately chewed the electrical wires off his body, while Fracas waited to transport him back to Artsy Catsy:

Now suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Rocky has been ushered away from hoards of paparazzi to an undisclosed location where he will rest and recover.

In a press conference, Artsy Catsy VP Fracas expressed Rocky's heartfelt thanks and eternal catitude to his fellow bloggers who organized a worldwide effort to ensure his release ... including meowmail campaigns, protest marches, and yakking and hurling hairballs and other noxious articles at Blogger and their spambots.

While the FREE ROCKY movement was far too massive to detail all contributions, Fracas said it included:

~~ One-Eyed Jack's contact 0f Amnesty Intercational;

~~ Eric & Flynn and KC's pooping on Blogger's pillows; Mr. Hendrix's boost of this effort by taking an extra dose of Laxitone; and the Crazy Meezers' hurling of litter pan gifts to Blogger all the way from Australia.

~~ Daphne & Chloe's offer to send Rocky a tuna loaf with a file in it ...

And Fracas sent a special thank you to Rocky's dear friend Lilly Lu for donning her special muscle shirt to help wrestle Blogger's spambots to the mat!