Fed Up Friday

As I was preparing to post an article here about how cat food is prepared and what actually goes into it, I read on the Cat Blogosphere about yesterday's additional recalls. Enough is enough! I no longer feel safe feeding my babies ANY commercial food of any kind, and I'm developing serious concerns about what I might be feeding myself and my family.

Thank goodness I feed my kitties primarily homemade cat food. But I have been adding some (supposedly) high quality commercial food to it in order to give them a variety of taste and nutrients. I've switched from one food to another as the recalls expand, and most recently have been giving them canned and dry Spa Select. Now all canned Spa Select has been recalled. No doubt if I switch to another brand, it will eventually be recalled as well.

There needs to be an organized effort to penalize the pet food industry for what essentially comes down to poisoning for profit. I don't have the knowledge to undertake such an effort, but merely refunding us for the affected cat food we have on hand and being reimbursed for veterinarian bills is like punishing a mass murderer with a scolding.

Whether or not you have been purchasing food that has subsequently been recalled, I urge everyone to read the article, Cat Food Uncovered, by Sarah Hartwell, who works for UK's Cats Protection and also adopts and cares for aged cats. It's lengthy, but I think it will make clear why I decided to start making my own cat food. Even if a particular cat food is not contaminated with substances such as melamine, I believe that, at best, what goes into commercial foods is disgusting and, at worst, all commercial foods are harming our pets.

Cat Food Uncovered discusses the pet food industries in the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia and other countries and covers such topics as:

- Where Does Cat Food Come From? - The Rendering Process
- Where Do The Ingredients Come From?
- Pet Food Regulatory Bodies
- Pet Food Labeling
- How is Canned Food and Kibble Made?
- The 'Not-So-Hidden' Ingredients
- Meat Based and Plant Based Ingredients
- Colors, Flavors, Preservatives and Other Additives (such as foreign bodies, road kill, racehorses, zoo animals and euthanized pets)
- Diet-Related Problems
- How is Cat Food Tested?
- Fungal and Bacterial Contaminants
- Hormones, Antibiotics and Euthanasia Chemicals
- Prion Disease

Rocky's Sunday Revelations

I got tagged by Mu Shue and Jeter, so I'm taking time out from a busy day organizing hair clips to bare my CEO soul:

A) Four places I have lived:
1. In the woods (for 1 day until I was rescued)
2. Indianapolis, IN
3. Terre Haute, IN
4. As Artsy Catsy CEO for life, I’m never moving again.

B) Four things I love to watch:
1. Humans making cat bookmarks
2. Humans doing anything
3. Callie (it makes her scream!)
4. Hair clips

C) Four places I have been outside my home:
1. The V.E.T.
2. The backyard
3. The garage
4. The park (got written up for that one!)

D) Four websites I visit daily:
1. Cat Blogosphere
2. Yahoo
3. Hit Tail (to make sure mine isn't getting hit!)
4. As many kitty blogs as possible!

E) Four of my favorite foods:
1. My homemade chicken cat food
2. Purina One Natural Blends
3. Nutro Gourmet Classics
4. Cornbread (fobidden, though)

F) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. In the middle of whatever the humans are doing
2. Outside
3. Kneading my human's face
4. Patrolling for hair clips

G) Four toys I have owned and played with:
1. Hair clips (They are MINE, not the human’s!)
2. More hair clips
3. My baby bottle (to indulge my inner child)
4. Even more hair clips

H) Four nicknames my staff have tried to assign me:
1. DammitRocky
2. LeaveCallieAlone
3. RockyKnockItOff
4. RockyGimmeThatHairClip

I) Regarding Catnip:
1. Love it
2. It's nice
3. Could take it or leave it
4. Don't like it or can't have it

J) Regarding Cat Grass:
1. Love it (but I prefer real backyard grass)
2. It's nice
3. Could take it or leave it
4. Don't like it or can't have it

K) First four things I'd buy after winning the lottery:
1. A huge fence around my backyard
2. An attitude adjustment for Callie
3. Doors that won’t close for every room in the house
4. All the hair clips in the universe

L) Four things I do besides eat, sleep, and litterbox:
1. Supervise every movement the humans make
2. Stare at Callie
3. Jump on Callie
4. Organize hair clips

M) Four things I want to do this summer:
1. Go outside
2. Make the humans finish ArtsyCatsy.com
3. Help the humans create art
4. Participate in Hair Clip Olympics 2007

N) My four most prized possessions that have limited value to anyone else:
1. My personal shoe string
2. Discarded Epsom Salts bags
3. Toilet paper
4. Broken hair clips

O) What I’m going to do before tomorrow is over:
1. Move my personal shoe string to 547 different places
2. Shred some toilet paper
3. Monitor all human activity
4. Organize my stash of hair clips

P) Which of the following is your favorite place to hide and play?
1. Behind a door (to jump on Callie)
2. In my human’s armpit while she tries to work
3. Under the sheets while the bed is being made
4. Under the vanity (waiting for the human to drop a hair clip)

Q) Four other "pets" your staff have kept with you:
1. Dustbunny, my rabbit bud
2. Noni, a sugar glider
3. Maggie, a sugar glider
4. Too many rescue cats to list

R) Four furiends I tag to respond:
1. Skeezix
2. Max the Psychokitty
3. Cheysuli
4. Cato ... and many more!

Okay, time to delegate. Copy this list and paste it into a new post, insert your own answers, pass it on, and leave me a comment. I personally read each of your comments. I’m the CEO, that’s part of my job. Now, some hair clips need my attention …

Healthy Homemade Cat Food Recipe from ArtsyCatsy Spokesmodel Lucy

Kiss-kiss, my dahlings, it’s Lucy, the official ArtsyCatsy spokesmodel, and I must say I am SUUCH a Ragdoll, aren’t I? Am I not simply the jewel of the cat universe! It’s SOO peskypesky, but I’ve been distracted from foofing my fur and striking poses to do a little giggie with you about devoting yourselves to your inner divahood.

You see, being fabulous isn’t only about sass, attitude, walking with a supermodel strut as if you’re wearing furry little “come-foof-me-pumps”, never spitting when hissing, and always smoking with a cigarette holder. No, my cutesykits, to BE fabulous, we must FEEL fabulous.

And to feel fabulous, we diva dolls must indulge ourselves both INSIDE and out. We must not only cultivate inner poise and prettyness, we must EAT properly. A kitty without proper nutrition is like a plant in poorly soil … and we must never, never wilt, wrinkle or, heaven forbid, lose our girlygirly figures! It's all about healthy, my honeys!

As my good friends at CatNutrition.org point out in their open letter to veterinarians, Have you ever seen a barn cat barbecue and dehydrate its mouse dinner and top it off with a dessert of corn gluten meal soufflé? Or heard of a cat that went hunting for rice grains or oatmeal for breakfast? I think NOT! And many popular cat food brands are made from meat industry WASTE products: condemned/contaminated protein from slaughterhouses, road kill, and even euthanized companion animals … EEEEWWWW!! Barfybarf!!

If it’s unfit for humans, we finicky felines must turn our prissy little tails on it. I have insisted that our humans feed us only the best cat food by serving us healthy homemade cat food here at ArtsyCatsy, adapted from a diva-friendly recipe I found in the Veterinarians Guide to Natural Remedies for Cats I share it now with you, then I simply must return to my tiara and boa.

Ta-ta and bon apetit, Dearies!

Homemade Cat Food Recipe
* 2 whole (preferably organic) chickens (boiled, de-skinned, de-boned and chopped – reserve broth)
* 2 containers organic vegetable baby food (without onion powder, toxic to cats)
* 3 jars chicken baby food
* 6-8 teaspoons canola oil
* 6-8 teaspoons flax oil
* 6-8 teaspoons fish oil
* 5-7 rounded tablespoons human-grade bone meal (We use Solgar Bone Meal Powder with Vitamin B-12 from the health food store)
* One 6 ½ ounce can minced clams with juice (for taurine – a MUST)
* 1-2 or more cups reserved broth (to make it Lucy-juicy!)

Mix all ingredients well, and freeze in ½ to 1 cup portions in snack or sandwich bags. Thaw bags in hot water or in microwave before serving. We adult divakitties will eat ½ to 1 cup per day.

Important: Once a week, add 1/2 cup organic organ meat (kidney or liver) and once or twice a week add one or two hardboiled organic or high-omega eggs.