GIVEAWAY: 2 Signed Copies Of Creative Cues From the Cat!

ENTRY.

Hiro encourages me to think up creative ways to keep him out of trouble. He's a huge cat, smart and athletic but also very destructive when bored.

He learnt how to rip open the bags of dry food and spill them all over the floor. He learnt how to open the cupboards, drag the bags of dry food out and rip them open. He learnt how to get the lids off the Tupperware containers I put the dry food in and spread it all over the floor so the other cats could all graze on it.

I'm sure if he had thumbs he would have learnt how to operate a can opener by now.

He was given one of those treat dispensing balls at Christmas but soon learnt how it works. He now nudges the ball along gently with his nose and vacuums up the treats as they spill out.


I wish I was as smart and creative as Hiro.

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Back in December I won a KitNipBox, and one of the toys in it was a mitten with catnip in it. The cats love the toy and play with it all the time. It now looks like this.

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While cleaning today one of our cats, Slipper, jumped into my sewing box and was playing with my fabric pieces (I cut them from old clothes). So, I decided to make them a cat toy. After all, they clearly like the fabric I have, right? So, I took some fabric and made this.

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I added the fabric strips, because they love playing with strings and cords, so I thought it'd get their attention.

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And they do. (This is Spot, by the way.)

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My cats inspire me to take a gajillion photos and videos of them being insanely cute (which, if my actual camera weren't broken, would be more of a creative endeavor than it is using my phone).

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Sophie inspires me to be like detective when she hides in one of her many caves. She will wait until I start getting frantic thinking she got out and then will appear out of nowhere 

ENTRY - if not for the fact that I am the least artistic person in the world, Oliver would inspire me to pain a picture of him. Not sure why, just something about that little face of his.

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All of my cats have inspired me to be a better person. They helped me to love even when I didn't think it was possible.

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My cats inspired me to become a cat fosterer for many years. I now after becoming very popular with my foster cats new owners have started a pet sitting business about 3 years ago and do home boarding. Basically my career is all about cats now and have made it my life!

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Bud is my personal assistant. He has a nice little spot on my desk where he sits when I'm editing or writing news stories. In fact, I'm on a work conference call right now and he's in his Buddy spot, hanging out with me.

As far as inspiring creative endeavors, I decided to work Bud into a fiction story I'm writing. One of my favorite novelists, the science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds, had African elephants play an important part in his most recent trilogy. He did it for narrative reasons, because he loves the animals, and to remind us that they're unique, beautiful, and shouldn't be taken for granted.

I wanted to do the same for tigers, not only because they're majestic, singular and beautiful, but also because they're on the verge of extinction. We've destroyed their habitats, and worse, tiger parts are valued in traditional Chinese medicine, which drives a thriving market for things like tiger bones, which in turn leads to widespread poaching that has absolutely decimated their numbers. It will be a stain on humanity if these incredible creatures are lost forever due to our ignorance and selfishness.

So, in short, my story will feature my cat as a tiger, and I hope to convey the same awe that I feel when looking at tigers, to the people who read my story. And maybe when they're reminded of how majestic these creatures are, they'll feel compelled to do something about their fate.

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One of the things I do in my free time is I write stories. One of the stories I've been writing, a series of adventures of the cat kingdom, is inspired by our six little kitties and how they interact with the world around them. And no, I'm not going to post any of those stories here because they are corny, trite, and rife with tropes that tend to tick people off. They're for my eyes (and enjoyment) only.

ENTRY - Speck distracts from my creativity by being so darn irresistible.  If I am trying to write, he's there across the room all curled up and cute.  To make matters worse, he's a "touch me not" cat, making him even more irresistible.  

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in memory of Belle, because she was uh, fragrant.

I once wrote a poem called "Smelly Cat" because of her. A few months later the Friends show had Phoebe singing "Smelly Cat"!!! [emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji] And I laughed my butt off. Well best I could considering how depressed I was at the time.

Not very *creative* but I'm at work, and it is a true story lol.

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This is not me but my daughter. She loves to draw and it never fails that when she sits down with her drawing pad and pencils her cat, no matter where he is, will come into the room and climb up in her lap on top of her stuff so she has to pet him instead of drawing. When she closes her bedroom door, he will yowl outside the door until she lets him in. Then he gets back on her drawing pad.

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My cats hate it when I read a book. No matter where they are, it I open a book, they come in and lay on it, bite it or stand on it. 

ENTRY - The kittens inspire me to consider trying to make something just for them (thinking along the lines of knitting).

ENTRY - My cats inspire me to be creative by being so cute and begging so well that I have to get off the computer and feed them. This makes it so I actually start my day of writing and stop messing around online.

    Both Libra and Pei  give me inspiration in my writing by just they way they are.

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So, this morning I was making egg-white omelets because 1) I like egg-white omelets, and 2) because I feel guilty if I leave the waffle maker alone for too long. (Yes, it is  possible to make omelets in the waffle iron--but they look more like weird waffles than actual omelets.) Normally when I make anything that requires egg whites but not egg yolks, I make pudding. This morning, however, I was surrounded by six cats making wide eyes and giving me pitiful, silent mews. So, I put the bowl with the egg yolks on the floor, for them to eat (they're on a partially raw food diet), and unlike my pudding (which people whose names I won't reveal but whose relationship with me rhymes with "smother") the egg yolks were a resounding success. So they inspired me to give them the egg yolks. The best part? If the cats are complaining that it's not "vamilla-y" enough for them, I can't tell because I don't speak cat! 

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Blackberry inspires me to be creative by how well she functions.  We were worried after she had to have her leg amputated that she wouldn't be able to do things the way she did before.  But she has learned to be creative adapt to her situation.  When we tried to keep her confined after her surgery with a pet gate, she made a few attempts and then climbed right over it.  She has a great attitude, she's happy, and she is an inspiration in general.    

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My cats like to have a choice of beds, so I've had to make sure they have covered beds and soft cushions in and on the wardrobe, on and under the bed and on pretty much every other flat surface too. I've had to be really creative and make beds for them out of cardboard boxes stuffed with old sweaters or blankets. The Second Hand store is my favourite place to find cheap soft fabric. I do a lot of sewing these days.


Happy and Forest on a recycled fabric rug.

ENTRY - On the other side of the equation, back when I did knit, Lucky used to bat at the yarn while doing so and always messed me up! Took forever to knit something lol.