Hormone-Free
Another aspect of Wellness brand Cat Food is that the Old Mother Hubbard company chooses to advertise their formulas as being free from meats that were treated with steroids or hormones. This is a topic that has been subject to much debate by cat food experts, as some experts suggest that adding meat to pet food from animals that have been treated with steroids or hormones may negatively affect the health of any pets that consume the food formula.

My cats have been eating Wellness CORE for years. Micky and Maggie came to me from the USA, but the others were born here in my home and have eaten CORE since they started on hard food. I highly recommend this product – my cats’ skin and coats are gloriously healthy and they are vibrant with energy from being fed a high quality holistic cat food.

The best thing to do is groom your manx cat’s fur every single day – be vigilant in the warmer summer months to make sure that matting hasn’t started. Once it does, even if it’s just a little, it’s wise to take kitty to the groomer to have the smaller (easier to get at) mats shaved out. This prevents the mats from spreading, as they tend to do. Then the cat gets to keep his/her coat. As long as you are vigilant. Otherwise you and kitty will endure the indignity of the lion cut look lol.

I’ve heard it told that even Persian breeders have an easier time grooming their long haired cats. Longhair manx (sometimes called Cymric) coats are not as long as a Persian’s but it is still pretty mid-length. It’s that undercoat that sometimes gets out of control. And when it does, it’s like clumped cotton candy.

I only have 2 of my 7 manx that are prone to matting. Micky and Fozzy. Though Willow (Mick’s daughter) gets a few now and then. Micky is the one that you find one day has a perfectly fine coat, and the next, he’s so matted you wondered if he conspired to have it done over night!? Micky has had a lion cut every summer for the last few years because of this tendancy to mat. But he’s so much happier for it.

This is Fozzy’s first year of ever having mats and he’s 3. I’m guessing it may have something to do with the fact that cats don’t fully mature until 4-5 years of age. So maybe it’s a Fozzy thing, or maybe it’s that he’s nearly a mature cat. But let me tell you, Fozzy Bear was named for a reason – he’s been a fluffball from the day he was born. And now, Fozzy Bear has NO hair! Well, he has some left, the groomer left him a few.

So here are the glorious shots of full throttle kitties sans mats.

I lost my job end of March this year and have since been working at home. I do web design and graphics and am a huge fan of Wordpress blogs. If you have a small business or cattery you’d like to get online, you can have your website domain purchased, registered and hosted within an hour. I’m not kidding! Web design sometimes takes a bit longer, but I can work with any budget. I have a huge list of favorite Wordpress blog theme sites – with hundreds of themes to choose from. It’s just a matter of personalizing the theme for your needs. That’s it, that’s all. Nothing complicated about it.

I also rank sites on the search engines. That means if you want your cattery to rank on page one of Google (no other search engine matters, Google IS king), then there are search engine optimization tips and tricks to make that happen. It takes more than a few tips and tricks on-page to make your site rank, but that’s ok, I’ve been doing this for some 10 years and have been employed professionally for several years. If you are interested in getting your cattery site to page one of the search engines – I’m your guru. Contact me for more info.

A good start to getting your cattery or cat related website to page one on Google is to list it in relevant directories.

- Cat Breeder Directory

- Breeder Directory

If you are crafty and want to make easy cat toys yourself, you can make your own cat toys. Modern Cat has a weekend giveaway of cat toys made by Etsy designers. All you need to do is make a comment on the various posts to be entered into the draw!

Or you could buy the “Make Your Own Cat Toys Book” from Amazon below.

If you know of any Canadian manx breeders, active ones, pop me an email or reply to this post

Otherwise, if you are one of the many who find their way to Mystic Tails only to be disappointed we have no kittens… there is still hope for you! Contact one of the very reputable catteries I deal with on my links page. I have happily dealt with and sent referals to Romannx, Currtail and AnaManx for many years.

Lastly, do join the website (it’s free) to be informed of when we do have kittens expected or available. I’m hoping by next summer sometime. We plan to buy a house in the spring, so we’ll see!

Here’s one I came across regarding pain relief for pets. If your cat or dog suffers with a form of joint pain such as arthritis, bursitis, osteochondrosis (OCD), hip dysplasia and other degenerative problems with the shoulders, elbows and stifle joint, you should know that you can treat him/her with a patented natural compound called CM8™, made by Flexpet.

CM8™ is a patented compound in this breakthrough all-natural formulation that is clinically proven to promote optimal joint health in your dog, cat or any other pet. The combinations of ingredients in Flexpet with CM8™ are especially designed to nourish the joints, support stronger cartilage, help stimulate the lubricating fluid in the joints and increase total mobility.

Your pets pain relief treatment does not have to be with potentially toxic and harmful pharmaceuticals! Consider trying Flexpet’s natural pain relief product first.

This morning I’m updating the site some. Maggie sits beside the monitor in the desk nook, curled up and keeping an eye on things. Mick, Willow, Pixie and Rune are on the back of the couch waiting patiently for some birds to show up on the patio. Hunter is having a bath on the same couch, while Fozzy slumbers temporarily on the other couch. Temporarily because eventually Dad will get up and oust him off there lol.

Pixie gave us a scare last month with her getting Pyometra. She had to have an emergency spay but came through like a trooper and is back to her bouncy, happy self. So she won’t be having kittens, and it’s a real shame. She is a beautiful, loving girl with so much spunk. If cats have a sense of humor, this cheeky girl is the poster child. We are so very relieved that she is ok.

I’m about to get some tea and deal with this rotten headache that has been lingering for a few days. Maybe allergies or a nagging bug that isn’t quite taking hold thank gawd. But it’ll be a nice, lazy day for me. The usual weekend household chores (for me!) are done. I get to relax and enjoy the day. I hope your Thanksgiving weekend is going well too.

If you are a Canadian resident and are considering Pet Health Insurance, head on over to Petsecure to enter their contest. You could win the $3,000 grand prize.

Grand Prize package includes:

• a one year Petsecure Secure 3 policy to help pay your pet’s veterinary fees due to accident or illness.
• a 42” Sony Plasma TV courtesy of Petsecure pet health insurance.
• a one year supply of pet food courtesy of Purina^TM.
• a one year subscription to Dogs in Canada magazine. Canada’s best-selling family dog (and cat) magazine offers you extensive breeder listings, health, nutrition, behavior, training information and lots of insight into picking the perfect dog for your family.
• a Labrador Retriever Message Centre courtesy of Ducks Unlimited.
• a one year subscription to Modern Dog magazine. Insightful and amusing articles and award winning photography make Modern Dog as faithful companion as your best friend.
• Apple iPod Nano (8GB) courtesy of London Drugs Insurance Services
• a Lifetime Membership to PetLynx^TM. PetLynx embraces every means of permanent and non-permanent identification and uses a simple text description to recover your pet when identifiers aren’t available.

Contest ends September 30, 2008.

Enter now!

I’ve recently started a new job and am working full time again. We are now looking to buy a house in Ajax, ON, closer to where we are both working. Somewhere by the lake would be lovely, there’s a great watefront park we’d love to be near. So that’s the focus at moment.

Soon as we see the move being more immenant, I’ll be looking for a full male again. You can be sure we’ll get Rune into some local CFA shows, he’s bound to make heads turn (I may be biased). Maybe Maggie will make a re-debut as well (she’s already a champion).

I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries on other Canadian Manx breeders. I just wanted to let you know that there aren’t any that I am aware of. Please keep in mind that my cats are CFA registered, they are purebred cats with pedigrees. I do not condone nor encourage breeding non-pedigreed manx cats (or other non-pedigreed breeds). So obviously I will not entertain breeding my cats to a non-pedigreed cat, I do not sell whole cats period, and I will not advertise non-pedigreed cats either.

Lastly, if you are looking for a pedigree manx cat, I have several very reputable contacts on my links page. They are USA catteries that I work with and are owned by ladies I know personally. I’d happily refer anyone to these wonderful ladies. Please note that there may be a wait list for a kitten. Also note that I do not keep a waiting list. If you are interested in waiting for a Canadian bred manx kitten from Mystic Tails, please join my newsletter or visit the site often.

Fortunately, the window is wide enough for 7 cats. I have been trying to get a photo of them all on the widow sill there staring down the pigeon couple on the balcony railing (which is solid cement). There was a visit just a while ago, and Rune is still faithfully keeping watch, but the couple flew off – probably due to the 7 sets of beady eyeballs watching their every move.

Pixie slinks low and stealthy, her gorgeous tail twitches now and then to let you know she’s got a target in sight. Rune freezes in place like a statue and moves forward in wee increments, like a twitch, until he gets as close as he can be. Micky just rushes in and freezes, he’s got to try to muscle in for a front seat. Willow and Maggie usually hang back a bit, but will definitely elbow for a spot when it’s quite clear the pigeons are going to be there for a bit (why waste their precious time for only a few minutes of staring).  It’s Hunter and Maggie who “chatter” at the pigeons. Quite noticeably too lol. Especially Hunter, who is otherwise the quietest, gentlest soul in the house. Ironically he is a ferocious hunter – bird care in our house involves voracious drooling at the window.  Lastly, Fozzy Bear usually eyes the lot of them twitching and muttering for prime real estate on the window sill with a grunt of “whatever”. If he’s already near the window on the couch beneath it, he may make an effort to look for the pigeons, but otherwise he’ll happily mock the others while lounging below on the floor.

What do your cats do when they see prey out their window?