The Truth About Animal Testing

In order to mark Be Cruelty Free Week, I thought I'd share these brilliant posts from The Plastic Diaries which give a lot of information about animals (including some gory details, but nothing I've not seen before).  Also if you would like to sign the pledge to go Cruelty Free, you can find it here.

Part 1: What Is Animal Testing?

This is the first section of her post which is goes into what sort of experiments are carried out and how companies can pull the wool over consumers eyes by using certain terms.

Part 2: EU Ban on Animal Testing

The second part looks into the EU ban on animal testing (which had its first year anniversary on the 11th March!) and how this actually affects companies and their policies - clearing up any false ideas that the ban implies!

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Photo is of Kali, our wee elderly cat who sadly passed away at the start of the month.  She was 20 - had a long and happy life!

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Paperbacks & Beauty Facts: Pet Vlog!

This week we are introducing you to all our pets!!

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NOTD: Coral Sun

I bought this Coral nail varnish the other day as Barry M were doing 3 for 2 so I decided to go for this as I don't have one this colours.  Although applying it on my nails it reminded me of the Tangerine nail varnish from Barry M but I haven't compared them side by side yet.  I would assume that Tangerine is more yellow and less pink.

I was looking at this on my nails and it was very uninspiring so I added Models Own Tropical Sun over the top and I love it!  New favourite combination!  Tropical Sun has a gold duochrome and tiny bits of gold glitter in it, it's so pretty when it hits the light.  I wore it to work and got loads of compliments from colleagues and customers.

(I was ambushed by Rory during taking the photos for this, at least he sort of matches!)

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Rory Update!

Rory is now (roughly) nearly 4 months old!  We don't know when exactly he was born, but going from how old the woman we got him from said he was, I am guessing he was born around the 16th of September.

He is getting so big, it's hard to tell because I'm seeing him everyday but looking at photos now, and then ones from when we first got him you can really see the difference!

He is the sweetest kitten ever when he is tired, he loves cuddles and being snuggled up really close.  However he has these crazy turns where you would actually think he is spawn of the devil.  He rounds around mental and attacks everything that moves: bare feet, other cats, fingers, hair...  I can't wait for him to stop so all my cuts can heal :(

We took him outside for the first time which was fairly unexciting.  He was in a harness (photo below!) which used to be Tia's from when she was a kitten, so it is pink!  So cute!  Even though he had kept making a mad dash for freedom every time we opened the door, once outside he was very wary of the surroundings and didn't go very far.  The second time I took him out and he literally just stood on the patio and shivered, it was so pathetic!  He will be neutered in a couple of months and then he will be allowed out by himself so I'm not sure what he'll think of that.  It's probably better if he is a bit scared and just stays close by - nice and safe!

Cuddles with dad!

Best Friends!

He has bonded with Theo which is good because the girls, Tia and Kali, hate him haha!  They do a lot of play (sometimes it gets a bit more serious...) fighting, and Rory pesters the hell out of him but most of the time it is in a friendly sort of way.

Wearing his harness, adorable!!

He was washing and then forgot he'd left his leg up there....

On the day before the decorations came down, he discovered he could climb up the tree!

Taking a risk by cuddling up to Kali

This is the first photo of him when we brought him home, for comparison

And lastly, here is a photo of Tia on Christmas Day so she doesn't feel left out!

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Introducing My Cats: Rory

This is Rory, our newest addition to the family!  If you follow me on twitter you will know that sadly Hugo went missing a few months ago so we were back to 3 cats.  So we decided now would be a good time to get a kitten.

Years ago we had a ginger cat called Oscar who was a stray that had been caught in some sort of trap; we managed to lure him in and got him to the vet to get him all fixed up.  He was in such a bad way, missing toes and he had somehow lost the ability to purr which was really sad!  However he soon healed up and was such a lovely cat.  He happily spent the rest of his life with us!

Oscar!

Ever since my mum has really wanted a ginger cat.  We needed to get a kitten as an adult cat would be too difficult to integrate with the other 3 cats (like the troubles we had with Hugo!).  Last week my dad saw an advert in our local pet shop for a woman selling kittens - one of which was ginger!  That night we went up to see them, and then the following night we took him home!

Currently he is about 8 and a half weeks old, awwww!  Although we have had lots of kittens in the past, you forget what they are like.  We are all covered in bites and scratches; and he wasn't litter trained - so that caused some messes!  He sleeps in bed with us otherwise he gets lonely and cries, so we alternate, one night with me, then the next with my parents haha!

If you would be interested I could do a post on him every month or so to show him growing up :)

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Introducing My Cats: Hugo

Last but not least in this series introducing my cats is Hugo! The story behind him is slightly different... We've only had him about a year, if that! We had seen him wandering around the garden a few times but then one day our neighbour came round and said that this cat had been sitting looking in their back window for the past few days looking a bit pathetic, so referred him to us knowing that we were more experienced with cats! So I went round and picked him up and brought him in to our house and gave him something to eat, and he's stayed here ever since...  He is definitely a stray but we don't know where he came from, we went round some of our neighbours and showed a photo of him but nobody owned up!  We know he must have been someone's pet because his coat was well kept (feral cats tend to be quite unkempt and shaggy!) and he was familiar with the cat litter and cat flap.  So we think that someone has kicked him out because of his behaviour.

He is the most aggressive, psychopathic animal I have ever come across! He is crazy! He provokes all of the other cats and actively seeks them out for the sole reason of attacking them. He is actually a very clever cat because you can see him planning out before he does things which isn't something I've noticed cats doing before. He will sit and wait say behind the couch say, if he knows one of the other cats is coming that way then pounce on them! He is also very strong, we had to actually change the latch on my bedroom door to stop him coming in to attack Theo during the night because he would be able to push it open, even when I put my guitar and stand behind it, he still managed to open it!

One thing he did which was hilarious was that one night he was in the living room prowling around, and my black cardigan was lying in a heap on the couch. He snuck up and then attacked my cardi thinking it was Theo or Tia, it was so funny, he must have been so confused!!!

We have bought a Feliway plug-in which releases cat pheromones and it does seem to calm him down a bit, when it runs out he seems more aggressive and agitated. He doesn't attack us as much either - we all have scars from when we first got him - because he will get fixated on attacking Theo for example, if you get in his way he will just attack you as well. We know now to just leave him when he gets like that and remove any other cats in the vicinity!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my cats!

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Edit: Hugo went missing at the end of the summer and we've not seen him since :(

Introducing My Cats: Tia

 
This is Tia!  She is the cutest wee thing ever!  We bought her from our local SSPCA animal home as a kitten (her mother had given birth in the home) and she is now 3 (we had to look this up... so bad at keeping track of our animals ages lol).

Although she is fully grown she is still a really small cat as you can see from the photo - that's her sitting on my slipper!  She also absolutely loves sitting in boxes, I used to do Avon so when the stuff arrived it was like heaven for her, she would just plonk herself down in a box on top of all the products while me and my mum were trying to sort it all out!

Despite her size she is quite a vicious wee thing and is partial to a bit of hunting (nightmare!), she also doesn't take any of Hugo's attitude which is hilarious when you compare her to Theo!  Hugo will run at her and she'll just growl and stare at him until he backs down.  But although I said she is vicious she has never scratched or bit any humans unlike other cats who will just attack anyone if they have been provoked or in an aggressive mood.  I really like this about her, Hugo will be squaring up to her and it's perfectly safe to lift her while she is growling whereas Theo will often try to get at me when I do this to him.  

Tia is such a cuddly cat, definitely the cuddliest out of our 4!  When you lift her up she just melts into your arms and makes herself cosy, it's adorable!

She isn't the brightest of cats though I have to say, she often forgets how to get out the catflap and tries to pull it open with her paw instead of just pushing through!  All you hear is BANG BANG BANG, yup, that's her forgot again, and you need to go and push out from behind...

Lastly is Hugo! :)

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Introducing My Cats: Theo

This is Theo and we got him when he was about 6 months old.  I bought him off my friend for £30 because she decided she was allergic to him (even though she already had a cat which she kept... I've no idea!) so my family said we would take him.  I'm not sure how old he is at the moment, I guess he is about 4?

When he was younger he was so playful and he actually did crazy back flips and could jump so high!  This seems insane now because he is huge!  Such a big lump of a cat, I'd like to weigh him and see how heavy he actually is!

Although he is big, the addition of our newest cat Hugo has really stressed him out.  You would think he would be able to handle himself, especially as he is bigger than Hugo, but he just runs when he sees him and so Hugo will chase him.  It's so sad, he gets himself into such a state, cats drool when they are stressed, there has been a lot of drooling!  He even had a wee bald tummy for a while because of all the fighting/stress it looked so pathetic, it seems to be growing back now thankfully!!

To avoid Hugo he has taken to hiding on top of the kitchen cupboards, like the ones really high up, no idea how he gets up there!  I also have to keep him in my room overnight (we had to change the latch on my door because Hugo was able to open it...) so most nights I need to lure him down from his cupboard with a piece of ham (boke), such fun!

We are hoping that eventually (preferably sooner rather than later!) Theo and Hugo will get along, it's actually chaos sometimes!

Next up is Tia :)

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Introducing My Cats: Kali

I've been thinking about doing this sort of post for a while but wasn't really sure how it would go down, but I know if someone else did it I would love to read it so here goes!

I have used a lot of photos of my cats throughout this blog so I thought I would do a post which introduces them all properly!  I am going to do them one at a time as I think I will probably get carried away and it'll end up super long if I don't!

This is our oldest cat, she will turn 20 this summer, only slightly younger than me!  We have had her all her life because her mum, Yoma, was our cat too.  Yoma was a stunning lilac torte Burmese and my parents wanted to try and breed her so they took her to where ever you go to breed your cat... however she obviously did not approve of the boy cat she had been put with a dug her way out of the enclosure!  Luckily they found her shortly after and took her home without putting her through that again.

However a wee while later she became pregnant with a tom cat (must've preferred the bad boys ;)) and Kali was the result of this!  She had 5 kittens but sadly for whatever reason only Kali survived, and she has deformed claws as a birth defect which means she can't retract them and some of them stick out at weird angles.  She was always quite anti-social and really quite vicious at times (probably because she is half feral!) until her mum died, when she started being more cuddly and less fierce.

Due to her age she is now a house cat out of choice and spends most of her time on my parents bed.  We bring her down to the living room in the evenings to give her some company and a change of scenery.  Certainly not a very exciting life but she is happy and comfortable so that's all that matters!  My dad took her out to the patio at the weekend when we had gorgeous weather, but she was not impressed, as soon as he laid her down she got up, walked back into the house and back up to her bed!  She can get up those stairs at some speed for a lady of her age!

Next up is Theo :)

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