A cat called Carrot

Carrot is a 7 year old ginger and white male diva who loves to make his presence known. His hobbies include waking his family up at 6 a.m., having staring competitions with local cats, sleeping and snuggles (but only on his terms).

Cat of the Month ~ December 2016


carrot on guard

Tom cat ‘Carrot’ guards his doorway
Image: © Jamie

Carrot, fast asleep

Image: © Jamie

Carrot also loves eating ‘Sheba’, and chasing ribbons’.

Tom cat Carrot looking fab-u-lous with his perfectly arched tail.

Image: © Jamie

carrot snuggles down

Carrot, snuggles down in the duvet …. naughty boy

Image: © Jamie

Elegant Ebony

Cat of the Month ~ November 2016

Ebony the cat is a gorgeous girl who enjoys having a clean, glossy coat and if that means that her humans have to help with the beauty equipment well so be it.

A girl just has to grab the opportunity for a free treatment to look her best!

Ebony gets a makeover
Video: © Mick
[ Warning: This is not recommended for your beloved cat of course. Ebony has become used to having her loose fur being sucked by a vacuum cleaner over many years – It could frighten a poor unsuspecting moggy!] ..
Well I know I wouldn’t like it but who is this ‘Ebony’, I’d like to meet her … sounds like my type? [Oscar]

Pumpkin Pals

Halloween

When witches go riding,

and black cats are seen,

the moon laughs and whispers,

‘tis near Halloween.

Anonymous


oscar and his new pals

Oscar and his new pals, Pumpkin Pat & Lantern Len
Photograph: by Ed

Oscar took a shine to this poem by an anonymous author, so we have used it for his Halloween post. Oscar tells me this really is the best time of year for all black cats!

Happy Halloween, with love from

little Oscar and Ed.

Kitty’s Kittens

Kitty is a stray cat who lives in the Roscommon area of Ireland. Here are some photos of Kitty and her recent offspring.

Cat(s) of the Month ~ September 2016

Kitty supervising the youngsters
Photo: Al
Kittens pose for the camera
Photo: Al
Starting to prowl
Photo: Al
All snug in the sunshine
Photo: Al
An Adventure begins
Photo: Al

Japan’s Cat Day

It’s Nyan Nyan Nyan day (that’s "meow meow meow" if you’re English speaking), and so Cat Day has come and gone again.
This celebration has been held in honor of cats, for over 30 years now!

Cat surveying a Tokyo street
Photograph: tokyocatphoto.blogspot.jp

The Japanese celebration of Cat Day happens on the Twenty Second of February each year. It seems that many Japanese people are just cat crazy. They seem to show so much love for this creature…and why not indeed?

The date was decided upon after an executive cat day committee polled 9,000 cat lovers. The majority voted that the date ‘February 22nd’ (or 2 – 22, and pronounced "ni ni ni" in Japanese), was the best candidate for a new cat day, as it was this date which most sounded like the words "nyan nyan nyan".

Japanese people marked the big day this year with millions of cat-loving posts on social media. Feline selfies, cat-shaped cakes and snacks, cat capers and moggy-themed costumes were amongst the images and videos which flooded the internet. It is true that like many countries Japan’s people have lived with cats for centuries, but Japan seems to be in a special place when cats are concerned. Below is a short list of Japans Nyan, Nyan, Nyan: (all derived from the archives of a certain trusty search engine * ) :

There’s the maneki-neko (in japanese, "a beckoning cat") – a well known Japanese ornament, lucky charm or talisman) which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner.
These figurine depict a cat (traditionally a calico Japanese Bobtail) beckoning with an upright paw.

You can see them in the entrances of shops, restaurants and other business premises. Some of the sculptures are electric or battery-powered and have a slow-moving paw beckoning. The maneki-neko is sometimes also called the welcoming cat, lucky cat, money cat, happy cat or fortune cat, or "fist bump" cat in English.

maneki-neko are popular figurines.
Photograph: © japan-magazine.jp

Hello Kitty or ‘Kitty White’, is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, created by Yuko Shimizu and further designed by Yuko Yamaguchi. She is depicted as an anthropomorphic white Japanese Bobtail cat with a red bow. Initially known only as "the white kitten with no name" it is said in the ‘folk law’ of this animal born in the suburbs of London, England, on November first. She is "five apples" high and weighs "three apples". She is portrayed as a bright girl with a kind heart, very close to her twin sister Mimmy. She is good at baking cookies and loves Mama’s homemade apple pie. She loves to collect cute things and her favorite subjects in school are English, Art and Music.

Kitty’s family: father George White (top left), mother Mary (top right) and twin sister Mimmy, who, we are told, is Kitty’s best friend.
Photograph: © japan-magazine.jp

Then there are Cat Cafés’. The first known cat café was opened in Taiwan. It’s said that a Japanese tourist took the idea back to Japan, with the first Japanese cat cafe opening its doors in Osaka in 2004. Many apartments in Japan forbid pets to be kept, so cafes such as these provide a way for busy business men/women to be with animals for recreation, and as a way of offsetting the stress of modern life. In Japan, there are already over 150 cat cafes – such cafes are now appearing in countries all over the world.

a href=”https://www.moggyblog.com/media/uploads/cafe-cats.jpg”>cafe cats at leisure
A cat cafe simply overrun with felines… and who’s king of the castle?
Photograph: © https://www.vice.com

How about the so called ‘cat paradise’ Aoshima Island. The mile-long island of Aoshima in southern Japan today has a whole town of feral cats which outnumber humans six to one.

Cats on the Dockside. Any spare fish mister?

Photograph: © telegraph.co.uk

These cats were originally introduced to deal with mice that plagued fishermen’s boats. Numbers have now increased (last count over 120 cats). The cats of Aoshima are not fussy eaters (as you can imagine), surviving on the rice balls, energy bars or potatoes they entice tourists to give them. With no natural predators on the Island they are free to roam this seemingly Island paradise.

cats on the dockside

So many beautiful faces …and mouths to be fed!

Photograph: © telegraph.co.uk

Sources: tokyocatphoto.blogspot.jp , weirdasianews.com, japan-magazine, wikipedia.org, telegraph.co.uk

* original post (22/03/2016) recovered from an internet archive after accidental deletion – thank you Mr Google.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2016 to human folks and all animals alike!


It’s me! little Oscar
Photograph: ed

My name is Oscar and I will be helping out with this moggy blog called “moggyblog”, whenever I can. After all, I am a pussy cat and I know about these things. So from now on, I’ll be walking all over Ed’s keyboard, poking my snout in and generally fooling around and looking innocent about it all. Such is the world of a kitten of tender years, such as myself.

Anyway, I’m an eight month old Domestic Long Haired puss with golden eyes and a cheeky sense of humour. My fur is all black apart from one white eyebrow whisker (so I hope it doesn’t fall out).

Everyone should have passions in life and climbing, running and playing are mine – give me a clothes horse and I am up, up, up and away (well, till I am caught climbing the clean washing that is and my claws are unhooked from that damp woolly) …. Give me an open door and I’m out of it like a shot (well, wouldn’t you after being cooped up in a pen for the first six months of your life). Do you know reader, I can’t even go outside yet as I have not had all my vital jabs (to ward off feline ailments you can catch in the big world), but I just love looking out of the window at the giant gods of the garden – “trees” they call em. Looking forward to the arrival of spring when I’ll be scaling the bark of those big trunks, you bet!

I used to have a home, but my character was thought a bit too full on and playful for the other cats there. So the wonderful people at ‘The Animal House’ charity took me in and looked after me until I found my forever home. ‘The Animal House’ charity humans are amazing and inspirational, they foster all sorts of animals in need, ferret , rabbits, cats, dogs, you name it. They give them love, hope, care and the chance of a good life. They rely completely on donations so if you can help in any way please follow the link to their website (Ed, can you put a link down there at the bottom please?) and read some of the animals’ personal stories on their Facebook page. Spread the kindness all, and here’s wishing you a very happy, safe and healthy 2016.

Oscar x x x

There you go Osc ….here’s that link you wanted: