Didga, the Australian Wonder Cat!
...been awhile since I've highlighted awesome cats, so here we go.
Nasty deadlines still continue but this video made me smile and laugh. Cats are amazing!
Awesome Cats Award
AWESOME CATS AWARD – Chien Pei-ling
Peggy Chien (or Chien Pei-ling) and The Stray Cats of Taiwan
PLEASE NOTE: I HAD TO REMOVE A VERY LOVELY VIDEO ABOUT PEGGY. IT WOULD NOT STOP PLAYING. I WILL BE POSTING A LINK SOON THAT WILL REDIRECT YOU TO A PAGE WHERE YOU CAN WATCH THE VIDEO!
Peggy is married to a veterinarian and is a former piano teacher. She became moved by the plight of stray cats in Taiwan and now works as a photographer bringing attention to their cause. Peggy has won top awards in a photo competition in Japan’s Tashirojima Island, where people worship cats as gods (don’t tell the Chairman!) .
One village where she has taken photos of strays is a small mountainous community 20 miles north of Taipei. The tiny village experienced somewhat of a boom by reinventing itself as a cat lover’s paradise all thanks to Peggy!
"I hope to convince people that rescuing cats does bring happiness. When you buy cat food and feed a hungry cat, you get more satisfaction than using the same money to buy yourself a meal," says Peggy.
Just this past week, Chien Pei-ling was busy photographing the interaction between the abbot of a Buddhist shrine and a dozen stray cats under his care. She loves to capture the interaction between the people who watch over the strays.
Thank you, Peggy, for all your work!
Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium – Awesome Cats
Imagine if you weren't allowed to have a cat where you lived.
I've been aware of the growing number of Cat Cafe's in Japan and Tokyo. They're very popular because so many people cannot have cats in their apartments and if you love cats...what to do, what to do? You go to a cafe or tea house and visit with the resident cats!
Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium opened in London on March 1st of this year. And it is a huge SMASHING success!
I've always said that our pets have a very important job! They make us smile and give us love. I cannot imagine my life without cats.
I love to watch people interact with animals.
Their faces soften and the love is so evident. Even our body language changes and softens when we are spending time with pets.
Inside Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium
Had to laugh...recognize the cat exercise wheel Lady Dinah's has for their cats?
Awesome cats! Excellent idea! A small slice of happiness in a world that often seems so off-kilter, no?
Hop on over to their website. They have a blog, too!
Awesome Cats – Tama The Stationmaster
It's Awesome Cats Time!
Hello sugar plums! Ginger here – feline reporter on call.
Things are tense here. You didn't hear this from me! BUT. The Chairman loudly suggested he could search for the meaning of life a whole lot easier if he had his World Dominationmobile.
Woah. Crickets chirped in the silence that followed. The Kreatrix still toils under massive deadlines and firmly told him:
“You, little buddy, need to practice deep breathing.”
Well, he went overboard and passed out. So…Here I Am. TA DA! And I choose Tama, a very cool Japanese cat as our Awesome Cat for this post!
Tama is indeed awesome! In 2007 she was named stationmaster at Kishi Station in Kinowkawa, Wakayama Prefecture, in Japan. She is credited for revitalizing a run-down train line and was responsible for bringing a whopping $10 million (apparently that would buy a lot of tuna) into the local town when tourists flocked to the station to check her out!
Now, at 14 years old, railway officials have decided to introduce a likely successor, a young calico named Nitama. A special ceremony introduced Nitama to the world!
In the meantime, Tama continues her duties with her new trusty assistant, Nitama.
Tama even has her own really cute train!
Enjoy this video of Tama, truly deserving of our Awesome Cats honor!
And if you want an extra peek at her train, lookey here:
Cats Are Loyal Too
Featuring Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott and Kashka, the cat
We've heard and seen so many happy stories about our servicemen and women being reunited with their beloved dogs when they return home from a tour of duty.
So often, people quickly dismiss cats as not being loyal. They're labeled as aloof. Most people who've loved a cat know that cats are loyal, too, and oftentimes feel their cats have saved their lives.
This particular story about Staff Sgt. Knott and his rescued Afghan cat, Kashka, captured our hearts at Catberry Tails. This is a cat who helped save a soldier's life while on duty in Afghanistan and he in turn was determined to save his cat's life.
During Knott’s darkest hour when several of his buddies were killed by a suicide bomber, the cat began mewing and head-butting him and pawed his forehead. Knott, himself, was contemplating suicide. But Kashka had other plans.
“He would just not leave me alone,” Knott says.
Then the cat jumped in the soldier’s lap and produced a low, vibrating sound that Knott had never heard from him before.
"You lose faith in a lot but sometimes it's the smallest things that bring you back," Knotts said.
Koshka’s purring pulled the soldier off his emotional ledge and back into reality. He realized he had a job to do, and that was to get that cat out of Afghanistan.
From then on, Knott's determination to keep Koshka safe was absolute.
"He pulled me out of one of my darkest times so I had to pull him out of one of his darkest places," Knott has said.
The journey back to the USA was filled with danger. It entailed a long ride through Afghanistan, through numerous Taliban check points, many plane flights and finally arriving safely into the waiting arms of the Staff Sgt. Knott's family back home in Oregon.
"He was my saving grace. He kept me alive during that tour."
Sgt. Knott and Kashka have received numerous awards for the love and compassion they've shown towards each other.
The ASPCA in New York City recently announced Kashka as Cat of the Year for 2013.
Waxing Poetic – Featuring Bob The Street Cat
It's That Time Again!
Time to wax poetic over the marvels of our feline friends! And just to prove I'm not alone I 'll continue to post uplifting stories from other souls who've found the love of a cat to be life altering.
First, I'll wax poetic over my gang via photos from the past week (taken with my cell phone). Many of these photos end up on Instagram and I'll be attaching that account to the blog soon!
And now on to Bob The Street Cat
Bob is a British cat who is credited with saving the life of James Bowen, a musician and recovering drug addict. Truth be told, James also saved Bob's life and Bob has never forgotten it.
Bowen is blown away by the amount of love, loyalty and trust Bob gives to him, despite the fact he has had so many struggles in his life before meeting Bob. Bowen says
"If a cat can give that kind of love, why can't a human help in that kind of way. But people look the other way so often."
This touching story has been turned into a best selling book that I've just purchased. As one fan waiting in line to meet Bob and James in a bookstore remarked:
"A young man who lost his way and then found his way because of a cat...to me that is always going to be amazing."
This first video will fill you in on the history of Bob and James.
The marvelous video up next is shorter and features Bob "on tour" helping James promote the book. The joy, the love, the happiness that one small creature has created is marvelous!