Our subjects today are three talking tabbies for PAWS adoptions – Tommie, Gracie and Mickey Mouser.  They’re photogenic but seldom seen on the blog because their Mom Maggie photographs PAWS shelter cats and mainly posts those photos on Shelter Life. But our talking tabby friends are an integral part of the blog.

Funny Farmer Felines: Would you introduce yourselves and your mom Maggie to everyone?

Tommie: There are three of us cats here, living with our mom Maggie and our dad Rick. I was first, then Gracie came 5 years later. Mickey Mouser arrived about 3 years ago. I’m a polydactyl tabby.

Mickey: That means he’s part dinosaur.

Gracie: Does not! A polydactyl cat has extra toes. Tommie has the big feets, 6 toes on each foot, 24 all together. I have the proper number of cute toes for a normal cat, which is 18.

Funny Farmer Felines: Although your blog is all about cats, you three only appear in it occasionally. Tell us a little of how and why the blog started.

Gracie: The blog happened because I was so photogenic and beautiful. Our Maggie had been volunteering at PAWS for over 2 years when she met me. I was a very small absolutely irresistible kitten. After I was adopted, she took lots of pictures to show the staff and other volunteers my cuteness. The staff person at PAWS asked if Maggie would photograph cats at the shelter. For a few years we sent the pictures as emails to friends, family, and cat lovers. When we learned about blogs in 2009, it seemed like a better way to share.

Funny Farmer Felines: We assume you’d like to be featured more often and we’re sure you have much to do with it behind the scenes, but we guess you don’t really mind playing “second fiddle” to the purpose of the blog. Your blog serves a great purpose, as you and your human do so much to help kitties in need of a home. You must sleep very well knowing you’ve had a paw in a number of adoptions.

Tommie: Our mom is always taking pictures of us. We think we should have our own blog! But all three of us have been homeless, so we understand how important it is to find a safe loving home for everycat.

Funny Farmer Felines: How did you all come to live together?

Tommie: When I was 8 weeks old I was living in the woods near my mom and dad’s house with my momcat, brothers and sisters. Maggie saw us and called, “Here, kitty, kitty”. So I came to her! My cat family disappeared back into the woods and I never saw them again. I was the runt of the litter and really really hungry. It was a lucky day for me and my human family. I hope my cat family found homes too.

Gracie: As I said, I came from PAWS. My 2 brothers and I were left at the door in a cardboard box. We were very young and had to be bottle fed. My PAWS name was Windy. Dad said it was because I had stinky farts. I got better and they renamed me Ms. Grace Lillian. I have ruled the house for 10 years.

Mickey Mouser: I was almost a PAWS cat. Three years ago my cat family and I lived in some woods right by a dog park. A volunteer from PAWS set a trap to rescue us. I was a very small and hungry kitten, and the sardines in the trap smelled so good… I was captured! There wasn’t any room for me at PAWS, so mom offered to foster me at home. We all fell in love (except Gracie) and I never went to the shelter. I was adopted.

Funny Farmer Felines: What is your favorite treat …. toy ?

Cats: We all like nip- especially the fresh kind that grows in the garden. Greenie treats are very good, but chicken baby food and real tuna is best. Yum! Our favorite string toy is the Neko Kragonfly. Dad’s toes are fun too.

Funny Farmer Felines: Every kitty likes to get into mischief.. What kind of mischief do you get into? Separately or together?

Gracie: Tommie was born outside and knows the ropes, so he gets to go outside and help with the gardening. I sneak out sometimes but they usually catch me.

Mickey: I like to pounce. On everybody.

Funny Farmer Felines: Do you belong to any clubs or groups? And does your human help you participate in any of the blogging events, such as Talk like a pirate day, LiveStrong, Box Day, etc?

Gracie: Tommie belongs to the Tabby Cat Club. If you look at our picture, you’ll see that we are ALL TABBIES! But are Mickey and I in the club? NO! Maggie is just lazy.

Mickey: There’s a club?

Funny Farmer Felines: What do you like and dislike about blogging?

Cats: We like seeing what other cats are up to. Where they live and what they do all day. We’ve learned a lot and made new friends.

Mickey: It helped me make my Christmas list!

Cats: It’s very sad when friends get sick and it hurts our hearts when they go to the bridge. That’s the bad part.

Funny Farmer Felines: What advice would you give to any cat just starting a blog, in particular someone starting a blog such as yours?

Mickey: Take lots of naps.

Gracie: Spellcheck?

Tommie: Don’t stress yourself out. Visit the catblogosphere to keep up with the news. Enjoy!

Funny Farmer Felines: It’s been fun having you three here today. We learned a lot about you and your blog that we weren’t aware of, including that Tommie and Gracie have their own book, Lucky Cats.  Their Mom Maggie illustrated it.

When you go by to say hello to Tommie, Gracie and Mickey Mouser at their blog Shelter Cats, be sure to tell them we sent you.

The post Talking Tabbies Tommie, Gracie & Mickey Mouser appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

Mary Jane, a young brown tabby, enjoys taking her person — Rudi Saldia — through the streets of Philadelphia on a bicycle.

Perched on Saldia’s shoulder, MJ tells him where to go and encourages him to go faster with purrs and nuzzles.

Saldia seems to enjoy the outings, and his videos, shot with a GoPro sports camera, have gone viral on youtube.

Originally, he only shot the footage to prove to his mom that he was in fact being driven around town on a bike by his cat. “She said, ‘No way! You’re not taking your cat out for the ride,’ which is the reaction I still get even after people see this video,” Saldia said.

Mary Jane has been bicycling since she was 2 months old. She first had Saldia take her along their quiet street in downtown Philly. Then, as Saldia got better at chauffering her around, she had him take her on longer jaunts.

“People are thrilled to see the guy with the cat ride his bike down the street,” Saldia said.

Mary Jane added, “It beats being cooped up in the house all day long. And don’t you love the way Rudi’s moustache curls around on the ends? I can’t stop rubbing my smell on it!”

The post Mary Jane the Bicycling Cat is a YouTube Sensation appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

Maybe they’ll stop talking about Uggie, now.

This year, the buzz at the Cannes Film Festival was all about Ulysses, the ginger tom who stars in Joel and Ethan Coen’s new movie “Inside Llewyn Davies”. 

Obviously, those associated with the movie were jealous of the attention the cat has garnered. Director Joel Coen dissed the six cats used during filming, saying, ”They are not easy to train, or guide onscreen. So it was a bit of a pain in the ass.”

Co-star Justin Timberlake, who plays a folk singer in the film, complained ”They had a large rider of requests, a specific type of cat food.”  

Star Oscar Isaac, who carries the cat during most of the movie, whined about the dangers of filming with a cat.  “One freaked out on me and scratched me in the face,” said Isaac. “That’s what happens when you tie a cat to you and run into the subway.”

None of the six cats used in the filmed made it to the red carpet or the after-parties. Whan asked why they were no-shows, Ginger — who acts as the spokescat for the group — said, “We are currently involved in a dispute with the Coen brothers over not receiving top billing, which naturally we expected to receive when we signed on to the project. So, on the advice of our attorney, we will not be purrmoting the film.”   

The post Ulysses the Ginger Tom a Breakout Star at Cannes appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

If yer like me, you like getting high. And the higher the better. So I think you’ll reely like this week’s Mancat Mancave offering.

These cubes attach to yer walls and they purrvide lots of ways to klime and survay yer domane. You can pik a cubbyhole that’s enclosed or open and an opening that’s a circle or a sqware. Lots of choices. You can put cushuns inside fer cumfert.

Yer peeps will like the fakt that these come in sevrul color choices. You can git primerry colors or just plane blak or wite. If yer a blak cat, the blak cubes will help you stay in stelth mode win you wunt to pownce on yer sister.  

As you can planely see in these pikchers, cats reely dig theeze klimey cubes. But thare’s one problim. You can’t buy ‘em yet, but you can git on a list to be notifide win thare reddy to buy frum Catissa.com. 

The post Mancat Mancave: Multicolored Ways to Get High appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

Proclaim your love for all things cat with these Kitten Capers Canvas Sneakers from the Bradford Exchange.

Kitten art by internationally famed artist Jurgen Scholz graces these beige cat lover’s shoes, which feature stitched canvas uppers, rubber soles and white midsoles decorated with the expression “I Love Cats.” A sculptural golden metal kitten charm dangles from the lace of each shoe, making these exclusive women’s canvas sneakers the cat’s meow.  

Available for three installments of $23.32. 

The post Shoesday: Kitten Capers Canvas Sneaks appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

The highlight of the BlogPaws Pet Blogging and Social Media conference each year is the awards ceremony on Saturday night which celebrates accomplishments in pet blogging.

This year, Mousebreath won two of the awards. One, for Best Video, and the second for Best Cat Blog.

Mousebreath would not exist but for the contributions of Max the Psycho Kitty, Cheysuli, Ichiro, Fred, the Funny Farmer Felines (Percy, Cameron, Rusty and Micah), Jeter Harris, Quasi, Skeezix, Mao and Trip. We are delighted that their achievements have been recognized by BlogPaws.

Cat bloggers did well at the Nose-to-Nose awards, also winning Best Facebook Design (Gracey the Tiniest Tiger), Best Twitter Design (Waffles), Best Humor Blog (Angie Bailey’s Catladyland) and Best Blog Writing (Nerissa’s Life). 

Remember, Cats Rule, Dogs Drool! You can watch the BlogPaws Awards Ceremony here.

The post Mousebreath Scores Pair of BlogPaws Awards appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

BlogPaws was bittersweet this year. My dear friend, Joanne McGonagle, could not attend because her boss and muse, Gracey the Tiniest Tiger, had a health crisis which ended in her journey to The Bridge.

Gracey gained national attention when she won Bissell’s MVP Contest in 2010 and donated $10,000 to PurrEver Ranch Sanctuary — a donation which kept them in business. She worked tirelessly to purrmote big cat rescue through her Conservation Cub Club, a community of 50,000 fans of wild cat conservation.

I won’t attempt to eulogize Gracey here, since her mom did so far more eloquently on Gracey’s web site. Please drop by the Conservation Cub Club to add your remembrances of Gracey and send purrs to Joanne, Paul, and Bossy Blue Jay.

The post Obituary: Gracey the Tiniest Tiger appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise of good will. -Albert Einstein

Chey says: I believe this island is populated only by cats.

Ichiro: But then who feeds them stinky goodness?

The post Meditations with Meezers: Island of Good Will appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

Dear Max, My mommy and daddy went out and came back with necklaces for me and my brother just like the big kitties wear! Only mine kept getting stuck in my mouth so they took it off and said I was still too little to wear a necklace. Now my brother makes fun of me cuz I’m the only one with no necklace. Am I ever gonna get big? How come my brother who got borned at the same time is twice as big as me?

Some doods are just bigger than other doods, dood. Sometimes it’s because they have more muscles—and that’s not because smaller kitties are weak, it’s just because their brains make more muscle juice—and sometimes, A LOT OF THE TIME, the bigger guys are bigger because they’re just, you know, FAT.

So maybe your brother is just a little piggy deep down, and that’s why he’s bigger. But you’re gonna get bigger, too, someday. Maybe even bigger than he is, so he’ll probably regret making fun of you.

And I’ll tell you a secret…wearing those necklaces isn’t much fun. They rub your neck and make you itch, and people never give you enough skritches under them. Enjoy your time without one, because once you get one, it’s scratch city from there on out.

How DO you come up with such knowledgable stuff?

I have a big brain. And I read. That gives me good thinks, which makes my brain bigger. It’s a wonder I can even walk upright at this point.

Dear Max,
I know a lot of kitties don’t like the vacuum cleaner (and I’m no fan myself), but to me the real Mortal Enemy of the Cat is something I’ve heard my mom call the iPad. My mom sits around for hours and hours and hours playing or doing whatever is is she does. You’d think, well, okay, at least she’s busy, but here’s my problem: what about MY needs? I knock it out of her hands and I step on it every time I can, but she just picks it up again, gives me a few half- hearted pats and then she’s back playing with that thing again instead of petting ME. Max, I don’t mean to play the sympathy card (okay, so maybe I do), but I’m going to be 15 in June and, even though I’m healthy now, who knows how much time I’ve got left, dude? I need a strategy to get her to put down the iPad and get back to what’s really important!

Pee on it. That will make it dead, and there you go…no iCompetition for attentions. If she replaces it, pee on that one, too. She’ll get the message.

Dear Max,
There are these HUGE birds called Canadian geese at the ponds in my neighborhood and I hear that they are edible! I want to eat one and I watch them when I go to the pond everyday. The problem is when I go near them they honk and start biting and chasing me away! How do I get revenge on them and get one of them or their stupid babies!!!

Are you sure they’re Canadian Geese? I always heard that Canadians are very polite and say “Sorry” a lot, and they’re typically not biters. Maybe they’re just, you know, geese-geese, and those guys are really rude and tough. And dood, I think that means their meat is tough, too, which would be difficult to chew.

Now, the babies are probably tender still, but babies are not fair game. They’re still growing and defenseless, so they should be left alone no matter what. And those big geese? Yeah, I’d leave them alone, too. It would take too long to chew through their shields of rude, I think. You’d be gnawing on one for-freaking-ever.

Look IN the pond. I bet there are fish in there, and fish are always good eating.

The post Ask Max Monday: Good Thinks + Big Brain = Me. Right? appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.

Today we want to introduce the Purrime Ministerettes of Planet Purrth, Shiva and Jaya. They stand at the service of all anipals except snakies. (They do, however, serve allicattors and crocs and caidudes!) They absolutely love spiders and would have them for dinner, but their mom says no. We wonder why. Who would not want to invite spiders to dinner?

Their official duties interfered with publishing this interview last Friday, but we think you will find these lovely ladies are well worth the wait.

Funny Farmer Felines: Shiva and Jaya, would you please introduce yourselves and your humans?

Hullo and salute! We are Shiva & Jaya, your elected Purrime Ministerettes of Planet Purrth serving all anipals except snakies. We live in the center of Yurp and have our office on 10 Downing Street, London. We live with mom – Secretary of Writings, Speeches & Movies – and sometimes with dad. Mom’s name is M and she is a freelance journalist/writer who spends her time sometimes writing and sometimes teaching ballroom dancing. She’s good staff. Very obedient. Sometimes H, dad, lives here. He is a politicat who works for Foreign Affairs and speaks to offishials all the time. We can’t trust him because Cat only knows how he might steal Purrime Ministerette pawwer from Number 10. We keep him at paw’s length. No kissies, no nuffin’.

When we make movies, we usually play the leading roles. Sometimes there are guests, usually an Uncle and Aunt of ours, B & T. B is the capo of Italy and Sicily and mightier than the late Guilio Andreotti and the whole Catstra Nostra in New York and Chicago all together. We don’t see them often.

Funny Farmer Felines: How did you come to live together? We understand you were rescued together from a glass bin.

Oh yes! Someone dumped us in there. We dunno why. Weren’t we good enough? Not beautiful enough? Too…time-consuming? We don’t know and we don’t wanna know. One of our siblings didn’t make it. We and the other 5 found a forever home.

Funny Farmer Felines: You have become multiple prize winning stars of YouTube.  How did this come about? Were you discovered by a Hollywood talent scout? 

One day in November of 2009 mom thought it would be cool to film us. That’s how our YouTube debute came to pass. She made some more and it all resulted into movies such as The Catfather, The Wisegirl, CSI Miami and more. (Visit our YouTube videos here.)  We won our award in 2010. It was an exciting time. We’re now working on a series named Shiva & Jaya Megamix. This is quite an enervating year for us so we won’t spend that much time on story-telling. We get filmed almost every day and whenever we have enough footage, we create a new megamix. Stay tuna-ed!

Funny Farmer Felines: You have both had your share of health problems but you are both active, involved and famous, so you’ve obviously overcomers. Would you care to tell us a little about how you cope with cerebellar hypoplasia, Shiva?

Shiva: Well, that’s a whole story. I meow my story and more about CH in general here.  My small brains aren’t what they are supposed to be. They’re not there. Only in a very undeveloped state. This causes me to be a wobbly Purrime Ministerette. My motor skills aren’t very sexy. I sometimes fall off the windowsill. Or the sofa. Every time I wake up and get on my footies, I fall.

CH exists in several degrees going from light to very severe. I have light CH, but I still have it. But sometimes kittens are born with extremely severe CH. If, worst case scenario, this causes the kitten to be unable to relieve itself at the litterbox and eat/drink itself, it’s worth asking if this life is worth living. The problem, however, is that some vets are too eager to put CH kittens to sleep. I want this to stop. There are many cats, myself included, that can live a normal life. It’s even possible to train our motor skills. That requires time, energy and awareness of what kind of food helps us the best. I get a lot of proteins that make me feel stronger.

Funny Farmer Felines: And, Jaya, you had ear surgery and never really grew to full size, but this doesn’t appear to be a handicap, at least not to being a Purrime Ministerette. Do you ever have to wear a loudspeaker (we call it a lampshade when Buddy wears one) now or has the need passed?

Jaya: That ear surgery was quite a happening! I will never forget about it. They wanted me to take a short nap in that animal hospital so that they could perform surgery on my ear. So I got a shot. Twenty minutes later I was still wide awake in the hospital looking at all those hoomans in white like: what da bleep do you want from me?! I was purring and I was a happy kitty. Those hoomans thought I was funny; I thought they were quite sad. But I’m a polite kitty so I meowed hello to all of them. Then came the second shot, and from that moment, I can’t remember anything. I woke up with a very haute couture fashionable hot sexy-looking loudspeaker on my head. I felt very honored. Me and loudspeaker had a wonderful time together and I got very emotional when we had to say goodbye after a week or two. But thank Cat Almighty, he returned last year. I wish we were still together. But my beloved loudspeaker is in the kitchen closet. Sometimes I visit him.

Funny Farmer Felines: What’s your favorite color?

Purrple! That’s the official Purrime Ministerette color.

Funny Farmer Felines: What’s your favorite treat?

Fishie. Mom gives us fishie every Sunday. For special occassions, we sometimes order a great white sharkie from the London Aquarium. Next to the Aquarium is McDonalds so we call them as well and end up with a great white sharkie meal with fish fries, diet fish coke and Sundae ice cream with fishie flavor.

Funny Farmer Felines: What’s your favorite toy?

Spiders and insects. But that CSI from Miami arrested us for that.

Funny Farmer Felines: What’s your favorite day of the week?

Any day that’s a napping day. It’s not like mom is home every Sunday or dad is home every Friday or something like dad. Dad often travels far for work, even to China. And mom often goes to ballroom dance competitions in the weekend. She’s usually off on Mondays though.

Shiva: I hope I get to watch a DVD. My favorite DVD is Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

 Jaya: I love Mariah. I can even do those high notes!

Funny Farmer Felines: Well, we were going to ask if you ever get into mischief but seeing how you were involved in the Playcat magazine scandal and also arrested for murder by Horatio Caine of CSI, we don’t need to ask about mischief, do we?

Playcat magazine was pawsome. They paid us big for Shiva’s boobies. It was sold out in an hour. All mancats denied they had bought it, but we saw through all of them. And Horatio Caine…we seduced him and that’s how we got out. No bail, no nuffin’! Wait…didn’t he seduce us? Anyway, he gave us total immunity so we can eat any insect or spider we want. We even had a snake fight and we had to kill that snake because it didn’t want to be deported to the North Pole. Horatio Caine was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he’s afraid of snakies. *giggle*

Funny Farmer Felines: Do either of you have a special mancat in your life at this time? We belive you both got married a while ago but we’re not sure who the grooms were or if you actually had the divorce party you mentioned in a post.

Oh yes, we’re married to @indykitty. He works for our Purrime Ministerette cabinet as Secretary of Sanitation. We don’t remember when we got married. Must have been about a year ago. Indy later gay – married a mancat named Captain Peanut. We all get along and life is great! We have vowed to be together until divorce do us part and then we will be back at the Jerry Meower Show, where we also went on our wedding day.

Funny Farmer Felines: Do you have any special plans for the future of your blog?

All we can say is that we wish we could blog more often, but we can’t. It’s quite time-consuming to serve all anipals except snakies.

Funny Farmer Felines: What do you like and dislike about blogging?

Like: we can share anything we like with all of Planet Purrth. Dislike: spammers. But we have blocked them.

Funny Farmer Felines: You opened your blog in June 2010. What advice would you offer a new blogger?

Hullo new blogger! You bettah make sure you win our Purrime Ministerette award!

Funny Farmer Felines: Yep, anycat who is anycat aspires to win their coveted award. Oh, wait, we better get on the ball. We haven’t won it yet either.

We know you have enjoyed getting to know Shiva and Jaya better or meeting them for the first time. Be sure to stop by the Shiva and Jaya blog and tell the Purrime Ministerettes we sent you. 

The post Purrime Ministerettes Shiva and Jaya appeared first on Cat Lifestyle: Mousebreath Magazine.