Cat Champions of the Week: Yogie and Friends!

This week's Cat Champions on OldMaidCatLady.com are the folks at Yogie and Friends Exotic Cat Sanctuary in Frierson, Louisiana. Their goals are:

• Big cat rescue and provision of a safe, stress-free home for life
• Education of the public about these big cats
• Conservation and assistance to other sanctuaries when possible.

Housed at Yogie and Friends are tigers, lions, leopards, cougars, servals, and other exotic cats that have been abused, neglected or unwanted. The cats are cared for by a full-time staff of two, part-time staff of three, 15 volunteers serving in various roles, and over 100 community service and Air Force volunteers who donate time and labor.

While it's open to the public on Saturday afternoons, this is for educational purposes only so as not to stress the cats. Many of these animals have been kept in cruel conditions before coming to Yogie and Friends. Several have ongoing medical problems as a result of their prior living conditions. All receive regular veterinary care and attention to their medical needs.

The long-term vision for Yogie and Friends includes expansion and improvement of the current habitats, an Animal Education Center, Veterinarian Clinic and Quarantine Housing, Natural Habitats, a Special Needs Animals Area, Internship Program Dormitories, and a "Yogie Yard" for visitors. Visit their website to see many delightful videos of their residents.

When you buy your cat supplies and cat accessories at OldMaidCatLady.com the week of July 26-August 1, 2010, 10% of the proceeds are donated to Yogie and Friends Exotic Cat Sanctuary! So get to shopping and join us in supporting these noble people doing great work to help cats!

Cat Champions of the Week: Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary

Our cat champions this week on OldMaidCatLady.com are some folks that will really touch your heart. Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary in St. Pauls, North Carolina takes in cats certified by a veterinarian as being blind. They rescue cats from shelters that would automatically be put down just because the poor things cannot see. Currently, they care for over 40 cats who live at their cage-free, no-kill shelter in St. Pauls. A private, non-profit organization that receives no government funding, they cover the costs for feeding, housing and medical care for these cats and give them a life of dignity.

Visit Blind Cat Rescue's site and you'll be treated to photos and videos of the cats in their care. If you can look at much of that without getting a little misty, you're a stronger old maid cat lady than I! So help out these little darlings this week by buying your cats some stuff at OldMaidCatLady.com. 10% of the proceeds from what you buy will be donated to them. And while you're at it, stop over at the Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary site and donate a little something extra directly to them. The blind kitties will purr a little louder if you do!

Kitty Palms are now on OldMaidCatLady.com!

Want to stop your cats from scratching your furniture, without ruining your decor? You can entertain your kitties while bringing a touch of the tropics to your home with Kitty Palms! Kitty Palms are now available at OldMaidCatLady.com. You'll find them in a number of categories, or you can just search for "kitty palms" to find them.

A few of the features of Kitty Palms that may interest you:

• The trunks are made of sisal, which cats LOVE to scratch, and it's available in two colors
  
• The platforms swivel all the way around so you can configure them however you need to fit your space
  
• There are toys dangling just below the branches, like little hanging coconuts, for your cats to bat around
• Each of the trees (except the small scratching post) comes with one platform that has a recessed stainless steel dish for food or water, so if you have dogs in the house you can feed your cat out of the dogs' reach
• You can order additional platforms placed above and/or below to meet your needs; say you have an elderly cat who's not able to jump up onto a platform -- you could add platforms and swivel them into place to make a sort of spiral "staircase" for your cat to walk up.

How cool are these Kitty Palms?! If you don't want a run-of-the-mill carpeted "cat condo" ruining your lovely tropical decor, Kitty Palms are what you've been looking for!

This Week's Cat Champions: TARAA!

When you buy your cat supplies and accessories at OldMaidCatLady.com from June 28-July 4, 2010, 10% of the proceeds go to The Animal Rescue & Adoption Agency (TARAA)! TARAA was founded in 2005 for the welfare and protection of animals. It has rescued and placed over 1,000 animals, mostly dogs and cats, into loving homes.

What differentiates TARAA from the mainstream shelters is that they rescue the animals overlooked by many other rescue groups, on what’s commonly referred to as the “kill list”. Those with skin conditions or health issues such as heartworms, those who aren’t necessarily cute and healthy, or those with minor ailments like ringworm are typical cases. Many shelters automatically euthanize these animals as unadoptable because they just don’t have the resources to save them.

TARAA is the only group in the Jacksonville area currently willing to help these animals. They take these debilitated or sick animals, have them treated by a veterinarian, and then make them available for adoption. Treatments for skin conditions tend to cost $5-$6 per dose, with cats sometimes requiring two treatments of Promeris or Program, and sometimes an antibiotic, to heal.

They also work with several foster care families who volunteer their services and open their homes to these special animals. Once rehabilitated and ready for adoption, TARAA holds adoption days at area pet supply stores. Their website shows some of the animals, features stories about animals available for adoption, and seeks to educate people on issues like introducing cats to new babies in the household and the treatability of skin issues in companion animals.

TARAA’s founder and her husband live on four acres of land referred to as “TARAA’s Acres. On this property, they have a 500 square-foot “Cat House” that houses up to 30 cats and kittens. You can help these and the fostered animals of TARAA this week, simply by buying your cat supplies & cat accessories at OldMaidCatLady.com!

A New Logo!

When I heard about Jason Sadler's business, IWearYourShirt.com, I thought, "Brilliant!" This guy gets companies to sponsor him every day of the year, and he wears a T-shirt with their logo on it wherever he goes that day, whether it's to the mall, traveling, or to speak to a group at a conference. He also posts info & video about each day's sponsor on his blog, YouTube, and all the social networking sites. Major corporations pay him an amount that starts at $2/day for January 1 and goes up $2 each day of the year.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought it was a brilliant idea, because some other guys have modeled their business after his. Dana Severson and Tony Holmes came up with IDesignYourLogo.com, and they do much the same thing with logo design. One logo per day, and the price increases throughout the year. I bought June 16, and what you see here is the logo they designed for OldMaidCatLady.com. Pretty cool, huh?

Less Than a Week!

It's an exciting time here at OldMaidCatLady.com! We'll be rolling out our "Charity of the Week" program next Monday, May 31.

Here's how it'll work. Each week, we'll feature a non-profit group that's helping cats on a local, grassroots level as our Charity of the Week. We'll have a profile on the website that tells about the charity and what they're doing for cats. These charities are located all over the United States. The selected charity will also receive 10% of our proceeds on items sold through OldMaidCatLady.com's shopping cart during their featured week. People who are already buying cat supplies can actually help cats by buying them from OldMaidCatLady.com. Exciting, right?

How'd we find the charities? Through Charity Navigator. They assess how well non-profit groups do with the donations they receive and give them a point value that earns them 1 to 4 stars. Only 4-star groups on Charity Navigator have been chosen as OldMaidCatLady.com's Charities of the Week. They've been scheduled for the next 12 months.

A press release about the program has been posted on our website. So remember OldMaidCatLady.com when you're buying your:

• catwear
• cat grooming products
• cat health supplements
  
• cat flea control
  
• kitten products
• cat dishes
• cat treats
  
• cat placemats
• cat beds
• cat furniture
• kitty condos
  
• cat toys
• scratching posts
  
• litter boxes
• senior cat supplies
• cat show supplies
• cat training supplies
• cat carriers
• cat-themed products for people

Didn't know we had all that? You need to visit OldMaidCatLady.com again!

Lots of Amazing New Stuff

Whew! My feet are killing me, my back aches, and I have blisters on my hands from carrying my tote bag around the expo floor for a couple of days...but the Global Pet Expo was phenomenal! Met a ton of great people who have wonderful products that will soon be featured on OldMaidCatLady.com. Food, litter & litterboxes, cat trees, cat beds, catwear, travel supplies, show cages, nutritional supplements, hydration systems...even music, just for the cats. You name it, if it could be made for pets, it was at this expo.

I also got lots of great samples to try, and will be reviewing those products here over the next several weeks. New products should start showing up on the retail site within the next week. More new ones will be added over probably the next couple of months or so. Yes, that's right...it'll take me that long to get through them all! There's a stack of product literature at least a foot tall that has to be sorted, notes deciphered, distributor relationships established, product images & descriptions downloaded, and items added to the site itself. But you're SO going to love the new stuff! There are so many innovative products out there to help us spoil our kitties and keep them happy and healthy.

Stay tuned. Lots more coming soon!

New Stuff's Coming Soon!

Always on the lookout for new stuff for our kitties, we'll be attending the Global Pet Expo next weekend in Orlando. Pre-show publicity says that over 800 new products will be debuting there! Granted, not all are for cats, but we'll be telling you about every one of the new cat products we find, and hopefully will also be able to feature many of them on OldMaidCatLady.com. Stay tuned for all the news!

The Store is Open!

Just took the OldMaidCatLady.com website live Monday evening, and have already had a couple dozen visitors to the site. Although I've worked for the past six weeks (!) on building the site, it only has a minimal number of products. In addition to the fact that I'm still lining up suppliers for the vast array of types of products I want to feature, it turns out that establishing all the site elements and then adding products with all their individual elements takes quite a lot of tedious, time-consuming work.

But it's finally LIVE! Stop by for a visit and let me know how you like the overall feel of it. Does it make you smile? Can you find your way around it okay? There are also mini-surveys sprinkled throughout the site, so take a moment and let me know your thoughts. I want it to be everything you'd like, featuring all the cat products you already know about, plus a few that will surprise you. How am I doing so far? Are there things you'd like to see that aren't there yet? Do you know of any suppliers for cat-related products who can drop-ship them to customers for me? Are you a supplier of cat products who can do that? If so, get in touch with me!

The past year has been a tough one, and this new store represents my first steps in the new direction my life is about to take. So it's important to me. If Old Maid Cat Lady could become an important part of your life, that would be just the best thing ever!