Three Steps to Make My Cat into A Dog (a true story!) by El of Tantalizing Stitches

Luthar may have been born a cat but grew up to be a dog. How you say? First, I mandated that all dwellers of the house take a bath! After giving Luthar a bath once a week for about a month and then every other week thereafter for the first year, he became compliant. No hissing, no scratching. I was even able to take these cute little pictures.

This is how I did it. I first gave Lex (the puppy) a bath while Luthar watched. Once I dried her up, I took Luthar in the bath while Lex watched. I didn't really use soap at first because he was already clean. Once we got to the bimonthly schedule, I added some soap.

But what really made Luthar a dog was our daily walks. First, I would only take Lex for a walk and wouldn't let Luthar out of the house. I felt bad that Luthar was missing out so I purchased a very long leash (about 20 feet) and put it on Luthar. At first he found it to be a fun toy but finally, when he realized it would let him out of the house, he forgot about the leash and walked out the door. I initially kept the leash very short. But as I trusted that he wouldn't climb a tree or something similar, I let the leash out. This all happened within a couple of months. Each outing was made with Luthar on the leash and Lex off the leash. (No dog leash law in the area.)

Then, finally I had to let him free. We did our usually walk around the block and guess what! He followed. Take a look at the documented footage!

And finally, Lex and Luthar sharing the dog house!

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El is the woman behind Tantalizing Stitches where you can find bag
making supplies such as magnetic snaps and swivel clips. She is also
the guild master of the Crafting for Animals Guild and proudly donates
a portion of her proceeds to animal charity. On her spare time, she
crochets and soaps!

On the Lighter Side...........by Laura of Redgirl and Flyboy

I recently received some news from Auntie Mabel and her cats: Daemon Surlycat, Spotty Cowgirl, and Soprano “got chicken?” Catface.  Here’s the letter:

Dear Laura and all the family,

Well, we’ve had an interesting summer here, and with fall cooling things down, I thought I would catch you up on the latest new about my kitties.

Daemon is such a smart kitty. You know he is getting his doctorate in Human Behavioral Science or some such thing. Amazing what you can do online these days. I can’t imagine if the college knew Daemon was a cat that they would let him take these classes. I suppose they will find out when he sends them his measurements for his cap and gown. He does seem to be doing quite well, though. He does these experiment things here at home. I have to wonder if they are CAT experiments or HUMAN experiments.

Here's an experiment you can do at home with your own cats. Go into the bathroom and shut the door. Run some water (or something) so the cat knows you are in there. In a short time you will start to hear the cat meowing, then yowdeling. Then you will see the paw-under-the-door trick. Now depending on whether your cat is right-handed or left-handed, and how securely the door is shut, the cat may be able to open the door. If not, give it a minute and open the door so the cat can come into the bathroom with you. Then shut the door. The cat will only want your attention for a minute until it realizes the door is shut. It will stare at the door knob trying to do the Kitty-Mind-Bender thing they do that makes humans open doors for them. DON’T fall for it. Not yet. After the staring comes the "I'm-not-really-trying-to-push-open-the-door-I'm-just-stretching" thing they do. Then, more staring. Then, they will stick their paw under the door from inside the bathroom. Yup. So now you can let the cat out of the bathroom, and you stay in the bathroom. When the cat goes out, shut the door. In a minute the whole thing will start again with the cat trying to get into the bathroom again. I really think the cats are playing a prank on us when they do that.

You remember those cards someone would hand you that say on one side: “HOW DO YOU KEEP AN IDIOT BUSY? over.” So, you turn the card over and on the other side it says “HOW DO YOU KEEP AN IDIOT BUSY? over.” Yeah—that’s what the cats are doing to us. Sometimes I hear them laughing at night when they think we are all asleep. They're probably drinking all the ginger ale and eating all my cookies too. They think up new ways to keep the idiot busy..over.

So, while all of this is, I am sure, very interesting, I know you would really like to hear about Daemon’s studies and his Theory of Relativity. It’s an interesting story actually. Well, very interesting to Daemon anyway.  He was at his desk writing up his diser...  deserr…. this paper for his doctorate thingee. He had all his studies done, all his research completed and tallied and compiled, everything ready to go, but I could hear him hissing and paper hitting the trashcan, and there were tufts of fur floating about. Apparently, Daemon had made a few mistakes. It seems that all his notions were pre-conceived, and his trains of thought de-railed, his conclusions were drawn badly, and his phone was off the hook.

I can hear you thinking—Auntie Mabel has flipped her wig. But if you saw the cats doing their stuff, though, you would know what clever, clever cats they are. Yes, house cats. Very big house cats.

Anyway, it seems Daemon had to start his experiments over since they only proved that I am a cat person. He is a bit frustrated and wants me to invite some of my friends over who aren’t cat people so he can experiment on them. I’m not sure that’s a good idea though.

Okay—I have to go smoke a salmon for the kitties. They asked for maple-glazed smoked salmon for lunch today and that takes a while to make. Daemon gets very surly when his lunch is late, you know.

Take care dear,

Auntie Mabel and the kitties

Guest post by Laura of Redgirl and Flyboy on Artfire. Laura has enjoyed the company of many critters in her lifetime while raising a family. Now she is helping look after the next generation of family and pets, with love, laughter and joy! Her creative talents, including writing, are expressed in all kinds of ways as can be seen by the nice variety of products in her studio on ArtFire.

Note: The graphics in this article are from Microsoft Office (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/??Origin=ES790013001033&CTT=6&ver=12&app=mstore.exe) and were added by Debra on Laura's behalf.