Danger of Easter Lilies to Cats

Wow, it’s hard to believe Easter is upon us. It feels like just last week it was Paddy’s Day (oh yeah, it was!!).

Easter is a lovely time of year, a nice bright spot after the cold and long months of January and February. A time to tuck in to an Easter Egg or two and maybe even enjoy a couple of Hot Crossed Buns, yummy!

Another very traditional thing around this time of year is the Easter Lily, which many people buy to put in their home. either in pots or as a bouquet. If you own a cat this can prove to be lethal. 

Easter Lilies, and many other types of lilies, are deadly to cats. All parts of the plant, if eaten by the cat are poisonous and will lead to kidney damage if untreated by a vet. As many as 50% to 100% of cats that ingest Easter Lilies die.

There is an article on the dangers of lilies and other plants to cats here. You can learn more about the dangers of Easter lilies and the symptoms of poisoning in this article.

The safest option, I believe, is to avoid bringing lilies into your home if you have a cat. It’s no harm to keep an eye on the wrapping from Easter eggs too, just make sure no tin foil or cellophane gets eaten by a nosey moggie!

I hope you all, human and feline, have a very Happy and safe Easter

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Limerick Animal Welfare Blog

Spotted an interesting article on The Limerick Animal Welfare blog today. All about how being a cat owner is good for your health

Check it out !

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Parade Photo’s

 

 

 

The weather, in Limerick city, was lovely for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. We even got a little sun There was a great crowd in town and loads of groups in the parade. It was great to see such a mix of cultures represented. The theme this year was The United Colours of Limerick. Very apt.

Oliver and Poppy slept through it all ;p !

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Parading through the streets of Limerick!

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Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day :D. There will be parades galore all over the country, indeed all over the world,  as proud Irish people (and random drunk people!) celebrate the wearing of the green!

I’ll be one of them. Marching, that is, not drunk!

Yep, I’ll be marching up O’Connell St, Limerick tomorrow afternoon. I’ve tried retracing my steps to figure out how I managed to land myself in the parade. It’s still hazy, to say the least!

I am looking forward to it though. I’m very lucky to be working with a fantastic group of young people and I’ve no doubt tomorrows parade will be one of my most memorable. One way or another!

The weather forecast is pretty good, last I heard, so that’s a bonus. Hopefully the rain and wind will hold off long enough for us to strut our stuff and get to the pub home dry and in one piece ;p

I’ll try and get some photos tomorrow and if they’re half respectable I’ll post them up here when I get the chance.

Happy Paddy’s Day to you all

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Thought I’d start the celebrations a wee bit early, for the weekend that’s in it

Mornings with a Cat!

I laughed soo  much at these to animated videos! They could be based on Poppy. They are excellent.

THese two shorts are by an English animator called Simon Tofield and are called ‘Cat Man Do’ and ‘Let Me In’. He works for an animation company called Tandem Films.

Cats in Art (Part 2)

A while back I made a post called Cats in Art which can be viewed here. It was my plan, at the time, to make this a regular feature. If not weekly perhaps on a monthly basis. Obviously that didn’t happen as it’s been over SIX months since that first post! But I digress.

I’m planning on doing a painting of The Fur Babies this weekend. I’ve threatened it before, but this time I mean business. It’s shocking really that I’ve never gotten around to doing a painting of them. I’ve only ever painted a cat once, it was a few years back, ironically it was before we were even pet parents

This is it.

It was a Tom cat that used to wander through our backyard (when we had one) on his way to more interesting destinations.

Anyway, I’m thinking of going more modern with my next effort. More painterly. I don’t know.

I feel very inspired by this painting by Nicolas Tarkhoff.

It’s called Black Cat on the Window Rail.

The way the cat is sitting on the window reminds me of the way Oliver and Poppy sit on our sitting room window and watch the birds as they fly past!

The painting below is called The Radish Hunt. It reminds me of the way Poppy like to stalk anything that looks vaguely similar to a small animal! I like the illustrative style in this too.

I’m torn between the two styles! Well I’ll just get stuck in to it an we’ll see what happens. Here’s the proverbial blank canvas I’ll be working on…

Here’s Oliver checking it out…

And now it’s Poppy’s turn…

They are SO nosey! Anyway as you can see it’s not that big a canvas, so I should get something done over the weekend.

I’ll post the result as soon as I’m done.

Technorati Tags: photography,cats,art,painting,photos,pets,culture

Cat TV

I’ve been looking at ways to make our apartment more lively and interesting to The Fur Babies. Now, to be fair, there’s no disguising the fact that we share our home with two fair felines! In fact I use the word share loosely. I think we’re more like lodger’s or the hired help!

There are dozens of balls in every nook and cranny, behind the dishwasher, under the fridge. It’s not unusual to find one in your shoe! They have their own chair, complete with snuggly blanket (next to the heater) in the sitting room. Plus they have a lovely view! However, as they are completely indoor I want to give them as much stimulation as possible.

I’d heard about cat DVD’s that are available on the Internet. After a quick Google, sure enough I found this and this. Although I think if I go for any of them, it would be this Cat Sitter one. I’m a sucker for those sale blurbs, ”Cat Magazine gave this DVD two paws up” type of a thing! Plus I figure if there’s more than one volume (there appears to be 3 in fact) it has to be decent enough, that and it’s only $12.99. So I might try and order one.

Watch this space for updates!

Latest Photo Shoot!

I took these shots of Oliver and Poppy today. I dabbled with them a little in Photoshop. I think they turned out well Must definitely invest in a decent camera at some stage though. I’ve always had an interest in photography, and I’m enjoying it more and more. The little Kodak digital camera I have does fine, but I’d love something that would give me more scope to play around. Something like this would be nice! Maybe if I start hinting now, I might get one for Christmas from The Hubby :D!!

What’s in a name?

I just did a quiz called ‘What Does Your Pet’s Name Say About YOU?!

According to my result it means I am Nurturing I like that, nurturing! Not only that but it went on to explain…

“you feel that your pet is a member of your family that you’d do anything for”. No wonder research shows that people who give their pets human names have the closest relationships with their pets and spend the most time with them!

See, all that’s true and it’s because I am a nurturing person. Not because I prefer my cats to most people and because I have slight anti-social tendencies!

I decided to look up the meaning of the names too.

 Oliver…..

Information about this name:
Related Name:Ollie, Olly
Meaning: Symbol of peace. The olive branch
Famous Usage: Musical and film “Oliver!” (196 based on the novel by Charles Dickens.
Screen Details: Movie and Stage Musical -’Oliver Twist’ Oliver Stone the film director of such films as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July.

Poor old Oliver, his name fits him down to the ground. He’s a pure saint! As peaceful as they come

  Poppy…..
Information about this name:
Meaning: Flower with four crumpled petals in red, orange or white colours
Famous Usage: Poppy Lipsticks by Poppy King.
Screen Details: Poppy Montgomery - Australian actress star of Without a Trace.
Personality Plus: The poppy is a wayside flower and this is a pretty name for a wandering female pet

Wayside? Now if it was wayward that would make sense! If Oliver is a saint, well then she’s a pure little devil!

Chalk and cheese they’re like, but I couldn’t imagine one without the other now. The Dynamic Duo