So You Think You Know @Bubbba?

All photos on this post Copyright of Patrice deAvila

Hello everyone. You may remember late last week I asked several of the male kitties to share their takes on being a ManCat. Well, the response was great and the respondents proved that we are all very unique. One of the kitties that responded couldn't really relay his perspective though, without telling more of his story.

His beginning was less than ideal, but as you will see he had a couple angels looking out for him, and ultimately introduced him to a better life.

My friends, this is the story of Bubbba. And, as is the case sometimes, no one can tell the story better than Bubbba himself... (It's in catspeak, but don't let that deter you from reading this incredible story.)


Bubbba, I was hoping you could tell me a bit about how your current family came to know you and take you in?

Mai momz wuz working, volunteering wiff, and helping a Persian and Himalayan Group (they sayz they iz Persian and Himalayanz, but dey helpz and anipal dat comes there way and dey also do lots of workz wiff the local SPCA...http://persiancats.org/). Dey wuz called when the evil breederz ladee gots arrested and they gotz all the exotic shorthairz and persians that she had. So Carolyn, the ladee dat runz the rescue and helps hunderdz of kitties and doggiez each year called mai momz to see if she hadz room for just one more foster.

And my momz never sayz no if she canz helpz. So she came to da place where I wuz staying for safety at the V. E. T.'s office (my hoomanz always spellz dat for sum reazons). And der I was, hiding. And dey wuz calling me "Rush Limbaugh", it was so embarrazzing, cus I is a Democat, with Liberpawrian leaningz. But I wuz fatz and 23 pounds from being stuckz in a cage my whole young life.

When I gotz der, I wuz a mess, I had ring wormz on my skins, and mites in my earz. The breederz ladee didn't get my momz her right shots, and my momz gave us all kittenz "Ataxia"(datz wut wobbly catz haz). I onlyz barely haz it and if I turnz a corner too fast I spin out cause my back legz and hipz iz very weak. I don't like to jump up and down much eether. But Iz lucky and not like most kitties that is very wobblie from der Ataxia. And, I also gotz da, ...sigh (dis kinda embarasssing), feline eye herpes. Dis very common in da kennel environements, and lots of kitties getz dis. My eyes just water a bit, but I gavez dis to my step brudder and fursister. Dey izn't so happeez wiff me, but we allz haz fureverz homes, and momz puts dropz in our eyez, and dis powder stuff ... um L, L, oh yeah, L-Lysene in our fudz dat makez it so we don't haz outbreakz much. And da last theengz I gotz iz da one I hatez most, I gotz really bad teef that fall apart easy. And datz from bad breeders who makez us "unique" cats (i.e. deformed) and we gotz da mud puddle of da gene pool when you gotz a bad breeder working from greedzy motivez.

I hadz two step brudders dat wuz persians die from gongestive heart failure from biff defects compounded by breething issues. Mom's luvs us, but she said dat we iz not nature made and dat, we haz trouble from breederz datz inbreedz us only for lookz and doesn't care abouts how our health iz.

So back to momz and hiding in da closet. Mom believez dat kittens should be held and stroked and turned upside down gently all da time from da times dey is borned... den they getz to loving hoomanz contact. I didn't getz any of dat. But den came mom and she helds me beside her on da bed and I luved chin scratches, so she petted me in all da wayz dat I liked and she just kept doing it, till I figured out dat dis wuz a nice place. But she always made me come out of hiding to eat. And at 23 pounds when I gotz ther, I risked life outsidez the closet for a few minutes at a time for fudz. And pretty soon I liked da house and da space wuzn't scary and I liked being on da warm soft bed. Before you knowz it I wuz hanging out with my hoomanz and I wuz almost like a cat dat wuz raized in a furrever home from birff.

I still dontz like sitting on lapz, I feel wobbly and I don't like being off da ground.

And almost the bestest thing wuz dat I gotz a much better name. I wuz only der a day and learned about fud, and I would plow thru da other catz to getz fud. And I wuz really big, so mom started calling me Tank. But she felt like Tank was too abrupt sounding by itself, and I wuz still really big, so she started calling me Sherman Tank. Den Sherman and then somehow mai frendz all started calling me Bubba, cause Iz not so graceful. So datz mai name, Sherman Tank, but Bubba to mai furrends. (But to da V. E. T., dey can callz me "Mr. Tank"... )

Da other catz here (der iz four of us) dey iz alwayz trying to be bad, but all I do iz getz mai food, poops in da box, and purrz (I luv da soft bed now, dat I luvz to get on da bed and purrrz and make buiscutz wiff mai feetz)... I iz very happee and I iz very lucky.

Da biggest hero of mai storee is problee Carolyn at http://persiancats.org/ cus wiffout dem, I would have gone to the county animal control, and wiff my ring wurmz and not knowing how to be held... I would have been distroyed and a lot of mai brutherz and sisterz. Carolyn made room (wiff helpz from people like mai Momz) for all of us... and she does this time and again. 6 county animal controlz callz her organizashun every weekz and she is alwayz saving da kitties and finding furever homez for dem. Her husband is a V. E. T. and he dus lotz of thingz for da sick kittiez dey getz and stuff.

Mai Mommee haz known Carolyn for almost 15 yearz, and Carolyn is TIRELESS in helping all da Anipalz, dogz too.

She and other pplz likez her should be NOMinated for Pet saintz hood...

All I ask iz dat da hoomanz help all the anipal orgaizashunz dat dey can. And try to adopt a critter too. If you just gotz to haz a piece of paper dat sayz your petz iz specialz somehow, den plz do da research, and only uze da gud breederz

Thx for readingz mai storee. Datz da most Iz ever typed. I'm tired now, so I'z going to my bed (Mom made me a cat bed in a empty clothes hamper on itz side... I still likes to feel safe when Iz sleeping).

=^..^=

Thanks so much to Bubbba (aka Sherman Tank) and his human for sharing his story. If you would like to learn more about Bubbba and his hooman please stop by and visit these sites:
gallery of some of Patrice deAvila paintings... www.flickr.com/photos/patricedeavila/
Her virtual studio at patricedeavila.blogspot.com

If you want to keep up with Bubbba follow him here.

I hope you carry a bit of Bubbba story around with you for a long time. I know I will.

Thanks for stopping by!

OscarTheCat and Henry

An Interview With SparkleCat

All Sparklecat images copyright ©2008 Janiss Garza & used w/permission

Today I am pleased to share with you an interview with one of my favorite twitter ladies, Sparkle aka Sparklecat. If you don’t know Sparkle yet, I encourage you to follow her as well as check out her website and advice column here.

Sparkle, I noticed you've been blogging since late 2002. What inspired you to start your blog?
I actually had no say in the matter. I was forced into service by my human, who had planned on starting a blog with her next kitten, who happened to be me. You know those hideous stage moms who force their kids into celebrity? My human was the cat version of that. Fortunately I took to the internet and proved to be a more popular draw online than anything she's done herself. Can you say burn?

What inspired you to start an Advice Column? What is your favorite thing about that column?

It was sort of done on a whim. People are always asking my human dumb questions about cats, since they think she knows something about them. She doesn't, really, we just tell her what's up. So she figured since I was "so smart" (although I'm not so sure about the ironic tone in her voice every time she says this), that I should do an advice column to explain the cat's point of view in these situations. Once again, it proved to be overwhelmingly popular, showing that I am, in fact, "so smart."

And that column also got you a book deal, didn't it? What your favorite thing about writing a book?

What actually happened was that, after I'd been doing the advice column for three years, my human decided to put them together in a book herself, add photographs and have me write an introduction. She designed the cover and layout herself, and since she works in the publishing industry, she didn't do a half-bad job. The book wound up winning a couple of awards (winner of the Wild Card category at the Hollywood Book Festival and honorable mention at the New York Book Festival, both in 2007).

My favorite part about writing this book? That my human did all the grunt work.

Can you tell us anything about your next book?

My next book is tentatively titled Dear Sparkle: More Advice From One Cat to Another, so it's pretty much volume 2. Except this time, I have a literary agent in New York who is shopping the book proposal around to big publishers. Can I just say that I am having much more success with my literary career than my human is with hers?


You started using twitter in 2008. Why do you think you are the only critter in your household with a twitter account?

Because I'm the only one who's both smart and articulate. My tortie roommate, Binga, is fairly bright but not terribly articulate. She came from the meanest animal shelter in Los Angeles and you can tell she's from some alleyway in the barrio - she speaks in a combination of Cat, Spanish, and the occasional French bon mot (I have no idea where she picked up the French), and every other word is a curse word. She apparently thinks my name is puta, and it gets worse from there. If she posted on Twitter, your ears would burn. Boodie, the foster-who-never-found-a-home, is neither smart nor articulate. My human calls her "the dumbest cat I've ever met," and I have to agree. She makes the LOL cats look like geniuses. She's not even smart enough to lie on a keyboard, much less type on one.

I've only been on twitter a few months and it seems to be a whole different animal than when I first started. Do you feel that twitter has changed that much since you joined?

There seem to be a lot more cats now than when I first signed up, which was not quite a year ago, and we have a great community going on! I'm not sure what happened in the past few months, but it seems like everyone is on Twitter now. But a lot of humans aren't as good at it as we cats are. I think we have the Twitter thing nailed.

One thing I notice in your tweets is that your humans' boyfriend doesn't spoil you in the manner your accustomed. Can you tell us a little more about that situation? Is he just jealous of your relationship with @janissgarza or is there more to it than that?

He's not jealous (if anyone's jealous around here, it's Binga). It's just that he's a dog person, not really a cat person - although he claims to love all animals, and Binga treats him like he's something special (she even likes his big, smelly dog). My human on the other hand, is more of a cat person, so she understands us (even though she doesn't always behave like it). She's kind of clueless with the dog, and her boyfriend is pretty much clueless with us cats. He's also sort of neglectful, like he'll put out dinner and forget to make sure the other cats don't eat my food. But I hear a lot of male humans are sort of absent-minded like that.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers today?

Just that if my human gets off her lazy butt anytime soon, my website, http://www.sparklecat.com , will be getting an upgrade and an rss feed, plus lots more fun stuff - but when/if that happens you'll hear about it on Twitter. And that I'd like to see more upside down kitty submissions to my blog, http://upsidedownkitties.blogspot.com - I'd update it more often if I had more pictures to put up, and more comments!

I would like to take this time to say a special THANK YOU to Sparkle and again, encourage you to visit her sites AND do submit your upside down photos to her. Henry was featured there once and wouldn’t stop meowing about it for over a week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Purrs and Nosetaps,

OscarTheCat