The PPP Bookstore

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Build a Catio

Monday, May 29, 2017

Are Ticks in Alberta?



My kitten was out to run yesterday and the day before. We were out with him. And our question is: If people in Saskatchewan are suffering with ticks on their pets, how far have they come?

What can we do to spray or kill populations of ticks? 

This here is a sad story, and we don't want it spreading?

Friday, May 12, 2017

Making a Happy Cat

Lulu understands pretty much all our conversation. I just talk to him.

So, yesterday, he did this thing. He did disruptive things, to ask me to let him out, and to go do something outside. He does. He does not get it. He goes to mope.

I get up. I head up to get ready. I turn to him.

"Lulu, today, you are helping me in a project. I am planting marigolds. You are helping."

I still have things to get ready. Anyway, he gets up, and he hangs out near me all the time I get ready. It includes eating breakfast, and so on.

I tell him. "It's time to go."

Immediately, he is turning to go with me. And we go outside, and we have a plenteous day of fun outdoors.

It's time to go in. I call him. While I don't see him, he returns. He's close. I call him to go in, not as an order, but in conversation. He comes in. He comes in with me. I am not herding him in. He just comes in.

About Buhu. He loves his CatDad the way Lulu loves our CatDad. When Buhu walks with his CatDad, he's two feet behind. His Dad is Chinese. It's pretty fun. His CatDad walks around the yard, and you would think Buhu was a dog. He is so close. And they go about the yard.

There's two good cat dads on one street. Imagine that. And yes, our cats are pretty much twins.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

The Dog Owner Brewery



Here's a novel idea. How can it work?

This is a dog brewery. I heard it has been shut, but the manager is working on figuring out a solution.

Dog owners would walk their dog to the brewery, and have a beer. And the server brought a bowl of water to the dog.

This sounds so enlightened, I wish there were a way to work it out.

And the dogs were good guests. Maybe it needs to be a brewery club. And the owner and dog can be joint members. Is that a good idea?

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Catch a Mom

Lately, Lulu is playing catch a mom by her hair. He is fascinated with putting his paws on my head.

We all find things we do in a series of incidents.

CatDad watched. He saw this process. Now, I like petting my cat's head. Him petting my head does not work as well.

He gets one paw in there. I move forwad. His claw tightens. His second paw shows up. I move again. Both tighten. CatMom is in the Lulu hold.

If you back up, where the claw is not as tight, you can get out.

Okay, so this is a thing he's into. He will tire of it. If one had short hair, a cat could comb your hair. The only difficulty is the scalp massage done with claws. If the claws were clipped, it might be enjoyable. 

Saturday, April 15, 2017

CatMom I'll Take That Seat

Recently here, my cat has been sitting on the top of my chair. He thinks it is cool. He can balance, and stay there for 20 minutes, and it is very cat like, requires balance, and he can stay or relinquish his spot when he tires of balancing above my head.

One day, his dry catfood was low. And Lulu was on the back of my chair. And he does little things those days, to be a pain, so I chase him, and he can lead me to his obvious problem, the empty dry food bowl. And then, I fill it.

One of those days, he was sitting behind me on the top of the chair. This chair is the one I use while I write or create art here. That day, Lulu put out his paw. He puts out paws and claws, and he grabs my head and hair. He used my head to set his paw on, but it was more almost a hold. He did it about four times, and I removed him from the spot. On that fourth time, we did a little roundabout, as I tried to figure out what he wanted. He gets like that when there is a need. It's like a baby crying. He does not have a voice, so he does things. He says, "Hey, CatMom, figure me out."

I went in the kitchen, and I saw his catbowl. I filled it. Then, no big surprise, there was no more kitten sitting behind my head playing catch a mom by her hair.

Since then, he decided he really likes CatMom's chair seat. As soon as I get up, he has taken my seat. Now, depending on how things are going in the house, I let him have the seat. He's taken to it. If he wants to rest there, he can. And sometimes, we share. I let him sit behind me, and I sit forward. If I plan to sit a long time, I just pull him forward onto the desk. That is where he is now. And he is back to sleep. Yes, I took the seat. He does not mind.

Friday, April 14, 2017

The 1,000 Cat Zoo




This is an Adam Initiative. This meets God's call to care for his creatures.

There is reward to this venture. Why? Well, in man's terms, cats can't pay you back.

In heaven's terms, watch the windfall in eternity for doing this. Windfall.

Why? Why are we here? We are here to care for Earth and nurture God's creatures.

This works. God works. God works in people, to accomplish the great and beautiful.

This does not just apply to cats. Do you have dogs around you? What are you doing for God's creatures? Do you have whales? They are good pets. What can you do for them?

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Greece Trip Memory

What do you do on vacation?

In a Greece town, in a smaller town, I was out and about. A man was parked in a truck, and he was positioned to go again. A cat was sleeping under his tire.

I went to the cat, on the sidewalk, and I called the cat out from under the tire. He came. And he was saved. I save cats on my trips.

Besides that, around town, a local dog walked me around. And yes, there were cats and dogs. At one point, I had a cat and a dog following me. We walked around town.

This means cats and dogs who speak Greek somehow understand Donna talk. Those animals are smart. It's hard enough for people to figure out English vs. Greek talk. And then, we have their animals. Well, somehow, they figured me out. 

Door Latches and Window Catches

There's a kind of door handle, and it is fancy. It has a horizontal arm, which you turn. Lulu knows how to use it. I put him in the office with me, sometimes, and I close the door. My kitten, who has been in a room forgotten at least once before, by accident, has examined door knobs.

He can stand up and try to open the door. It's pretty cool. One day, he will succeed.

Today, because Lulu wanted to watch the big snow clumps come down, and he had tried the deck, but did not like getting wet, he reached up to open the window catch. He knows when you open the window catch, it lifts (usually I lift it). He stands up, reaches his paw, and he tries to move the lock. CatDad saw, so I opened the window. It is chilly, but it is also what he wants.

We opened the window, and he's been there at least an hour. And he is happy looking out at the snow falling, without being too cold. Instead, he's on a nice cushion, curled up, and he's not cold.

My cat understands door latches and window catches. How about yours?

In portions of Lulu's time on the deck, not all the time, the door is left tucked. It's not open, nor closed. And he opens it on his own. By then, I know he's done his outdoor time. I go shut the door. How I know to shut the door, is he comes and lays down in front of me. And I start his and my music, because together we listen to music. I keep music at lullabye level, so he can sleep. It's not too loud. I try to let my cat do things. The more freedom he has, the more he takes care of me. That said, you also heard sometimes, I may keep him in a room with me. I can't recall all the reasons for that. Sometimes, CatMom needs an advantage in a chase. He's too quick! Give him two minutes, and he comes and stays with me. And he forgets about our chase, and I open the door.

In my life, my cats chase me, and I chase my cats. And that's our fitness plan. In our room, say I shut the door, I have these cat hide-outs. When my cat goes in one, my chase is off, till he comes out. Instead, we play we don't see him. There's his whisker. There's his paw. Maybe, there's his tail. Do you see him? Do you? He's pretty hidden. He could pounce any time. He might reach out and grab our toe. So, be aware walking around corners in CatMom's room, because you never know what is next.

CatDad makes cat tents for his cat. Lulu can make them on his own. He does the same concept as he was shown. I am so proud of my smart cat. CatDad enables his cat to manage his own happiness.

My cats understand our general conversation. If I tell my cats I have plans to feed them in the kitchen, they follow me to the kitchen, and jump on the table. That's both my cats. And then, they wait while I prepare their food there.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Our Skunk Is Here

I wonder if we will see skunk kittens this year. I hope so.

Don't you want to see some skunk kittens?

I hear the skunk is under our deck. 

Petra Cat Photo Story



Here is the scene. Find the donkey, to orient the cat. In the landscape photo, you see several donkeys.











This is the first of a set of distance shots of a cat at Petra.

You must click on the photo. And I am not sure if I am taking this all the way today, or not.

Anyway, what is going on is I have a distance lens. When I focus at a distance, I do okay, but with a moving target, with me constantly moving, sometimes, I get the cat, and sometimes, I don't. I just kept following the cat and shooting.

So, here, we see a donkey and a cat.

The trend of the photo is this cat (which was with the donkey) goes hunting, like my Lulu hunts around our home. He climbs a mountain, up to some trees, where he can hunt something. And when he gets there, he finds things. I don't know what he was after, but I could see him hunting.

There's a dozen photos or so, with some of them showing the action. And I follow him, so can you tell we are in Petra? Well, the stones are our indicator. And I could see a cat in the distance, which is kind of cool. This is not close to me.

There's a wired off wall, like a retaining wall, and the cat jumps that, and goes to a kind of raveen going upward, and he hunts under and around the bushes. He did vertical jumps upward of about 5 feet.  And then, he was up on new pathways.

After this, you see him head to the raveen. I was hunting for his bush, but I did not capture him attacking a mouse. He appeared to have some prey though.

He's cute. So, that's what I do on trips. I watch cats. I am not sure how long I invested here. What we are watching is that cats patrol. They have specific sites they go to, and they check that all is under control for them. They manage their territory.

Now, go back to the first picture. Can you see the cat in the first picture? With my eye, I caught the cat moving in the first picture. I saw life moving, and I came closer with the zoom. And there's my cat subject. It's amazing. They are so cute.

If my reader were in the set looking at the first image, with the naked eye, it is possible you would see movement as well. In this photo, it's hard to pick out a cat anywhere.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Google's Little Cat

Today, use the Google Search Engine for a few minutes at least, so you can find the Google Cat.

Okay.

They have cute cat art, and they made my heart glad.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Poème Le Chat-Tigre

 



Moi…
Je suis un tigre
À l’extérieur
Je suis un bébé chaton
À l’intérieur.

Et ma placidité change
En consternation
En concentration.
Ma mère
C’est la tigresse
Du grand dehors
Ici en Alberta
En moitié Grand Nord.

Où la neige tombait
Comme la laine d’un mouton
Et les chats comme moi
Ne valent pas plus qu’un
Chien de prairie;
On reste ensemble 
Dans la garderie 
De trash.

Ben moi, je suis cute
Un peu silent
Sauf quand j’appelle
Ma maman
Mon miaou devient perçant.
Ma mère l’entend
Mille milles dans quatre directions.

J’ai agrandit
Dans ces deux jours
De compagnie humaine
Je suis plus moins timide
Et j’ai moins plus peur
Je t’aime
Le grand dehors
De qui j’ai peur de faire face.

Je fais un grand folklore
De ce quoi faire ce terre
Nous sommes les chats
De ce terrain noirâtre
Avec étoiles brillantes
Qui piquent la haute surface
Le ciel nous donne l’espoir
Nous continuons notre vie
De traces
Dans cette neige
Moins 10 degrés.

On respire ensemble
Pour garder cette espèce
Une chaleur de chaton
Un chalet de déchets
Rempli de vie
Rempli de ronrons
Notre chalet n’est pas
Trop dégueulasse.

Par Chaperon Rouge

Droits de l'Auteur Donna Munro. 1993.






Welcome to the PPP Blog

This blog hosts my writing drafts for the Pretentious Pet Parent set of books, based on this blog.

The books are available as a page link.

The writing drafts, or rather writing samples, are still here in reduced numbers.

The books are available on Kindle and as hard copy. 

See my Amazon Author Profile, or seach Amazon for the Pretentious Pet Parent.

I set up Kindle Matchbook as a promotion. And this set of reading is also available on the Kindle library. As to Amazon ordering, the books will be available in 5 days. I will add them to my author profile, when they are available.

I am ordering book copies, and I will be selling them locally. For bookstores who want these books, CreateSpace does do large copy discounts. I will double check I applied that.

As to the blog, I have simplified it. If you would like to see my book listing, visit my Author page.

Thanks for your visit.

Donna Munro

No Playlists

Online, cat videos do not permit playlists.

So, we can leave that.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Look at These Kitties



One house. Four bobcats. So lucky! I am jealous.

These are Calgary bobcats.

This was posted 52 minutes ago. It is new content.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

The Pretentious Pet Parent Volume 3

My book is up. I released The Pretentious Pet Parent Volume 3. However, like my blog, I need about a week to make it all perfect.

It will be set up to borrow through the Kindle Library. My conventions are not fully applied. I have not decided if I am taking out all my fragments. I will get to that after all the rest. It is lower priority. However, I will get to it. As a comment to the fragments on my blog, what you are seeing is my thinking. I write as I think. It is not just my age. When I think, my mind stops on words, as it collects the new thought. And sometimes, even verbally, talking to my husband, I have these words. I speak the word, and as I speak the word, I am thinking about that next thought. It is the sentence in a word. I meditate on a word. I think I am communicating in a word, but maybe not.

However, when you see an individual word, my mind is dreaming. I probably think I am communicating a lot. And for a younger person, like a child, they would not get that, because we learn all the rules of communicating first. And then, as we grow, and communication contexts change, we break the rules. The better you know someone, the more it works. I can say one word to my husband, and because he has all the backup information, I don't have to say ten words, because he has all this backup data to who I am. He gets me (understands me) with a word. And then, depending on our play, which all individuals do, for we have ebbs and flows, we need to fill in those words based on context, and seeing if who we are speaking to understands. You might see me say one word, and between him and I, it can be developed or not. As far as conventions, for a blog, I could leave it as it is. I am in the midst of decision-making. Who do I want to make this useful for? Schools? Language schools? Children? Teachers? Who? I am thinking about my audience.

Obviously, if I want my material to be able to be used in Elementary and Junior High, I need to sift my words. I need to complete them. This is going to be an "over a week or so" event. Also, in this book, I reveal my heart of faith. It's here and there. It's where I pray for my cats. Teachers may not even carry my book, because of this. However, I did think on this, and a person can pick and choose the content they bring into the class. They don't have to read my book cover to cover. It's thoughts and stories here, and thoughts and stories there. They can decide. I am my heart. My cats have come through some "doozie" vet events, so we are lucky we have them. I owe God for taking care of my babies—these cats.

My first priority is to make a TOC, and to check the graphics, get front and back publisher data in there. And then, I will hunt down my fragments. Yes, I have a few. I like poems. In my finishing touches, I am looking around for the song I wrote referenced in the book. And I have a couple kitties in there who are our twin cats. So, instead of exposing our twin cats, as I organize graphics, I am going to paint those boys. And we can have paintings instead.

The release of a Kindle book and a children's book is quite different. What I have right now, as my draft, was the least work I ever did for a book. Now, I could leave it there, but I like print books too. So, I am prettying up my format. I decided I am staying in Word.

I have these usual conventions of making book folders, with 300 dpi images, covers, etc., so casually, I am working through that. My first time, I did 100ish edits just to the Kindle upload. This time, it was excessively easy. I don't think it is supposed to be that easy. Just like blogging, I have these kinds of sets of parameters I expect, so I am working through those.

The Kindle file is easier than the book file. The transfer concept to print book these days looks cool. It is a way to get a lot of work done with a few clicks. However, my finish publishing will come after I organize my folder with all the book bits I expect in there.

Today, I am photo hunting. I do all my images on my storage as 300 dpi, so that I can fluidly move them to whatever project. And I hope I did not scale anything down for the blog. It needs to be a certain quality for art and for books. I can't just use the images from my blog for a print book, because I don't have a paid Google storage account, and that means my images are quality down-sized. If you pay for the service, that storage account will hold the original data. That means as a blogger, if you want to use your images in a book, it works for a e-book, but not necessarily a print book.

The book is up. For those who borrow from the Kindle library, it's there. Wait a couple weeks, while I make my book all pretty, if you want to jump around a Table of Contents. If the Table of Contents does not matter, go ahead. Read the blog book. It is under revision.

This is going well. I may get two more books out in the near future. The next ones are children's books. My husband is game to watch over my next couple cover creations.

My book is carried, my books already done, at WalMart. WalMart is in my mind, as I finish. My book is carried in Italy at a University bookstore. I am thinking about second language courses which might use my books. And yes, for you, I would finish my fragments. I am excited my book is planted into the Renaissance Capital of Earth.

Remember who I am. I am a wife, at home, playing around on her computer. And we have books. I am not really a whole publishing firm. I am one person, with a husband who looks over her work from time to time, and yes, he makes a cover file from time to time, which I use as a template, because I like rulers in my work. He sets up the rulers in my files for me, because he is the carpenter. It's cool my book is at WalMart.

I have this art image I am working on. My husband helped me to draw a grid onto the canvas. It's pretty cool. And that is because I preplanned the grid for my art in Photoshop, and printed it. I can paint almost by numbers, based on my art plan. There are different perspective grids you can apply to art. I put them on, and print them, in a couple forms, so that I can see depth, or the mathematical grounding of my image. That art is going to be worked on. I am sort of on a Corel whim, and exploring, so you are getting its art these days, compiled with other tools, like Adobe's.

Update: TOC added, errors fixed.

12:28 AM. Saturday. I am changing the paragraph entries. I've been at it for about 9 hours. Do you think I can stop? No. I am not staying up many more hours, but I have this thing for finishing. 1:42 AM I finished the paragraph marker change.

We have two books coming. The content is more than I expected.

My next couple steps: I still have to collect my graphics, and pull them into my Word document, where my more limited graphics are. I need to format the graphic boxes. I need to get ISBNs. I may be making my barcode label still. I will have both print and kindle formats available. I am taking out the post headings in the TOC, and putting chapter headings instead. I am reviewing my conventions for managing numbers in the text body.

My cover is going to be limited work. Basically, I change the color of my cover. I change V2 to V3. I put in a new graphic. I change the year, if it is there. Done.

I decided to buy my books, and sell them locally. In particular, I like the size of these paperbacks. And now, I am set up to offer deals on a number of them. That's good.

Yes, I'm tired. I did try a means of automating my task. However, Word would not do it. 

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Renewed Cat Tree

Today, CatDad is renewing Lucius's cat tree. The carpet was getting worn, and had some open spots. To undo the attached carpet is an hour of taking out staples. There's cleanup. And then, now, CatDad is applying new carpet and staples.

Lulu does not like the sound of this work, so he is hiding.

Having a cat tree in the home is one of the ingredients of success. Having somewhere to claw, at least in theory, reduces other negative behaviour. It allows the cat to exercise, which is a large part of why they claw.

That cat tree is going to look better in its corner.

This has been a 2-3 hour job so far. And I think there's an hour to go. It is tall. 

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Ollie the Bobcat's Roundabout



Now, Lulu does this very thing. He runs away from his pet parents.

Ollie knows what is going on. He knows those traps are for him. Okay, I had fun. I am hungry. Take me home.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Filing Lulu's Claws

Lulu's claws are sharp. I decided to use my nail file to cut them down. I am trying something new.

Well, approaching him like he is in a nail salon did not work. He was very impatient with me.

Instead, I laid down on the carpet, and I played with him, with my nail file. He would catch the nail file with his claws, and I would pull.

I just tested his claw. At least one of them is dull! Yahoo! Now, I probably got 6-7 of them. I have to check them all. This strategy worked pretty well. The surface I wanted his claw on was the side I put up on the emergy board, as I dragged it for him to attack.

When doing this, I had to be careful to not have much contact with his skin. I don't want to file his paw pads.