Kate's Point of View

Our new, still unnamed, addition has a lovely set of claws on his front feet. Our other two cats are declawed and really don’t stand a chance against a 20 pound cat with claws. It’s just mean. Declawing cats is also pretty mean so we’d like not to go down that route. The solution so far? Soft Paws.

Soft Paws are like Lee Press On Nails for cats. They slide over the claws and minimize their powers of destruction. And they come in LOTS of colors. For our first round, we went with rainbow. It’s awesome! Maybe more for us, but still. It looks like he has chiclets between his toes!

We have a new addition to our family. He is white as freshly fallen snow, cries quite a bit, is a terrible sleeper but is definitely not an infant, despite the similarities. In fact, he is 20 furry pound of cat. It was a gift I got for Wonder Boy. One of the best surprises I’ve pulled off on him in a long time. When he say the still unnamed cat, he look stunned. (In a good way.)

For now we call the cat Logan. That’s the name given to him at the rescue we adopted him at. Well, first it was Lola, but then they discovered she was a he.

Meet out sweet boy:

Remember that Wolf Pack speech from The Hangover? Zach Galifianakis was hysterical, right? Don’t worry, I’m not going to do some lame attempt at being as dry, clever or funny.

Last weekend I went running with a real wolf pack. Maybe sitting is a more accurate verb. It was amazing.

The Wolf Creek Sanctuary and Rescue is in Indiana, about an hour away from Cincinnati. They have 28 wolves in their rescue right now and visitors can be in pens with most of them. I visited with a large group of people, some of whom had been and there and most of us who were newbies. The woman who runs the sanctuary took us to one of the larger pens with my right behind her and said, “You know the drill, right?” Then she walked on in.

Um, I didn’t know the drill.

Turns out it was easy. We all walked in and sat down. The wolves walked around our pen and once they got used to our presence we could move around. We got kissed my wolves, were able to pet them and run their bellies.

Despite all the dog-like love, there were carcasses and bones all around us. Some wolves were chewing on what was distinctly a deer leg – fur, hoof and all. Between that, the size of their paws and glimpses of their very large teeth, we were constantly reminded of the fact that wolves are powerful animals, wild animals, and not pets.

That aside, I’m going back to the rescue. For sure.

In three days we can all celebrate National Vegetarian Day and also the kick-off of Vegetarian Awareness Month. A whole month just to make sure you all are aware of me and people like me!

Although I questioned, even mocked, vegetarians in my past thinking they were only doing it to lose weight or to follow wacky, unfounded health fads, I’ve been vegetarian for three and 1/2 years now. The thing is, it’s easy. And it makes me feel like less of a hypocrite when I go to my animal rescue every week to help socialize rescued cats. I no longer have to think in my head “Yes, you guys are cute but I eat animals that aren’t like cute like you.”

And being a vegetarian has plenty of other benefits. You can download a World Vegetarian Day poster that will detail many of them, but here are my favorites:

• Reduce the risk of major killers such as heart disease, strokes and cancers while cutting exposure to foodborne pathogens
• Save animals from suffering in factory-farm conditions and from the pain and terror of slaughter
• Preserve irreplaceable ecosystems such as rainforests and other wildlife habitats
• Decrease greenhouse gases that are accelerating global warming

All this by not eating meat!

Thanks to Songbird for alerting me to the holiday!