Felix the Cat

Now, I’m kind of on the fence on this one. It seems like a neat idea, but then again it also strikes me as being incredibly stupid and a little bit of god playing.

Scientists from Allerca in San Diego, California have apparently created the very first hypo-allergenic cat. Good news for all you hyper-allergic cat people out there. Apparently the scientists determined what gene in a cats DNA was responsible for causing allergic reactions, found a specimen with very low levels of the “Fel D1″ gene and began its “breeding programme.” This is the part that makes me wonder exactly what they did, as no further details are offered on this supposed breeding pattern.

The results of the “breeding programme” were kittens that were clinically tested to apparently not induce allergic reactions in people that would otherwise be sneezing like mad.

“In times of need and passion, whether it’s depression, whether it’s something traumatic, nothing substitutes the love of a pet. You can’t put a price on it,” said May. Allerca also stated that allergic cat lovers will be willing to pay a small fortune for these hypo-allergenic cats. This brings me to my second point of contention with this whole thing.

The cats will be sold spayed or neutered (to prevent Allerca from losing their monopoly on the hypo-allergenic cat market), micro-chipped and will even be delivered right to your door. Orders are being accepted online for these super cats, which will be available for delivery in early 2007, for the low low cost of $4,000 US. HA! Good to know Allerca is obviously in it to make it possible for allergic cat lovers to have cats, as opposed to, you know, making as much money as humanly possible. Right. Now you see why they’re selling them spayed and neutered, right? Right.

I think I’ll stick with my perfectly good hyper-allergenic felix the cat. He cost $50 from the West Vancouver SPCA, who are more concerned about actually helping the animals than making assloads of money on them, and I bet he’s just as cuddly and loving, if not more so, than any hypo-allergenic genetically modified cat-like creation could be.

So Chrys and I decided to take a short little walk up to Arbutus and 11th to check out a pet store we noticed coming back from Petcetera one day, and I have to say, it rules!

No more will we be bussing it to Petcetera just to pick up a few odds and ends. Tisol is a lot closer, has much better prices and a way better selection. They have everything you can think of for Dogs, small critters and Cats. Unlike Petcetera, which has a ton of stuff for dogs and not a whole lot for cats, Tisol has everything you need for your kitty. Tisol has a better selection of cat food, litter, toys, cleaning products, just about everything really, and from what I noticed, it all seems to be cheaper as well.

A small bag of Nutro Max cat food is about $12 - $13 at Petcetera, where as it’s only $8 - $9 at Tisol. They also sell their wet kitty food for cheaper and have a much better selection of natural, organic and generally healthier cat food. Tisol even has some super cute cat food dishes and treat holders, they’re so cute! We picked up a new cat dish for Felix as we’ve just been using a small saucer for his wet food and he manages to push it all over the place and gets most of it all over his little mat.

Needless to say, we’ll no longer be going to Petcetera, Tisol is the cat supplies store of choice for us, for sure! If you need any animal supplies, I highly recommend looking into a Tisol near you, as they do have a few different locations in Burnaby, White Rock, Richmond and 2 in Vancouver.

Tisol
Petcetera
Felix the Cat

Wow, it’s only 8:15am and I’m already handing out the Stupid Person Of The Day Award. That’s got to be some kind of record, but this guy is obviously very deserving of such a prestigious title.

A drunk chinese migrant worker (those are the best kind) decided to get a close look at the cuddly little panda bears and jump the fence into the panda bear enclosure. Well, as cute and cuddly as panda bears look, they’re really not all that friendly, and they’re pretty damn big. So naturally, big Mr. panda doesn’t take to friendly to his new alcohol saturated roomate and decides to take a big ole’ bite out of him. Naturally, in retaliation, the drunken fence jumper decided the best thing to do would be to bite the panda back!

Zhang Xinyan of central Henan had apparently drank for jugs (Jugs?) of beer at a near by restaraunt before heading for the Beijing Zoo, where “He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand.” The best part of this all, is that the panda was asleep! What do you think is going to happen if you jump into a wild animals cage and try to pet it while it’s sleeping? Maybe it’ll wake up and take a big ass bite out of you, just a guess though.

Oh man, it just keeps getting better. Apparently the panda got startled and bite Zhang Xinyan’s leg and, of course, he wasn’t having none of that and started to kick the panda with his other leg, in turn, the panda swung around and bit his other leg, lol!

“No one ever said they would bite people,” Zhang said. “I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don’t remember much.” Well, it happens to the best of us. Most of us just don’t decide to get up close and friendly with Pandas!

Ya Mingxia, a spokeswoman for Beijing Zoo said “We’re not considering punishing him now, he’s suffered quite a bit of shock.” Really? Ya think? Maybe next time he gets drunk and decides to get cuddly with an animal he’s choose something friendly, like a crocodile.

Source

We are ready to rock for captain kitty. We’re probably picking him up Wednesday during the day. The adoption centre is only open 12 - 3 of all stupid hours, so I have to take a half day at work to go pick up the kitty. We went out today and picked up the last few things we needed to get prepped.

Kitty Supplies:

• Litter Box - CHECK
• Litter - CHECK
• Poop Scooper - CHECK
• Liter Box Liners - CHECK
• 4 Bags of Senior Cat Food - CHECK (it was on sale for like, $2 and it’s usually $11)
• Kitty Food Scoop - CHECK
• Kitty Brush - CHECK
• Food and Water Dish - CHECK
• Cat Carrier - CHECK
• Cat Collar - CHECK
• Toys - CHECK
• Scratching Post/Cat Tree - CHECK
• Nature’s Miracle Cleaning Stuff - CHECK

I think that’s everything. If not, we’ve got all the basics and then some ready for him, now all we need is him. We’re still deciding on a name too. His name at the West Vancouver SPCA is Felix, which I like, but he doesn’t respond too. If we got a male cat I wanted to call it Napolean, but he doesn’t fit a Napolean. The one floating around chrys and I’s minds right now is Rube. She likes Higgins too, but I’m not a big fan of that. This is harder then naming a kid. We already have kids names picked out for whenever that day, years and years down the road, should come.

Um, so yeah, we’re all set for Mr. Kitty. I just hope he doesn’t freak out to much on the trip home. We have to bring him home on the bus cause we don’t have a car or drive, so it’s going to mean 30 mins or so of bussing hell for poor mr kitty. He should be okay once we get him home and he gets to sniff everything and get settled in. Everything is all setup and just waiting for him to be here, so hopefully all goes well.

Support the West Vancouver SPCA.
Support the Vancouver SPCA.

Chrys and I went to the West Vancouver SPCA today to do some further hunting for the perfect kitty, and we found him! Hit name, at the moment, is Felix and he’s an old feller, but a lovey cat. We walked into the shelter and the cats have 3 seperate indoor sections with all their sleeping spots that all connect to a big courtyard for them to walk around and play in. Chrys and I both really liked the design of this place, much better for the cats, they’re not just stuck in little cages like they are at the Vancouver SPCA.

So, we walked into one of the rooms and Bam! Felix was on us right away, talking with us and giving the rubs and loves. We also found another cat we absolutely loved, a 2 year old Siamese Something X that was in Torti colors, so loving and just gorgeus, but she will be adopted right away with how pretty and love she is, so chrys and I decided to get Felix instead. Felix has been in the West Vancouver SPCA since March, so he’s been there for 6 months, and he’s 11 years old, so he’s and old timer and the chance of many people adopting a kitty that old are pretty slim. We fell in love with him right away though, so we had to get him. It was a really hard choice between him and Roxanne, but Felix’s age actually play to his advantage.

We haven’t brought him home yet cause we have to pay the landlord our pet deposit and he’s a brand new guy and has to wait until Tuesday when he gets shown how to do all this stuff. After we get our pet deposit paid we’ll be ready to go pick him up from the West Vancouver SPCA and bring him to his new home. We bought a litter box yesterday and today we got kitty litter, senior cat food, a kitty carrier and some food and water dishes, so all we need for Felix is a collar, some toys and a scratching post/play area thingy.

I’m so stoked about getting a kitty! I can’t wait! Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Chrys and I did taken some pictures of him at the shelter, though most of them turned out really crappy, but if you’d like to see our new kitty, check out the pictures here.

Chrys and I spent the day out Kitty hunting today.

First stop on the trip was the Vancouver SPCA shelter. They had the kitty there we’ve been looking at online for a long time. Gorgeous cat but we just didn’t click with it. We hung out with a few other kitties and were about to leave, but chrys convinced me to go back and see one I really liked again. His name is Suave and he’s not super mega pretty or anything, but he’s a cute orange kitty and we took him into the private room to have a play with him. He was out of his little house running around, cuddling and playing with chrys and I right away. Completely clicked right away with Suave, he was great and I wanted to take him home really badly. We went to the front desk to get more info on him and it turns out he’s 14 years old. Chrys and I were hoping for a 2 - 6 or so year old cat, so 14 was a tad bit higher then we wanted. It was hard to leave without him cause I love him, but now we’re considering fostering him instead so the Vancouver SPCA can free up a spot for another younger kitty that’s more likely to be adopted. We’re going to give them a call again tomorrow to see if it’s possible to foster him. I sure hope so.

After spending 2 1/2 hrs or more at the Vancouver SPCA we headed into Kits as Chrys was convinced that a Petcetera was supposed to be around Arbutus and Cornwall, so we walked all around the area, found nothing, asked people, they knew nothing, then I finally gave up, called 411 and it turns out the Petcetera we were looking for is at Arbutust and King Edward… which is slightly further away, by around 40 blocks or so. We hopped bus and headed out. Finally got there and they only had 3 kitties left for adoption, 2 that were adopted waiting to get picked up and 3 that were gone and adopted out earlier in the day. Chrys found one she really liked there but it just didn’t click for me, so the Petcetera kitty trip wasn’t a success, though it wasn’t a waste of time either as we got a cool litter box and scooper for when we do get a kitty. So we’re semi-prepared now.

Tomorro we were going to go to the Vancouver Flea Market, but I changed our minds (hehe) and we’re gonna be doing more kitty hunting. Going to hit the Petcetera on Rupert and Grandview Hwy and possibly the Richmond SPCA, as well as talk to the Vancouver SPCA folks again about fostering Suave.

We’re very close to getting a kitty, within the next 3 weeks at the most we should have a brand new family member, yay!

The Vancouver SPCA Paws for a Cause… Walk for the Animals is an annual event held in Vancouver, along with numerous other locations through-out British Columbia. The event is a sponsorship run/walk with the goal of raising some much needed money for Vancouver SPCA Animal Shelters. All of the funds raised by these events go to the local shelters where each event is held, so if you sponsor in Vancouver, your money goes to a Vancouver SPCA Shelter, which is pretty cool.

When: Sunday, September 10th
Where: Vanier Park, Vancouver
Time: Site opens at 10am, Walk begins @ Noon

The Vancouver event is hosted by Randene Neill of Global News and will be a 2.5km run/walk beginning at Noon in Vanier Park. The minimum amount of pledges required to participate is $20. If you don’t get $20 in pledges, you can always pay a $20 registration fee to partake. And, of course, this isn’t just a walk, like every event that happens in Vancouver, there are always other things happening. Among the fairly long list of things happening at the event are: BC SPCA presentations, Dog Stars - Dog Agility Demonstration, Paws 2 Dance - a doggy dance event, Pet Look-a-Like contest and a Bowl Lickin’ doggy style pie eating contest.

If you can’t afford to pledge anyone, volunteer yourself and get out there. If you can’t do that, come on down and check out the events and give your support to the walkers and runners, and the puppies!, this is a great cause to get involved with anyway you can.

Get more information on the 2006 Vancouver SPCA: Paws for a Cause event.