On April Fools Day I announced that this blog was going to be participating in a Hairball Awareness Day Event.
For anyone who thought I was pulling your tail...
Today is National Hairball Awareness Day! ;-D
No, no, it's not a day about the fight for Hairball Rights, with intelligent, self-aware, politically active Hairballs holding a Million Hairball March on Washington D.C., with speeches on the Mall, and in front of the White House...
Daddy convinced me to sacrifice my dignity for a very good cause...helping FURminaor deShedding Tools, PeoplePets, and Romeo the Cat, spread the word about hairballs, and the health issues involved with them for Cats.
Hairballs are no laughing matter...to us Cats, and our Humans, anyway. ;-D
All 90 million of us!
Unpleasant to look at, unpleasant to cough up, unpleasant to clean up, they are hazardsous to Feline health in many ways.
Tools like the FURminator are a comfortable, Cat friendly, way to brush your Cats hair, and redude shedding by up to 90%.
Because we are fastidious groomers, our rough tongues made for the task, we ingest a lot of our own hair, and this annoys our stomach. ;-D
When up to 2/3 of your shed hair ends up down there, hairballs form, and those things have to go somewhere, right?
Now you know why your Human puts a lot of the Family Valuables out of your reach. ;-D
I'm a hairy dude, as you can see but, in all my 13 years, I've never had an issue with Hairballs. Even though the little buggers are not just made of fur, but can have food particles, and mucus in the mix. They can not just cause you to toss your cookie, as the humans call it, but give you constipation, diahrrea, intestinal obstructions, even a loss of appetite.
Did you know that hair ingestion equals roughly 0.011 ounces of hair for an outdoor adult short-hair weighing in at 6.6 lbs., and this can add up to 1.24 ounces ingested a year?
As much as you might not care to admit the need for it, Kitties, you might want to enlist the assistance of your Human, or professionals, with your grooming, so the dead undecoat can be removed before you swallow it.
Traditional treaments like lubricants, and diets, only address the issue AFTER you have swallowed a stomach full of hair!
So, I let Daddy Kiril turn me into a test crittter for the FURminator tool, the company sent us to try out, and I will admit that it felt comfortable to have the hair removing part caress my back, and stomach, areas, removing enough hair, over several days, so Daddy could pretend he was a Mad Scientist in his laboratory. ;-D
My contribution was to suggest that he use an empty toilet paper roll as the body of his creation. ;-D
The result? The Nikitastein Monster. ;-D
People Magazine has a PeoplePets Website, as mentioned above, and they have done a very cool thing.
They have posted a gallery of the creations of more than 20 Cats & our Humans, inviting their readers to visit our websites, and discover a side of the Blogosphere they may never have imagined existed.
Thank you, as well, to FURminator, for posting the photos, and blog links, on their Facebook Page!
It's been interesting to read the information about hairballs provided by FURminator, and Romeo, and fun, and amusing, to check out the humor in the photos of the other creations, especially by my fellow Cat Blogosphere Kitties (The CB is well represented!).
Romeo will hold a drawing next week.
The winner among us participants gets a $500 donation to a pet rescue of their choice and second place gets to choose Romeo's May FURpower organization. ;-D
Your design is interesting and unique.
Funny how no two fur creatures look anything alike.
It's been fun to see what others created with the fur they furminated. :)
Posted by: jansfunnyfarm | April 29, 2011 at 10:15 PM
Nikita, you DO look a little embarrassed at your human's creative endeavor!
I am glad my human used Binga for hers - less embarrassment for me, MOL!
Posted by: Sparkle | April 29, 2011 at 11:06 PM
Nikita dude, we love your creation!
Next time the apes tell me I am too fat for my own good I'm gonna tell 'em that 1.24 ounces is INSIDE FUR.
This will shut them up talking about diets.
Luff from Oliver
Posted by: Everycat | April 30, 2011 at 03:23 AM