The Opinionated Pussycat

Best Friends Animal Society, Houston, Harris County, Helping Cats

 

Good afternoon, felinity assembled, Elvira Mistress of Felinity, here, with a follow-up to the story we shared about recent rescue and adoption efforts in the Houston region.

Houston Has Issues, But Houstonians Have Heart, as Well

  As Daddy Kiril occupies his time with the Cat Writers' Ass. Conference we wish to spend some time discussing the Houston rescue and shelter scene.

  Best Friends Animal Society is a national organization with a mission:

  "to bring about a time when there are No More Homeless Pets. We do this by helping end the killing in America's animal shelters through building community programs & partnerships all across the nation." 

  They have regional programs, network partners, no-kill initiatives.

  They have spay and neuter programs and promote adoption vs buying.

 In May Harris County Animal Shelter made an important announcement:

They "launched today a joint three-year program to save the lives of cats in Harris County.

This is a significant action for Harris County; not only are we implementing a best practice that will help bring our community to the forefront of animal welfare in in Texas, but more importantly, the program will save the lives of thousands of cats each year, and over time, reduce the number of free-roaming cats in the community.

Harris County Animal Shelter is profoundly grateful to Judge Emmet and the Harris County Commissioners, as well as Best Friends Animal Society for their generous support of this program."

Welcoming the CWA Conference and CFA Show To Houston

 

 

 Good evening, felinity assembled....Daddy Kiril here.

Do not worry, the girls will be holding the fort the rest of this busy week, this post concerns just why the week will be so busy.

On the banks of where White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou meet a city was born, in the 1830's, a city that spread out and evolved into one of the most diverse in the nation.

Known for its economy built on space travel, medicine, oil, dining, and more, it is also a city known for its museums, its freeways, and its weather, hot and cold, dry and wet....often VERY wet.

It is a city known for its music, theatre and creative writing communities, as well.

There is also something else it is known for, for reasons good and bad...Cats and Dogs.

Lots of Cats and Dogs.

 Houston loves its pets....and that is a good thing... The Houston Cat Club has had a show since its founding in 1949.

Houston has also long had a serious problem with strays, as well, and has many rescue and shelter efforts across the city and county doing what they can to persevere over it.

With that introduction out of the way, as we prepare for the Cat Fanciers' Association Cat Show and Cat Writers' Association Annual Conference, June 7 thru 10, while Elvira, Sneakers and Friday will spend some time talking about that persistent issue....I want to talk about the type of perseverance that brings together a collection of humans who not only write cat blogs and cat books, but who blog and hope to publish books, or who hope to someday do one or both, but have yet to take the steps.

Houston Has Issues, But Houstonians Have Heart, as Well

Good afternoon, felinity assembled, Elvira Mistress of Felinity here, with a story that will anger you, at first, but then give you hope.

 

 

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Harris County Animal Shelter had an emergency.

They had their highest intake of animals so far this year. 

They received almost 200 animals in just 3 days!  Cats and dogs. This meant that they had 375 animals available for adoption or foster.  This is a lot for their facility.

They put out a call for help, with an 11 min. video. A call for fosters and adopters.

With the help of local media word went out, and 2 days later there was a line out the door as Houstonians responded.

 

Heading into Summer With New Business Card and Badge With Dangles

 

For the past 10+ years the poetry, storytelling, essay, journalism and photography skills of all of us here have grown.

We began the year celebrating the 8th anniversary of this blog and 4900 comments.

Daddy Kiril got a new computer and printer and we began to make plans to attend the Cat Writers' Association conference, here, next month.

Good afternoon, felinity assembled, Elvira Mistress of Felinity here, with some news and an invitation.

 

 Daddy Kiril recently extended an invitation on his blog to read some of his past creations, and ours as well, and it is a similar invite to read, comment on, and share our work that I wish to extend  (Take your time, this stuff will be here waiting for ya! Maybe you will find inspiration for your own creative pursuits along the way.).

The 3 of us hope we have not lost our touch, and can live up to the high standards Mr. Nikita set.

 Daddy hopes to represent himself and us, personally and creatively, in the best way he knows how.

 Anyone he connects or networks with, or just passes out a card to will, we hope, stop by for a look, and it would be nice for them to see, from comments and shares, that at least a few folks, and critters, have taken notice.

 

May I Have a Word? = An Essay By Nikita

Aubrey = A 30 pt. 100 Word Cat Story (w/1 of 200 Words) by Nikita (Someone has suggested this is worthy of being a book. Feedback welcome!)

 THE TEXIAN TUXEDO: The Secret Story Behind the Rescue of Sneakers

A Street in Laredo: A Ballad of the 8th Texian Tuxedo and A LIFE ON THE RAILS: Houston Hairy and the Death of the 8th Texian Tuxedo (a 5 part series, in total. Feedback welcome!)

Elvira Factor - Enter the No Bull Zone! (An on going series with 17 entries so far).

 Daddy prepared for the conference in several important ways.

He had a new business card made for the first time in 5 years or more, and he totally re-imagined a badge and dangles combo that he first had created, when he attended the first Cats For Cats Theatrical in 2011, in Los Angeles.

 Daddy prepared for the conference in several important ways.

He had a new business card made for the first time in 5 years or more, and he totally re-imagined a badge and dangles combo that he first had created, when he attended the first Cats For Cats Theatrical in 2011, in Los Angeles.

1st Post in a Year...Remembering Lessons from a Master

 

  Happy Feline Friday, felinity assembled!

The Texian Tuxedo has returned!

Miss me?

Aside from a Street Seens post in January I had not posted here in a year (May 23rd) due to our technical difficulties.

One of the things I want to do, if there is an interest in it, still, is revive my old Texas Tuesday postings....There were 8, the last almost 2 years ago (Archive).

Today, though, as we slowly return to what passes for normal on this blog, and prepare for an interesting June, Elvira thought it important that Friday and I join her in re-reading something she shared from her wise mentor, and the founder of this blog, Mr. Nikita, in the wake of his going to Rainbow Bridge, in 2013, and just before she and Daddy Kiril rescued me.

Nikita said he sometimes felt out of his league in the world of pet blogging, wondering how the blog could attract more than just the passing googler and 2000 spambot comments a day...and Elvira said the same to us. 

She echoed something he said to her when she told us that we three are, "in many ways unique within our community, offering many different things, not found elsewhere, to whet the appetite of anyone curious enough to let us engage their attention.”

She said that, going forward, "we, together with Daddy Kiril, must re-dedicate ourselves to do our best to take this blog and our own writing, to new heights of excellence, even in directions beyond blogging, Ceiling Cat willing."

The past year was not easy. Not being able to blog much was difficult and discouraging...I know it hurt Elvira and especially Daddy Kiril.

So we read, and thought about, the words of Nikita, from all those years ago.

 

An Interesting Month, One Full of Secrets

 

 

Well, hmph!

Good afternoon felinity assembled....Elvira Mistress of Felinity, here.

Daddy has been online a lot, in recent weeks, during the hours before he heads to work, mostly doing some blogging related to his bike riding.

However, there have been some things he and I both have been working on as we prepare for an eventful June and this blog hopefully returning to some semblance of what passes for normalcy around here, hee, hee!

Finally!

As this blog celebrates its 110,000th Page View, since it debuted New Years Day 2010, this morning, I have some things to share.

In case you missed our return, you can catch up, here....

We're Back and Meowin' to Go! We Have a New Computer and Printer!

4900 Comments! Thank You Creative Idea Gal!

As we announced earlier Daddy Kiril will be going somewhere for 3 days, in early June, without even leaving town, or having to board us at the vet! He plans to look his best and he and I have created something to allow us cats to "represent" with him, while not being able to physically be with him.

STREET SEENS 110: Feline Staffed Shop Sells Daddy Bike

 

Happy Thursday, felinity assembled, Elvira Mistress of Felinity, here, with news that means Daddy Kiril will be able to resume his cat spotting while bike riding in the manner to which he has long been accustomed.

Back in February, for his birthday in March, daddy went looking for a new bike and decided to check out a popular bike shop, called Daniel Boone Cycles, in the Houston Museum District.

When he arrived he found the shop was on an old residential property, with plenty of open and not-so-open space outside the shop and repair garage.

He also discovered that the human staff appeared to be under the watchful supervision of at least a half dozen felines, several of whom he met on the 2 occasions he visited the store.

The presence of members of felinity assembled sealed the deal for daddy even before the helpful humans assisted him in ordering a bike and buying Grocery Panniers, front and rear lights, odometer and helmet.

A week or so after the first visit he returned to pick up his bike and the other items.

We loved the new bike upon seeing it and enjoy poking around in the panniers if daddy leaves them outside the closet, hee, hee!

Lots of spare parts laying about for the cats to ignore as they please.

4900 Comments! Thank You Creative Idea Gal!

 

Happy Feline Friday, felinity assembled!

Elvira Mistress of Felinity, here, to share a milestone and say thank you to a friend of Daddy Kiril.

In response to our return to blogging, the other day, we got a slew of comments from friends and fellow bloggers.

One stood out as it turned out to be the 4900th comment left here since the blog began on New Year's Day 2010.

While the comment was address to daddy, we like to think its sentiments apply to the feline voices of this blog, past and present...

"you are a true original. You have consistently maintained your writing and deep, rich sense of creativity. There is always so much coming out of your heart and soul. I understand many things about which you've written and am so happy for you and the cats that things are finally looking sunnier. I am thrilled you are able to get to this special cat conference to just enjoy yourself." 

 

We're Back and Meowin' to Go! We Have a New Computer and Printer!

Oh, Happy Day!!!! 

Catnip for everybody (treats for the under age and niptotallers)!

Hello, felinity assembled, Elvira Mistress of Felinity, here.

On Friday the 13th Daddy Kiril went shopping, thanks to the kindness of family, after some research to find a computer and printer he could look at, in store, and went to a nearby Best Buy where the Geek Squad helped set things up in the computer he chose...then he made our day by bringing it all home.

To say Sneakers the Texian Tuxedo, Friday the Bearded Lady and I were excited would be an understatement....it has been almost a year without a working computer in the home and it hurt.

Daddy got an Inspiron 3668 Desktop and a nice Dell 23 in. monitor and keyboard and mouse. He also got a Brother MFC-J485DW wireless all-in-one printer.

 

 

We helped him unpack everything and make sure all was in the boxes that was supposed to be in the boxes. The 2 Tuxedos DID get a little rambunctious, but nothing was damaged in the process...much to the relief of Daddy Kiril, hee, hee!

 

Happy Felinetine's Day to Elvira the Birthday Girl!

Good afternoon, felinity assembled, Daddy Kiril here, at the library, posting a celebratory post in honor of the sassiest feline in the Cat Blogosphere!

Tomorrow Elvira Mistress of Felinity turns all of 8 years old! This equals 49 in Human years and puts her in the middle of her "Mature" years, as she gracefully gets a year older.

I took a few photos, this morning, in honor of the occasion.

 

Has it really been 8 years since she was born, and soon entered my and Nikita's lives a few months later?

She has come a long way since beginning her education, hee, hee!

It has been almost 2 years since the sassy one last received a complement for her writing and almost 4 years to the day since she first raised a ruckus, in a series of posts, regarding the serious stray cat (and dog) problem that exists in Houston.

The Elvira Factor 12: Houston We Have a Problem

Once we get our new computer up and running, finally, she plans to get back in action on a number of fronts, from journalism, poetry, and stories, to especially the Elvira Factor!

 

Sneakers and Friday joined me in wishing their mentor a Happy Birthday....and speaking of the other team members on this blog...

Happy Felinetine's Day to Sneakers the Texian Tuxedo and Friday the Bearded Lady!

You are just as much my much-loved Felinetines as Elvira!

 

And, now, a word from the Lady of the Day, herself...

Thanks, in advance, to all my friends and fans, who may stop by to wish me well today and tomorrow...

I truly do appreciate it and love you all dearly! -- Elvira Mistress of Felinity,  the supposedly "Mature" leader of The Opinionated Pussycats

****UPDATE -- FRIDAY THE 13TH of April, 2018****

Elvira here....with important news!!!! (Thank you, Daddy, for.posting this for me via your cell phone!)

Daddy Kiril came home today with our new computer, along with a new Monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer!

The Opinionated Pussycats will soon be back in action!

****END UPDATE****