Category Archive: Cats

Jan
06

New year, new challenges

Happy New Year - copyright Helen White

I hope you all had a good start to the New Year.

It has been a bit quiet since my last post, mainly because I have been busy in the run-up to Christmas, working on a proofreading assignment, making further improvements on the website (the shop layout is now horizontal instead of one long row) and my PTLLS course, which I have finished before Christmas. I am now waiting for my City & Guilds certificate to arrive. My tutor reckons it will take until about March. However I am happy to say that I passed my nerve wrecking micro teach – a teaching session of only 30 minutes, which is rather challenging for someone who is not keen on public speaking! And planning for only 30 minutes isn’t easy.

One of the reasons why I have done this course was simply to be able to teach jewellery courses on a 1-2-1 basis to people who are interested to learn but not keen on going to big classes. But I also hope to teach journalism courses for the NUJ. So these are already two things on my ever increasing list of things I’d like to do and achieve.

Nov
05

Spotlight on…Four Paws Animal Rescue (South Wales)

One of the many dogs up for adoption - copyright Four Paws Animal Rescue (SW)

The charity Four Paws Animal Rescue (South Wales) was founded by Kirsty Thomas in 2004 and officially registered in 2006. During her training as a vet nurse Kirsty noticed that many healthy animals were being needlessly euthanized in local pounds. Initially she tried to find homes for these animals with friends and family, but soon realised there were too many animals in need. She gave up her training to dedicate herself full-time to saving animals. Four Paws mainly rescues and re-homes dogs and due to the recession the number of dogs in need is steadily growing. I talked to Adoption Co-ordinator Seran Davies about the charity’s rescue work.

Aug
10

A bit of a catch up

Scotty dog pendant - copyright Helen White

I decided to create animal themed jewellery, mainly because I love animals esp. cats (no surprise there) and would wear these myself. So now you can find a lot of cute earrings – horses, dinosaurs, cats, flying horses, elephants, tortoises, turtles, owls, dragonflies, hummingbirds and howling wolves which you can all find here. I will add more earrings in the near future.

Jun
22

Spotlight on…Rachel Jinks from “Mog’s Togs”

Rachel Jinks

If you love cats as much as I do you will love the cute cat collars Rachel Jinks designs and sells through her online shops on Etsy and Folksy. Rachel founded her cat accessory business “Mog’s Togs” in 2010. She lives with her husband Pete and her gorgeous rescue cats Lila and Mia in Surrey. In her day job she works as a trial statistician and she is also studying for a PhD in Medical Statistics.

When did you start making collars for cats?

When Lila and Mia first started going outside, they lost their breakaway collars at an amazing rate. I didn’t want them going out without ID tags, but with no pet shop conveniently nearby, I was concerned about running out of replacement collars, so I decided to look into sewing them myself from scrap fabric.

Rachel’s cat Mia – copyright Rachel Jinks

Apr
04

Bobby at the vet’s – update

The whole week we thought Bobby was back to normal. We received the little Kenwood mixer and fed her mashed up Sardines and she loved it. Unfortunately her symptoms returned yesterday in the late afternoon, which was quite distressing for us.

When we went to bed, Bobby jumped on board and calmed down – I think her own purring helped her to ease her pain a bit.

Luckily we managed to get a vet’s appointment for today. He told us that symptoms could return, injected an analgesic for her pain (Rimadyl) which should get rid of her pain within 24 hours and he also gave us two tablets to keep just in case. He thinks we are doing all the right things but suggested to change to a prescription food which helps to break down crystals and acidity in the urine. So he prescribed Bobby Royal Canin – Urinary S/O High Dilution which is specifically formulated for FLUDT. He also generally recommended this brand as their other dry foods also contains the S/O index which helps breaking down crystals and acidity. Which is great, because Bobby loves her crunchies. We have now decided to phase out the other brands she usually eat and replace them with the Royal Canin.

Mar
31

Bobby at the emergency vet…

copyright Paul White

In my last blog I mentioned that we had to take Bobby to the vet on Saturday and now I’d like to tell you why.

When we got home from the craft fair she greeted us as usual with her delightful chirruping voice, but not long after, she started to show some odd behaviour. She went to the litter tray, tried to wee, then stormed outside – squatted again to wee, but couldn’t, then she ran back into the house. This went on for quite some time – her back fur stood up dinosaur-like – until we realised that she obviously couldn’t wee at all. We rang Valley Vets, a surgery which is thankfully not far from where we live, and were advised to bring her in.

Mar
20

Our cat’s cute habits

Bobby on bay window - copyright Helen White

Time to write another more cat related blog entry.

Those of you who follow my blog know about our cat Bobby. She has developed a few cute and quirky habits over the years and some not so cute habits, which I’d like to share with you.

Feb
25

Spotlight on…Caroline J Exley from Curious Cat Creative

Heart pendant by Caroline Exley

I have decided to feature fellow crafters and jewellery artists in my blog and to start with I interviewed Caroline J Exley from Curious Cat Creative.Caroline creates beautiful jewellery and accessories out of leather. She lives with her children Elizabeth and Andrew, her partner Andy and her gorgeous cat George on the southern edge of Sheffield, almost on the Derbyshire border and has the countryside on her doorstep. Caroline works part-time as a Project Officer for her local council.

Feb
15

Bobby as a jewellery model, me being photographed for the Echo, and Mickey Rourke.

Bobby with my Tourmaline necklace looking up, copyright Helen White 2011

This weekend I discovered that our cat Bobby is the perfect model for my jewellery. On Saturday I had a photographer around from the Echo, who took photos of me (and I pointed out that Bobby would be a better model than me) for an article about migraines and the Migraine Action Cardiff Support Group I founded on Facebook. I don’t like having my own photos taken, as I don’t think I am photogenic, but as it was for a good cause I said yes. So obviously I also decided to wear at least one piece of my jewellery, which happened to be this gorgeous Tourmaline necklace.

Jan
04

Happy New Year

copyright Helen White 2010

In the run up to our departure we were not even sure if we should drive through the snow all the way from Cardiff to Stansted to get the plane to Cologne. It was snowing heavily in the morning, but we decided to go anyway, because our flight was not cancelled. We just got through the worst, if we’d set off an hour later and we would have been caught in massive traffic jams and possibly an accident.

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