It's Yummy Squirrel Photo Friday!

Okay, Friday is typically Cute Cat Photo Friday here at Cat Sitter in the City. But I thought I'd do something special for my feline readers, who aren't that interested in looking at photos of other cats. So today is Yummy Squirrel Photo Friday.

Below are pictures of a squirrel I photographed at Union Square. I hope all of you feline readers enjoy looking at him.

Study Questions The Intelligence Of Felines

I feel bad for the fifteen cats who were nice enough to take part in psychology lecturer Britta Osthaus' silly string challenge only to be labeled limited in their problem-solving abilities.

Kate From Amtrak, Please Keep Your Cat!

I was on an Amtrak train yesterday, sitting across the aisle from a twentysomething girl who slept eight hours of our 12-hour journey from Montreal to New York City while I gazed lovingly at cell phone pictures of my cat Charlotte and imagined the happy reunion we would enjoy when I got home.

When the girl finally woke up, she got on her cell phone and chatted with a couple of friends and then her mom. My ears perked up when I heard her complaining to her mother about her cat. "I'm thinking of getting rid of her," the girl said.

I immediately started taking notes. Weird, I know. But it is the journalist in me. I knew I would be writing about this.

"She bites when I play with her," the girl said. Eventually, she admitted to her mother that the cat doesn't bite hard.

Looking for another justification to get rid of her cat, the girl told her mother, "I liked her a lot more in the beginning."

The girl also lamented that owning a cat is not as satisfying as owning a dog.

As you can probably imagine, I was freaking out as I listened to this girl.

"Will you help me with this?" she asked her mother. "I don't know who I'd contact. Maybe I could take her to a pet store or a shelter."

"I spent a lot of money on her, but I did like her for the time I had her," the girl added.

I am not a photojournalist, but I felt compelled to snap a photo of this girl. Judging by the quality of this photo, you can see why I am not a photojournalist/cat sitter and am just a regular journalist/cat sitter.



After she got off the phone with her mom, she called a friend, and from that conversation I learned this girl's name was Kate.

Kate chatted with her friend about a guy she was hanging out with who didn't call her for five days, then left her a voicemail claiming he had lost his phone. She was smart enough to know this guy was full of it and not worth her time, which gave me hope, and I debated whether to say something to Kate about her cat. I wanted to implore her to keep her cat. The shelters are already full of cats who need homes, and I am sure her cat loves her and would be heartbroken if she knew that Kate wanted to get rid of her.

But I chickened out and didn't say anything.

Anyway, Kate, if you happen to read Cat Sitter in the City (okay, you probably don't), but if you do, please don't get rid of your cat. While boys will lose their cell phones and drop out of touch for days on end, your cat will always be there for you. Your cat likely doesn't have a cell phone, but if she did, she would always answer on the first ring, and she would be happy to talk to you.

Put in the time and effort to bond with your cat, Kate, and it will blossom into a relationship that you'll treasure for years to come.

In Honor of Michael Jackson: Thriller Cat

It's Cute Cat Photo Friday!

I am out of town on vacation, and I miss my cat Charlotte like crazy. Team Charlotte is taking care of her while I am away. Yes, believe it or not, I have a team of people caring for my cat because the job is just too big for one person. Anyway, I am indulging myself and making Charlotte the subject of today's Cute Cat Photo Friday. The pictures below were taken by R., one of Charlotte's official photographers. As you can see, Charlotte is incredibly cute. I can't wait to kiss her little face when I get back to NYC on Sunday.

The Ultimate Maternity Hospital For Cat Lovers

There is a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital in Taiwan. No kidding. Ohdeedoh, the blog on home design for kids, has posted an item on the facility. The thinking behind the concept is that all of the Hello Kitty paraphernalia will reduce patient stress levels.

I am trying to decide whether I would have been less stressed if the surgeon who took out my gallbladder at New York Presbyterian hospital a few years back had been wearing Hello Kitty scrubs...

Okay, probably not.

Incidentally, I had my gallbladder taken out at the same hospital where Andy Warhol had his gallbladder removed. I found this out just before I had my surgery, and I thought it was pretty cool until I also found out just before my surgery that Warhol died in his sleep after his procedure.

Cat Sitter Waits For Kristen Wiig's Answer

I am obsessed with cats, but I am also obsessed with Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig as regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know, and I had a dream about her last night. It didn't involve cats in case you are wondering.

Rather I was at Saturday Night Live, and I was performing for Kristen, who, incidentally, will portray me in the inevitable Cat Sitter in City movie due to my inability to convincingly portray myself. Kristen thought my skits were funny, and I was thrilled because I had written all of them, and I asked her if I could be her intern. I explained that I didn't want to perform on Saturday Night Live because I'm not a great actor, but I told Kristen that I am a great writer and wanted to write skits for and with her.

In my dream, Kristen already had two interns, so I was a bit nervous about my chances, and I will ultimately never know what Kristen's answer was because I woke up before she could tell me. So now I am left wondering what could have been.

Cat Sitter Casts Leads In Inevitable CSitC Film
Kristen Wiig Guests On Flight Of The Conchords
Kristen Wiig's Crazy Cat Lady Video Surfaces
Cat Sitter In The City Declares Saturday Night Live The Most Cat-Friendly Show On Television
Kristen Wiig Must Portray Me In The Inevitable Cat Sitter In The City Movie

New York City Remembers Pretty Boy

The death of Pretty Boy, the East Village cat known as the mayor of East 7th Street, has made the New York Times.

It's Cute Cat Photo Friday! Meet Katerina!

Katerina is so cute and sweet. When I asked her to pose for a photo for Cute Cat Photo Friday, she sat down in front of her favorite pillow. "All you need is love...and a nice cat or two," Katerina says. Agreed.

This Is Why I Love Living In The East Village

Where else in the world would you find a mural of cats doing bad things? This one is on East 3rd Street and Avenue A.

Badpie Bakery Blogger Blogs About My Blog

I was thrilled to learn that the author of the Badpie Bakery blog blogged about my blog. The author's husband turned her on to my blog, which she says is destined to become one of her favorite blogs. I love hearing this, of course.

In turn, I checked out Badpie Bakery and think I have found a kindred spirit. The witty author loves cats (her cat Burt Reynolds, who is pictured above, even has a blog of his own) and So You Think You Can Dance!

Real Housewife Earns Cat Sitter's Respect

Those girls on The Real Housewives of New Jersey are kind of scary, and I'd be afraid to cat sit for any of them. But I have to give Dina props for taking a step back from her career to spend time with her family and her cats. She is a devoted cat mom, and I like that.

In fact, I am so impressed by Dina that I would like to invite her and her cats to make a cameo on The Real Housecats of New York City, my upcoming Bravo series.

My Life In Animated Form

My friend R. just sent me this video of Strawberry Shortcake and her cat Custard, noting that it could easily be me and my cat Charlotte. Scary but true. Enjoy.

Manhattan Cat Survives 26-Story Fall

I'm a little late to the party on this story, but I just read a blurb in New York magazine about a Manhattan cat who survived a 26-story fall from a Manhattan high-rise last month. The cat, whose name is Lucky (no joke), and his mom shared the terrifying tale on Good Morning America.

By the way, the photo accompanying this post was taken as Lucky hurled toward the balcony that he ultimately landed on. While I am glad Lucky made it, I don't want people thinking that cats routinely survive these types of falls. They don't. In fact, one of my friend's cats died a few years ago after falling from the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Some guys were doing work on her apartment, they left the window open, and the cat jumped.

Keep your feline safe by making sure your windows are equipped with sturdy screens.

Cat Sitter Recommends Another Must-Read Blog

My cat Charlotte and I would love it if you spent all of your time reading Cat Sitter in the City (have you gone all the through the archives at the bottom of the page yet?), but we understand if you feel the need to check out Cat Deeley's weekly blog on EW.com.

If you don't know who Cat Deeley is, you are not watching Fox's So You Think You Should Dance with your cat, and you really should be. As the title implies, the show is a dance competition. Charlotte and I watch it because we live for "the dance" as Charlotte calls it, and I also find it a source of new dance moves that I can use to impress the cats I cat sit for.

I could have been a professional dancer, but my career was thwarted by selfish dance instructors who were more interested in eating than teaching.

A Twist On Cute Cat Photo Friday

Normally, today would be Cute Cat Photo Friday. Well, I'm mixing it up and making it Cute Cats Photo Friday!

That's right. I'm featuring two cute cats today, and you should prepare yourself because you will likely be overwhelmed by their combined cuteness.

Without further ado, meet sisters Darla (on the left) and Dottie.
How cute are they?
Look at Dottie's cute little face. And what a cute little pose! I can't stop looking at her cute little chest and paws.
Darla is sticking her little tongue out. How cute is this cat? Even her little pink tongue is cute! And her teeth are cute, too! There isn't one part of this cat that isn't cute!
As you can see in this photo, I was caught in a swarm of Darla and Dottie cuteness. They both wanted me to pet them and kept walking back and forth acting all cute. Unable to handle the sheer amount of cuteness before me, I blacked out. When I came to, I was too weakened by their cuteness to snap more photos. These cats are just that cute.

Juba Health Update: It's Good News!

As regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know, my cat sitting client Juba recently had a pituitary tumor blasted with a shot of radiation from the CyberKnife. This nasty tumor was making Juba insulin-resistant, therefore complicating his diabetes treatment.

I recently checked in with Juba's dad and am happy to report that the radiation has appeared to help. Juba has been doing so well in recent days that his dose of insulin has been reduced to eight units from twelve, and the blood work he had done last week came back excellent. Well, his blood sugar was still high, but not crazy high, and all of his other functions and readings were perfect, his dad says.

Meanwhile, Juba is playful again, which is a great sign.

Cat Sitter In The City Seeks Facebook Friends

I have taken the plunge and created a Facebook page for Cat Sitter in the City. There isn't much content on it at the moment, but once I have more than one fan, which is me at this point, I will start updating the page regularly. Hope to see you there!

East Village Mourns The Loss of Pretty Boy

I was sad to learn that Pretty Boy, a cat known as the mayor of East 7th Street here in the East Village, died on Tuesday, May 19. I found out when I read the latest issue of The Villager. Pretty Boy's death actually made the front page, which says a lot about how much people loved him.

I had the pleasure of meeting the handsome white cat a few times when I visited Mikey's Pet Supply where he would lounge on the counter. Pretty Boy also spent a lot of time at Salon Seven, and he was known to sit outside the restaurant 7A to watch people eat, according to The Villager.

Pretty Boy's friends estimated that he was about 22 or 23 at the time of his death. He will be missed.

The Story Behind Keyboard Cat

You've likely seen Keyboard Cat by now. He is an Internet sensation, and Green Day even spoofed him recently. For those of you who are interested in finding out more about Keyboard Cat, I just found this news story that explains how he came to be a celebricat.

Welcome To Another Cute Cat Photo Friday!

This cute cat is named Stella. A former cat sitting client of mine, she is a native New Yorker who now lives on a lovely farm in England with a goat, sheep and chickens. Stella and Lil' Kim, who passed away last summer, lived with me for six months two years ago. My cat sitting clients don't normally live with me, but Stella and Lil' Kim's parents had to move back to England, and the cats had to get some shots and then wait six months before they could join their parents.

I went to the farm last September and got to see Stella again, which was amazing.

For some reason, I have been thinking about her a lot lately and really missing her.

Stella is not only cute but incredibly beautiful as you can see in the picture above and the photos below. We did this photo shoot in my apartment, and it was a big accomplishment because there was a time when Stella was afraid to have her photo taken and would run for the hills any time I pointed my camera at her.

Anyway, enjoy these pictures of Stella!

Would You Spend $180 On A Litter Box?

I was just perusing ApartmentTherapy.com, and I came across an ad for the ModKat litter box. It costs $180. I am not kidding. I don't know what else to say.

Book Your Feline A Ticket On PetAirways

Your cat can fly first-class with a new airline launching for pets called PetAirways. Well, not first-class but coach, and I don't want to hear any cats complaining about that (Kiki and Fonzie, I'm talking to you) because flying coach is way better than flying in the cargo hold like cats and dogs do on traditional airlines.

PetAirways launches this July and will serve five American cities—New York (yay!), Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C.—at the outset. Plans call for the airline to expand to 25 cities within the next two years.

Check out this video for more info on PetAirways:

Make Works Of Art With Your Feline Photos

This afternoon I was delighted when I received these photos of my cat Charlotte from R. She had taken photos of Charlotte from my blog and then turned them into works of art at BeFunky.com. Check out the site. It is really easy to use, and you can take your resulting masterpieces and have them printed on everything from t-shirts to cups.

Charlotte Lays Claim To Fonzie's Food

I am going to visit Fonzie today, and he is out of food, so I picked up a bag of Wellness for him. But I don't know if I'm going to be able to get out of my apartment with it because my cat Charlotte wants this food and is now sitting on top of the bag, refusing to budge.

A few minutes go by...

Charlotte remains perched on the bag, and she is trying to get my attention. "Look, look!" she says with her eyes.

I slide Charlotte off the bag, and upon closer inspection I discover that this isn't a bag of Wellness cat food. It is a bag of Wellness dog food. Oh no!

I have to go back to Pet Central on the way to Fonzie's to exchange it.

Charlotte saves the day! Well, Fonzie's lunch at the very least.

Meet The Real Housecats Of New York City

Like many normal adults, I spend a lot of time coming up with ideas for TV shows featuring cats. In recent days, I have been working on the pitch for an original new reality series titled The Real Housecats of New York City.

Okay, technically it isn't original because the concept is based on Bravo's The Real Housewives series, which includes The Real Housewives of New York City. But my show is better because instead of human housewives, it features housecats.

I have cast my cat sitting clients Fonzie, Kiki, Lulu and Steve as well as my own cat Charlotte in the first installment of the series. Read on to meet The Real Housecats of New York City and get a preview of what you can expect to see during the first season:

Fonzie
Fonzie has just left rehab, where he was treated for an online shopping addiction. Completely broke and eager to make a few bucks, this Housecat takes inspiration from Bernie Madoff. But instead of launching a typical Ponzi scheme, Fonzie concocts a "Fonzie" scheme. Will the other Housecats go broke investing with Fonzie?


Kiki
Kiki is not just a cat. She is an artist and prefers to be called The Artist, although none of the other cats will call her that. They just call her Kiki. A writer, actress and singer, Kiki has worked for years to bring an all-cats version of Grey Gardens to Broadway, casting herself in the role of Little Edie. To date, Kiki has failed to make her project a reality—every major Broadway producer has turned her down for fear that a theater full of cats could spell disaster for allergy sufferers. Still, this Housecat won't give up on her dream.

Lulu
Lulu nearly died after ingesting steel wool a few years ago, and that near-death experience led this Housecat to dedicate her life to helping other animals. Her latest project is organizing a gala fundraiser for the ASPCA, and her goal is to put together an all-star lineup of talent, including Madonna, Katy Perry and American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert, to sing at the event. Expect the fur to fly (I couldn't resist the cliché) when Kiki aka "The Artist" finds out she hasn't been invited to perform at the high-profile shindig.

Steve
A natural-born leader, Steve has spent years trying to overthrow the government of a small European nation that he planned to run as a benevolent dictactor. Having met a great deal of resistance and facing the threat of prison if he ever tries to return to that particular country, which shall remain nameless, this Housecat has now turned his attention to taking over New York City. A military coup is not an option, so Steve is running a legit campaign against Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But how far will Steve get with Fonzie handling his campaign funds?

Charlotte
Charlotte is a writer for The New York Daily News, where she pens a column chronicling the lives of New York City cats. Charlotte loves to write and celebrate the often overlooked accomplishments of cats. But now Charlotte's editor wants her to make the column more "edgy" by digging up some dirt on her fellow felines, and Charlotte isn't so sure she wants to be the next Perez (or "Purrez" as he is known amongst cats) Hilton.

So what do you think? Would you watch The Real Housecats of New York City?

It Looks Like Even The Cats Are Being Pushed Out Of Manhattan's Meatpacking District

Jeremiah, who writes the must-read blog Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, recently did a post about some cats in the Meatpacking district who are about to be displaced.

So You Think You Can Dance Is Back!

I don't know what you and your cat will be watching on television tonight, but my cat Charlotte and I are tuning into the two-hour season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance on Fox at 8 p.m. EST. Once again, the lovely Cat Deeley is hosting (I just love her name for some reason), with Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe serving as the primary judges. Or "jidges" as Cat says.

I am obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance and would audition in a second if my dance training had progressed beyond tap lessons when I was in seventh grade. I was a natural, but my mother decided it was a waste of money when she learned that my dance instructors—two chubby sisters—spent a few minutes at the start of each class showing us steps then sat in a back room eating subs while we practiced on our own.

It's Cute Cat Photo Friday! Meet Mac!

This is Mac. He is a little guy with a big personality. How cute is he? The level of cuteness achieved by this tiny cat is intense and immeasurable.
Mac is a full-grown adult, by the way. Doesn't he look like a kitten? I love his cute little cat body. He is so cute! I have literally been blinded by his cuteness upon entering his apartment. I actually have to sit on the floor and wait for my sight to return. When it does, I can only look at Mac out of the corner of my eye until my brain can adjust to his extreme cuteness. Once the adjustment is made, I can look directly at Mac and not be blinded by his cuteness for the duration of our visit. I am not exaggerating. He's just that cute.

Susan Boyle Shares The Spotlight With Her Cat

Scottish singer Susan Boyle became a worldwide sensation after she wowed the judges on Britain's Got Talent with her amazing voice. But she isn't the only one getting attention. It turns out that the public has become obsessed with her cat Pebbles (pictured above), who is actually receiving fan mail.

Incidentally, PETA Europe has asked Boyle and Pebbles to star in a public service announcement aimed at helping homeless animals. No word yet on whether the pair—I assume Boyle would have to consult with Pebbles on this offer—has said yes.

Believe It Or Not, There Is A Wine For Those Who Appreciate The Stinging Aroma Of Cat Pee

I don't like wine, and I don't like the smell of cat pee. But if you like wine, and you like the smell of cat pee, you might want to pick up a bottle of Cooper's Creek winery's Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush.

According to U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail, a research company called Plant and Food studied sauvignon blanc produced in New Zealand's Wairarapa and Kumeu regions and determined that some of its wine boasts an aroma best described as cat's pee.

Rather than fight what many would view as a disparaging label, Cooper's Creek decided to roll with it, bravely naming its latest gooseberry-flavored sauvignon blanc Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush.

I suspect there are some Cat Sitter in the City readers who might actually drink to that.

Guess What Nermal Is Thinking

My friend Nancy posted this fantastic photo of her cat Nermal on Facebook and gave me permission to post it on Cat Sitter in the City. I think the look on Nermal's face says it all.

It's Devastatingly Handsome/Cute Cat Photo Thursday, And Juba Is The Subject!

Today is Devastatingly Handsome/Cute Cat Photo Thursday.

And I'm not only showing off how devastatingly handsome/cute Juba is via this post, I would also like to update everyone on his condition.

You've read about Juba on Cat Sitter in the City before. As previously reported, Juba, who is 8-years-old, has been dealing with health issues. To make a long story short, he was diagnosed as diabetic last year but proved insulin resistant. His dad ultimately found out that this was because Juba has acromegaly. I am not a veterinarian, so I will refer you to the entry on acromegaly in the Merck Veterinary Manual for more detailed information, but, basically, Juba has a tumor in his pituitary gland that is excreting excess growth hormone, which explains why he became insulin-resistant, complicating his diabetes treatment.

Radiation was Juba's only chance of beating this tumor, but instead of undergoing a traditional course of radiation, which would have involved twenty consecutive days of treatment, Juba got one shot of radiation from the CyberKnife at the Yonkers Animal Hospital a couple of weeks ago. FYI: The CyberKnife delivers beams of high dose radiation to tumors in both humans and animals with incredible accuracy.

The hope is that the radiation killed the tumor. Thus far, Juba is doing well and actually seems to be feeling better. Earlier today, his dad told me that Juba has stopped sleeping in the closet and is much more energetic and playful and back to being more social like he was before he got sick. At this point, Juba's dad doesn't know whether Juba is improving as a result of the radiation or the increase in his dose of insulin, but either way he is happy that Juba appears to be feeling better.

According to his dad, Juba is a medical pioneer. There has only been one major study done on these particular tumors in cats, with only eight felines studied over 11 years.

I wish Juba didn't have to be a medical pioneer, but I am immensely proud of him. He is one brave cat.

Now let's admire how devastatingly handsome/cute Juba is.

This is a devastatingly handsome shot. I love this photo of Juba because he looks like a gentleman. I can picture him wearing a bow tie and attending a black-tie affair.
Juba looks like a little kitten in this photo! He is so cute!
This is an artsy shot. Juba is not only devastatingly handsome in this photo, he is also pensive.
One cat. So many looks! Look how cute Juba is in this photo. I think this was taken the night we watched the Oscars together. He loves to stretch out next to me on the couch, pressing his cute little forehead against my leg.
Devastatingly handsome and cute in the same picture! It's too much!

Kitty Purry Weighs In On The Swine Flu Epidemic

Some members of the press have poked fun at Katy "I Kissed A Girl" Perry for sharing her cat Kitty Purry's thoughts on the swine flu in a recent blog posting, but I respect Katy for making her feline's voice heard.

In a recent post, Katy writes, "Kitty Purry was telling me the other night that she remembers when bird flu was in and now pig flu is cool and she wonders when kitty flu is gonna hit, as she would like to be more popular than she currently already is...fame whore."

Here's hoping kitty flu doesn't hit. The last thing I would want is for any of my cat friends to get sick.

Meanwhile, I really need to get in touch with Katy. For starters, I would love to perform my rendition of "I Kissed A Cat" for her. A sampling of the lyrics:

I kissed a cat, and I liked it
I liked the taste of her smelly fish breath
I kissed a cat just to try it
I hope the ASPCA don't mind it

Also, I would like Katy to serve as the voice of my cat Charlotte in the inevitable Cat Sitter in the City movie as well as record an original song for the soundtrack.

Kitten Wrestling Interrupted

It's Cute Cat Photo Friday!

Look how cute my cat Charlotte is. Look at those big green eyes. Look at that soft, fluffy belly. Look at those legs. This is my cute little cat. She is just too cute. I can't take the cuteness. It is just too much.
As if she wasn't cute enough in the previous photo, look at her now. How cute is Charlotte? I'll tell you: She's off-the-charts cute. She has achieved a level of cuteness that cannot be measured. To be honest, it is slightly painful to be in the presence of such extreme cuteness.

Cat Sitter Concerned About The Swine Flu

Have you heard about the swine flu?

Of course you have. It's all over the news.

I wasn't worried about getting it until my best friend/partner in cat sitting T said she was worried about getting it. T never worries needlessly. She isn't a worrier at all. So if she is worried about getting swine flu, I have to be worried about it, too.

T, who has an office job, actually sent out a memo to her employees yesterday, giving them tips on how to avoid being infected so that they don't come to work and infect her. This memo was then sent to a reporter at a widely-circulated daily newspaper, and now T's words of wisdom have been incorporated into a story on how businesses are dealing with the threat of swine flu.

T's name was used in the story, and now everyone is calling her and emailing her to congratulate her on her newfound fame. I asked T what it is like to be famous, and she replied, "Let's just say I know what Madonna goes through."

I wish the story had also noted T's association with Cat Sitter in the City. I would have loved the publicity for the blog.

Cat Sitter Tries Not To Act Like A Baby And Fails

I had to have blood taken early this morning before I began my cat sitting rounds. As the technician drained one of my veins, I spotted a box of Garfield bandages. I knew these were for children, but I desperately wanted one and had to make a split-second decision on how best to get one. I could have just asked for one outright. But I didn't want to look like a baby, so I decided it would be best to hint around.

"So, you have Garfield bandages," I commented.

"Yeah, those are for kids," the technician said, not taking the hint and going on to talk about how my doctor had ordered a lot of tests, so he needed to take several tubes of blood.

I worried that I might pass out if he was taking that much blood from me, but I tried to remain focused on my ultimate goal, which was getting one of those Garfield bandages.

It was hard to get the technician back on the subject, though, as he kept going on and on about how much blood he had to take from me. "We're filling up a lot of vials here," he said. "One after the other."

"I love cats," I blurted out. "I'm a cat sitter."

He still didn't get the hint, instead talking about how much paperwork his job required and noting that he'd need multiple signatures from me when he was done depleting me of blood.

Finally I broke down and asked, "Are those Garfield bandages really just for children?"

Then he got it. "Do you want a Garfield bandage?" he inquired.

"Oh yes!" I answered.

Getting blood drawn is never fun, but I left the lab with a Garfield bandage on my arm, and that made my day.

As If We Don't Spent Enough Time Around Litter Pans...

We went to Toy Tokyo yesterday, and my best friend/partner in cat sitting T couldn't resist buying a miniature Re-Ment set that includes a cat in poop position, a litter box, a scooper and a pot of cat grass. FYI: Re-Ment is a Japanese company that creates collectible miniature sets. Both T and our mutual friend R were surprised that I didn't buy one, too. But I don't want to clutter my apartment with collectibles, and I already have two real litter boxes for my cat Charlotte.
Look how tiny the scooper is. That's R's hand, by the way. She thought her hand was more photogenic than mine. I disagree. I think I have attractive hands, although she does have a nice manicure, and I don't.
Charlotte was interested in the pot of cat grass despite the fact that it is made of plastic.

Charlotte Makes Making My Bed Difficult

I was just putting clean sheets on my bed when my cat Charlotte took notice of what I was doing. I knew I was in trouble.
Soon enough, she was under the covers.
"It's so dark under here!"
"The sheet is too straight. Let me mess it up for you!"
"Okay, I'll get out of your way. Sorry. I was just trying to help. It's my bed, too."

Drew Barrymore "Steals" The Role of Little Edie From Kiki, According To Kiki

As you can see in the photo above, my cat sitting client Kiki is a little sad today. "I'm not a 'little sad,'" Kiki says. "I'm clinically depressed." That's because Grey Gardens premieres on HBO tonight, and she isn't in it.

A fan of the original documentary shot by David and Albert Maysles, Kiki has been working to bring an all-cats version of Grey Gardens to Broadway for the last two years with herself in the role of Little Edie and her sister Coco (seen in the forefront of the cast photo below) in the role of Big Edie.

The felines have staged numerous performances of their version of Grey Gardens in their apartment, using their mom's bed as a stage. Kiki claims that Nicole Kidman attended one of the shows and gave the production rave reviews, although I think Kiki might be making that up. She is prone to exaggeration.

Never one to give up, Kiki plans to lobby Drew Barrymore, who plays Little Edie in HBO's take on Grey Gardens, to help her get an all-cats production of Grey Gardens on the big screen. "Screw Broadway," says Kiki, who I suspect has no idea that Grey Gardens actually has been staged on Broadway.

And what if Drew refuses to help Kiki achieve her dream? "Then I will never forgive her for stealing the role I was born to play," Kiki says as a tear rolls down her furry cheek.

Cat Sitter Nearly Mowed Down By A Taxi

I was crossing First Avenue at 14th Street yesterday on my way to visit Pooper Katzenberger when I came thisclose to being struck by a taxi. (The taxi pictured above is not the tax that almost hit me, by the way.) The guy was turning off of 14th Street onto First Avenue, and he suddenly floored it. I was walking fast and had to abruptly stop, balancing on my right foot with my arms thrust back in a Matrix-like pose not to get hit. I can't tell you how scary it was. People crossing toward me actually gasped. If I didn't know any better, I'd think the guy was trying to hit me. But who would purposely run over a cat sitter?

I took down the cab's medallion number and walked up to First Avenue and 15th Street, where the driver was sitting at a red light, to get a look at the man who nearly killed me. (Later, I wondered why I didn't confront him, and I think I was in shock.) Then I called 311 and filed a report against him with the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission. The operator asked me if I wanted to schedule a hearing at which I could share my grievance in person, but since he didn't actually hit me, I didn't see the point. So I just asked her to make sure someone tells him he ought to drive more carefully because it was a close call, and it wouldn't have been good for either one of us not to mention Pooper Katzenberger who would have gone without her Pepcid, her dinner and her hydration until her mother got back late last night.

Charlotte In Black And White

Who is the star of Cat Sitter in the City? Apparently, it's not me. What Cat Sitter in the City readers really want, according to my email, is more pictures of my cat Charlotte. I aim to please, so here are two photos I took of my adorable Charlotte just a few minutes ago.
Don't you just want to kiss her little forehead?
And look at this sweet face.

The Obamas Adopt A Portuguese Water Dog

As we all know due to the relentness news coverage, which Cat Sitter in the City is contributing to with this post, President Barack Obama and his family have gotten a dog. The cutie is a Portuguese water dog named Bo. While my cat Charlotte and I are happy for the Obamas, Charlotte posed an interesting question just now: Would there have been this much hysteria if the Obamas had adopted a cat?

Related items: Today: The Most Momentous Day Of 2009 and What Will President-Elect Barack Obama Do For Cats?

Decorate Your Home With Chats De France

ApartmentTherapy.com, one of my favorite interior design sites, ran an item today on some beautiful French nature posters available for purchase at the French General Store.

Not surprisingly, I was immediately drawn to the poster featuring Chats De France, but if I was going to buy one of these posters, I would actually purchase the Cochons De France poster (below) for my kitchen.

It's Another Cute Photo Friday!

How cute is my cat Charlotte? I can't take it! Click on this picture, and blow it up to full-screen size if you think you can handle the cuteness.

Cat Sitter Does Not Write For Vanity Fair

I recently spoke to my wonderful grandmother, who lives in Florida, and she asked me if I write for Vanity Fair. I told her that I don't write for Vanity Fair, then she said she thought I did write for Vanity Fair. She even told some of her friends I write for Vanity Fair and thumbed through a few issues of Vanity Fair the other day, looking for my articles.

Of course, I felt like I let my grandmother down. I have written for a lot of magazines over the years, including Time Out New York and Variety. There was even a cover story for Redbook. But I have never written for Vanity Fair. I suppose I could pitch the magazine a story. I just worry that I don't have the connections or social pedigree to write for a magazine like Vanity Fair.

I tried to impress my grandmother by telling her that while I don't write for Vanity Fair, I do write the Cat Sitter in the City blog, and I do it all my myself. I even take the pictures. My grandmother, who likes dogs but "loves" cats, sounded interested and wrote down the name of my blog and said she'd try to go on the Internet with a friend to read it.

If I could take a moment to insert a message just for my grandmother in case she is reading this post:

"Hi Grandma! How are you? Do you like my blog? I hope you don't mind me writing about you. I love you!"

I bet my grandmother would love it if Vanity Fair wrote about me. I wonder if the magazine has any interest in a feature on New York City cat sitters. Remember when Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley posed nude on the cover with Tom Ford? (Well, Tom Ford wasn't nude, but the girls were.) I would be willing to pose nude on the cover with say... a fully-clothed Tim Gunn and my cat Charlotte, who could be strategically placed to cover at least some of my private parts.

I just mentioned this to my friend R, who asked, "Why Tim Gunn?"

First of all, I have a connection to Tim Gunn in that I took an elevator with him once. He was incredibly polite and didn't criticize me for being covered with cat hair, which has to be a fashion don't. But beyond that, I would feel comfortable being nude in front of Tim Gunn. In fact, I think he'd probably say something nice to me like, "You have beautiful green eyes" or "I love your delicate feet." He's such a gentleman.

Anyway, I will work on getting into Vanity Fair one way or another. At the very least, I should get my grandmother a subscription to the magazine.

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Cat Sitter Appears On Celebrity Apprentice

The cast of this season's Celebrity Apprentice includes celebrities Joan Rivers, Clint Black, Jesse James and yours truly.

Okay, I wasn't part of the "cast" per se, but I did make a cameo on tonight's episode, which found the celebrities shooting viral videos to promote All Small & Mighty laundry detergent. Take a look at the picture above. See the person on the far right wearing red glasses. No, you don't? Get a magnifying glass. Okay, look again. See the person on the far right wearing red glasses? That is me, a.k.a. Cat Sitter in the City.

Regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City will recall that I happened to be doing my laundry at an East Village laundromat when the cast and crew of Celebrity Apprentice took over the place.

It was fun to see myself on television even if it was for a nanosecond, although I wish that my cat Charlotte could have been on the show, too.

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My Cat Charlotte: Feline Perfection

Click on this picture to expand it to full-screen size, and you'll enjoy my cat Charlotte's beauty even more.

Cat Sitter Encounters Pizza Dog

I just went to 11B, a great Italian restaurant/pizza place in my East Village neighborhood, for lunch. The pizza was delicious as always, although I felt a little guilty eating with this sweet dog staring at my pizza so longingly. I didn't get her name, so I dubbed her Pizza Dog.

CSitC's First Ever International Correspondent Returns From Egypt With A Cat Report

When I found out that my friend N was traveling to Egypt, I hired him as Cat Sitter in the City's first ever international correspondent and assigned him to report on cat activities in and around Cairo. I also asked N to take photos of the Big Cat (aka the Sphinx) and Cairo street cats as I couldn't afford to hire a photographer to accompany him.

Anyway, N, pictured above with the Sphinx, is back from his amazing trip and just sent me the following pictures:

N says that cats run rampant in Cairo and have a good relationship with the locals, who feed them. "They are everywhere you go. We fed one while having lunch at a fish market by the Nile," N says. "They were all over this little marketplace or 'souk' as they're called there."

These cats were waiting around outside of a store. According to N, a local butcher tossed them a plate of scraps after this photo was taken. "You can only imagine the mayhem and clawing that ensued," shares N, who, thankfully, wasn't injured during the melee.

These statuettes of cats appear in many of the photos N sent me. He says local artisans sell these wooden cats outside of the pyramids. N wanted to take a picture of one of the men carving cat statuettes. The man said no, but he did allow N to take pictures of his creations "for a small gratuity," which I will refund to N given that he had to spend the money while on assignment for Cat Sitter in the City.

I would like to thank N for doing an excellent job as Cat Sitter in the City's first ever international correspondent. He doesn't even have a cat of his own yet he undertook this assignment with great enthusiasm. Move over, Christiane Amanpour. I see a big future for N, including more assignments from Cat Sitter in the City.

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Cat Sitter Casts Leads In Inevitable CSitC Film

After seeing Kristen Wiig's appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night, I am more convinced than ever that she must portray me in the inevitable Cat Sitter in the City movie. The whole "I'm shy" routine was very me.

Meanwhile, I have decided to cast Leslie David Baker, who plays Stanley on The Office, as my best friend/partner in cat sitting T. This means that I will have to make some adjustments to T's character in the screenplay as she is a white woman and Leslie is a black man. But I believe that he could best bring T's charming crabbiness to the big screen.

For those of you who didn't see Kristen on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, check out the clips below:





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My Photogenic Cat Charlotte: Baby, She's A Star!

My best friend/partner in cat sitting T came to see me today with a copy of All Animals in her hand. "You're never going to believe this," she said, flipping the magazine open to a feature story on feral cats and conservationists.

"It's Charlotte!" I screamed.

"It is, isn't it?" T said. "But how did they get her picture?"

Within minutes, I had concocted a scenario in which an enterprising young photographer visited the Montreal SPCA, where I adopted Charlotte, and volunteered to take photos of Charlotte and other homeless cats for the SPCA to use on Petfinder with the understanding that the photographer would retain the rights to the photos so that he could sell them to magazines. So while he was helping cats get adopted, he was also furthering his career as a photographer. Or she was furthering her career as a photographer as the photographer could have very well been a female. I wasn't quite sure.

Male or female, the photographer eventually sold this particular shot of Charlotte to All Animals.

T, who is famed for her skepticism, didn't question my scenario. In fact, she bought right into it.

Take a look at this picture of Charlotte, which accompanied the ad I initially saw for her on Petfinder. She was so skinny back then. Doesn't she look like the cat in the image from All Animals above?

I was so excited about Charlotte being in a magazine that I left the apartment to have lunch with T, got halfway down the street, then realized I forgot my cell phone. I rushed back home to get it, and we headed down the block again, then I realized I forget my MetroCard, so I had to backtrack again.

This was unlike me. I am not a forgetful person.

"You've got to calm down," T said.

But I couldn't. All day I couldn't stop exclaiming, "Charlotte is in a magazine!"

Sadly, I just had my bubble burst. I had my friend R, who happens to be a photographer, compare the photo in All Animals, which, by the way, is published by The Humane Society of the United States, with the photos of Charlotte originally posted on Petfinder, and she deduced that while the cat in the magazine looks a lot like Charlotte, the cat in the magazine is, in fact, not Charlotte.

We had a little back and forth, with me still clinging to my belief that this cat was indeed Charlotte but finally conceding that this cat wasn't Charlotte.

T is still convinced that it is Charlotte. "If it isn't, it's her darn twin," according to T.

What do you think?

Cat Sitter Crosses Paths With Michael Moore

I went downtown on official cat sitting business this afternoon and ran into filmmaker Michael Moore not once but twice. Initially, I spotted him interviewing a man on the corner of Liberty Street and Broadway. Later, I saw him in front of the New York Stock Exchange and snapped this picture. See the guy in the brown jacket in the distance? That's him.

Oh, and see the blurry, flesh-colored object in the right-hand corner of the picture? That's my finger.

I thought that Moore, whose credits include Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling For Columbine and Roger & Me, might be trailing me for a documentary on the day in the life of a Manhattan cat sitter. But when he didn't try to initiate contact me with despite my best attempts to initiate contact with him, I realized I wasn't his subject. Then when I got home, I did some research and learned that he is shooting a documentary on the world economic crisis.

It is probably best that Moore and I don't actually meet. I reviewed one of his projects for a magazine once, and the editor inserted a comment about Moore's weight in the review. I didn't see it until the issue was published, and I was mortified and even worried for a time that Moore might come after me for the inappropriate remark.

That said, he really should interview me for his current film. I have a knack for predicting economic trouble.

Diagnosing Juba

Juba, the handsome cat pictured to the left, is a cat sitting client and one of my best cat friends, so I was concerned when he was diagnosed with diabetes last October. His dad has been giving him insulin shots since then, but Juba has proven to be insulin resistant. He saw two veterinarians, but neither one of them could figure out why, so Juba's dad took him to an endocrinologist at Manhattan's Animal Medical Center yesterday, and he was kind enough to invite me along, knowing how much I love Juba and worry about him.

Looking back, I wonder if he was sorry that he brought me along when I told the endocrinologist that when it comes to Juba's treatment, "Money is no object."

I couldn't help myself.

We ultimately found out that Juba might have acromegaly. I am not a veterinarian, so I will refer you to this entry on acromegaly in the Merck Veterinary Manual for more detailed information, but in brief, Juba might have a tumor in his pituitary gland secreting excess growth hormone. Again, we don't know this for sure, but the endocrinologist believes that this could well be the case and would explain Juba's resistance to insulin and his lack of weight loss as well as nasal issues he has had for years.

Juba is getting an MRI done in about two weeks to see if he does indeed have this tumor, and if he does, the next step will be to treat it with radiation.

For now, though, we are left to wait.

We don't have any definitive answers at the moment, but it felt empowering to get a new perspective on Juba's case from an incredibly knowledgeable specialist. While we sat in the waiting room (Juba had to go in the back for an exam), we talked about how thankful we are that the Animal Medical Center, a non-profit veterinary teaching hospital, exists.

To be honest, I didn't want to blog about this. Juba's dad actually asked me if I was going to write about Juba's condition and our trip to the Animal Medical Center, and I told him I didn't think so because I didn't want to invade his privacy or exploit Juba. (To be even more completely honest, I was also afraid that writing about this would make me worry about Juba even more.) But Juba's dad encouraged me to write about his cat's situation, noting that the information might help someone else.

That's true. I had done some research on insulin-resistance in cats and hadn't turned up any information on acromegaly before our visit to the Animal Medical Center.

Another takeaway: If your cat is diagnosed with diabetes or any condition for that matter and isn't responding to treatment, don't hesitate to seek a second or even third opinion. I know Juba's dad is glad that he has gone the extra mile for his little buddy. Hopefully, the endocrinologist will get to the bottom of what ails Juba, and he'll get the right course of treatment. He is such a good boy, and, like all cats, he deserves to be happy and healthy so he can enjoy life to its fullest.

Cat Sitter Discovers Her Cat's True Intentions

As regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know, I love to begin items by writing, "As regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know..." Beyond that, as regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know, my cat Charlotte is constantly trying to access my laptop. I thought it was because she wanted my attention or enjoyed the warmth. Boy, I was naive. Charlotte needs to get to my laptop because she is trying to launch her own blog. Look at this photo. I left my desk for a few minutes just now, and I returned to find her sitting on my laptop with WordPress open. I don't use WordPress for my blog. I use Blogger. Clearly, my cat is trying to blog behind my back!

Your Cat Needs A Window To Look Through

Like people, cats need a window to look through. Dale Bozzio, the lead singer of Missing Persons, wasn't necessarily speaking from the point of view of a feline in the 1983 single "Windows," but I think she said it best when she sang, "All I want is a window to look through. All I need is a window to look through. It's the only thing that I really wanna do anyway."

That's exactly how cats feel. Well, probably not exactly. I don't think cats only want a window to look through, but looking through a window ranks high on their list of enjoyable things to do.

Every morning after my cat Charlotte eats breakfast, she goes to her favorite window (see photo above) to do her birding. I hope I didn't lose you there. "Birding" involves looking at birds through a window. It's a technical term that professional cat sitters like me use all the time.

I must ask: Do you have an easily accessible window for your cat to look through? If not, get on that. Everyone should make sure that their cat has a window to look through, especially now that spring is here. That said, make sure you have secure screens in that window. If not, your cat might pull a disappearing act like my cat sitting client Gilbert did.

Additionally, everyone should also make sure that their cats are properly cared for when they are not home. In researching Missing Person's Bozzio for this piece, I discovered that, according to CNN.com, she was charged with animal cruelty in November of last year for leaving her New Hampshire house full of uncared for cats while she was away for a week. At least a dozen of them had to be put to sleep.

Sorry to end this post on such a downer. I had no idea it was going to turn out this way when I started writing it.

Project Runway Star Kenley Collins Allegedy Attacks Her Former Fiance With A Cat

I was in the back of a taxi this evening after a twelve hour train ride from Montreal to New York when I saw a news item (for those of you who aren't New Yorkers, there are televisions in cabs now) reporting that former Project Runway contestant Kenley Collins attacked her ex-fiance Zak Penley with a laptop, three apples and her cat.

I was exhausted after the long trip and thought I must have misheard the report. But I just checked People.com, and Kenley was indeed arrested for allegedly attacking her fiance this past Tuesday with the aforementioned laptop, apples and cat, and she has been charged with two counts of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment.

Uh, how about animal cruelty?

According to both the New York Daily News and New York Post, Penley told police that he was asleep when Collins woke him up by throwing the cat at his face.

Can You Teach An Old Cat New Tricks?

Doubtful that her 12-year-old feline Mama could learn anything new at all, Colleen Mastony, a writer for the Chicago Tribune, asked animal trainer Samantha Martin to teach her a cat a trick. After 90 minutes, Martin had Mama jumping up on a stool, standing on her hind legs, raising her paw and waving hello!

So much for the widely-held belief that cats can't be trained. Cats are smart. Of course, they can be trained. Cats can do anything!

Take my cat sitting client Simba (pictured to the left). His dad taught him to sit on the refrigerator and catch treats in his two front paws. He even does it for me!

Simba is a young guy, by the way. So who knows what else he'll learn to do in the coming years. I wouldn't be surprised if he learned how to drive a car or operate a crane.

Anyway, the takeaway here is that cats old and young can be trained to do tricks, and you don't have to be Siegfried & Roy to be successful at it. Here are some tips from the Chicago Tribune for those of you who are motivated to train your felines.

I should note that I have yet to train my cat Charlotte to do any tricks, although she has trained me to get up every morning by 7 a.m. to feed her breakfast.

Fat Cat Prince Chunk Is Living The Good Life

Do you ever wonder whatever happened to Prince Chunk? New York Daily News writer Rich Shapiro offers readers an update on Prince Chunk and his new life with the Damiani family of south Jersey.

As you'll recall, Prince Chunk became a celebricat last July when he was found wandering the streets of Voorhees, New Jersey, and dropped off at the Camden County Animal Shelter. Of course, cats are brought into animal shelters every day, but Prince Chunk stood out for his size. It was widely reported that Prince Chunk tipped the scales at an incredible 44 pounds when he arrived at the Camden County Animal Shelter, although the Damianis tell the Daily News the cat weighed in at just over 22 pounds when they brought him home in late August.

Whatever his weight, Prince Chunk was a big guy.

He has shed two-and-a-half pounds since moving in with the Damianis, by the way.

Meanwhile, it sounds like Prince Chunk is living like royalty in his new home where, according to the story in the Daily News, he spends his time eating, sleeping and prodding people to pet him.

It's a deserved happy ending for Prince Chunk who was left to fend for himself on the streets by his former owner when her house went into foreclosure.

Could There Be A Cat Inside Your Couch?

If you purchase a second-hand sofa and hear meowing, there could indeed be a cat inside your couch as the couple in the video below found out. But what's really crazy about this story is they actually bought a sofa for $27.

A Cat Plays The Grim Reaper On Fox's House

A cat plays a prominent role on the new episode of House airing on Fox Monday, March 16 at 8 p.m. EST. The show finds a nursing home worker seeking Dr. House's help after the home's resident cat sleeps next to her. Apparently, the cat only sleeps next to people who are about to die.

Sounds interesting. Set your DVR to record House if you aren't going to be home on Monday night. We need to support shows that cast cats in starring roles!

Product Placement Or Cats Doing Funny Things: Can Either Save Print Journalism?

Time contributor Joel Stein, who once wrote for Time Out New York (a magazine I also wrote for back in the day before going on to establish a staggeringly successful career as a cat sitter and freelance writer not to mention cat blogger), has come up with an idea to save print journalism: product placement. That's an interesting approach, although I lean toward the suggestion he initially makes in his essay, which is that reporters drop their current beats and "cover only cats doing funny things."

Cat Sitter Leads "The Glamorous Life"

Like other people who work at home (I am chained to my desk interviewing people and writing stories when I am not out visiting cats), I oftentimes take dance breaks during the day. Just now I danced to Sheila E.'s 1984 release "The Glamorous Life," which I downloaded from iTunes last night. As usual, Charlotte watched me dance.


Charlotte isn't quite sure what to make of dancing. At least my dancing. I think I'm pretty good. I once placed second in a dance contest at the Kmart in Astor Place of all places. My best friend/partner in cat sitting T likes to remind me that I was only competing against one other person in that contest. Still, I like to say that I came in second rather than I lost. And I didn't really lose because like the winner, I was also awarded a $25 Kmart gift card.

Back to today, when I felt like I had danced enough, I took a look at the cover of The Glamorous Life album and noticed that Sheila E., who is striking a seductive pose, had the good sense to make sure a cat, also striking a seductive pose, was included in the photo.

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Mad Charlotte Beyond Booda Dome

My lovely upstairs neighbor and fellow writer S gave me a delicious red velvet cupcake from Ciao For Now for allowing her access to my Internet yesterday while hers was down. My cat Charlotte wanted to share this cupcake with me, but I refused. Cupcakes aren't good for cats. Miffed, Charlotte sat in her litter pan and sulked while I enjoyed the tasty treat.
"I just wanted a little bite," Charlotte said.
"I don't know why you couldn't have shared that cupcake with me."
"I didn't get any cupcake. Do you feel guilty?"

Warning, Warning: Your Cat Cannot Be Trusted!

I received an email from one of my cat sitting clients that reads: "We just had a scare with Gilbert [that's him pictured to the left]. He exited our apartment via an open window with a torn screen and was AWOL for 24 hours. Might want to remind readers to keep screens in good repair or keep windows closed!"



That's a good idea, especially given that it is beautiful here in New York City this weekend. As I write this, it is 63 degrees, and New Yorkers are opening their windows and enjoying the "fresh" air. Our cats are thrilled that we are doing this, of course, because an open window offers an opportunity for escape. Sure, your cat loves you and your apartment, but New York City cats want out. Take a look at the cat in the picture above. He lives across the street from me, and I'm onto him. He isn't just innocently enjoying the view. That cat is planning to leap from that window to freedom the second he gets the chance.

Who can blame our cats for wanting to get out and about? There is so much to see and do in the Big Apple. Cats is no longer playing on Broadway, but there are plenty of other shows for them to sneak into, not to mention restaurants, bars and strip clubs. And don't think that your cat doesn't have a wild side. All cats do.

Anyway, as cat parents it is our job to keep our cats imprisoned inside our homes because it is the safest place for them to be. So please make sure that your screens are secure. It's better to be safe than sorry.

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Cat Sitter In The City Hailed By The Press

As regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know, I am desperate for praise, so when I discovered that Washington Square News, the award-winning student newspaper of New York University, featured CatSitterintheCity.com in its regular "Best of the Web" feature alongside ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com, I was beside myself with excitement.

The writer, recognizing comedic and cat sitting genius, described my blog as "hilarious."

Surely, this is only the beginning of the accolades from the media, which, I hope, will follow Washington Square News' lead and pay more attention to cat sitting blogs in general.

Click here to read The Best of Cat Sitter in the City.

Cat Sitter Has A Date With Benjamin Moore

My East Village apartment is being painted, and my belongings are here, there and everywhere. So my best friend/partner in cat sitting T, who happens to live in the same building, has graciously allowed me and my cat Charlotte to stay with her for a couple of days.

If we could talk color for a moment, I chose to paint my room (pictured above) and the back bedroom Benjamin Moore's Mocha Cream. I did extensive research on interior design sites like ApartmentTherapy.com, visited my local Janovic paint store almost daily for two weeks to carefully study paint chips and consulted with my design-savvy friend R before I decided that Mocha Cream was the right neutral for me. Generally, I like some color on the walls (my bedroom was blue before), but I want the flexibility to change the color of my bedding and curtains when the whim strikes me, so I figured a neutral wall color was the best choice.

I also have to admit that I thought Mocha Cream would complement Charlotte's coat. Yes, I did factor in the color of my cat's fur when I chose the paint hue, which would likely offend the interior design sensibilities of Elle Decor editor-in-chief Margaret Russell, who saw a feline-friendly room on an episode of Top Design and declared, "You can't just design a room around the cat!"

I think you can design a room around a cat. Or at the very least, you can choose a paint color that works with your cat's coloring. (I compared various paint chips to Charlotte's belly fur.) It makes perfect sense to me. Then again, I am a cat sitter.

For her part, Charlotte could care less what colors I paint the apartment. She just wants back in. She doesn't enjoy sharing space with T's cats Sam and Mercury. While T's sweet, friendly cats have tried to form a friendship with Charlotte, she is wary of their intentions, hissing at them whenever they approach. I am sure Charlotte feels threatened given that she isn't on her own turf. All in all, I have to give Charlotte credit for adjusting well to the situation. She really has been a good sport about the inconvenience.

At the moment, all is quiet here at T's apartment. Charlotte is sleeping on T's couch while I write, and she looks adorable.

Mercury and Sam are nestled under T's comforter in her bedroom. (That's Mercury in the fore, and if you look closely, you can see Sam's little face to the left.)

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Actor Sam Neill Is Clueless About Cats

Sam Neill doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to cats.

In an interview with Stuff.co.nz to promote the film Dean Spanley in which he is cast as a clergyman who discovers he was a dog in a previous life, the actor has great things to say about canines. "I love their loyalty and their overwhelming emotions that they feel, most particularly how fond they are of one's self. It's hard to resist," he says.

But Neill isn't so kind when it comes to cats. "I love the elegance of cats, but they are so contemptuous and dismissive of people," he maintains, adding, "I tend to like the fallible in creatures, and I relate to it, rather than the superior. The cat diminishes people."

I don't think cats feel superior to humans. I think they feel equal, which is probably why insecure people have issues with them.

Yes, dogs are great. I can't argue with that sentiment. I love dogs. The relationships I have had with dogs are simple and uncomplicated. A dog is like one of those friends who always lets you pick the movie you're going to see.

My relationships with cats have been more complex. That's because a cat is like one of those friends who wants to have a say in choosing the movie you're going to see. Is that so wrong?

It's a Saturday afternoon, and you and your cat are going to see a movie.

Your cat doesn't want to see Slumdog Millionaire. Your cat would rather see Milk.

With neither one of you budging, you have to negotiate with your cat.

"But Slumdog Millionaire won the Best Picture Oscar," you say.

"Well, Milk's star Sean Penn just won the Best Actor Oscar," your cat retorts.

"I'll see Milk, but why can't we see Slumdog Millionaire first?" you say.

"You picked the movie last time. It's my turn now," your cat answers.

Your cat has a point, and you wind up going to see Milk.

One thing's for sure: I don't think many cats will see Dean Spanley now that Neill has revealed how he feels about them.

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Kristen Wiig Guests On Flight Of The Conchords

I'm not just obsessed with cats. As regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know, I am also obsessed with Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig and regularly find ways to mention her on the site even though she isn't a cat and doesn't really have anything to do with cats. In fact, she doesn't even own a cat at the moment. Don't ask me how I know this. I just know this. Cat sitters know these things.

Anyway, I was thrilled when she guest starred on Flight on the Conchords, one of my favorite shows, last Sunday. She played Brahbrah, a woman Jemaine and Bret encounter in the park after she has lost her dog Charlie. She shows the pair of picture of her pooch, who looks like a cat. "So he's more of a cat than a dog," Bret remarks.

"No, no, he's in a kitten costume," Brahbrah says. "It was for a party."

"Oh right, a Halloween party," Jemaine says.

"No, it was a kitten party," Brahbrah explains. "They didn't allow dogs. No dogs allowed. So it was the only way I could sneak him in."

"Like they say, 'There ain't no party like a kitten party.' " That's not from the show. That's what I would have said if I was part of this conversation. Unfortunately, I wasn't.

If you didn't see last Sunday's Flight of the Conchords, check out this clip from the show.

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So Long, Socks

I have sad news to report today: Socks, the Clinton's cat, was put to sleep on Friday. According to CNN.com, Socks, who was thought to be 18 or 19 years old, had been treated for cancer in his mouth and jaw at Three Notch Veterinary Clinic in Hollywood, Maryland, since the fall.

Socks, a handsome tuxedo cat, was a stray when he was adopted by Chelsea Clinton back when her father Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas. When Bill Clinton became president, Socks moved into the White House and became a celebrity cat, with his own fan club. Hillary Clinton even wrote a book featuring Socks (and the Clinton's dog Buddy) titled Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets.

After Bill Clinton left office, Socks went to live with Betty Currie, the president's secretary. Barry Landau, a friend of Currie's, tells the Associated Press that Socks had a good life with Currie, who doted on him, cooking him special chicken dinners.

Bill and Hillary Clinton released a statement regarding Socks' passing that reads: "Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years, and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere. We're grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years."

A Feral Cat Roams Ellen DeGeneres Show Studio

Ellen DeGeneres installed 24-hour Web cams inside the Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California where The Ellen DeGeneres Show is taped so that fans could get a sneak peek behind the scenes, and what did we see? Not much to get excited about until a gray cat appeared. Turns out the feral cat prowls the studio at night after everyone has departed.

Ellen is leaving food (Halo brand, of course, because Ellen is part owner of the pet food company) out for the cat and has even provided the feline with a cat tree. Hopefully, Ellen will be able to catch and find a home for kitty, who likely wouldn't mind living with her and Portia.

Fans on the Ellen message boards have proposed several names for the cat, including George (after George Clooney), Showcat and Sneakers. Sneakers wins my vote.

While Ellen says this is the first cat that has been seen in her studio, feral cats are known to populate backlots, and there is a non-profit group called Cats At The Studios (C.A.T.S. Inc.) that makes sure all of these cats are spayed and neutered, vaccinated, given medical care and fresh food and water each day. The tame cats are put up for adoption.

According to the Cats At The Studios site, today's studio cats are descendents of felines that movie magnate Jack Warner released at the Warner lot to clear up a rat infestation. Legend has it that he did so at the urging of James Cagney (pictured), who was livid after rats got into his dressing room and chewed up his favorite wool cap while he was filming The Public Enemy.

Click here to read The Best of Cat Sitter in the City.

Indulge Your Cat's Desire To Look Down On You

Cats love to be up high. My cat Charlotte, for instance, loves to look down on me from the top shelf of her cat tower or the top of my kitchen cabinets.

Soon enough, she just might have a Cat Cloud Shelf (pictured above with an unidentified feline on top of it) to perch on in my bedroom. I just saw it while I was visiting Apartment Therapy, which is one of my favorite interior design blogs, and I might spring for one after I have my apartment painted next month.

Sold by The Refined Feline at a cost of $99.99 (why don't they just make it $100?), the Cat Cloud Shelf provides two large platforms for your cat to hang out on and comes with heavy-duty wall anchors. The shelf holds up to 70 pounds, so you can rest assured that even the chubbiest cats won't come crashing down.

FYI: Apartment Therapy also provides DIY instructions on how to build your own cat shelves for those of you who are handy and would like to make them yourselves.

Cat Sitter Truly Has The World's Worst Timing

High on the adulation that I am receiving today due to this being the one-year anniversary of Cat Sitter in the City (thus far, five readers have used the comments form to send congratulatory messages to me!), I made a bold move, contacting Angela Kinsey's publicist and requesting an interview with the talented actress, who plays The Office's cat-obsessed Angela Martin.

I was confident that Angela would want to do the interview. Honestly, what star would not want to be featured on Cat Sitter in the City? But a few hours after I submitted my request, I received a response from Angela's publicist Tess Finkle, thanking me for reaching out but informing me that Angela is not available at this time.

I replied, thanking Tess for the quick response (it was nice that she got back to me so promptly—let alone at all—given that I don't have the heft of, say, Entertainment Weekly in my favor) and telling her to feel free to contact me in the future if Angela would like to raise her profile among her cat-loving fans.

Cut to: I'm Googling Angela to see what she is up to these days, and I find a story on People.com, published late this afternoon, revealing that Angela and her husband of eight years, writer Warren Liebertstein, just announced today that they've separated. "Angela and Warren are taking some time apart to figure out what is best for [daughter] Isabel and for their relationship," Finkle tells People.com.

I am mortified that I submitted my interview request today of all days. Could my timing have been any worse?

Click here to read The Best of Cat Sitter in the City.

Today: The Most Momentous Day Of 2009

Those of you who watched The Golden Globe Awards last month will remember how ecstatic Kate Winslet was after winning two awards: Best Actress for Revolutionary Road and Best Supporting Actress for The Reader.

Well, today, I feel much the way Winslet did on that extraordinary night. I'm overcome with emotion, I'm dabbing the tears from my eyes with a tissue, and I want to share my gratitude with the world. That's because today marks the one-year anniversary of Cat Sitter in the City.

Yes, it was on February 18, 2008 that I launched this blog. I can't believe a year has passed since then.

Not everyone was supportive when I told them of my plans to write Cat Sitter in the City. In fact, R, now one of the blog's biggest fans, was initially against it. "I thought that you should use your talents on a more constructive project, and I just felt like a blog about cat sitting would have a very small audience and that it wouldn't really be worth the effort," R said in an interview I forced her to take part in this morning. "Then after I saw it, I realized that your concept for the blog extended way beyond what cat lovers would want to read and that it wasn't just for your clients and that the storytelling appealed to everyone."

After more prodding, R went on to say that Cat Sitter in the City is "funny and entertaining," and she gave me perhaps the ultimate compliment when she said, "Your cat blog is like The Office of blogs. It's about a really nerdy job that you think no one would want to read about, but you make us want to know more about cat sitters."

R isn't the only one who has heaped praise on me in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Cat Sitter in the City. My best friend/partner in cat sitting T also shared her congratulations after I reminded her of the significance of today when she came to visit me this morning.

"Aren't you going to say anything? Don't you want to hug me?" I asked.

"What for?" T, who isn't always so pleasant in the morning, grumbled.

"It's the one-year anniversary of Cat Sitter in the City," I said as I threw my arms around her for my congratulatory hug. (She couldn't really hug me back because she was on her way out and was holding a bag in one hand and was opening the door to exit my apartment with the other hand.)

"Do you have anything to say?" I asked.

"That's good," T enthused.

While I am enjoying the accolades, today shouldn't be all about me, so I just made a donation of $100 to Animal Care & Control (AC&C) of New York City. The AC&C is a non-profit and runs the largest pet organization in the Northeast, rescuing approximately 44,000 animals each year. When you donate to AC&C, you can choose where the money goes. I chose to have my donation go to the STAR (Special Treatment and Recovery) Program, which provides medical treatment to injured animals and animals with behavioral issues that have been rescued by the AC&C. Without treatment, these cats and dogs might be dismissed as candidates for adoption. But with treatment, they can become adoptable pets.

AC&C makes it easy to donate online. Click here, if you'd like to do so. I really can't think of a better way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Cat Sitter in the City.

Warner Bros. Sells F.E.A.R. 2 Via Catvertising

Warner Bros. promoted the launch of the first-person shooter game F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin with the help of some black cats, who were seen prowling around London this past Friday the 13th wearing F.E.A.R. 2 t-shirts. Prior to the stunt, a representative for Warner Bros. was quoted in the press as saying that "every day people are bombarded with so many advertising messages that it can be easy to miss them. With our research telling us that Brits are actively looking out for signs of bad luck this Friday, it makes perfect sense to try and capture their attention that way."

While the black cats I know are tired of the ridiculous association between them and bad luck, I suspect they wouldn't mind playing it up for a day if they were getting paid to do so.

Cat Sitter And Cable Man Discover An Ugly Truth

My best friend/partner in cat sitting T scheduled an appointment with Time Warner Cable the other day because she hasn't been receiving all of her channels. She works in an office during the day, and I work at home, so I agreed to sit in her apartment and wait for the cable man.

When he arrived, T's cats Sam and Mercury ran for their lives, taking cover under a comforter on T's bed. They are afraid of strangers.

I'm not and am always happy to have someone to chat with. I tried to break the ice with the cable man, posing the question anyone would ask to initiate a conversation, "Do you have a cat?"

"No," he answered.

"I write a blog about cats," I said.

He didn't say anything in reply.

I got the feeling he didn't want to talk to me, so I kept quiet.

After replacing the cable box, he appeared to have corrected the problem and was switching from channel to channel when he came upon the movie The Astronaut Farmer just in time for us to see Billy Bob Thornton blast into space.

I couldn't resist talking again. "I would love to go into space," I told him.

"Who wouldn't?" he said.

Apparently, my space chat broke the ice. The cable man said he had seen The Astronaut Farmer before and told me a bit about the movie while we watched Billy Bob orbit the Earth. I explained that I don't want to go into space for more than a day or two because I don't think I could handle the lack of gravity much longer than that.

As we watched the movie and chatted about space, the cable man realized that the picture on T's television still didn't look quite right, so he went up on the roof to check the cables up there. He didn't see any problems.

Then he took a look at the cables that enter T's apartment through the living room wall.

"This is the problem," he said, snapping sections of the cables off and showing them to me. They were covered with tiny bite marks.

"Her cats have been biting the cables," he informed me, noting that he was supposed to charge T to replace the damaged cables but he was going to do it for free.

I thanked him profusely, then phoned T to tell on the cats. While she has never seen either of the cats nibbling on the cable, she insisted that it had to be Sam.

After the cable man left, I conducted an FCSI (regular readers of Cat Sitter in the City know that stands for feline crime scene investigation) and questioned Mercury (pictured to the right), who proclaimed her innocence. I believed her. Mercury is a good girl.






Then I grilled her sister Sam (pictured to the left), who has a wild streak. She wouldn't admit anything, although she did make a crack about T watching The Simpsons and Family Guy when she could be paying attention to her cats.

The lesson to be learned here? If your cat thinks you watch too much television, he or she may very well chew through the cables that deliver signals to your television. So limit your television viewing, or at the very least choose programs that your cat will also enjoy.

Kristen Wiig's Crazy Cat Lady Video Surfaces

I wrote a post back in December about Kristen Wiig playing a crazy cat lady on Saturday Night Live and how I was disappointed that NBC hadn't made the clip available via NBC.com.

Those of you who saw the sketch will recall that Kristen was cast as a woman who dictates her family's annual Christmas letter to her husband (played by Hugh Laurie) so he can type it up. The letter is written in the voice of their late cat, and her hubby is weirded out by the whole thing.

Well, I have good news: My best friend/partner in cat sitting T just received an email from a tipster who reported the clip is available on the H-Laurie.com.

So here it is!



Related Story: Cat Sitter Declares Saturday Night Live The Most Cat-Friendly Show On Television

Click here to read The Best of Cat Sitter in the City.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My cat Charlotte would like to express her love for Cat Sitter in the City readers through the following pictorial. Enjoy.
Happy Valentine's Day! If you click on this photo, it'll get really big, and you can see inside my mouth even better. Take a look at my teeth. Aren't they beautiful?

All of you Cat Sitter in the City readers are awfully sweet.


I would never break your heart, but I might bite it.

Then I'd kiss it.


Do you love me?

Stupid question. Of course you do!

Now go give your own cat some love!

Angela Adds A New Feline To Her Family

Did anyone see last night's episode of The Office? Television's most famous cat lady, Angela Martin (marvelously played by Angela Kinsey), happily announced a new addition to her family—Princess Lady.

"She's hypoallergenic, she doesn't struggle when you try to dress her, she's a third generation show cat, her father was in Meet the Parents," the normally dour Angela proudly exclaimed, adding, "Needless to say she's very, very expensive."

How expensive?

Princess Lady set Angela back $7,000. She informed her stunned co-workers that she financed her feline purchase by selling the engagement ring her former fiance Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) gave her.

Then the proud cat mom took the gang to her desk to show them her new cat—turns out she set up a nanny-cam cat feed so she could see how Princess Lady was adjusting to her new home. "I usually try to take leave when I get a new cat, but I'm out of vacation days," Angela explained, "and this company still doesn't recognize cat maternity."

I loved the line about cat maternity.

Ultimately, Angela had to run home when she saw that her frisky cat Mr. Ash was humping Princess Lady.

In this deleted scene, Angela talks about her new feline:

Can New York City Regain Its Character?

A long-time East Village resident, I appreciate the fact that New York City is a heck of a lot safer than it was when I first moved here. But there are a lot of things I miss, including cheaper rents, the small shops and restaurants that once made this city unique and the overall feeling that you could come to the Big Apple and achieve anything.

I'm not giving up on New York City, of course, and neither is my cat Charlotte, who only moved here last year and is pictured above observing the city from my window. But I do feel like the city has lost some of its soul.

Might the economic downturn bring it back?

Yes, according to Jeremiah Moss, who writes a blog called Jeremiah's Vanishing New York in which he chronicles the death of New York City. Actually, this writer, who tends toward the bitterly nostalgic on his blog (a must-read for anyone who loves New York City), is downright giddy about the prospects in an op-ed piece he wrote for the New York Daily News titled "The downturn's upside: N.Y.C. may finally regain its character."

I think he could be on to something.

Here is an excerpt from his piece, which appears in today's Daily News:

The media have been working overtime to paint the recession as utterly bleak for New York City. We keep hearing that the bad old days of the 1970s are returning. Rising crime will force us all to go back to carrying Mace in our pockets and barricading ourselves indoors. City services will grind to a halt and the streets will choke with uncollected garbage. Rats, muggers and squeegee men will run rampant, destroying the quality of life extolled by the so-called Golden Age.

Supposedly, all of New York City is suffering from a mass collective malaise, a dark cloud of shared pessimism. But the truth is very different. In reality, many of us are feeling giddily optimistic about this city for the first time in a decade.

Who are these crazy optimists? Head-in-the-sand deniers of the economic calamity? No, just people who welcome the possibility that the unique character of New York, sanitized in the Giuliani and Bloomberg years, may finally return.

As the writer of the blog Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, where I catalogue the city that's being lost to hypergentrification, I have heard hope rising from many vocal readers—hope that we'll at last have our beloved, wild, creative, eclectic city back.

Click here to read Jeremiah's entire op-ed.

Trust Your Koala To Koala Sitter In The City

Okay, I'm not really a Koala Sitter in the City. I'm a Cat Sitter in the City. But I was so touched by this video of a fireman lending a helping hand to a Koala injured in the Australian wildfires that I had to post this.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Hey Everybody, It's Cute Photo Friday!

I am declaring today the first-ever Cute Photo Friday on Cat Sitter in the City. Without further ado, here is a cute photo of my cat Charlotte for you to enjoy.
But is one really enough? I don't think so. Here is another cute photo of Charlotte.
I can't stop! I have to post a third!
My cat is so cute. It is insane!

Cat Sitter Recounts The Light Bulb Incident

I am a writer, and I do a lot of phone interviews for my stories. The second I get on the phone, my cat Charlotte drops whatever she is doing and rushes over to the desk (if she isn't already on the desk) and works feverishly to distract me from my conversation. For instance, just a few minutes ago, I was on the phone with a subject, discussing President Barack Obama's Web savvy and trying to sound professional, intelligent and insightful despite the fact that I'm marginally professional, marginally intelligent and marginally insightful at best. I was doing a great job faking it until Charlotte touched the light bulb on my new desk lamp. She didn't scream, but she did bolt off the desk and began furiously licking her paw. I had to tell my subject what happened because I blurted out, "Oh my God! Charlotte!" He then confessed that his cats were acting up, too. I thought I heard them meowing in the background!

Why do cats feel compelled to sabotage phone interviews? If anyone has the answer, please tell me.

Also, in case you are wondering, Charlotte didn't learn her lesson. A few minutes after I got off the phone, I caught her on the desk again, sniffing the light bulb.

Actually, she didn't touch it with her paw this time, so maybe she did learn her lesson, after all.

Hey, No-Show Cat Sitters: Shame On You!

I have gotten two emails in the last month from people desperate to find a reliable cat sitter after being left in the lurch by no-show cat sitters. In fact, a woman emailed me just a few hours ago because she is leaving for a trip today, and the cat sitter she booked to care for her cat backed out at the last minute.

This makes me livid. These deadbeat cat sitters should be ashamed of themselves. If you're going to be a cat sitter, you have to be responsible. People and their pets are counting on you. You can't just suddenly become unavailable the day someone is leaving town for a week!

Sadly, though, there are a lot of weirdos and flakes who turn to cat sitting.

If you don't have a cat sitter but think you might need one in the future, I recommend you find one now and establish a relationship. You can even tell the cat sitters you contact that you are interviewing people for future gigs, and you are happy to pay them a fee for meeting with you whether or not you ultimately hire them. Prior to the meeting, request and check a few references—you should do that even if the cat sitter has a charming blog (like Cat Sitter in the City) or sounds nice on the phone (like I do).

Also, make sure your cat sitter has a backup who has access to his or her schedule and client keys. If, say, I get hit by a bus while saving a basket full of kittens, I have my cat sitting partner T listed as my emergency contact in my wallet, and when the hospital calls her to tell her that I am in a coma but the kittens are safe, she'll know to look at my desk calendar, see if I've got any cats scheduled for visits and take care of them.

Conversely, I know that if T is arrested for, say, indecent exposure in Times Square, and the police allow her one phone call, she'll phone me and arrange for me to take care of any cats she is scheduled to visit.

So, Cat Sitter in the City readers, get out there and form relationships with reputable cat sitters. We'll always be there for you and your cat!

A List Of 25 Random Things About The Cats I Cat Sit For And The Cats I Used To Cat Sit For

Those of you who are on Facebook likely have friends who have written up those 25 Random Things About Me lists. I have decided to write up a 25 Random Things About The Cats I Cat Sit For And The Cats I Used To Cat Sit For list. Here it is:

1) Gudrun (pictured to the left) likes to have a DustBuster run up and down her back. I know this because her mother told me. I tried it once during our last round of visits, and Gudrun was into it, but I was afraid she would get sucked up into the DustBuster and disappear, so I didn't do it again.

2) Kiki likes to eat newspapers and magazines. She'd probably eat books, too, and maybe even my blog if she could.

3) Moz requires that I bend down immediately upon entering his apartment so that he can put his front paws on my knee, press his little mouth against mine and make kissing sounds.

4) Simba stands on the fridge and catches Pounce treats in his front paws then eats them—his dad taught him how to do this great trick!

5) Fonzie (pictured to the left) hates when I leave him at the end of a visit and always stands on the table and takes a swipe at me as I exit his apartment.

6) Juba puts his toys in his food bowl.

7) Coco puked on me once.

8) Tallulah puked on an alarm clock once.

9) The late Lil' Kim was the tiniest cat I ever knew, but she had the loudest "Merr-row!"

10) Stella (pictured to the left) was born without a tail.

11) Gilbert drinks water from the kitchen sink.

12) Bingo and PeeWee (that's Bingo to the right, PeeWee to the left) drink water from the bathroom sink, but they don't drink water from the kitchen sink. (Addendum: My know-it-all cat sitting partner T just read this and informed me that she saw Bingo drink from the kitchen sink once, but I refuse to alter this item!)

13) Miou-Miou drinks water from the bathroom sink and naps in the bathroom sink, but she doesn't drink water from the kitchen sink nor does she nap in the kitchen sink.

14) Audrey (pictured to the left) loves to play with fake fur mice more than any cat I know except for my own cat Charlotte to whom she happens to bear a remarkable resemblance.

15) Lulu watches Meerkat Manor.

16) The late Peeper hissed at me whenever I tried to pet him, but whenever I did sleepovers with him, I'd wake up to find him sleeping beside me.

17) Stevie (pictured to the left) was a shy little guy, but during our last ever visit he felt close enough to me to curl up on my lap and take a nap.

18) Lily always stands at the door and meows for me to hurry up and get inside while I fumble with the keys to her apartment.

19) Bitty loves belly rubs.

20) The brother and sister duo Steve and Consuelo both happily flop over on their backs and show their bellies when I arrive to visit them.

21) The late Midnight hugged me and rubbed her head under my chin during our first visit, causing me to immediately fall in love with her.

22) Pooper Katzenberger loves to be brushed.

23) Ollie (pictured to the left) was such a wild man when he was a little kitty that it was hard to get him to stay still for a picture, but he has since mellowed out and happily poses for "artsy" shots.

24) Elephant seems innocent but has a habit of knocking over flower pots and other objects when his mother isn't home.

25) Fini has taken up residence in a castle.

The Rats and The Cat: A Beautiful Friendship

Rat loves cat! @ Yahoo! Video

January 20, 2009: A Truly Momentous Day

Today is one of those days that will go down in history. Not only has Barack Obama been sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, but the results of Cat Sitter in the City's first-ever poll are in.

Respondents to the poll, which went live a week ago and appeared in the right-hand column under the "What is a cat sitter?" entry, were asked to go through this site and take a look at the pictures of my cat Charlotte. They were then asked, which adjective do you think best describes Charlotte?

The choices were:

Cute
Adorable
Pretty

I have tallied the votes, and Cat Sitter in the City readers overwhelmingly view Charlotte as "pretty." In fact, "pretty" garnered a whopping 55 percent of the vote. The rest of the vote was split evenly at 22 percent each for "cute" and "adorable."

I would like to thank each and every person who voted in the inaugural Cat Sitter in the City poll. There were nine of you, with two of you casting your votes during the last 20 minutes that the poll was open.

Cat Sitter In The City Declares Saturday Night Live The Most Cat-Friendly Show On Television

When I watch Saturday Night Live, I don't see the show like most viewers do. I see it through the critical eye of a professional cat sitter. I can't help it. I can't separate myself from the cat sitter that I am, and as a cat sitter, I take notice of and appreciate the high level of cat integration on Saturday Night Live.

Let's face it: You rarely see cats on shows like The Office, Dexter or Anderson Cooper 360. But felines are oftentimes featured on Saturday Night Live. In fact, a few were seen just last night during the "Good Excuses" sketch, which had Will Forte and my comedic idol Kristen Wiig, who is destined to portray me in the inevitable Cat Sitter in the City movie, playing local TV show hosts who provide their guests with good excuses. Real live cats actually portrayed the show's audience members.

To be honest, the sketch wasn't the episode's funniest. Still, the inclusion of cats must be praised, and the cats themselves earn kudos for being funny without trying too hard.

Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live cast member Bobby Moynihan recently played a cat from the musical Cats in a Broadway-themed sketch, and Moynihan was also seen as Snagglepuss earlier this season. I don't know whether Moynihan grew up with cats or perhaps did some cat sitting while he was a struggling actor, but this man knows how to play a cat. It is a delight to watch Moynihan lose himself in each feline role he tackles.



And how about those Laser Cats? While we have yet to see any Laser Cats sketches this season, they have been included on the show as recently as last season. Saturday Night Live cast members Andy Samberg and Bill Hader don't play cats, but they work with live cats, using them as lasers as if this was something they were born to do. Samberg and Hader's ease with cats is nothing short of remarkable.

Clearly, Saturday Night Live's cast, writers and production staff have an appreciation for the feline in comedy, and while other shows shy away from the use of cats, Saturday Night Live isn't afraid to work with them.

Keep up the cat integration, Saturday Night Live. The show might not get an Emmy for it, but Cat Sitter in the City just might bestow a Catty on Saturday Night Live one of these days.

Vanishing New York Brings A Cat Sitter To Tears

Readers of Cat Sitter in the City know that I love cats. I also love New York City. I grew up in a small town, and when I was in kindergarten, I bought a mini Empire State Building at a school tag sale. Even then, I was clamoring for a piece of the Big Apple.

I finally made my way to New York City a year after I graduated from college with $2,000 that I saved while working two jobs and a Citibank Visa card. The first few years here were rough financially and socially. But I was blinded by love for the city, and looking back, those were some of the best years of my life.

Even today, I still can't believe that I live in New York City and in the East Village no less.

But like any city, New York City is always evolving, and a lot of my favorite places, including the Howard Johnson's restaurant in Times Square, have closed over the years.

Now comes word that the restaurant Old Devil Moon is shutting down. For years, I have enjoyed the chicken fried steak and chocolate cake at Old Devil Moon, and I am sad to see it go.

I read about its closing on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, which is written by another East Village writer who sees his blog as an "ongoing obituary for my dying city."

I actually got teary reading Jeremiah's blog today, overwhelmed with nostalgia while reading about East Village institutions like Loves Saves The Day and Five Roses Pizza closing. But it is good that someone is chronicling the death of and paying tribute to the parts of New York City that are sadly fading away.

A German Cat Does The Weather On Live TV

I have written about how ambitious New York City cats are on Cat Sitter in the City. But I should note that cats around the world also strive to do amazing and important things. Case in point: A German cat recently barged into a TV studio while weatherman Joerg Kachelman was delivering his forecast on live TV.

Turns out the cat's name is Lupin, and he belongs to a TV station employee who was out of town when the incident occurred.

"I don't know how he got into the studio," Kachelman tells Reuters. "I noticed him when he rubbed against my leg and thought people might wonder what was happening. I figured it would be easier to control the cat by picking him up. Cats get annoyed if they feel ignored. So I made sure he didn't feel ignored."

I think Lupin is incredibly telegenic and deserves a shot at being named the TV station's weathercat. Clearly, the cat, likely denied a chance to audition for the role, decided to just go for it.

Inspired by Lupin's bold move, I wouldn't be surprised to see other cats turn up on live TV programs around the world, demanding jobs in front of the camera.

Cat Sitter Investigates "The Printer Incident"

I recently visited Ollie and Elephant and entered an apartment in disarray. The recycling bins were overturned, and a printer (more specifically, an HP PSC 1210v All-In-One Printer) and a tape dispenser had been knocked off their mom's desk.

Honestly, for a moment, I thought maybe someone had broken into the apartment and ransacked it. But after looking around and seeing no other damage, I knew that either one or both of the cats had been up to no good.

As a cat sitter, my first loyalty is to the cats, so in general, I don't tell on my cats when they are naughty. In fact, I do my best to cover for them. You know that saying "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," well, I tell the cats, "What happens when your parents are gone stays between us...unless you do something really naughty."

I think knocking a printer off a desk is really naughty, so I had no choice but to tattle. First, though, I had to figure out who did it, and I conducted a thorough FCSI (that's cat sitting lingo for feline crime scene investigation), which included extensive questioning of the cats.

I separated them to make sure that one didn't influence the other, questioning Ollie first. Ollie was steadfast in his denial that he had anything to do with knocking the printer off the desk. But I was suspicious of Ollie because I knew him when he was little, and while he has mellowed out, he was a wild child back in the day.


Then I questioned Elephant, who also insisted he didn't do it.














I went back to talk to Ollie again, and he continued to deny any wrongdoing.














But when I questioned Elephant a second time, he started to break. He didn't admit anything, but it was clear to me that Elephant wasn't telling the truth. Just look at the guilty expression on his face.








Elephant only made himself look more guilty when he stood on the printer after I picked it up and placed it next to the desk.

I later emailed his mother to let her know about the printer incident, and she informed me that Elephant was indeed the culprit. While Elephant is very sweet, affectionate and afraid of his own shadow, his mom says, he is also destructive and is responsible for breaking several antique flower pots.

Case closed.

Support A Feline: Spaghetti Cat Needs Your Vote!

My friend A is obsessed with the Dlisted blog and Spaghetti Cat, and she just sent out a mass email to all of her friends, including me, asking us to visit Dlisted.com and vote Spaghetti Cat "The Hot Slut of 2008." This is very important to my friend A, who maintains, "If you can do this, you will have helped make the world a better place." So I ask all of my readers to please lend your support to Spaghetti Cat. I can only hope that I will be in the running for The Hot Slut of 2009.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Spaghetti Cat, the feline, who is seated in front of a plate of spaghetti in a rather cute photo, inexplicably popped up on Fox's The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet last year during a segment that had two women talking about binge drinking. Here is a clip of Spaghetti Cat from Talk Soup:



A spokesperson for Fox ultimately revealed that Spaghetti Cat was not accidentally inserted into the segment but rather purposely inserted as a "bleep photo" used to cover up an inappropriate remark made by one of the guests.

Update 1/16/09: Congratulations to Spaghetti Cat. He has won Hot Slut of the Year on Dlisted.com.

"The world is a glorious place, now that Spaghetti Cat reigns over us all," my friend A wrote in an email to me and all of the other friends she asked to vote for Spaghetti Cat.

Cat Sitter Vs. Cat: The Epic Battle For Desk Space And Laptop Access Rages On Into 2009

I have chronicled my long battle with my cat Charlotte for desk space and laptop access on Cat Sitter in the City. As regular readers know, she is obsessed with my laptop. It isn't just enough for her to be near it. She needs to be on it. That makes it impossible for me to write.

I thought I had come up with a solution when I bought her a sheepskin mat and placed it next to my laptop, giving her a nice, comfortable place to sit. But she wasn't happy with it.

More recently, I cleared out a shelf over the desk so that Charlotte could lounge up there. It worked for awhile.

But now Charlotte is back on the desk and trying harder than ever to get to my laptop. She has developed a stealthy new technique, approaching it from behind the screen, then looking at me lovingly, rendering me unable to stop her.







While I sit frozen, marveling at how clever and adorable my cat is, she climbs over the screen and plants herself on the keyboard.











So as you can see, the battle continues, and my cat is winning.

Click here to read The Best of Cat Sitter in the City.

Chico The Schnoodle Returns To Montreal

Chico, the Canadian schnoodle who was temporarily living with me and my cat Charlotte in Manhattan, has returned to Montreal. As you can see in this photo, he brought his good friend Bucky, the buck-toothed, cross-eyed mouse I got him for his birthday last month, back home with him.

Chico was gassy but well-behaved on the car ride home. I worried that he might run into trouble at the border, but a guard simply asked to see some paperwork proving he'd had all his shots and asked what kind of a dog he was. When told he was a schnoodle, she replied, "A schnoodle? He looks like a noodle!"

Upon arriving home, Chico ate dinner, hung out, then went to bed. It was like he had never left.

I will miss Chico, and so will Charlotte. They didn't get along so well at first. They couldn't even be in the same room alone together back in June when Chico arrived because he acted so nutty around Charlotte. The 12-year-old schnoodle had never lived with a cat before and saw Charlotte as prey. But by the time Chico left they were hanging out on the bed together like brother and sister.

The Kitty Blog Blogs About My Blog

Peggy Rowland, who writes The Kitty Blog, just posted an item about my blog and included a couple of pictures of my adorable cat Charlotte. I am so flattered that she chose to make my blog the subject of a post, and I love that she appreciates how cute my little Charlotte is. It definitely makes my day.

In turn, I decided to write about Peggy's wonderful blog and her cat Choco (pictured). Isn't he handsome? Peggy adopted him from a no-kill cat rescue five years ago when he was just five months old. "He's a wonderful friend who always makes me smile, even when he drives me nuts," Peggy says.

As for her blog, Peggy began writing The Kitty Blog, which is part of the b5media network, on November 21, 2008. "I love writing for The Kitty Blog because it gives me a platform to share what I've learned about cats, to learn even more and to connect with others who adore felines," says Peggy, noting, "My goal is to inform as well as entertain. Some topics include health, grooming and behavior."

While The Kitty Blog is still "stretching its claws," Peggy plans to expand the content to include interviews with experts, reviews and cool kitty giveaways.

By the way, Peggy would like to feature some cat adoption stories on her blog. If you would like to share the story of how you adopted your kitty, email your story and a photo of your cat to peggy.rowland@b5media.com.

I don't know if Peggy has ever considered becoming a cat sitter, but I can tell just from her writing that she would be great at it. As I've said before, I am convinced that writers make excellent cat sitters!

Cat Sitter Hosts Company Christmas Dinner

I hosted the annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner last night at Orologio, one of my favorite Italian restaurants. Yes, I know the big event should have been held before Christmas, but I was just too busy to get it together.

The annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner was attended by T, my trusty partner in cat sitting, and R, one of our good friends.

To be honest, the dinner didn't start out as the annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner. It was just a regular dinner, but then R suggested that we make it the annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner. I was half-way through my salad when she came up with the idea, and I hesitated, insisting we should have deemed it the annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner before we started eating. But T agreed with R, so I went along with them, figuring if we didn't have the annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner last night, there wouldn't be an annual Cat Sitter in the City Christmas Dinner this year.

Being that I am the founder, CEO and president of Cat Sitter in the City, I gave a speech to my employee, thanking T for her good work and telling her that I can't imagine doing this with anyone else. I just don't trust anyone like I trust T.

Then T spoke, and she thanked me for providing her with the opportunity to cat sit.

I spoke again after T spoke, heralding myself as T's cat sitting mentor and telling her that everything she knows about cat sitting she learned from me and that I could pull the plug on her and end her cat sitting career at any moment. I did that just to make sure she knows who the boss is.

T was polite and said I was a genius. She didn't actually use the word genius, but I know she was thinking it.

She also said that our cat sitting clients get the best of both worlds in us, with T labeling herself the "normal" cat sitter while calling me the "weird" cat sitter.

I think most of our clients would agree with T's take, but also they know that while I may be weird, I am responsible and caring, and I take good care of their cats. T does, too, and that's why we're both great Cat Sitters in the City.

Cat Sitter Endorses The OMRON HJ-150

One of my friends has a pedometer, which keeps track of her steps. She aims to walk over 10,000 steps a day and regularly reports her daily tally to me with great excitement. I have always feigned interest. But to be honest, I never really understood her fascination with her step count. That is, until this week when I received a pedometer in the mail. My friend S sent it to me as a belated birthday present. I have clipped it to my waistband every day since Tuesday, and now I am obsessively tracking my daily step count. It's fun!

Today, I had walked 12,639 steps as of 9:44 p.m. Yesterday, I walked 14,274 steps. The day before yesterday I walked 15,784 steps! According to my research, 10,000 steps equals about five miles.

I sure do walk a lot. But I think a lot of New Yorkers do, especially cat sitters who are running around visiting lonely cats at Christmastime.

I just looked up Christmastime to make sure it is one word, and it is, according to the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

But this entry isn't about Christmastime. It's about pedometers.

If you are in the market for a pedometer, I like mine and highly recommend it to anyone who wants a basic one. It is the OMRON HJ-150 and can store up to seven days worth of step counts.

It is also easy to clean. I found that out today thanks to Coco. Coco (seen pictured to the left about 20 minutes prior to the incident I am about to describe) was lying on my lap like she always does, and I dozed off. I felt her jerk suddenly and woke up to find her puking, and she was puking on me. My shirt had ridden up slightly, and she threw up on my stomach and hips. The puke got all over my pedometer, which I had clipped on my hip, and some of the puke went into the waistband of my jeans.

Coco, who has been known to puke, was upset, but I told her I wasn't mad at her. She didn't do it on purpose. Poor kitty.

Plus, I was able to log a few more steps running to the bathroom to grab tissue to clean us up.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Not to get all Martha Stewart on you, but nothing brings more joy to a home than a beautifully-decorated Christmas tree. I spent hours upon hours trimming my tree, carefully stringing the lights and placing every ornament. I am a perfectionist, and I wanted it to look like something out of Martha Stewart Living. Clearly, I succeeded.

My mint-condition 2006 Fancy Feast ornament, which features a white cat inside of a snowglobe, is among my most treasured ornaments. I know it will be a valuable collectors item one day—there is one for sale on eBay right now for $18. But I will never part with mine, so don't even bother making me an offer.




My cat Charlotte couldn't wait to pose next to the tree as you can see. I'm not holding her down, by the way. I am just lovingly gripping her.

I hope she doesn't climb the tree and knock it down when I go out later today. But I bet she will. You know how crazy cats are about Christmas trees.




Chico, the schnoodle who is temporarily living with me and Charlotte, was also excited to bask in the glow of the lights.

Who can blame him? Everyone loves the holidays, especially dogs and cats like Chico and Charlotte who know they'll have some great presents under the tree come Christmas morning.

Cat Sitter Does Business Down On Wall Street

I am not positive, but I think I was the only cat sitter at the New York Stock Exchange today. I went there to do an interview with a well-known Wall Street figure for a magazine that I write for. I couldn't help but laugh when I thought about how just last week I was in the Wall Street area visiting a cat and telling him he really shouldn't poop outside the litter box because it might upset his mom, and today I was at the New York Stock Exchange talking business with a bigwig who has been profiled in publications including The New York Times.

I lead an unusual double life as a cat sitter and a writer, and I have to admit that it just delights me.