Welcome to April 2011 edition of the Happy Cat Ezine   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS 1. New Cat Gallery Photos This Month 2. Competition 3. Byron and Shelley's Latest Diary Entry 4. Cat Story - Bambi Our Cat 5.. Article - Cat Labour ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.New Cat Gallery Pages Lots more of your beautiful cats have been submitted to our cat photo gallery to see more visit the cat gallery . Enjoy. Don't forget to submit your cat to the cat gallery so that others can enjoy your cat as well. Click on their pictures to find out more about them. Arsy Marley Peyton Tobias Poppy Dexter Kate & Juliet Gun Jack Leo Aramis Daisy & George Tootsie   ----------------------------------------- 2. Competition Number April 35 Here is Aprils Caption Competition. All you have to do is write a caption for this picture. . Simply send us your caption to go with this picture. Click here to submit Caption The deadline for this competition is May 25th. The best caption will be chosen and the winners name and caption will be posted on the www.our-happy-cat.com competition page. This month the prize is a copy of the Book "Yoga For Cats" The First Feline Fitness Programme. By Traudl and walter Reiner GOOD Luck         -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Byron and Shelley's Latest Diary Entry This is a short video, click on the picture to go to the video page. As you can see from this video Byron is washing Shelley Furiously. this went on for some time. Now there was a reason for this over zealous licking. Byron was trying to get on Shelley's nerves so much that he would get off the chair and Byron could have it all to himself. The battle for this chair has been going on now for some weeks. One day Shelley winds the next Byron is top cat again. By the way the licking didn't win. I think Byron's tongue wore out and he left Shelley to the comforts of the chair. I will be adding regular updates about them on the web site so keep an eye on your RSS feeds for those. Here is their page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Cat Stories and Poems we like to encourage our visitors to the site to share their cat story or poetry with us here. we certainly enjoy reading your tales of rescue, joy and sadness too. So if you have a story or poem to tell us please let us know HERE This month we have a short story about a cat Called Bambi Sent in by Helen (Belfast Northren Ireland) Bambi you came to us in February 2008, your big beautiful yellow eyes jumped from the page on which you where looking for a new owner to take you home. we Contacted seventh heaven Rescue centre where you were being cared for. When we saw you we new you were meant for us. You sat on our laps and purred loudly your good friends that were looking after you got the papers for us to sign and then you where coming home to be with us and Lucky. Lucky was the reason we got you because her mother Treacle died from Cancer in January that year. You did not take to kindly to wee Lucky for the first 6 months and stayed up in my Bedroom, then you got brave enough to be with Lucky, "yes it is true you spat and hissed at Lucky however slowly and surely you began to trust Lucky and a friendship of sorts was struck up. Read the rest of the story here   Read more stories and poems here ______________________________________________ 5.. Article - Cat Labour A pregnant cat will behave very similarly as a normal cat would i.e. they will still want to play, climb, hunt etc as normal and often cat owners are unaware that their cat is pregnant until quite near the end of their term when physical changes become very apparent. In fact the only early sign of pregnancy may be that the cat's nipples may become a little larger and pinker in colour. It is not until the fifth or six week into her pregnancy that changes will become apparent, both physically and behaviourally. Early Signs Of A Cat About To Give Birth A pregnant cat will start to behave differently as she nears the end of her pregnancy. These include but are not always present: Becoming overly affectionate towards their owners. Seeking their company more often and behaving in a more babyish way. for example rolling around the floor and rubbing against legs. They may become more vocal. Alternatively some cats may withdraw from the family and want to be on their own during the last few days before giving birth. Her nipples will enlarge even further and there may even be signs of milk being produced a few days before giving birth. She may become restless and start to seek out places to give birth. She may not want to eat as much or at all as she near labour. Read the rest of this article here