Welcome to May's edition of the Happy Cat Ezine Hope all your kitties are enjoying spring as much as our two are. byron and Shelley spend all their time outside now and can be seen running around chasing insects and climbing trees. Which means i spend a lot of my time calling them in for dinner and preying they don't hurt themselves amongst all the fun they are having. As usual the web site is going from strength to strength and is receiving lots of great submissions from its visitors. Keep them coming. Remember if you have a cat story to tell us or a favorite feline poem to share it with us here. hope you are all well and i hope to see you soon on Our-happy-cat.com. See you next month Best Wishes Kate   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS 1. New Cat Gallery Photos This Month 2. Competition 3. Byron and Shelley's Latest Diary Entry 4. Cat Poem - Walking with the Harbour Cats 5.. Article - Cat Flea Collars The TRUTH (Max's Story) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.New Cat Gallery Pages Visit the cat gallery to see more. Enjoy. Don't forget to submit your cat to the cat gallery so that others can enjoy your cat aswell. Click on their pictures to find out more about them. Flash & Dance Spud Chloe Seebo Angel Maggie Bruno Bara Bila Esme Hope Patch Bootsy   ----------------------------------------- 2. Competition Number June30 Here is May's Caption Competition. All you have to do is write a caption for this picture. . Simply send us your caption to go with this picture. picture by Chad Miller on flickr.com Click here to submit Caption The deadline for this competition is June 24th. 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 "The Little Black cat Book" GOOD Luck         -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Byron and Shelley's Latest Diary Entry It never fails to make me sigh with contentment at the sight of a smiling Cat. Shelley is particularly good at smiling and looking happy as you can see here in this picture. he also enjoys lying on the carpet and dragging himself around by digging in his claws in the carpet and pulling. This wasn't too bad when he was a tiny kitten but now he is a big boy, the carpet is suffering more. still, I'd rather have a happy cat then a spotless carpet any day of the week. Keep smiling Shelley.   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 were sent a poem by by Ian Mole (London, U.K.). i don't know if it is his poem or not, but I really liked it so wanted to share it with you all anyway. Walking with the Harbour Cats Hungry furry snakes are gliding on all sides. At every step their number multiplies. With heads and tails they’re dancing a feline pas-de-deux. Petite Nijinskys camouflaged in fur. A sinuous militia. A padding palisade. The Viet Cong shadows welcome their parade. ______________________________________________ 5.. Article - Cat Flea Collars The TRUTH (Max's Story) Submiited by the wonderful Mary from North Carolina Cat flea collars have hidden health dangers for your cat. Read this true account of one cat owner’s experience. Submitted by From Mary, North Carolina In working with cat rescue for many years, there is one thing that always makes my blood run cold and that is a cat wearing an over the counter FLEA COLLARS. I have had MANY cats surrendered to my rescue that was wearing those horrible STINKY flea collars and MANY of those same poor cats has medical issues that the poor owners could not identify the cause such as: Respiratory Problems Hair loss in the Collar area Irritation or scabbing sores (And these were just the VISIBLE problems. I want to share with you a story that happened to my very own cat named "Max". Max was 10 years old when he was surrendered to me by my own daughter in law. She had raised Max from a 6 week old kitten and he had been an indoor, SPOILED cat for 10 long years. He was a part of her life a long time and for her to call me to tell me she was giving him up broke my heart. Her reason for giving poor Max up was her Dr. told her when she got pregnant that babies and CATS should not live in the same home! Max was de-clawed (ANOTHER NEGATIVE SUBJECT) that I won’t go into at this time but when she called me about getting rid of poor Max, she said: If you don’t take him then I am tossing him outside. (I was angry and in shock) that she could be so cruel to the pet who she had shared 10 long years with. They lived 100 miles away and Max was going to "Hit the street" that night if I didn't come straight away to get him. And so I gassed up the minivan with cat carrier and kitty water and treats and headed out to bring poor Max to live with me to save him from a life he had no clue of surviving in. At his old age, this would have been detrimental. I picked up Max that evening and immediately noticed he looked different than when I had last visited 3 months before. His coat was no longer shiny and his once ravenous appetite was down to the fact that he was refusing food. (NOT LIKE MAX AT ALL) Read the rest of Max's Story Here