Around Chez Bogart, you know that we test out a lot of doggie products – I always give my honest opinion, and I just LOVE to get packages – but despite sharing my home with 4 kitties I don’t often get them involved in the testing.  Today that will change as we’ve received a Sunny Seat to try.

Now.  We don’t normally do the “as seen on TV” stuff no matter how intriguing they may be.  Firstly because Kafka (the short-haired orange tabby) won’t let us get the remote, but also because we don’t have cable, damnit.  And our antenna is one step above rabbit ears, so basically we never really see the stuff.  And at first look, we didn’t have much hope that this would be all that great.

Sure, mama thought, there is no way this can hold even one cat, much less 50 pounds worth.  The pieces looked uninspiring.

But it was indeed really easy to assemble – taking the 5 minutes that the box said it would.  Whew!

After assembly, we attached it to our window with the big suction cups.  Hm.  It’s staying.  We were pretty sure this was the moment it would fail, that the suction cups wouldn’t do their job, and that it would fall off of the window sadly in a heap of plastic.  But we were wrong.

How best to test?  With our un-shy-est cat, Kafka.

Kafka is a sound 15-pounder.  He’s not afraid of much, and once promised some chicken liver treats in exchange for posing for photos, was completely on board with our testing.

This holds!  It does what it says it does!  Thumbs up (is this the part where the chicken liver treats come out?)

Kafka – still waiting for those treats.  But damn, this window seat HOLDS.

A little lovin’ for our fine, feline product tester.  Your butt for science, Kafka!

After the initial testing phase, Kafka took over the seat as his own.  We even caught him napping in it.  No sign of it coming off of the window.  As we said earlier, we thought that this wasn’t going to work but this window seat really performed!  No tools needed, nothing that has to be screwed into walls, this just sticks on a window.  For us, it’s big enough for one kitty, so we can’t speak as to the holds-50-pounds-of-kitty claim, but it really does hold and Kafka seems quite content in it.  AWESOME!

Love,

Bogart

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Ok, stop looking at it – MAMA OPEN THE DAMN BAG OR I SHALL BE FORCED TO OPEN IT MYSELF

Goodies!  Goodies!  Goodies!

The kind folks at Cesar dog foods sent over a care package chock full ‘o goodness for me to sample.  Dog food, dog treats, and yeah some silly t-shirt for the humans.  GIMME THAT!

Yeah, yeah t-shirt, yada yada yada.  These smell awfully darned good…

Anything with the word Treats on it is fine in my book.  These are really cute, a sweet mixture of shapes and flavors.  Semi-soft for those times when crunchy just won’t do.

Not just one bag was inside but two – making me believe that a dog was responsible for sending out this package.  A human might put in one little bag of treats, but a fellow dog KNOWS that ONE IS NEVER ENOUGH.

But this is what I’ve set my sights – uh, paws – on.  I could smell these through the box.  And I generally don’t care for cans of dog food – mama makes my dinner in the crockpot each night (when she’s not breaking them, that is) – but this is INTOXICATING.

All different flavors – this one is filet mignon – yeah JUST OPEN THE DAMN THING MAMA!

Hm.  I don’t think that even when I was a puppy I was a particularly small dog.  Maybe compared to now.  But it’s a cute t-shirt.  Kinda looks Westie-ish to me (woo-hoo fellow terriers!).

I have to say that mama wasn’t expecting this – I generally turn up my substantial nose at store-bought dog food.  I suppose I’m a bit of a foodie (i.e. snob) about what I eat – a boy does get spoiled when he has a home-cooked meal every night after all.  But I went NUTSO for these and while one may be a satisfying meal for a little dog, 5 might be more like it for a mighty Dale of my impressive stature.

And a side benefit?  Guess who cleaned out the containers for easy recycling?  Thanks Behemoth!

This Cesar dog food gets a mighty 8 paws up (4 canine, 4 feline).  Every single flavor was gobbled.  I took the majority while my feline friend did the back-up work.  HAIL CESAR!

The kind folks at Cesar sent us two of these lovely bags-of-goodness and I’d love to share one with one of my blog readers!  The kit had a whole bunch ‘o Cesar wet foods, two – count ‘em, two! – bags of semi-soft treats, and a purple Small Dog, Big Love t-shirt.  Mama also wants to pass along the hot pink Small Dog, Big Love t-shirt as well, I’m not a small dog.  So rather than make this difficult, how about two folks who leave a comment on this blog including the words “ET TU, BRUTE?”, add something amusing of their own, and provide their email address get one?  Before next Wednesday (August 10)?

Thanks again, Cesar!  DEE-LISH!

Love,

Bogart

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Tune in for all the answers…

Love,

Bogart

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I’ve known her all of my life, she’s always been my greatest teacher and most patient head-lick-ee.

Sekhmet woke up this morning with something very, very wrong with her back legs.  Mama and I tried our best to help her, I gave her a gazillion kisses, but it was for naught.

We often hear people say that you can only be a “cat person” or a “dog person”.  I’m very lucky in that my mama truly is both – she was a “cat person” long before I came along, and has fully embraced my dog-ness.  Perhaps it’s because the cats raised me that maybe I am more cat-like, that she’s been able to embrace her dog-person-ness as well.

I love all of my kitties, but Sekhmet and I had a special bond.  She was the matriarch of the family, fair but tough, with a singing voice that was, well, distinct.  She was an all-black cat with some Siamese in there somewhere, so she was quite the chatterbox in her croaky-throaty voice.

An aficionado of any kind of treats (and I mean ANY kind), Sekhmet was always small in stature, but larger than life.

She also had a little issue with being on the ‘nip… but that just added to her already sparkling personality.

We couldn’t bear to see you suffer, not for a moment, and so mama took you to the vet so that you wouldn’t be in any pain.  It’s very, very hard for her – she knew you longer than she knew Klaus! – and you two have been through so much together, but the one thing that she’s always promised is that you would never suffer.  And so you drifted off in her arms.

RIP beautiful girlie.  We will all miss you, always.

Love,

Bogart & Lulu

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Kafka, my short-haired orange tabby pal, agreed to try Hill’s Science Diet Adult Cat Light food for a month.  The box arrived with the goodies, and Kafka was thrilled.  Almost ANYTHING can be considered food by Kafka, he is truly a cat of little finicky-ness.  And thusly, his girth increased proportionally to his love of food (and stealing his housemates’ food) to about 17 pounds.

We were also going to try helping Willie, our long-haired orange tabby, lose a little.  He came to us about 3 years ago when a very good friend of ours passed away, leaving him in our care.  Willie is AWESOME but he looks huge.  Upon closer inspection (in order to get a true feeling for exactly how much he should probably lose) there wasn’t nearly as much cat under all of that long hair as we’d thought.  And he only weighed about 15 pounds with a big frame and giant paws, so we were definitely going to concentrate on Kafka.

Ta-da!

Today Kafka weighs 15 pounds – he lost 2 pounds in a little over a month!  I know he looks a little, um, “intense” in this photo, but for once it’s not for want of more food.  He was really satisfied with the Hill’s Science Diet food and maybe even puked a little less than usual (so hard to tell – with 5 cats, it’s not always easy to figure out just who puked, where, and when).

Never one to miss a meal, Kafka enjoyed the little beige pellets.  I didn’t change his other, regular food during the test (he gets a spoonful of wet food each day along with all of the other kitties, along with being allowed to free-feed at the crunch trough).  The only thing that changed was the crunchy food, and damn did it make a difference!

Kafka does kitty aerobics on his back.  Arms swatting in the air is his main form of exercise.  In fact he is named Kafka because of the story The Metamorphosis, where Gregor Samsa turns into a cockroach and cannot right himself.  Just let that mental image sink in for a few minutes.  There.  Now you can picture Kafka my kitty on his back meowing for more chow.  And yeah, he’s still not a big exercise buff.

Again, he may not look it in this photo (it’s hard to catch the wide array of emotions that Kafka is capable of on film), but he’s a happy boy.  Still has some belly, still a mighty mouser, but carrying a bit less stash in the belly bag.

Thanks Hill’s for allowing us to participate!  Kafka sends along his love…

Love,

Lulu & Bogart

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While we may say they’re fat – or big boned, or fluffy, or whatever – they basically don’t care about what we think.  That’s fine.  But as they are my kitties I want them to be healthy for a very long time, so methinks it’s time for them to go on a secret diet.  Feeding them less food (or food they don’t like) is out of the question.  With hours and hours of time to plot their revenge, both mama and I agree that this could be dangerous to our apartment and everything in it.  So we have partnered with Hill’s Science Diet to give their Science Diet Adult Cat Light food a shot.  A few days ago a very large box arrived with oodles of dry kitty chow inside, kindly provided by Hill’s.

This should be interesting.

So for the next few weeks, there will be some feline action on my dog blog.  I will keep you updated as to their progress in losing a pound or two each, and if they stage a feline revolt.

Love,

Bogart

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Mama makes my chicken soup a few days at a time now in my handy-dandy crockpot.  With thanksgiving coming this week, she’s added a few new veggies for my fuzzy pleasure.

I don’t really care about the veggies, but don’t tell her that.  She’s excited about it.

Instead of my regular sweet potato, carrot, and beans, I get sweet potato, carrot, okra, rutabaga, and celery – mmmmmmmm

It looks good now – I’d take it as is – but after a few hours of stewin’, it’s going to be PERFECT

Even the carnivores in the house agree.

Kafka did try to steal a chicken breast out of the pot while mama wasn’t looking, but I thwarted his attempt.  He comforted himself by taking the chicken container out of the trash, running around with it, and then settling in for some carnivore fun of licking it clean.  Go Kafka!

Love,

Bogart

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It is the Year of the Tiger Cat – Belly

Tiger Cats are the tubbiest sign on the zodiac, methodical in their purrsuit of food (especially from other cats’ plates), intelligent deep inside that they choose to hide with a somewhat goofy demeanor.  They sleep more than any other astrological sign because they are deep thinkers and imaginative players.  They rarely jump and miss, for their internal upward-motion calculator is top-notch.  Catnip can be a problem if they overindulge.  They can be possessive of items they deem to be their own (if someone else is sitting on or playing with it).  But more of a lover than a fighter.

I too am celebrating the Year of the Tiger – Cat with my favorite tiger striped blanket.  If I’m not sleeping on mama, I’m sleeping on this.

Happy New Year everyone!

Love,

Bogart

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I think she enjoys my company the most – well, at least I don’t see her claws that often.  Sekhmet is 13 years old, and is the only cat my mama has that came with her from NYC to the west coast.  Our “elder stateswoman” as mama says, or “Queen of Sheba” as Sekhmet thinks.

I am really intrigued with her.  She has a fantastic talking AND singing voice.  Mama says it is because she is part Siamese.  She’s quite the talker.

She’s also a drooler.  When mama pets her and she’s purring really, really hard, she starts to drool.  It’s pretty hilarious.

As you know, cats are pretty clean animals and Sekhmet is no exception.  Plus she has me around to help out.

I think she’s pretty awesome.  A mighty purr in a tiny body.  Such a pretty girl.  One of these days I’ll get her to snuggle with me…

Love,

Bogart

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Mmm… PIZZA.  Mama isn’t much of a cook, so because dad is sick today she had to forage in the freezer for her own lunch.  And what better – indeed, what more perfect – food is there than pizza?  Frozen if we must, but at least “improved” with some fresh tomatoes, garlic and olive oil.

That smells awfully good mama… you gonna eat all of that yourself?

Because, I mean, I COULD HELP YOU…

I know you’re not a big fan of the crust…

Seriously, I just wanna do my part TO HELP YOU…

Anything I can do… REALLY…

SCORE!

Give me your poor, your tired, your slightly-burned crusts…

I hope you appreciate this mama.  I’M DOIN’ IT FOR YOU…

After the pizza party, time to chill out with my pal Kafka.  Kafka is the short-haired orange tabby, and he is literally a furry, vibrating hot water bottle.  Purrfect on a cold day such as this.

But first I had to get Kafka’s attention.

He’s still busy showing Willie who is really king of the household.  Willie looks bigger because he’s a long-haired orange tabby, but Kafka is definitely meaty-er, and it’s fun to watch an orange-colored ball of fur roll by whenever they tussle.

Ah, my favorite spot.

Carpe Sofa (Seize the Sofa)!!!

Love,

Bogart

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I can’t tell ya how tickled I am these days to be watching the Kerry Blues do their thang… mama and I are really absolutely enamored of them.  And THOSE BEARDS – they make me all tingly whenever I see them, especially after roaring to the top in Stanley & Stella’s Beard Competition.

So I feel very honored (and did I mention tingly?) to receive this award from them.

The award states: “This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships!” In other words, blogs that receive this award “are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

So as always, I’m probably late to the party on this one.  In the interest of spreading the love, I’m gonna try to find other dogs who haven’t already received this, many apologies if you already have…

Asta (up over)

Nottie Scottie

Lorenza

Ludo

Sally & Rufus

Deetz

The G-Dales

Scruffy, Stan & Lacie

It was TOUGH to just pick 8 other dogs to send this to – I tried hard to find those of you who hadn’t already received one – which is sometimes the toughest part.  Mama and I read so many of your blogs all the time, so we did a lot of visiting to see, but alas, sometimes mama screws up.

So I’m just sending BIG AIRE KISSES to ALL of my dog friends to cover my butt (tuck tail first!)

Love,

Bogart

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Mama and I decided to do something a little different this year – rather than opening all of our Christmas cards as they arrived, we thought it would be fun to open them all during the opening of the presents on Christmas morning – so we could ooh and aah over all of the cool cards that our DWB buddies sent to us from all over the world.

It was hard not to open the cards as they arrived, but mama was good about keeping them all in a nice pile while we waited for the 25th.  And it was totally worth it – we thought about you all as we opened the envelopes and the emails!!!

The kitties could not control themselves, they were totally fascinated with all of the cards.

Orange tabbies in particular seem to have an unhealthy preoccupation with card destruction.  Perhaps we should try to distract them?

This is WIllie – he is the kitty that came to live with us after his mama died.  He’s doing really well and is a part of our furry family now.

Check out this cool toy that I got – he is a rubber pig!!! – and most importantly, he SQUEAKS!!! I think I’m gonna name him Bacon…

Aw, and some good stuff to chomp on.  I was originally far more interested in the package that held these wag’n wraps, and destroyed it promptly.  I do think that Bacon and I will become best friends, however.

Hehehe – the Bogie Stogie

The kitties got something special too – a packet of Feline Greenies!!!  And so, without further ado, I introduce the furry chorus:

Sekhmet, the black Siamese girlie…

Kafka, the orange shorthaired tabby boy…

Behemoth, the grey and white “spotto gato” boy…

Willie, the long haired orange tabby boy…

And Aeon, the brown tabby girl.

Merry Christmas everydog!  Hope you all got LOTS of great presents – BIG AIRE KISSES to all of you and your families!!!

Love,

Bogart

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You spent this chilly day outside – after escaping from the back door, you managed to find a nice, warm spot in a little area under the house.

But a nice, tasty bowl of kibble foiled your evil plans for taking over the household from below.

And I thought us dogs were motivated by food, and able to manipulate the humans into providing it at any time… you sir, are THE KING – simply by being outside a bowl of food materialized.

I will learn from your greatness, oh strip-ed one…

Love,

Bogart

www.chezbogart.com

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As always, whenever a post will be featuring my feline friends, I give a big ol’ warning to all of my pup peeps.

Ready?  Lets GO…

We went to the Hawthorne Fish House because mama had been craving their yummo french fries and a Gardenburger.  She looked like she was enjoying it, and then apparently we had to “walk it off”… no clue what that means, but hey, whenever walking is involved, I’m in (but if we need to take the bus, I know how to make ‘em stop for me… WATCH THIS)…

We got a little treat for the kitties… the black girlie is Sekhmet and it looks like she approves…

Yup, Kafka also seems to think that the Meowie Wowie will be up to snuff…

That’s when Behemoth sauntered over to check out what was going on…

Sekhmet was concerned that Kafka may try to take the whole bag, run with it, hide under something, and then tear it to pieces just before he rolls his entire tubby tabby body all over it, thoroughly coating himself in catnip.  She is of course, correct…

Oh yeah, Kafka is plotting…

Sekhmet makes her play for some organic nip…

They have a short conversation (which I could not understand, being that I speak dog and uh, English, so cat is beyond my powers of understanding)…

And it seems like all will be well.  Just as long as separate bits of catnip are placed strategically around the house far away from each other.  DEAL!

Love,

Bogart

Chez Bogart

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If you can’t handle the felines, best to either turn away now or scroll to the bottom as the glorious orange fur will soon be flying.

Ok, everybody gone that needed to leave?  It’s just us cat lovers now.  We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

This is Kafka.  He had to go to the vet today because he had a growth under his chin.  Mama was worried as it seemed to be growing quickly.

Luckily dad was able to get Kafka into a carrier (and only lost a little bit of blood… not bad, dad) and off to the vet.  Some great news – Kafka, as you may have noticed, is a chubby tabby.  Mama likes ‘em kind of chubby and cuddly.  Especially her tabbies.  And Kafka is happy to oblige – he’s obsessed with his food, and everyone else’s as well.  Today we found out that he weighs exactly what he weighed at his last vet visit – 16 pounds – so he’s kept off a little bit of his chub.  The vet was surprised – she said that fat cats usually swing in weight – so Kafka did us proud.  Unfortunately his chin was also on the chubby side, and the vet said that it was an abscess – and that’s why it was getting so big, so fast.  She would drain it with a needle and syringe (and apparently he managed to fill up an entire syringe with the icky stuff that was inside his growth)!

You can see that he got a little shaved under his chin, and that’s the spot that the needle did it’s work.

So far so good, he’s going to get pumped with daily antibiotics and – I’m sure – treats, so here’s to hoping that he makes a speedy and full recovery.  It’s amazing that he’s never acted sick at all – I’d be milking this for some “treats and sympathy”…

Tonight there was some mail for me – a little something from the folks at Greenies!

They’re Pill Pockets treats – made to try to disguise pills when we have to take them.  I can tell you from the get-go that they just aren’t going to work.  Firstly, I don’t need to take any pills right now, and secondly, well, how hard is it to distinguish a nasty pill inside of a tasty treat?  Roll ‘em around in your mouth, spit out the pill, it’s SIMPLE.

Oh look – they also sent some for felines.  This is Sekhmet.  She was willing to take one for the team and try one, but she doesn’t need any medicine right now either.  But she’s happy to help…

Instead I got to munch on one of these Whole Meals bars.  We got them at the Pets in the Pearl event, and haven’t had a chance to try them yet.  The bag smells good…

Oh yeah, this seems like it will do the trick…

Love,

Bogart

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Love,

Bogart

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I spent much of this past week at Dale Day Care – yup, that’s Mareike’s house – hanging with my buddies. I gotta tell you, as many cool things as there are here in Los Angeles, the ONLY one I’m gonna miss is Mareike’s house. And my Dale buddies.

And even the kitties that live at the Dale house…

Love,

Bogart

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For all of those doggies freaked out by our feline cousins, you have been warned. There are CATS in today’s post.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Sorry I haven’t written in a few days… my week has been fun as always, but this furry tabby has kind of been the star for the past few days. But I’ll get to that in a moment.

Firstly, I got a special delivery this week from Keeley!!!

Yup, the box smelled yummy so I was sure it was for meeeeeeeee!

Fantastic yummo yummo treats inside!!! THANKS KEELEY, mom couldn’t catch any photos of me actually eating them because I scarfed ‘em down super fast. They were DELICIOUS…

My kitty brother Behemoth. Guarding the succulents that dad cut from the park.

He did a thorough check to make sure that all was well because dad is going to bring them over to plant in Mareike’s garden.

This is Willie. The long-haired orange tabby from earlier in this post.

Willie arrived at our house on Tuesday. His mama, who was a good friend of my mama and dad, passed away over the weekend. She knew how much we always loved both her and Willie, so he has come to live with us. So far he’s really unsure about the whole thing (I know that he misses his mama a whole lot), and I don’t think he’s ever seen a dog before. Certainly not one as handsome as I. He’s also not really sure about the other kitties yet. I’m trying to make him feel welcome (I do love all kitties, I just can’t help myself), but he mostly hides under the bed and under my sofa. Oh, and he goes camping outside on the terrace in the Willie Tent (it’s a blue cat tent from Ikea – I’m going to try to get a picture of him in it). We all want to make him feel welcome and to know that he’s got a happy home now, any advice on things I can do to make him happy?

Love,

Bogart

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This is Behemoth (and dad’s foot).  Praying to the god of the heater.  Kitties like to do this, I’ve discovered, and Behemoth spends an inordinate amount of time in this prayer position.  I’m not sure if the heater hears all of his prayers, but it does keep him (and dad’s toes) warm.

Love,

Bogart

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This is Kafka.  He’s my little tabby brother (he’s not really little as you can see – he’s a “husky” gentleman, very interested in gastronomy).  Since it’s been raining, he’s been searching out new spots to curl up and keep warm.

I think this is a pretty cool spot – he fits kind of purrfectly!

I love my kitties – even though they kick my butt on a regular basis, they’re my best buddies and we do occasionally curl up together…

This is Kafka’s “Oh…. Yeah” face.

Love,

Bogart

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