Tuna Ice Lollies for Cats

Animals have been suffering in the heatwave we've had recently - I've seen several reminders on Facebook not to walk dogs during the hottest part of the day. My cat spent several days moving from one spot in the living room to another, seeking out the coolest bit of floor, so when I saw this idea on the internet (on Facebook again actually) I decided to give it a go.

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Tuna ice lollies for cats - whatever will they think of next?! To make these, you simply mix the liquid from a tin of tuna in spring water (rather than brine which is too salty), with a little tap water, and freeze them in ice lolly makers.

To get the lollies out, stand the mould in a bowl of boiling water for a few seconds.

Unfortunately my cat didn't seem particularly interested but I have seen videos on the internet of cats licking these so apparently they do work at least with some animals!

CatFest London and vegan street food

CatFest was London's first ever festival dedicated to cats (in Shoreditch, where else?) featuring everything from handmade cat baskets to bejewelled cat collars (which could also be worn by humans), posters and paintings of cats, cat themed stationery and gifts, and books about cats.

It took place in July and I managed to get two tickets for me and a friend who was visiting. I left baby S at home with her dad and enjoyed one of the most random days out I've had in a while!

The event opened later than the advertised time so there was a queue of people waiting outside as we arrived, but luckily it didn't take long to get in. The stalls were arranged in rows around a hall and we took our time browsing, though the only thing I bought was a catnip toy. I did however get to meet Artemis and Apollo, two Instagram-famous cats with about 115,000 followers - this is a selfie with Artemis!

There was a stage at the front with various speakers over the course of the day, but nobody I had actually heard of - while we were there, a lady from the "Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats" (a cat rescue in Los Angeles) was giving a talk but we couldn't hear her very well over the general hubbub of the festival, and there was nowhere to sit and not much room to even stand in front of the stage - they would have been better doing this in a separate room with some seating I think. There were also some very odd 70s style dancers which we watched for a few minutes but I was more interested in the cats!

Having said that, other than the Instagram stars we didn't see any actual cats. There was an adoption area in another bit across the road, where you could meet cats and put your name down to adopt one, but I already have a cat and the queue to get into this separate area was very long - they were only letting a few people in at a time so not to overwhelm the cats, which was sensible, but we didn't want to queue in the hot sun.

 

Instead we visited the food court to get some lunch. For some reason all the food on offer was vegan and though there weren't that many stalls, there were choices from every end of the spectrum so pretty much something for everyone. My friend had a cauliflower patty served in a box with cous cous and a few other things, though as there was only a tiny seating area and we had to stand, she found it a little difficult to eat out of the box with a fork (given we also had a glass of Pimms as well!). I had a vegan hot dog from Pig Out - they had three options, all vegan, and I had American style with macaroni cheese on top the sausage. It was absolutely delicious and as they travel the country visiting various food markets and events I urge you to check them out if you get the chance.

I also spotted one of my favourite bakeries which just happens to be vegan - Ms Cupcake, based in Brixton, makes the best cookie sandwiches I've ever had. I had a salted caramel and took a chocolate chip home for my husband - he is about as far removed from vegan as you can get, and he loves them too!

I wore my cat print dress from Lindybop which I've had for a while but only worn once or twice before as it seems a bit OTT for daily wear but this was definitely the event for it - I got so many compliments from complete strangers!

 

CatFest was a fun day out though I did think the £20 ticket price was a bit steep considering that pretty much everything inside involved purchasing things, other than adopting cats, and the guest speakers, but even if we had wanted to stay and listen to any more speakers it wasn't very well set up for that, as there was nowhere to sit and even standing to listen we were in the way of people walking around looking at the stalls. So if this event takes place again, which I think is their intention, I hope they will drop the ticket price and also think differently about the logistics. The food was great and it was definitely something a bit different!

Review: Pure freeze-dried cat food

While this blog usually focuses on food and drink for humans, I have written a few posts before about meals I've made for Tilly - my gorgeous tabby cat.

 

I was asked if I wanted to review some cat food and since there is a link (albeit small) with what I've covered before, I said yes. The product itself is interesting I think to foodies anyway as it's freeze-dried - you just add water - making me wonder if there is any food for humans (other than what astronauts eat in space!) that is prepared in this way. I have a feeling that herbs are sometimes freeze-dried as a way of keeping them tasting fresh - if you know of any other freeze-dried food let me know in the comments!

So on to the cat food. Made by a brand called Pure Pet Food, a company founded by two friends who wanted their dogs to eat food as good as they did, rather than highly processed food made with low quality ingredients. After developing the business and seeing it start to take off, they appeared on TV's Dragon's Den (the equivalent show in the US is called Shark Tank if you're an American reader!) and were offered investment but decided to turn it down to go it alone.

They started off with dehydrated food in 2012 and only last year moved into freeze-dried. The company says its freeze-drying technique keeps the texture of the meat which did look to be the case from appearance (I drew the line at tasting it myself) and it doesn't need preservatives added. There's plenty of nutritional information on their website which I won't repeat here but I am impressed at the list of ingredients and their benefits, and that it contains nothing 'bad'.

I was sent finger-lickin' chicken and surf and turf flavours; here's what you get inside the box:

Mix with the recommended amount of water and leave for a few minutes to rehydrate, mixing well.

Tilly (my cat) really enjoyed this - she does like to switch up her brands and flavours every so often - and seemed to prefer it when I added a little more water to the mixture.

Here she is posing for a photo!

It does take slightly longer to mix this up in the mornings, and I'm always in a hurry before work,  though you can do it the night before and keep it in the fridge. You can buy online from their site and the products are also stocked in Pets At Home.

A 200g bag costs £11.99 but this is equivalent to 800g of fresh food, Pure says.

Thanks to Pure for the pet food for review. All opinions are my own.

Liver Stew - for cats!

I am a mad cat lady- I only have one cat, but she's the love of my life (along with my husband of course). I feel bad sometimes that I don't have more time to spoil her but she does seem to be quite happy.

Not long ago I decided I would treat her to a home-cooked meal - and I don't mean giving her some leftover chicken off our plates (which does happen). I've actually got a little cookery book called Cat Treats - and it's all about cooking for your cat!
Of course, anything a cat can eat, a human ought to be able to eat too - it just might not be the most palatable to our tastes. I posted a picture of this liver stew on Facebook and a friend commented that it just needed some bacon and onions and would be really good!

(By the way if you didn't already know, onions and garlic can be toxic for cats.)

I bought some liver in the supermarket when it was reduced to mere pence - I hate liver so put it in the freezer knowing it was always destined for the cat!

To make 2-3 portions of this liver stew, you need:
100g liver
1 tsp sunflower oil
3 tbsp. water
15g peeled, cooked potato
1 tbsp. crème fraiche
1 tsp freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

Cut the liver into small cubes and fry in the oil. Let it brown, then add the water and cook for two minutes over a medium heat.

Mash the potato and mix into the pan along with the crème fraiche and parsley. Allow to cool - it's not good to give this to your cat hot, but I did let her have it when it was slightly warm, and she absolutely loved it!

 

 

Have a Great Day Cat Card

I have a folder for greeting cards I was given once, that has a page for each month where you can write down who has a birthday or special occasion, and there's a pocket on the facing page to store the cards for each month. I use that for the cards I've made, and recently found this one among my craft stash (I have a whole cupboard full of stuff) - so I had made it ages ago (literally years) and never used it!

I had some cat stickers on a little sheet that also had some flower stickers and I decided to mount them on a piece of pink card, which I put on top of a strip of pink ribbon that I stuck two thirds of the length of a tall thin card blank. I used some more of the pink ribbon along the bottom and mounted another piece of pink card on that, with a 'have a great day' sentiment sticker. Great for a cat lover like me!

Tabby Cat Birthday Cake

Since I’m on holiday and wanted to schedule a few posts for when I was away I thought I would share this with you. Isn’t it brilliant?

 

My sister made this cake for my birthday, using an idea and instructions from a brilliant cake decorating book I got her from Sainsbury’s that only cost £5 for a big hardback with lots of colour photos. I think her cake has a very professional finish even though she is quite new to covering cakes with fondant. The stripes look perfect and the cake was so cute! The cake underneath was delicious too – a Victoria sponge.

 

I’m so used to making my own birthday cake - I don’t get many opportunities to make big cakes and I usually don’t want someone else stealing my glory! I think I would feel the same about a wedding cake but that’s a bigger challenge). But in this instance I’d been really busy and we popped in to see my family for a day right before we went on holiday – so it was lovely that she made this for me! I might have to let someone else make a birthday cake for me in future!
 

The Pussycat Riot - Fighting Internet Censorship

 

Sometimes it seems the internet was invented for cat videos. I'm definitely a mad cat lady and love to watch YouTube clips of kittens rolling around and am a big fan of Grumpy Cat. But there are countries and governments which aren't so keen on letting their citizens giggle over the piano playing cat or the one that looks surprised when it has its tummy tickled. Not only that, but they don't give their people access to information about what is going on in the outside world, or allow them to discuss news and current events on social media, as a form of suppression.

The Pussycat Riot aims to help change that. No, not the Russian protest punk rock group - that's Pussy Riot. Pussycat Riot is uniting the cats of the internet, because after all,Freedom is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Cats know everything.

According to The Pussycat Riot, about 4 million cat pictures and videos are shared on the internet every single day (and not all of them are from me). As it says on its website, "However, cuteness and humour aside, what all of the cats on the net also represent is something within ourselves: our right to be grumpy on a Monday, our right to play the keyboard at inappropriate moments, and our right to sit, content, in a tiny cardboard box. Internet cat content is a symbol of our freedoms."

 Using the hashtag #ThePussycatRiot they want to raise awareness of the issue of internet censorship and have enlisted various famous internet cats (and presumably their owners), including one of my favourites Princess Monster Truck (check out the website if you don't know who she is) and have asked bloggers who are also cat owners to 'join the revolution'. They sent me a selection of badges and a bandana which you can see my cat Tilly modelling here, though she is rocking it as a scarf more than a bandana.

You can show your support for the campaign by tweeting with the hashtag #ThePussycatRiot or purchasing one of the products from their online shop - they have an amusing line in litter trays bearing the image of certain world leaders!

The Pussycat Riot, established by global VPN provider HideMyAss.com, calls on cat owners to protest against regimes that deny their citizens the right to access websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter; which not only robs them of news, ideas, opinion and knowledge, but also prevents them from experiencing the innocent delights of online cat pictures and videos.

Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium - Review

Cats and cake are two of my favourite things (though cats are the clear winner, of course) so when I heard that a cat cafe like the ones in Japan and South Korea was planned for London I couldn't wait! Then I discovered that the idea needed money to get off the ground, and the "crazy cat lady" (her words) behind the idea, Lauren Pears, had started a crowdfunding campaign. I loved the idea of a cat cafe, and was also pleased to see there were "perks" on offer to the crowdfunders, ranging from entry to the cafe (which costs £5) to sponsoring one of the cats. I donated a small (ish) sum of money and in return received a voucher for afternoon tea for two, plus the satisfaction of knowing I had helped London's first cat cafe get off the ground.

Another perk was a preferential booking system for crowdfunders. It took over a year for the cat cafe to open - to go from the original idea, to finding premises, getting licences and of course adopting the cats - took a long time, and I imagine Lauren was getting pretty fed up with people asking when it would open. Finally Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium opened its doors on March 1 - and the website immediately crashed under the weight of the demand. Within a matter of days the cat cafe was fully booked for the next three months, but some seats were held back for crowdfunders and I managed to go last Sunday, a mere two weeks after Lady Dinah's opened.

If you don't like cats, look away now....

The cat cafe is on Bethnal Green in an area that has a real hipster east London vibe; on a street with tattoo parlours and independent clothing stores, there is a pretty purple shopfront with cats sitting in the window. Almost everyone who walked past seemed to stop and look. When you go inside, there is a reception area and two more doors to go through, which are both kept shut, so to prevent the cats from going out onto the street. You are also asked to wash your hands and given some ground rules, including being asked not to pick up the cats or disturb them if they are asleep.

Inside is decorated in calming pale blue and white, with vintage and shabby chic-style furniture. Upstairs there are three round tables with chairs plus a sofa, and a giant hamster wheel for the cats to play on, as well as shelves along the walls that the cats can walk along or sit on.

Downstairs  - don't forget to look up as you go down stairs, as there was a cat in a hammock asleep across the top of the staircase - there are comfortable sofas, and a few dining chairs, with tables ranging from an Ikea Lack to an old tea chest. There are several places for the cats to hide or sleep or play, and lots of toys lying around for guests to engage the cats with.

My visit didn't get off to the best start however. We were advised in advance that tables had a two-hour turnaround time, and we had booked for 1.45. There didn't seem to be anyone else arriving at that time, but when we entered, all the tables were full. There were a couple of seats spare, but we would have had to sit with other people and the afternoon tea ambiance isn't really the one for communal table-sharing. We ended up sitting on a sofa with no table - not even anywhere to put a cup of tea, apart from the floor - and had to delay having our afternoon tea for half an hour until a table became free. I wondered if the booking system took account of how many people there was space for, rather than how many tables of 2, 4 etc they could cater for, which is a shame. I know this is an informal cafe and normally I wouldn't object to sharing space with strangers, but this was the first time I have had a booking for afternoon tea and not actually had a table.

Update: Lady Dinah's has now informed me that while they like to allow people to move around (to follow the cats) and not have allocated seats they now realise that you do need more room (and a table) for afternoon tea, so do now reserve a table for anyone booking for afternoon tea. Hurrah!

 I also wasn't that impressed with the afternoon tea initially, until I got to the cakes -and to be fair, most other people in the cafe were having tea and cake rather than the full afternoon tea. The sandwiches on the bottom layer of the cake stand were pretty bland - there was ham and cheese, cheese and what I think was mango chutney, and cucumber. I'm trying to remember if there was also egg mayonnaise but I don't like egg so if there was, I would have ignored it. When I've had afternoon tea at other places - admittedly more expensive- I've had other selections like salmon (either smoked or tinned), chicken, beef etc, and having predominantly cheese did seem a bit disappointing.

The next layer had two large scones which were good, along with little pots of jam and cream. But it's always the top layer that I'm waiting for.... rather than miniature delicacies or scaled-down versions of desserts, which is what I normally expect when having afternoon tea, we were presented with a huge slab of cake - I think it was Victoria sponge (incidentally, the waitress didn't tell us what anything was in our afternoon tea when she brought it over, which was a shame, and I didn't think to ask at the time). We had to cut the slice of cake in half ourselves to share - the waitress had told us that anything we wanted could be replenished, but there didn't seem much point asking for another huge slice of the same cake. We also had a normal-sized cupcake which I think was banana, which again we cut in half to share. Finally we had two mini macarons, in coffee and lavender. The cake, particularly the cupcake, was very light and moist and the delicious desserts made up for the slight disappointment of the sandwiches and also the lack of a table when we arrived!

In fact the cakes were so good that when our waitress came back, we decided to ask for more... here's a delicious tiramisu cupcake:

We also tried the elderflower cheesecake (we didn't eat it all!)

And finally two lavender macarons, which were perfect - chewy on the outside and softer in the middle. The lavender flavour wasn't particularly easy to detect though (or were they violet? Either way the flavour was very subtle).

The cafe has a lot of items that are suitable for vegans, which is great, and I briefly saw a light lunch menu. There is also a menu with different types of teas; I stuck with English breakfast but my companion tried something that tasted of marzipan.

The main thing of course is that people don't come here for the food! The cats were all pretty friendly - one jumped into a girl's lap the moment she sat down - and they don't shy away from strangers like some people do. A couple of them were also quite keen to play with toys.

Several cats were asleep the whole time I was there though, which was a shame (for me anyway, not the cats). These two, perched on a high shelf, were particularly adorable, but barely stirred.

I love this cushion on the windowsill....

... so much so that I decided to mess around with it! This is now my Facebook profile picture :-)

I was watching the people on the street stop and look through the window at the cats. One young boy put his hand up to the glass and the cat put its paw up to meet it, looking like they were doing a high five!

The cat kept its paw there for some time - after a while it looked like some sort of communing between cat and boy, which was adorable.

I really enjoyed my visit to Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium. It's a very peaceful, calm place, with low level music, people talking in hushed voices or quietly reading while a cat slumbers beside them. It's not the best afternoon tea in London but that was never what I expected. If you love cats then you should go... if you can ever get a booking!

Cat and Mouse Birthday Card

I'm not sure I like this card all that much but I thought I would share it anyway - maybe someone has a suggestion for how it could be improved. I used a little wooden cat and mouse, which are three-dimensional but flat on one side so you can stick them onto the card, and some cardboard button stickers. I also have a small cat hole punch which I used to punch cat shapes along the bottom of the card. I mounted the cat and mouse on a piece of spotty blue backing paper and added a 'happy birthday' outline. The only problem is that the size of the cat and mouse means this card isn't a standard price to post and counts as a 'large letter'!