FIRES IN CALIFORNIA

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that some very serious wildfires are burning in California, primarily in Southern California where it’s very hot. The largest one, known as the Station Fire, is burning out of control in the Los Angeles area. We live pretty close to the fire… not so close that we’re in any immediate danger, but close enough that we can see and smell the smoke in the air. It’s pretty nasty.

It seems that all the states in the good ‘ole USA are plagued with some kinds of natural disasters, whether it be hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or droughts. In California, from roughly August through October, it’s fire season. That’s because in most of the state, we get no rain between June and the late fall, so everything becomes tinder dry. Combine that with extremely hot weather, and you’ve got very dangerous conditions that all too often become disastrous.

At times like these, in addition to concern about humans, I worry about all the forest creatures and house pets (yes, even dogs) who are in so much danger. And, of course, emergency situations like this put a significant strain on all the animal shelters and rescue organizations. I know things are pretty tight with the economy right now, but if you have a few extra bucks, you might want to make a donation to the shelter or rescue organization of your choice. You’ll find a list of some of the more well-known animal organizations on the Litter Box website.

Meanwhile, here’s a big meow out to all the human firefighters who are doing so much and risking their lives to conquer these horrible fires. We can’t thank you enough.

CAT VIDEOS RULE THE WEB!

The August 7 issue of Entertainment Weekly has an article of interest to all cats and cat lovers everywhere. I’m a little late with this information, but I didn’t know about the article until Steve’s female nicked a copy of the magazine from the gym. Anyway, the story is entitled “Hello Kitty,” and its all about how cats are the undisputed stars of the Internet. Yes fellow cats and cat lovers, according to the article, cat videos are the most watched videos on the web… in fact, some videos have been viewed over 4 million times. Let’s see dogs, politicians, movie stars and the Kardashian sisters top that!

As a public service to everyone who loves cats (and who doesn’t?), we’ve assembled the crème de la crème of the best (and funniest) cat videos on the web… all in one place for your convenience. Simply visit the official The World Is Your Litter Box website, click on “Fun Cat Videos,” and get ready to laugh your tail off. That’s entertainment!

CHILD PORN DOWNLOADED BY CAT? I THINK NOT!

Here’s a story that made the news last week, but bears repeating, I think. In Jepsen Beach, Florida, a human named Keith Griffin was arrested on child pornography charges after the police found over 1,000 illicit images on his computer. Griffin contended that he left the room while downloading music and when he returned, his cat had walked across the keyboard and downloaded “strange material.”

Nice try, chucko. Hey, I acknowledge that many cats (myself included) enjoy an entertaining stroll across our human’s computer keyboard from time to time, and I also acknowledge that I occasionally surf the net looking for racy images of Hello Kitty. But this allegation is completely bogus! If Griffin were truly downloading music, there’s virtually no way his kitty could have walked across the keyboard and brought up an entirely different web page. And furthermore, to bring up 1,000 images (according to mathematical probability statistics), his kitty would have had to walk across the keyboard no less than 978,432 trillion times!

Needless to say, the police did not buy Griffin’s explanation and took him into custody. His kitty, an innocent victim of blind justice (like Dr. Richard Kimble in “The Fugitive”) is being cared for by a family friend.

NEW BOOK

Work on my new book, The World Is STILL Your Litter Box, is progressing nicely. As of now, Steve and I are a little over halfway done with the book, which will be out in the Spring of 2010. Some of the completed chapters include, "How to Tell If Your Human Is a True Cat Nut," "What to Do If Your Human Puts You on A Diet," "Fun Things to Do When You're Buzzed on Catnip," and "Breezy Excuses for Unacceptable Kitty Behavior." If you liked The World Is Your Litter Box, you'll LOVE The World Is STILL Your Litter Box. Who says literary lightning doesn't strike twice!

That's me in the photo, resting from an exhausting writing session and cooling my feverishly-creative kitty brain.