The wonderful people at Purina are running a contest to fund a $25,000 renovation for cat and kitten shelters across the country.  Each state is represented by a single shelter, and each shelter is represented by only one volunteer that has impacted the welfare of shelter/foster cats and kittens.  For my home state of Oklahoma, the Central Oklahoma Humane Society was chosen – the amazing people that originally found me at Oklahoma City Animal Welfare’s facility.  And OK Humane selected my Humom to represent them.

I wish that there were enough benefactors that each animal shelter could receive its own $25,000 grant, because I know there are deserving organizations in each state that could use the funding to improve their facilities, increase staff, or afford additional medical care and enrichment for the animals they care for.

But I don’t know their stories.  I do, however, know my own (sort of).

No one that knows me today knows how I made my way to the OKC Animal Welfare facility.  It may have been that I was found in someone’s crawlspace, or was an unplanned litter from someone’s pet.  In any case, I appeared there, and was brought over to Central Oklahoma Humane Society by their staff.  My Humom, who had just recently finished with another litter of kittens, was asked if she had room for four little ones (the others were not related to me), and she gladly accepted.

At first, I was a problem child.  I would not eat, either dry or canned food, either kitten or adult cat food, so my Humom had to boil and shred chicken and let me drink diluted juice from a can of tuna.  I would not listen either.  At first, they thought I was deaf because I didn’t react to any stimulus around me, and not even a sudden noise near me even made my ears twitch.  And my feline hyperesthesia and heart murmur wouldn’t even be detected or diagnosed for several months.

But through patience and dedication, Humom was able to get me to eat, to interact with the other cats, and finally to thrive.

I always had a scowly face, from the first moment they saw me.  Even Pops commented that I was “like Grumpy Cat’s little sister.”  But I just use that as part of my charm.

It took a lot of work by Humom and the others to get me through my baby months.  I had a lot of trips to the vet, which is when she trained me to use a harness since I was afraid of the carrier.  Humom and the staff at OK Humane knew that finding the right family for me would be a challenge.  Humom created my Facebook page initially to help “market” me to prospective adoptive families, with the expectation that they would turn the Page over to my new family when the time came.

But… what can I say, I have a way about me, and Pops and Humom decided to make me a permanent part of their family.

I hope that you take the time to visit the Purina Cat Chow contest site and read about my Humom and the folks at OK Humane – they truly are my heroes.  You can vote once a day, so please come back every day between now and March 15th when the contest ends and support our efforts!  As they say in Chicago (and it’s actually acceptable this time), vote early and vote often!

The cold, it blows in
The snow and sleet fall
I watch through the window
As people go by in their coats and hats

There is one good thing
About being a cat
In the midst of the cold:
I have a coat and leggings built-in

Go on with your days
Of stoking the fire
And cranking the heat
On the butt-warmers in your cars

I am the lucky one
I have a Pops to hold me
And Humom to dress me
And a floor vent that blows warm air

But I came from the shelter
Where my brethren all huddle
And wait for a blessing
That I was so fortunate to fall into

This winter think of the cats
(And the dogs if you must)
And bring them into your home
And your heart if you have the space

We will repay you forever
With our love and attention
And I’ll bet with my four paws
We’ll keep you warm when the lights go out.

It's been an amazing, eventful, and often crazy week in the House of Sauerkraut. Things were trucking along as normal as ever (well, as normal as it ever is in this house!) when Humom's phone rang Monday evening right after dinner. She went from sleepy to wide awake in about a half-second, and started talking animatedly about Sauerkraut, her history, and our adoption of her and our fostering of many cats and kittens for the Central Oklahoma Humane Society.

When she got off the phone, she turned to me and said, "That was Channel 9 news. They want to come to the house Wednesday morning and interview us about Sauerkraut." My first thought? ...I need a haircut - I look like Nick Nolte's mug shot. My second thought: Holy cow.

Humom had just the week before been interviewed by the Australian podcast The Cat Lady, and that podcast will air on Friday, February 20th, so the television news story was a very pleasant second act to the social media exposure.

And then it got even better. Between Wednesday's interview and the release of the story on tv and online, there were posts about Sauerkraut on BuzzFeed, LoveMeow, I Iz Cat, and the French website meltyBuzz. (Saurkraut aime la Française!)

Who knows what's next for Sauerkraut? I asked Sauerkraut, and she responded, "hey Pops, as long as I have a comfy place to lay my noggin."

If my goal is to get from one end of a room to another, my plan most certainly is not to run across the floor from Point A to Point B. That is not the Cat way. No, instead it is to stare at Pops in full-on wonky-eyed crazy mode, dash to the edge of the couch, up onto an arm rest, across his shoulder, leap off the iPad, parkour off the footstool, tip over the tortilla chips, one paw in the salsa, knock the TV remote to the floor, across Humom's chest with claws fully extended, leap over the coffee cup to a shelf, then down onto the floor, up the cat scratcher and onto the table. Point B achieved.

I still don't get why they have trouble understanding this. The whole "Point A to Point B" thing is not about reaching a destination. Life isn't about getting somewhere... it's about the style we display during the journey.

Today in central Oklahoma, it is 74 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny with a little bit of breeze. The catio is open, the windows are up, and the doors are propped open to get as much of the fresh, warm air through the house as possible. The dogs have been rolling around in the dry grass in the back yard (and then bringing it into the house), and the cats are in the catio or in a window sill, sleeping or grooming or watching the birds.

We are fortunate to have a parcel of land, a little slice of heaven, where our four-legged family can run around, or escape their siblings and curl up for some alone time. Recently, a friend of Sauerkraut's was struggling with whether they could keep their cat because they had to move into a small space, and they weren't sure it was fair for their feline to be "cooped up" in a confined area.

I am by no means a cat expert, so these are merely my thoughts and observations, but from what I've been able to tell, a cat can be just as happy in a small space as in a large one. Sauerkraut's older "sister" Nuggette used to live with us here, but moved out with her Humom to a one-bedroom apartment when she went off to college. There have been times we've needed to keep one of our cats in a single room, whether because they need to recuperate, or we're on the road, or because they needed a "time out"...

It has never seemed to bother any of our cats to be in a space smaller than the whole house. I think the only reason they've ever complained is because we are on one side of the door and they're on the other side... but that's true whether they're in the small space, or if Humom and I are in the small space and they have the run of the rest of the house!

We have fostered many cats and kittens in our foster room, and you can see that they are able to manage in the single room with no trouble. No really, click the Foster Cam tab above and watch them - they LOVE the space, and seem no worse for the wear.

I think what we forget is that our cats are not human. We are so used to seeing the love and the humor and feistiness in them that we also feel, that we assume they have the same preferences that we do. Many people couldn't stand to be in a small space for long. But with a cat, as long as they're able to get adequate exercise, it doesn't matter if that's running from room to room in a large house, or in a 10x10 room while you play with them with a feather toy. Make sure they have something to climb and rest atop, a space that's their own.

In any case, it's better that a cat be moved from a home into a smaller living space with their owner, because the alternative could be that they are kept in a 2x2 cage at the shelter... or worse. There are resources for any kind of help you need. Here, the Central Oklahoma Humane Society and Oklahoma City Animal Welfare offer several outreach programs, such as pet food pantries and low cost veterinary services. Elsewhere, the ASPCA and many other great organizations are there to help.

Many breeds of cats are perfect for a small living space. As always, Sauerkraut and Humom and I suggest adopting over shopping, and consult with a professional to make sure the pet you're bringing home is right for your living situation. I can't think of a better friend to share a space large or small than any of our four-legged kids.

The Super Bowl is later today, and it's one of my regular duties to predict the winner. After carefully evaluating the pros and cons of each team, I've finally come to the conclusion that the New England Patriots will win, but it will be by a close margin.

What helped me make my decision? Well, it's basically that the food on the Patriots plate smelled slightly better.  

It's hard work predicting the future...