Protect Community Cats from Cold Weather

Some of the coldest weather in years will move over much of the eastern half of the nation into the first part of the week. Please take these steps to protect your community cats.

* Cold weather can increase a cat's energy and nutritional needs. Don't forget extra water to prevent dehydration. Check it often and place in an area protected from the wind to minimize freezing.

* Wet food in insulated containers is ideal for cold-weather feeding-because it takes less energy to digest, that's more energy for keeping warm. Cats need more food for energy in the winter.

* Use two storage bins (like Rubbermaid). Line the bins with Styrofoam and cut out a doorway to create an instant shelter.

Visit http://alleycatadvocates.org/resources/creating-winter-shelters/ for other ideas.

* In a Pinch, a cardboard shelter is better than no shelter. To keep it from getting wet, elevate off the ground, line with newspapers and cover the lid with plastic (a garbage bag will do).

* Use sheets of plywood to weigh down lightweight shelters made from plastic, cardboard, styrofoam, etc.

* Cats rely on body heat to stay warm, so keep your shelters small for colonies with just a few cats. For more populated colonies, go with multiple shelters of a larger size.

* Because it resists moisture, straw is the top choice for insulation and bedding in your feral cat shelters. Avoid blankets, which absorb moisture like a sponge.

  

STRAW IS THE BEST BEDDING

* Cats can get snowed in, so it's important to remove snow from all entrances and exits to their shelters. Shovel regularly to stay ahead of the game.

* Avoid using salts and chemicals designed to melt snow near your colonies. They can be toxic when licked off paws or ingested from melting puddles, and can hurt a cat's paw pads.

SOURCE:  Alley Cat Advocates:   www.alleycatadvocates.org

Six Things To Practice During 2014: Introduction

Starting next week, I will go down the list and discuss each one of these in detail.   

This little exercise was inspired by one of my favorite Radio Personalities...Delilah!

Feel free to share this with everyone in your life!  

Here's to a Healthier and more Peaceful year!

The Sands of Our Lives

"...to their credit, they were children—children who were no doubt told by their parents not to so much as look in the direction of the beach. They were children who had no choice but to keep themselves busy while waiting for their parents to take them by the hand and lead them to their next adventure. They did the best they could with what they had without being tempted by what was around them.

They were children.

But what is my excuse?

On more than one occasion I have found myself entirely wrapped up, fighting and frustrated, stomping around barefoot trying to stake my claim on a tiny, insignificant pile of sand—the sand of relationships, the sand of social status or money, the sand of a career… whatever. I have been deeply consumed in games of King of the Mini Mound that leave me oblivious to the beautiful beaches around me. Beaches with unlimited sand, possibility, and happiness. We’ve all been there. Investing our energy in small things while the big ones lay untouched on the other side of the sidewalk."

Excepts from "Sand"  by Kindra Hall.   

Click HERE to read the full  blog article

"Something to Add To Your New Year" A Gift From Bob Proctor

I’m so happy and grateful now that … each day is filled with inspiration, joy and new opportunities. I’ve met and exceeded my 2014 goals with calmness, purpose and commitment.

Be sure to visit the Proctor and Gallagher Institute at www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com

Paying It Forward In 2014

Is Paying  It Forward In 2014 on Your List Of Things to Do?  

Here are just a few ways you can check it off!

• Volunteer at your local Homeless Shelter. 

• Serve a hot meal to a neighbor or a stranger if you so desire.

• Visit/Volunteer at  a Nursing Home and/or Children's home.

• Your Local Shelter Is In Need Year Round!

• Foster, Rescue or Adopt a Pet from your Local Shelter.Shelters are Always looking for donations in the form of money, blankets, cleaning supplies, food, toys. 

• Volunteer to hold and play with kittens and pups and/or walk a dog at Your local shelters.

• Shovel snow, salt down sidewalks, walkways of neighbors, local restaurants, stores

• Clean public toilets

• Check in on your Elderly and/or disabled neighbors to make sure they have what they need with respect to heating (or cooling during warmer months), blankets, plumbing in working order, etc.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

PET FOOD BANK:

Donate Food for Needy families with pets.

Find one in your Area 

Here in Louisville you can donate to No Kill Louisville:

http://www.nokill-louisville.com/petfoodbank.htm


If there isn't one in your area,  then start one!

 
Cross-Post, Tweet and/or post on your other online social networks!

See a pet in need on Face Book?  Then pay it forward by cross-posting, tweeting and/or adding to your other online social networks.  They DO work when it comes to helping others in need! 


The Toys For Tots Foundation
www.toysfortots.org

Feed The Children
www.feedthechildren.org/

The American Red Cross
www.redcross.org/Donate
 

These are only a few suggestions on how you can Pay It Forward  In 2014

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Reproduction and copying of said work without proper authority is strictly prohibited

Hubble Space Telescope Finds Clouds On Super-Earth, Neptune-Sized Planets

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, two research teams have discovered thick layers of high-altitude clouds covering the atmospheres of two relatively nearby exoplanets: a super-Earth and a "warm Neptune."

Scientists are beginning to get a handle on how to study the atmospheres on alien planets, and have even found green clouds on the super-Jupiter planet, Kepler-7b. But the findings, published in the journal Nature this week, show that clouds can cover smaller planets too — including two of the most common types of planets found in the Milky Way.

Neither of the planets, GJ 436b and GJ 1214b, are quite like anything found in our solar system. GJ 436b is a warm Neptune that’s slightly larger than Neptune and much closer to its host star. Thus unlike our own distant, gassy ice giant, GJ 436b’s surface temperature sits about a blistering 980 degrees Fahrenheit. It is 36 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. GJ 1214b, a super-Earth whose radius is 2.7 times that of our home planet, sits about 40 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.

READ MORE

New Year’s Twin Babies Born In Separate Years

Such a Cool News Story!  Just had to share it!!!

As people around the world partied their way into the new year, two mothers gave birth to two of the last babies of 2013 and two of the first babies of 2014.  While born just minutes apart, their twin babies entered the world in two different years.

On Dec. 31, 2013, at 11:58 p.m., Yaleni Santos Tohalino gave birth to baby girl Lorraine Yaleni Begazo, who weighed at 6 pounds, 4.9 ounces, at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, in Washington, D.C.

Soon after, her twin brother Brandon Ferdinando Begazo was born on Jan. 1, 2014, at 12:01 a.m., weighing at 5 pounds, 10.4 ounces.


Click HERE to read the rest of the story.