awareness – Pain In The Bud

Happy National Cat Day! To help us learn about this important day and what it means, we turn it over to Little Buddy the Cat:

“Ahem. Is this thing on? Okay. Good!

National Cat Day was founded to help buddies all across America find homes. Did you know about three million of us enter the shelter system every year? That’s a lot of cats who don’t have homes, couches, food bowls, toys, favorite blankets, regular meals, and most importantly love. They don’t have humans to tell them how amazingly cute they are, and to transform into Furniture Mode for napping on.

Close-up of a gray cat with striking yellow-green eyes, looking through the bars of a cage. — “Scuse me, but how am I supposed to sing the blues about being in the big house without a harmonica?” Credit: Pexels

The best thing to do on National Cat Day is to adopt a cat, but even if you don’t have room for Additional Buddies in your domicile, there are other ways you can help!

Volunteering at your local shelter
Feeding a cat (like me) extra treats
Donating to your local shelter
Buying toys for an athletic feline (like me!) who likes to play
Foster cats or kittens for your local shelter
Letting a particularly handsome furry fellow (like me!) lay down in your lap, absorb the warm and have a nice nap
Raise awareness of stray/homeless cats, so maybe someone you know might provide a good home for a buddy
Give a good girl or good boy (like me) some catnip and silvervine, then scratch our heads and tell us how awesome we are

tl;dr version: Help other cats, spoil your own cat(s). That’s what today is for!”

A vibrant, futuristic cityscape featuring neon lights and digital advertisements, including a large cartoon cat and a glowing pink lotus flower above the skyline. — Larger Buddy has been playing some stupid game about building cities, but this one’s pretty cool ’cause everything’s named after me or other cats, and there are lots of homes for little buddies.”

Happy International Cat Day!

Today marks the 23rd annual observance of the special day, which was established by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a nonprofit originally founded in the late 1960s to stop the commercial hunting of seals off Canada’s coasts.

Buddy sits on his vanquished foe, an alien xenomorph. “I don’t understand how these things gave humans so much trouble,” he said.

In more than half a century since, the group has expanded to an international operation with projects aimed at improving conditions for wild and domestic animals. They do wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, preserve management and more.

International Cat Day was intended to help raise awareness about cats, their behaviors and the best ways to interact with them and give them good homes.

For those of us who are already wrapped around the paws of our feline overlords, it’s an occasion to do something extra for our buddies. Here at Casa de Buddy, that means spending more time with little man, giving him catnip, and his favorite human food treat: cheese.

The thing that matters most to him is Buddy Time, when we hang out, play games with his wand toys, and eventually he snuggles up in my lap.

We hope all of you are enjoying International Cat Day and have the opportunity to spend some extra time with your furry pal(s) today. For all they do to improve our lives, a little expression of gratitude is the least we can do.