Avoid The Bitey Bits: Loving Feline Misanthropes Seek Adoring Staff.

We admire people with strong opinions. Our movie industry is basically built on storylines of people who take life on their own terms and refuse to compromise. If you extrapolate on that, we should be a nation of cat lovers. After all, what better personifies a strong, independent personality and unwillingness to compromise like a cat?

Okay, not all cats. Some cats are super laid back. And yes, Big John, we are looking at you when we say that.

Ahem, I'm chiller than an iceberg, folks. 

But shouldn't we all love the slightly more challenging kittehs? The quirky, jerky cats with the same unyielding personalities and intolerance for nonsense that we find in our favorite action movie stars?

Of course we should. Which is why we're introducing you to some of our favorite quirky, jerky cats looking for someone who shares their worldview. Or at least appreciates it. 

My box. Mine. All mine. 

Exhibit A: The Darcie

The M.O: Pat me. Pat me right now. Pat me. Seriously. Aaaaaaargh - stop patting me! Right now. (swat). Ok, seriously. Pat me. Pat my belly. WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD TOUCH THE BELLY? (swat). By the way, I love you. 

Additional remarks: Poor Darcy. She needs a permanent person to train on her ins and outs - training all the volunteers and staff here on our quirks is exhausting her. No one appreciates her great sense of humor, either. She loves to follow people around and chat with them. We even put a chair in her room so folks could go in and sit down and have a talk with her while she sits on their lap (she loves laps). She decided instead to adopt the chair as her personal throne and can often be seen sitting in it, looking out the window to try and implore visitors to stop by. We've rarely met a more affectionate cat, either - you just have to know when she's had enough of the patting. And seriously, don't take her chair. 

The Verdict: Quirky? Yup. Jerky - nope. Just a normal cat who knows what she likes but is a bit more prone to expressing her opinion. 

This is my 'time to party' face. 

Exhibit B: The Banana Anna

Remarks: Banana Anna came to par-tay and she will not be denied. Seriously. She is always up for a game of crinkle ball, some fake-birdy-on-a-string, a good go-round with the old laser pointer. She's also always up for a wrestling match but we strongly, strongly suggest staying away from the bitey bits when she's in a play mood. Oh, and keep those other cats away her, too. She can hold her own but she wants ALL the playtime. Could she be any more fun? Nope. She's a full on fiesta on fleet little feet. Just use her toys, okay?

The Verdict: Quirky? No, just a wee little black cat who loves to play more than most but needs some help with her mouth-manners when she's getting her party-on.

Exhibit C: The Hissy Spitties.

Remarks: Unfortunately for feral kittens, there's nothing in the world cuter than a teeny angry kitten. When they hiss and spit, they think they're being terrifying. We think they're being adorable "Oh, who's an angry little man? You are!". With kitten season starting to bloom, we're starting to see these furious, winsome little nuggets coming in. The good news? They don't have to grow up to be hissy spitties. At this age, rehabilitation is entirely possible with the help of good foster homes who are willing to put some time and love into socializing them.

The Verdict: Neither quirky nor jerky - just the product of wayward youth. Did we mention you can help reform these wee captivating miscreants? Be a kitten foster parent. We have a training this Saturday, as a matter of fact. At 11:00 AM. See you there. 

In all honesty, none of these guys are the least bit jerky. Most cat folks probably read this and thought "oh, you think that's bad? You should see what my little Muffin does". Cats are cats, and that's why we love them. Now you just need to help us find folks who can love and appreciate these guys, just as they are. Ahem. 

Kittens and The Dog That Loved Mr. Peanut (Literally).

Nuts!

We're fans of nuts. We stuff our KONGs with nut butter. We snack on nuts and we are totally nuts about our pets and the work we do here. So imagine our surprise and delight when, on a sunny Sunday THIS showed up in our parking lot. 

They just showed up - it was the craziest thing. 

The NUTMOBILE! The iconic Planters vehicle was doing it's cross country thing and decided to make an impromptu stop at HSSV. Turns out the staff (Mr. Peanut included) LOVE dogs and were all in to drop off some peanuts for the people and get some pics with the pooches. 

No peanut butter but I'm lovin' the attention.

Buttercup was all excited until she learned the bus was not just an empty vessel full of peanut butter that she could romp in. Even still, she thought Mr. Peanut was pretty nifty and for Buttercup, any pats and lovin' are a-okay with her so she was psyched to meet the crew. The biiiiig star, though was..

Take me with you, Mr. Peanut. You can have a Peanut Dog.

Sonny. If Sonny could have left on Nutmobile, he would have. From the moment he saw Mr. Peanut, he had to be near him. He loved the crew. He loved the Nutmobile. He loved everything about the situation. If there ever a dog born to be THE Nutmobile pooch, it was probably Sonny. Unfortunately the travelin' peanut life is not always dog-friendly so after receiving much lovins' from the Planters Peanut crew, they had to depart sans Sonny. They did, however, leave the staff and volunteers plenty of snacks and every pooch who met Mr. Peanut got a special sticker for their kennel.

She's nuts for cuddles. Get it??

How awesome is that? More awesome? Both Buttercup and Sonny are still available for adoption so they could be yours. Buttercup loves everyone, everything and peanut butter. Sonny is outgoing, loyal and super-social. He'll love you no matter what but if you have a big peanut costume, he's not going to complain. 

Mr. Peanut? Is that you?

In other news, kitten season has begun to rain down on us in earnest. We're starting to see daily litters of babies, most of whom are too young to be adopted. 

Most don't turn up in baskets.

If you're interested in fostering a kitten, this would be an awesome time to sign up for a training. If you can't foster but want to help, we super duper need supplies and have an awesome Amazon Wishlist full of things we need to help save the 2,000+ little jellybeans that come through our door during kitten season. We promise to repay you with all sorts of adorable social media posts like this one of Topper, The World's Most Charismatic Staff Hamster trying to figure out what to do with bottle babies. 

We can't guarantee Mr. Peanut will show up again, but we can guarantee that popping by to spend a few minutes with a dog or cat will make your day. So make like Mr. Peanut and pop in! In the meantime, have another kitty picture... 

They look a lot like Topper at this age. 

which we stole from rockstar foster mama Jessie's most excellent Instagram account.