London Fashion Week Special: Which Collar Should You Be Wearing This Season?

Mia here AGAIN, since Lila is NOWHERE to be seen?  Well anyway, we can't wait around for her, because today we are thrilled to welcome the famous socialite and fashionista Lady DeLila Kittington-Smythe, here to write a guest blog post for us.  I'm so excited!  She's on the cutting edge of all feline fashion and has a front row seat for all the London Fashion Week shows.  Here's a recent photo of her at the opening of an envelope in Mayfair...

In honour of London Fashion Week, Lady DeLila is here to bring us her top picks from the current Mog's Togs Collection and show trend-conscious kitties everywhere how to choose the perfect collar, whatever the colour of your fur.  Over to you, DeLila!

"Well hello to all you cool cats.  I know that effortless style doesn't come naturally to most of you, as it does to moi, but fear not, I'm here to help.  I have been looking over the Mog's Togs shop with my good friends Diane Von Furrrstenberg and Stella McCatnip, and we've got some up-to-the-minute advice for you on what colours are in this season, plus we've picked a hot collar for each fur type.

Brown tabby
The dark tones in your fur make a light pastel based collar the choice for you.  Pink, blue, green, yellow, lilac - the choice is yours, just keep it muted.  The pink & white flowers collar will look stunning on you.

Blue
Oooh, look at you and your beautiful fur!  Bright crayon-like colours are my choice for you, and a postbox red is a particular favourite; other shades at the red end of the spectrum will also work well with your colouring. If you're a bit of a rock kitty, this guitar style would be purrfect.

Black
Truly, we are the lucky ones - with our dark sultry fur we can carry off almost ANY colour or design. But to really stand out from the crowd, choose a citrus colour to really pop against your fur - neons are SO in this year, dahlings. If you can find one that matches your eyes, so much the better.  My top pick for us chats noir this season is this bright lime collar.

Tortie
Yes, I know you're a girl - but you simply MUST embrace blue.  SMASH those gender stereotypes! A sky blue collar like this pawprint one is just perfect, it will contrast the orange in your fur beautifully.

White
Like black cats, you snowy babes can wear almost anything.  But why be boring!  With your blank canvas of fur you can show off a busy pattern to the max  - floral or stripes, perhaps.  A demure design like this navy floral one is perfect; or if you're feeling daring, embrace your inner wildcat with tiger stripes.  RRAWRR!

Silver tabby
Similarly to the Blues, bright mid tones look fantastic against your glittery fur.  But instead of reds, choose greens, blues and turquoises to really stand out.  This royal blue skulls collar would be perfect to draw attention to yourself - but I hear this colour is all sold out for now?  Zut alors!

Ginger
I know you're mostly boys - so for a smart work collar go for bold stripes, like this blue one.  You're also one of the few who can wear dark colours without them disappearing into your coat - so there's literally hundreds of options for you this season.

Well I'm afraid that's all I've got time for now - I must dash and get ready for the Purr-sace show.  I hope my wise words help you look a bit less of a clueless frump this season!!  Sorry if I didn't cover your colour, but there's so many of them I'd be here all day - and there simply aren't enough Whiskas Temptations in the world to pay for that!  Mwaaah!!"

And with a flurry of air kisses, she's gone, just leaving a trace of Eau de Catnip in the air to remind us she was ever here. That DeLila is certainly one chic kitty - I'm soooo in awe - although she did look a bit familiar, didn't she?  Oh well.  Shame Lila wasn't around to meet her - now where on earth is she??

Thanks very much to Vicky for photos of Lexi (white) and Oliver (ginger), to BSH for photos of Darwin (blue) and Willow (silver tabby), and to Alana for the photo of Milly (brown tabby).  Your cats are all beautiful!

Box! (Again!)

Hi there, it's Mia here.  Lila is feeling rather lazy, she promised not to bite my ears while I was sleeping for a whole week if I wrote this blog post for her, so here I am.

It was Pete's birthday not long ago.  He was THIRTY!  That seems pretty old; I'm not even two yet.  Wow.  He didn't seem all that happy about being 30, so I did my best to cheer him up while he opened his birthday cards.  One card in particular was great, it had this fluffy woolly blue stuff on and I must admit I did have a bit of a chew on it before Rachel noticed and took it away.

Anyway the best thing about Pete's birthday was that WE got a present too!  It came from Pete's mum and dad, how nice is that?  It was this huge, enormous box - it was so much bigger than any box we've played with before.  And let me tell you, we've played with a LOT of boxes.  OK there was something inside it when it was delivered, but once we got rid of that, it was all go on the fun front.

We jumped on it, ran around it as fast as possible, dug our claws into it, rubbed our chins along it, kicked our toys into it and dragged them out again, and best of all, played hide and seek in it.  Rachel's brother even tried to join in with that last game!

We got so excited about it that Rachel decided we couldn't be trusted to play sensibly with it when we were on our own.  She locked it in the bathroom at night, boo!  Sadly it's in bits in the recycling bin now, but we've got a video of us with it so that we can remember this happy time forever. It's a pretty funny one; well I think so anyway, Lila disagreed...

My favourite thing

Time for some more photos of ME!  I realised that I hadn't told you about my favourite thing in the world yet, so thought I should put that right.

So what is it? It's a super cool fishing rod toy that Rachel made for us, and on the end of the boingy string is a bunch of blue feathers that looks like, well, it looks a bit like a budgie... It lives in the cupboard under the stairs and whenever Rachel or Pete go to open the cupboard door I can hear it from anywhere in the house (or garden) and RACE as fast as my paws will carry me to the living room.  Sometimes they are just getting the hoover out, or the shopping bags for the supermarket, but sometimes it's the budgie toy which means it's PLAYTIME!

  

I could play with the budgie foreeeever.  It's so fun.  It swoops through the air and I can do humungous jumps to try and catch it.  Sometimes my jumps are SO HUGE that I surprise myself and have to go hide under a chair for a minute to calm down (if I ask Rachel nicely she might show you some videos of me jumping around another day).  Even Lila joins in sometimes, and can do some pretty good leaps herself, when she's in the right mood.
And if I manage to catch the budgie? Well, I sit there and lick it to death.  GRRRRR!

Cats of Marrakech

Hey everyone!  Mia here.  I'm feeling a little subdued today, not my normal bouncy self, so let me tell you why.  Last weekend, Rachel and Pete went away to a place called MARRAKECH - ooh doesn't that sound exciting?  When they came home they said they'd had a great time and it was lovely and sunny, but they were a little bit sad because they'd were so many cats and kittens there.  I didn't understand that at all - how could you EVER be sad when there are loads of kitties around?!

Then they told us that we are very lucky kitties because we live somewhere that's warm, dry and clean (although they did cast a glance at the sofa at this point, where I'd made a welcome home carpet of my fluff).  We have humans who love us and give us food every day, and take us to the V-E-T when we are sick (hmm, not sure how grateful I am for THAT).

They said that not all cats get to live in such a happy place, and that there were lots of cats in Marrakech who have to live outside all year round, and catch ALL their own food, and eat things like lizards and cockroaches and things from the bin.  EWW!  I mean I'm not averse to munching on the odd spider, but cockroaches?!  And she said that the mummy cats have lots of kittens all the time, which is really tiring, and there's not always enough food to go round for everyone.  If you don't feel well there's no-one to make you better, and it's hard to keep on top of grooming when you're always sleeping in the dust.

But, she said, at least it is warmer there than here, and lizards might actually be OK to eat, and some of the nice people who lived there would share their lunch with the cats.  In fact, Rachel said she give this pretty pregnant cat a whole chicken skewer one lunchtime!

There were still lots of sorry and sick cats everywhere though, and it did make me feel sad to hear about them.  So I hope you don't mind seeing some photos of the cats of Marrakech today, instead of more cute photos of me and Lila.  Normal service will be resumed next time!

PS - Rachel says there is a super duper charity based in the UK which helps neuter stray cats and dogs in Morocco and keep them healthy, they are called Help the Street Animals of Morocco if you wanted to have a look at their website.  She also says we mustn't forget that there are lots of stray cats in the UK too who have a tough life and that places like Battersea (where we came from!), Cat's Protection, and Celia Hammond Trust do some fantastic work here.  How nice are they?!

Cat Lookalike Part II

I told you I'd be back with a lookalike for Mia. It took me a while, but when I realised who (or rather what) she looks like, I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before! The big round eyes, the tufty ears, it all points to another member of the animal kingdom...

 
 

Yes, a European eagle owl (or should that be, an European eagle owl?), Latin name Bubo bubo - the world's largest owl, apparently. I think the reason I didn't think of it before was that our little Mia has nothing in common with an owl. Let's look at the facts:

1. An owl flies silently through the night; Mia thumps up and down the stairs like a herd of wildebeest.

2. Eagle owls stalk and hunt their prey (up to the size of a small deer!); Mia can just about successfully pounce on a spider meandering lazily along the skirting board.

3. Owls often swallow their prey whole; Mia struggles if her dinner isn't mashed up enough before it's placed in front of her.

4. An eagle owl has a territory of up to 10km in diameter; some days Mia doesn't set paw outside the catflap.

5. This type of owl nests in a rocky crevice on a cliff edge; sometimes Mia finds the sofa too hard and has to retire upstairs to the 13 tog goose down duvet on Rachel & Pete's bed. It's a tough life...

On the plus side, she doesn't have the razor sharp talons and nasty beak of an owl, nor the aggressive tendencies, and she doesn't do that weird Exorcist thing and spin her head around 360 degrees. So all in all, I think I'd much prefer to snuggle up with her on a cold night than even the fluffiest, most well behaved little Pygmy owl.

(Don't tell her that I said that, though, I like to maintain my aloof exterior where Mia's concerned...)

Cat Lookalike Part I

Hello there, how the devil are you?  We're pretty good here.  It seems like perhaps, just perhaps, the days are starting to get a bit longer.  Our cat flap only opens when it's light, and you know what - it's definitely opening a little earlier, and staying open later, than it used to.  Hopefully it won't be too long until it's open before Rachel and Pete get up in the morning - I like to do a quick reconnaissance around the garden before they wake up, just to make sure everything's shipshape.  Once we're able to go out during the evenings, I'll get Rachel and Pete to take some photos of us in the garden.  In the meantime...
We were looking through some photos from December and found one of me half-asleep on Rachel's lap, and I realised, classic lookalike for a famous Star Wars character I am... What do you think?!

Unfortunately, as I was looking for a decent photo for my photoshop mockup, I discovered that there are actually quite a lot of cats out there that resemble Yoda, and I have to admit, some of them do look more like him than I do.  Who'd have thought it?!  Looks like I need another lookalike.  And I think I should find one for Mia too - hopefully I'll get back to you later in the week on that.  Any ideas?

Mitten Kittens

Looky here!  I've got babies!  This one is Fluffy, and this other one is Bob.  You can tell them apart because Bob is a bit more grey than Fluffy.  They first appeared just before Christmas - I found them on the shoe rack near the front door, right in a cold draught!  Poor things.  I thought that Lila should really have taken charge of them, seeing as she's had at least one litter of her own, but she didn't care about them AT ALL!  So it has fallen to me to look after them *sigh*.

Rachel is very helpful and looks after them during the day, and when she gets home after work she leaves them somewhere for me to take over - sometimes I find them in her handbag, sometimes in her coat pocket, sometimes on the sofa.  Once I've found them I gently pick them up in my mouth and take them one at a time to a safe corner.  Then I guard them and make sure they are happy and warm.  Sometimes I have to move them if Lila comes over and makes fun of me.
It's hard work, but somebody's got to do it.  I dread to think what would happen to little Fluffy and Bob if I wasn't here, they are so small and helpless!  Right must go, I think they need grooming. A mother's work is never done!