'Toon Tuesdays: Cat tats?

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Toon Tuesdays feature animal (and sometimes human) humor created by the peeps over at Shoebox Greetings (a tiny little division of Hallmark) - where our mom works, too!

"Nipcoin" for your thoughts?

Your opinion is very important to us, and we'd love to hear from you.  Would you mind taking our very brief survey at our Monday post, here?

We promise we won't share the results with Faraday. And we'd be happy to trade you one of Sparkle's Nipcoins for your trouble. Thank you ever so much!

Monday Extra: Is it Over Yet?

 

Faraday: Is Monday over yet?

(and can someone pleez make Monday take the cold with it, when it leaves?)

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"Nipcoin" for your thoughts?

Your opinion is very important to us, and we'd love to hear from you.  Would you mind taking our very brief survey at today's earlier post, here?

We promise we won't share the results with Faraday. And we'd be happy to trade you one of Sparkle's Nipcoins for your trouble. Thank you ever so much!

Your opinion matters to us!

It's been almost two years since our last survey, and a lot can change in that time, including some of the content we feature here on A Tonk's Tail.

So we thought it would be fun to do it again. 

We'd love to hear from you - it's painless and private, we promise. We also know your time is valuable, so we've kept it short.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and opinions with us! 

Look for a summary of your answers in a few weeks. We can hardly wait to see everything you have to tell us!

Breaking: Cat all a-twitter over Bird

So we're thinking more U.S. companies need to get into the running for Best Cat Commercial.

The U.S. is now officially two outstanding TV ads behind the Brits so far this year... and it's only March!

You've probably seen the way cool #SingitKitty spot filmed for British telecom company, Three. It's been all over facebook and twitter, and Katie & Waffles did an excellent feature on it yesterday.

Here's the second one, again with a hashtag. (#catandbudgie)

It was released just a few days ago and was created by the agency that makes all our Hallmark Hall of Fame ads. You know, the ones that make you cry? (yeah, you know they do...  ;-)



We think the folks at Leo Burnett are pretty talented. What say you?

(P.S. They even worked a bachelor with a cat into the storyline of one of our spots a bit ago. We'll have to show it to you sometime.)

Oh and now that you've seen the spot, can you tell the budgie in yesterday's cat art post was FrankenBudgie? Yeah he was WAY too big for the photo's scale. But hey, we figured he needed the advantage over Faraday.

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Sunday's Shelter Sweetheart: Lawney

Have you met this handsome shy guy yet?

"Hi there! I'm Lawney, and I used to be a shy boy.

OK, maybe I'm still a little bit shy, but I'm doing better all the time. I'm sure you can understand why a guy like me might be a little shy. I'm just about to have my first birthday, and boy, has it been a wild year! I was born last March, and in October, someone left me on the doorstep in a box with a note. Wow, was that ever scary!

Now don't get me wrong, the people here are wonderful, but at first I was scared of everything. Well, sure. I was just a baby, and I just didn't know whether I could trust these guys or not. One thing they figured out pretty quickly about me is how much I like to play. Yep, show me a feather on a string and I forget how scared I am. Gotta get that feather!!!! And through play and lots of love from the people around here, I began to come out of my shell.

And then it happened! Every shelter cat's dream come true! I got adopted! Now, you would think the story would end there, but no. When I got to my new home, all my old fears came back. I found the first closet I could, and I just stayed in there. My adopter was very nice. She put my litter and food in the closet so I wouldn't have to leave. And she even came in to play with me.

She says I was very sweet and loving. But she was worried because I would not come out of the closet. So, she brought me back to the shelter. But don't you worry. I'm doing great here now! In fact, I was doing so well in my kennel that they promoted me to a Playroom! I get to live with other cats now and that has really helped me.

I see them enjoying people and I want to join in the fun, too. I get along with all the kitties in my room, and I'm much braver with people now, too! I don't run and hide from them any more. In fact, I come right up to them and ask for some petting or playtime.

I think I'm finally ready for my true forever home now. I hope it will be a quieter place because, let's face it, I'm probably never going to be the bravest kitty in the world. And I hope there is someone there with the love and patience to let me adjust to my new people and surroundings at my own pace.

It may take me a little longer than either of us expects, but I promise, if you give me some time to get to know you, I will soon be seeking you out for petting and playtime too! And then, the sky's the limit! Once I get past my initial shyness, I'll be the bestest friend you ever had. I promise!

So, that's my story. I'm only going to have one birthday wish when I blow out that candle on my first birthday cake--that I finally find my true forever home. Do you think maybe it could be with you?

Love,
Lawney"







Come meet this little fella! He's available for adoption today at Great Plains SPCA's Merriam Campus.

...okay, well maybe not today because the whole city's shut down thanks to a snowstorm, but he'll be waiting for you tomorrow, guaranteed! :-)

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Caturday Cat Art & Sunday Teaser

Sometimes it's fun to combine 2 different subjects into one photo.

Had this been an actual photo, how long do you think the poor budgie would last, perched on Faraday's head?

I do this type of thing often in my "real" job, inserting an object into a completely different background. I use Photoshop for this.

Here are the two original photos that were combined into 4 layers to create the above image:

Photo courtesy cuatrok77 via Flickr Creative Commons

I used the lasso tool to select both Faraday and the bird and to copy them, "clean," into fresh layers. Then I color corrected them to make them look a bit more like they were lit from the same source, same color temperature. (I did not spend much time on this and could have made it look more realistic if I'd had the time)

Then I copied the branch onto a third layer, rotated it so Faraday could "sit" on it, and expanded the out of focus foliage in the background to cover.

I used the clone brush to extend the foliage where needed.

Tomorrow's teaser!

How many of you saw the #SingitKitty ad that Glogirly found yesterday? We were so captivated by it!

And as a producer/director by trade, I was curious what agency created the spot, so I did a little sleuthing. Just wait til you see what we found!!
 
(uh, yeah, you're gonna have to wait. For realz!  ;-)

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For more Cat Art fun, take a look at all the entries in the Blog Hop by clicking here!

Photohunt: Boogie!

Faraday, getting ready to boogie down...!

(uh, left foot goes first, right?)

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For more Saturday Photohunt fun, check out these entries by other bloggers here!