CASPER'S CORNER

"Purring would seem to be, in her case, an automatic safety-valve device for dealing with happiness overflow."

Monica Edwards

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Hi!  Casper here.  Summer gone, winter is here, and Mom's doing a bunch of travelling to shows here in the warm, southern part of the country - send us an email if you'd like a list of her upcoming shows!  Meanwhile, our line of breed specific jewelry is growing quickly - we've just added the warm and hairless Sphynx, and work has begun on the Manx, which she hopes to have done later this year.  The Persian, Maine Coon and Siamese/Oriental pages are up and running, and we're expanding our line of gold jewelry.   And don't forget, we offer both giftwrap and greeting cards free of charge, for all your purchases, as well as direct shipping to your intended recipient.  So happy shopping!

By the way, have you ever met our Mom  - maybe at a cat show?   No?  Then let me tell you a bit about her.  Her name is Barbara Sacco and she's an artist, and has worked in oils, water colors, pastels and charcoal.  She has been a part of the jewelry industry for over 20 years, and is not only a bench jeweler, but also does all the wax carving, casting and polishing for the breed jewelry herself! She travels all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, going to cat shows and selling her beautiful jewelry.  She also has a big heart, 'cause she's rescued lots of cats, like myself and my sister.  Right now, there are six of us, and everyone of us is thankful to have been rescued by her.  She really loves cats, and it shows in her work.

Speaking of her work, do you know how she makes the breed jewelry?   It's very interesting.  First she talks to lots of breeders about the breed she's planning to do, and borrows (and sometimes buys) photos of CFA National Winners in that breed.  She finds out what a typical pose is for the breed, and once she has settled on a pose, she carves the cat in wax.  This is the hardest part, and along the way, she talks to breeders for advice on ear set, muzzle shape, etc - she works very hard to be sure the finished product meets CFA breed standards.  Then she uses the wax to make a rubber mold  - once the mold is made, the original wax is stored away, in case she someday needs to make a new mold.

Then she fills the rubber mold with liquid wax, and out pops a wax that looks just like the original.  That wax (usually eight or ten of them together) gets suspended in a framework that is then filled with liquid plaster, and, once the plaster hardens, the whole thing is placed in a 1300 degree oven for 8 hours.  All the wax is burned away, leaving a hollow negative or reverse image in the plaster.  This is then filled with molten gold or silver, and the whole thing is plunged into cold water, where the plaster disentegrates and all that is left is the gold or silver, in the shape of a cat.   This is called "lost wax casting", and is a method of making jewelry that has been used for centuries.  The cast peices are then polished and finished.   It's a lot of work, but the results are worth the effort! 

Besides all the Breed Jewelry, Mom also does custom stuff, like cattery logos, as well as repair work.  (If you'd like to see some of her custom made items, click here.) 

Uh, sorry, gotta run - time for my ear test!  What's that, you ask?  Well, I'll let Mom tell you....

Hi all, this is Barbara, and my beautiful Casper is talking about how we draw a drop of blood from the edge of his ear to test his blood glucose levels (yep, just like people do on their hands, with a people glucose monitor!)  He is one of six cats that I have rescued over the years.  He and his sister, Tinkerbell, are 10 years old, and in pretty good health - except that in late December of 2005, Casper was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes.  Yes, sounds like a death sentence, doesn't it?   Well, it isn't, and seven months later, Casper is in full remission!  But along the way, he learned that I would need to test his Blood Glucose levels several times a day, and he would willingly climb up on the bookcase and wait for me to do the deed - and when I finished and gave him a shot of insulin, he would always get a piece of freeze dried chicken for a treat - no wonder he didn't mind!

At first, though, I was upset and totally ignorant of all that the diagnosis meant.  My vet taught me to hometest his BG levels, but I knew nothing of the why's and wherefore's of this terrible disease.  So I went "surfing" on the net, and I found the Feline Diabetes web site.   Along with all the articles and other information there, they also have a live forum, with many helpful people that have years of experience with FD.  They got me started, and then I found Dr Hodgkin's site, Your Diabetic Cat.  She practices a protocol called "tight regulation," and her site has lots of information on it, as well as a live forum of folks that are currently practicing the protocol with their cats.  Thanks to this cutting-edge protocol, Casper is now off insulin and in full remission. He will always be diabetic, with a pre-dispositon to high blood sugar, but with proper diet, he can stay off insulin for the rest of his life.  Proper diet is the major factor here, and I cannot stress that enough.

I won't go into a lot of detail here, but one thing you should all know is how BAD dry food is for your cats!  Do some reading on Dr Lisa Pierson's site, and find out that dry food is implicated in causing Feline Diabetes, Irritable Bowel Disease, complications of Chronic Renal Disease, along with a host of other bad health issues for cats.  ANY CANNED FOOD, even the cheapest kind out there, is better than ANY DRY food made, even the expensive ones.  Go to Dr Pierson's site and find out how I can make that assertion with such total belief and enthusiasm!  And if you are interested in a nutritionally complete, antibiotic and preservative-free raw diet, made with 100% human grade chicken and turkey and no grains or vegetables, check out Feline's Pride - it's the best!

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Purr-fections
415 Westchester Drive
Altamonte Springs, FL  32701
PH - (407) 260-6668   FAX - (407) 260-5289
E-meow:  topcat@purr-fections.com