Welcome to The BBHQ Mid-Week News Round-Up & A Health Update on Sloppy Sauce AND **If Your Cat Eats This Popular Cat Food Brand Read This**

Epic Wednesday Greetings Furiends

Welcome to the Pet Parade and our weekly news round up!

Furst up in the headlines this week is...

The Gorgeous Colours of Autumn/Fall with Smooch. 

As we were waiting for dad to come home, Smooch got himself firmly ensconced on the P.A.'s lap in the catservatory for a cuddle, and that's when we really noticed how much the acacia tree in the courtyard had changed.  

Mew know when mew see things every day, and mew're always dashing here, there and everywhere mew don't always notice what's right under your schnozzle? This happens at BBHQ, though while sat taking a few moments we thought what a lovely shade of gold the leaves had turned, well most of them are on the floor, but that's a job for the P.A. as that's not our department! MOL

Anyhoo, our point is; isn't it absolutely beautiful out in nature right now?  And if mew hadn't noticed, go take a quick look, mew'll be so glad mew did.

Next up in the news this week.

A health update on Sloppy Sauce, if mew missed Friday's post (link at bottom of page) Parsley had a trip to the vets as he's got diarrhoea, and the steroid injection and paste didn't work.

However, **PLOT TWIST** the P.A. hasn't been liking the look of our regular food, so she did a bit of digging and we since found out that our fav wet Felix in Jelly pouches has been causing massive issues including chronic diarrhoea, vomiting, running eyes, lethargy, and a whole host of other problems since it has been rebranded earlier this summer. 

Now we're not saying that this is anything to do with Parsley's issue, but Parsley's runny bum only occurred recently when we moved onto the new Felix formula, as we were still using our old stocks and hadn't bought any of the new formula until late August. Coincidence, purrhaps? 

But after reading page upon page of reviews on Trustpilot, about cats with chronic diarrhoea, sickness, dull coats, fur loss and other health issues, owners spending hundreds of pounds at the vets with no conclusion whatsoever, and 100's of cats are sick. And the really strange thing is, it appears as soon as the cats stop eating Felix after about a week or so they recover, the runs clear up, no more vomiting and they get their energy back.

Apparently, Purina who make Felix, deny there is an issue with the Felix food, even though some poor cats have died, and several commenters said they got no response at all from their queries. The comments on Trustpilot are pretty savage, and most owners say they will never buy that brand again, and are warning other pet owners to steer clear.

So if mew do feed your precious kitty any of the Felix products, and mew've noticed your kitty is perhaps not as energetic as normal or has any of the symptoms above, just go check out the comments, and check with your vet. There's also a dedicated Facebook group for this problem too, so if you're on FB, go join and see what 22,500 members are saying since the group began in June 2021. We haven't joined as we don't visit FB very often, but if you do, let us know what they're saying.

So back to Sloppy Sauce, he's now on Melvyn's Royal Canin Sensitive Kibble and we'll see how he goes after a few days. If there's no improvement, then it's the poop samples to the lab.

And it's no more Felix here either, the P.A. is really hissed off as she'd just spent over £120 on the stuff and no one will take it back.

The strange thing is, non of The other B Team memfurs are poorly, but the P.A. had noticed that they weren't eating the new Felix, in fact, she was throwing at least half away from each Felix meal. We also eat Whiskas, Royal Canin and Scrumbles food for variety, so we'll be staying with those brands now.

Anyhoo, we'll keep mew updated on Parsley, and thank mew for all the POTP!

And finally this week, Melvyn is supurr excited to go trick or treating in Mewton-Clawson later in the month and has been trying on outfits earlier than normal, do mew think wearing this one will bring him the biggest rewards from the local residents? 

We really like this bandana.

Unbeknown to Melvyn, Fudge has also launched his own Trick or Treat campaign early, he thinks he's going to outdo Melvyn and get all the village catnip for himself, OH MY COD, I can see this is going to end in disaster! MOL MOL

Who do mew think will get the most catnip on their Trick or Treat quest later this month?  

That's us done for today, Amber will be back on Friday with another fab book just for mew, and if mew missed Monday's post, we're getting mew warmed up for the return of Colouring with Cats and our fab crystal series starting next week, plus we've got a really fun post to share on behalf of the Cats Protection, so stay tuned.

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

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A Cat-Formation Post Featuring Priority Pet App & Scrumbles Cat Advent Calendar 2021

Happy Purrsday Fluffies

Welcome to another cat-formation post and today we're sharing a couple of fun things with mew, furstly a supurr app for your phone and secondly the Scrumbles yearly cat advent calendar which is available to buy now in the UK.

FYI, this is not a paid presentation or sponsored in any way by either company mentioned.

Priority Pet App

This is a nifty app for your phone which enables your pawrents to have immediate access to a whole host of pet services in your area.

It's basically a concierge service for pets. If mew're looking for:

Pet Sitters

Dog Walkers

24/7 Vets/nurse

Pet Taxi

Day Care 

Groomers

Accommodation

etc...

Priority Pet will find it for mew.

We downloaded the app and gave it a whirl. Mew add your pets profile, plus mew can add any additional info such as medical history. There's also a section to add vaccination dates and the app will remind mew of these. 

From what we can see it's only available on ios at the moment. It costs £9.50 per month, though mew would get discounts and special offers through the app, and mew are assigned a dedicated purrsonal assistant to chat to through the app. 

From our brief interaction with the app, we think for new pet pawrents it would be a very viable tool to find local pet services. Or if mew move a lot with your job, it would take the hassle and worry out of finding everything mew need in your new town/city etc... 

Or for instance, mew have a medical emergency and need an out of hours vet, Priority Pet will find the nearest available one to your location. 

What a supurr service they offer, well done guys!

Check out their website for more info, link above.

Scrumbles Cat Advent Calendar

Next today, we're giving a little shout out to our epic pals at Scrumbles, our long time readers know how much we love Scrumbles noms and treats. 

This year's calendars are filled with a combination of air-dried chicken bites and dental Gnashers. And they do one for your K9 furiends too. So If mew'd like to get your mittens on one of these festive treats they are available from Scrumbles, Amazon, Ocado and other independent stores. Apparently, stocks are limited so don't wait too long! MOL

It would make an epic gift for any cat lovers mew know too.

Cat Advent Calendar

Check out their website for the full range of epically epic noms and treats, link above.

Well that's a wrap for today and we'll be back tomorrow with the very last Friday Fluffers of the current season as Amber is back next week with her book reviews, and we know how much mew've all been missing her sunny, happy disposition the last few months.

Epic Purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team

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Graphics created with paid licence @www.canva.com 

Welcome to Our Mid-Week News Round-Up and Hot Gossip on The Pet Parade & Today's Headlines are ~ Woo Hoo The Countdown Has Begun, One Two Three Parsley's In A Tree, and Fudge's Catline Call Continued

Happy Wednesday Pawesome Pals

Welcome to December and mew know what that means, the countdown has begun.

Furst up in the headlines this week is...

We finally got to open this year's Scrumbles Advent Calendar, and in our humble opinion, the only advent calendar mew'll ever need.

 Fudge and Melvyn were on the front row to get the treats furst yesterday morning bright and breezy.

"The furst one's mine!" Fudge said. "I've been on dry food rations for weeks, so it's only fair I get furst dibbs!"

"Get stuffed!" Melvyn replied. "I've been queuing up here since dawn for this, get behind me in the queue and wait your turn!"

"But I'm older!" Fudge declared. "So therefore I have seniority, step back from the calendar smarty-pants!"

"Well if mew're going to play it like that, and use the age-card," Melvyn smirked. "I'm the baby of the furmily, so therefore I get everything furst because the baby always gets spoiled!"

Ahhhhhh, the joys of Catmas begin, and the same thing happened again today, that festive spirit is very much alive and kicking at BBHQ this year! MOL MOL MOL

Next up in the news this week; One Two Three Parsley's In A Tree.

Four Five Six he was throwing sticks,

Seven Eight Nine Smooch will be fine,

Ten Elebentyeight, as Smooch was hiding under a crate!

Anyhoo he missed Smooch by a mile, but Smooch took evasive action just to be sure.

And why was Parsley throwing sticks from up a tree? Well it would appear that there's - Tabbies of Trout Towne purrlease close your eyes NOW & scroll down - been a hawk terrorising the little burds in the garden and it actually took a blackburd the other day, so Parsley is on protection duty and the burds are paying him £5 a day plus as much seed as he wants, and he said, it's a bit quiet in the bunker this time of year so he's happy to help out. What a guy! 

And finally this week, mew may remember on last weeks Pet Parade that Fudge had a massive boggle happening and had called Catline to air his grievances or his P.P.I. aka Purrsonaly Purrcieved Injustice, and that he was in a queue waiting to speak with the D.F.D.D. or Dried Food Deprivation Department. Last week we left mew here in the transcript:

Five minutes later, another recorded message said, "We're sorry to inform mew all of our opurrators are now on their regulated catnap breaks and won't be back for at least an hour, purrlease stay on the line to keep your place in the queue and we'll answer your call as soon as we wake up, thank mew for your patience."

At 5 hours, 38 minutes and 15 seconds of being in the telephone queue, Fudge was just about to throw the towel in when a voice suddenly said, "This is the Dried Food Deprivation Department, how may I be of assistance to mew today? And FYI all calls are recorded for no purrticular reason at all!"

"About fluffing time!" Fudge growled, "I've been waiting 5 hours, 38 minutes and 18 seconds for my call to be answered."

"I'm sorry sir, but we're required to take routine naps at Catline as per our Health and Safety Wurkplace Guidelines, I'm sorry that this has inconvenienced mew, would mew like me to transfer mew to the Catline Complaints Department, I see they their current call waiting time is currently at 2 hours and 15 minutes?"

"Oh fluff no, do not transfer me," he said through gritted teeth.

"So how may I be of assistance to mew today, what is your D.F.D.D.  P.P.I.?" the opurrator asked in a rather bored tone.

Fudge who was one tiny whisker away from a total floof explosion, sucked in a deep breath and replied as calmly as he could. "I haven't had any dried food in 2 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours, 10 minutes and  59 seconds."

"Ahhhhh that would explain it then sir!" the opurrator answered rather smugly.

"Explain what?" Fudge asked trying to be as polite as he could.

"The anger, snappish tone, short-temperedness, obvious frustration, exasperation factor piquing at around the 10 point mark," the opurrator mused thoughtfully. "Are mew gripping the phone so tightly that mew have white-paw syndrome? Is your breathing erratic, fur bristling wildly, and mew're purretty much ready to blow a gasket?"

Fudge wurked his way through the list mentally and then growled rather angrily, "YES!" 

"Just as I suspected sir," the opurrator replied with an air of utter delight. "I'll have to transfer mew as your case is beyond my training level, purrlease wait while I transfer your call!" 

CLICK

Funnily enough, the next thing on the CCTV footage was Fudge emerging from the telephone box and screaming, we think they even heard him in the neighbouring village of Fuskerton.

And so it goes; the moral of this news tale is, don't call Catline if mew're in a hurry! MOL

If mew're suffering from a P.P.I. try Parsley's Pet Peeves Service, at least mew get answered right away.

BBHQ's Hot Gossip this week is; we posted out all our Catmas cards yesterday so they're now winging their way around the wurld as we type.

We do hope they arrive in time.

If mew've missed any of the posts offur the last week, here are the catch-up links:

Cat Hazards ~ Top 12 Common Cut Flowers Toxic For Cats & To Avoid

Book Reviews with Amber #146

 

Purrching with Parsley on The Sunday Selfies

 

Colouring with Cats #105

Amber will be here on Friday with another fantastic book she can't wait to share with mew all as it's by two of our fabulous blogging furiends, so do stop by the library, tea and nip cookies will be served, and we hope to see mew then! 

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil The B Team

Now let's HOP on... 

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Do visit our pawesome host & co-host 

The Dash Kitten Crew

Barking From The Bayou

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Book Reviews with Amber at The Mewton-Clawson Library #140 featuring **Rebel Cats! Brave Tales of Feisty Felines** by Kimberlie Hamilton PLUS Friendly Fill-Ins

Hello gorgeous library guests 

and 

Welcome to the Mewton-Clawson Library at BBHQ 

Thank mew for joining me in the stacks today, mew know how much I love your company every Friday.

Mew may remember a few weeks ago when Commander Basil let slip in the BBHQ Hot Gossip segment about my latest find in the wurld of cat books, and oh my gosh what a find it was...

One day in July while purrusing our Instagram account, up popped Feline and Fiction** in the feed; a monthly subscription box for cat book lovers. Seriously, I thought I was hallucinating at furst as I couldn't believe that anypawdy had come up with the idea for the most purrfect monthly box let alone actually had it in production and for sale. 

'OH MY COD!' I thought, my paws suddenly felt clammy and my knees a little weak as my heart began to race, in fact it was nearly beating out of my chest as I headed to the nearest computer station in the library and straight to their website and had a really good squiz at what they had on offer.

Two minutes later my need to subscribe was mind-achingly overwhelming; only as mew all know I run a free library, so funds are zero and my rather meagre weekly allowance barely covers audiobooks, but I had to find a way to get my mittens on a subscription so after a further 30 seconds of tumultuous rationalizing I succumbed to my darker-side driven by my irrational need for more books and headed for Parsley's room and through the hidden wall panel, which he thinks I don't know about and opened his not so secret safe. I know I should be ashamed of myself for 'borrowing' his credit card again, especially when I purromised I wouldn't, but the temptation was too just much, and I needed to subscribe!

Anyhoo, the good news is I ordered a 3-month subscription to start with, and I now have all three boxes in my possession and below is the furst one which arrived in August.

Just look at all those fab goodies, and as I felt bad about the credit card thing, I gave Parsley the Gnashers treats and sample bag of chicken kibble made by our favourite food pals at Scrumbles, and I also gave him the chilli pepper toy too, which I thought was an excellent trade-off. 

Though he did look at me rather warily as I hastily stuffed them in his paws on my way to the library whilst carry the box, and he did ask, "Amber, what did mew do now?"

I replied as I increased my speed. "Can't stop, got a meeting with the Library Mouse Committee in two!"

Phew, let's just say I've been intercepting his credit card statement for the last 3 months and so far so good and this week I re-subscribed for a further 6 months WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO. I know I shouldn't, but mew know what I'm like when it comes to books; resistance is futile MOL.

I'll be sharing the next two boxes with mew soon, and I can't wait.

(**FYI the above link is not an affiliate link**)

Also, today the P.A. is joining in Friday Fill-ins Blog Hop with the pawesome 15 & Meowing and Four-Legged Furballs.

1. I have zero interest in _________.

2. Note to self: _________.

3. _________ is my favourite treat.

4. If I were living in a horror film, I would _________.

The P.A.'s answers are...

1. I have zero interest in going to any crowded or busy place while this covid-19 situation continues. In fact, see #4 I'd really like to move into the BBHQ bunker.

2. Note to self: you can't do everything all the time, though you can try! LOL

3.  70% + dark chocolate is my favourite treat, although I'm quite partial to a bit of marzipan especially if it is encased in dark chocolate too #mykryptonite.

4. If I were living in a horror film, I would get myself into the BBHQ bunker, lock that massive 12" thick steel blast door, turn on every alarm and sensor in the place once I'd armed myself to the teeth with AK-47's, AR-15's, AA-12's, Uzi's, several Glock-18's plus oodles of ammo, then I'd get some really bigs knives, a box full of grenades etc, plus rations and set up camp in the locked control room where I could watch and monitor everything on the external and internal surveillance system. If anything did get into the bunker with me, it would be duly taken care of and dispatched rather swiftly, B Team style. HOOAH! (Well I do write fiction! LOL) 

Let's see what I've got to show mew this time!

This week's top book pick is...

Mewton-Clawson Library Copy

Rebel Cats! Brave Tales of Feisty Felines

by

 Kimberlie Hamilton

       Here's a little snippet of the book blurb:      

An engaging collection about cats who are the heroes of their own stories, Rebel Cats introduces us to fur-raising facts and adventures from around the world and across the centuries.

With profiles of over 30 real-life felines, including WWII heroes, courageous adventurers, a Guinness World Record holder and even an astrocat that travelled in space

Rebel Cats is such an ameowzing book full of so many interesting cats from all over the wurld and their fascinating lives. 

The graphics and illustrations are charming, and the cats featured are epically epic with the most interesting tales to tell, so if mew're looking for some real-life cat adventure this is definitely for mew, and there are some MOL moments too. 

Plus there are nice little sections interspersed throughout the book with cat facts, stats and oodles of useful info from the cat wurld which I found immensely entertaining, and believe or not there were some things I'd never heard of before, how astounding! 

This would make an ideal gift for any cat lover, or if like me mew just love cat books add it to your collection asap. 

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic 

My Ratings Scale

Ratings of:

Rebel Cats! Brave Tales of Feisty Felines

Overall Enjoyment

I really hope mew enjoy the book as much as I did if mew decide to read it.

Sadly, it's time fur me to say BFN or bye-fur-now as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time and I'll be back next week with another specially paw-picked book just for mew, and don't furget that all my previous reviews can be found on my Book Review page.

Until next time...

Keep calm and read more books

Amber 

Follow me at angry_amber_badtemperedkitty

& @BionicBasil® on Instacat, Twitter and Facebook

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