• The Life of Riley

    RFID implants (for humans) linked to animal tumors – Boing Boing

    The hell with humans – what about our beloved little cat Riley?  He’s chipped, though the studies seem to have been just on mice and not on cats or dogs. Is he at risk? I’ve just fired off a query to Avid,  the manufacturer for clarification or comment. Their email address was not easy to find, but turned out to be on their online ordering page. It’s info@avidmicrochip.com Also, near the bottom of the news article is a long section detailing former HHS secretary Tommy Thompson’s business relationship with the VeriChip corporation, and wondering whether he had anything to do…

  • The Life of Riley

    PACT Humane Needs Cat Foster Families

    Daily Herald | Cook County Cherie Travis created the PACT Humane Society’s no-kill animal shelter seven years ago, but finds the problem of stray cats and kittens in the Northwest suburbs reaching an all-time high. PACT, which stands for People and Animals in Community Together, runs adoption centers at both PetSmart stores in Schaumburg. The group has the sole responsibility for saving all the stray cats and kittens found in Schaumburg, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Streamwood and Barrington Hills, Travis said. Though the PACT shelters have a no-kill policy, as long as its 20 cages are full, many other…

  • Home Improvement - The Life of Riley - Tribe: Phaeomelanii

    Clematic Event

    It’s been a long, exhausting day – I worked in the yard from about 10 am on until 730pm, with breaks for when I got too warm and wobbly, or to run errands. But I’m pleased with the results – almost all the mulching is now done, several new plants are in the vegetable garden, which for the first time ever will possibly have vegetables in a month or two, and the “kitty garden” has been dug out and replanted. I say “dug out,” because the lawn care guys so helpully cut back everything in there to the ground and…

  • Hot Off The Presses - The Life of Riley

    FDA: Chemical Found in Pet Food Recall | Chicago Tribune

    FDA: Chemical Found in Pet Food Recall | Chicago Tribune The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the wet-style products. The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food, but was not aware of any risk to people. It wasn't immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit in the deaths of more than a dozen cats and dogs and the illnesses of hundreds more, said…

  • The Life of Riley

    Menu Foods Income Fund – Annual General Meeting

    Menu Foods Income Fund – Annual General Meeting Golly, somebody should change the name of this page quickly, it's going to get too many people thinking "right, must make sure I don't own any stock in this company."  Recalled Cat Product InformationRecall Information 1-866-895-2708 1. Americas Choice, Preferred Pets 2. Authority 3. Best Choice 4. Companion 5. Compliments 6. Demoulas Market Basket 7. Eukanuba 8. Fine Feline Cat 9. Food Lion 10. Foodtown 11. Giant Companion12. Hannaford 13. Hill Country Fare 14. Hy-Vee 15. Iams 16. Key Food 17. Laura Lynn 18. Li'l Red 19. Loving Meals 20. Meijer's Main…

  • Mini-Posts - The Life of Riley

    Riley’s Self Image

    Riley looks just like this when he's grabbed his favorite boingy-boingy toy in his mouth and tries to walk off with it before getting pulled back by the elastic cord. Just now David was playing with him upstairs and we had a case of "wacky cat" right on the bed. Riley went completely spazzy for the toy, and we were lounging at either end of it just laughing hysterically at him. Then he collided with the laptop and decamped for the relative safety of the floor. Funny little kitty! 

  • Politics, Schmolitics - The Life of Riley

    Draft Rileycat and Polly Dog For A Truly Bi-Petisan Ticket!

    The heck with Obama and Clinton… now that it's official, we'll be supporting Rileycat in his candidacy for President, and now we've got to convince our friend Steve to let his Golden Doodle, Polly, run for Vice President. It's an unbeatable ticket: cat people and dog people, Democat and Repuplican, unleashed on the American political scene for the first time. Forget Blue and Red America, it's time for Poo and Shed America! As running mates, they might have some problems, though Riley has been declawed and Polly reportedly "likes cats." His handlers, though, are allergic to cats, and we're not crazy…

  • The Life of Riley

    Riley’s Big Adventure

    It wasn’t really a big deal, just a yearly trip to the vet. However, it’s already been blogged over at Rileycat. Afterwards, much petting. Riley’s in great health and we found that the chip that he had is one of the brands our vet, the Arlington Cat Clinic, carries. So we’ll re-register it at last under our name – we mislaid the form a while back so it’s good that we got around to that at last. The brand name is “Avid” and apparently we can’t register that one online, so David’s mailing the form today. He was pretty subdued…

  • The Life of Riley

    Those Rotten Monkeys Did It Again

    It's been lovely, really lovely being head of household. Now it's the time of year when it gets cold and my fur puffs up to keep me warm when a door or window is cracked open. It was like this before when the monkeys brought me home from the catpersons' detention center. And how do they mark this anniversary? They go away and leave me again. I tried to stow away in my monkeylady's carry thing, but she found me. Drat. Today the lady who looked after my simple needs came in and fed me and petted me. And now…