Canuck PetAll about Canadian Pets

I have no idea where I bought this, I bought it a while ago and after using it, lost it and could not find it anywhere. One of my cats is not great at grooming himself, and despite regular grooming, often gets matted fur in some areas. This has been a real problem over the last few months since he has taken a real disliking to grooming but likes baths so he tends to cement in the matted fur playing in water.

I have tried numerous dematting tools on him but none worked as well as the tool I knew I had somewhere at home (shown on the right on the image here)

It is hard to see from the image, but these dematting rakes are not straight edged like many, but curve under making it easier to get the matted fur and giving you a small area between the skin and the matted fur to hold as you work the rake through the matted fur.

This obviously hurts him less than many of the other tools we have tried with him, we can use it for a good 15 minutes before he starts hissing at us, with many of the tools, he would hiss almost as soon as we touched him with it.  After two 10-15 minute sessions, we have dematted one whole side with no real pulling leaving bald spots as happened with another brush and he seems much happier minus the matted fur and enjoyed his furminator grooming this afternoon.  Hopefully now we found the brush again (and I blogged it so I can remember who made it this time, walking into a pet store and saying it had a nice soft handle and a curved blade and is blue and grey did not find me my favourite tool) we can keep up on the matts before they get bad again.

These comfortable grip, extremely durable grooming tools are perfect for in-home and/or professional use. Softly cushioned non-slip handles provide cushion and control while absorbing pressure and reducing fatigue. These tools have been carefully designed to minimize effort and maximize efficiency. The durable ABS plastic reduces breakage. All ComfyCare Products are packaged for resale. Razor sharp, serrated blades tackle unmanageable mats and tough tangles quickly and efficiently while maintaining coat length. Non-slip handle for more comfortable grip. Allows greater control for safe, effective mat removal with minimal effort.

Edit: now I know the brush name, it is sold at Ren’s Pet Depot for less than $9

A little early but I like to have it in my diary so I dont miss it.  The All About Pets Show is held at the International Centre on Easter weekend.  Admission is only $12 (and there are money off coupons available on their website) with discounts for seniors, under 16s (children under 5 are free) and a family pass available to save you money.

The $10 my ticket costs is easily made up in all the freebies I received, and the shelter did pretty well out of all the foods I was given to sample, mostly 3-4lb bags, not sample sizes.

There is also a Canadian Cat Association Cat Show, where you can see lots of purebred cats, speak to their owners and breeders if you are thinking of adopting a cat of that breed as well as being attended by many dog breeders and shelters / rescue groups for various animals and breeds so there are always lots of animals to see.  The flyball competition is always amazing to watch too.

Some of my favourite things to watch:

• The Search & Rescue Dog Demo
• The Grooming Stage, especially the massage demostrations
• Ask a trainer – get free advice from trainers and animal communicators

Spending time with the dogs in the dog park at the shelter is fun, but messy and tiring.  The Chuck-It allows you to throw balls further for the animals and reduces stress on your back / shoulders while throwing too.

My fave benefit is not having to pick up slobbery tennis balls, just scoop them up in the contoured holder and flick it to throw the ball back out for them to get some much needed exercise.

I also find this useful in winter when I am bundled up and its harder to throw the ball a good distance due to layers of clothes / coat softening the throw.

The Chuck-It is around $10 and sold in most pet stores

I know I could easily hop on the regular scale with one of the cats but its hard to peer over the cat and look at the numbers and do the math (lazy I know) to subtract my weight.

Since we have WiiFit anyway, I love the added pet support, I have two ‘dieting’ kitties as well as a kitten who I am making sure never needs to diet so its great to be able to track their progress.  Maybe I can train them to hold the wiimote while running on their cat wheel and track their exercise at some point but for now, weighing and charting their progress is as good as it gets.

The pets get avatars too, so you can try and make them lifelike cartoon versions of themselves (which would help if they were not all orange and white tabbies) but with the slow rate of healthy weight loss allowed with pets, it is encouraging to be able to look back and see that they have lost weight.

So its not Canadian but I can’t stop reading and dreaming about buying everything on the site

ModernCat is a website / blog dedicated to stylish cat products, they link to the individual sites so not everything can be shipped up here but they do a monthly giveaway of amazing products for anyone who signs up for their e-news and random giveaways for replies on certain posts.

December’s giveaway is a stylish corner cat tower with matching shelf for the space impaired cat owner (those cat trees can be huge).  Its beautiful and is a shelf type unit so no worries that it will ever topple with the cats on it.

They also feature a section of coupons and discount links for many of the products they have featured and DUY projects for those who love the look but don’t love the prices of some of the products.

Moderncat also has products for you, including tees, books, ornaments and watches.