Fabulous new Feline Nutrition Site

I stumbled across this really informative and beautifully laid-out website by the Feline Nutrition Education Society, dedicated to the proper feeding of cats. I, and thousands of other cat owners and vets believe that a grain-based diet is not suitable for an obligate carnivore like the cat and therefore feed a raw meat based diet. This diet consists of as many parts of an animal as possible, so as well as muscle meat, cats are fed raw bone which helps to balance out the phosphorus in the muscle meat. Too much phosphorus is bad for renal health. Hearts are rich in taurine, something that cats cannot produce themselves but die without, so are fed as part of the muscle meat part of the diet. The rest of the diet is made up of various "innards" such as kidneys, livers, etc. Thousands of cat owners can testify to much healthier pets with renewed vitality. Raw meat is also a brilliant teeth cleaner. Oral health is something that is very important in the prevention of kidney disease and obviously healthy teeth mean a happy cat with that beautiful and impressive set of teeth that characterises this little predator!
I have an article that the owners of this site very kindly published, outlining my experiences of raw-feeding and how I get on with it in Italy.

Two new sparkly pieces

Sterling silver necklace with two 3mm aquamarines, two 3mm iolites and one 3mm dark blue sapphire
11mm claw-set champagne topaz on 1cm textured sterling silver band. Bling bling!!

Autumn Bangles

Two new bangles for the autumn collection. The top one features oak leaves and a 9k red gold acorn. The bottom one is a willow leaf. I have left this one unsoldered so it is in fact adjustable. The willow leaf bangle is made using 3mm round sterling wire and the oak bangle using 2mm.

New Work

I thought I'd have a bit of a change from my usual work and have made these cute spoons and a little fork. You can use them to scoop up your breakfast marmalade or honey!

Help me raise $1000 for cheetahs

Every donation made this month is being matched by CCF until the end of August. I've sold 2 cheetah cuffs, so that's $300. Please help me make it $1000 by the end of the month. The race is on!

SOLD!!

The cheetah cuff has now been sold but I will be making more to order and continuing to donate 50% to CCF.

Cheetah cuff for CCF

The Cheetah Conservation Fund do fabulous work in Namibia and Kenya, working to conserve and protect these beautiful, endangered cats. They have implemented a livestock guarding dog programme so that farmers can use specially trained dogs to protect their flocks from predation by cheetahs, and therefore protect the cheetahs from being trapped or shot. This project is particularly interesting to me because my Master's thesis is about a similar livestock guarding dog programme in Slovakia, this time protecting flocks from wolves, bears and lynx.

I will be donating 50% of the proceeds from the sale of this cuff to this organisation. I have personally met the founder, Dr Laurie Marker on a couple of occasions, so feel very close to this organisation. They do fantastic work. Please support them!