Cats

Celebrity cat lovers (like Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, pictured left) got a real treat when they hit the gifting suites at this year's Grammy Awards -- posing for photos was Fancy Feast's famously fluffy white mascot.

But come on, we're talking about gifting suites. You know celebs weren't only stopping by for a quick pic with a famous feline. The stars also walked out with two luxury heart charms (one for the cat, one for her owner), a sparkling suede cat collar (perfect for the most fashionable feline), a FlipCam Mino for capturing special award-winning moments and, of course, an assortment of Fancy Feast Appetizers for cats.

This week, one lucky Paw Nation winner will win that same Grammy gift package!

To enter, leave a confirmed comment below telling us: If your cat was a music artist, which human performer would he or she most be like (and why!).

The comment must be left before 5 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 12, 2010.

You may enter only once.

One winner will be selected in a random drawing.

One winner will receive a Fancy Feast Grammy gift package, including two luxury heart charms (one for the cat, one for his or her owner), a sparkling suede cat collar, a FlipCam Mino for capturing special award-winning moments and an assortment of Fancy Feast Appetizers for cats (valued at $450).

Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.

Click here for complete Official Rules. Winner will be notified by e-mail, so be sure to provide a valid address!

With so many cat products hitting shelves every week, we asked our favorite kitty-centric blog, Moderncat, to round up their faves in our column, Moderncat's Modern Finds.

Let your kitty know how much you love her this Valentine's Day with some of these cool gifts made just for her.

The sphynx is easily the most recognizable breed of cat. Though considered hairless, the sphynx does have a layer of light fuzz over its body. Other than its unusual follicular qualities, the sphynx has other eye-catching features including a wedge-shaped head, large ears and often, a distended belly.

Sphynxes are not nearly as old as their name would suggest. Although the genetic mutation that results in their lack of fur is as old as genetic mutations themselves, the sphynx breed has only existed since the 1960s. Several naturally hairless cats were bred both amongst themselves and also with normal cats in order to create the genetically healthy yet consistently hairless medium-sized cat.

Being fur-free makes the sphynx an unusual cat to care for. They need to be kept warm, as their lack of fur makes them more susceptible to cold than a normal cat. They also require regular bathing because they don't have the fur that normally would remove oils from their skin.

Naturally extroverted, inquisitive, and intelligent, sphynxes are easy cats to love. They do well with humans, and always like to be the center of attention. A goal easily attained considering the breed's bizarre appearance.

The majority of today's pet cats are at least somewhat overweight, and a large percentage is obese. Long gone are the days when an average, medium-framed adult feline weighed a sleek ten pounds. Now, the same cat typically will weigh thirteen to fourteen pounds. A disturbing number will tip the scales at a morbidly obese twenty pounds or more.

Are you concerned that your cat is overweight? Here is what you need to know:

1. If your cat is an adult female, she should weigh between seven and eleven pounds. Exceptions are purebred cats of the Maine coon, Norwegian forest cat and ragdoll breeds. Healthy females of these breeds can weigh as much as fourteen pounds.

2. If your cat is an adult male, and not one of the larger breeds mentioned above, he should weigh nine to twelve pounds. Healthy males of the larger breeds can weigh thirteen to eighteen pounds normally.

3. Even if your cat does not exceed the guidelines above, he or she may still be overweight. One way to tell is to stand your cat up on its back legs. Do you see a "waist" just below the rib cage and just above the hind legs? Cats should not be perfect rectangles or squares. They are designed to have shoulders and ribs that are broader than their hips, like an athletic human swimmer.

Wherein I try to get my pets to a healthy cat weight. Catch up on past posts here.

Yes, yes, it's been a while since you last heard from the fat cats. They've been busy. As you can see, they've relocated to Las Vegas. One cross-country drive and some unpacking later, they are settling into their new routine.

Both cats have now lost three pounds each. I chalk it up to having more room in their Vegas apartment to play, plus marble floors that make toys extra hard to pin down. The commute from the bed to the food bowl is much farther here, so they naturally burn more calories. There's even talk of them soon having their own yard in which to play. (I, on the other hand, have found all six of those missing pounds since moving here, but that's a story for a different blog.)

A vet we saw in Topeka was actually worried that Tino had lost too much weight too quickly, so she upped his daily dose of insulin. A follow-up in Vegas revealed that he's maintaining nicely.

DeeDee and Tino have pretty much stuck to their two-cans-of-food-per-day regimen, but lately I've been giving in and serving them dry food when they wake me up for it in the middle of the night. To combat the extra calories, their dinner can has been downsized to one of the three-ouncers split between them.