This is Yoshi. Her mom Stacey is a professional film costumer, who, during her recovery from a bout with breast cancer, began making these intricate costumes for Yoshi. As it turns out, this isn’t torture. Yoshi loves it! In fact she even lets Stacey sell her photos on various items through urbanbeast.ca.

There are fabulous greeting cards, magnets, and calendars featuring Yoshi in these spectacular one-of-a-kind costumes, often representing iconic women. Pictured here are some of my favorites: Yoshi Kennedy, Wonder Yoshi, I Dream of Yoshi, and Queen Yoshibeth I.

The best part — a portion of the proceeds go to benefit animals in need!

You’ve probably seen them, but I had to post them in honor of Halloween — Kitty Wigs! Choose from four mod styles, Bashful Blonde, Pink Passion, Electric Blue, and Silver Fox, modeled here by some of the most tolerant moderncats on earth. Photos by Jill Johnson.

And did you know that each Kitty Wig comes in an attractive metal case to keep the wig safely away from playful claws between photo sessions? It even includes a toy mouse to help kitty pose for the camera.

Since you can’t share those mini Snickers with your cat, here’s the perfect alternative — three adorable Halloween toys from West Paw Design. Choose from Plunky, Kitty Bat, and Spooky Doo, all filled with organic catnip that is sure to please!

Don’t forget! The deadline to enter the Ugliest Pet Bed Contest is October 31! Submit photos of your stinky, nasty, gross pet bed and you could win a beautiful new Sleepypod or a print from Mod-Dog. Complete contest details here.

This contest is being sponsored by Sleepypod, Design Milk, Mod-Dog, and Moderncat.

Designer Aaron Stewart created a fun line of pillows featuring his beautiful modern pet illustrations. There are several moderncat pillows to choose from, all available from Pillow Pillow Pillow.

Many of the designs came from Pillow Pillow Pillow’s pet casting call. Here are some of the moderncats who were featured in recent designs: Bleeker, Titi, and Opie.

Buy directly from the Pillow Pillow Pillow online store.

This project to convert an IKEA organizer into a charging station (for all those electronic gadgets) originally appeared in ReadyMade Magazine, but thanks to Moderncat reader Brieanne, here we have a terrific cat-friendly variation.

Since Brieanne’s cats like to chew on cords, she and her husband decided that this would be a good project for them to tackle. The idea is to create a drawer for each device and to feed the cords through the back. Breanne chose to make drawers for Pod (iPod), Click (camera), and Chat (phone), plus an info drawer for the manuals, warranties, etc. The bottom opening happened to work nicely for a laptop docking station, but only with the drawer removed.

What to do with that extra drawer? Pop it on the top, line it with a soft blanket and, voila! an in-box for your cat. Here are some process photos: testing and supervising.

Thanks, Brieanne!

The designers at Square Cat Habitat have done it again! Check out their brand new Baobab climbing tree. This sleek structure provides four branches for climbing and playing and a treetop for napping and observing. As with all of the other Square Cat Habitat products, the Baobab is made from the finest eco-friendly materials. You can choose from either 100% renewable bamboo plywood in amber or natural finish or, for a less expensive option, choose black or white low-pressure laminate over Arreis® Sustainable Design Fiberboard, made from 100% recycled wood fiber and formaldehyde-free adhesive. Great for the environment and healthy for your cat!

The climbing shelves are topped with Square Cat’s special low VOC inserts in a wide variety of colors. The overall size of Baobab is 60″H x 23″W x 23″D. It’s also made in the USA.

Square Cat Habitat always comes up with creative names for their products, too. A Baobab is a very large tree that is native to Madagascar, Africa and Australia. Apparently these trees are so large that people have even hollowed out the tree to live inside. This one is not quite as large, but your cat will be happy to call it home.

Your customized Baobab can be ordered directly from Square Cat Habitat.

In these uncertain times, animal shelters can take a double hit. First, when finances are tight, charitable giving is one of the first things to go and many animal shelters depend on donations to cover operating expenses. Second, the mortgage cirsis has led to an increased number of animals being abandoned and sent to shelters. That’s why this special contest couldn’t come at a better time. The folks at Care2.com created America’s Favorite Animal Shelter Contest to reward the shelters and rescue groups who work tirelessly to care for homeless animals, and raise awareness about the importance of supporting pet adoptions and taking action to save animals’ lives. Care2 will donate a total of $15,000 to the local animal shelters or rescue groups with the most votes.

1st Prize: $10,000
2nd Prize: $3,000
3rd Prize: $1,000
4th and 5th Prizes: $500 each

And the folks at Adopt-a-Pet.com are sponsoring these great prizes:

• A $1,000 donation to a randomly selected participating shelter each week for five weeks.
• Recruiters Rewards: The 20 contest participants who recruit the most friends to vote for their favorite shelter will receive a $50 gift certificate for pet products sponsored by Adopt-a-Pet.com as special thank-you gifts.

So vote now for your favorite animal shelter! The contest ends on November 1, 2008.

Sisters
by Meg Houston Maker

My little hurricane,
my little thunder
storming
around the house.
Gray raincloud cats
with claws like lightning
eyes gold like fire.
In your legs,
the strength of
mountains.
In your paws
the speed of light.
Nothing can catch
one
except the other.
Sisters, you live
racing the moon,
winning.

Thanks to Moderncat reader Meg for submitting this wonderful poem.

Cat Fancy Magazine has awarded three prestigious Editors’ Choice Awards to Los Angeles-based Cat Livin‘.  Each year the magazine recognizes the most innovative and creative cat products in the United States. This year the editors named the Cat Livin’ Climber, Garden and Ottoman as winners of the 2008 awards. Congrats, Cat Livin’!

Remember this video, “Simon’s Cat: Cat-Man-Do”? Well, I came across a real life video showing just how true the cartoon is (without the baseball bat). Here they both are for your viewing pleasure.

Carry your Moderncat to the vet, or anywhere, in style with this new contour messenger bag from EGR Italy. With its ultra thick padding, contoured spine, and shock absorbent shoulder strap, this may be the most comfortable bag you own.

Available from PetEgo and Amazon

Cats can be Republicans, too, so here we have some cute cat tags for felines from both parties. Choose from several designs available here.

If you’re an Obama supporter, check out www.catsforobama.com for some creative kitty campaigning. Here are some of my favorites, including an altered version of one of the famous posters by Shepard Fairey.

I don’t mean for this to be imbalanced, but there doesn’t appear to be a “Cats for McCain” website.

More great mid-century moderncat illustrations from Dave over at Grain Edit. This week he guest posted on Design*Sponge about the 1956 children’s book Thomas by Mary Harris with illustrations by Cliff Roberts. The story is about a young girl and her cat Thomas. The beautiful face posing with the book above is Dave’s cat, who was also recently shown in Grain Edit’s “Behind the Blog“ post on Apartment Therapy/Unplugged.

I think I’m going to have a heart attack, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen! As you may be aware, the Japanese treat their pets like children, and since they are also masters of good design, it’s no surprise that some Japanese housing builders are now designing homes featuring special features for pets. These amazing images are from Asahi Kasei’s Plus-Nyan house. Obviously a great deal of research went into the design of these beautiful spaces, from the perspective of both the cats and the homeowners.

Features include open air cat walks, climbing steps, nooks throughout the house for cat hide-outs, cat doors in every door, extra space in the bathroom designed especially for a litter box, an enclosed deck area, and special fences to prevent cats from escaping.

They have even gone so far as to use pet-friendly construction materials that resist scratching and are easy to clean.

Thank you to Sachie at My Cat Goma for finding this and for translating the Japanese descriptions for us!

I want to live in Japan!

The recent New York Times article “Sorry Fido, It’s Just a Guy Thing“ discusses how lots of single, straight men are “coming out of the cat closet” and embracing their love of cats. The article references one of my favorite sites www.menandcats.com plus the author interviewed everybody’s favorite cat guy, Paul Klusman, creator of An Engineer’s Guide to Cats.

As we all know, there are lots of dangers awaiting our beloved pet cats when they venture outdoors. But we also know how hard it can be to watch kitty as she looks longingly out the window, wishing she could play in the grass and get a breath of fresh air. One possible solution is to build a catio, an enclosed outdoor area that is safe for cats, usually attaching to a home or enclosing a portion of the yard. Catios come in all different sizes and styles and people everywhere are building these structures to keep their precious pets safe.

There is a wealth of informaion available about catio design, but it has been scattered across countless websites until now. I’d like to introduce you to a brand new website, Catio Showcase. This site provides a single source for catio design and construction. Catio Showcase features cat enclosure projects from around the world that will inspire you to design a catio for your feline friends. Whatever your style, your skill level, or your budget, there will be something for you, so check it out and sign-up to receive email updates so you can see all the latest projects as they post. And if you have a catio design of your own, we welcome photo submissions so you can share your ideas with others. Visit Catio Showcase for info on how to submit your project.

Catio Showcase is a new venture by yours truly, Moderncat. Not everything on Catio Showcase will be modern, but I’ll be sure to cross-post any modern designs that I find.

Congratulations to Hedge from Emmaus, PA, winner of the Wallflower scratcher from Marmalade Pet Care. This elegant and versatile cardboard scratcher can be used on the floor or it can be mounted to the wall with the optional wall clips. Available in three colors–blue, green, or orange.

Both the clips and the scratcher are available at Amazon.

Moderncat is partnering with two other great design blogs, Design Milk and Mod-Dog, to bring you this awesome contest and your chance to win a Sleepypod! We’re looking for the ugliest pet bed out there. We figure the pet with the worst napping spot deserves something better, so we are going to do what we can to help.

To enter:

Send a photo of your pet’s ugly, gross, disgusting, hideous, gnarly pet bed OR the pathetic place your pet currently uses as a bed. Both cat and dog owners are welcome to enter. We want to see the yuckiest!

Design Milk, along with Moderncat and Mod-Dog will narrow the entries down to a select few. Readers of all three blogs will then vote on Design Milk to determine the First and Second Place winners. The winner will be announced in a future post on Design Milk.

Photos should be emailed to info@design-milk.com with subject line “Sleepypod Contest”.

Please note: Sleepypods are designed for pets 15lbs and under. We apologize, but large dogs are excluded from the contest. Maybe we will have another contest just for large dogs

Prize:

First Place winner: Your choice of one Sleepypod or Sleepypod mini in the color you prefer (subject to availability).

The Second Place winner will receive a print courtesy of Mod-Dog (examples below).

A Sleepypod is a pet carrier with a removable top so that it can easily be used as a pet bed (view demo). Sleepypods are designed to reduce stress on your pet when on-the-go. Learn more at Sleepypod.

Rules:

Contest begins on October 1, 2008 and ends on October 31, 2008. Voting will then occur. The winner will be announced no later than November 30th, 2008.

One entry per pet. If you have 5 pets per household that meet the criteria, then you can enter 5 times (once for each pet).

This contest is being made possible by Sleepypod, Design Milk, Mod-Dog, and Moderncat.