this clip from the Country Music Awards. Even if you’re not a country music fan, you should check it out. Watch Faith Hill, on the left hand side. What the hell was going on there? I guess Faith thought she was going to win. Someone forgot to put her game face on!
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Readers who live in areas where there’s an issue with scorpions, perhaps you can offer some words of wisdom to reader Shelly, because I have no idea what to tell her:
I’ve been moving into my new condo for the past two weeks and we finally slept there last night (had to get the beds over and stuff). Anyway, I met my new neighbors last night and they told me that the last lady that lived there had a serious problem with scorpions. She even taped up the fireplace flute (is that the right word for it?) that leads outside so they wouldn’t come in and put that spray foam under the sinks to plug up the holes, etc. The neighbors told me to get a couple mouser cats to kill the scorpions for me. So far I’ve only seen 1 and he was in the bathtub and we closed up the drain. We slept with all the lights on in the house last night.
I wanted to get a cat anyway, because, well I’m a cat person and I’ve been living with my mom and she doesn’t like them, so I had to wait until I moved. But, here’s the problem, although the neighbors said that cats will kill the scorpions, I’m worried that they will get hurt. They said that cats are immune to scorpion stings, but I don’t know if this is true, and it still has to hurt them right??
So, I’m wondering if you know if cats will kill scorpions, and if they do, are they somehow immune or something? I don’t want to get one if they can be seriously harmed. But, I also don’t want one of my kids getting stung. Scorpions scare the hell out of me. Am I making any sense?
I just thought that maybe you (or even some of your other readers) would have some insight. Thanks!
Leave any words of wisdom in the comments, or email them to me and I’ll post them!
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I hope this link works, ’cause I think you will love it.
It does – and I do!
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I was at Sam’s Club tonight and thought of you. They had some beautiful pet beds. They were fancy and the cats would probably hate them, but they were so pretty! And like $12.88…just in case Miss Maddie needs one since the printer thing isn’t quite working out!
It’s too late for me to buy a bed for Miss Maddy (though rumor has it she has her very own pink pillow to sleep on), but next time I’m in Sam’s I’ll have to check them out. We do only have two beds for every And3rson kitty, y’know.
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“Pillbug”? Ahem. Those are roly-polys.
SAME DIFFERENCE. They’re also known as
sow bugs and woodlice.
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Yeah yeah yeah, you look great…but what I really want to know is how you know it’s the momma pill bug and not the daddy pill bug.
That’s regarding this picture:
Where I referred to the Momma pill bug and her baby. How do I know it’s the Momma pill bug? Because Daddy pill bugs don’t take care of their babies OF COURSE. They’re DADDIES. They don’t have nothin’ to do with no child-rearin’!
Just kidding.
Actually I know it’s the Momma pill bug because she was screaming for chocolate and complaining about how her breasts were hurting.
Kidding!
It could have been the Daddy pill bug. I’d go back and check, but I’m sure the whole damn pill bug family bought it in the great Brush Clearing of ’06.
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I was just thinking… do you mean get the cats inside your house or the garage? Do they have fleas?
We brought the Momma and Daddy kitty and the kittens into the house in Smallville. We knew they’d be warm and safe in there – we could have brought them into the garage, but there are no doors anywhere in the garage so they’d have just sauntered back outside. Also, there’s no heat in the garage. They didn’t have fleas, but we treated them all with Advantage immediately upon bringing them inside, just in case.
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You know Robyn, you could always use that sewing machine in front of the fireplace to whip yourself up some form fitting clothes.
(That’s regarding
this picture.)
I could if (a) I could sew worth a damn and (b) they’d left the sewing machine behind. They took it with them, the bastards!
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I’ve never seen wood walls in a house but the dining room looks great. Are the walls in the house insulated?
They are… not? I think? Um, Fred? Wanna chime in, here?
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Is Maddy just howling in the first two photos, or are those yawns, as well?
That’s regarding these two pictures:
They were neither howls nor yawns – they were Maddy, being bad and trying to bite me. I’d lower my finger ’til she opened her mouth to bite, then get it out of the way and take a picture. Um. I was NOT training her to bite, Nance!
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i wanna hear more about this book! are you laughing? is it funny?
That’s regarding
Stop Dressing Your Six Year-Old Like a Skank. I’ve gotta say – I just wasn’t that into the book. It wasn’t horrible, but my mind kept wandering while I was reading, so clearly it couldn’t hold my attention. I don’t recommend it.
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I thought you might get a kick out of these cards.
Those are awesome – I’m only saddened that I have no one to send them to!
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Happy Birthday, Spud! Awesome star choker. Where did you get it??
She got it at Hot Topic in the mall.
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What is giardia?
It’s an
intestinal infection that humans and animals can get. According to the shelter manager,
Giardia seems to be one of those conditions that no one can agree on. [For treatment] Some say once a day, some say twice. Dosages seem to vary as well as duration of treatment. Per the parasitologist at Cornell (I attended a lecture at a conference a couple of years ago) it’s next to impossible to cure and some cats carry giardia with them forever. It’s never cured and reoccurs when the cat is under stress.
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do you at least get to write all these vet visits off on your taxes?
I wish! Well, actually, I don’t know. Perhaps I should have Fred ask the accountant. Maybe we could write off the cost of gas to transport the cats to the vet, anyway!
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Where did you get those fabulous slippers?
My mother bought them at Parisian, and it appears that they’re also available at Nordstrom and Dillard’s. I found
this site where you can buy them, but it appears that the selection is dwindling quickly. Also available through
Amazon, and I’d give eBay a try, too – search on “Shues.”
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I wish you had a “Mister Boogers Hates You” poster, because I would buy it. I’ve also used the “Mister Boogers Hates You” stare on people, and it works great!!! It’s always the little things in life.
No poster, but there may be forthcoming “Mister Boogers Hates You” merchandise including t-shirts, tote bags, and I don’t know. Post cards? Stay tuned!
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Ewww…. Does that mean that Mama Kitty had babies with her son????? Or am I just misunderstanding??
No, we were calling him “Daddy kitty” because he was a mostly-adult male who suddenly was showing up with Momma kitty and the kittens, so we assumed he was the father. The vet decided he could very well be one of her kittens from a previous litter, but we’ve called him “Daddy kitty” for long enough that the name kind of stuck.
Which isn’t to say that he couldn’t still be the father of the kittens. God knows cats are animals and gross things like that don’t bother them. After all, we’re talking about animals who kick their legs up in polite company and clean where the sun don’t shine. A little incest probably wouldn’t bother them all that much.
::shudder::
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I have a question for you. You may have told us before, but I don’t go back that far. Because you volunteer at the pet (?)store(?), do you get free spaying/neutering services for as many cats as you want to bring in? Or are you and Fred dishing out the normal fees for these services for all these cats? Just curious… I know it costs an arm and a leg here in the Northeast to have it done, so I can’t imaging having to pay for multitudes of cats to be done.
When we take foster kittens to be spayed and neutered, the shelter pays for that (at a discounted price). So we didn’t pay for Maxi’s kittens to be fixed, or Maddy, or any of the fosters. We
did pay for Maxi and Newt to be fixed and to get all their shots, but I consider that money well spent. It ensures that Maxi won’t get pregnant and bring more litters into the world, and that Newt won’t contribute to the problem, either.
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Happy Halloween! Do you all give candy out? Can you eat sugar free candy since having gastric bypass or no candy at all?
Fred was at the house on Halloween and the spud was at work. I did buy candy, and put it in a bowl with a sign that said “Take one” because I’m not someone who enjoys handing out candy all that much. I think the kids who came by took more than one, but as long as I didn’t have to keep answering the door, I was happy.
I cannot eat sugar free candy, because the malitol and sorbitol – any of the -itols, really – sugar free stuff is sweetened with make me bloated and gassy and have actually been known to make me throw up in the past. I can stomach regular candy, but I avoid it most of the time.
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I just reserved Lisey’s Story from the library today and hope to get to read it soon, so I’m glad to hear you’re liking it. I usually like King’s books, but not all the time (sometimes they’re way too gross or instense for me). Dean Koontz is more my style. Have you read Life Expectancy? It’s my favorite Koontz book (in fact, the first one I read that made me read others).
I read
Life Expectancy in March of 2005 (I only know when I read it because of my
reading list) and enjoyed it a great deal. In fact, when we read that there was going to be a sequel to
Odd Thomas, Fred and I both got all kinds of excited, because we mixed it up with Life Expectancy.
Fred’s a bigger Dean Koontz fan than I am, but I like him a lot and have read most, if not every one of, his books.
Watchers is our favorite Dean Koontz book. In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to read it again.
* * *
Happy anniversary Fred and Robyn. Were you married on Halloween?
We were – October 31st is always Halloween (my mother didn’t know that – when I told her we were getting married on Halloween, she said “Oh, that’s neat. Every now and then your anniversary will be on Halloween!” and I said “No, Halloween is always October 31st.” I guess she thought it was, like, the last Friday of the month or something rather than a set date.).
And no, we didn’t dress up in costume when we got married. We talked about going as Bill and Hilary, but didn’t.
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I, too, was wondering if the cost of getting the Mom and Dad cats and their kittens spayed and neutered was covered by the no-kill shelter. If not, I would like to donate to the cause. Let me know!
The shelter covered the kittens, yes. Mom and Dad, no.
But save your money – I’m going to be raising money for the shelter beginning December 1st and running for a couple of weeks (at least), and I’ll be soliciting donations then. There’ll be things to buy (t-shirts, catnip pillows, calendars), or you can just make a straight donation to the shelter through me.
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Isn’t there some kind of life cycle tie in thing between tape worms and fleas? Like if they have one then they have the other? Although I assume the vet would have noticed if they were flea infested, and you guys would have too. And I think if cats are outdoors chances are huge they will have worms, which is totally gross. Did you guys worm Mommy Kitty and Daddy Kitty?
The vet said that they could have gotten the worms from eating fleas, or from eating wildlife (ie, the squirrels Momma kitty likes to catch). We did worm them all with Nemex as soon as we brought them inside, but Nemex doesn’t treat tapeworms, so we had to re-treat them with Drontal which gets rid of tapeworms.
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Your new logo got me thinking….how do you like your new Suzuki Reno? I am looking at cars (Huyndai Accent, Toyota Yaris, and the Suzuki Reno), wanted to know your thoughts.
I am really liking my Reno so far. The only thing I don’t like about it (and you’re going to roll your eyes at me, but just shaddup) is that it doesn’t have a temperature gauge for the outside temperature. I KNOW I don’t particularly need one but I liked having it with the Aerio and I kind of miss it! But as far as handling, room, and mileage, the Reno is working very well for me.
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what are the chances of tracking the larvae from room to room and infesting the other cats? I can’t believe how beautiful those cats are to be so wormy.Will they be put up for adoption? My Mother always told us if we swallowed a cat hair that it would turn into a worm in our stomach. I’m so glad that is not true. How does Spidey Man feel about those kittens?
I’m not sure what the chances are of infecting the other cats with worms. We’re very careful to always wash our hands after we’ve spent time with the kittens and if our cats contract worms, well, we’ll treat them. Mister Boogers has contracted tapeworms in the past from foster kittens, so I guess it’s always possible.
The kittens are in great shape (and unwormy now, I assume, since they’ve been treated and I haven’t spotted any worms since poor Princess Buttercup had her worm-barfing spree); they’re at excellent weights, and they have the softest, thickest fur I’ve ever seen on kittens.
They’re going to go up for adoption as soon as possible. The younger cats tend to be adopted faster (or so it seems), so hopefully they’ll be adopted quickly. With the exception of Princess Buttercup they’re all total lovebugs, and she’s so pretty that I think she’ll be adopted quickly as well.
Spidey has no opinion on the kittens. Kittens do not scare him. KITTENS DO NOT SCARE SPIDEY. He will simply kick their asses if they try anything with him, and as long as Malevolent Madeleine doesn’t show her face again, he should be fine…. or WILL HE?
* * *
On a side note my friend who is a “dog person” recently discovered a baby kitten at her work which she took in and nursed back to health. But the vet here wouldn’t spay her until she was 4 months or 4 lbs. I just thought that was weird since you just got Maddy spayed and she’s just barely 7 weeks isn’t she?
The ASPCA has declared that spaying a kitten who is at least 2 months old and 2 pounds is safe. Maddy was (looking at the calendar…) actually 9 weeks old when she was spayed. I think that it’s probably hard to find a vet who will spay and neuter kittens at such a young age. I don’t know if it’s so much that they disagree with spaying/ neutering so young and small as the fact that it’s got to be more difficult to spay/ neuter a 2-pound kitten than one twice that size. The shelter was lucky enough to find a vet who would/ could do it, which is a good thing – I think there was an issue with people adopting cats, promising to have them fixed, and then not following through. Nowadays, the shelter won’t adopt out kittens until after they’ve been fixed, and like I mentioned earlier, the smaller a kitten is, the faster it seems to be adopted.
Here’s an interesting page of facts about spaying and neutering.
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Your hair looks really cute in the group pic. Why’d you blur out Fred?
and
I don’t know what’s cracking me up so much, but the picture of in-focus you with the three blur-people is hilarious!
I blurred out Fred in that picture because it cracked me up to put up a picture of me and three blurs. Also, back when Rick was in Alabama on business and we met him for dinner, I knew I had to blur Rick’s face, so Fred told me I had to blur his face as well.
* * *
I have a bunch of pictures of Maddy I haven’t cleared off my memory stick yet, so you’ll be seeing them for the next few days. YOU’RE WELCOME.
She fell asleep like this.
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Happy Sugs.
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Previously
2005: This makes me want to wrap my child in bubble wrap and lock her in her room until she’s 35.
2004: No entry.
2003: Meme.
2002: “How fucking much is that goddamn bread? A dollar ninety-fucking-five? Okay, put a couple of the motherfuckers in my cart, would you, fuckwad?”
2001: I briefly considered making a citizen’s arrest.
2000: (ie, “It’s all the fault of that fat bitch you married!”)
1999: I woke this morning at 2:30ish, feeling something wasn’t quite right. ]]>
