Nance is on her way here to Alabama AS I TYPE, and one of the things we’re going to do is a video podcast, and since the last time we did a podcast, we spent several minutes READING FROM A MAGAZINE to come up with topics because we’re just that lame, I’m looking to you, you fabulous people, to give us things to talk about. Suggest a topic, ask a question, make a comment you’d like our reaction to, anything goes! Either email me at mizrobyn (at) gmail [dot] com with “VidPodcast” in the subject, or post a comment, and I’ll print them all out, and when the video podcast has gotten to the “Hey, put Miz Poo in front of the camera! Smile at the camera, Miz Poo!” stage, we’ll break out your questions/ comments/ topic suggestions!
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It has been three days since I took Mister Boogers’ collar off, and do you think he’s jumped the fence? He has NOT. Not even once. I don’t even want to know what the fuck is up with THAT.
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The comment-answering extravaganza begins…. NOW!
Robyn, why do you use so goddamn many exclamation points?! It makes my eyes hurt.
(Okay, I might have made that one up myself, brought about by the fact that I! Use! A goddamn lot! Of exclamation points!)
Dear reader, I use exclamation points because I am a very exclamatory person – at least I like to think I am! – and to get the point across that I’m very emphatic in the point that I’m making, I need to use that exclamation point! I cannot help it! Sometimes I go back and edit my entries, and I take the exclamation points out! But sometimes I write the stupid entry, and I just post the goddamn thing and don’t look back! Also, if you’ve ever gotten an email from me, probably every third sentence! Ends in an exclamation point! It’s like people who use LOL for no apparent reason! I suspect they cannot help themselves, either! LOL!
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My boyfriend and father of my fetus is insisting that I get rid of 4 of my six cats before the baby is born. He thinks cats are unhealthy for infants. Now, I will admit to being a very poor housekeeper, so there is definitely hair everywhere, and sometimes the odor of poo, and sometimes there are out-of-the-box accidents due either to illness or the boxes being dirty.
So, do you think I can convince someone who thinks it would be okay to just put the cats out (will NEVER happen) that 1) it is not unhealthy to have an infant around cats per se (I know I need to be more vigilant with cleaning) and 2) I do not love the cats more than the fetus (that’s what he thinks).
He just has a totally different attitude about pets and responsibility towards them. I am okay with adopting out two of the cats as they were originally fosters, but I have had trouble placing them, but the other four cats are MY cats.
You know, I don’t know if you’re going to be able to convince him that the cats won’t make the baby sick or steal its breath while it’s sleeping. Will promising to clean more often convince him that it’s safe to keep the cats? Is that a promise you can keep, with having to deal with a newborn at the same time? Does he just have a vague “They’ll make the baby sick!” attitude, or is there a specific fear (ie, “The cats will go outside the litter box, the baby will get into it, and it’ll make him/ her sick!”)? Because, I mean, yeah – cats are nasty and kids will get into stuff they shouldn’t, but as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong, readers, please) having cats in the house won’t necessarily make the baby sick unless the baby’s born with strong allergies to cats.
I know I’m not being much help, here – what about you, readers? Advice, suggestions?
Reader Liz offered:
Sorry, Robyn, if this is out of line, but this is for Julie H.: Julie we’ve always had a cat and a dog, even when I was pregnant and when the kids were babies and up to today (4 cats, including the one I’ve had since 1992….longer than the husband and kids ;)and one dog). We’ve always kept the litter boxes in our attatched garage and the cat/s use a cat door to access it; this really helps control the stank, if you’ve let the box go too long. If you can do something like this it might be better for you, because pregnant women are at risk from Toxoplasmosis from an INFECTED cats feces, so the further away from living areas might make your boyfriend feel better. He also needs to be the one changing the boxes, at least for the pregnancy (you can usually play this out for the pregnancy and at least a year after!). My kids are now 8 and 10 and have not been “sicker” because of the animals, just have had the typical childhood illness, nothing pet related and always respected the cat/s and don’t tease them, etc. and we’ve always let the cat/s and dog be around the babies, within reason, and they now have their “own” cats to lurve. Once the baby arrives, he’ll know you love it more than your fur kids!! Good Luck to you!! I hope this helps and sorry about the hijack Robyn.
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it’s not a chicken hawk, right??? not that there is a big difference as I suspect a regular hawk wouldn’t think twice about flying away with a chicken either. Glad you are armed with your…
…camera just in case!
The hawks we’re seeing around here are Coopers Hawks, also known as Chicken Hawks, but according to Wikipedia: The term Chicken Hawk, however, is inappropriate. Although Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks may attack other birds, chickens do not make up a significant part of their diet. This hawk sat on the fence and looked down at the chickens, but the sense I got was that s/he was more curious than threatening.
And, hey – if I had to, I could probably throw the camera at the hawk and stop it before it got a chicken!
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Kid Nation spoilers in this section!It seems I remember you saying you watch Kid Nation? If so do you still like it, and were you like me tearing up when Cody left? I was also slightly amused and bewildered by the fact that he is in love at the tender age of 9. Did you find that to be unreal?
We watched it last night, and I have to take a moment to say that MY GOD IN HEAVEN I CANNOT STAND TAYLOR AND I HOPE HER PARENTS ARE WATCHING THAT SHOW AND COMPLETELY MORTIFIED BY HER BEHAVIOR. Though like Fred said, “I don’t think she got “Beauty queens don’t have to do dishes!” out of thin air. She heard it SOMEWHERE.”
I didn’t actually tear up when Cody left, but I definitely felt bad for him – I think I’ve said it before, but I really think the younger kids are way too young to be on that show. I’m really amazed that so many of them have stuck it out this long.
The young love thing – I don’t know, I don’t see why 9 year-olds can’t feel Real Lurve for their girlfriends (aside: who the hell has a GIRLFRIEND at the age of 9? What the hell?!). I think probably a big part of it is that she’s part of his home life, and he was so homesick that his Deep Feelings of Lurve were made all that much deeper from missing home.
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Two things- my kitty had a distemper and rabies shot Tuesday. Vet said he may run a fever, but what about him being so lethargic? And if so for how long?
I’d say give it four days – if the cat’s still lethargic at that point, give your vet a call.
Also your super sleuth ways put you back in touch with Bonnie, how about Athena? I know she quit posting abruptly last year and said she may return at sometime, is she back anywhere? Her site was how I found yours.
No, Athena’s still not blogging anywhere as far as I know. If she starts up again, I’ll definitely post a link to her.
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Would you be willing to post your recipe for jalapeno jelly? My neighbor just gave me a bag of jalapenos out of her garden and you got my mouth all hungry for some jelly!
That recipe is here – and though it doesn’t say it on that page, I got it from Cooks.com.
Also, since I’ve never eaten it, is it sweet? What do you put it on?
It’s sweet, and not hot at ALL. I like to eat it on Ritz crackers, but several people have told me that you can put a block of cream cheese on a plate, pour jalapeno jelly over the cream cheese, and then scoop up a little of the cream cheese with a little of the jalapeno jelly with a cracker. I haven’t tried that yet, but I’m sure I will in the future!
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Ever see yourself setting up a farm business? I mean, in a few years, just a little stand with the eggs and some produce and canned things or something. Just seems like the natural progression of things, though I doubt you’d be thrilled about the extra farmy work…
We talk about setting up a stand to sell eggs and produce and canned things, but I don’t know that we’re actually going to do it. I don’t know that our road gets enough non-local traffic to make it worth the effort. But never say never – and you never know!
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Did you mention lately if Jack Frost ever got re-adopted?
He got re-adopted, but didn’t mesh well with the family who adopted him, so he got returned. The thing with Jack Frost is that he’s a sweet boy, but he needs a lot of time to get acclimated to his surroundings, and while he’s adapting, he can be a little bitchy, to say the least. I have faith that the right family will come along and adopt him, though!
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My favorite entries concerned the time Fred tried to “poison” you!
Just for you, I made that entry public again. Is it wrong that I giggled when I re-read it?
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So Sugar and Tommy are TWO now? wow. The time, it does fly.
I know, hard to believe, isn’t it? Look how little they used to be!
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Have you ever noticed how chickens saunter across the yard and in a small pause…squirt the poo…then just keep doing their ‘walk like the egyptians’ walk as if nothing even happened? BTW, your ladies are gorgeous. They look so fluffy and soft.
It drives me CRAZY when a chicken is standing next to me watching me hang out clothes or whatever, and they just kind of wiggle their tailfeathers, shoot out a pile of poo and walk away like they don’t know who the hell did THAT. Damn chickens. Good thing for them they’re entertaining!
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So surprised that the cats never think of getting a hold of one of those chickens.
I think the chickens are almost bigger than the cats at this point. The chickens make the cats nervous, but I think the cats might just think that the chickens are another kind of cat. Mister Boogers meowed bitchily at Frick the other day when Frick got too close to him, then when Frick ruffled his feathers, Mister Boogers ran off. I prefer to have the cats scared of the chickens, personally.
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When you said you wanted chicken yesterday to smoke — I honestly thought “well, they’ve got a few in the backyard there!” — is that wrong?
Heh – no, I thought the very same thing! One day I’m sure we’ll kill a chicken and eat it, but I have a strong feeling that it won’t be from this current batch of chickens, since they’ve become like pets to us.
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Please tell me you won’t kill and eat Frick.
I can promise that if the time comes when Frick needs to be killed, it won’t be me who does it. But like I said, they’ve become so much like pets that I don’t see us eating any of them.
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Robyn, where did you find your purple sheets? I’ve been looking for purple sheets for a long damn time and yours are the first I’ve seen that I like!
I got them on Amazon, they’re Pinzon 300-Thread-Count 100% Cotton Percale in “plum”. The darker pillowcases are Regal 300TC Standard Lavender 100% Cotton Pillowcases. I prefer the feel of the Pinzon pillowcases to the Regal (the Regal are very, very soft and I prefer a crisp, clean feel to my sheets), but couldn’t get extra Pinzon pillowcases, which is why you might notice that the pillows with the Regal pillowcases are always on the bottom.
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Robyn! In regard to hot spicy foods and coffee; truer words have never been spoken! I absolutely hate hot peppers and coffee. My husband loves both and my mother loves coffee. They both keep trying to get me to drink coffee, I’m 42 years old, I think my tastes are pretty much solidified! Curiously however, I do like horseradish sauce, I like the taste and it only burns briefly and washes away when you drink. I am not averse to alcoholic beverages either; I like some wine or a beer now and then. But coffee? Gah!!
I should add that in spite of my dislike for hot stuff, I really like horseradish. Preferably on raw oysters, in Florida. Occasionally when I have boiled shrimp, I like to make a cocktail sauce out of ketchup and horseradish, and I think it’s the bee’s knees.
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Do vegetables taste bitter and acidic to you? They all do to me, except corn, green beans, green peas, potato, and oddly enough, lima beans – which apparently everyone in the world but me loathes. I could LIVE on lima beans. Yummmm.
I think you actually named most of the vegetables we eat on a regular basis, except for maybe carrots. Oh, and salad – though we haven’t had salad in a long while. And cabbage!
But anyway, except for turnip and collard greens, vegetables don’t taste bitter and acidic to me at all. Maybe you’ve got weird taste buds. 🙂
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Odd Thomas is one of my favorite books!! What did you think of it?
I really, really liked it. Actually, I originally read it years ago, but we got Forever Odd and Brother Odd recently, and since I couldn’t remember anything at all about Odd Thomas, I wanted to reread it. I’d be reading it, and have a vague remembrance of what happened, but I totally didn’t remember the very end with the… you know. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, but the end surprised me again. I’m looking forward to reading Forever Odd and Brother Odd in the next little while!
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I’m in Australia, but pretty sure you would get these over there, I’ve seen some great cat runs around, they connect to an opening from your house, and the cats can go in and out as they please, but cant leave the enclosed run, i saw one that went nearly all the way around a house and had sections that went upwards so the cats could climb, it was impressive. Have you ever considered one ?
It sounds like you’re talking about something like this. It’s certainly on our radar, but we’re trying to come up with a solution that won’t cost us much. If we can’t get Mister Boogers to stop hopping the fence (if he starts again, that is!), that’s certainly one of the things we’ll look into!
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Robyn, Last night we had a huge storm with thunder and lightning. At one point the fire alarm in our apartment building went off (at 2:30am) prompting us to think we’d been hit by lightning. We had to wrangle 4 freaked out cats into 3 carriers and get them to the safety of our garage just in case. (This in addition to getting dressed and grabbing my camera and purse.) My question for next week is, in the event of a fire at crooked acres will you wrangle all 7 cats into carriers and get them to a safer location or will you just open the door and let what will be be?
You know how you read stories about stupid people who died in a fire trying to save their pets? I have a feeling that would be me. I can’t imagine just opening the doors and letting the cats fend for themselves, since their immediate instinct when scared is to hide (Sugarbutt always runs upstairs and climbs under the comforter on Fred’s bed when the doorbell rings). And once again, I’m recalling that we don’t have enough carriers for the number of cats that we have. I need to get at least a couple more.
Possibly my self-preservation instinct would stop me from running into a burning house to rescue the cats, but I can’t guarantee it!
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When you go to the shelter and let all the cats out to play, how do you remember which one(s) go back into the proper cage?
It’s unusual that there are two cats who look so much alike that I’d mix them up. Usually if there are, say, two black cats, one will be smaller, or have a patch of white on it, or something to distinguish it. I always look at the tag on the cage and then the cat, and make a mental note about said white patch, or whatever. Sometimes I actually write down that So-and-So has a white patch, or more spots on his belly, or whatever. And if it came right down to it, all the cats have id chips, and if I couldn’t tell two of them apart, I could get out of the id chip reader, read the chip, and look on their paperwork to see which is which. I’ve never had to do that, but I could if I needed to.
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do you happen to know the url of the apology site?
I have never ever had a cat. Neither has my husband. We’ve both been dog people all our lives. However, I have been thinking about getting a cat for awhile now, and my daughter is wild to do it. What advice do you have for someone who’s never had a kitty before? Should I get one, or would two be better so they have company? Any equipment I need besides feeding stuff and a litter box? I breathlessly await your wisdom.
It really depends on the cat, but it’s been my experience that two cats are best, because they can entertain each other, tire each other out, and keep each other company when no one else is home. One cat is fun, but two cats is PURE entertainment, especially when they get along well – they’ll play-fight and occasionally snuggle up to each other. If you can find two cats who are already friends, that’s always a good way to go; if you can’t find two that are friends, it helps if they’re around the same age, I think.
All you really need for cats is a litter box, litter scoop, food, and water. Oh, and a few toys – but even if cats don’t have a single cat toy to their name, they’ll find something to play with!
Advice: cats can be trained, but you’ve kind of got to pick your battles and you’ve got to be consistent. I use a can of compressed air to “encourage” cats to stop whatever it is they’re doing – usually fighting on my head in the middle of the night – but if you stop them from doing something sometimes, but let them do it other times, you’re never going to get them to stop. Kind of like with kids, consistency is the key.
Adjusting to the new members of the family will take time, and there’ll be adjusting on your part as well as theirs. If you’re not used to small animals crawling into bed with you, you might want to start keeping your bedroom doors closed – the cats won’t necessarily like it, but if you do it from the beginning, it’ll be less of an issue than letting them sleep with you and then deciding they can’t. On the other hand, I think most people can adjust to cats sleeping with them – I rarely notice when a cat jumps up on the bed unless they’re picking fights with each other, and then a blast from the can of compressed air will stop them pretty quickly. I don’t have an issue getting back to sleep, either, but Fred does, so he sleeps with his door closed, and I sleep with mine open.
Look at me, rambling on and on. If anyone else has advice, feel free to share in the comments!
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Following on from Fred’s recent post, just wondering if you’ve personally witnessed any strange, spooky goings-on in/around your house? Those sorts of stories fascinate me. What are your thoughts?
I haven’t witnessed any strange, spooky goings-on around the house at all. I don’t believe in ghosts – but if one appeared, I’d think it was the coolest thing on earth. And of course I’d immediately write about it!
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how do you trim (or cause to be trimmed) the claws of an almost-wild formerly-feral kitty? Noam Katsky is a real sweetie, but no one other than his immediate cat and human families will ever know that. We actually got him in a crate MORE THAN A YEAR AGO but he popped the door and ran away for a day and a half. He’s not an outdoor cat and, because we’re wimps, we haven’t tried since. Now he almost trips as he walks across the carpet, so we have to either do it ourselves or take him to a groomer/vet. Do they drug him? Do they give up? HELP! Our cat family awaits your advice (Noam, Roada, and Spot Katsky…Spot was Hercule Pawrot Katsky, but he’s too little and cute for such a stuffy name).
I would suspect that a vet would be willing to at least give you something to calm Noam down so you can trim his claws – it can’t hurt to at least call and ask, and if what they give you won’t put him in enough of a daze so you can get the job done, they might be willing to put him under briefly to get the job done. To be honest, I’m not sure what to advise – but I KNOW someone out there has some kind of advice. Readers?
(By the way, great cat names!)
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A few days ago, Sugarbutt was running around with his ass afire, jumping and running like a fool. I got the camera set on “movie” mode and pointed it at him, and caught him pulling off a Matrix move.
The movie would have been better except that I was a little too fast on the trigger and ended the movie before I should have, damnit.
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Foster kittens are doing well. I go into that room and they crowd around my feet, I sit down, and they take turns piling into my lap. Keith might be a hellion, but he’s also the biggest baby and will just lay in my lap and let me pet him for a long, long time. Khalili has turned out to be a big biter – really the only one of the bunch – and I have to keep an eye on her, or she’ll come over and chomp down on my toes. Chemda is a sweetie, but doesn’t really care to be picked up, or even to sit in my lap, but she’ll sashay back and forth and demand to be petted. Brolo is a big lover and also enjoys fighting with the other kittens. Patrice has calmed down and there’s very little hissing in the kitten room these days, unless someone gets scared.
I got their story from the shelter manager: they all came from a farm in Tennessee – there were several moms left at the farm, and most of the other kittens (I’m not sure how many) either died or were killed by other animals. These were the lucky ones. The foster mom ended up keeping the moms & SAAW had them spayed. Keith and Brolo are from the same litter, and Patrice, Khalili and Chemda are all “only children.”
Brolo and Keith had a sister that the foster mom kept. Check her out:
I told the manager that it’s probably a good thing the foster mom kept the kitten, given Fred’s weakness for blue-eyed girls!
Brolo and Khalili cuddle.
Brolo up close.
It would appear that I haz a flavor.
Pretty Chemda.
“That TICKLES!”
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“::grumblegrumblegrumble:: stupid CHICKENS, stupid chicken POOP, always CHICKENS pooping all over the place, stupid! ::grumblegrumble::”
The watchcats at work.
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Previously2006: “Dude, that’s gross,” I said to Spot, who didn’t care and gave me a nasty look as I picked it up and threw it away.
2005: I hate those stupid tests. I always think I’m going to find out some deep, hidden truth about myself, and then I get “Oh! You should be an artist! You’re the artistic type!” Bah.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: TV talk.
2000: I’m about the laziest chick in the world, I think.
1999: Yeah. I’m a bitch.]]>
I told the manager that it’s probably a good thing the foster mom kept the kitten, given Fred’s weakness for blue-eyed girls!
Brolo and Khalili cuddle.
Brolo up close.
It would appear that I haz a flavor.
Pretty Chemda.
“That TICKLES!”
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“::grumblegrumblegrumble:: stupid CHICKENS, stupid chicken POOP, always CHICKENS pooping all over the place, stupid! ::grumblegrumble::”
The watchcats at work.