Occasionally when wandering around the internet, I come across a recipe I’d like to try. And in the recipe, it has you cook chopped onions as the first step, but warns you not to let the onions get brown.
Why is this, does anyone know? Does it affect the taste of the final product, or is the recipe creator just being annoying? I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN HOVER OVER THE PAN TO MAKE SURE THE ONIONS DON’T BROWN.
I thought you would like this link Robyn–cats and Lost!
(WARNING: Lost spoilers!)
I LOVE it! “I’m gonna make sweet-ass love to the island.” HEE!
I LOVE how Gavin always looks so pissed off in all his photos. Do you just happen to catch him that way, or is he really a sourpuss, pun totally intended.
He’s a bit of a sourpuss. It seems that he likes to complain (scroll down to the kitten section to see a short movie of his complaints) and I can’t quite figure out how to make him happy.
Does he want a snuggle? He does not.
Does he want food? NO. If he WANTED food, he’d go GET some food. What, you think he’s STOOPID or something?
Does he want to play? He does not.
He just likes the sound of his own voice, is what I’m guessing.
Huh, I didn’t know that is what cat acne looks like. One of my cats, Bitty Kitty, has some of that dark-looking acne on her chin, but since it is so small, never bothered her, had not taken her to vet for it.
Do you have a home remedy for that? She does eat off of a plastic dish, so could that be the cause? How does the vet treat it?
The vet gave us Clavamox and told us to try wiping his chin with Stridex pads. The shelter manager told me that she uses Calendula Flower Oil extract in warm water – A few drops (around 6 or so) in about 1/4 cup warm water & scrub with a gauze sponge or wash cloth. Takes care of it quickly. I’m going to try the Calendula Flower Oil extract next time Miz Poo has a flare-up. Spanky’s acne is slowly going away, so I guess the Clavamox is doing its job.
I’d definitely switch from plastic to ceramic or stainless steel. Though someone told me in the last day or two that their vet recommends against even ceramic and suggests only stainless steel. If Spanky’s acne turns into an issue, I’ll switch over to stainless steel, but for now we’re going to stick with our colorful Fiesta bowls!
What an adorable bunch! I think it’s so good for the kitties to be in a home with lots of other kittens and cats. Maura has been SO laid back about getting to know Beau – I’m sure it’s because she came from a multi-kitty household. Now the dogs, that’s coming a little more slowly. But we are making progress! Check it out:
You can see more pics of Maura and her siblings at Kathy’s Flickr page. I especially like this one. 🙂
LOST.UGH. So disappointing! Have you seen this video yet? Kind of sums up how I feel!
(WARNING: Lost spoilers in this section!)
I hate that there were so many unanswered questions about that goddamn island, but I loved seeing everyone find each other again in the alternate storyline. I can tear up just thinking about Jin and Sun. ACK.
Yay for Fred and his new job. I really want to see some of his wardrobe choices because I am a person who loves brighter colors too. His (or should I say yours as in a collaborative effort) paint choices have always been great in your house and around the property.
Fred gets all the credit for every single paint choice. I just don’t have the “eye” for knowing what’ll look good on the walls and what won’t, so when we were renovating the house I said “I want this room to be blue” and he’d carefully consider the choices and present me with one that invariably turned out to be pretty amazing.
His only two missteps (and this is just my opinion) were (1) the guest bedroom at the old house, which he painted a Pepto Bismol pink and (2) the original color of the upstairs bathroom. We went with what was supposed to be a neutral beige-y color that turned out to be the same color as Barbie Doll skin. I like it much better in purple.
Question -I thought that Fred had his own business and then lost a big client. I’m confooosed. But happy that he’s working. 🙂
He did, and they did, and now he works elsewhere. 🙂
Every time you get new kittens, I think THESE are the cutest kittens ever and no other kittens will ever be as cute. Then you get MORE and they are EVEN CUTER. How do you stand it? 🙂
I know, right? I think “Okay, we have reached the peak of kitten cuteness. There’s no way on earth that there can ever be kittens CUTER than this. I’ll be lucky if they’re like 2/3rds as cute. But I’ll love them anyway!”, and then the next batch comes along and they’re so cute it makes me just about pass out. It defies logic, but they just keep getting cuter!
Robyn, this totally relates to yesterday’s post, but I saw it on FB today and thought you’d appreciate a chicken language scholar! Chicken Talk.
How neat is that! I always wondered why hens cackle after they lay an egg. I love the descriptions of the noises chickens make and what each noise means.
“I have been taking my dog hiking alot lately. I have put Frontline on her, but most people don’t realize that it doesn’t keep ticks from getting on your animal, or even from biting, it will only kill if they do bite.
Anyway, I hadn’t even considered her getting ticks because we had just started this new activity. One night we were laying in bed (yes, she sleeps with us) when I look over and see a tick in the bed! I jumped up, screamed hysterically, and then had a nervous breakdown because I found THREE MORE TICKS in the bed! Now we check for ticks after every walk.”
Hi – just a comment for the poster who left this…I live in NC and hike with my dogs often – OMG the ticks! I hate them so much and wish I could say I haven’t been bitten by ticks numerous times (can we get Frontline for people?!) but I have found that using a Preven-tic collar in conjunction (or alone but then there’s less flea protection) with Frontline really keeps them off. Ticks won’t even get on the dogs when they wear the collar & it lasts about 3 months. It is a little more scary pesticide-wise but still proven safe for mammals. You can get it through a vet or one of the websites that sells Frontline, Heartguard, etc. Also, they only cost about 16 bucks a piece!
I just wanted to make sure the original poster saw this!
I have an old man cat, Jake, who used to be portly and is now getting scrawny in his old age. I’ve been trying to keep his weight up by supplementing with wet food (like 1/2 can of Fancy Feast in the morning), but he still does like the dry and doesn’t devour the wet food. (In the meantime, my tuxedo boy, Barney, is turning into a butterball. A demanding, cute, butterball!) I think I remember you talking about feeding baby food to the cats and kittens. Did they seem to like it more than Fancy Feast? Is there a favorite flavor they seemed to like more than others? And what does a jar of baby food cost, anyway?
They do like the baby food quite a bit – I have yet to come across a cat who doesn’t adore baby food – and Gerber 2nd Foods Chicken and Gravy is what I always buy (at the suggestion of someone who does feral cat rescue). It’s like crack to them.
It’s kind of expensive, though – about $1 a jar, and those jars are SMALL. When I occasionally stumble across them on sale for 90 cents or less, I buy every jar on the shelf.
The only suggestion I can think of is to maybe try giving him Fancy Feast Kitten – it’s got more fat in it (to help kittens grow) and he might like it. Our fosters really like the Fancy Feast Kitten Turkey Feast. Also, I don’t know if it’s feasible for you, but maybe put him in a room by himself while you’re giving him the canned food so Barney doesn’t get too much of it.
Also, when Spot was aging and had lost weight, the vet gave us a tube of Nutri-Cal to give him a few times a day. He didn’t love the stuff, but he didn’t hate it, either, and I think it might have helped some.
Readers, do you have other suggestions on how to help an aging cat put some much-needed weight on?
So, is Fred going to blog soon about his new job? I’m dying to find out how its going.
I doubt Fred will ever so much as mention his new job on his blog; he never talked about the old job either, if you’ll recall. 🙂
Things are going just fine so far!
I am curious as to how you juggle the dietary needs of your cat clan. We have finally gotten the two new cats settled in a bit. The boy is always hungry (= pot belly!) and the girl is quickly learning that she better act quick to get the good stuff.
But we have the geriatric 21 year old cat that usually has Science Diet Senior always available with a morning and afternoon dose of wet food to make him happy and try to keep his weight up.
The new cats LOVE old cat’s snack time so I have taken to giving them just a teeny tiny bit so that they will leave old guy alone. Then they race upstairs for a quick bite of kitten food. But they don’t finish the kitten food, they would rather eat the senior cat food and the senior would rather eat the kitten food (he has urinary and hairball issues – not sure that is a good choice for him).
So how do you keep everyone straight at your house and HOW do you manage to live within your home with so many cats afoot? With 3 and a dog we are experiencing quite a bit of chaos. Doesn’t help that we went from two old, lazy cats to one old lazy cat and two obnoxious youngins (though so far they don’t wake us at night – just can’t seem to get a moment of peace during waking hours when we are home).
Could you maybe lock old cat in another room to give him his snack? For a while Spanky was on a special canned food at snack time (I’d give you the details, but for the life of me I don’t remember what the food was or why he was on it. Good thing I’m in charge of my cats’ health, ain’t it?) and we’d put him in the small bathroom with his plate of food at snack time. Nowadays he eats the same snack as everyone else, so it’s this mad rush to give everyone their plate of snack at the same time, and then make sure no one is bullying anyone else to get to their snack.
Snack time at our house looks like this: I call the Bookworms into the guest bedroom, close the door, and give them their kitten food. Then I go into the kitchen and divvy canned food onto 8 plates for the adults (Sugarbutt and Tommy share a plate). Sugarbutt, Tommy, and Joe Bob eat their snack on the counter, Jake, Elwood, and Kara eat their snack on the kitchen floor, Spanky has his snack in the dining room, Maxi and Newt have their snack on the side stoop (in inclement weather, they have their snack in the computer room), and Stinkerbelle has her snack wherever Fred puts her plate. She’s extremely skittish and if you look at her sideways while you’re carefully putting her plate of snack down and pushing it gently toward her, she’s apt to run off and sulk. Which is fine with me, because if she doesn’t come get her snack, do I look like I care? She’s certainly not STARVING, but Fred practically bursts into tears at the idea that his poor beloved Stinky might not get her snack. I have put that damn cat’s snack plate on top of the bookcase where she spends 75% of her time, so she can just sit there and daintily eat her snack like she’s ROYALTY.
Anyway.
So I’d recommend putting the old cat in another room so he can get his old-people snack without the kittens all getting up in his face.
As far as how we live in our house with so many cats afoot, let me tell you – when I fall and break a hip, it will be because I tripped over a goddamn cat. I have to walk through the house like I’m wading through water so I don’t kick a cat, trip over a cat, step on a cat, or in any way harm or bother a cat. You’ll get used to it. 🙂
A shout out to your readers and yourself to vote for S.A.I.N.T.S. and hopefully helping them garner some much needed money for their end of life animal rescue. Such a wonderful woman and volunteers giving last hope/chance/ days animals their loving due.
Hit the purple button and vote for them as often as you can! They are under the name S.A.I.N.T.S in Mission BC Canada.
Gavin’s a wee complainer, and I remembered to bring the camera into the kitten room with me and get his complaints on tape (Garrity jumped in there to share HIS complaints, too, since I was documenting complaints). Gavin’s husky little howl just cracks me up.
Please ignore the fact that that door behind the kittens desperately needs to be stripped and repainted. I’ll get to it some day. Maybe. If that room is ever empty, which I hope it never is!
Franco and Garrity, hanging out on the cat tree.
It appears there’s something interesting going on over THERE. I couldn’t convince him to look at me.
“Who, me? What?”
Sheila, mid head-shake.
Gigglin’ Garrity.
Sheila likes to let the boys know just who the boss is ’round these parts.
Here’s a purring kitten video for you – Rhyme spends the majority of his life purring so loudly you can hear him from three rooms away. So, for that matter, does Reacher.
(These videos would be so much better if I just kept my mouth shut, I swear.)
Corbett, snoozing.
Bolitar and Reacher. I love it when they stretch out on their backs and sleep like that.
Corbett.
Yesterday, I couldn’t find Corbett anywhere. Since we’ve been having an issue with him going outside, I worried that he’d gotten into the back yard, climbed the fence, and was headed toward the very busy road. I didn’t see him anywhere outside, and I called and called for him. As it turned out, he’d climbed behind my monitor, stretched out, and gone to sleep.
Previously
2009: I traumatized Fred by telling him I was going to have it professionally framed.
2008: Now that I have only the one drain, which will be tucked under my clothes, I don’t have to worry about the kittens puncturing anything and blood spurting all over the place.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Today I’m still burning with curiosity, and I wish I’d asked anyway.
2002: So yes, the vacation rocked.
2001: If vacation pictures aren’t your thing, I’ll see ya tomorrow.
2000: I’m so so SO glad to be home.