Month: September 2011

Vote for Gracie! (Thank you!)

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Have you ever pickled green tomatoes? My husband does it every year and they are sooo good!

I haven’t, but maybe I should. We tend not to eat much pickled stuff, but I’m thinking that it’s time to make a point of doing so!

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I love George and Gracie! So I know you used to say they are working dogs not pets, has that changed? I think if they decided to stop guarding the flock and the hens were taken by hawks daily you would still decide to keep them.

You know, I’d answer this question, but it truly is a moot point. If they up and decided to stop guarding the flock, I’d have to assume that there was something really wrong with either them or the flock – and I think they’d die from boredom if they didn’t have the chickens to guard. They are really good dogs and if the flock was completely gone for some reason I’m sure we’d keep them – but I still have NO desire to have them in the house, so I imagine we’d have to find something else for them to do!

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As for old man Spanky, he does indeed look good. The first cat late hubby & I ever had lived to be 20, Punkin. We got her the first year we were married, so you can imagine how hard it was to lose her — just old age health problems. I was 40 by then, and had several other cats too, but still. Punkin was almost completely deaf, and she had lost most of her teeth. I guess her eyesight was poor too. I’d have to gently shake her awake, since she could barely hear — sometimes I’d clap my hands over her, and she’d wake up. I’ve never had a cat live that long before, and maybe Spanky will set a new record for a long life. Does he have any health problems as of now?

Spanky has no health problems, amazingly enough! He moves with no problems, his senior bloodwork panel came back good. He’s crazy healthy for such an old guy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him still walking around howling in five years.

Speaking of Spanky howling, this is from years and years ago (when we lived in Madison, so it may have been 7 or 8 years ago), and still my favorite Spanky movie, even though the quality is terrible:

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Just wondered if you keep a private journal only for you, besides your online journal? Do you use one of the many software available for journaling?

I actually don’t keep a private journal just for myself because I’m pretty sure I’d never take the time to write in it. If I did, I’d likely use the old-fashioned notebook and pen method.

I use WordPress for this site, Love & Hisses, and back when I had the Giveaway site, I used WordPress for that, too. I think it’s easy to use, and if I wanted to use it to journal stuff for myself, it would be easy enough to password. (Though with my luck, I’d forget my damn password!)

I used to use Movable Type, then I decided to switch to WordPress, but I don’t remember (1) how long ago the switch was (though I do know it’s been years and years) or (2) why I decided to switch!

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The movie cracked me up – Elwood MAY have a higher jump than George Costanza, but just barely! 🙂

and

Elwood is pretty slick on his feet for a big fella ay? He doesn’t get much vertical in his leap though does he?

Hey, that kind of mass will only move so far off the ground! 🙂

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Robyn, have you seen these? Chilli Willy. You should grow some next year, just for the giggles. Also, you could’ve had a Willy Peppers!

I totally should! (And Willy Peppers would have been an excellent name!)

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Today’s action series? Fantastic! Have you thought of making a “comic strip” type of book with sets of pictures & comments? Best of “Live Action” Bitchypoo or something less awful. Kidding on the title but serious about the idea. Thoughts?

I’ve thought about putting together a book of all the picture entries I’ve done, but man – I’m not sure I’m up to that much work!

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I thought Fred used to do a lot of hiking….didn’t he used to do that geocaching? I’ll bet there’s a really expensive GPS unit gathering dust!

The GPS Fred had back when he was geocaching would be, compared to the GPS units that are available now, like an 80s cell phone compared to an iPhone. (I also don’t think we have it anymore – and if we do still have it, I have NO idea where we put it!)

Maybe Fred needs a new GPS for Christmas so we can try our hand at geocaching again!

Fred used to hike several times a week, but that stopped pretty much when we bought this house. There’s not a lot of hiking paths convenient to where we are now, unfortunately – though I guess we could certainly drive into Madison and go hiking there!

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Robyn, have y’all been to the Nashville flea market before? If not, it’s really worth the trip. True, it does have some of the same old crap – tube socks, dvd’s, knock-off purses, etc., but out back where the…um…I don’t know what they’re called…big roofed areas that are open on all sides. You can find some *amazing* stuff out there. Lots of antique and vintage stuff, lots of it at really good prices. There are lots of interesting stalls in the enclosed buildings, too. I kind of giggled when you said you’d spend an hour then drive home, because we’ve stayed there four or five hours before, and didn’t come close to seeing everything. If y’all get antsy in October, I highly recommend a visit!

No, we’ve never been, but now I certainly want to go! It won’t be in October (I’ll be recovering from my neck lift revision when the October flea market takes place), but maybe I’ll convince Fred to check it out for real in the Spring. It really sounds like it’d be fun!

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As a looooong time reader, Miz Poo and Spanky are my favorites by default (Okay, mainly Miz Poo) and I must have missed the original post with the cat chart because now I am heartbroken that Miz Poo gets no kitty love. So very sad. And probably entirely her fault, but still, I like to picture her as the “cat who oversees all” that the other cats come to. And on that note, I’ve obviously spent too much time imagining your cats interacting. LOL

Do not cry for Miz Poo, the reason she gets no kitty love at all (except when she’s sound asleep and a kitten climbs into the bed with her) is because she has NO USE for other cats. She doesn’t want them in her space, she doesn’t want them head-butting her, she doesn’t want them snuggling with her, and she will whip out the Paw o’ Doom in no time flat if they invade the bubble. However, she canNOT get enough love from any human who crosses her path. Woe betide anyone who steps through the door and doesn’t pay attention to her, because she will NOT be ignored. I’ve always said that if I put her in a baby carrier and strapped her to me 24/7, she’d be SO happy.

I mean, she’s pretty happy anyway – I’ve never known another cat who purrs constantly the way she does. I go to sleep with her purring in my face and wake up the same way. No wonder I sleep so well!

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The kittens playing with lightsabers were cute, but have you seen the leopard cub who thinks s/he IS a lightsaber?

Actually, I had not. That is seriously CUTE!

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Ok…so are you taking all these action shots by yourself?? or is Fred assisting?? They are just awesome!!!

The action shots I posted this week of the big Peppers, I had Fred assisting – same with the pictures/ video of Buster, Elwood and Alice. The pictures I took of Charlie in action yesterday, I took alone. It’s easier to get pictures when Fred’s running the feather teaser, but if pressed I can get some fairly decent shots on my own.

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Will Charlie have to have his damaged tooth pulled or is it a kitten tooth?

It’s a kitten tooth – but even if it was a permanent, I don’t think he’d need to have it pulled. It’s just the very tip that chipped off, and it doesn’t interfere with his eating and doesn’t cause him pain. It kind of gives him a jaunty air, actually – I’ll have to see if I can get a picture of it.

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and WHEN are you going to get those poor kittens a few toys!!

I know, isn’t it disgusting? I’d tell y’all that I’ll take pictures of all the cat toys in the house AND the ones I have secreted away in my closet, but I’m too afraid you’d call the people at Hoarders on me!

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Here’s a little something to put a smile on your face.

Crack me UP!

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Seeing the photos of Miz Poo brings back memories. She looks very much like our Sunshine, who passed away in 2001. Sunshine was a ‘talker’. She had a very distinct trill-like meow that she would raise or lower depending on what she was trying to say. She mostly ‘talked’ only when spoken to, and ALWAYS had to have the last word. Just curious if Miz Poo happens to be a talker as well.

Usually Miz Poo does most of her talking when she’s trying to soothe me. If I yell or laugh really hard or get mad, Miz Poo decides that I’m in distress and she must soothe me, and she rubs against me and trills softly at me. If she walks into the room and I greet her, she’ll brighten up and usually responds to me with a trill. For the most part she’s pretty quiet, though.

She’ll go through stages, though, where she finds a toy and decides it’s her “kill” and drags it through the house, keening the entire time. She’s fond of doing that in the middle of the night, and she doesn’t just do it for, oh, ten feet or so. No, she appears to find the toy at the farthest possible point in the house and then drags or carries it through the house, keening as loudly as possible, the entire way to my room where I’m usually yelling “Oh my god, Poo, please stop!!!”

Here’s a video I shot years ago showing what it sounds like (I posted it on YouTube in 2008, but I made the video when we lived in the house in Madison, so it would have been before 2007).

She is SO PROUD of herself!

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Anyone in the NW Virginia area want a very friendly, very purry tortoiseshell kitty who likes belly rubs?

Mrowbecca, send me some pictures, I’ll post ’em!

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My lady cat says that ladies NEVER FART. In a book by Anne Perry, a Victorian lady was said to make a “personal noise”, which cracked my DH up, so now we say that our ladycat makes a “pawsonal noise”. She also reckons that tabby brudders are ALL HORRIBLE*. I must explain that while not suffering from farting, she does suffer from a tabby brother.

*this opinion is not shared by the author of this comment.

How much do I love the phrase “personal noise”? SO. VERY. MUCH.

(Also, Miz Poo suffers from tabby brudders, and she agrees that it’s pretty horrible.)

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What pretty blue eyes the Buster Man has. Or is that just the camera angle?

They’re green, actually – and very pretty, the way they’re dark green in around the pupil and then lighter around the outside.. All of the Bookworms have really really pretty eyes. What’s that, you say? You need proof of that? Well, if I MUST.

Buster (about a year ago) :

Reacher (in February, right before Kathy came and stole him away) :

Corbie in February:

Rhyme, last October:

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Robyn, you *need* one of these! Think of the photo opportunities!!!

That is HILARIOUS!

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How old are the chicks, relatively? Small children, tweens? Never had any, so I’m curious!

At this age – a week to ten days old – I’d call them preschoolers, they still stick pretty close to their mothers. In a couple of weeks they’ll be a little taller and a bit ratty looking as their feathers start to come in, and I’d call them maybe middle-schoolers. I’ll try to remember to get pictures of them as they grow so you can see the various stages!

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Please link the fountain again? Or just give me the name. Does it have ‘pool’ at the top and then cascade down? Is it easy to clean? I am sorry I have not paid attention to it before…

The ceramic fountain that someone else mentioned in my comments was this one, the Pioneer Big Max. It is very very easy to clean, and after you put it together the first time, it’s very easy to take apart, clean, and put back together.

HOWEVER, someone who is a klutz, was cleaning our Big Max a month ago, and dropped the top piece, and it broke. Grrrr.

I did have an extra fountain on hand, the Cat Mate fountain, so I set that up where the Big Max had been, and the cats like it just fine. My cats seem to prefer the fountains where there’s a pool at the top and then the water cascades down over the ones where the water pours out into the bowl at the bottom, so both the Big Max and the Cat Mate are fine with them.

My only issue with the Big Max is that the hum of the motor was loud enough that when I put it in the bathroom across the hall from my bedroom, I could hear the motor through the ear plugs that I wear at night, so it didn’t work for me. At the moment, I’ve got Cat Mate fountains in the laundry room, upstairs in the bathroom, and in both kitten rooms. I like how quiet they are, and I like that they can go in the dishwasher (I run each of them through the dishwasher once a week). They aren’t the prettiest fountains on earth but, well, you’ve seen my house. It’s not like they detract from our fabulous decor!

On a side note, reviews of the Cat Mate fountain on Amazon have pointed out that the pump doesn’t last, and that the company doesn’t sell a replacement for it. My fountains are working okay so far, but I’ll report back when/ if the pumps break!

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I was wondering, if a person has catnip tea, if that person is then found rolling on the floor in delirium?

I spent a little while reading about catnip for humans yesterday, and it appears that catnip has the exact opposite effect on humans. It relieves anxiety, helps with insomnia, and with nightmares. There are a whole list of things catnip helps with. It’s a miracle drug!

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My coworker and I both have kitties who scratch at the door jams. My sweet girl has all but engraved a novel on three door jams around my house and her kitty has one that she is set on destroying. Is there something all natural we can spray on the door jams to get them to stop or is there a commercial spray available that works?

The only thing I can think of to suggest is to try putting double-sided tape on the door jam – cats don’t like the feel of tape on their paws, and they’ll avoid scratching there. I don’t know of any natural cat repellents – that is, I’m sure they’re out there, I just don’t know of them! Anyone out there have suggestions of repellents or other ways to keep cats from scratching on door jams? Please share!

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“OH, scratching post, you are so big and strong!”

::kiss::kiss::kiss::kiss::

(Like YOU never kissed your pillow when you were a kid!)

“Stop kissing the scratching post, WEIRDO, I’ve got places to go!”

“Four o’clock and all is well!”

::fume:: “I was NOT kissing the scratching post. We were having a deep, meaningful conversation!”

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So, one thing that Lucy Peppers does that I have been completely unable to capture on video, is that when you’re petting her, if you start scratching her back, she humps up her back, then she does this very dramatic looking thing where she straightens her legs completely, and she slow-motion flops onto her side. It’s hilarious and impossible to accurately describe, but SO funny.

Fred says she looks very much like Nature Boy Ric Flair when he flops. I didn’t know what he meant (I’m not a wrestling fan), so he sent me the link to this video and I have to say that yeah, she totally does.

I tried for the zillionth time yesterday to get her flop on video, but didn’t really have any luck. I did get a video of all the Peppers milling around, purring their heads off. Crank the sound and ignore the idiot (me) who occasionally says something. It’s a purrapalooza!

She does kind of do a modified flop in the last ten seconds of the video. I’m going to keep trying to get it on video, though!

Molly and Everett watching something. Probably the rest of the litter running around like goofballs.

“What?”

I used too much flash here, but you can see Sally’s stripes, which is neat.

Playing on (and around) the Ham-mick.

“Hey! Where’d everybody go?”

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It’s FRIIIIIIIIIDAY.

And you know what that means!

MORE BEAUTIFUL BOOKWORM BOYS!

Buster, on one of the cat walkways in the kitchen, keeping an eye on… who knows? One of the other cats, I’m sure.

Corbie wondering why, once again, my collapsible laundry basket is sitting under the tree. (Answer: because Tommy dragged it there!)

Buster, investigating.

Corbie and the ears of semi-annoyance.

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Previously
2010: House tour, part one.
2009: Flat Holly
2008: “Paul Newman is dead too! What are the chances that… Oh.”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: I’m a badass, that’s right.
2004: I
2003: In adults, I am anti-”bye-bye”.
2002: Day in the life.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

Did ya vote for Gracie over at the Greenies competition, didya, didya, huh?

(Those of you in Canada and other countries who can’t vote, you are excused. I appreciate your trying, though!)

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We have a property line asshole next door. We put in a new hedge at the front of our property and she came over claiming it was in her yard.

After digging out the surveyors papers she agreed we were right. And yes, she agreed, their side fence was TWO FEET in our property. “But that is ok” she decided and went sheepishly into the house.

Ohhhh, Amy, I would make a HUUUUUUGE stink about her being two feet onto your property. This could happen to you!:

My Grandparents lost about an acre of land because his neighbor overfenced into their property (they had something close to 80 acres if I remember right so an acre was sort of a drop in the bucket). When my grandfather went to talk to them about it, the neighbors were all “But we put it in! And it was expensive! And Wah cakes!” so my grandpa was all neighborly with the “I guess it’s alright”. Then, when my grandfather wanted that land back some time later, the neighbors put up a fight and won because they had had it fenced in for so long it somehow became theirs. It pays to be “those” neighbors sometimes.

I’m sure someone out there can give us the specifics, but in many (if not all!) states, if you allow your neighbor use of your land for a certain amount of time, they eventually get to claim it as their own. Which is a special form of assholery, if you ask me.

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Some other friends put a fence only between themselves and their next-door neighbor, leaving three sides fenceless. The neighbor got sort of pissy about that, I’m told.

Fred mentioned the idea of putting up a fence (“How high do they make privacy fences?” he asked me last night.) just on that side of the house. Because, hey, we don’t really have problems on the other side of us, since there’s a church there AND a ditch that pretty clearly marks the property line.

Maybe we need a ditch along the property line on that side, too!

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“99.999% of the time, the household goods sold at flea markets are hot.”

Not true! There is a cottage industry of extreme couponing with the goal of selling the stuff at flea markets.

Wait. Are you trying to tell me that those extreme couponers don’t all hoard their stuff in the basement or the garage or the extra bedroom?! I had never considered that they might sell that stuff at flea markets, but it makes sense now that I think about it.

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When you and Fred bought the house, didn’t it have a pond in the back but it really didn’t have water in it? If I recall, didn’t you have it filled in with dirt? Maybe I’m mistaken…

I can’t for the life of me find it, but I have a drawn property map somewhere, I’ll see if I can’t find it or slap one together in the next week. In short no, you aren’t mistaken, we did have a small pond that was located in the area between the back of the back yard and the beginning of the back forty. It dried up because we had a dry summer, and we didn’t like where it was located, so we had it filled in.

This is what it looked like during the brief period of time when it was full:

And here, the summer before, with dead catfish floating on the surface and the spud on the other end:

The new pond is going to be located at the back of the back forty and will be roughly four times as big as the pond we had filled in. The guy was supposed to start digging the pond on Monday but OF COURSE Mother Nature is a WHORE and it rained on Monday and Tuesday, so we’re not sure when he’ll be able to start digging. Soon, I hope.

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RE: the Pond – are you going to put a plastic liner in the bottom and put large stones around it, or is it just going to be a hole in the ground. Sounds like you are going to have fishys for the duckys – so are you going to have a pump thing heater thing – or go all naturale, like a normal creek/pond.

I don’t think we could afford enough plastic to put a liner in the pond we’re having dug, so I guess it’s going to just be a hole in the ground. It’ll be like a normal creek/pond. I don’t see putting a heater in the pond, but we are talking about a solar-powered aerator. We’re talking about planting a couple of trees near the pond, and I’d like to have a bench so we could sit back there and watch the ducks paddle about.

(Fred’s talking about putting his kayak in the pond. I’m not sure if he’s kidding about that or not…)

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A little while ago you were talking about grey versus silver tabbies. I got all confused. Now I thought my boy was a grey tabby and the vet tells me he’s blue! He’s beautiful but what’s the difference grey/silver/blue??

Oldcat – my go-to expert when it comes to this sort of thing – had this to contribute last week:

Grey versus Silver tabbies –
The difference depends on what you mean by a grey tabby. I have heard of ‘grey tabby’ used as a contrast to ‘brown’, and for tabbies where the stripes are grey. Brown tabbys have a high degree of rufousing, so the hairs between the stripes can show a distinct orange or brown color. Tabbies with low levels will be a pale grey.

If a tabby has the dilute gene, the stripes themselves will be blue grey. Shiela looks like this might be the case with her – are her paw pads purplish or black? There is also some variation of how dark regular non dilute cats are, so it could be that as well.

True silvers have a different gene, the Inhibitor gene, that keeps any pigment from showing. Thus the hair near the skin will be pure white. Chinchilla Persians have this and a wideband gene that makes the pigmented part of the hair restricted to the tip. The black tip over white is supposed to make it look silvery. But if you look on these cats the paw pads and gums show that under it all these cats are black.

So in jargon terms I would call Shiela a blue tabby with low rufousing. The Inhibitor gene would make her background much whiter

Oldcat, can you weigh in on what exactly constitutes a “blue” cat?

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Several people sent me these videos, and they cracked me UP!

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as to fostering being hard.. it really depends on what you mean by hard.. The actual physical work of doing it really isn’t. Even when you have very sick kittens, it’s more hanging out and cuddling them and a few moments of medicating. EMOTIONALLY it can take it’s toll. Most of us have to remember that we are doing good even when the outcome is not what we want. Kittens die. Unless you take only the healthiest and older kittens you are most likely going to have to deal with a kitten passing on your watch. Or kittens can become really sick and you nurse them back to health and they become really loving devoted kittens and your heart breaks when you have to give them back. out of the hundreds of kittens I’ve fostered, the sick ones are still near and dear to my heart (and so are the ones I have lost). There are a bunch of kittens I no longer remember with out the help of my blog, but there are some that will always pop up in my mind from time to time and will live in my heart forever. You do loose little bits of your soul every time you send those special kittens back, but they are that much stronger and better for having taken it with them.

I always segregate. here’s why.

Very well said, Connie!

I should add here that often times the most difficult thing about fostering is the sheer frustration. You’ve got kittens, they’re doing fine, they’re healthy, they’ve been dewormed, they’re having perfect poops and then BAM! for no reason you can determine, they have diarrhea and they’re tromping through it and tracking it all over the place and you’ve changed absolutely nothing about their diet or anything at all. So you start sprinkling Slippery Elm on their food and you take fecal samples to the vet to be tested, and you try this and that and the other, and sometimes it just drags on FOR NO REASON, and other times it just clears up all of a sudden and you don’t know why. So frustrating!

(But so worth it.)

Here’s something Robin from Covered in Cat Hair wrote that covers the whole fostering issue, too, and is definitely worth the read.

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I just saw this comment from Robyn in an entry from January and canNOT stop laughing.

“I just spent at least two minutes talking to a cat who was sitting under my desk, up against my foot. I talked to it, petted it with the foot it wasn’t laying up against, and then finally peeked under the desk to see just which cat it was.

It was a slipper. No wonder it wouldn’t purr.”

And just recently, I kicked a slipper and then apologized to it. Stupid slippers.

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surely that’s not a ‘glare’ look? I thought it was more…well…blonde. Like trying to work out the square root of…ah… something square-rooty. 🙂

“Math is harrrrrrrrd!”

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A coworker sent me this; I wanted to make sure you’d seen it. My favorite bit is the kitten with the fish vending machine.

SO CUTE!

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1) How is The Poo? I can’t remember seeing a recent picture of Miz Poo; is she doing ok?

She is doing just fine, and I’ll post some pictures of her at the end of the entry. I tend not to get so many pictures of her because she’s always right on top of me, which makes it kind of difficult to get a good picture. She’s 12 years old now and slowing down, but NOTHING stops her from getting up on the bed with me every night. Also, nothing stops her from approaching anyone who walks into the house – whether she’s ever seen them before or not – and demanding attention.

4) Regarding the excellent cat relationship chart you made some time ago:

someday, may we have an updated version, now that you’ve added to the herd? That chart was a HUGE eye-opener for me. I admit, I had visions of your cats sleeping together in big fuzzy piles, much like tiny kittens will clump together when snoozing. Clearly, I was WRONG. Now, in my mind’s-eye, I see it more like each cat needing its own personal space bubble, changing in size depending on who is nearby. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since Bolitar came back. I find it very interesting that he’s been accepted back into the herd with little fuss, yet Joe Bob, whose return story is almost the same(?) was NOT welcomed back as smoothly. (Somewhere, at some fancy university, there’s someone just waiting to write some sort of paper on cat herd behavior — what a gold mine of information you may have! 🙂 )

I will do my best to get that chart updated soon with Alice and Buster and Corbie added – I made that chart in April of last year. A lot has changed since then, hasn’t it?

I would love it if the cats would pile up like kittens, but they don’t very often. If there are cats snuggled up together, Tommy is almost always involved. There’s something about him that most of the other cats really like – maybe his easygoing nature, maybe his willingness to groom whatever cat is in tongue’s reach.

I am betting that most of the reason Buster was accepted back relatively easily as opposed to the response that Joe Bob got is because Buster was here for months before he left, and he pretty much grew up here. I mean, he was still a kitten when he left, but he was, oh, seven or eight months old, and the other cats had had a chance to really get to know him as he grew up and make him part of the herd. Joe Bob was only with us as a foster for about six weeks before he left, and he was already an adult when he came to us. He was accepted by Sugarbutt, Tommy, and Mister Boogers before he left, though, which is why we were so surprised when he came back and none of them wanted anything to do with him.

One reason I think Joe Bob and most of the other cats don’t get along is because Joe Bob is touchy; I originally thought it was just the other cats being jerks, but I’m thinking that’s not necessarily so. If the other cats are looking at him, thinking about looking at him, or thinking passing thoughts about him, he KNOWS, and he doesn’t LIKE IT, and he gets all growly and hissy toward them. There are times – three and a half years after we brought him home for good – when I’ll see him rub heads with some of the other cats (disclaimer: it’s almost always Kara or Jake, and when it does happen, it’s when they’re all milling around waiting for me to give them food), but for the most part if every other cat on the face of the earth disappeared, Joe Bob would be A-OK with that. He’s a people lover, not a cat lover.

Wow. I certainly can go on about our cats, can’t I? 🙂

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Have you seen the purrfect house for cats? Several people sent me the link, and I have to agree – that is the PERFECT house for us!

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I don’t know why but for some reason I pictured George and Gracie as being regal all the time.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! No, George and Gracie are total goofballs. They play and they prance and they roll around on their backs like goofy dorks all the time; they can fake it pretty well, but mostly they are never ever regal.

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I recently acquired a new kitten that had shown up at a coworker’s home,who checked out healthy and I think he’s about.. 6-7 months not really sure, and did the required transitioning phase for him and my other two girls, Ember whom I’ve had all her life, and Miss that I’ve gotten just a little over a year ago. He leaves Ember alone for the most part, but just continues to antagonize Miss all the time. I can’t tell if they’re fighting, or rough housing half the time. She’s not happy with him when he does it but when he’s behaving she has no problem with him. He’s going to be fixed this Friday and was wondering if that would help bring his aggression level down, and I’m wondering if this is also because he’s still a kitten just in his ‘teenager’ stage and they’re both fully grown cats. Both the girls are Fixed so I’m not quite sure what it is about Miss that has him fixating on her.

I’m posting this in case anyone out there has any suggestions or thoughts on the situation, but it’s my opinion that they’ll work things out. If she seems to be handling things okay rather than being scared of him, then I think it’ll eventually calm down. She’s closest in age to the new guy, correct? He may think/ know that Miss is more likely to react to and play-fight with him, so he concentrates his energies toward her rather than Ember. He’s still pretty young and he has all that energy of a kitten, but I would bet that being neutered will help calm him down a little.

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Where is the like button?! 😀

At the top and bottom of each entry, of course!

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That wicker cat bed thing is so.cool. Where did you find that?

A friend gave it to me about a year ago (her cat wouldn’t use it). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere online – she said she thought she got it at Costco several years ago.

But then GD and Jenna and Sissy pointed out that Petsmart has similar wicker cat cave/ beds, so I went and looked on their web site. I didn’t find anything on the web page, and I had already gone to Petsmart and come home, so it was too late to look at the store myself, but I would recommend checking there.

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Surely you have room on your wall for a “Life of Christ in Cats” plate?

The tea towel, alas, appears to be sold out as well.

Um. There’s no room at the inn? Those are just horrifyingly wonderful (or wonderfully horrifying, take your pick!)

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You know, if you’re putting in a pond, you could probably farm your own crawfish 🙂

I originally misread this as “catfish” and I was going to say that we will most likely have catfish in that pond. But CRAWFISH! Hmm, I am going to have to think about that, because that certainly sounds like it’s right up my alley.

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Those tiny chicks, SO adorable. I just want to pick up one and pet it. Do you ever do that? Or would it put Momma Hen off the babies?

Fred occasionally picks them up and we pet them, but they get kind of freaked out so we don’t do it often. There’s less of a chance of the Momma Hens refusing to take care of their babies and more of a chance that the Momma Hens will attempt to peck our eyes out. They do NOT like it when you mess with their babies.

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Did your cats actually notice that the electric fence was out?

They didn’t – but it was only out for less than a day, because we went up to Lowe’s the next day and bought a new transformer to replace the one that fried. Fred noticed that one of the cats – Tommy, I think – was closer to the fence than he usually gets, but no one climbed the fence. I’m sure that if it had gone on for longer than a day, someone would have figured it out, and then there would have been trouble!

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Is wee but powerful Patty getting more relaxed around you and Fred?

She is more relaxed than she was, but whereas her brother runs toward us when we walk into the room, Patty runs and hides under a corner of the bed. She comes out pretty quickly, but it’s still her first instinct to hide. I’m hoping that that will go away eventually. She comes to be petted, but I have yet to hear her meow or trill or make any noise other than a purr.

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How about a question?
A question about cat farting that is?

We recently re-entered the world of cat ownership, and this brother and sister team passes some wickedly awful gas. The male in particular lets ones go (silently) that have the sulphur/egg smell.

They were just turning a year old when we got them, and they had been in foster care with something like 18 other cats. (Hmmm, familiar?) The woman taking care of them admitted she could no longer afford to feed them a very high quality food, but I think that what we’re feeding them is decent.

I read online that cats fart and the protein in their food makes it stink, but I also see people that write that you should have a cat with bad gas checked out.

WDRT? (What does Robyn think?)

I think that cat farts are nasty, is what I think. And they ALWAYS do it when you’re least expecting it, don’t they? The little monsters!

Okay, seriously, I think that it’s probably one of three things (or maybe a couple of three things – or heck, even all three of three things!)

1. How recently did you get them? Because if they were switched from a cheaper food to a more quality food, it could take their systems some time (even a few months) to adjust.

2. Have they been dewormed or checked for worms/ parasites? I know that Giardia and Coccidia can cause the most awful gas sometimes – but if their litter box leavings are in decent shape, it probably isn’t either of those. (I know that it’s possible for Giardia/ Coccidia to exist outside of diarrhea, but I’ve never witnessed that myself.)

3. They’ll grow out of it. I offer as an example of this one Loony Jake. When young, he was a gassy, gassy boy. And he was fond of walking by, farting at you, and then slinking off. You’d be minding your own business and then just about fall over from the stink. Gah. SO NASTY.

If the gas gets worse (if that’s POSSIBLE) or there’s diarrhea present or they’re acting anything other than completely healthy and energetic, I’d get them to the vet.

I know readers out there have opinions on this topic. Y’all chime in!

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You can’t really see it, but she was smacking at his tail.

She sure does get the upper hand easily. I’m starting to think he’s letting her win.

::chomp::

He looks like he’s not quite sure what happened.

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“THIS TIME I’m going to get it! For real!”

“Come on… come on…”

::SIGH::

“Lady, I’m starting to think you’re driving me crazy on purpose.”

“Now pet me.”

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THE BOOKWORM BRUDDERS
(Buster and Corbie)
WOULD LIKE TO REMIND YOU
THAT THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

Buster, atop the pantry in the kitchen (nice of him to match his mustache to the color of the pantry, no?).

Keeping an eye on Stinkerbelle.

Corbie chills out in the back yard.

“WHO left this pop-up hamper here?” Detective Corbie’s on the case!

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Miz Poo, in the cat bed next to my computer (that’s where she usually is during the day).

Look o’ love.

Still keeping an eye on me.

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Previously
2010: Until then, I’m going to try to achieve a state of Sugarbutt-type zen.
2009: Things that are annoying the SHIT out of me lately.
2008: I’m sure SOMETHING will get peed on while she’s here, anyway.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.
2004: Questions and answers.
2003: I feel like Eudora’s a creepy old lady hovering over my shoulder, reading my email, and threatening to tell my mommy on me.
2002: Anything more complicated than that, and I think you’ll have to look elsewhere.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.