Month: December 2011

A couple of videos for y’all on this bright and sunny and warmish (at least here it is) Saturday, the last day of 2011.

(Buh-bye 2011. Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.)

First, the Sons being teased by the feather teaser.

And second, Alice and Loony Jake getting high on catnip while Sugarbutt supervises. (You can hear Miz Poo about 30 seconds in. And note how annoyed Fred gets when I tell Miz Poo that Daddy doesn’t love her. Heh.)

And if you have no desire to sit through the minute-long NipFest video, there are pictures below.

Loony Jake’s all “MY catnip banana!”

Some cats like to sniff and lick the catnip. Alice prefers to roll in it.

“I SAID it’s MINE, and I will MESS YOU UP if you come any closer.”

::glare::

“He thinks I want his nasty, drool-covered catnip banana. He really IS loony.”

::LOONYFACE::

High kitties are high.

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Okay, this is the last day of December, and as promised I posted every single day of December. Tomorrow’s not December AND it’s Sunday, so I’ll be taking the day off. See you Monday!

Be safe, don’t drink and drive (I know, you were totally going to ’til I told you not to.), see you in 2012. I myself will likely be sound asleep long before the clock strikes midnight, because that’s just how hard we party ’round here.

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: And they don’t eat THAT much – the output isn’t matching the input, I’m tellin’ ya.
2008: Debbie and Brian got to witness the fearsome SCOOP HANDS, and I think they were impressed.
2007: We were expecting a snowstorm, and we certainly got one.
2006: No entry
2005: No entry
2004: No entry.
2003: My year in review.
2002: Are you jealous of my readers? You should be, because they ROCK!
2001: What if?
2000: No entry
1999: Total potty mouth at the drop of a hat.

R.I.P Mattewis.

From Juani:

My cat, Mattewis, was hit by a car in the early hours of this morning, and I am completely devastated. I know that you, of all people, would understand what it feels like to lose that little cat companion that means so much to you. Mattewis was the most unique cat I’ve ever known. She was beautiful and physically all cat. But personality wise she could’ve been easily mistaken for a dog or a chimp. She had the cutest mannerisms, like playing ‘fetch’ with her treats, loving being tossed around like football, lying down and being twirled around and around, etc.

She was an indoor/outdoor cat, and I would’ve never been able to keep her inside, as she was at her happiest when walking around meeting new people. She didn’t have ANY use for other cats, but never met a human she didn’t absolutely adore (probably because all people wanted to do when they saw her, was cuddle her and give her treats 😉

What I wanted to ask, was if you could possibly place my darling girl’s picture on your blog for all the people to see. Because even if they never met her, I think they deserve to see her pretty face as a memorial to her.

If not, I completely understand, and just want to say thank you for all that you do for the cats you encounter.

Juani, I’m so sorry for your loss. Mattewis was a beautiful girl, and I know you’ll miss her terribly.

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Today’s pictures were AWESOME, especially the lumpy bed pics. Tommy looks really upset about the situation, doesn’t he?

Poor Tommy, he just puts up with SO much from the other cats. It’s a good thing for them that he’s such a laid-back sweetheart. The most he ever does when he’s had enough is to make a grumpy noise of annoyance, and then get up and walk away. He never fights or growls or hisses, just gets up and leaves whoever’s harassing him.

When Elwood was laying on top of Tommy, I don’t think Tommy even so much as opened his eyes to see who was there, just kept on sleepin’. (I bet it was really nice and warm under Elwood!)

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Is The Spud on Crooked Acres this week? I was wondering if you’d see her sometime over the holiday season.

No, I won’t see the Spud this holiday season – hopefully I’ll see her in March, though. Her friend is getting married, and she’s planning a week-long trip (as long as she can get the time off) to attend the wedding and stay here with us.

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Speaking of things to luv (or not luv), I see you’re reading/have read “Cleaving.” My thoughts about the book were not positive, not by a long shot. Yours?

Oh, I didn’t care for it at all. I ended up mostly skimming the butchering parts and rolling my eyes through the personal stuff. The only reason I rated it two stars instead of one is because I try to reserve the single star rating for the books I actively loathe on par with the god-awful We Were the Mulvaneys. I mostly find Julie Powell annoying and whiny and I kind of think she might need a good hard smack. I didn’t really care for Julie & Julia, I don’t know why I bothered with Cleaving.

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The other day (long unnecessary backstory deleted) I saw four dead – and sort of mangled-looking – ducks underneath a stop sign. They were not clustered together as if someone had set them down deliberately, but looked rather as if someone had flung them in the general direction of the stop sign while driving past. They were still more or less intact – dogs, cats, and coyotes had not been at them yet, by the looks of things – so they couldn’t have been there long.

Anyway, they were two males, two females, and I swear the first thought through my head was, “Oh no! I hope those aren’t Robyn’s ducks!” (Which technically should have been “Fred’s ducks,” but… nah.) I was saddened and perplexed as to how they came to be in such an odd, out of the way spot, but also frustrated because every time I thought about them that day, there was a nagging undercurrent that I had to keep shutting up with logic. “Robyn lives a zillion and four miles away. They were NOT HER DUCKS.”

I can see the ducks in the back forty right this minute. My ducks did not up and wander away to Texas whereupon they got into trouble and were subsequently murdered by a mass murderer and cruelly tossed from a truck, I promise.

(But that might make a hell of a movie!)

(Also, if we had as many ducks as chickens, I would have to start referring to it as the quack forty.)(SO AMUSED BY MYSELF.)

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Aren’t those ducks you got all siblings? I keep worrying about incest amongst your animals, apparently (I was the one who fretted over the same issue with your chickens). 🙂

P.S. I should clarify–it’s not so much the incest per se amongst the animals that seems wrong (they don’t seem to mind), but rather the genetic repercussions.

They’re from the same farm, but not necessarily siblings – they may share parents, and they may not. It’s hard to know! I’m not sure what the plans are to head off possible deformed ducks down the line. We usually bring new chickens in in the Spring to add to the flock to expand the genetic base, but we aren’t (I‘m not – I can’t really speak for Fred here, I suspect he’d like to have 3,000 ducks out there because they amuse him so) planning to have more than six or eight.

So to answer the question – I don’t know what the plans are and Fred hasn’t considered it yet, I don’t think. We’ll figure it out, hopefully.

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I haven’t even finished reading this post yet, but I wanted to chime in with a GREAT bird supply store. It’s called Bird Watcher’s General Store. I’ve been there several times (on vacation – they’re located in Mass.), and there store is awesome, the staff is awesome (and knowledgable), and their stuff is good quality. Shipping is $7.95, which seems like a lot, but that’s no matter how much stuff you buy. I don’t work for them – I just love the store. We refuse to buy birding stuff anywhere else. They probably have the soda bottle attachments. (They do seem to dislike cats, but that’s more because they hunt birds not for any other reason – and they’re not RUDE about it. :)) They send personal email confirmations when orders are placed online, and the shipping is fast.

Thanks for the suggestion!

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Speaking of cardboard scratchers, a friend posted this link on facebook recently. I think I, um, I mean, my cats, might need one of these.

That is TOO cute. I can just imagine the kittens hanging off the top like King Kong!

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I especially love the shots of Alice since it wasn’t that long ago that she was a scared kitten. Look at her now – she’s as happy as can be!

and

That is not a flattering angle for Miss Alice. She looks a bit…wide, shall we say?

I suspect that unless I’m getting a shot of her from above, where she’s looking up at me (the MySpace angle, I believe it’s called; that’s a throwback to pre-Facebook days for you whippersnappers out there), there just aren’t many good angles for Alice Mo.

As comparison, here is The Mo, one year ago, and her reaction after the vet told us that she was going to be a “small” cat and probably wouldn’t get over 7 pounds.

I don’t know how much she weighs these days, but she weighed almost 8 pounds back in July, and she hasn’t gotten any smaller, so.

We prefer to call her “portly”, by the way. Which is what I’ve called Miz Poo for years and years (A Portly Poo), but in her old age Miz Poo has thinned out a little and appears to be passing the Torch o’ Portliness on to Alice, who has taken it and is running with it.

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You have ariat boots me thinks. I can’t tell if those are fatbabies or not. (They are good for working outside!)

My boots are Justin Gypsy Cowgirl boots, and I love love LOVE them. I’ve had them for almost three years, and I wear them all the time in the winter – I have some clogs, but almost always wear my boots, whether I’m working outside or running into town to do errands or whatever. They are perfectly comfortable, and warm but don’t get too hot (I hate sweaty feet). I even wear them in the summer when I’m working in the garden (with shorts and a tank top. I am a fashion statement unto myself.).

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Charlie’s eyes are the most beautiful color. Do they really look like that in person and do you think that color is permenant?

Yes, his eyes are really that color in real life (though like most cats and people, they change shades depending on what colors he’s near), and I’m not sure if they’ll remain that color. He’s five months old now, so I think maybe they’re the color they’re going to be. I hope so – he and Patty have the most beautiful eyes!

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Just in case people haven’t shared this link with you a bazillion times already…

I had not seen that – it’s awesome and hilarious!

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MUST HAVE CROC SLIPPER!!!!! It is hideously awesome, where did you get it?

The Croc slipper bed came from here.

It was a gift to the cats from someone else (I didn’t buy it!). I’m torn between wanting to kill her for spending that much on the cats, and wanting to hug her because isn’t it AWESOME??? The kittens love it, too. There’s always someone in it when I walk into the foster room.

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Patty, hanging out on the platform in the front room with Elwood. I love how she’s all “‘Sup?”

Tense and stressed out, as usual.

Charlie, are we going to have to put you on medication to get you to relax?

I love how they both have the exact same expression on their face. It made me want to snatch them up and squeeze them – so I did!

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See? I told you they love that slipper bed.

Smoldering Tig.

(Pardon the blur, but this cracks me up.)

(This, too. Check out those sharp little fangs!)

Jax at the tail end of a yawn. Or a complaint, I’m not sure which.

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On Christmas Eve morning, we moved all the cat beds off the dining room table and put them on the couch so that the cats could still use them if they wanted to.

Corbie said “No thank you.”

“No, really. I’m fine crammed over here in the corner. Don’t mind me!”

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: Kitten movies.
2008: No entry.
2007: (Just kidding! I know perfectly well that the Patriots play baseball!)
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: At what point do you cease wailing and moaning the absence of a part of your life that didn’t go the way you wanted, and just move the fuck on?
2002: “No,” I said. “She feels nauseous, and then she either belches or farts, and feels better.”
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: I’m turning 32 on January 9th.

Today would ordinarily be Crooked Acres Thursday, but I have been lax in the taking of Crooked Acres pictures (though you can always go to yesterday’s post to see George and Gracie pics), so that’ll have to wait ’til next week when things get back to normal.

Know what I haven’t been lax about? Cat pictures! You’re welcome.

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Firstly, remember Harlan Peppers, who four months ago looked like this:

and then he went off to Petsmart with the rest of his siblings (Molly, Sally, Lucy, Everett), and Molly was adopted quickly, then the rest of the litter languished there at Petsmart because adoptions were so slow?

Well, yesterday dear sweet Harlan was adopted! And when his new parents got him home, they let him out of the carrier, and we was terribly, terribly tense, like such:

Nope, he doesn’t look happy at ALL, does he?

This, combined with Buster’s adoption the day before Christmas, makes this a great week. I’m just hoping that the rest of the big Peppers (Everett, Sally, and Lucy) are adopted soon. As you may or may not know, black cats tend to take longer to be adopted because of silly superstitions wherein they’re considered bad luck. Everett, Lucy and Sally are such awesome kitties that they’re the very opposite of bad luck, if you ask me.

At least with adoptions picking up a bit, their chances are looking better. Y’all keep your fingers crossed for them, would you?

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Charlie Peppers finds himself in a pickle.

Charlie, atop the kitchen cabinets, realizes that somehow, he’s gotten turned around. If he wants to get down from the cabinets, he’s not going to be able to go that way, because the fearsome Stinkerbelle is in his way, and she doesn’t put up with, well, ANYONE invading her bubble.

Well, THAT’s too far to jump, Chuckles. Can’t go down that way!

He’s not comfortable jumping down onto the fridge, it seems a bit far for him still.

Taking a break to ponder his next move…

Stinkerbelle glares.

He scoots past Alice, who’s not inclined to put up with anything, either, but she’s less shrieky about it than Stinkerbelle is, thus less scary.

Hmm… nope, still too far!

Along the walkway.

Preparing to jump.

And again.

And he’s safe!

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Charlie and Patty Peppers fight it out.

Poor Charlie. Patty’s always jumping on him and kicking his butt.

::CHOMP::

“I KEEL YOU!”

And then it’s nap time.

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Tig and the pouty face.

Sleepy Tig.

“What doin’, lady?”

Don’t be fooled by this picture. Opie’s the biggest Son, at just under 3 pounds.

Clay wants a snuggle.

Front to back, Opie, Clay, Tig.

Jax wants in on the snuggling action.

Another closeup of Tig. Something about his big round eyes and serious little face makes me want to kiss him a million times.

Clay checks to see if I have food for him.

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“Why is this bed so LUMPY?”
(starring Elwood with special appearance by Tom Cullen.)

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: ::THLURRRRRP!::

2008: Giant chicken!
2007: I was incandescent with rage.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: New camera!
2002: 12 days of Christmas.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: Try to contain your excitement!

George and Gracie!

Gracie!

Girl, put that tongue back in your mouth.

One day you’re going to trip on it, I swear.

Well, okay, I guess tucked up in one of your nostrils will keep it out of the way.

Seems to grow by the minute.

Whoa. That’s a scary face. I’m terrified, pup. Terrified, I say.

“My job is done here.”

“Don’t forget, I am terrifyin’!”

Happy George is happy.

Two pups, strollin’ along.

“Yeah, chicken. We see you.”

Patrolling around the pond.

“Who, me?”

Taking a break for a drink of water.

(By the way, since that picture was taken, we’ve gotten a bunch of rain and (drumroll please!) the bottom of the pond is now covered! Not covered by much (the “deep end” is about two feet deep), but it’s a start as we go into the rainy part of the year.)

Here are two George and Gracie stories for you:

1. Remember how y’all wondered if we were going to end up with a flock of geese – Canada or otherwise – on that pond? Well, Fred was out in the back forty over the weekend, and a heron was trying to land on the pond, and George and Gracie were NOT having it. Every time it flew down trying to land, George and Gracie chased it off. They’re livestock guardian dogs, after all, and whether it’s a hawk or a heron or even a songbird, they know it’s not part of the flock and off it must go.

2. George and Gracie got huge rawhide bones as their presents on Christmas day. Later, when Fred went out to feed the chickens and ducks, he wandered out to see how full the pond was, which was when he saw that one of the dogs – he suspects George – had tossed his rawhide bone in the deep end of the pond. “Should we fish it out for them?” Fred said to me. “Um, NO,” I said. “If they want it bad enough, they can go get it.” I was envisioning setting up a truly annoying game where we give the dogs something, they toss it in the pond, we fish it out for them, they toss it back in, and so on unto infinity. The next day, the bone was no longer in the pond, and George and Gracie were fighting over a huge piece of unrolled rawhide. What I think happened is that Gracie went into the pond, fished it out, George was all “Oh, thank you!” and Gracie was like “Finders keepers, back off, FOOL!”

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On a gray, cold, rainy winter day…

…nothing keeps you warm like an Elwood blanket.

Charlie and his fangs.

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They love to pile up on this thing and sleep. Maybe because it’s next to the heater.

“We was sleepin’, Lady.”

I love their adorable little profiles.

“I can haz a snuggle?”

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Alice Mo, the calico, sure does love to watch those birdies.

“Yo.”

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: My fellow Twitterers, you rawk.
2008: No entry.
2007: “Your flight’s been canceled.”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Let’s see if this puts you in the mood for a nap, huh?
2003: If you’re wandering through the Cincinnati airport around 10 am tomorrow and see someone with a hideous bag, say hi. It’ll be me.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: Best laid plans, and all that.

Chuckles stopped looking out the window at the birds to see what I was doing.

Kinda Christmassy, with the green leaves and red berries in the background.

Miss Patty likes her some Jake.

If that’s not a look o’ love, I don’t know what is.

Sibling-ly lurve.

That doesn’t seem quite safe, Miss Patty.

Doesn’t seem to bother her, though, does it?

Smilin’ Patty.

You Charlie and Patty Peppers fans, prepare yourselves. There should be room in the next week or two for them at Petsmart; they’ve been here with us for almost four months now, and it’s time for them to move along and find their forever homes, hopefully very very quickly!

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Clay loves to snuggle with my feet – especially when I wear my warm and fuzzy slippers.

Tig, keeping an eye on the feather teaser.

“I’ve got it!”
“No, I do!”

I love how Jax and Clay are grabbing for the teaser, and Opie’s just sitting in the background, daydreaming.

“Where’d it GO?!”

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“What? Sometimes Sheriff Mamas need a break, too!”

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Previously
2010: I’ll be back bright and early Monday with lots of pictures.
2009: Snuggly Cookies.
2008: No entry.
2007: Seven random or weird things about myself.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: “Mom, you’re going to be bigger than Britney Spears!”
2003: I tossed the muffins in the trash, although it did occur to me to leave the one the Bean had had his ass upon – the assmuffin, if you will – for Fred.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: Though to be truthful, I was the Monster Who Ate Alabama for a period of about 24 hours…
1999: “You must not be using the stairs at your house Freddie! You haven’t lost any weight!”

In case you missed it over the weekend, on Saturday I announced that BUSTER HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!!! and shared a couple of very short videos. On Sunday, Patty and Chuckles wished y’all a very Merry Christmas.

Posting will be light, content-wise, this week (more pictures than anything which, I know, y’all are like “How is that different, exactly?”), but first a couple of stories from Christmas Eve.

Fred’s parents are divorced (have been for many years, and both parents are remarried), so we spend Christmas Eve morning with his mother and stepfather, Fred’s sister and her husband, and her son. Usually they all come to our house, and we have breakfast and then sit around and talk for a couple of hours then they leave and we take naps because we are old and socializing is exhausting. For the past three or four years, we haven’t exchanged gifts with Fred’s parents or his sister, because it got to the point where we were giving them cash or gift cards and they were giving us the the same, and it was just silly.

So this year – as she did last year – Fred’s mother emailed to make sure we weren’t exchanging gifts. And this year – as last year – Fred confirmed that. Then Christmas Eve morning, after we’d eaten, she handed us a big container of cookies.

Then this year – AS LAST YEAR – when Fred handed her the bag we’d prepared for her, of cookies and a couple of jars of jam, she got all irate, saying “But you said we weren’t exchanging gifts!” Which is when Fred said “We put that bag together last night, and decided that if you didn’t give us anything, we wouldn’t give anything to you. But you DID, so we DID!”, and she had no good comeback to that. Heh.

Christmas Eve evening, we always spend at Fred’s father and stepmother’s house with Fred’s stepsister and her family (husband and two kids), and Fred’s sister, husband and her son. We gather, have dinner, then sit around and talk and exchange gifts. So we’d eaten dinner and were sitting in the living room talking while Fred’s stepmother cleaned up the kitchen (yes, we offered to help. No, she wouldn’t let us). The TV was on, and Fred walked in and glanced at the TV and said to me “Look, it’s George Bailey!” We watched the TV for a few minutes, and then everyone started talking again.

A while later, Fred’s father walked into the room and looked at the TV.

“What’s this?” he said. “A Miracle on 35th Street?”

Fred laughed and said “Well no, first of all the movie’s called A Miracle on 34th Street, not 35th, and second of all, it’s It’s A Wonderful Life. How did you not know that?”

Fred’s father and sister had never seen the movie before, and for that matter, I don’t think anyone in the room had ever seen it before, either. I myself have only seen it once, but it’s an American institution – EVERYONE knows It’s a Wonderful Life. Don’t they?

While they were in the middle of the discussion, Fred’s stepmother walked into the room, caught part of the conversation, looked at the TV and said “Is that the one where he dresses up like a rabbit?”

(Aside: I knew immediately it was Harvey she was talking about, but Fred kept saying “Roger Rabbit?” Please note: I have never seen Harvey, and I have far too much useless knowledge taking up so much space in my brain that I had to surf to Internet Movie Database to recall Toni Collette’s name when we were watching Fright Night yesterday.)

An American Christmas classic, and we were the only two who knew what it was! That’s just WRONG.

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Outtakes from the Christmas Day picture shoot.

“Ooh, this looks tasty!”

“Why is this on my head, please?”

Kitty Christmas gifts.

Tommy started out in the giant Croc slipper cat bed…

and then moved to the round bowl-like scratcher bed.

So I took the giant Croc slipper cat bed up to the kittens. Who thought it was the bomb.

In case it’s hard to tell, what they’re doing in this picture is fighting with each other through the holes. Silly boys.

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A big branch fell off one of the trees last week. When Fred and I were walking back to the house after feeding the chickens and ducks (and dogs, oh my!), I suggested that we drag the branch into the back yard for the cats to climb on. He was all for it. We wouldn’t want the cats to get bored, would we?

Elwood was the first one to check it out, a few hours later.

Speaking of Elwood, he let Fred’s nephew pet him and pick him up on Christmas Eve, and we stood around and talked about what a big cat Elwood is. Fred was insistent that Elwood must be at least 20 pounds. So later, before I took my Christmas Eve nap (what? It’s a thing!), I weighed Elwood. He weighs 15 pounds, 12 ounces. Which, granted, is not tiny. But it’s not 20 pounds!

Some cats carry their weight well. Elwood is not one of those cats.

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: Violet and Veruca.
2008: “I GAVE YOU THE LIST OF WHAT WE WERE GOING TO HAVE LAST WEEK AND YOU SAID NOTHING ABOUT NO GODDAMN ROLLS SHUT UP!”
2007: And now life may return to normal, if you please.
2006: No entry.
2005: Such a dork, I am.
2004: I had oyster dressing and mandarin muffins for breakfast yesterday and then again for lunch, and a better Christmas day breakfast does not exist.
2003: Is it a sign of old age that I’m this excited about getting a new vacuum cleaner?
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: No entry.

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: Santa Newtles and the Crooked Acres Gang wish you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of holidays.
2007: Merry Christmas!
2006: No entry.
2005: Merry Christmas!
2004: No entry.
2003: Happy holidays!
2002: Wishing a warm, merry Christmas to you and yours, from us and ours.
2001: Happy holidays!
2000: No entry.
1999: No entry.

I just got the word – BUSTER WAS ADOPTED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He’s going to a home with a 13 year-old girl to call his own and (I think) no other cats. I am so happy that he’s been adopted, and so hopeful that it works out! Y’all keep your fingers crossed, too!!

BUSTER HAS A HOME!

IT’S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

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In other news, Jax would like you to know that it’s a rough life.

And in other other news, nothing is funnier than a duck waddling along trying to catch up with the other ducks.

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“Santa, is that you? Did you bring my hippopotamus?!”

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Previously
2010: “Santa! I been good! No, really!”
2009: From us and all of ours, to you and all of yours, wishes for a happy, safe, healthy holiday!!!!
2008: Featherhead keeps an eye on you.
2007: I had no idea 11 years ago that Fred was going to turn into a Handyman.
2006: What a difference a year makes.
2005: No entry.
2004: Fred thought it was funny that his sister had to explain to her boyfriend, who is from France, what “French toast” is.
2003: THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS AND I WAS IN TARGET! HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: No entry.