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You know, I get the idea behind podcasts, and I understand that some of them are probably pretty cool, but here’s the thing – I can’t stand listening to or watching anything while sitting at my computer that’s longer than two or three minutes. Movie trailers, funny (short) videos, and the occasional movie clip is just fine, but anything longer than that, I just refuse to watch or listen to. I get antsy if I listen to anything longer than that. I don’t usually listen to music at my computer unless I’m doing something that requires little concentration, and if Fred sends me a link to something longer than a few minutes, I’ll watch a few minutes of it, then turn it off.
I just don’t consider the computer to be the place to sit and watch stuff, I don’t know why. Probably because there’s always something I could be doing – reading a journal entry, organizing this that or th’other, whatever.
Of course, now that I have a portable CD player that also plays MP3s, I could always just burn them to a disc and listen to them while I exercise…
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Miz S asked in my comments yesterday:
Is it true that male cats are nicer than female cats, generally speaking? I figure you should know since you have A HERD of cats over there.
If our cats are anything to go by, then I would say that yes, male cats are nicer than female cats. But then, we only have the one female cat to go by, and she’s always more than willing to reach out and smack the shit out of her brothers. For instance, if she walks into the bathroom – where the cat food dishes are – and there’s a cat in front of each food dish (there are two food dishes, because we serve our cats four – YES, FOUR – different kinds of food*) and she can’t get to the food dish, she’ll sniff the behind of one of the cats at the food bowls. And if they ignore her, she’ll sniff again. And she’ll keep sniffing until one of the cats who is eating thinks “Is something touching my behind?”, and they’ll turn around to look at her, and she will SMACK THE HOLY HELL out of them.
She’s pure evil.
On the other hand, she’s the only cat who will come sit in your lap if you call her. The other cats are always all “Yeah, I don’t feel like it. Go blow it out your ass, Chuckles”, but Miz Poo will ALWAYS come sit in your lap, give you a look o’ love, and purr very loudly. Until we got Sugarbutt, she was also the only cat who would snuggle with me at night. Sugarbutt will snuggle with me at night (on his own timetable, you understand), but during the day he’s anti-snuggle.
So, in summary, if we are to judge all female cats by Miz Poo, then male cats are nicer, but female cats are clingier.
I’m sure other readers have opinions on this particular subject. Got an opinion? Leave a comment!
*In one bowl we mix Science Diet Kitten food and… crap. I don’t remember what we mix with the Science Diet Kitten. Purina One Urinary Tract Health, maybe? Yeah, I think that’s it. And in the other bowl we mix Science Diet Adult with
Nutro Max Senior. Because we spoil our cats rotten, in case you hadn’t noticed.
“Hallelujah and praise the lord for belly rubs! CAN I GET A WITNESS?!”
“Bwahahaha! Mom thinks she’s going to sit at her computer and type things, but she CAN’T. What does “rapidly portlifying ass” mean, anyway? I think it must be a compliment. Maybe it means “prettiest cat ever”? I always knew I was Mom’s favorite.”
“Incredibly good-looking SNOK (single neutered orange kitty) looking for someone to snuggle with. My heterosexual life partner, Tommy, comes as part of the package. I like long walks in the back yard (not too close to the fence, please!), a good stiff snort of catnip every now and then (I have a good supplier), snacks at 7 pm sharp, and peanut-diving when the opportunity arises. No bitchy head-smacking torties need apply. Respond to sugar.buttocks@gmail.com with picture.”
All of today’s uploaded pictures are
here.
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Previously
2005: Don’t you wish I was responsible for your books?
2004: I WANT TO FUCKING KNOW WHAT HE SAID.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001.: And almost wet my pants in terror.
2000: So, the nausea continues.]]>
Wow! You updated early today. The photos of SB in the box of peanuts…hilarious! Your cats are so funny and cute. Thank you for sharing. Oh! I got your card. Thank you Robyn!
I was thinking of you the other day, we have gotten that collar thing for the dog, desperately trying to keep his big headed, short legged self in the yard. We live in the country now and he loves to chase the cars coming in and out of the “holler” (yes, holler, I am now in Hillbilly land LOL) So, I have been trying to pen him in. We bought a Dog lot, one of those fenced in paddock things…. He ATE IT. Straight through the fencing, tore it to pieces. You would look at it and think… Rottweiler or German Shepherd. Not small mutt. LOL Then we tried to use the invisible fence thing after I had seen that on your site. We installed it, hooked it up, hopefully putting the collar on the mutt… and turned it on. Nothing. We turned it up. Nothing. Put it on the highest setting… he ran straight over the wire, yelped and then ran as far away as he could, making the collar useless. Argggg. We put up a fence this week, 220 square feet. Does it keep the dog in? No, he is like that raptor off of Jurassic Park, testing the fence for weaknesses!!!
Oh, one more thing… Where can we find a larger copy of the logo? I was trying to figure out how to read the text and cant see it. I even tried saving the picture and blowing it up. LOL I am a dork. But, curiosity and all… I know. Haha.
Carol
Box of peanuts: Best Cat Toy. Ever!
The only reason I listen to podcasts is that I can do it with my iPod while doing other things: in the car, housecleaning, knitting, cooking. Before the iPod, I felt just like you do. Now I *have* to have my Tim Gunn’s Project Runway podcast, my knitting podcast from cast-on.com, my NPR news snippets…it’s like the radio for people with short attention spans! 😀
Bwa! Carol, I too am a dork and enlarged the logo once to try to read the text. As far as I could tell, it’s a legitimate Washington Post front page with the typical front-page-news stories — and then the hilarious headlines and subtitles and photos.
Oh, and not for nothin’, but this is my new wallpaper.
http://www.spudart.org/blog/images/2005/baby_porcupines_full.jpg
They are hedgehogs. Or porcupines.
I think female cats meow more than males. They also, in my experience tend to be pushier…bitchy might be the more accurate term!
It has always been my experience that neutered male cats are nicer than neutered females (I have never owned an unsterilized cat and GUILT TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE), until vets started neutering males at like 8 weeks old. That makes them weird and prickly and gives them the tiny head. My female cat LB sits on my lap every single stinkin time I sit down. If I push her off, she stares at me lovingly from one foot away until she thinks I’ve forgotton, then jumps up again. But she’s the meanest cat in the world, and overly nervous and hates all other cats.
I’m anti-snuggle during the daytime, too.
Our female kitty (may she RIP) was the snuggliest kitty I’ve ever known. She was friendly to everyone — except other cats. HATED other cats.
We also only have one female out of five. She’s the only one who will bite and swipe a paw with claws all the way extended at you if you try to move her from her spot or try to clip those talons. She also will do the same at kids if they hang around her too long and by too long I mean 3 seconds! The rest of them will get up and move when needed, will pretty much just sit there while trimming the nails and just walk away from kids.
She has her favorite brother and if the two younguns attack him enough to make him cry out she’s all over those shitheads to put the smack down on their asses. She’ll also come running if you make him cry out by stepping on his tail or whatever, she’s ready to kick your ass too. It’s cute as can be really. But when she wants love she’ll jump up and start head butting you until you give it to her. She’ll also cuddle in like a baby in the crook of my arm when I’m sitting on the couch and purr to her hearts content.
All around the boys are more loving and tolerant. Every now and then the two younguns attack Nouveau (the female) and Sidd (her favorite) but I think that they’re trying to play more then anything.
(I would have put my journal link, but I’m a diaryx user. Or was. Argh) In my experience, I have found more personality commonalities among types of cats versus ,i>gender. For instance, my Russian Blue (like Mister Boogers) was a friendly boy but pretty much just a one-person cat. My tortoise kitty (like Miz Poo) was a wee bit, um, bitchy– but she loved to lapsit. The calicos were very friendly with dogs, other cats and people. The ginger tabby cats have always been cuddlers by night, roamers by day. Two black cats were both droolers. The silver tabbies became biters in their old age…
OK, here’s the deal at my house. We had 2 cats, Jesse (our beautiful black snuggly sweet boy from the very first day) and Janey (our beautiful torty girl who is sweet and cuddly on the couch and comes when you call her, but won’t sleep with us at night) for 13 years, from the time they were 3 months old. They were real bro & sis, from the same litter. This past 12/16, we had to have Jesse put to sleep due to severe and sudden hyperthyroidism that didn’t respond to meds. We were all devistated, and Janey became very vocal (whereas Jesse was always the mouthpiece of the two) and much more clingy than before. We got another black cat (could have been Jesse’s twin) about a month later, thinking that if Janey had a friend that she’d at least RECOGNIZE, she’d be happier than having a strange looking cat around, not that we ever thought we’d be fooling her or anything, and also because I couldn’t stand another day without having a sweet black cat around the house (and the new cat IS very sweet). Well, Janey HATES the new cat (Jack) who is about a year old, and every time he tries to come downstairs she chases him and they run around kicking each others ass for awhile before both retreating again. Now we have an upstairs cat and a downstairs cat, and I’ve had to put seperate food and litter boxes on both floors. I hate this, and wish they’d somehow be able to exist at least in the same room together even if they can’t be cuddly friends like Janey was with her brother. I’m not sure what to do, but had to tell you all about it anyway since we’re talking cats…aren’t you glad you brought it up?? LOL! Any ideas you have would be appreciated! Thanks for reading and take good care….:)
Growing up, we always had at least 2 to 3 cats, most of the time, they were all female. Only once in a while did we own a male cat. ALL of our cats were sweet and friendly. I think a lot of that had to do with how we raised them, but also because when the cats were kittens, we always picked the snuggliest ones, and kept the friendly, sweet strays that came to adopt us. I never saw a male/female difference in this.
My brother chose a kitten once from a litter because of her coloring. I’d been messing with the kittens for some time and warned him that the kitten he chose wasn’t snuggly like the others. Sure enough, this kitten grew up stand-offish.
Kate – you should send that porcupine/hedgehog photo to cuteoverload.com! Adorable!
Robyn, you need to listen to Anita’s podcasts. They are the funniest things ever.
Hmmm…I think you should syrup-ticiously* call the ASPCA and the COPS because it is bound to be illegal to tie a dog or any other mammal to a mail post!The should at least issue a warning or even a fine! And if you don’t get any response from the authorities, you might try writing a little note of complaint and mailing it to the parents. You can sign it, “A concerned neighbor, Anna Nonna Mouse.
(*I once named a character Syrup Tishia, the Sneaky Child.)
As for the debate on female/male cats? My females have always been sweet, sweet and feminine TO ME and just royal cat-scratching bitches to the rest of the cats. The males, mellow to the other cats but cuddly on demand, not so much.
Please pretty please visit my blog sometime and leave a comment?? PURR-ty Please?
These days we have two cats. Lena is twitchy and kinda nervous. If she’s touched in an unapproved manner (anywhere other than her head, mainly) she will take offense. Depending on her mood, she’ll yowl and/or smack the offender. (No claws unless someone continutes to rile her up after that.) Picking her up is Not Allowed. But she’ll sit in my lap and purr–that has to be her idea, though–and at night she lies next to my head and purrs. I’m pretty much the only one she lets pet her anywhere besides her head, but mostly only at night when she’s doing her pillowside purr-fest.
Cat is friendlier and more outgoing, but he doesn’t like to snuggle as much. Usually to get much love out of him we have to sneak up on him when he’s looking sleepy, and if nobody’s looking he might let one of us pick him up and hold him for a while. (If anyone else walks in the room while this is happening he will spaz out and demand to be let down.) If he’s cold at night he sometimes crawls under the covers and purrs madly, though.
As far as being friendly to each other, fights seem to pretty evenly instigated. They play together some, but usually Cat starts that.
Do you watch Grey’s Anatomy? I don’t seem to remember you ever talking about it. Its just that I am in love with the show and from reading your blog I’m surprised that you have never written about it as it seems like a show you would love. Not that I know what you love to watch on TV. MJ
We have two male cats and three females (all “fixed,” natch).
Our tortoiseshell female is a total bitch to the other cats 95% of the time, but she’s very friendly to me and my hubby–ESPECIALLY my hubby, with whom she is in LURVE. Everyone I’ve talked to has the same sort of story with tortie females: bitchy to the other household cats, affectionate with people, especially prone to attachment with one particular person over others.
Our tabby female is the most stand-offish of all our cats, but when she wants attention, she’s supercuddly. Our black female is probably the most affectionate of all five cats; she loves the other cats and me and Hubby.
Of our two males…Ferris, the older one, is very much a “father figure” to the rest of the cats. He comforts them when they’re not feeling good; alerts me and Hubby if one of them is trapped in a closet, R. Kelly style; and cleans around the litterboxes and food bowls. He’s also very demanding of Hubby’s and my attention and loves snuggles–especially at bedtime.
Rick James (second male) is a stranger to him; he loves EVERYBODY. Dogs, cats, people, pieces of lint, you name it. He’s especially attached to me and follows me everywhere and can be quite annoying about it. But he’s cute, so…
OK, where was I going with this? Do I even have a point?
Oh, right. Females vs. males. I would say male cats are generally friendlier than female cats, and are overall more willing to interact with “new” people. Females are more territorial than males, so they get attached to one or two certain people. And tortoiseshell cats are just in a league of their own.
Edited because I suck at typing, apparently:
Rick James (second male)–no one is a stranger to him.
I’ve talked to has the same sort of story with tortie females: bitchy to the other household cats, affectionate with people, especially prone to attachment with one particular person over others.
Oh, that explains an awful lot about Lena right there.
I’ve talked to has the same sort of story with tortie females: bitchy to the other household cats, affectionate with people, especially prone to attachment with one particular person over others.
Ditto for my Saima.
Carol: The logo I have up there is the only copy I have. I think, like Deeje said, it’s just the front page of a major newspaper, with the headlines and pictures changed.
Carrie: I bet podcasts would be good to listen to while I walk. I need something to entertain me while I sweat! 🙂
Melanie J: I do watch Grey’s Anatomy! It’s my favorite show right now, actually. And George is my secret boyfriend. 🙂
We have four cats, two male and two female. Our females would definitely be considered clingy. Phoebe, my sister’s cat, sulks if my sister doesn’t come home on time. She has to be right on top of my sister at ALL TIMES. Ginny, my girl kitty, is clingy as well. She needs to sit in front of me at the computer all the time, likes to cuddle up in the crook of my arm, and has to get up and follow me if I leave the room. One of the two males I would consider nice, the other one is grumpy.
I have a tabby cat who is both bitchy and needy. She needs to be close to us all the time, but DON’T TOUCH HER, SHE DOESN’T LIKE THAT. Except maybe now she does. Stroke her at once, please. More. More. STOP.
Also, she plainly loves my husband best. I feed her and change her tray and spend all day with her, but when he comes home, I’m chopped liver.
Thinking of the cats we grew up with, the girls tended to be stand-offish, but full of character, while the boys were affectionate goofs.
Paragraph breaks are your friend, people! My eyes!
Male cats seem to be more affectionate with female humans and female cats w/male humans. Same with dogs. This is just a generalization, of course.
Also, cats seem to gravitate toward “non-cat” people. My husband claims not to care for cats, but when we visit cat-inhabited homes the felines FLOCK to him. Really, it’s sickening.
Ohhh cool then, I wasn’t missing any good laughs. Ha. I had figured that there was probably some hilarious story attached to “what he did for money and why” LOL
Thanks
Carol
My experiences with female cats are of the tortie variety too – and she was evil. 🙂 I mean, she was pretty irritable. She would sit far away from everything (as high up as she could) and she would YOWL anytime anyone or anything came to close. She’d eventually let you pick her up and then YOWL her head off. She was just very vocal, not in pain – she saw the vet regularly. She wasn’t tolerant.
My two boys though are sweet. I have a flame point siamese (cute!) who is snuggly and very tolerant…i could put clothes on him if I wanted – luckily, I don’t. 🙂
The other boy is just a medium haired black cat and he TALKS. As soon as he sees you it’s a meow or if you talk to him he meows back. He likes to play in water – but just with his feet and will come when you call him. Plus, he’s a snuggler.
So, I guess all in all if you want a female – don’t get a tortie. 😀 hehe.
Oh and if you don’t have any other cats – get 2. I was worried about jealousy – but they seem to be so much happier and more active with someone else to play with. 🙂
oh and Hi Robyn! 🙂 hehe.
We have 3 cats, 2 males and a female. My daughter picked out the female from an animal rescue group. She purred and rubbed and purred and rubbed and convinced my daughter she loved everything and everyone. When we got her home she became what my daughter affectionately calls “The Devil Cat”. She does not tolerate anyone except me. With me, just like others have commented, she is ALWAYS on my lap. Doesn’t matter where I sit she’s magically there. Most of the time I don’t even remember her jumping up. But God forbid I pet her. Well, maybe a quick scratch behind the ears. But linger a few seconds and she gets MAD.
The last kitty we got is one of the males and was a kitten. He takes great joy in tormenting the female and calls her bluff. He’s not intimidated in the least by the ears flat, sharp teeth displayed, deep growl of Patty Cake.