Your comments, my answers!
so, seeing that the Washingtonienne is rancid marshmallow fluff, how about dishing on some of the books based on blogs that ARE worth reading, if only in the bathroom?
The books that come to mind – that I’ve read, that is; I have one or two written-by-bloggers books on my bookcase that I haven’t yet read – that are worth a read are as follows:
The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl
Bitter is the New Black and Bright Lights, Big Ass
It’s not out yet, but I’m looking forward to Half-Assed.
Tales from the Scale (though I might be just a teeny bit prejudiced about that!)
And of course, what kind of wife would I be if I didn’t mention the very enjoyable From Chunk to Hunk?
I’m sure there are other blogger-written books that I’ve read and enjoyed, and I’ll add them to the list if I think of them; those are the ones that came immediately to mind.
I think I have found Miz Poo’s doppleganger
I can’t deny I see the resemblance, but Frankie doesn’t have that frantic, needy love-me-love-me-please-please-please-love-me look that Miz Poo has.
Your fosters are adorable. But not as adorable as my new fosters! That’s not fair, though, as mine are only four weeks old and are Persian mixes, so they look like fuzzy tennis balls with legs and funny looking tails. I don’t have pictures yet, but I hope to get some soon.
Did I mention that I almost got me some bottle-fed babies, but I just missed out? Wah!!! I’m getting me some itty-bitty babies this summer at some point, if it kills me! (Also, TEASE. You cannot bring up adorable bitty baby fosters and not provide pictures!)
Have you read the Stephenie Meyer series? I love them and now I have to wait until August for the 4th! I couldn’t believe how they sucked me in, it has been a long time since an author could do that.
I have not – but I have Twilight in the queue. Because of its position in the queue, it’ll probably be a couple of months before I get a chance to read it, but I’m looking forward to it!
After nearly seven years of kissing frogs (I’m happily divorced), I’ve finally found me a terrific, smart, funny, wonderful guy, and we’re in wuv… TWUE wuv. But there’s a problem (isn’t there *always* a problem?): he’s an avowed dog person. This is not an issue for me, as I quite like dogs. But I also love cats, and I’m finally ready to get another (having lost my beloved kitty Ophelia three years ago).
My honey doesn’t dislike cats, although he strongly prefers dogs. The challenge is, he’s *allergic* to cats. It’s a mild allergy, but an allergy nonetheless.
Making things worse, a coworker of mine has found the most ADORABLE stray kitty (he looks like a Siamese), and she’s trying to talk me into taking him. And I wanna! But the SO and I will probably be cohabiting within the next six months, and I don’t want to adopt a kitty only to turn around and give him to someone else.
Are there any successful treatments for cat allergies that aren’t ridiculously expensive or filled with side effects? Or am I doomed to finally have found love, and never have a pet cat again?
Honestly, I don’t have a clue – I’ve always said that if I developed a sudden allergy to cats, I’d take something for it, but I have no experience with that at all. I’m tossing this one out to the readers – readers, your opinions/ suggestions?
I thought I had heard that if a white cat has blue eyes they could probably be deaf. Have you heard anything like that?
I’ve heard that there’s a possibility of deafness in white cats, and after Googling around, I found this:
* 95% of the general cat population is non-white cats (i.e. not pure white) and congenital deafness is extremely rare in non-white cats.
* 5% of the general cat population is white cats (i.e. pure white). 15-40% of these pure white cats have one or two blue-eyes.
* Of those white cats with one or two blue eyes, 60-80% are deaf; 20-40% have normal hearing; 30-40% had one blue eye and were deaf while 60-70% had one blue eye and normal hearing.
* Of the 5% of white cats in the overall population, 60-80% had eyes of other colors (e.g. orange, green). Of those 10- 20% were deaf and 80-90% had normal hearing.
* Deaf white cats with one or two blue eyes account for 0.25 – 1.5 of total cat population
* Total number of cats with white coat and blue eyes account for 0.75 – 2.0% of total cat population
There’s a long explanation that explains deafness in white cats, here, if you’re interested.
In any case, our (mostly) white foster kitty is not deaf; that was one of the first things I checked (out of curiosity), and she can hear quite well.
Um ok, so this is a weird and probably stupid question so feel free to ignore it but… Why does one ever need reading material in the bathroom? I’m honestly just asking cause I know people do but I’ve never known why. How long does it possibly take and how can you read and…go at the same time? Or is it for…after? I’m so confused!
Sometimes it takes a minute for things to get going, and that minute is long and boring if there’s no reading material!
I think this calls for a poll, don’t you?
What do you think of “The Housewives of New York City”? I think they are so catty! OMG that Ramona just plucks my last nerve!!! I think it is so funny that they call LuAnn “The Countess”. Your thoughts??
I wrote about RHoNYC two weeks ago, here.
Ramona is utterly unlikeable, and she can insist all she wants that her kid is talented and desperate to do commercials and act in movies, but I saw that child’s face when the idea that she might miss some school sank in, and that child WANTS TO BE IN SCHOOL, not out swanning around trying to win her mother’s approval. There’s nothing about Ramona I can stand at ALL.
When Bethenny said about Alex (I don’t remember if it happened during this week’s show or the preview for next week’s) “She’s insecure and she compensates for it by being pretentious”, she absolutely hit the nail on the head. Alex and her creepy husband are completely over-the-top pretentious and that whole “Francois has to sing “Farmer in the Dell” in French every night before bed”, or whatever the hell it was, was just totally eyeroll-ville. Also, girlfriend looks frazzled and if she’s that desperate to claw her way up the social ladder, she needs a haircut.
I like Jill, though like someone I know in real life, if there’s no drama going on in her life, she works very hard to manufacture it. Also, her daughter is a DOLL.
The Countess seems like the most well-adjusted of the bunch, but I think I said before that when you’ve attained the social status you want, you can be a lot less desperate and grasping about it. Whoever it was that was all “I can’t believe she TALKED about her kids having lice!” totally missed the point. That woman’s status is secure enough (and I suspect she doesn’t give much of a shit about social status, ain’t it always the way?) that she could probably talk about something truly nasty and she wouldn’t end up sobbing outside the fashion shows in last year’s Galliano (Galliano still design?) any time soon. Also, the Countess’s daughter is adorable. I wonder if Rosanna, the Count and Countess’s housekeeper/ raiser of their children, will catch any shit when the footage where she expresses her wish that the Countess would bother to hang around and spend some time with her children airs.
I still love poor little overworked Rosanna. I hope she’s well compensated.
Bethenny is too damn desperate to rope that boyfriend of hers into marriage, and she’s freaking him out. Wanting to talk about whether she’s going to move in with him while she’s a bit sloshed and the cameras are breathing down his neck? Good for him for refusing to do so. Also, he looks like Jeff Bezos to me, only a bit better looking. If next week’s previews are anything to go by, it kinda looks like they broke up.
So did you see the Jon and Kate Plus 8 show that was all about her plastic surgery? Pretty detailed and interesting…..
I did, actually!
And speaking of Jon and Kate, that bit of the show I was talking about earlier this week that makes me laugh out loud? I made a little movie of it so I can watch it at my computer whenever I want. It’s not very good – it’s just me, filming the TV screen – but you get the general idea of it.
I, too, will be watching the FRJ [flab removing journey] avidly – especially the lifting part. I am okay with the size, don’t want bigger, but I wouldn’t mind a lift (like I’ll ever be able to afford plastic surgery! HA!) – except I’ve heard that they apparently… move things around. Certain things. You know. Those. That they take them from one place and reattach them somewhere else, a little bit higher maybe.
and
Hope this is not too much info but I had reduction one one side at the same time I had a mastectomy on the other side. Things do get moved around but end up where they are supposed to be. I do have scars but they are very light and very thin, kind of like a pencil line. Really was not that bad pain wise thanks to the vicodin.
This reminds me of years and years and YEARS ago when Roseanne and her then-husband Tom Arnold were on Phil Donahue, and they were discussing her plastic surgery, specifically her breast reduction (or maybe it was a lift, I don’t remember), and Tom talked about how they cut off her nipples, and Phil said “Yes, so her headlights wouldn’t point at the floor”, which made me laugh and cringe. But yes, I believe they cut around your nipples and move them around (who’s screaming and clutching her chest now, hands up!), but they keep them attached to the nerves and such. Or maybe I’m just making that up to make myself feel better!
What, exactly, are you thinking of having done [plastic-surgery-wise]?
I’m considering a tummy tuck or lower-body lift, breast lift, and whatever they can do to get rid of that damn wattle I have. It’s all going to depend on the cost and whether insurance will cover any of the cost.
120 tomato plants?!!!!! When my mom had a garden, she’d plant about six, and have tomatoes stacked on the counter and in bags and baskets to take to people at work or give away to anyone who came over. And that was from SIX plants. Y’all are going to have… four, carry the eleven, divide by eight… TWENTY TIMES as many plants! Holy cow!
I swear to god, I thought we had like 100 tomato plants last year, but after asking He Who Knows, I found out that we had 30. So, um, yes. I will be dealing with a damn lot of tomatoes this year! It’s okay with me, because we didn’t get nearly enough tomatoes last year (I didn’t get to make enough tomato sauce or any ketchup at all), so hopefully I’ll have more than I want this year. Whatever we don’t eat or can or freeze can go straight to the pigs or the chickens.
Did you read about this? 800 dogs seized from mobile home? Lest you think my finger stuttered, that’s eight H-U-N-D-R-E-D. Dogs. In a mobile home. And they were breeders. (Elderly who might have had a dementia and/or hoarding problem, but breeders.) My stomach lurched when I read that. I would say, “How can people get a license to breed and sell animals without anyone checking up on them,” but hell, I guess if we don’t even keep a sharp eye on the people we’re fostering our nation’s KIDS to…
Honest to god, the fact that you can even fit 800 animals in a mobile home (even a triple wide!) is stunning. I cannot even imagine that.
I have a request. I was looking thru the virtual house tour and I was saddened you haven’t done pictures with your furniture in it. I would LOVE to see house pictures from now. Would you consider it? Thanks!
Yeah, I plan to do it. It’s just a matter of getting around to taking the pictures and putting the pages together. Maybe by the time we’ve lived here for two years I’ll get it done!
For those of us who don’t have cable, http://youtube.com/user/RIPLeuchtenberg has uploaded lots of full episodes of “How Clean is Your House?” Love that show.
I’m going to have to check that show out so I can look around my own house and say “Hey. This isn’t as bad as THAT ONE! I can totally put off vacuuming for another day!”
Is Ohio really that bad? *tears* I wuv Ohio.. and I live in it
Ohio wasn’t so bad in and of itself – it just seemed nonending. I thought we were never ever going to get out of Ohio. And then we got out of Ohio and were in Kentucky forEVER.
Of course, by this time next year I’ll have forgotten the long, long ride (which honestly wasn’t all that bad) and I’ll be all “Road trip, Nance?” and she’ll be all “Um… ‘kay!”
I think a manipulation of “shoots out a poo of displeasure” would be a great tagline in one of your logo banners, one of these months.
I’m a little afraid of what the design to back that up might look like. 🙂
I have a *huge* thing for orange kitties. Can the orange kittens come to live with me, please? We’re down to 4 old cats and one blind dog Chez Cathovel and must find fresh blood … uh … new babies to cuddle.
The orange kitties went to the pet store last Friday, and as of Monday morning, one of them had been adopted – another one (or both) of them may have been adopted by now, since Tuesday nights are also adoption nights at the pet store.
But as I’ve mentioned before – the foster kittens aren’t mine. They belong to the shelter, so any adoption requests would have to go through the shelter manager. Also, the adoption fee for any cats from the shelter is currently $150 per cat.
Ok, what is the Crooked Acres stand on teeth cleaning(s) for the kids of the feline persuasion. My vet has been wanting to do my siamese for a while now, but I’m scared as he’s around 12-14 years old. There is so much conflicting advice out there! Help!
We’ve really only had one cat that needed his teeth cleaned – Spot, a couple of years ago, had his cleaned. They put him under to do it (I don’t know if they do that for all cats or not – I would suspect they probably do) and had to pull one tooth because the decay had gotten so bad. If your vet really wants to do it, you trust your vet, and your cat is in decent shape, I’d say go ahead and do it!
Now that you are a professional chick wrangler, you must be in the know about all things chick-ery. Is it typical to lose a certain number of new chicks? Do experienced chicken ranchers, such as yourself, generally order more than they hope to raise, in anticipation of losing some?
Fred’s really more the chick expert than I am. I would hazard a guess that when ordering chicks you can expect there to be some loss, but the kind of loss we’ve had (almost half of what we ordered) is unusual. I don’t think we thought to order extra chicks, but I guess we should have!
Are you watching the Biggest Loser, and if you are, could Mark touch and fondle his beard a little bit MORE because I am not nearly creeped out by it enough. I just want to say… Mark, you and your beard go get a room!
It’s been a couple of seasons since we’ve watched Biggest Loser. We lost interest because the thing they do where something happens, they go to commercial, and then when they come back from commercial, they recap the last 30 seconds of what happened before they went to commercial really drives me NUTS. However, your description is making me want to start watching it!
Morbid curiosity here, what do you do with those dead baby chicks… tell me it doesn’t have anything to do with the piggies, right?
No, you’re not supposed to feed pigs meat, but in any case, we wouldn’t feed dead baby chicks to them anyway. The chicks go into the trash can and out with the trash, poor things.
POSSIBLE SURVIVOR SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION.
Are you still watching Survivor? Who are you pulling for? Wasn’t it crazy to watch the fans attack each other from within? What a bloodbath.
We are still watching (and enjoying) Survivor. I have to say that I’m still rooting for Ozzy, because I just love him to death. You’d never know by looking at him how gifted he is, physically, but he’s just a little powerhouse, and he plays the mental game, too. LOVE HIM.
Have you seen this??!!
I had, but I don’t think I’ve linked it before. That is a seriously cute video, isn’t it?
Do you find you’re having any qualms, or feelings of sadness about slaughtering the animals? I ask because – well, I grew up on a farm, so I know how these things go – will it make it more difficult since you’ve bonded with them, named them, discovered personalities, and spent time with them? I think I wonder mostly because you’re new to farming, not long time old folks!
I’m not really feeling qualms, but I’m certainly not looking forward to it, and I expect it to be pretty difficult. It’s probably not any coincidence that I don’t spend any time with the pigs at all – Fred’s the one who feeds them morning and night, and while I look out to see if they’re hanging out in their yard during the day, I don’t go out and talk to them, and you may have noticed that there haven’t been a lot of pictures of them recently. I’m kind of distancing myself from them so that when they’re gone I won’t miss them that much. I worry that it’s going to be really difficult for Fred, but he assures me that he’s got the right mental mindset.
I fully expect that the first time we kill a chicken I’ll be crying like a big damn baby. But I’m not particularly attached to any of the chickens – except Frick – so maybe that will make it a little easier. Did I mention that I’m not looking forward to it, though?
Has anyone used a product called Feliway? It is a Feline Behaviour Modification Pheromone Spray & Diffuser. My 14 year old cat was pooping outside the litter box because I think he was constipated. He is no longer constipated but has gotten into the habit of pooping wherever. I took him to the vet, he is fine, so she thinks it is behavioural, that is upset about something. This Feliway stuff apparently is phermones that help to alleviate anxiety. Just wondering if anyone had ever used it and how well did it work or not work?
We’ve used Feliway a few times, and it did seem to calm the cats down a bit – to be honest, I’m not sure whether it really calmed them down, or I just wanted to believe it was working.
Readers, your experiences?
Years ago when I first bought baby chicks ,the “chick people” told me that you had to clean their butts while they were little or they could “get clogged up and die” well, my husband actually did spend plenty of time ,making sure all the little chickens had clean ,clog free butts. Do they not say that any more? Have your chicks that died, had clog free butts?
Pasty butt, you mean? I myself avoid looking at the business end of the chickens as much as humanly possible. Fred, however, is all up on what to watch out for, and has been known to wipe a chicken butt or two. I had to help him clip a clump of chicken feces from the behind of a baby chicken a few weeks ago.
None of the chicks who died had pasty butts.
Yesterday morning, after I announced that I’d gotten love from Smudge Bunny, I went upstairs into the foster room, and the little brat hissed and ran and hid from me. Apparently, the trick is that you have to pick her up and hold her for a minute, and then the light goes on in her head that “Hey! I like this petting stuff!” and she turns into a love slut. If you just try to coax her over, you won’t have any luck.
HG still isn’t up for the petting, but he’ll chase the toys I toss for him, and he doesn’t hide from me, so that’s an improvement over the first day.
You can see the streak of orange on her tail.
GORGEOUS blue eyes.
The foster kitties over the past couple of years have done some serious damage to this guy.
“Hellew.” (You can see the hourglass shape on his stomach.)
A wee bit high.
HG plays with a straw, while Smudge Bunny looks on disapprovingly.
*******************
Fred put this cat bed up on top of the bookcase in the kitchen. Joe Bob claimed it as his own, but this morning when I walked into the kitchen, the bed was on the floor, and Joe Bob hasn’t been back up there since – but Stinkerbelle has. Hmmm.
Previously
2007: Turns out Maxi had found herself a desiccated frog and was chewing on it.
2006: Whereupon Nick Stokes, Ace Detective and CSI Genius jumps in and says, a dark scowl upon his face, “What is that, some kind of nickname?”
2005: Because there’s nothing worse than having your eyes scooped out with a spork when you’re not quite dead yet, believe you me.
2004: No entry.
2003: Your “shit” discussion is now over. You may move on.
2002: “Momma!” he cried “Momma, I’ll be good! Let me in Momma, let me in!”
2001: “Owowowowowow,” I whined, hand over my eye, and then stomped my foot in frustration.
2000: When I saw it in the theater, the ending so disturbed me that I sobbed all the way home from the movie theater.
When Robyn says we lost “almost half” of the chicks, she really means “over half.” 🙂
Eh, “almost”, “over” — close enough! 🙂
Re: Feliway — Feliway worked for us when our Tubby-sized cat decided he no longer wanted to tolerate our other, much smaller kitty. It seemed to calm him down just enough; he’d walk around grumbling, but stopped attacking his brother. Don’t know how it would work on solo behavioral problems, but if your vet recommends it, I’d say it’s worth a shot!
Kentucky was a long-ass drive? Try driving north/south through Iowa or Indiana. You’ll want to strangle yourself with your seat belt, just for something to do.
No offense meant to Iowa and Indiana; I’m sure they’re lovely states to live in or to visit. But they’re horrid to drive through.
Re: the cat allergies, I’m allergic and have two cats, and I use the dander reducing wipes on them. Neither of them really mind and it makes them smell like chamomile. I get mine at PetSmart.
Might I mention driving across Texas totally sucks? ‘Cause … it does! Come to think of it, driving any direction through Texas sucks. (Not that I mind going to Texas, though, that’s where my son is stationed, therefore the grandbabies are there!) We used to hate driving from Louisisana to Michigan through Ohio because of all the speed traps.
All is not lost for those with cat allergies. My DH has cat allergies but we discovered while dating that more exposure has given him a higher tolerance level. As long as he does not pet the cat and rub his face, he is ok. Scratches turn into itchy raised areas, but usually go away in a couple hours. His allergy scratch test turned up very high for cat yet we live with 4, and for awhile had 6. Yes they sleep in the bed and have free reign of the house.
My sis also has mild cat allergies (as do I but I am in denial) and happily lives with 2. Of course, we lived our entire life with cats. My longest time with out a cat was 2 months, then I befriended the local stray. At 4 months I could move my cats to be with me.
Some people bath their cats every week, others wipe them with a wet cloth. Some keep them out of the bed room and bed, others don’t.
So, as long as the person in question has mild to moderate (i.e. can still walk into a room/house with and be around cats) allergies there is hope.
The hatchery has finally started acknowledging the problem via email:
Thank you for your email.
Most of your question are answered in the statement below. Turkeys and
Pheasants are grown and hatched in separate facilities from the chickens and
are therefore not affected. Water fowl are not affected.
If you have any additional question please contact us.
Avian Encephalomyelitis (AE) is passed from the infected hen (the only
symptom being a drop in egg production) through the egg into the chick.
Chicks from infected hens display AE symptoms within two to three weeks of
age. Those chicks are infectious and should be quarantined until well after
symptoms are no longer displayed. All equipment and housing should be
disinfected and litter disposed of properly. Surviving chicks will be
immune to AE in the future, will not shed the virus, and will pass this
immunity on to their offspring.
In February one of our larger breeder flocks had a well water quality
problem. We took corrective action and treated the well water. There was
also a reduction in egg production as well as poor hatchability at that
time. We falsely diagnosed the egg production problem as being water
related. A few weeks ago we had reports of mortality in some birds and
recently we have had a confirmed report of AE, for which our flocks had been
vaccinated. As you can imagine this left us in a quandary as to how this
could have happened.
By consulting with veterinarians we confirmed that AE runs it course in
adult birds for 1 to 2 weeks and the surviving birds are immune. That
period of time has elapsed; eggs and chicks from our now immune breeding
flocks will not be infected.
We are sorry for any inconvenience and problems caused and thank you so
very much for your patience and understanding of this most trying time
for McMurr@y Hatchery. Just as we done for the last 90 years you can again
expect the same high quality chicks in all future orders.
(note from Fred: I love the way the hatchery thanks all of us with the dead chicks for being patient during THEIR trying time)
When I read “pasty butt”, I immediately thought of Sugarbutt. Ha! Also, even though there was much eyerolling at the Real HW – Orange County, I liked watching those women much more than the NY women. What a bunch of rich snobs! I agree, the Countess seems to be the most normal of all of them.
Two thoughts on the allergies. My brother-in-law has terrible cat allergies, takes OTC allergy stuff when he visits any of their grown children, all of whom have cats. Helps only a little, but he doesn’t live with them. Another friend lives in a studio, has cat allergies, and will not live without a cat. She takes her normal allergy meds and after a year or so with a new cat, she builds up immunities to it and doesn’t react to her own cat anymore, although she’d react if she visited someone with a different cat in the home.
Re: teeth cleaning. I have an older Siamese mix as well, and she has always had bad teeth. She has even had to have some pulled. At her advanced age (17) and early (though stable) renal failure, they now use an anesthesia that is inhaled rather than injected, so she wakes up much more quickly. She doesn’t seem to be too badly affected by it, and I certainly want her to continue to be able to eat. so do it!
Allergic to cats but NOT to dogs? I don’t think it’s possible. Read up on this to find out for sure, but I’ve always thought that if you’re allergic to pet hair, you’re allergic to ALL pet hair. If I were you, I’d read up on this on the internet or contact an allergist. If he can tolerate dogs, then he can probably tolerate cats.
As others have said regarding the allergies, it could work out okay. I am allergic to cats, but not my own. Once I live with them for a few months, I no longer need the OTC meds. If they lick or scratch me I still get all puffy where it happened, but the sneezing isn’t an issue. So, maybe now is the time to get a kitty – while he can build up immunity before living with it 24/7.
And Robyn, if you have an overload of those tomatoes this summer, I’ll be happy to take some off your hands. I have a 5 year old who can’t get enough of the things, especially when they are fresh and local. I like them, too 🙂
About the allergies- Zyrtec has always worked wonders for me, and it’s over the counter now. I tried Claritin and other prescription ones like Singulair and they never worked for me. Zyrtec probably doesn’t work for everyone but for me it was a lifesaver. You only need to take one pill every 24 hours, and there are no side effects to speak of.
Oklahoma and Texas are by far the longest states to drive through. I always thought it was because I am used to lots of trees and mountains that kept you a visual to keep you occupied.
Hi Robyn,
You are right about the reduction surgery. They cut around the nipple and then reattach. The keep the nerves intact. On the mastectomy side though they remove the nipple to make sure no cancer cells moved through the ducts to the nipple. Then you can have a new nipple “created” from skin from another part of your body. They used skin from under my arm and created a pretty real looking hat. Funny thing was that for a while it was a little hairy since skin from the rest of your body has fine hairs growing on it while the nipple usually doesn’t. Since then the little hairs have disappeared.
Feliway: we have used it to ease a move into a new house and also to ease the joining of our two tribes. Seems to work although I don’t know how they would have acted without it. My friend uses it on her mob and swears by it. There is no detectable odor (for humans anyway) that we could tell.
Lo…you can TOTALLY be allergic to cats and not to dogs! My oldest son is allergic to cats…eyes puff and water, nose runs…it isn’t pretty but it isn’t MAJOR. He takes Zyrtec when we are making trips to my brother’s…or for sleepovers to friend’s houses. But he has no reaction whatsoever to dogs of any breed. I have a slight allergy to cats too, but then again, I’m not much of a cat person anyway! (and here I am at Bitchypoo!) I have HEARD that you are allergic to the cat DANDER and not their fur…do dogs not have dander?? Who knows??
About the allergies – I had cats my entire life and spontaneously became allergic to them when I was about 23 or 24. The same thing happened to my mother at that age, go figure. Anyway, I already had a cat and certainly wasn’t going to give her up. I keep her out of the bedroom, which has helped me significantly. I make sure to always, always wash my hands after I’ve touched her. I’m usually fine unless I touch my face after I’ve touched her and I haven’t washed my hands. If I forget, I have itchy, red, watery eyes for a couple hours. I have a much higher tolerance for her than I do a strange cat. If I pet someone else’s cat it’s pretty much all over. Claritin deals with any “attacks” that arise. Also, sweep and vacuum regularly.
Lo – I also have two dogs (a Golden Retriever and a Cairn Terrier, if it matters) and have absolutely no reaction to them or any other dog. They cuddle with me on the couch, lick me, play with me, etc. I could rub my face in their fur if I wanted, and nothing would happen. In fact, I’ve never been bothered by any animal other than cats. So who knows?
Have you seen this? Cat adopts chicks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qO25P4r1o8
My favorite part: was that a parakeet?
Alberta gets very monotonous once you leave the mountains behind. Then it just goes to wheat, canola, wheat, canola, oil derrick, wheat canola, rinse, lather repeat until, oh, Thunder Bay, which is four provinces over.
The prairies are not exciting scenery.
My nipples hurt.
I’ll second (third, fourth?) the zyrtec. It’s WONDERFUL for pet allergies (and every other allergy). And building a tolerance. I was allergic to one of my cats when I got him – and he likes to cuddle. so for awhile I would pet him and then I would wash my hands before touching my face. It took about 3-4 weeks and I built up a tolerance. I’m still allergic to other people’s cats sometime. but you definitely build up a tolerance. 🙂 (my boyfriend didnt’ like cats and had allergies before he moved in and now he’s fine and LOVES them. so good luck!)
Does anyone know how to get a cat to stop spraying in the house? Toby was a stray, but has been part of the family for over four years with two cats who were here before him. When Toby first came in the house he sprayed sometimes and I put him back outside. I never hit him, I just picked him up, told him NO!, put him out on the porch, and closed the door. He stopped spraying in the house. Now, years later, he has started again.
Nothing has changed in the house. No new animals, no new furniture, no new boyfriend — nothing! If anything, the other cats get along better with Toby; I’ve seen Mischa walk up to Toby and rub his head under Toby’s chin so Toby will lick his ears and head.
The vet checked him out and he’s healthy.
Has anyone used Feliway for spraying? Did it help? Petco didn’t have it, and I haven’t gotten around to ordering it on line. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Feliway. I haven’t used it for litter box problems, but I use it routinely now with foster kittens. We had a couple that were really anxious and unsocial. I plugged in the Feliway (a week after they came) and within two hours they were calmer and more social and by the time they left they were quite friendly and sweet. I keep one plugged in all the time, now.
As to pictures of the fuzzy tennis balls — it requires that both myself and DH be home at the same time to get pictures involving kitten faces, and that hasn’t happened yet this week. Maybe tonight, hopefully some time tomorrow. But I assure you, they are terminally cute!
DianeS
owned by Wilma, Angel, and Simba
rented out by Fleur, Gizmo, Hedwig, Itsy, and Jaspurr
Lo, my hubby and son are both allergic to cats but are fine with dogs. It is more an allergy to dander than the actual hair I think and the dander is different between cats and dogs. A vet once told me that kitten and cat dander are not the same…my ex had violent reactions to kitten dander but he had only mild (and controllable) reactions to cat dander.
Okay, I admit to being a skimmer lately because I’m sooooo freakin’ busy with work I haven’t been able to take valuable journal and blog reading time. So I missed wherever it was discussed about having breast surgery! I’ll pipe in here… I had a breast reduction when I was only 17 years old, almost 23 years ago. It was the best thing I ever did. They do move your nipples so that they end up in the right place, but I didn’t lose sensitivity. They removed 6.5 pounds (I had BIG ONES) and even though I was in a lot of pain afterwards, I would do it over again in a heartbeat. Plus, that was 23 years ago, and things have changed… it’s probably faster and easier now. Anyway, you end up with scars around your nipples, down your boob to underneath, and all across. They totally fade, no worries. If I ever lose all the weight I’ve gained in the past 20 years since the surgery, I will definitely need a lift, and won’t hesitate to do it!
How is it possible that I never, ever knew that Fred had written a book?
regarding cat allergies – try Zyrtec! I know other people mentioned it above, and I just wanted to say that it works well for my *desperately* allergic husband. Poor guy loves (nay, adores. cherishes. worships.) cats, but used to come down in riduculous sneezing fits whenever he came near them. Didn’t stop him from petting any cat he came across, though. When we got cats of our own, he actually became quite tolerant of them after a few weeks, although the allergies would rear up around new/strange cats. The Zyrtec has elimiated any remaining sensitivity to our own cats – he now only needs to take a pill once or twice a week. And we’ve got some of the dander-iest and sheddiest cats around.
Diane, thanks for mentioning the Feliway with fosters use. We have the Feliway plug-in thing, but the bottle has long run dry. I’m going to buy a refill this weekend and see if it makes a difference with our current fosters!
The Feliway hasn’t worked too well for us. We took in an adult male, who apparently had not been fixed early enough, so he wants to spray to mark his territory. Feliway was supposed to help with that, but it didn’t make much difference. I used it for about a month and then quit. While the little shit does not spray as much as he used to now, he still does it when we are not looking. Why, oh why, do I always have to take in any stray that comes along????
Robyn, when you were praising Ozzy’s gifted physicality, were you – perhaps – alluding to his pre-Survivor appearance on Playboy TV’s “Foursome”? It’s apparently “displayed” on omgblog.com. But I wouldn’t know about such things, since I’m as pure as the driven snow. 😉 Nor would I know about the Jeff Probst pics. OMG!
Lo, I am allergic to cats but not dogs. Different danders = different allergies. BTW, I live with three cats anyway and have been able to tolerate it just fine. I find washing my hands regularly with antibacterial soap helps a lot.
Juanita, did you have more than 1 Feliway diffuser in the house? I read that it is only good for about 600 square feet or so of house so if you have a bigger house and he doesn’t spend much time around where the diffuser is then maybe he wasn’t getting enough of it to make a difference. Also my vet tells me there are a couple of other anti-anxiety medications that can be given, one is a cream that is rubbed into the ear (not inside, just the top part) and another is a pill.
My vet says that cats can get upset for no reason that we can understand even something small like moving the furniture around or going out more than usual can be enough to set them off. She asked me to keep a journal of when my cat was pooping out of the litter box and see if there was a pattern of anything else out of the ordinary that was going on.
Of course, by this time next year I’ll have forgotten the long, long ride (which honestly wasn’t all that bad) and I’ll be all “Road trip, Nance?” and she’ll be all “Um… ‘kay!”
So pathetically true. 🙂
I have mild cat allergies, and it usually takes me about a week to aclimate to a cat-filled house, and then I’m more or less fine so long as I don’t let them on the bed I’m sleeping in (especially the pillow) or get up near my face. My allergy is pretty mild, though. My mother has a pretty severe cat allergy (neither of us have any problem with dogs at all) and she has four indoor cats and a herd of outdoor ones (strays she got fixed and still feeds). She takes a prescription medication for it. However, she says that the thing that made the biggest difference for her was putting a few air purifiers throughout the house (and especially in her bedroom). That made a world of difference and she no longer has a problem at all.
“But yes, I believe they cut around your nipples and move them around (who’s screaming and clutching her chest now, hands up!), but they keep them attached to the nerves and such. Or maybe I’m just making that up to make myself feel better!”
Yes, they do cut around them and then move them to a new position. Yes, in most instances, they keep them attached to the nerves and such. Usually, it’s only in a VERY large reduction that they totally remove them to move them.
I had a reduction a couple of years ago (more than 5 lbs total) Mine were kept attached. I had full sensation on the right immediately, it took 11 months for the sensation to come back on the left. I also had immediate sensation back in my hands – before surgery, the nerves were stretched so tight across my spinal cord that I had lost sensation in 4 fingers on the left and the sensation on the right was only on and off.
It’s not nearly as bad as it sounds, the recovery wasn’t anything compared to what I thought it would be. Within a year my scars were only very thin, very pale silvery lines _ in some places I have to really look for them to see them.
I know you are talking about a lift, but it’s basically the same surgery…It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. My only regret is that I waited so long to do it.
Good luck to you in whatever choices you make for yourself Robyn. 🙂
After seeing the news clip on the cow processing plant they closed down in California for mistreatment, diseased cows ….you guys can surely feel better about knowing your meat is being raised in a humane way. I wish there was a place we could buy meat raised the same way.
Ah, but a few years ago you didn’t have the DVR, right? Biggest Loser is a lot easier to watch if you tape it first and have the remote ready. I love that show.