4/15/11 – Friday

Reminder for the locals: Challenger’s House Cat Tales takes place in one week, on April 22nd at Monte Sano. Please join us as we celebrate cats & the people who care for them & love them. Enjoy the wonderful food & music as you browse & bid on donated art, gifts, & other items that will brighten your home & your life. It’s also a great place to shop for Christmas & birthday gifts. There will be a cash bar serving beer & wine. Dress is very casual so come prepared to have a good time.

Monte Sano State Park Lodge – 6:30 – 9:00 pm – $25.00 per person advanced or at the door.

We are still looking for auction items. We have lots of small stuff but if you know anyone who can donate gift baskets or other biddable type items, let Susan know (contact info at the bottom of the page, here.)

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I keep meaning to ask you…with all the kitten excitement, we all seem to be forgetting, how is your recovery going? Has the swelling gone down? Do you feel wonderful? What’s the dealio with YOU now a’days?

Oh, I am feeling just fine, completely healed up, and very little swelling at all! In fact, yesterday I decided that it was time to move my couch back where it belonged (I’ve been using the recliner since I got home after surgery), and I got the cover put on the couch, the couch moved (by lifting first one end and then the other) into place, and I got the top half of the recliner moved back upstairs to my room. I was in the process of trying to move the bottom half of the recliner upstairs, but it’s very very heavy and then Fred got home and carried it up for me. This morning, my muscles are sore, but the rest of me is feeling just fine. I’m happy with my arms and breasts, but the wobbly bit under my chin hasn’t gone away and will need to be revised at some point. All in all, I’m glad that recovery is done and over with!

Also…if I may beg your huge group of readers, Skeletors rescue daddy is looking for a landlord in Jacksonville, Fl., willing to rent to him and the adorable, well behaved, non violent Skeletor.

Readers? Anyone in the Jacksonville area know of a place where sweet Skeletor will be allowed?

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Thought I would share this video of cats getting into the fridge over on Justin tv. It starts right after the advertisement.

Watch live video from Kittycast From Kittyville™ on Justin.tv

That is WAY too adorable!

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Robyn, you keep your kitty rooms so clean. Your home always looks so nice… not a dust bunny to be found, I’m sure.

Oh, devil, if only that were true. My home is regularly INFESTED with dust bunnies and they roam in a gentle galloping herd from one end of the house to the other. They love to cluster on my stairs, and even after a good Swiffering, they wait a few minutes and cluster again. The foster room hasn’t been vacuumed since Maggie birthed those babies two weeks ago, and there’s Maggie fur matting the carpet from one side of the room to the other. This is a particularly bad time of year for dust bunnies, due to the cats shedding their winter coats, but do I respond by vacuuming more often? I do not. (Part of the problem being that I really miss my Dyson, which died a few months ago. I’ve been using the Sears Progressive canister vacuum we already had, and while it does a good enough job, I can’t say that I adore it the way I adored my Dyson. I’m not fond of canister vacuums, because the freakin’ canister is a pain in the ass to pull along.)

I think my home is just not meant to be spotless. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it. 🙂

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Was the order of Fergus Simon’s name chosen with a nod to the Flying Spaghetti Monster in mind?

No, he was named after Lori’s cats, Fergus and Simon (Fergus being the oldest). But it does make me smile that his initials are the same as the Flying Spaghetti Monster! Sometimes, when I am very tired and cannot remember whether it’s Fergus Simon or Simon Fergus, I pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to help me remember!

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How is old Flappy McGee doing anyway. Me thinks you treasured that bird for the celebrity she was, heck. I hope you gotter stuffed when she passed on, and she sits like the prized burd that she was! No doubt from gosh darn natural causes, heck if Wilbur and Charlotte could do it Flappy surely did’er too!

After Flappy McGee laid that monster egg, she pretty much stopped laying eggs and, uh, she was the first chicken we processed and ate. It’s kinda rude that she helped make us famous (heh) and then we ended up eating her, isn’t it?

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I was wondering if you have used Twilight character names for any of your fosters? Bella sounds Irish to me!

I haven’t used Twilight characters, but I did a quick check of the names list I got from the shelter, and Bella, Edward and Jacob have all been used in the past, rendering them ineligible for use by me!

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I remember Beulah! I always loved that tiny little girl. I can’t remember who ended up with her but have you been able to get any updated pictures of her?

I did get some updated pictures of her back in 2009 – see those here – but none since then.

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Do you have to brush George and Gracie? I know they live outside, and they seem relatively free of big nasty snarls!

George and Gracie need lots of brushing in the Spring when they’re shedding their winter coat. Fred goes out with the brush and brushes and brushes them, and the amount of fur that comes off them is absolutely amazing (I’ll have to get a picture next time he brushes them). They require occasional brushing in the Summer, too, and then hardly any in the Fall and Winter. I always say that their fur is made of Teflon, because they’ll get absolutely filthy, then you see them an hour later and they’re completely clean again!

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Have the permanent residents shown any curiosity about what is happenning in the “nursery”?

Not really – they sniff at the barrier in front of the door sometimes, but they’re used to not being able to go in there sometimes, so they aren’t all that curious.

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Newt goes roaming where?

Newt and Maxi are our two free roamers, who are allowed in the house and also allowed outside (the real outside, not the back yard outside) to roam wherever they want. I know they spend lots of time at the house two doors down, and I believe they go down the street further to where there’s a horse barn. I was just telling Suzanne yesterday that I’d love to put GPS collars on them both to see just exactly where they roam!

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I imagine that their eyes open with a little “plink!” sound.

and

And their ears will pop up with a sort of ‘sprojoing!’ sound

I love the idea of this more than I can possibly express.

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I think you may have addressed this question before, but if so I’ve forgotten the answer. Here’s a random (and kind of gross) question: what do kittens do before they learn to use the litter box?

Warning: grossness alert. If you have a weak stomach (or are eating), skip down to the next section. I’m not kidding!

Oh, it’s grosser than you suspected, I bet. Before kittens are about 2 1/2 weeks old, they cannot urinate or defecate on their own. Therefore, they need to be stimulated to do so by their mother. How does she do this? With her tongue. What happens to the, uh, results of the stimulation? She. Swallows. It.

You weren’t eating, were you? 🙂

When I said Maggie gave me this look after she’d been licking some kitten behind the other day, it was for good reason.

When I’ve had to bottle feed kittens who were without a mother, I had to stimulate them to pee and poop using a piece of paper towel (you can also use a cotton ball or a soft rag) to do the same job, but at least I could throw the whole mess in the trash.

There’s not enough money in the entire world to entice me to do that job the way poor Maggie has to. And after having to do that with all six kittens, numerous times a day, don’t you just know Maggie is THANKING HER LUCKY STARS that she’ll never have another litter?

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Movies!

Firstly, several people have asked what the “soothing-mama” noise that I’ve referred to sounds like. So I got it on video! You’ll hear her make it a bunch of times in this video (no kittens were harmed in the making of this video. I had to move them out of the cave so I could change out the bedding).

And then, kittens hanging out in a purple bed. I call this one “I sit on you head.” Watch it,and you’ll see why.

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Here are those wee babies at one day old:

And here are the little fatties at 10 (actually, might have been 11) days old, same bed:

Princess Poutyface would like to register a complaint, plz.

Fergus Simon McMao has a spotted belly. Awwww.

Cillian is confused.

Macushla rests his head on his brudder’s back.

::ROWRRRRRRRRRR!::

He looks SO much like a little lion cub, doesn’t he?

Sweet Miss Maggie.

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Miz Poo, Jake, Alice and Rufus, hanging out in the kitchen. (And no, Rufus is not becoming a permanent resident. We’re just waiting for room to open up at Petsmart.)

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Previously
2010: I give you three more episodes to figure that fucking horseshit out, and then I’m going to drown the entire fucking cast in the nearest body of water.
2009: Scenes from around Crooked Acres.
2008: It just looked like a great big blob of tumor, is what it looked like.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: “Light” my ass!
2004: An odd duck, that one.
2003: Unfortunately, he lived.
2002: 10 Things I Learned Last Week
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.