4/16/10 – Friday

That “hug” Rhyme is giving you is actually the way cats in the wild would kill their prey. The hind legs would be used to disembowel the victim. Now, doesn’t that make your day????

You mean it wasn’t just Rhyme telling me that he lurrrrves me?! I am heartbroken! (Luckily he was distracted by a belly rub, or my life might have been in danger!)

 

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I have a question from yesterday – you mentioned that you aren’t worried about the kittens being with your cats because your cats are “all vaccinated.” I’m curious – do you vaccinate for FIV? or Leukemia? I don’t remember hearing stories about the regulars going to the vet – so they must be fairly well behaved? hehe.

We don’t vaccinate ours for FIV, but they do the regular vaccination for Leukemia when they get their regular shots. I’ll admit that I don’t for one moment think that the Bookworms are truly FIV positive, so I wasn’t that concerned about letting them out into Gen Pop. If I really thought there was a chance that they’re FIV positive, I’d be more hesitant about letting them out.

And yeah, most of our cats are good about going to the vet. Can you believe that way back when, when Spot or Spanky needed to go to the vet, we had to make the appointment when Fred was home from work, because I couldn’t get them into the carrier myself? What a wimp! Nowadays, I grab whatever cat needs to go, pop ’em in the carrier, and off they go. Even Spanky making like a starfish doesn’t work – I’m getting to be pretty good at shoving cats in carriers. About time, too, wouldn’t you say?

 

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Is Sugarbutt getting…dare I say it: portly?! Those two are adorable. But I felt the need to comment because looking at the picture of them snuggling as kittens, I was all “awww I remember that” and then I saw the date, and realized I’ve been reading your blog for well over 5 years and well…that kind of freaked me out! I mean at this point I feel like I know you, yet putting it in the perspective of YEARS; that made me feel absolutely voyeuristic lol.

Sugarbutt looks like he’s getting to be portly, but in actuality, he’s just a big, muscular cat. That’s not fat, that’s muscle – which apparently he builds up by running around the tops of the kitchen cabinets every night. I swear to god, one day those cabinets are going to start falling down under the weight of a running Suggie, and I just hope I’m not standing underneath them when it happens!

(Um. Not that I make a habit of standing UNDER the kitchen cabinets. But youknowwhatImean!)

I have someone in Chicago who’s apparently reading their way through my archives (hi, Chicago!), so think of it this way – at least you don’t have to do THAT, you already know my history, you voyeur, you. 🙂

 

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Robyn, did Maura think she was pregnant … well how the hell would you know?! Ok, my question is, when she gets out with the kittens, if she thought she was pregnant, would she adopt them? Think they were the kittens she thought she was having when she thought she was pregnant?

I don’t think Maura thought she was pregnant – I think she was like “I don’t know why this lady is giving me kitten food to eat, and three snacks a day, but – okay! ::gulp::!” When Fred brought the Bookworms home, I honestly thought about putting them in with her, thinking that since she was SO close to giving birth (HA!), maybe they’d try to nurse, and she’d produce milk, and then she could take over mothering them. But I hesitated because she’s on medication, and I didn’t want her to pass anything along to them, and also, you KNOW how those mother cats can be – I thought it was a possibility that she’d be like “THESE are not my babies!” and eat them. Or at least wound them.

But Maura is SUCH a laid-back girl that when she’s allowed out into the house, she’ll let those kittens do whatever they want. It would be neat if they took to her as if she were a surrogate mother, but I’m thinking they’re getting to be a little old for that.

Besides I’M their surrogate mother! 🙂

 

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Have you seen this site?

http://daveola.com/Zoo/Mr_Peterson/

I thought you would get a kick out of the cat’s name… 🙂

I had not seen that site – too cute!

 

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That is funny about calling the cats nicknames – I do that all the time! (hence why I probably find it so funny!) My latest thing is “bear”. My black lab is black bear, the cat is old bear and my horse is papa bear. Typing that all out sounds pretty silly. I’ve also been know to call them all some form of “mugs” – old mugs, mr. mugs, etc. 🙂

If you think I’m not planning to name a future foster kitten “Mr. Mugs”, you don’t know me at all. Hmmm. How about Mr. Mugs, Dr. Mugs, and Miz Mugs? The Mugses! Heh.

 

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What’s in a name? Almost 2 years ago (when I began grad school) I moved in (with my one cat) with a lady who had 5 cats. All were rescues and all of hers had some sort of issue (one, I’m convinced, has cerebral palsy). I was convinced that one of her cats, named Furby, was autistic. This cat would not look at you, could not make eye contact, would run if she saw you looking at you, and would not allow anyone to touch her. About 2 months ago, for no particular reason, I began calling her Fur-Bunny (now just Bunny). Since then she has become a COMPLETELY different cat–She will look at me, I can give her treats and she will take them from my hand, and I’ve actually petted her. She responds to Bunny and will look at you if you call her (but only Bunny–she will not respond to Furby). She will even approach you. Still doesn’t like to be touched, but I have actually petted her tail.

I love love love LOVE LOVE this story! All this time, that cat has been thinking “No one knows me at all!” and then suddenly you called her by the right name, and she was like “SOMEONE KNOWS THE REAL ME!!!”

 

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OMG have you seen this? I’m sure you can relate!

My Bookworms don’t get quite that excited – but they get PRETTY DARN EXCITED at snack time (they get canned food in the morning and again in the evening). I’ll have to see if I can’t shoot a video to show how happy and excited they get.

 

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Gerri asked:

So sorry to hear about Fred. Will you have to cut back on fostering till things pick up? Hope not. Your kitten stories and pix just make my day. Also all the other guys. I’m not sure did you ever tell us Maura’s story. Where did she come from?

We definitely won’t be cutting back on fostering! Challenger’s House is absolutely awesome – they provide all the food and medication we need for our fosters, so none of that comes out of our pocket. We do, of course, spend some money on the fosters, for litter and toys and stuff like that, but that’s also stuff that we’d have on hand around here anyway for our own cats.

(Also, I think I might have a cat toy buying addiction, so I’m staying away from PetSmart for the time being. I mean, seriously – you spend $5 on a toy, and their favorite toys end up being things like toilet paper rolls and crumpled up balls of tinfoil!)

Having the fosters around is a definite stress reliever for both of us – especially now that they’ve got the hang of the litter box and all their litter box leavings are as they should be – so we’ll still be fostering, no matter how long it is ’til Fred is employed again (and hopefully that’ll be soon!)

Maura was rescued from a kill shelter in Tennessee. (It still makes me laugh when I think about the fact that she was NEVER pregnant. She’s no dummy – she thought “If they think I’m pregnant, maybe it’ll make them more likely to save me!” Heh!)

 

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The Bookworms are getting used to the new routine ’round these parts. They’re closed in the guest bedroom overnight, until Fred gets up around 5 or so. He lets them out, and they run around and play until I come downstairs, usually a little after 7. When they hear me coming, they run into the guest bedroom and supervise my scooping of the litter boxes, then howl at me to let me know that they are STARVIN’!

(For the record, they have crunchy food available to them at all times. They’re just spoiled!)

I give them their morning ration of canned food, then after they eat they either curl up for a nap or run around like their tails are on fire. For the rest of the day, they alternately nap and run around. Yesterday, Corbett climbed up on me when I was taking a nap on the couch, and we napped together, and he purred so loud I swear you could hear him two rooms away!

They have their evening ration of canned food around 7, and then run around the living room for a couple of hours while we watch TV. We put them in the guest bedroom around 9, when we go upstairs to bed (we’re early-to-bed, early-to-rise types, if you hadn’t guessed!), and they don’t complain at all.

They sure are sweet boys.

Rhyme, on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. You can see Corbett flirting with Jake in the background. Corbett LOVES Jake!

Fight! FIGHT!

::thlurrrrp!::

Time for a nap.

 

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Jake sure does love to be outside.

Such a crazy little face!

Happy Jake.

 

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Previously
2009: Newsflash: Stupid Alabama woman is the last person in existence to realize that shit is less expensive at Wal-Mart than the local yuppy grocery store.
2008: And then I will duct-tape the stupid thing to me so that I don’t lose it!
2007: It’s a rough fucking life.
2006: No entry.
2005: The freakin’ notify list.
2004: You could take notes, motherfucker.
2003: Okay, okay! Just please stop asking!
2002: I guess I was a doofus even way back then.
2001: DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, EMAIL AND ASK IF I HAVE ANYTHING ON THIS LIST, STILL. I DO NOT
2000: I had to refrain from picking her up and squeezing her to bits.