Fred’s book is now available on the German Amazon site, in case anyone out there’s interested!
Have you seen the Eagle cam? 3 baby eaglets, so adorable!
Ack! SO FREAKIN’ CUTE!
Robyn, admit it – you get those kittens all boozed up on vodka and rum before filming them, don’t you? I swear to God, I get the exact same looks on my face when I’ve been drinking (Declan’s wide-eyed “everything’s MOVING!” and Ciara’s “oh god, just gonna sit here for a li’l bit…”).
I read this comment, and then I went and re-watched the video:
And I GUFFAWED. Because YOU ARE CORRECT, MADAME!
saturday night live does a sketch about a TARGET cashier who comments on every item her customers buy. she doesn’t shut up, ever. each time she always ends up leaving the register to go get an item for herself. the character is played by kristin wiig.
did you see any tv cameras around, because i think you went through her line. i immediately thought about it when i read your entry!
Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Kristen Wiig Videos or Saturday Night Live Videos
I didn’t SEE any cameras around, but it’s only because I have a healthy fear of ending up on “Watch What Happens” or some other undercover news show that I am unfailingly polite to all cashiers, whether they’re annoying or crabby or whatever. I don’t want to end up on TV as the asshole!
Knowing nothing about wee baby kittens so I must ask: why do the ears take so long to stand up?
Good question, and I don’t know! It just… does. 🙂
The look on Maggie’s face in the pic with the lone baby nursing is cracking me UP. “I used to have a career, a social life. I went to shows, went for drinks with my friends, and I could go to bed and get up whenever I damn well pleased. Where did it all go so wrong?”
The faces she makes when the babies are nursing always make me laugh, because she’s so patient, but she always looks like she is just biding her time ’til she can kick these babies out of the nest (so to speak) and go back to her exciting pre-baby life.
I don’t know how anyone could go to Sams club and NOT get a slice of cheese pizza on the way out. Do they have pizza at 8:45 A.M.? (note to self:must go to Sams club when I get home to the USA!)
I don’t think I’ve ever bought a slice of pizza from Sam’s – and I think (though I can’t guarantee it) that they don’t start offering the pizza slices ’til the 10:00 open-to-the-public hour. Now you’ve got me wanting to try a slice next time I go!
Who doesn’t love Tommy??
I don’t believe there is a single cat in this house who hates Tommy. He truly is the ambassador.
i had another crazy robyn/fred cat dream. i was visiting you guys for some reason and you showed me a binder full of cross-stitch charts you had collected that had been requested by the cats. some of them were for these weird wraps that looked like saddles and had tapestries of flowers and garden hats and quilts, like those paula duvall patterns popular back in the 80’s. some were for booties that had nike logos on them. you would stitch them and fred would do some type of woodworking to them. i wasn’t interested in helping make cat girdles, so you guys made me leave and gave me some home canned pigeon-flavored dog food stew for my parson russell dug. you told me it would double his life expentancy, which is something we worry about, a she was a rescue we got 5 years ago and he was about 6 years old them. i’m sure you’ve never made a cross-stitched girdle for any of your cats.
LOVE it when you guys have dreams about us!
I’ve never made a cross-stitched girdle for any of the cats… but only ’cause I don’t have a pattern. 🙂
My son just showed me this. Not a cat, but hilarious nonetheless. A ticklish penguin.
CUTEST. THING. EVER.
I forgot your Dyson died (boo!). I had the same Kenmore canister before I bought my current Dyson. When my Dyson dies (which, according to most Dyson owners, is inevitable after a few years), I don’t know what I’ll replace it with. You can’t find one model of vacuum that gets consistently good reviews. I wish I could just tolerate filth…it would be so much easier.
I’m finding that the Kenmore canister does a great job on the floors, but a so-so job on the carpets. I’m seriously thinking of taking my Dyson to be repaired and just using that on the carpets. I’ll have to think about it for a few months and then get fed up with the Kenmore before I take any action, though.
You know, I saw a youtube video where someone put some kind of tiny camera video thing that taped where the cat was going. It was from his/her perspective. That would be cool for Newt & Maxi
That is very neat. Charlene Butterbean (of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee) also wore a camera on her collar for a bit.
Dumb question, but how in god’s name does that lovely chicken SEE?! Also, do you think her Momma chicken is running around somewhere all mad because her daughter’s feathers are in her eyes?
She’s long overdue for a trim, actually. Our crested polish chickens get semi-regular headfeather trims so that they can see the world around them. (“GET those FEATHERS out of your EYES!” Heh.)
Of course, being a bit of a geek, the thing that stands out even more than the beautiful pictures and the mind-exploding cuteness of the kittehs, is the phrase “God willing and the creek don’t rise.” Is that a Maine expression or an Alabama expression? It sounds familiar, but I’ve lived in both north and south, so I’m not sure where I may have heard it.
I’m relatively sure that it’s a Southern saying, though I don’t know that I’ve ever actually heard anyone around here say it. God only knows where I picked it up. Maybe from Fred? It’s as likely that I read it somewhere, though. ‘Tis a mystery. 🙂
You’ve probably said before, but how do you get across the ditch? (or is it pretty shallow in places?)
Fred and Rick (Nance’s husband) built a bridge across the ditch a couple of years ago. This time of the year the ditch is usually too deep to get across (at least for me), so we use the bridge. In the middle of the summer, the ditch generally dries up so that we can walk right across it.
Sari asked:
I wonder why Maggie keeps a physical distance to them – does she get hot in the cave or maybe it’s too crowded for her liking? 😀
I didn’t know the answer to this, but Doodle Bean chimed in and said:
Scientists think that the mothers’ spending time away from the nest encourage the kittens to develop faster because they have to work harder and harder to get to the milk – using their eyes and noses to find her, getting it together to walk to her, etc.
It may seem harsh to us, but Nature is like that.
Which makes total sense. I notice that the older the kittens get, the less inclined Maggie is to go running over to check on them at every little sound they make.
Does it appear that at least one, if not two, of the babies might be fluffier than the rest, and therefore destined to be medium- or long-haired beauties?
and
Those babies are so stinkin’ cute! I’m wondering if they have short hair with baby fuzz or are they going to be long haired kitties?
I do not believe we’ve got any that will turn out to be medium or long-haired cats, I think they’re all short-haired. But I could be wrong! (On a side note, of all the cats I’ve fostered, I’ve had very few that were long-haired.)
Aww explorer Declan is wearing his wee white exploring socks and mittens 🙂
Here at Crooked Acres, one must be properly attired when exploring. It’s one of the things I insist upon!
To: Robyn Anderson
From: Your fans
Re: Kara, Corbie, Alice, probably Stinkerbelle, Tom and Sugarbutt and maybe Rufus, Maggie and her kittens
We have read your posts over the years and have re-read Kara’s birthing story because you put that convenient link in there. We are getting the very strong impression that when you write “And no, we’re not keeping them”, what actually happens is that you end up keeping at least one. Just sayin’ that you’ve written that phrase about Rufus as well as Maggie and her litter…
Watch out! We’re going to start nagging any minute now!
As long as, after they go off to be adopted, y’all realize that it’s not ’cause I don’t WANT to keep them that I’m not keeping them. I pretty much want to keep all our fosters. These guys will be especially hard to give up, since I practically gave birth to them myself.
Maggie’s “soothing mama” sound reminds me a bit of the trilling chirps in the “two talking cats” video:
I love that video – those cats are so SWEET.
Looking at the kittens and Maggie, I can’t help but wonder what the Papa McMao looks like. I mean, the babays have more white than Maggie, does it mean it comes from their daddy?
I don’t have a clue, as I don’t really know much about cat genetics (catnetics!), but I’m sure someone out there knows. Anyone?
WOW!! Where did you get all these fabulous chicken breeds?!?! They’re wonderful and so healthy and so proud and gorgeous!!! Oh I think I’m in love with your array of chickens!!! Lovely!!!
Well, thank you! The crested polish chickens were bought from a hatchery a couple of years ago. These days, most of our chickens are “mutts” because we decided why buy from a hatchery when we’ve got hens who can – and want to! – hatch eggs for us. We’ve got two hens sitting on eggs at the moment, and they should be hatching any time now.
We hadn’t intended to have baby chicks quite this early, but hens who are broody (ie, want to hatch babies) can be pretty tricky, and earlier this week Fred found a hen sitting on a clutch of 18 eggs. He candled them (shone a bright light through the egg) and found that 15 of them had definite growth. And as it happened, another hen was going broody at the same time, so he put 7 eggs under one hen and 8 under the other, and we should have babies any day now.
Wee babies toes! I am 99% sure these are Ciara’s toes.
More nursin’.
Hungry babies.
LOVE.
“Your ear smells funny.”
“::gasp:: OH NO SHE DI’IN’T!”
Bath time for Maggie.
At just under three weeks old, the McMaos are spending more time out of their den of their own volition. I put a cat bed in front of the kennel to make it easier for them to get out if they want to, and occasionally they (especially Declan and Ciara) do. I was a bit worried the other night, because the kittens were out exploring the room at bedtime, and I was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to get back into their den. I put out some extra cat beds and made sure the ceiling fan was off, and figured Maggie wouldn’t let them starve or freeze. Sure enough, when I got up in the middle of the night to peek in on them, they were all back in the cave.
I can’t believe they’re almost three weeks old!!!
(Elwood’s face is cracking me up.)
(And Corbie’s face is cracking me up here!)
Previously
2010: He gave me the hairy eyeball.
2009: No entry.
2008: What the fucking fuck was going on, apparently, is that my motherboard was fried.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Annoying.
2003: Holy FUCK, look what JUST wandered across my front yard!
2002: The big flies make a very satisfying THWOOMP! sound as they fly down the attachment tube.
2001: No entry.
2000: Aren’t they, um, AMERICANS?
OMG You need to start fostering penguins!!!! there is a need for that right? Right?
Do you ever see Maggie carry any of the kittens in her mouth? I think that is so cute when a momma cat does that!
Daddy cat would probably have had the white spotting gene. From wiki… ‘The white spotting or piebald spotting gene, S/s, has variable expression, so that an SS cat often has more extensive white patching than an Ss cat. It is this gene that creates the familiar white blaze across the face, a white bib, tuxedo pattern, or dappled paws’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_coat_genetics
Does Fergus Simon have any white at all or is he just like his mama? If none, I’m guessing Dad has one white spotting gene and one not, and he’s passed on the ‘not’ to FS and the ‘yes’ to the others seeing as they are all suited and booted to some extent 🙂
Personally, I have a mental image, given what the kittens look like, of Dad as a black and white tuxie with a lot of white on the face like Joe Bob, and white socks. I have no reason for thinking that, and no idea why black and white and not tabby and white, or whatever, that’s just how I imagine! Clearly I need something to do… lol.
Of course litters of cats can have multiple fathers, depends how naughty Maggie was. Probably very naughty indeed, with a good girl name like Mary Margaret hehehe
The close-up nursing photo (“nursin’ time”) looks like a future calendar photo to me.
Hee I can answer a question. When the McMaos eyes opened, I was surprised they opened so early to I went to Dr. Google and researched. BLW: Eyes opened at normal times – can start at 5 days old.
Anyway, the article also talked about ear flaps. The kittens ear canals aren’t completely developed when they are born – they are deaf. The ears are folded over to protect the ears until the canals have completely developed and they can hear.
I LOVE the Target lady skit!!!! One of my fav SNL skits of all time. Thanks for linking to it!
And Cookie the penguin is the cutest lil thing ever!! I want a penguin as a pet now! 😀
Elwood’s expression in that picture is hilarious. He looks slightly horrified that Corbie decided to come lay next to him. Hehe!
I love the idea of cat cameras and every once in a while semi-seriously think about tracking down one or more for my cats. Have you seen this Friskies-sponsored video? I’m not sure where I originally saw the link–usually I get that kind of thing from here, but maybe I actually ran across it somewhere else. I love it and have watched it several times (my video-loving cat Tristan watches it with me). It kind of makes me teary:
http://www.friskies.com/repurrters/default.aspx
ETA: Oh, I see now that the Charlene Butterbean you mention is one of the Friskies stars! How fun.
Okay, here I am solidifying my geek status:
http://knol.google.com/k/nicole-williams/origin-of-the-phrase-god-willing-and/2syhui1zwwxai/5#
The phrase originated in the late 18th century with Benjamin Hawkins, a politician, who wrote “God willing and the Creek don’t rise” when the President ordered him back to Washington. Most of the sites I looked at said that he must have been referring to the Creek Indians because a) the U.S. was fighting a lot with various tribes over land at the time, b) he capitalized Creek, and c) he was apparently a stickler for such things and would never have made the grammatical error of using ‘don’t’ with a singular subject.
Huh. I think I like the phrase even more now because it can make sense both ways – as referring to the Creek or to the creek 🙂
Robyn – I don’t know if you’ve seen this but I thought it did a bang-up job of explaining cat colorations and patterns:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/catstut6.jpeg
We recently got 2 new kittens, one of which is white, and the breeder talked about the gray smudge on the top of the kitten’s head as being a “kitten cap”. It apparently marks the other color a kitten is carrying while being “fully spotted”. Kittens without caps aren’t carrying a secondary (repressed?) color and are most likely deaf. I had no idea!
Maybe I can come out next week for another visit…been a bad week all around here and I could use some awesome kitten power to rev up my happy gene : ) Let me know if there is a good day…
My maternal grandmother, who was from Arkansas, used to say “The Good Lord willin’ and the crick don’t rise” whenever she was concerned that something might not happen as planned.
Squishing kittens. I love the quilt that Elwood and Corbie are on. Is that hand made by someone? I used to make quilts like that.
The comments about the “drunk” kitties reminded me to show y’all THIS:
http://hungoverowls.tumblr.com/
Heeeeeeeheehee.
Spike Lee did a documentary on HBO about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with the title “If God Is Willing And The Creek Don’t Rise” so that makes it seem Southern to me as well. (No expert on the South at all). I am reading Sharyn McCrumb’s “Ghost Riders” and feel like I’m learning such a different view of the South about Apalachia and the Mountain People. Sharyn Mccrumb is my favorite author of the moment. Her books combine History, the Supernatural and sometimes murder in wonderful ways. Have you ever read her, Robyn?
Papa McMao’s attorney:
yeah, he has some some white fur. But ole Leroy down the street, he has some white fur too. That’s all I am saying. Now I ain’t talking bad about anyone here now but I know Maggie like to hang with ole Leroy from time to time. I never saw it but the word on the block is that Maggie had some good times. Yeah, Papa McMao might have some white fur but he isn’t the only one”….
Best have the DNA tested, right?
The Target cashier reminds me of one who we have at Zellers here. She comments on each item also and once (while doing math for a refund) complained about her eyesight. Scary!
I KNOW you’ve seen the “translation” of the two chirping/talking cats, right? So funny–cracks me up every time!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JynBEX_kg8