7/15/10 – Thursday (Vacation Pics)

Edited to add: The Bookworms? NEGATIVE!!!!!! YAY!!!

From the Challenger’s House update email:

Here at Challenger’s House it’s been hard to keep up with all the calls & requests for us to take cats & kittens. It was a late “kitten season” but even with an adoption center (at Petsmart) full of kittens, and foster homes full of kittens, and kittens here at the shelter, adoptions have been slower in 2010. In the first quarter of this year, we took in 37 and adopted 47 but in the second quarter we took in 57 and only adopted out 27. We still keep a population of 120-140 at any given time.

What a lot of people don’t understand is that being a no time limit (no-kill) shelter, we can’t take every cat or kitten that comes along. If we did, we would be overcrowded, disease would set in, and money would run out quickly. And since we keep the cats until they are adopted or die of old age we end up with cats that are middle aged & older, some of whom will probably live with us the rest of their lives.

At the current time, donations are down & our funds have dwindled. We are asking that everyone who is able, send a donation to help us defray the cost of vet bills, medications/vaccines, flea control, food, litter, utilities, and all the other expenses associated with operating a shelter that provides a comfortable place for the cats & kittens to stay until they are adopted. You can make such a difference by supporting Challenger’s House in its quest to help as many homeless and unwanted cats & kittens as possible.

We take the animals we can but when our foster homes are full and the shelter is full, and when money is tight, we have to turn people away. It’s heartbreaking to tell them we don’t have room for the litter of kittens they found in the ditch or the cat that their neighbor moved off & left.

If you’d like to donate to Challenger’s House, you can do so by mail, phone, or Paypal – all the information is at the bottom of their Petfinder page, here.

 

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Pictures from my vacation – completely random, in no particular order.

(©Lanna Lee Maheux, because I am a dumbass and somehow deleted the pictures I had on my camera. Grrrr!)
Met Lanna Lee at IHOP for breakfast Saturday morning so she could enjoy the Bitchypoo experience, poor girl. (Heh.) We discussed the possibility of a Bitchypoo meetup gathering type thing (BitchyCon?) when I’m visiting next summer.
(What the holy hell is up with that vein in the middle of my forehead? Where did THAT thing come from?)

Giant LL Bean boot!

Spud! I know you’re curious how the spud is doing, and the word is that she is doing well. She’s recently become single again, she’s working, and she’s happy. She’s not in school right now, but is intending to start either in the Fall or the beginning of next year in a program that will get her her Associate degree in 18 months (or less, depending on which of the classes she’s already taken can be transferred) in Business Management.

The spud and I!

I come by my love of blueberry muffins honestly.

My almost 17 year-old niece, Mireya. (Because I know you’re curious, Mireya is Korean on her mother’s side, and has Down’s Syndrome.) Mireya comes from a place of “no.” Her knee-jerk reaction is “no.” Want to go swimming? Want to eat dinner? Want to watch a movie? “NO.” She gives the best stink-eye on the planet. But once she’s relaxed and fed, she is one happy child. (Just don’t let her see you pointing that camera at her.) She’s fond of her father (HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT), and if she suspects you might be trying to take her Daddy away from her (I’m looking you, great-nephew!), she’s sure to repeatedly let you know that that is HER Daddy. HERS. Not yours. HERS. Also, she’s going through a self-renaming phase. While I was there, she declared that her name was “NOT Mireya.” – (1) Wall-E, (2) Waterboy, (3) Beatlejuice, and (4) Sassy. I also called her Pickles one day, because we were hanging out in the pool talking about pickles (what?) and she thought that was one funny-ass word.

Anyone know what this is?

Lobstah time!

Million Bells petunias. They are SO pretty – I’m trying to figure out where I can hang a pot of them around here. The most obvious places (front porch, side porch) don’t get enough sun.

Benji spends a lot of time waiting for his people to come home. (They take him with them a lot, but this last week was very hot, so they opted to leave him home. He did not approve.)

Some of my mother’s Fiesta Ware.

You saw the house to the left of my brother’s house, the one for sale for $74,000, right? This is the one behind him. I think he said the owners are trying to sell it (or intend to try to sell it) for a cool million. They believe they can get that price (and hey, maybe they can – who am I to judge?) because it’s on the water. The house itself is falling down, though.

And the falling-down garage-type structure to the right of him. There’s a house that goes with this (that I apparently failed to get a picture of) where no one lives. It’s also on the water.

Did I post this one the other day? I don’t remember. If so, here it is again! The spud and I in Freeport.

My brother and father built this deck in just a few days. I wish I had someone who would build me a deck. ::sad eyes:: Or maybe a covered porch off the laundry room. ::very sad eyes::

Went to the Sea Basket twice. Liz was having a craving. You didn’t hear me complaining!

Candy at Wilbur’s of Maine.

The spud and I outside of Wilbur’s. Don’t we look relaxed and comfy? DAMN THAT SUN, it was always in my eyes!

Banana for a monkey.

Mireya (yes, she likes hats) and Curly McGee.

I cannot figure out why this picture made me think of June. It’s a mystery. (I eat my everyday whoopie pies every day!)

The SQUIRRELS in my parents’ back yard! So freakin’ BRAZEN. The last morning I was there, my father walked up behind a squirrel who was chowing down on the suet and the squirrel didn’t notice my father until he REACHED OUT AND POKED the squirrel. I bet after being poked by a human, that squirrel was glad he was wearing his brown pants. So to speak.

My parents recently put a bathroom in their basement. I LOVE it.

The shower’s a bit of a step up (5 1/2 inches up, to be exact. They needed room for the plumbing.), and about half the time, I lost that knowledge while I was in the shower and stumbled down into the wall opposite the shower on my exit.

Things I saw while shopping that made me laugh.

 

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The boys are off to be tested and neutered in a little while. ‘Til tomorrow, here are some pictures I took the day before I went on vacation.

Awww, look at Gavin and Garrity, right there in the middle of the vegetable inspection!

All four Bookworms (click on the picture to go over to Flickr and see notes on who’s who), Lieu, Garrity, and Jake! Could we fit any more cats in one picture?

And by the way, so far only Sheila has been adopted (this can be partially explained by the fact that there was initially a litter of Siamese kittens in the very next cage. And you KNOW how people love the Siamese. They suck up all the attention!). The other four are at the adoption center. I’m hoping this weekend will be their lucky weekend!

 

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Previously
2009: Is it called “BeelzeBoogs”?? Oh, that sounds like a FUN book.
2008: “Huh. An armadillo. Weird. They don’t usually come this far north!”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: “Bessie,” he said. “That is CAT POOP, not kitty treats!”
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: Our kitties, spoiled? Nah.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.