7/16/10 – Friday

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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Robyn, any chance you remember and wouldn’t mind sharing the store where you got the “Say no to Pot” Lobster shirt? I need to order one!

You can get one at Cool as a Moose! I love that store, and always have to visit it every time I go to Maine. They have the best stuff, and a great Life is Good selection.

 

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The first couple of squirrel pictures I declared “That is one BRAZEN ass squirrel!” and then I scroll down and you declare him brazen too. That must be a New Englander/Maritimer expression because I never hear anybody out west say it.

I wouldn’t be surprised – I’m sure I picked it up from my mother, who was born and raised in Maine. It’s a good word, isn’t it? 🙂

 

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We were at my parents last month and my 7 year old daughter came up to us and said, “Mommy! That squirrel’s tail was soooooo soft!” After a brief recovery period, I asked if it was dead. It wasn’t, but it clearly had some serious issues. Later it fell out of a tree, about 20 feet to the ground, for no obvious reason. More than a little disturbing.

My brother (a new parent) was surprised that I was so calm. But we’d been through almost the exact same situation last year with a raccoon. Only that one WAS dead. I thought the “No petting dead things” rule had me covered. Clearly, I need to come up with something a little broader.

Just when you think you’ve got it all covered, they come up with something new, don’t they? You might need to go with “No petting ANYTHING without asking me first!”

 

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“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.)”

My GOD, if you replaced “child” with “middle aged hag” you’d be describing me perfectly.

I love that yellow bathroom. Very cheerful and you’d never know it was in a basement.

This comment made me laugh out loud.

And the bathroom was awesome – I said to my parents “Now when I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, I don’t have to go upstairs and wake up completely in the process!”

Do you suppose I had to pee in the middle of the night even once during my stay? NO. But if I had, I’d have been all set!

My parents’ basement is a walk-out basement, so it’s not as dark as your average basement. Considering that when they first bought the house, the basement was nothing but a big cement room, they’ve done some amazing things with it!

 

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Do you ever get trolls, and what’s the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever criticized you for on your blog? I never read you talking about jerkoffs, so I figure you must not respond to them, and that really is the best strategy – all they want is attention. But at the same time, because of your larger readership I am sure you must get some weirdos from time to time.

You know, I think I’m pretty damn lucky – the hateful comments I get are few and far between, and it’s been a few years since I’ve gotten any that I remember. There are three that come to mind.

The one that immediately comes to mind is from 2003. Jackie in Vancouver, WA posted a comment saying that my new haircut looked like crap, I was an idiot for “letting” Fred take the spud on day trips, and I better get back on track with the weight loss or keep looking over my shoulder. (My response to that is here. Fred’s, which was vastly better, is here.)

(Hey. She called me “honey”! Maybe it was actually Teresa from the NJ Housewives!)

I’ll admit, that was the funnest one to deal with because our girl Jackie? Seemed to have forgotten that Fred is pretty damn good when it comes to computer-type things. In less than 5 minutes we had her home address and phone number and knew that her deceased father was retired from the Navy. Someone might have called her phone number and claimed “Sorry, wrong number”, but it wasn’t me. Nope.

Another one (which I only remembered because I was looking for the post about Jackie) was in the comments (which no longer exists, apparently, because I can’t find it – it must have been lost when I switched from Movable Type to WordPress). In that entry, I mentioned a book I’d seen at Target and thought about buying, but which I put on my Amazon wish list instead, so I’d remember to buy it when it came out in paperback. “Sandra” left a long, accusatory email about how I only mentioned the wish list so someone would go buy the book for me. I was mostly horrified that anyone would think I was doing that, but “Sandra” was also not a long-term reader, apparently, and had never left a comment before, so I think she was just a drive-by. There seems to be a certain breed of internet asshole who like to wander from blog to blog and leave bits of assholery behind.

And the last was the comment from Lakewood, NJ who wanted to school me in the correct way to lose weight. My response to that is here. (Huh. 2003 – 2004 was quite the time period for assholes, wasn’t it?)

I feel like someone left a hilariously nasty comment about the fact that I’d decided to have weight loss surgery – I remember that it made me laugh because it was so poorly written (here’s a hint, if you want your nasty comment to be taken at all seriously, probably you might run the spell-check on it first), but I haven’t been able to find it.

Oh, and the last (and the one that still makes me laugh). A few years ago someone took me to task because the cucumbers we’d been growing in the garden were being eaten up by bugs, and I was tired of dealing with them so had Fred pull them up. (You can scroll down to her comments here.) I think, mostly, that she was looking for attention, so I helpfully went back and deleted her url from all the annoying comments she’d left leading up to that last comment.

I’m sure there are more, but those are the ones that come to mind. And like I said, there haven’t been any in a good long while – but I am NOT complaining about that, believe me!

 

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Don’t all the kitties come running to you for snackin’ time? I thought they had you trained pretty well, Robyn? 🙂

Believe it or not, I have actually discontinued snackin’! time!, and the cats are all still alive and kicking. And so am I, which is a little bit of a surprise, because I would surely have thought they’d killed me in my sleep by now.

 

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Oddly enough, what I thought was a rag that SYMETRY guy was cleaning the windshield wipers with looks like it IS a shirt; if I didn’t know it was too ridiculous to be possible, I’d say it looks like he’s trying to sew a button on while his hatted passenger (wife? almost certainly) rolls her eyes in exasperation. I can’t see her eyes, mind, but that pose just SCREAMS “I am rolling my eyes at you.” Which is kind of a waste of eyes, because niiiiiiiice arms.

The guy in question:

What he appeared to be doing was putting shirts over the seats – I’m sure the seats were leather, and either hot or sticky (or both). He seemed to be taking a long, long time to get it done, though!

 

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For two days I have not had any of your photo’s or banner come through. Do you think it is at my end? Anyone else have this problem?

I know it’s been a few weeks, but is this still happening for you, Catsy? I’m trying to get Fred going on finding a new host for our websites, but there appears to be a serious lack of interest on his part.

 

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Thought you all might like, even though I’m sure you have seen it.

Baby moose in sprinkler.

AHHH! SO FREAKIN’ CUTE!!!!

 

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Not to be rude, but I’ve gotta ask – do you actually own any clothes that fit, or are they all oversized t-shirts?

Oh, hush up. YES I own clothes that fit, but I really HATE IT when my clothes touch me. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – if I could wear clothes that only touched me at the neckline and then billowed out to touch me nowhere else, I’d be a happy camper.

Shirt that (mostly) fits, exhibit 1.

Shirt and jeans that (mostly) fit, exhibit 2.

 

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I went and added a note on yesterday’s entry, but in case you missed it…

“NEGATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!”

“And then we was tutored, and it was EXHAUSTING!”

They tested negative (didn’t I tell you they would? But I was still worried!), they were neutered, and they had their ID chips put in, got their rabies shot, the whole kit and kaboodle. Now they’re ready and available to be adopted, we’re just waiting for room at the adoption center!

 

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To celebrate the negative test results, well….

Meet Los Gatitos (Spanish for “The kittens.” At least that’s what Babelfish tells me. I know nothing of Spanish, so if Babelfish steered me wrong, please let me know.)

This is Hermano.

Pancho, Sofia, and Evita sleep off their spay and neuter surgeries.

Hermano’s a little leery of me.

“Whatchoo doin’, lady?”

Yes, we have FOUR white kittens. Hermano has two blue eyes, Sofia has one blue and one green eye, and Pancho and Evita both have green eyes. (I’ll be putting collars on them so I can tell them apart from a distance.)

They’re about 10 weeks old, and when they counted back on the calendar at the vet’s, they came up with May 5th – Cinco de Mayo, thus the Spanish names.

These kittens were tossed in a ditch by some guy in a van out in the country. Luckily, the sister and mother of a Challenger’s House friend came upon them almost immediately, which is a good thing – white kittens are particularly vulnerable to predators because they’re so visible.

They were a little bit skittish last night, but this morning they weren’t too concerned about me. Hermano let me pick him up and pet him, and didn’t think it was TOO horrible an experience. Pancho is a live wire – he was literally hopping straight up in the air to get rid of some of that energy. They’re adorable, sweet, playful kittens, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them!

 

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Spanky, in his current favorite sleeping place.

 

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Previously
2009: I do not like scary flying things or their nests.
2008: “LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M REFUSING TO LOOK AT YOU, YOU GRINNING MORONIC MOTHERFUCKER!”
2007: I can’t speak for Fred, but I know I was thinking “Jesusgodalmighty, I hope that scar on his head doesn’t pop out and his brain doesn’t come sproinging at me, because then I’d have to bat it like a volleyball and I never was very good at volleyball.”
2006: No entry.
2005: Off to Maine!
2004: No entry.
2003: “That is a child who does not fear her parents nearly enough.”
2002: It’s a Poo! Inna box! A Poo inna box! What more could you possibly hope for?
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.