If people haven’t heard, there was a horrific case of kitten abuse in Florida and it would be great if people could sign the petition for the Florida AG to prosecute the woman who beat two kittens with a bat and encouraged her young sons to abuse the kittens as well. One of the kittens died and the other was rescued by some brave children in the park. The story and petition are here.
The petition is important since there is some pressure from the alleged perps relatives and neighbors to let her go. It’s so bad, that the mother of one of the children who rescued one of the kittens was surrounded by about 30 angry people on the day of the incident. They were yelling at her for calling the police, if you can imagine.
Let’s support her, her brave son and decency by signing and publicizing the petition. I’ll get off my soapbox now with a link to the Facebook page for the surviving kitten, who is named Dexter and is slowing recovering from his injuries. He’s as cute as a very cute button!
I signed the petition! How about y’all?
I don’t know how you do it Robyn – I would just sit around and cry every time I had to let go of a batch of those adorable babies. I have often thought that I’d like to foster cats but I don’t know if I could just foster them – I’d want to keep them all.
Well, you’ll note that we only had five cats when we started six years ago!
It is awfully hard to take them to Petsmart, but I try to keep in mind that they’re going to go to homes where they’re adored to bits. I know I’m going to miss these guys something awful and this house is going to be awfully quiet without them here!
I’m guessing from previous July 5 entries (spider drama notwithstanding) that your holiday weekend at Crooked Acres was relatively peaceful? Quiet neighbors are the best thing ever.
Actually, the neighbors were pretty annoying this year. Now that we’re out in the country, there are more neighbors shooting off fireworks, but they’re further away than they were when we lived in a subdivision in Madison. It still makes my blood boil, the way our Madison neighbors shot off fireworks in the street in front of our house (we were at the end of a cul-de-sac) and then left fireworks shit all over our lawn for us to pick up. I don’t think there’s enough money on earth to convince me to move back to the ‘burbs, even if it WAS awfully convenient having the grocery store and Lowe’s three minutes from the house.
I had a crooked acres dream the other night – and I think it ranks up there as one of the weirdest! I dreamt that you died (sorry – I’m not usually morbid!) and Fred decided to keep running your blog. No one knew you were dead until a bunch of your readers decided to come down for an impromptu visit. We were all duly impressed with how well Fred was able to imitate your writing style.
I am charmed by the (wronnnnng) idea that Fred would ever try to keep my blog going, and further that he could ever capture my writing style. Well, unless he got drunk and typed “Awww, look at the KITTY!” over and over again. 
But yeah, that’s an odd one!
Funny how you mark the time – I clicked in this morning thinking to myself – “I think it’s the anniversary of Mr Booger’s passing.” Why? I really don’t know, other than I do know he had always been my favorite. A cat I’ve never met! How insane is this? Anyway, wanted you to know I am thinking of him. And I do truly adore Looney Jake for probably just the reason that in my mind, he and Elwood are Boogie descendants 
It has, indeed, been two years since Mister Boogers died. (It was actually June 30th, 2009, but I wrote about it on July 1st.) We still miss him, and talk about him from time to time. He had such a personality, and it was a shock to lose him so unexpectedly. After Coltrane died, I told Fred that obviously June is a cursed month for us, and I was glad to see June FINALLY end. I think that next year we need to just bring all the cats inside and hole up in the house for the entire month of June!
I had my first Crooked Acres dream. I’ve been reading since 1999 and haven’t had a dream, but I finally broke the seal last week (does this mean I’ll now have a Crooked Acres dream every 5 minutes?). I don’t remember a lot of the details but a few things still stand out. There were a lot of your readers at the house, all hanging out in the yard like it was Woodstock or something. It was like they were waiting for you to come out onto the porch/stage and start the show. For some reason, I was in the house and had to take care of some of the cats in a small side room. I ended up spilling something – can’t remember what but it was apparently a Bad Thing To Spill. I got all freaked out, cleaned it up, and then screwed up the courage to tell you that I spilled something. You seemed like you would have been super pissed if I hadn’t cleaned it up, but as long as the situation was under control, you’d just settle with a warning glare. Then I went out to tell the crowd that we could stay the night, but we’d have to sleep outside.
I think this was one of the nights that I drank blueberry tea before bed. That stuff gives me weird dreams!
Have I perhaps mentioned that I LOVE IT when you guys have Crooked Acres dreams? They crack me UP. (Also, I don’t even know what kind of show I was going to put on!)
The bit about cats burying their food bowl made me think about our cat Henry’s annoying habit of purposefully dumping food in his water bowl. When we first got him, we thought he was just a sloppy eater, which he is, but my husband & I have both seen him move his food bowl next to his water bowl & scoop food out of the food bowl & into the water bowl. We can’t imagine why he does this, because it makes his water really nasty. A friend of mine said she thought she heard somewhere that big cats “wash” their food before eating it, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. It seems that Henry likes the taste of the water better when there’s food in it, maybe. Of course, he gets most of his water from lapping at the tub after we take showers, so maybe he’s just being a brat. He looks just like your Corbie, by the way, and is the friendliest cat I’ve ever met, so we can’t get too mad at him. Anyway, I’m curious if you or any of your other cat owning readers have encountered food dunkers!
I usually have to rinse out and refill the water bowl in the laundry room most mornings because it has a piece or two of food floating around in it. I feel like someone told me that cats will put food in the water bowl so that they can tell where the top of the water is, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. Anyone out there know?
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
But have the little “hellions” as Doodle Bean (who I seem to follow around the blog world) called them, had their “little operations”? How did I miss that? Really? Hmm…must be geting old.
Yep, they were spayed (Ciara) and neutered (the rest) on June 2nd. Challenger’s House doesn’t adopt out kittens unless they’ve been spayed and neutered and are up to date on their shots!
I’m starting to think Clove is a “hidden” Cali-tabby but can’t be sure just from photos. Of course, since she’s not ever going to be a Mommy Cat, this doesn’t matter the way it would as it does when cat breeding. Then you hope to be able to predict if the Mother has “the red gene” or not; but even then sometimes you don’t know.
and
On the calitabby – the real test is not to look at the background hairs, but at hairs of a stripe. These will be all black all over for a brown tabby, or will be two shades on a calitabby.
Okay, I FINALLY picked Clove up last night and took a closer look at her brown-or-are-they-orange? spots. The hairs on her orange / brown stripes are two colors. So this means she’s a “hidden” calitabby?
Love the pic of the black kitten jumping for the feather toy! Expecially the face of the orange tabby. She looks like she is cheering him on and in awe!
and
Every time you post a picture of the black kitten with the crossed paws in mid-leap I start humming a chorus of Kung Fu Fighting! Oh the concentration on that little face!
I should have mentioned (and maybe have mentioned in the past, I don’t remember) that that picture? This picture right here:
That black kitten is our very own Tommy. And on the ground cheering him on are Sugarbutt, and their sister “Little Cal”!
Are you ever tempted to get Gracie & George severe summer trims for the heat? I can’t recall any pic’s with extreme haircuts but that doesn’t mean anything.
We’ve talked about it, and in fact last year we went to Petsmart and bought a trimmer that the guy working there assured us would be strong enough to deal with their coat. It didn’t trim worth a damn, and we ended up returning it. Fred called around to groomers in the area, and was quoted a price of $150 PER DOG, which just isn’t going to happen. What we do now is brush them regularly, and then a couple of times during the summer Fred goes out there with the brush and a bottle of dog shampoo and really concentrates on getting them wet and clean, and uses the brush to get out as much undercoat as he can. It actually makes a big difference!
If you don’t read the Love & Hisses Facebook page (and why NOT?), you won’t have seen the post from Wednesday night where I announced that as there’s room for Maggie at Petsmart, she’ll also be going later today. Ciara is still a bit under the weather, so she’ll stay here at least through the weekend.
It’s going to be awfully quiet around here without Maggie and the boys! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they go in pairs. Preferably this weekend. PREFERABLY tonight, but I know that’s probably a little much to ask.
“I am NOT faking it. Stop looking at me like that.”
Cilantro and Fergus Simon, flirting.
Siesta time for Macushla, on the kitchen floor.
Macushla watching the big cats run around in the back yard.
Smug Miss Cori.
Declan and Cillian, snoozing on my desk.
“What?”
You can’t really tell from this picture, but Macushla has a bit more of the ear floof than the other cats do.
I love Fergus Simon’s spotted belly.
Fergus Simon learned a new trick. O joy.
Fred has taken a shine to Cillian. He calls him “Simba” and talks about how beautiful he is.
I have a bunch more McMao pics on my hard drive, so will likely be sharing those through all of next week!
Your weekly reminder: Corbie is beautiful. That is all.
Previously
2010: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2009: Garden pics
2008: Boneheaded things I have recently done
2007: No entry.
2006: Just a quick picture to let y’all know what we did with our Saturday morning.
2005: I turned and gave her the Bug-Eyed Look of Annoyance*, to no avail.
2004: “Agh!” I yelled. “I hate you kitties! I hate you all!”
2003: Do motherfuckers retain water?
2002: “Your cheatin’ heeeeeart…”
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
Yeah, fireworks should be banned across the country for private citizens. They’re illegal in my county in California and it’s a real blessing. You’d think people would violate the law and set them off anyway, but the penalties are very stiff.
FFS, you need a permit to catch a fish but any moron can set off dangerous, fire-causing explosives all summer long.
Gorgeous kitten-face photos today.
Damn…$150.00 apiece to trim George and Gracie’s coats? That’s just plain ridiculous.
When my GS-mix mutt gets a little ripe between baths, I spray her with a vinegar/water solution and wipe her down with some paper towels. Really gets rid of the doggy smell. And she loves it because it means treats afterward. A bribe-able pup is a controllable pup.
My parents have a Rottweiler/something mix, who I’m guessing is probably about George’s size. (She weighs about 110 pounds but she could stand to lose 10-15 without getting too skinny.) She’s got thick, heavy, long hair that tangles easily; the Petsmart groomers charge $60-70 for a bath and summer shave-down. And this is for a dog that they know is going to lie there like a terrified lump, refusing to stand and making them do lots of heavy lifting and moving, and then poop on the table once they get her in the harness thingie to help hold her up. lol My parents got her as a rescue dog; she was pure skin and bones, and crawled around their house on her belly for a week, peeing herself when anyone so much as looked at her, much less talked to her or tried to touch her. I don’t know what kind of hell she went through before she was rescued, but 8-9 years later she’s comfortable with us but still shakes in abject terror if a stranger approaches.
Sounds to me like your local economy is a helluva lot more robust than ours (probably), the private groomers charge a lot more than those for whom grooming is an “extra service” (also probably), or you need to make a few more calls!
I only pay $60 for BOTH of my (small) dogs, and that’s including the tooth-brushing and the tip. $150 each. Yowza.
By the way I have read (when I was trying to do the grooming and detangling duties myself) that it’s important to brush a thick-coated dog thoroughly *before* getting them wet, as the undercoats and any tangles tend to get “locked up” when wet and are more difficult (for the human) and painful (for the dog) to be brushed out. I can’t get my tangle-prone dog to stand still for ONE thorough brushing, much less a brush-wash-dry-brush-again cycle, so I let the pros do it. I just wish the groomers I use for the dogs, would do cats. Why is it that the cats who need brushing the most, refuse to let you approach them with a brush??
Elayne-you are right about needing to have the coat all brushed out before getting it wet. My husband is a groomer, and has to fix lots of dogs that have been bathed with mats in their fur. I am surprised your groomer doesn’t do cats, my husband does-in fact, the SPCA calls him the “cat whisperer” because they bring all their problem cats to him.
I don’t know the specifics, I’ll have to ask Fred since I’ve never actually watched him doing it, but I believe he does it section by section: gets the coat really wet, shampoos it, rinses it out, and then brushes it before moving on to the next section. If I’m wrong about that, I’ll report back!
I signed the petition about that disgusting woman’s behavior toward the kittens. IMO, only a psychotic monster could treat helpless kittens that way! And if there is one thing that brings out a homicidal rage in me, it’s mistreatment of helpless kittens or puppies. Ugh.
On a happier note, I’m sending lots of lucky wishes that the kitties & Maggie find their forever homes soon.
I feel ya on the fireworks. This year was HEAVEN because Houston is 15 1/2 inches BELOW where we should be on rainfall, and most of the counties in our area had a fireworks ban. My neighborhood of pyromaniacs was filled with the sadness whereas I did a happy dance of joy and sent a love letter to our county judge. I HATE the fireworks. HATE them.
BTW, you do realize you are one of a very few people who can say “… we only had five cats…”?
I will miss the little critters and the lovely Maggie, but I know you’ll have new fosters probably sometime in the next 10 minutes…
Check Henry’s teeth. Our neighbors had a cat who out her food in the water to soften it up and make it easier to eat because she had teeth pain. It’s worth checking.
Cillian does have a very lion like face!
Our cats are constantly putting things in the water bowl. Every morning we come down to find cat toys, store receipts, tissues in the water bowl. They especially like to put paper things in there. We find it amusing!
Signed the petition and shared on fb. That MONSTER should have someone take a bat to her head and those children should be put in foster care! She is going to create sociopaths!
I HATE the fireworks too-not the real ones so much except for the noise-but the neighborhood idiots who set them off. They are illegal here too but that doesn’t stop it. So many dumbasses do it the cops can’t catch them all. The local (Philadelphia) news had a story of a man who died because one blew up in his face. Tragic. Aside from the noise I am afraid of fire too. We have had some of the worst lightning storms I can remember lately. There’s enough fire risk from that. My neighbor’s tree got hit and his car parked under it is dead-had to be towed out-something with the computer. The base of the tree is burnt and a line goes accross the lawn. Their direct TV and phone jacks were knocked out and they are lucky that is all. There were fires at homes in other towns from these storms. My dogs and cat don’t like it but I know people whose poor animals freak out. I can understand the poor babies being stressed-there has been booming noise of some kind for a couple of weeks now.
We had asked our doggy daycare lady about shaving our dog Meatloaf – she basically told me that I would hate it because of his type of fur (he’s an aussie) and that it would grow back all wonky and weird. Just thought I’d throw that out there in case the same is true for Great Pyranese. I did take Meatie in to get a total grooming experience and he came back a whole new dog! His coat is so shiny and thinned out (you may already have that since you furminate).
Anyway – he’s a lot cooler too. Now I just hope I can keep up with it!
Meatlof/Meatie-what an awesome name!!!
MeatLOAF! LOL!
petition signed!
I had a cat who put dry food in his water simply because he loved water. What could be more fun than scooping food into water and then fishing it out to eat it off your paw?
His love of wet dry food came in handy toward the end of his life when he wasn’t too interested in eating some days, but a little plate of dry food soaked in water could tempt him when nothing else would.
My other guy is a bury-er. When he’s done eating his wet food he will scrap around the plate and “bury” it before walking away.
I love cat eccentricities.
I cannot imagine hurting an innocent animal and then telling your kids to do the same. What is wrong with people anymore? Maybe if all us “cat people” hit her a few times with a baseball bat, she’d think twice. *shaking my head*
On a lighter note, I’ve always loved the picture of “Kung Fu Tommy.”
Kung Fu Kitten is Tommy? That dignified boy certainly had a wild side!
On the subject of grooming- I pay between $45.00 and $50.00 for Ruby-bath, ears, nails clipped and a buzz cut-so easy and she loves it-she has no tolerance for heat just like me. She is an average/maybe slightly small American Cocker Spaniel. I pay $45.00 for Ollie to get a bath and nails done. Ollie is the “biggest basset I’ve ever seen” (words of our groomer who breeds and shows Portugese Water Dogs too-like Bo the first dog. They are gorgeous and so smart but cost a fortune. ADHD much-I mean he goes to dog shows too so sees many dogs). If my knees weren’t so painful I would bathe Ollie at home. I’d need my husband to help get him in and out though. I know he’d give us a hard time. When I fill the tub for myself-an occasional thing, I mostly shower-he sees that water and runs for the hills. Normally he wants to be right in there with me.
i never spend my money on fireworks. they are loud and make a mess, not mention stinking. like you, on july 5, i would find a yardful of dirty confetti all over my yard, even though i didn’t shoot off a single firework. that’s where the leaf blower comes in. i can blow all the paper back into the offender’s yard. i always wonder what they think when they come home and their yard is full of trash THEY created.
Hey Robyn,
I am also going to miss Maggie and her brood! I have so much enjoyed hearing about them and seeing their pictures as they’ve been growing up at Crooked Acres! I hope you won’t feel heartbroken when they leave . You and Fred have done a mighty fine job of raising Maggie and her kitties!
Petition signed. Should that woman really be raising children?
I will not go to Petsmart and adopt Maggie. I will not go to Petsmart and adopt Maggie. I will not go to Petsmart and adopt Maggie.
Oh, if I could. I think my Mouse the Cat would be supremely pissed if I brought home another little girl. But oooooooh…..
i can’t say enough good things about petluv in brooksville, the clinic that is caring for dexter. they go above and beyond in the care of unwanted/stray animals all the time, outside of media attention. if you can, please consider making even a small donation to them.
Wait…what…Coltrane? I mustv’e missed a day…when was this?
June 19th
(It was a Sunday)
Robyn, isn’t when Fred starts calling someone ‘beautiful’ the indicator they’ll become a permanent resident?
Can we cross our paws and hope?
(And what is with the demented Mothers in Florida lately?)
Hey Robin. I’m a reader from Tuscaloosa and I just finished Freds book–I really liked it. Tell him that, please. Also, my husband has recently become a mother bird and I’m hunting your video of Fred being one–so Bill will know what to do. Thanks for sharing, we rely on your wisdom and experience. K.