On Saturday, Fred and I went up to Tennessee to Amish country. I have a cabinet in my bathroom where I keep my assorted bathroom crap (I know I’ve put up a picture of it in the past, but I’m too lazy to go look for it). The problem is that I have the tendency to just shove stuff in there because I don’t want to dig through the various organizational baskets I’ve put in there, and then of course I can’t find anything.
I did some looking around online and found this storage etagere at JC Penney.
I thought about it and considered it and babbled at Fred about it, and then I came up with a better idea. Why not go up to Amish country and ask the man who built our pantry (still out in the garage, partially stained, waiting for cooler weather before Fred polyurethanes it) how much he’d charge to build something similar? That way I’d have, basically, the same thing – only it’d be a nice, solid version made of real wood and built to stand the tests of time.
We went to Lowe’s and found some baskets to use on the shelves, and then Fred drew up a rough sketch of what we wanted, and what the measurements for each shelf should be.
We got to Amish country late morning, Fred talked to the furniture builder, placed our order, we stopped at a few places for cabbage and cantaloupe and watermelon, and then we headed home. I’m pretty excited about having another solid piece of Amish-built furniture in the house, and I’ve promised that on this one, I’ll do the staining and polyurethaning.
At home, we each grabbed stuff out of the car and headed for the side stoop.
And there we found a mystery comprised of three parts (though it seems that probably two of the parts go together):
1. Egg cartons:
2. A Cool Whip container of cat food:
3. These guys:
No note. No “Please take good care of my kittens”, just kittens, egg cartons, and cat food.
(I haven’t the slightest idea whether the egg cartons and kittens/ kitten food came from the same person. Maybe, maybe not. It’s a mystery!)
The fact that several weeks after our favorite little gray cat died, two little gray kittens have shown up on our side stoop, well, kinda seems like a sign, doesn’t it?
(Fred’s got one version of how it might have happened…)
They are both boys. They both weigh right around 2 1/2 pounds, so I’m guesstimating their ages at about 9 or 10 weeks. One was friendlier than the other, right off the bat. He’s also got a lot of sass and charisma. The other one took a little time to warm up, but he’s coming around too. Less than two days after we brought them into the house, they both come running over to greet us when we walk into the guest bedroom (where they’re currently staying). They both seemed super healthy at first, but after the first few hours we realized that they both had diarrhea (SIGH), both sneezed a few times, and both have semi-watery eyes. We’re treating the diarrhea and keeping an eye on the sneezing.
I emailed the Challenger’s House shelter manager to see if they could become shelter cats, since we’re willing to foster them. She was perfectly fine with that, but I have to say that given Fred’s behavior in the last few days, those kittens aren’t going anywhere. Fred’s sister expressed some interest in adopting one of them, but I suspect she’d have a fight on her hands if she tried to take one of them.
I could be wrong – but I don’t think I am. I think we’ve got two new kittens.
As far as names, we first talked about giving them good old-fashioned biblical names (I was pushing for Ezekiel and Zebediah – Zeke and Zeb!), but Fred doesn’t seem to care for that idea any more. Then we talked about giving them demon names, but don’t really like any of the ones we’ve seen. Maybe angel names? Right now, we’re calling them “Scabby” (because the little Mister Boogers lookalike has a scab on the back of his neck) and “NonScabby”, and I’d really prefer it if those names didn’t stick.
(Fred wants to name them Lieutenant Dann and Boo Radley. I say they need to at least come from the same ERA. In fact, we should probably just give them both the same name since no doubt we’ll always be mistaking one for the other.)
Suggestions? We’re all ears!
So are they.
I spent Sunday cleaning the house, which I haven’t done in far too long (and by “cleaning the house”, of course I mean that I scrubbed the bathrooms, vacuumed, and puttered around putting stuff away. Did I dust? Did I clean the floors? Are you crazy??).
I really really need to clean the bathrooms on a semi-regular basis instead of waiting until the tubs are ready to stand up and stomp out of the house in search of a home where they’ll be cleaned more than every other month.
(That’s only a slight exaggeration.)
The last time I cleaned Fred’s bathroom, I scolded him. His tub gets way dirtier than mine does in the same amount of time because he showers at least twice a day, due to the fact that when he gets home he goes out and works in the garden and/ or cuts grass and/ or deals with the chickens/ pigs/ turkeys. He gets grimier than I do, so of course his tub gets grimier than mine does.
Makes sense.
Anyway, I scolded him the last time I cleaned his tub because it was WAY past needing to be scrubbed. I told him that before it got to that state, he needed to let me know because that was just NASTAY and there’s no reason for a tub to look like that.
(Aside from my innate laziness, of course.)
“Why don’t you set a regular time to clean the bathrooms and then it wouldn’t get into that state,” he said, all reasonable-like.
Yes, yes, because of course the three million times in the past I’ve set a cleaning schedule for myself has worked out SO VERY WELL. Monday, clean kitchen. Tuesday, clean bathrooms. Wednesday, vacuum. And so forth. Usually I get about halfway into Monday’s task and then I either get distracted by something shiny, or I think “It’s clean enough. FUCK THIS.” and go off to do something I’d rather be doing.
I guess mine is just not meant to be a spotless house.
I had to go to the credit union on Friday to deposit a check, and as I pulled up to the drive-thru, there were at least four cars in each line, and I know from experience this means at least 20 minutes of sitting in the drive-thru.
Life is too goddamn short to sit in the drive-thru for 20 minutes, especially when you’ve got shit to do and kittens at home that need some love.
I pulled out of the drive-thru line with the intention of just leaving, and then I decided to park and go inside and see how bad the line there was.
I walked in, deposited my check, and walked back out in LESS THAN sixty seconds.
I will never sit in the freakin’ drive-thru again, so help me god.
Thanks, you guys, for your concern regarding the True Blood kittens. Still waiting to hear what the next step is, but these kittens are not suffering, believe me. I put drops in the eyes that need it twice a day, and while that’s not particularly any fun, they manage to shake it off and go jump on another kitten or chase a ball or race around like their tails are on fire.
(And when I say I’m putting “drops” in their eyes, the stuff I’m actually using is an ointment meant for severely dry eyes. The vet recommended it, it’s called “Gen-Teal”, it’s a gel and I imagine it works a lot better than trying to put actual drops in their eyes. I can’t imagine how THAT would go!)
I weighed them this weekend, hoping that they’d all gained half a pound in the past week so I could have them spayed and neutered. Not that I’m so desperate to spay and neuter them, but when Terry is neutered, he’ll have his hernia fixed at the same time and I’ve got to confess, his hernia is FREAKIN’ ME OUT, MAN. It doesn’t bother him in the slightest, he’ll let me pick him up and hold him with my palm over his stomach to encourage the hernia to go back from whence it came, but it always slithers back out into a bulge. I guess that hernia’s got places to go and things to do, and staying where it outta be isn’t one of those things it wants to be doing.
(For the record, it just looks and feels like a little bulge of fat sitting there on his tummy. And the vet did look at it and said that it could wait until he was neutered, rather than put him through a separate operation.)
I had a brief time of worry this weekend wherein I decided that all the kittens were deaf – because wouldn’t that be the CAPPER? I am a worrywart, and apparently felt I didn’t have enough to worry about with these guys – but as it turns out, they were just ignoring me. I guess if you baby-talk kittens for long enough, they’re not so impressed by it anymore.
All six in one picture! That rarely happens, as you can imagine.
He looks more cross-eyed sometimes and less cross-eyed other times. But at ALL times he is adorable!
Sookie’s playing hard to get.
Oh, Sammy-Sam.
I love how it looks like Terry is scolding the plastic ring (which, you’ll note, is mid-air). He says “Plastic ring, you said you would play with me, and now you’re not playing with me, and that is MEAN! I’m gonna tell my Mommy on you!”
Sam checks out the outside world.
Stinkerbelle has decided that if I don’t look directly at her, I can’t see her and will eventually GO AWAY.
Previously
2008: No entry.
2007: “Muff the magic pussy, lived by the cheeeeeeks!”
2006: I also thought my brother made up the word “fart” when I was a kid, so apparently I think he’s a real trend-setter.
2005: You know who really just completely repulses me?
2004: The only way it’d be better is if we could call and vote on who’s the most annoying.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: Wouldn’t it have been ironic if I’d made assurances to the spud that we would probably all live for a long, long time, then promptly tripped over the cat, fallen down the stairs, broken my neck, and died?
2000: Man, I’m so unmotivated today (nothing new there).
Love the caption to the last picture. I have a cat with the same theory. The spot on Sam’s nose is great.
How about the archangels from “Dogma”–Loki and Bartleby (perhaps Bart, for short)?
They are too cute!!
Lieutenant Dann and Bubba?
Or, One is Bubba and the other Gump?
Welcome new Anderson kitties. You are some lucky little guys. Looks like you have already figured it out.
We went to see Julie and Julia this weekend. It is about a blogger who decides to cook everyone one of Julia Child’s cookbook recipe in one year. This is her first time blogging and I thought about you when she was starting her blog. Did you get crazy or kinda freaked out when you got your first comment?
I like Seigfried and Roy. It makes me laugh!
I don’t have any names to suggest, but they sure are cute!
Dammit, ChristineQ beat me to it – I vote for the Dogma names. 🙂
Although I’m sorta mad at the people who dropped off those kittens, they couldn’t have picked a better place to do it. Those two are keepers. You and Fred have been officially adopted.
I *love* ChristineQ’s suggestion, as I was about to suggest the same thing. Loki & Bart get my vote! :))
I like your Zeke and Zeb names but Loki and Bart are pretty damn cute names too. I’ve always been partial to grey kitties, I hope you’re able to keep them both!
How about Loki and Thor? I love the name Loki for a cat. What sweeties they are and so lucky to have been left on your doorstep.
ooh, I’d second (third?) on Loki & Bart. I’ll also put forward Stan & Lee.
Dinna fash yerself about the hernia. My Ramona had the same thing as a tiny kitten and they advised waiting until she was getting fixed so she’d only have one operation day to deal with. She lived another 11 years on, so it couldn’t have been the wrong choice.
I do believe Fred’s version. Somewhere Mr Boogers is laughing his little hairy ass off. That makes me so happy!!!
Yay Kitty deposits! I’d squeel myself to death if I had kittens dropped on my doorstep…especially since Id be powerless to resist the lil furballs.
Whoever dropped them off knows what a good home they are going to, special lil rugrats.
How bout Tyrael and Ezekiel?
Hmmm… Your first drop offs? It’s amazing it took so long. I suspect they are staying. Robyn, does your arm hurt from the twisting yet?
My husband and I adopted two boy kittens after our male cat died of renal failure. I think sometimes a cat has such a big personality that you need two cats fill in the emptiness when they’re gone. We had a baby siamese dropped in our backyard a couple years ago. She was so sick, but I’m a vet tech and my hubby is a devoted kitty “nurse” so she survived. Needless to say, husband fell in love and we have ten cats now. I’m happy he was the one who added the last cat. It’s won many an argument.:-)
It was meant to be!! Looks like they’re right at home in the cat beds too!
If they are Boogie’s minions, you can’t very well send them packing. And I’m going to add my voice to the “Loki & Bart” votes.
What about Beelzebub and Jezebeth? Then they could be Beez and Jeez.
Loving those kitty boys and I like angels far more than demons. I am a huge Saving Grace fan. I vote for Earl and Matthew. Matthew was a rouge angel in an episode this season-if one is a much bigger bad ass he’s be Matthew. I did not remember the rogue angel name-had to google it. I’d like to think they are cat gifts from heaven sent via The Other Place by Boogs. And Muff the Magic Pussy Lives By The Cheeks? ROFLMAO-that little ditty will be in my head for a while!
I like a few pairs:
Archie and Jughead
Fitz and Finn
Neville and Cederic
Ron and Harry
Jacob and Edward
Skylar and Rex
Remus and Romulus
Any of those???
I say you should call them Thing One and Thing Two. Hahahahahaha I clapped my hands in delight with your new possible potential maybe additions who are very adorable. I hope they don’t stay sick for long.
Robyn, I’m glad to see Mister Boogers sent two gray kitties your way. 😀 If you’re thinking of calling one Lieutenant Dann, how about calling the other one Forest (Gump)?
I called one of my cats “Charlie” for Charlie Sheen/Charlie Parker.
(TV/Movies and Jazz)
Louann
Congrats on the Boog Mini Me’s 🙂 Adorable! So is little Sammy Sam.
I am no help, I absolutely love Zeke and Zeb, it just seems perfect for the country way they showed up on your doorstep complete with redneck tupperware and egg cartons. I have no idea how that makes sense but it does to me. HEE!
Robyn, have you tried the scrubbing bubbles shower cleaner? You hang it over your shower head and after each shower you press a button and it sprays shower cleaner. It’s supposed to use the wetness that’s in the shower already to keep thing tidy. I find I still need to scrub every now and then because of build up but the shower does stay cleaner longer. You can also get coupons on the scrubbing bubbles website.
They are adorable.
I assumed the egg boxes were a kind of “Thank you” for taking the kittens. Which made me think it was one of your regular egg customers, who sees that you’re cat people (& wanted to remain anonymous).
Wow, how wonderful….love Fr3d’s version of how the new boys came to be! The universe is a wonderful thing; enjoy!!
What lucky little babies to left on your doorstep! Guess I have to check out Fred’s version.
Also like Loki and Bart!
Love the Jacob & Edward suggestion, but I seem to recall that you weren’t a Twilight fan.
RE: the floor mopping: I have the BEST – the BEST!!! – thing!! It’s a steam mop, and I can mop all of our hardwood floors (the entire 1st floor) in about 20 minutes after I vacuum…. I have the Euro-Pro Shark, and I lurve it. There’s no soap, no buckets, you can wash the removable pads… it’s all good.
And, can you suggest any good intro to keeping chickens books or websites? We’re thinking of chickens next year.
Love those little kittles – they look like our kitten that went out last summer and never came home… 🙁
according to my daughter, she got “eated”. Nature is an ugly foe.
Go with the To Kill A Mockingbird names! Boo Radley, Atticus, Dill, Scout…lots of good options! (Full disclosure: our pups are named Boo and Scout, so I’m partial.)
We used to have two cats named heckyl and jeckyl after those two old cartoon crows.
I like the Lieutenant Dan and Forrest – Forrest Gump idea, too.
Lt. Dan could be shortened to Louie… all kinds of possible nicknames and quotes to have fun with.
Fred & I think alike. The first thing I thought was that no 1 cat could ever fill the paws of Master Boogers … but 2 may be able to come close!
Hooray! All kinds of great name suggestions in the comments. I was wondering, though, were the kittens just loose in your yard? Were they just hanging around the cat food? They obviously knew somehow to stay put and wait for their entrance into Cat Nirvana!
“Life is too goddamn short to sit in the drive-thru for 20 minutes, especially when you’ve got shit to do and kittens at home that need some love.” I read this as “Life is too gd short to sit in the drive-thru for 20 minutes, esp. when you’ve got to shit.” Heh. Thought you were getting a bit personal there.
I also thought of Heckly and Jeckyl! Jen beat me to it!
How about some Olypian Gods & such?
Erebus
Zeus
Chronos
Ares
Orion
Dr. Evil and Lucifer… too stinking cute they are…
in honor of MB (Mister Boogers)– Milton and Bradley.
Cause dey likes to play games wit da minds of da peoples.
My 6 year old son suggests:
Phineas and Ferb
or
Buzz and Woody
Keeka has a hernia like that on her side. She’s almost nine, and it’s never bothered her. She had it at six weeks old.
My husband like Lucifer and Gabriel. The kittens are too cute and I agree with Fred that Mr. Boogers send them to you.
Hey Mel!Your son beat me to the punch!
I have always liked julia roberts’ son’s name,Phinneas(spelling?).
She calls him Phinn for short.
Ok, someone explain to me why the Google ads on Fred’s journal are for locating Sex Offenders? I am laughing because I know it has to be a fluke. Or, maybe he talks about kitties too much?
If you wanted to go with the MB thing, you should name them Malachi and Bartholomew. 🙂
Just catching up on this so i’m a little behind. LOVE LOVE LOVE Boogie’s little mini me’s. Before I even got back to this day – I was saying to myself that these 2 little guys were sent by Mister Boogers and I agree it will probably take the 2 of them to fill some of the space he’s left. Someone has noticed you and Fred and knows the huge hearts you both have to entrust you with these kittens. Perhaps due to tough times, whoever just can’t take care of them. I kind of see this from the note to “Please take good care of my kittens”. At least they saw a good place for them – instead of sprinkling them around town on streets where they are hit- like some asshole around here!
Sam is just soooooooooooo freakin’ cute!! Love that little muzzlepouch. The cross-eyed kitty is precious. I’d take him or Sam in a heartbeat.