There were several of these growing near the house, and neither of us had any clue what they were. Fred’s stepmother informed us that they’re spider lilies. Since they grow from bulbs, I may dig them up and transplant them. Then again I might not – I’m not sure where the bulb garden is ultimately going to be.
Pardon the blurriness, but these fuckers can MOVE. I saw one of these last month in the front yard of the house and tried to get a picture of it, but couldn’t. On our trip to the house Saturday, I saw several of them and finally managed to get a picture. I was going to put it up and ask y’all what it might be, but on a whim I Googled “Red velvet ant”, and found that – amazingly enough – it’s called a “Red velvet ant.” Or you can call it by its other name – “Cow Killer.” It’s not really an ant, it’s a wasp, and you can read more about it here. I thought they were kind of pretty, but if the fuckers have a painful bite, I’m just as happy to stomp on them.
We walked out to the back forty.
From the back corner of the back forty, looking toward the house. The owners’ son had started to bushhog the back field, but their tractor broke down before it could be finished. The tractor Fred almost bought, but decided not to. Dodged a bullet on that one!
Leaves starting to change on the black gum tree.
In the back forty.
Huge tree in the back forty.
Pecan tree overlooking the “pond.”
When we left the house, we headed toward Decatur to do something you don’t get to hear about yet (patience, grasshoppers. All will be revealed tomorrow. Or Monday. Nothing huge, I promise.), but on the way we passed a tractor place, and since it was apparently Fred’s intent to visit every single tractor place in the state of Alabama, we stopped. I sat in the car with my book while he went in and talked to someone.
Half an hour later, he came back outside. “I’m going to drive a tractor,” he said. “And there’s a cat in the store!”
She was friendly, but started getting bite-y after a while, so I left her alone.
Fred, driving his very first tractor.
When I was done petting and taking pictures of the cat, I went outside and watched Fred drive around on the tractor. The salesman turned to me and said “I hear you’re a fan of cats.”
“I am,” I said. “We have six of our own.”
He shuddered. “No offense, but I’m not a cat person.”
I shrugged. “None taken. I’m not a dog person.”
“I’m not really a dog person either,” he said. “I’m retired, and I might get home today and my wife might say “Let’s go to Tunica for a few days!”, and we won’t have to worry about the pets.”
“That’s true,” I agreed. I watched Fred for a few more minutes, and when he headed inside with the salesman to talk numbers, I went back to the car and read some more.
We went to Decatur, did the thing you’re not allowed to know about yet, and then headed for the Morgan County Fair. After all the talking-up Fred had done, I expected this fair to be HUGE and AMAZING. We went into the Expo Hall first, and I admired the quilts, while Fred talked to a couple of guys at a booth about – what else? – TRACTORS.
This is my favorite.
My other favorite. Makes me want to take up quilting.
After the Expo Hall, we went and checked out the livestock, and fed some goats. Well, Fred fed some goats. I wandered around and took pictures.
I haven’t got a CLUE what this thing is. It kind of looks like an ostrich, but I think it was some kind of sheep.
After the livestock, we wandered around the fair grounds checking out rides and games. It was a pretty small fair and there were no rides we wanted to go on, and Fred played one game and won a cheap little prize for me, and then we walked around a little more, bitching about the heat, and finally left to find something to eat.
We ate at a buffet – where I ate too much, damnit, but it was good – and then headed for home, after stopping off to do something else y’all don’t get to hear about yet.
(This is not sex-related, in case you’re worried. Though telling you that we’ve decided to become swingers would probably be a tad more interesting than what it’s really about.)
On the way home, Fred suddenly exclaimed
Ere he drove out of sight, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” “Hey, look! It’s Donald Sutherland!” And we spent about ten minutes trying to catch up to the SUV Donald was driving, so I could so-very-subtly snap his picture.
Not really Donald Sutherland. Or IS IT?
I spent the afternoon bonding with Maddy and then taking a nap, and Fred and I spent the evening watching TV until the spud got home (Fred can’t sleep until he knows she’s home safe).
All in all, a good Saturday!
* * *
A couple of cat questions, answered:
Ummmmm…… You *warmed* Maddy’s food? That must STINK to the high heavens!!!!
Yeah, I warm her food because I’m a total sucker, and god forbid she have to eat COLD food. She might starve to death! And yeah, it does stink. By the end of the day, after smelling the soft food I give Maddy all day long, when Fred opens a can of soft food to feed the big cats for a snack (and we wonder why Tommy is such a porker), it makes me a little nauseous. Also, I worry that I walk around all day smelling like cat food and just don’t realize it!
Maddy is SO cute. Question from a non-cat owning person…will her eyes always be blue or will they change color as she gets older? Still think you can give her up?
Her eyes will probably change from blue; they’re already lighter than they were, and I think I see flecks of gold in them. I’d love it if she kept her big blue eyes, though. They’re gorgeous! And yes, I think I’ll be able to give her up. It won’t be easy, but y’all forget – I’ve actually given up more foster kitties than I’ve kept. Excluding Maddy, I’ve had 11 foster kittens and given up 9 of them. So, see? I can do it! (And I know that if I give her up, there’ll be more fosters in my future. If I keep her, the fostering will have to stop because there is NO WAY Fred would ever let me foster again.)
I work with [deleted] and she has been showing me pictures of this perfect little angel kitten. I can’t believe that after you has nursed this little beauty that you can give her away….What kind of mother are you?? You are all she knows. You will damage her for life you know.
I’m actually not the only mother she’s ever known – I’m the third mother she’s ever known, at least of the human persuasion. God knows what happened to her “birth” mother. And let’s get serious here – she’s a CAT. I’m not going to damage her for life, because her brain is the size of a pea. If I went away for two days and came back, she’d be like “And you are…?” I’m giving her away to a very good home, because the shelter I work for is extremely careful regarding who they allow to adopt their cats. And like I said above, if I keep Maddy, the fostering will have to stop. I talked Fred into letting me foster again even after we adopted Tommy and Sugarbutt, but I have no doubt he’d put his foot down if I tried to keep Maddy and then foster again.
* * *
Maddy (or as I’ve taken to calling her lately, Miss Maddy Mack (Mack! Mack! With stripes of black! black! black! And fur that’s gray! gray! gray! All down her back! back! back!) continues to do well. She’s solidly over a pound, she’s using the litterbox exclusively (I do NOT miss stimulating her to pee and poop. No matter how fastidious you are about it, you end up with pee and poop on your hands at some point, and you don’t always necessarily realize it.), and she’s past the diarrhea stage. I got her to eat soft cat food twice yesterday, though at her evening feeding Fred tried to feed her, but she wasn’t that interested, only ate a little bit. I tried a while later to feed her, but she wasn’t at ALL interested in food or formula, just spent the evening exploring and sleeping on me.
She is just so unbearably cute that I have to bite my tongue so I don’t squeeze her to death, and now my tongue is sore all the time.
Everything I’ve read says that when you give a baby cat a bottle, you should have them on their stomachs at a 45-degree angle. But this is the ONLY position she’ll take her bottle in, standing on her back legs with her back against me. Also, very important to grab my hand so the bottle doesn’t go anywhere.
More pictures
hither.
* * *
Reader yawny pet pics!
This is Angie‘s Eden, relaxing in the leather recliner. Nice life indeed, Angie!
Dana’s Gracie…
And Dana’s Maxine. Who apparently live very exhausting lives. How hard ARE you working them, Dana?
Danielle says, This is Gilbert, an italian greyhound. I think he was about 8/9 weeks here, and ok, technically he was after his tail, not yawning. But the effect is the same, and I thought it was pretty damn cute.
And the second picture, Gilbert is, again, not yawning, but instead trying to eat Hamlet Truman, my adorable new kitten. They’re about the same age, and really best friends. Hamlet spends a lot of time trying to carve Gilbert up into little puppy pieces, so they’re even. Y’all know I’m not a dog person, but Gilbert really kinda makes me want to get a dog so he can harass the cats!
This is Susan‘s Ruby. Susan says, Here’s another laughing kitten picture – a picture of one of our kittens, Ruby. I accidentally snapped it one day as she was crawling across my lap (that’s why it’s out of focus) but I absolutely love it. Is she laughing, or does she want to bite you like a vampire? Those are some seriously sharp-looking teeth! Y’all can see more of Susan’s kitten pics here.
This is Kelly’s Stella, who is an absolute dead ringer for Sugarbutt! I don’t think Sugarbutt could fit his big butt in the sink anymore, though.
And Kelly’s Jupiter. The look on Jupiter’s face just cracks me UP.
Thanks, Angie, Dana, Danielle, Susan, and Kelly, for sharing your pictures!
* * *
He straddled the bird bath like this for the longest time, staring off into space at something. It’s like he was posing for me!
* * *
Previously
2005: Phear my l33t fotograffic skillz.
2004: Dear Stephen King: Stop defending what you did, and just write the goddamn story.
2003: Meet Gizmo.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.]]>
could that Ostrich type animal be a Llama or an Alpaca?
The unidentified animal looks like a llama to me.
Maddy is cuter and cuter all the time!
I believe that is an emu. But that is just a NV girls’s guess so don’t hold me to it. lol
I can’t believe someone would think that giving a kitten up for adoption constitutes as “damaging her for life.” Jesus gay on a pogo stick. I would say more, but it would just raise my blood pressure, and Robyn already said it way better (and funnier).
By the way, thanks for the link to that Auction Zip site. Trapper and I are dying to go to an auction, except he’s a little scared that, given my uber-competitive nature, I might wind up bidding $10,000 on something just to keep another person from getting it. Hey, what can I say? I like to WIN, dammit. Hehe.
Lovely pictures, Robyn. I’m so envious!!
I don’t know why, but Fred on the tractor… I had this Awwww, that is SO adawable!! sensation. I probably should have been overwhelmed with some manly testosterone thing, like Man On Tractor, Roar. But he just looks so cute in his yellow shirt on the vroom-vroom trackie. I donno. I think he reminds me of Frank on a tractor.
What is up with the eyes on those goats??? Do goats always have eyes like that? Not that I have a lot of goats in my life, but I’ve been to petting zoos and all…I don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes like that before. Do they look like that live, or only in the pictures? That freaked me out a little, not that they’re not cute…they are. But kind of creepy too. 🙂
It’s not an emu – an emu is a bird. I think it’s a llama?
And Robyn, seriously. How dare you emotionally disturb that poor little kitten.
I’m going with llama.
When I was growing up on teh farm, we had a llama. His name was Llarry (of course). Well, he was killed one day when some trespassing hunters apparently mistook him for a deer. (Obviously they were nearsighted. Or just stupid.) It was a sad day.
There are two cat pictures in your entry today that look like my cats. Please forward addresses so I can box mine up and send them to the interested parties.
Definitely a llama. Around here they keep llamas with the sheep herds, I think they help guard them or something, but its weird when you’re looking at sheep & then see the llama standing there bcause your minds goes “Was that a giant sheep?”
I vote for llama.
And, Robyn, I have to admit I am totally impressed with your ability to use the word “bushhog” in a sentence. Are you expanding your vocabulary as the closing of the country house gets nearer?
One more thing … your camera takes awesome pictures!
*SNORT* Jane you whore! I was drinking diet pepsi that shit hurts when it shoots out your nose. And also, not so good for the keyboard.
Love the floral quilt, it was probably about a thousand bucks eh?
Scar a cat for life? Maybe with a pitchfork…otherwise, it’s she who wields the can opener has always been my impression of feline loyalty.
I think it’s an alpaca. Alpacas have silky fur that is used like wool.
My bad, emu has feathers, that is an alpacka. Silly me.
i love the first quilt..wonder how much it was,i suspect expensive…so beautiful though..
“after stopping off to do something else y’all don’t get to hear about yet.” ARGH!! 😛
It is either a llama or an alpaca
It’s a llama. Definitely a llama. They’re
supposed to make great pets, I’m told.
In all fairness: The woman who wrote about Robyn damaging the kitty for life is my coworker – we were goofing off at work (gasp!) and I had been showing her the pictures of the “baby” and explaining that Robyn fosters — It was all written as a JOKE to try to “guilt trip” Robyn into keeping the kitty! Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a clue about the Internet world – so trust me when I say a lot was lost in the translation and I didn’t read it before she posted. You had to be there. Don’t get bent. That is all. LOL
Nance: That was Fred’s guess, actually. 🙂
I read the scarring for life thing as a joke. But I’m always reading things w/ a grain of salt. Go me! (I’m over myself, don’t say it.)
Regarding the ‘And you are…?’ bit, that is erroneous if it was meant as statement of fact. Cats do have memories. We had a cat and in 6th grade gave it my Aunt because of a move where she couldn’t come with. 8 years later I was back in my hometown, visited Aunt on her farm and that cat came running full tilt from across the farm yard (a real farm) and jumped up to be held, purring like mad. And have seen this happen with other people and other cats. So they do remember you. Maybe not Maddy because she’s so young and your time w/her will be relatively short.
My guess is Alpaca. They look similar to llamas but have shorter heads and Alpaca kind of look like sheep with really long necks. Yarn that comes from an alpaca is usually HEAVENLY. I have some in my stash that is like petting a cat.
I vote for alpaca. There were a ton of them at our state fair because people use their wool/hair to spin into wool.
That red velvet ant here where I live is called a cow ant. It is one of the most painful horrible bites from any type of insect you can get. Kill them, or avoid them at all cost, they are horrible.
Ah, a joke…good to know. In my defense, I’m all doped up on meds for my UTI, so I haven’t been on top of my game. And also, because I’m dumb.
Really, though, I think it’s because I have actually had conversations with people who say things like that NON-jokingly. There are some real crazies out there, and they all seem to be inexplicably drawn to me.
Eek, yes, those goddamn cow-killers. Those things terrify me. No ant should be that large.
When I saw my first cow-killer ant, it was at my parents’ former residence, which was about 3 miles away from a nuclear power plant. I’d grown up seeing two-headed doves and practicing nuclear evacuations in school. I just assumed the ant was some genetic mutant. How wrong I was…
Also, what are the chances I glow in the dark after spending almost two decades in such close proximity to a nuclear plant?
You “fed Maddy and put her up”? Put her up where?
I Love how Maddy holds onto your hand like that!! Adorable 🙂
I think its a Llama or an alpaca.
I’m leaning towards llama myself. Nasty fuckers. They use them here in Vancouver to guard sheep herds from raccoons and coyotes and wild dogs.
They spit.
Alpacas seem to have a bit of a narrower snout and to me, seem to be a little more regal looking than those silly llamas. Not that I would call a llama silly to its face – I might get spit on. I could be wrong though.
Emus have beaks – I think they’re related to the ostrich.
Maddy is cute. If she weren’t in Alabama, I’d adopt her myself. Although I don’t think my 18 year old cat would like it.
Oh, and now that I’ve googled it (seriously, what did we do before google?), the differences are:
– size (llamas are bigger)
– a llama has “banana-shaped ears” and an alpaca has smaller ears
– an alpaca’s fibre (fur) is much softer and warmer and is much stronger than cashmere.
Who knew?
I got dibs on Maddy, dammit! I would totally take on a third cat if I could have her. (Jane, I can hear you screaming clean over here!)
OMG Eden looks like our Ollie!
My husband used to heat up the canned food for our 3 cats, too. When he’d get up in the morning, he’d run hot water in the sink and put their plate and can of food in there to warm up. Thankfully he’s quit doing that.
I used to heat up my puppies food too. I actually went out and bought ingrediants to make my doggies their own little stew. Boiled chicken with veggies and pasta in a chicken flavored gravy. I used to laugh when people bought human food for their dogs, now I’ve become one of them. Believe it or not, some people cook for their dogs every day. I pray I never go that far! I love them, but I have to draw the line on cooking daily meals for them. The stew was a one time deal. 😉
P.S. I vote for Llama too. Maddy is so cute. We can’t have a cat because my husband is “allergic” to them. I think he’s full of shit though.
Donald Sutherland or my brother in law. ‘cept one isn’t currently in the States.
And I love the little scratch on your finger that shows the depth of love and personal sacrifice expended on such a small scrap of feline humanity!
(sorry? what? of COURSE there is such a thing … all good humans were cats in a past life)
That pond looks about like mine.
And the kitty pose on the birdbath is great!!
Whoo hoo, my beasts are FAMOUS! And I assure you that Stella has a big fat ass indeed – that’s just an oversized sink.