Here’s a cat question for you…..my male cat Tigger is about 15 years old, has always had good health, suddenly starting pooing on the floor last year. These poos were very dry and hard. Took him to the vet, nothing apparently wrong. I changed his diet to a brand of dry food that had the highest moisture content I could find (incidentally it is labeled as an indoor cat food). I give him fresh water daily so that was not the problem and he seemed to be drinking lots of it. Now a couple of days ago I found a stool on the floor, same thing, hard and dry. I started giving him half a can of wet food a day and so far no more stools on the floor. The problem is that no one except Tigger loves the smell of wet cat food. Any thoughts? I’ve been thinking that he’s not drinking as much lately but I don’t know what to do to make him drink more. (Oh I forgot to mention that after I changed his food last year his stools went back to normal. Oh and the vet had absolutely no good ideas at all, he was thinking more that it was a litter box problem where I think it is a diet thing.)
Then reader Marian said:
Jen, I’ve had the same problem with my very old Archie. Every now and then, usually when I’ve run out of the wet cat food and have given him only the dry stuff, there are hard dry poos on the floor that he’s kicked out of the litter box. (So hard they fly in the air — yuck!) He does drink water, though — he even likes to get into the shower after one of us has showered and drinks the water that puddles around the drain. It isn’t a behaviour problem, it’s an aging-cat problem.
And I think I agree with her. Spot has the same issue, with the dry poo – he’s about 13 – and we haven’t changed his food. If you can stomach continuing to give him half a can of wet food a day, it sounds like it’s working for him. You might want to try giving him some Omega 3 oil just to see if it helps, as well. We buy our Omega 3 oil at the pet store; most pet stores carry them, and most cats enjoy the taste enough that they don’t fight you too much.
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I have a question for the cat expert. We have a cat at the office. She was there living under the building when we all (the people I work with and for) first came there and was wild WILD WILD. But she gentled down over a period of time and now she is the office kitty although she lives outside. Last winter I made her a house with bedding when it got cold and wet outside. So this is the only home she’s ever known. The problem: In the next 2-3 months we are moving. The owners are building a new office about a mile away. It will be along a much busier street and closer to the street. How can we make her transition safe and stress free? Several of us have talked about making her an inside cat. Any suggestions?
Given that you’re moving to a busier location, if you could possibly make her an inside cat, that would be ideal. If you can’t, though, there’s a really good article
here on how to relocate feral cats.
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This section is all about TV shows, so skip to the next section if you’re not interested, okay?
Oh and why was it (I just started watching a few episodes back) that the mom of the daughter who graduated (aside from being fucked up) didn’t gather the brother with her for the graduation? I mean, why was he “allowed” to miss it in the first place. All us siblings went to one another’s things. No questions asked!
That’s Colton you’re referring to, who didn’t go to Kara’s graduation. They’re both kids of
Jeana, and their oldest brother is Shane, who is a great big dickhead. I don’t know why on earth Jeana didn’t just grab Colton and take him to the graduation ceremony with her, but I get the distinct feeling that most of the “housewives” aren’t aware of where their kids are on any kind of regular basis.
I love the Real Housewives! I cannot drag myself away from it. Did you see any of the marathon that was on on Sunday? I caught some of it. When I have it on and my husband sits down to watch some TV, he does nothing but complain about what a stupid show it is, who cares what those women with too much make up are doing, they all look like they’ve had plastic surgery, oh come on real people don’t live like that, etc., etc., etc. I end up turning it, but it’s tough, it’s like a train wreck, I can’t look away. Do you think I used enough commas in this comment? Also, I thought of something else about the Real Housewives. Do you think Lauri’s lips look like they need chapstick or something? Her lips gross me out. Maybe too much botox on her wrinkles. I don’t know, there just is something not right about her lips. What are your thoughts on this?
I didn’t watch the Sunday marathon ’cause I’ve seen all the episodes – and I didn’t know there was a marathon, or surely I would have at least caught the one with Jo becoming a “singer”. All I have to say is if that song becomes a hit, I’m going to record and sell The Snackin’ Song, and Britney can WATCH OUT.
All the housewives have clearly had some sort of plastic surgery or another, but
Lauri is just nipped and tucked and plasticized to within an inch of her life. Her lips and nose really bother me, but just look at her when she talks – her face does NOT MOVE. It’s scary. The stuff of nightmares, really.
I told a friend the other day that if I was in any of the relationships on Tell Me You Love Me, I would stab myself to death. Who would ever want to be with that one broad. Palek’s wife. Or Palek for that matter. He’s got a little kid skinny lipped mouth. I’m going to keep watching it because I’m hopeful there will be an exciting plot twist and everyone will die.
Oh, and what about the therapist and her husband? Their conversations seem to consist of her saying “My patient (whoever) was in, and I told him that things would get better, but he’d have to persevere and maybe one day he’d have a marriage as perfect and full of life as ours” and her husband responding with “I remember when we had our hard times. I’m glad we have a full and satisfying marriage. They are young and foolish and we are old and wise.” and then they have some awkward sex.
I cannot STAND Palek. He’s got the world’s most smackable face, and the only time I can stand Carolyn’s face is when I see it in pictures. They’re the perfect irritating couple.
I nominate Hugo to team up with Carolyn’s sister and go on a killing spree. As they lay dying, May (the therapist) could grab her husband’s hand and say “I’m so thrilled that we found our way to a fulfilling relationship – unlike these other losers – before we died.”
I am tickled that the Race is back 🙂 The only new show I am paying any attention to at all is “Pushing Daisies” and even it after being so very good for two or three weeks even it is starting to wear kind of thin now.
and
My question: Is it just me? Is there ANYTHING good on tv right now?
I’m also thrilled that The Amazing Race is back – and I have to confess that though I mocked the Emo couple through the entire first show, I don’t actually find them all that annoying. DAMNIT. I really wanted to hate them!
What we’re watching on TV these days: The Amazing Race, Survivor (I’m sorry, but that bit on last week’s episode when whatsherface thought she had the immunity idol and she didn’t was the BEST THING EVER. I did feel bad for her when everyone else was laughing at her, I’ll admit. And I don’t think it was very nice of Jeff Probst to get her hopes up and then toss it in the fire. MEAN.), Kid Nation (notice how Taylor has pretty much disappeared from the show?), Journeyman, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, Reaper, Kitchen Nightmares, and The Biggest Loser. I usually read during Reaper because it’s cute, but not so cute I want to pay attention to it. I read through The Biggest Loser too, because all I’m interested in is seeing the weigh-in at the end, and they’re stretching those shows so much it’s ridiculous.
On my own, I watch Tell Me You Love Me (and I cringe a lot while I watch it, yet I keep watching. WHY? I don’t know.), Desperate Housewives (I stopped watching it toward the end of last season, but I’m enjoying this season), How I Met Your Mother (LOVE that show), The Real Housewives of Orange County, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, Weeds, and Nip/Tuck. I think I’m about to give up Nip/Tuck, though, because it’s really not holding my interest, even if Christian does saunter around nekkid half the time. Shows I like that aren’t running right now: Big Love, Army Wives, Lost, 24, Work Out annnnd… other shows I can’t remember.
We gave Pushing Daisies a try, but didn’t really care for it (too cute). We also tried Chuck and liked it, but not enough to keep watching it. We watched Moonlight (is that the right name? The detective who was a vampire?), but gave up pretty quickly, because it’s pretty horrid.
Have you ever thought of starting a TV forum???? Seems to me you had a TV blog at some point, but it kind of died out.
I’ve considered it from time to time, but I don’t know, I’m afraid I’d get bored with it. Would anyone be interested in taking part on a TV forum? I wouldn’t want to be the only one posting to it!
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What are you holding in the photo of you in the upper left corner of your masthead? I’ve looked at it and looked at it and can’t figure it out.
It’s a Paslode butane-powered finishing nailer. That’s what Fred calls it – I just call it a nail gun.
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What kind of antihistamine can you give a cat?
It’s called Chlorpheniramine. When Sugarbutt was having itchy eye issues, we gave him the pills to help, and it did. Mister Boogers has allergies in the Fall (he gets a bit sniffly), and a pill will usually clear that up. It’s cheap as hell – we got a big bottle at WalMart – and it works really well with allergies and itchiness. We start with half a pill once or twice a day, and if that doesn’t clear things up, we go to a whole pill. That’s on adult, full-sized cats; I don’t think we’ve ever given any to kittens, so I don’t know what the dosing would be for them.
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How many readers do you have? It seems that most of the sites I visit reference you occasionally so I was curious.
According to Sitemeter, I get between 1200 and 1500 people visiting Monday through Friday, with about half that on Saturday and Sunday. That would be because SO MANY of you are slacking at work. I’m just happy to help you get through your boring-ass work day. Now go tell your boss you love him or her and ask for a raise.
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So would you tag the ones you’d eat or keep them separate from the others?
(That’s regarding the chickens.) I’m not sure if we’re going to keep them separate or not – Fred’s going to do some reading up on that. If we put them together, we shouldn’t have any problems telling them apart, because our meat chickens will be a different kind than the ones we currently have, at least according to Fred. I’d tell you what kind of meat chickens we’re talking about getting, but I can’t remember. Luckily, Fred’s in charge of that information, so I don’t have to worry my pretty little head.
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How do you plan on killing them? If I might suggest, you could put on some Lawrence Welk music after making them ingest lethal amounts of ecstasy, put them in a small hot room with KFC commercials running continuously. They will get so upset and excited and overheated they will just go POOF and cook themselves.
Yeah, I’m thinking some ecstasy-laden chicken would be TASTY. I plan on killing them by making Fred do all the dirty work. At least in my dreams that’s how I plan on killing them. I try not to think about the actual killing too much, though.
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About the seatbelt: my friend has a Ford something or other truck that does the same annoying “you’re not wearing your seatbelt” ding. She told me you press the seatbelt release latch, like you’re unbuckling the belt, and magically the dinging went away! Or I went deaf from the dinging, but either way…no more dinging! Worth a shot, right?
Also:
Not sure if this will work for you – but it might…my boyfriend’s truck does the same thing with the seatbelt reminders. If you hit the button on the seatbelt (the release button) that shuts his up.
I gave this a try last night, and it worked like a charm. Yay!
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I remember I hated my 1988 Taurus because they put the seat belts on for you and if you weren’t ready, it could quickly become ugly.
My Ford Tempo had those same freakin’ seat belts, and I HATED them. It’s just such a pushy feature, “YOU WILL WEAR A SEATBELT WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT! SUBMIT!” I used to wait ’til the seat belt was in place, then tuck it behind me. Stupid bossy car.
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1) We readers have gotten so much out of your journal over the years. (Thank you, thank you!!) I’m just wondering if there are any ways you feel journaling has benefited you? I know that counselors, Oprah, etc., always advise keeping a journal for a number of reasons. How do you think a long-term journal like this has affected your life?
It’s become such an ingrained part of my day that on the rare occasion I take time off from journaling, I feel kind of at loose ends. When certain things happen – interesting or funny things – I get excited at the idea of writing about it. But the biggest thing my journal has given me is a way to figure out when certain things happened in my life. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve wondered when something happened, had NO idea, and did a quick search on my site to find out. I know it’s ridiculous that I have to do a search on my site to figure out, say, when
Fred tried to poison me or when the
Downfall of Senator Stanley J. Boogerton happened, but it’s been immeasurably helpful.
2) You always seem so upbeat and forward-thinking — I know you joke about being crabby, but I always think of you as upbeat. Is there anything that ever gets you down?
Oh sure, there are things that get me down, but for the most part I’m pretty upbeat. Most of the stuff that gets me down is stuff beyond my control – assholes coming out of nowhere to shit all over my day – and that someone can invade my day and stress me out pisses me off. I have the occasional hormonal couple of “MY LIFE SUCKS” days every month, but once I’m able to realize what’s going on, I can get past it – or deal with it a little better.
3) I must have missed this in the house remodeling journal entries — did you and Fred put up the crown molding yourselves? Was it difficult to do? Was it expensive?
Yeah, we did the crown molding ourselves – or I guess I should say, Fred did it, I just stood there and held the crown molding where he told me to hold it. It was a huge pain in the ass because it took him a long time to figure out how to do it the right way, and we talked several times about hiring professionals to do it, but in the end we did it all ourselves and I think it looks really good. It was way less expensive to do it ourselves rather than hire professionals. We got the crown molding from a local lumber company, then I painted it before he cut it and we put it up. I don’t know that he’d ever want to do it again, but he could if he had to!
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I still think you take the best cat pictures ever! I don’t know how you do it. I can’t even get my cat to look at the camera. Anyway, question for Friday—have you ever thought of doing a cat picture book? Your captions make some of them so funny! I know I, for one, would lurv to have a book of your cat pics.
Well, thank you! I haven’t really seriously considered doing a cat picture book, but I do think about it from time to time. I have to think about it some more before I actually go to the effort of pulling all the pictures I’d use and getting together a book proposal, though. I’m the queen of procrastination.
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It’s such a good thing that The Cats That Aren’t Yours now sleep in your house. That will make for an easier winter, don’t you think?
I’d say so, and we’ll certainly worry about them a lot less if they’re snuggled up in the house instead of out wandering around in the night. It’s gotten to the point where if one or the other disappears after snack time and doesn’t show back up before bedtime then has to spend the night outside, I’m all “What the hell? Is our house not GOOD ENOUGH for them?!”
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Question about Maxi and Newt. Don’t you live fairly close to the road? Do they not go near it?
We do live fairly close to the road – closer than I’d like, really – but I’ve never ever seen either of them anywhere near the road. Hopefully they’re smart enough to stay away from the road, because I’d sure hate to find one of them injured or dead by the side of the road.
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So, of all the matchbox cars you’ve purchased, which one do you like better: The Aerio, the Reno or the Accent?
I really REALLY miss E’gar the Aerio, and I wish a lot that I hadn’t given him to the spud. I would have to say that I liked the Aerio the best, and the Accent comes in a fairly close second. I’m not crazy about the Reno at all and don’t particularly recommend it, but it’s paid off, so I’ll be keeping it for at least a few more years.
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Did you ever get your new DVD player from the satellite dish folks?
NO. And I’m not holding my breath – but it also hasn’t been six weeks since Fred last talked to them, either. He’ll happily keep harassing them until they give up and send us the damn thing out of self-preservation.
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Just finished taking the house tour. Is it my imagination, or did you change the knobs on the kitchen cabinets? I know you didn’t replace the cabinet fronts, but they look totally fresh and appeared to be sporting new knobs.
Nope, not your imagination at all! I absolutely loathed the kitchen cabinets when we first bought the house, and was working hard on Fred to make that the first big change, getting new cabinets. But I decided to try switching out the knobs, and it’s absolutely amazing what changing from white ceramic knobs to dark copper metal knobs can make. It’s a thousand times better, and I will happily live with the cabinets for at least a few more years. (I do want to get new ones eventually, though – the ones we have are so awkward and hard to organize that we need something better.)
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Robyn, do you read or watch TV in bed?
I read in bed, usually for half an hour at night and sometimes for a while in the morning. In fact, sometimes I get up in the morning, putter around, and then go back to bed for an hour and read – I did that yesterday. I don’t have a TV in the bedroom, but very occasionally I’ll download something from iTunes to the laptop and lay in bed and watch it. That’s happened maybe twice since I moved into this house.
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In your monumental pile of books, did you ever get around to reading Outlander? I know you said it was on your radar screen at some point in the past.
I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my bookcase – it’s on the second shelf of my bookcase, so I’d say it’s about 25 books from the top of my queue.
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Question… of the utmost blinding importance— wait for it… Do you know the name of the font used in the “Beware” part of your banner? I love that old victorian loopy kind of script !!
I haven’t got a clue, but
Carol made it, so she might remember. Carol? Do you?
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Hi mom! I have a question. Tell everyone what you think of the new law that they just passed to ban sex toys ^_^ I just heard about that.
(and then Amanda said)
Ha! Your daughter is a skimmer!
INDEED she is. Spud, I wrote about that very thing
in this entry. Pay attention!
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What happened to Sadie the dog?
She went back to the Humane Society because (I’m just cutting and pasting from the entry about it): she, Fred, and the spud were out back playing, and the dog made a point of running at the spud – who was laying on a blanket – and running OVER her, leaving a gash on the side of her head. It was the last straw, really – Sadie wouldn’t listen to anyone but Fred, and was so unruly and uncontrollable that we really had no choice. Not to mention that I really hated having her outside all the time. Fred can say what he likes, but I don’t think that a dog should be outside all the time.
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Amber must have been reading your previous entries because I have and I have the same question — what happened to the dog??? (I seem to recall his incompatibility with the And3erson cats forced his exile to a new family — and life on a farm, if I recall correctly.)
That’s a different dog, actually – the one who went after Spot and required finding a new home was Jake, and that was
back in January.
I’ve come to accept that we simply aren’t dog people. I think dogs are fine – in other peoples’ homes, and I certainly like visiting them – and I have nothing against dogs. But just as some people aren’t cat people, we aren’t dog people.
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Are you going to be doing the giveaways again anytime soon?
Yeah, probably in the next week or so. I just have to get my ass in gear and get it done! I’ll probably do one or two this month, then stop until after Christmas.
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I swear it was you who talked about making apple crisp, wasn’t it? I looked in your recipes and it’s not there. Can you share it if it was you?
I don’t remember talking about apple crisp, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it – Fall makes me want to have apple crisp at least once, and I haven’t made any this year, but I’ve mentioned it to Fred several times. Here’s the recipe I use, from the Marjorie Standish cookbook
Cooking Down East. I’ll put it in the recipe section later today when I get a chance.
Apple Crisp
Place in buttered baking dish:
4 cups sliced apples
Sprinkle with:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
Combine: 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
Use pastry blender for mixing flour, sugar and butter.
Turn mixture over apple slices. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve warm with cream, ice cream or sauce. Serves 6.
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we had the pig when i lived in Memphis. i remember once i was in the parking lot with my 3 year old son waiting on my mom to finish shopping. the mr. pigman was standing on a very busy street, waving at the cars. a gust of went sent him reeling across the parking lot and he almost fell into the street. the dudes at the bus stop said, “get your m***** f****** pork a$$ out of the street!” the next time we went shopping with my sainted christian mother-in-law, my son asked if we were going to the m***** f****** pork a$$ store. i thought my mother-in-law was going to shit a brick. ah, such lovely memories of piggly wiggly, a true southern tradition!
I’ve said “Get your motherfucking pork ass out of my way!” to Fred a few times this week. I think I’m going to make it a regular part of our lives because it cracks me UP.
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I ADORE the way you can see her tangle of whiskers in this picture.
Jesikat fighting with my foot. Good times!
Rhian, perturbed.
Spooky in the sun.
Rhian up close.
Jesikat, hanging out under the dresser.
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“Pls do not disturb unless it is snackin’ time, thx.”
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Previously
2006: “Damn pansy-ass city folk.”
2005: as a customer and a HUMAN, I outrank the computer, and I’d like a little RESPECT, thank you.
2004: All this cleaning is making me lightheaded.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: Little things make me happy.
1999: Guest entry by Fred.]]>