With Mister Boogers being gone for more than two weeks, there’s been a slow shift in the way the cats act toward each other and toward us. Stinkerbelle has come down from her perch atop the bookcase in the front room to demand love from Fred. Every evening when we watch TV, she slinks back and forth, jumps up on the couch, and rubs her face against him. He pets her for a few minutes (sometimes even only a few seconds), and then suddenly with no warning, she gets overwhelmed and bites him (sometimes even does that lovely move where she bites and then moves her head back, attempting to tear the flesh from his bones). It appears that she and Fred need to learn each others’ signals, or I’m going to wander into the front room one day to find that she’s torn out his throat and he’s bled to death while she sits there looking bitchy.
(She would likely allow me to pet her if I attempted it, but that cat scares the SHIT out of me. I might give her a quick pet in passing, but attempt nothing more in-depth.)
Spanky‘s gotten more vocal than he was. He goes off every morning around five, sitting in the upstairs bathroom or hallway just singing and singing and singing at the top of his lungs. I call it the “Spanky alarm”, and usually if I yell “Spanky! SHUT UP!”, he does. The other night Fred and I were laying in bed and Spanky started singing, then we heard the angry sound that Kara makes, and Spanky shut off in mid-song.
“She hit the snooze button on the Spanky alarm!” I said.
You should see it in this house at Snackin! Time! It used to be that Kara and Stinkerbelle would both get so excited that they’d each rub up against Mister Boogers (who would take it with rare good grace). Now with no Mister Boogers to rub against (and Tommy in his Snackin! Position! atop the counter), Kara just randomly slinks back and forth and Stinkerbelle goes and tries to start a fight with Spanky, who just sits there and looks at her.
Without Mister Boogers around, they’re trying to figure out who’s in charge, I guess.
On what I’m sure is a completely unrelated side note, we have not had one single incidence of random cat pee anywhere in the house in the past two weeks and two days. Now, THAT I do not miss at all.
I got some of the floors in the house cleaned yesterday, but I totally blew off the organizing of the bureau in the foster kitten room. I pickled some jalapenos for Fred and canned them, canned some green beans, and canned some gherkins for myself. We’ll see how those turn out.
I also sliced more pattypan squash and zucchini to dehydrate. By the time I’m done with the dehydrated and freezing of all this summer squash, pattypan, and zucchini, we should be all set for the next year. I think we’re about there, actually!
My God! Snake. (going back inside very quickly) Do you get a lot of them on Crooked Acres?
Actually, not really that many. I think I could count the number of snakes we’ve seen in the past two years on one hand (if you don’t count the water snakes Fred and my father rescued when we were having the pond filled in). I’m sure there are a lot more that wander across the property than we see, but luckily most of them tend not to come across the back yard, and thus we aren’t alerted to their presence by the cats.
The dogs look so grown up. If that’s George on the right, he looks tall and lanky and not so puppyish.
It’s amazing how they’ve grown, isn’t it? Here’s a picture from shortly after we got them (actually, might be the day we got them, I don’t remember):
And now:
(George on the right, Gracie on the left.)
It blows me away to see how puppyish they looked when we got them, I swear I thought they looked like full-grown dogs to me then.
They turn one year old on the 23rd. I guess I better plan on some sort of celebration for them!
What the hell were you thinking? Getting that close to a snake to take a picture is nuts! I hope you ran away fast after the picture was taken. That is scarrrryyyyy!!!!!!
I used the zoom. I was nowhere near that snake, I swear it!
Are black rat snakes good snakes (like gopher snakes, which keep the varmints down) or bad snakes (like rattlers)? Or are they generally good snakes that become bad snakes when they eat baby chicks and/or chicken eggs? (Yes, writing this is easier than hitting google. Don’t ask me why)
The snake that was in the back yard (I’m pretty sure it was a black ratsnake), according to this page, They feed almost exclusively on warm-blooded prey such as mice, rats, shrews, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and birds. They have been known to raid bird nests and devour the eggs. I’m not too concerned about them going after baby chicks or chicken eggs, because I’m pretty sure the roosters, if not George and Gracie, would take care of them.
Now, I’m no farmer or rancher or chicken keeper. So I have to ask, Is glad trash bag the preferred method of chicken transport?
I have seen chickens transported in all sorts of things – usually when we go to the flea market, if people aren’t just carrying them around by their legs they’ve got them in pillowcases. Actually, I’ve seen more chickens in pillowcases than anything. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one carried around in a trash bag before, but I guess it’s okay for short distances. We prefer to transport our chickens in cat carriers, but I’ve also seen them in wire cages. The few chickens we’ve sold, we’ve offered cardboard boxes to the buyers to transport the chickens in.
Really, chickens aren’t terribly picky about what they’re carried around in. I don’t know that I’d recommend trash bags, though – that seems like you’re just asking for the chicken to peck through the plastic and escape, doesn’t it?
I am sooo glad that guy made a video about his experience…just wish I had the talent to do so everytime an airline screwed me over. Any response from United??
Apparently United customer service contacted Dave Carroll and have offered him some compensation. At this point he’s not looking for compensation, and has suggested that they donate the money that they’re offering him to a charity of their choice.
I’m looking forward to song #2!
There is no love lost with me where Palin is concerned but that baby Father is a dumb one is he not? I think they follow him because he will say things like that. Someone does need to shut him the hell up.
I can’t believe the media is giving Levi Johnston (and it irks me that I know that boy’s name off the top of my head) any airtime at all. I highly doubt that Sarah Palin tends to give him any kind of inside information, and anything he has to say about what’s going on with ANYTHING comes, I do believe, directly from his ass.
Your story has touched my heart. Today, in memory of mr boogers and the 4 precious kitties that you took such loving care of, I took the largest bags of Purina Kitten and Dog food that I could find out to our Second Chance Rescue center. It was a small thing to do, but just my way of saying thank you to both you and Fred, for the loving care you give to your animals. You are an inspiration.
I think that’s an absolutely lovely way to remember Mister Boogers and Hamilton & Jefferson and their brothers. Thank you!
If this is a test, did I pass? I sure didn’t have advanced notice to study!
It was a pop quiz! And not only did you pass, you got an A Plus! Plus! Plus! Plus!
My friend did dialysis at home on her cat w/kidney failure for 18 mos. She lost her a few weeks back and said she may never replace her because of all the work/expense/emotional stress involved. I hope she changes her mind in time. They want to travel a little this summer and a sick in-law means more stress down the road. I don’t think there’s one right answer but I’d let the sick cat go and give a new cat a home. (I doubt we could afford the vet bills and I’m too squeamish to do IV treatment on anyone). What do you think? I do not make my friend feel judged nor she I. We respect each other’s difference of opinion.
and
My cat has had “terminal kidney failure” for 4 years. I’m really a wimp, and even I can give the cat fluids. It’s really not hard since you don’t have to hit a vein or anything. I’ve heard people say it’s cruel to the cat. The way we figure, he’s uncomfortable for about 5 minutes, and the next 47 hours and 55 minutes he feels great.
Giving cats fluids is one thing I’ve never done – YET. I’m sure it’s something I’ll have to do at some point in the future. I think that as long as the cat is happy and seems to be feeling good most of the time, I myself would likely keep on doing it as long as it needed to be done.
My cats do NOT stay off the counters or the flat top stove, so whenever I am done cooking I fill a pan of water and leave it on the burner until the burner is cool. I had to train my husband to do this as well. It works like a charm.
BRILLIANT.
Since you love it when readers have Crooked Acres dreams I’ll tell you one I had a few months ago. I was napping on the couch and dreamed I was napping on the couch (I AM CREATIVE). I woke up (in my dream) because Tommy had walked up to the couch and was rubbing his face on mine. I was so happy to see him! And I was saying things to him like “Oh, it’s my Tommy Toms!” and giving him face kisses and telling him how happy I was to see him and what a beautiful boy he was. Then I woke up for real and wondered in that just woke up thinking about your dreams way why it was Tommy. Then I told myself indignantly “Of course it was Tommy! He’s the Ambassador! The Ambassador of Love!” Now whenever I see his picture, even in the sidebar, I whisper “It’s the Ambassador! The Ambassador of Love!” It made me smile to get a “visit” from M-O-O-N.
HA – he is totally the Ambassador of Love! I love that you dreamed about Tommy, it doesn’t surprise me that he visited you and gave you some Tommy Love. He’s a luvah, that one.
Just wanted to ask you a question about the picture with the squirrel in the suet container. Is that a mouse tail hanging at the bottom? It sure looks like one.
Nope, that’s a leaf. You can see the picture larger here.
Huh. Given the big “No dumping of household garbage” sign, I’d have thought that they were employees and they were getting the name of a particularly egregious offender, the better to send him/her a citation. My second thought, upon hearing that they were opening mail, was that someone had thrown away something very important and they were hoping against hope to find it. Sifting through discarded junk mail is probably only a fractionally more effective means of stealing someone’s identity than ringing someone’s doorbell and saying, “Hi, I’d like to steal your identity, can you fill out this handy form with all your personal information?”
Coincidentally, Consumerist.com just did an entry today: Identity theft hysteria overblown; watch your debit card instead. It’s hideously transcribed, but interesting nonetheless. There are so many more things to worry about.
No, they definitely weren’t employees – they eventually got into a car and drove away with a box of stuff they’d purloined from the dumpster (a couple of people suggested they were perhaps looking for coupons – which I think is the most likely possibility).
Those are some sort of stinging things ’cause your closeup is on a little hive! (and I don’t think they are makin honey!)
They pop up in all sorts of odd places on our little farm and then all of the sudden you’ll see a huge hive – and have to call the exterminator (not my husband!). Yesterday I found 4 wasps in a little hive – inside the passenger side door of my car.
Kill’em. Kill’em Dead, now, while you can.
I actually didn’t have to do anything – Mother Nature took care of ’em yesterday. It rained, the bucket got a few inches of water in it, and voila – dead floating stinging things!
Thanks, Mother Nature. You’re a pain in the ass sometimes, but occasionally you help a sister out!
I found some pictures of Dwight on my hard drive, ones that I haven’t shared. He sure is a sweet monkey. I hope he gets adopted this weekend!
Also on my hard drive, I found a couple of pictures of Mister Boogers, ones that I took a few months ago. I was saving them to use in a story wherein Stinkerbelle was a hard-hitting reporter who exposed Mister Boogers as being a poser who PRETENDED to hate everything, but secretly had a marshmallow-soft center of LOVE.
I’ll put them up here sized tiny so as not to upset anyone, and if you want to see the full-sized version, you can click on it and see more detail over at Flickr, ‘k?
I sure do miss that Boogs.
Previously
2008: I repeat: GODDAMN CHICKENS.
2007: My day in motherfucking pictures.
2006: No motherfucking entry.
2005: No motherfucking entry.
2004: No motherfucking entry.
2003: The motherfucking shit fit continued unabated.
2002: I guess I’d better keep these motherfucking babies to myself.
2001: Ever found yourself being a total unreasonable motherfucking bitch for no good reason, and even though you know there’s no reason for the bitchiness, you can’t halt it, can’t stop it, just have to sit back and let it happen?
2000: ‘Cause that’s just the kinda lazy motherfucker I am.