I would like to know what motherfucker thought it would be an excellent idea to plant bush beans this summer. What a fucking PAIN IN THE ASS it is to go down a row of those fucking things and find all the beans that are big enough to pick. That motherfucker was me, by the … Continue reading “6/27/11 – Monday”
I would like to know what motherfucker thought it would be an excellent idea to plant bush beans this summer. What a fucking PAIN IN THE ASS it is to go down a row of those fucking things and find all the beans that are big enough to pick.
That motherfucker was me, by the way. I was all “Nah, let’s do bush beans this year instead of pole beans!” and Fred was all “But what a pain in the ass!” and then I was all “Well, I’ll take care of picking them. You always pick them when they’re too big and they get all stringy and shit.”
Spring Robyn is always FAR too happy to sign up Summer Robyn for shit like that, and as Summer Robyn, let me just say: Shut the fuck up, Spring Robyn, you fucking asshole.
Next year we’re doing pole beans (and no doubt Spring 2012 Robyn will be ALL too happy to sign Summer 2012 Robyn up to pick those fucking beans, too). Why do we grow so many goddamn green beans, anyway? Who loves beans THAT much? We always end up with ten tons of them in the freezer and have to eat them at every meal and by December we’re all “O goody. Beans again!”
Note, because I know someone out there is wondering and doesn’t know the difference (I sure didn’t before we had our own garden): bush beans grow in bushes so that the beans hide under the leaves of the plant. Pole beans grow up a pole or – in our case – a fence panel. The pole beans can still hide under the leaves of the plant, but you don’t have to spend as much time bent over, digging through the fucking plant to see them. Also, bush beans produce beans all at once and then stop, whereas pole beans keep producing them – thus, with bush beans the work of blanching and freezing (I don’t much care for canned green beans, for the record) happens all at once, but with pole beans the work is more spread out.
I’m sure next summer I’ll be bitching about the pole beans and swearing to do bush beans in 2013.
One thing I bought this year that has come in really handy is a garden cart, like this one (I bought it at Lowe’s, though). I was able to sit on that thing and scoot down the row of green beans rather than having to stand bent over. It was a lot easier on my back. It also came in handy when I was going down the row of tomatoes pruning and checking for early blight (which I haven’t seen since I sprayed for it twice).
Speaking of tomatoes, we’ve eaten exactly three cherry tomatoes. We have a bazillion green tomatoes that are inching ever closer toward ripening, and hopefully that’ll happen this century.
We’ve been eating the hell out of squash and zucchini – for dinner last week, we had scrambled eggs every night, with sides of veggies. Thursday night, I made pattypan squash stuffed with sauteed zucchini and yellow squash, roasted yellow squash, and sliced raw zucchini with ranch dressing for dipping. Oh! And leftover zucchini fritters. When dinner was over, Fred said “This is the most squash-centric meal I’ve ever eaten.”
The squash side dishes have just begun! ::evil laugh::
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Last week I got an email from Burpee exhorting me to start thinking about my Fall garden (seriously, wtf? It’s not even July, motherfuckers!), and one of the links in the email was to their selection of garlic. So I clicked on that to go over and see what was what with the garlic they had (I’ve never grown garlic before, but I’m thinking of planting it this Fall so it’ll be ready to harvest next summer. I love me some garlic.). A few days later, I got an email from them proclaiming that I could get FREE shipping on garlic.
Fucking stalkers. They could be a LITTLE more subtle about the fact that they were following me around the internet looking over my shoulder as I perused their site, no?
(I haven’t decided about the garlic yet. If I do plant some this Fall, I’ll probably get it from the local co-op.)
Speaking of, um, stinky veggies, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but this Spring I planted about 150 onions. Currently, I’ve got about 20 growing. I find that SO FUCKING ANNOYING. I love onions! (Between my onion and garlic love, don’t you wish you were kissing acquaintances with me?) Fred mentioned the possibility of doing a long raised bed next year for the onions, so that’s something to look forward to.
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All the kittens are doing well. It’s like a crazy house in here these days, with kittens hopping everywhere like fleas. It’s surprisingly quiet in the middle of the day, with them flopped everywhere sleeping – but wild little monkeys first thing in the morning and at dusk.
I weighed the Spice Girls over the weekend. Cilantro and Cori are both a couple of ounces over 2 pounds, and little Clove is at 1 pound, 10 ounces, so it’ll be a bit longer before they all go to be spayed. Fred reported that he saw Clove rooting around in Miz Poo’s belly fur, clearly looking for a nipple, and Miz Poo was not appreciative of this development, so hissed and smacked at her.
Poor Clove (but I can’t say that I blame Miz Poo!)
Macushla’s in charge of guarding the food.
Ciara, trying to latch on. Poor Maggie – she tries her best to ignore them when they do this. Eventually, she either gives in, or jumps up where they can’t get to her.
Sleeping McMaos.
There’s a bed RIGHT THERE, but noooo, he has to curl up in a miserable ball on top of my sewing basket. Weirdo.
They’re so ridiculously long and lanky at this age.
Okay, well, THAT looks comfy.
So proud of herself for flinging that pink hat off her head.
Cilantro, eye on the feather teaser.
Planning her jump.
Whoaaaa…. back she goes!
Still swingin’!
Clove in profile.
Cilantro in profile.
Her little smile just slays me.
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Maxi keeps me company when I do outside chores.
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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry. 2008: You spoil them rotten until they get big-ass, then you slaughter and eat them, of course! 2007: Is it just me, or do these look like weirdly posed scenes, like something you’d see in the JC Penney catalog? I imagine a photographer yelling “Frick! You WANT him, you want him with every feather on your body, but Sugarbutt! You don’t even notice Frick, you’re just standing there being beautiful. Be beautiful, Sugarbutt! Be beautiful and feisty and unattainable, and Frick! Want him! Want him badly, but sadly, knowing that you can never have someone that beautiful. He’s out of your league! PERFECT!” 2006: The meals sucked, but we got t-shirts that were pretty cute, so I guess it all worked out. 2005: Can I sue for emotional distress?
2004: No entry. 2003: I never said I had a long attention span. 2002: You can imagine the zany situations.
2001: No entry. 2000: Beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.
Have you ever read this blog? Her entry for Tuesday is hysterical! And that’s why you should learn to pick your battles. I read that earlier this week – and it made me laugh out loud. Can you think of anyone on earth who needs a giant metal chicken more than I do? I would … Continue reading “6/24/11 – Friday”
Have you ever read this blog? Her entry for Tuesday is hysterical!
I read that earlier this week – and it made me laugh out loud. Can you think of anyone on earth who needs a giant metal chicken more than I do? I would put that thing on the front porch and it would scare all the door-to-door salespeople away. Or if they persisted on knocking on my door, I’d say, “Well, let me ask Alfred. Alfred, do we need supplemental insurance?” and I’d cock my head to the side as if listening to the chicken, and then say “Well, Alfred says we’re fine, but thanks anyway. Alfred! How rude! Don’t say mean things about this man’s tie. I’m sure he’s doing the best he can.” Also, I’d put Christmas lights on it. AND A WREATH AROUND ITS NECK.
Man. I wish I had a giant chicken.
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Have you seen this?
Cracks me up!
Yes! It cracks me up, too. (Also, that is one pretty, pretty cat.)
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I thought the first two pictures were of Alice, so then I continued to think that the calico was her, and was astonished to see her nursing. I had several seconds of, “WOW” before I remembered about the Spice Calico.
I think Alice would have to be sedated to be anywhere near Maggie. They don’t care for each other at all – but I kind of wish she would, if only for the picture-taking opportunities. Of course, Alice would lead to Elwood, and then Jake and perhaps Tommy, and then there’d be no Maggie left, she’d just be a dried-out husk in the middle of the floor!
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Don’t know if you’ve seen this video of a “barking” cat on CNN. I just watched it, could NOT believe that cat sounded exactly like a dog barking. When the cat sees owner approaching with video-cam, it switches to meowing. Amazing!
That is so neat! I thought at first it had to be a trick – like, there was a dog outside barking, but nope. That cat was barking!
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Oh! I think the show you were watching was “Too Cute” on Animal Planet? I saw it over the weekend. There was a Persian litter, an Abyssinian litter and a Bengal litter. Was that the one? If it was, did you see when they used the blow dryer on a brand new Persian? The poor widdle ting, with his lips in a little “o.” Oh, and “Tiny Dancer!”
That’s it! It was amazingly adorable – I loved the kitten being blown dry. And it made me realize something that should have been obvious: if I want to get cats accustomed to something, I need to start while they’re still teeny tiny. Thus, with my very next foster litter, I swear I’m going to take them on regular (short) rides in the car (in a carrier, of course), and then give them a treat when we get home. That way, they’ll link the car ride with something pleasurable, and won’t freak out about being in the carrier, in the car! Right? Right!
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I’m not going to cut and paste Elayne’s whole comment, but you can read it here. This section especially interested me:
I have known someone with a history of painkiller addiction who would have a glass of wine once every two or three weeks, whenever he and his wife went to dinner – just the one glass, because his wife enjoyed having a glass or two of wine but felt uncomfortable “drinking in front of him” if he wasn’t drinking.
because I’ve heard of this concept, where people are uncomfortable drinking in front of other people. I listen to the KATG podcast, and Chemda (“the Girl”) doesn’t drink and has said that people tell her they don’t trust people who don’t drink. What I want to know is, who are these people who CARE whether other people are drinking or not?
I will say that I immediately thought it might be like when I’m out to dinner and want dessert, but don’t want to be the only one eating dessert. BUT, if you have a glass of wine and your dining partner has a glass of Diet Coke or whatever, you’re both drinking something even if both drinks aren’t alcoholic (ie, if I get the chocolate whatever for dessert I’m not going to insist you also get the chocolate whatever, you can get the blueberry pie, as long as you’re eating dessert and not sitting there watching me eat mine), so what’s the difference?
Clearly I’m not a drinker at all, so maybe I just don’t have the right mindset to understand?
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I went to look at all his [Coltrane’s] pictures and ran into a little hitch – all the links to kitty pages go to private pages on flickr that cannot actually be seen. All links from here.
When I had to switch from self-hosting my pictures to having them all hosted at Flickr, I had to make it so that all the pictures I share (even the ones on the sidebar) link back to Flickr. So if you clicked on the picture to go to any of the cats’ pages, you would have gotten to a page at Flickr that wouldn’t allow you to see the source picture, because I had set them to private. There are links under all the pictures that actually go to each cat’s page – I hope! If anyone is still getting the private page at Flickr, please let me know. It’s kind of a pain, but I don’t want to chance being shut down by my host again!
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I came here today to show you a website with cute kitties wearing ties
You did forget to address Jill, though! I probably like Jill the most, although she is also nosy. I’m so sad she had such drastic plastic surgery and now looks like she has Scotch tape pulling her temples toward the crown of her head. (Do you read Jay Mohr’s recaps on the Bravo website? They are HILARIOUS! Seriously, he is incredible, and boy does he hate Ashley.) Jay Mohr says that Ashley makes Eeyore look like Richard Simmons. Bwahaha!
I can’t believe I forgot about Jill! I have to say that this season, now that the Bethenny drama is over with, I find Jill less annoying and even occasionally entertaining. I love that she’s so nosy and doesn’t hesitate to ask ten million questions (as in Morocco!) But I wish she would never ever wear her hair pulled back into that tight ponytail, because I don’t think it’s a good look. I like it when her hair is down!
I have now read all the Jay Mohr recaps, and you’re right, he’s absolutely awesome, not LEAST because of his Ashley hatred.
I keep meaning to bring this up about the opening credits to RHoNJ – you know when Melissa’s in the cat suit for Halloween, and she makes the purring noise and then she does these odd jazz hands? Can someone explain to me what this is about, please? Because it makes me want to fly through the screen and decapitate her, it annoys me so much.
Did y’all see the OC “Lost Footage” episode? Because I have to ask: Did Gretchen really keep saying that she wasn’t a good “drawler” (instead of “draw-er”), or was I hearing wrong?
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BTW, I think I saw that guy in some funny YouTube videos. In fact I’m sure of it; and they were about cats. Too funny.
That would be the Professional Engineer’s Guide to Cats and Advanced Cat Yodeling.
Love that guy! (And his “assistant” TJ.)
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Wow! Elwood is one big (and kinda intimidating) boy, isn’t he?
He is 14 pounds of lurrrrrrrrrve. He looks intimidating, but really he’s a great big lovebug. Until you annoy him, in which case he will put the smack down. You be nice, he’ll be nice. He and Kara have a love-hate relationship. One minute they’re doing this:
The next he’s chasing her around the back yard and she’s hissing at him.
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When and why did you stop cleaning at Petsmart? Surgery related? Are you going to go back? Just curious! 🙂
Oh, it’s been a while, definitely before surgery. It just got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it, and it felt like a hassle to get up and go to Petsmart. Basically, I was hurrying through it instead of taking my time and playing with the cats, and I felt that they deserved better than that. I do occasionally fill in for other cleaners who are going to be out of town (though it’s been a while since even that), and I enjoy that.
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I just want to say thanks for still being around. Do you know that you are the very first blog I ever read?
Hard to believe I’ve been around for 11 years, isn’t it? I know that when I first started this site, I didn’t figure I’d to 30 days, let alone 11 (and a half!) years. So thanks for reading, all of you!
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I have one thing to say.
PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN!!! 🙂
Would you believe, for once in my life I didn’t even think about grabbing the camera when I saw that pile. So, no cat vomit pics for you! (Everyone else: you’re welcome. Heh.)
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Did you notice that in the cat tree pic, one little monkey is in mid-air?!?!? LOL
Indeed I did! That’s Fergus Simon, and that describes his personality completely – he’s always flying through the air like a wild thing. Nothing slows this boy down.
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I keep on thinking that Coriander is actually Alice!! They have quite similar, gorgeous coloring, and are both small! 🙂
It’s my goal in the next week to get a picture of Cori and Alice side by side, so y’all can compare. They do have the same colors, but Alice is not nearly the tiny thing she used to be – in fact, I’d say she’s pretty much an average-sized cat now.
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Reminds me of a story here where a woman was arrested at a casino when someone found about 35 animals (cats, dogs, and kittens) in her CAR in the parking garage. She’d been kicked out of her apartment (go figure) and was using the casino’s computer to look for new housing. She’d cracked the windows of the car–this was in summer! None of the animals were hurt or harmed or sick from the heat.
I cannot imagine having, say, THREE cats in my car, let alone 35 cats, dogs, and kittens. Craziness!
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As for your (non-hoarded) cats and kittens, Robyn, I swear they get cuter everyday… or maybe that’s just the hats! I swear that Alice has become a full-size cat based on how big the collar power supply is. Is that true?
It really is – I’ll see if I can’t remember to weigh her in the next week so I can see just how big she’s gotten. I had kind of hoped that she’d stay tiny, but I guess she needed to get bigger to fit all that personality in!
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I went back looking because I remembered a video of him saying hi. Isn’t it nice to have videos to remember with?
It really is nice to be able to see him again and hear his voice. I actually posted two videos of him – one recent, and one from 9 months ago. I called them both “Coltrane says hi,” as a matter of fact!
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By the way, I noticed the traffic noise in the video of the baby robins. Is that “the” road? Sounds like there is quite a lot of traffic.
The road in front of our house is actually busier than you’d expect. It’s the main road leading to one of the area’s biggest employers, so at shift change there’s a lot of traffic. The tree is also very close to the road – here’s a shot from the end of the driveway. That tree near the mailbox is the one with the nest in it.
And here’s a shot from the end of the driveway to the house (you can’t see the tree, but you can see the shadow of the tree on the ground).
We’re closer to the road than I’d like to be – I’d actually prefer it if our house was at the very back of our property. I don’t love living on such a busy road, but if we didn’t live on such a busy road, we never would have seen this house and ended up living here.
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IS THAT A GUN in the picture of Newt in his Newt cave??? Do you really discourage outsiders to the farm that strongly?? 🙂
It looks like a pistol with a really long barrel, but then again, I’m from Englandshire, and I don’t think I’ve even held a real gun in my life!
That’s a shotgun. Here at Crooked Acres, the cats don’t take too kindly to strangers.
(I actually had a “the cat don’t take too kindly to strangers” doormat, once upon a time.)
Living in the country, someone (who is not necessarily me) feels safer with firearms with which to protect ourselves. Despite the traffic at certain parts of the day, we do still live out in the country, and some scary people walk past here on a daily basis.
So when I’m home alone and working outside in the garden, I almost always have a gun on me – though not THAT gun.
I’ve never had to use the gun I carry, and to be honest I don’t know that I could shoot someone unless they were coming at me in a crazy-eyed crack-induced rage (or made a disparaging comment about one of my cats)(I kid!), but I know how to aim and fire it. I’m not the best shot on earth, but I could get the job done if I needed to.
(Are ya scared yet?)
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In the meowy Spice Girls video, I can distinctly hear two girls yelling for food, but then there’s one who has a teentiny adorable little squeak! Who is that? I almost melted from the sheer cuteness of whoever was going meep! ee-eep! meep! eep! meep!
That’s Cori!
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Not to be a busybody or anything, but in future years you’ll need a more hefty support for the grapevine. Think about vineyards in France with wooden fence posts and heavy wire supports — the vines get so heavy that they need that strength of support. Hope this helps. Thanks for letting me be a know-it-all.
Doodle, anytime you want to be a know-it-all, I’m listening. 🙂 I don’t know about needing a heftier support for the grapevines, though – we’re growing muscadines on a similar fence, and they seem to be okay.
Though they are only about three years old. In any case, if we need something sturdier in the future, I’m sure Fred can figure something out. The main reason we planted grapes in the back yard is that we hope they’ll spread out along the fence and provide us with some privacy (the house next door is very close). If they get to be too much for the fence, we can always trim them back.
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This has been around several years. Have you seen it? I was able to download this song & it’s always on my playlist!
I had not; that’s very cool. And here I was all impressed with myself for cutting a few holes in a big box and getting Spanky to think it was pretty neat!
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Do you recarpet your cat trees? I have a couple that need it, and I have a nice piece of carpet my neighbor gave me when he recarpeted his bedroom, but I’ve never done it before. Do you take off the old carpet? Do you glue it down (what kind of glue?) or staple it or both? I figure if you don’t know, some of your readers will! 🙂
I have never recarpeted a cat tree, so I’m posting this in hopes that someone will have some words of wisdom!
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I bought a t-shirt from icanhascheezburger.com a couple months ago, and every time I wear it, it makes me think of poor little Maggie (and I laugh at the same time!). I’ve been meaning to post a picture of it for you for ages!
That is AWESOME! (And in Maggie’s case, SO true!)
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We were wondering when Maggie’s babies will go up for adoption?
They’re all set now – we’re just waiting for room to open up at Petsmart. Could be any day. I am going to seriously miss these guys when it’s time for them to go.
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Cillian’s just not sure…
“Are you sure these Declan hats are all the rage in England?”
Macushla in a basket!
Looks like Cillian might have a touch of the Loony Jake about him.
Declan’s a helper, making sure there are no groceries in that bag.
I wonder if we could have fit a few more McMaos in that ham-mick.
Cilantro on the scratcher, keeping an eye on her tail.
Clove, batting cleanup. (In the morning, the Spice Girls get their snack upstairs in their room while I’m scooping litter boxes. Usually by the time I’m done scooping, they’re done eating, so I let them out. Then I go downstairs and give the McMaos their snack, and on this particular day, Clove wandered along and realized there were leftovers to be taken care of.)
Dorian suggested, a couple of weeks ago, using a muffin top pan to give the McMaos their snack. It works wonderfully (I usually put a couple of dabs of food in the middle in case Maggie wants to join in – which she doesn’t, lately.) and it’s a lot better than having to juggle an armload of dishes! Thanks, Dorian!
Clove and Fergus Simon, in the cat bed under the table. That cat bed was originally on one of the chairs, but they kept knocking it down, so I gave up and left it there.
Sweet Miss Cori, on the ham-mick in the kitchen. We have three ham-micks in this house, and that one’s the most popular by far.
Sleepy Spices. (Front to back: Cilantro, Clove, Coriander.)
She looks oh so sweet and innocent, doesn’t she? Don’t be fooled! (Clove)
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Loony Jake and Alice snuggle up.
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Previously 2010: “YOU BETTER KEEP THOSE KIDS QUIET OVER THERE. I KEEP MY KIDS QUIET, YOU DO THE SAME WITH YOURS, YOU HEAR ME?!” 2009: I don’t mind telling you that I’m ready to burn the goddamn house down.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry. 2005: For the record, that’s the sort of thing that gives me a fucking stroke. 2004: Oh, Rayford Steele, you manly stud. 2003: Now, do I look like the kind of gal who enjoys hiking? 2002: Some people have wild sex dreams. I dream that I’m chatting with my husband and kissing him goodbye for the day. Somebody stop me!
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
P.A.W.S. Wakefield, an animal rescue shelter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, just rescued eight mothers and thirty-five kittens from one house (let me repeat: FROM ONE HOUSE) in Melrose, MA. They desperately need funds to get the cats spayed/ neutered and cared for, and if there’s anyone out there in the Melrose-Wakefield, Massachusetts area, I’m sure they … Continue reading “6/23/11 – Thursday”
P.A.W.S. Wakefield, an animal rescue shelter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, just rescued eight mothers and thirty-five kittens from one house (let me repeat: FROM ONE HOUSE) in Melrose, MA. They desperately need funds to get the cats spayed/ neutered and cared for,
and if there’s anyone out there in the Melrose-Wakefield, Massachusetts area, I’m sure they could use more foster homes, or adoptive homes for kitties! Their website is here, and you can donate here.
Y’all help out if you can, and help spread the word, please?
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No Crooked Acres pics today – it’s been kind of overcast and drizzly all week, which doesn’t lend itself to great picture-taking. There’ll be pics next week, I’m sure!
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The baby robins have moved on, it appears. Or they’re learning to fly – I went out to check the mail yesterday morning, and stopped by the tree to look in the nest. I saw no babies in the nest, but two robins were squawking and diving at me, so they may have been in the tree somewhere.
I did make Fred stop feeding the babies so we wouldn’t interfere with the natural course of things, but he insisted on going out to the front yard and tossing worms for the parents to snatch up and carry to their babies.
Those worms, let me add, were not worms he was able to dig up, because it’s been so dry here (well, at least until the last couple of days). They were worms that he bought at a convenience store (some convenience stores around here sell bait)(you know you’re jealous), which cost him $10.
Do you think I’ll be bringing up that $10 (FOR WORMS) every single time he tries to give me a hard time about money I’m spending on toys for the cats? Oh, yes indeedy I will. I look forward to it!
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So, on Sunday I was out working in the garden. I was laying feed bags down around the peppers. Fred had been piling feed bags in the blue coop all year long so that come this gardening season, I could use them to block weeds. I carried 10 bags from the blue coop to the garden, carrying them up under my arm. I worked in the garden for a couple of hours, and when I was done, I was headed back to the house when my armpit started itching like crazy. I scratched at it a few times, but the problem is that half of my armpit area is still numb from the surgery I had in February, so even though it was itching, scratching it wasn’t really helping. Which was odd.
It itched for a while longer, and I asked Fred to look at the area and tell me what the hell was going on, but he couldn’t see anything. The itching finally went away. Sunday evening, it started to hurt, alternately aching and stinging. I actually took a hydrocodone to make it stop hurting and also because I figured it’d help me sleep.
Monday morning it was neither better nor worse than it had been the night before, so I decided to just keep an eye on it and go without a bra.
(What? The bra strap was irritating the swollen area. And any excuse to go without a bra, amIright?)
Tuesday morning, Fred looked at it before he left for work, and said he thought it was getting bruised-looking and that I should go to the doctor. I did – well, saw the nurse practitioner – and she prescribed an antibiotic and told me to come back if it got worse.
All this time, Fred had been INSISTING that I probably got a bite from a brown recluse, that there MUST be brown recluses living in the piles of feed bags in the blue coop, that my side was going to rot off. I would say, in fact, that he was disappointed the nurse practitioner didn’t insist I immediately check myself into the hospital and undergo lifesaving surgery (or whatever). He was also disappointed that it wasn’t anything that had to be lanced so that gallons of crap would come shooting out.
He was mostly disappointed, though, that he had to stop on the way home and pick up my antibiotic prescription for me because I didn’t want to wait around for it. (He was NOT disappointed that it was free, though. Gotta love Publix!)
As of last night, the swelling had gone down considerably. I think I’ll live.
Someone Fred knows was actually bitten on the cheek by a brown recluse. He had to have skin removed from his butt to replace the necrotic tissue caused by the bite. Gives a new meaning to “butthead”, no?
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Tuesday afternoon, I had to take Declan to the vet. I noticed that he wasn’t playing with the other kittens, all he wanted to do was lay in the cat bed near the back door and watch the kittens run by. He also seemed to be favoring one paw, and felt warm to me. He howled and howled on the drive to the vet, only quieting down when he realized he could crawl under the blanket in the carrier. Once he did that, I didn’t hear another peep from him.
The vet looked him over thoroughly – he did have a temperature – and couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with him. She prescribed antibiotics in case he had an abscess forming. By the evening, he was hanging out on the couch next to Fred, chasing his tail.
Tuesday evening, I made dinner. The veggies have started coming in from the garden, most especially zucchini. I decided to make baked zucchini fritters (I use plain panko bread crumbs, though, because I’m not crazy about the Italian herbs. Don’t look at me like that, I just don’t like them! I think it’s the basil. Did I mention don’t look at me like that?). Sooooo we were eating dinner, and Fred went into the kitchen to get something, and he called “She ate one of the fritters!”
“She” would be Maggie, who is pretty much a stomach on legs. I can’t blame her, she is letting nine kittens nurse, for the love of god, but it’s kind of annoying that if I even think about walking near the kitchen, she appears and gives me the bright-eyed hopeful look.
We’d stupidly left the leftover fritters on the counter while we were eating dinner, and Maggie saw her shot and took it. The problem is that there was not only onion but also garlic in those fritters, both of which are toxic to cats.
Now, there wasn’t much onion in the fritter she’d eaten – the recipe calls for 1/4 of an onion, which was spread over 8 fritters – but I didn’t want to take any chances. I called the vet and talked to her, and she suggested that since it had just happened, we should try to make Maggie vomit. If we weren’t able to, we could check her red blood cells every couple of days to make sure there was no damage.
We grabbed Maggie and took her into the bathroom, then gave her 3 cc of hydrogen peroxide. She was surprisingly good about letting Fred shoot it down her throat, and then she paced around the bathroom, licking her lips and swallowing. After 10 minutes, we gave her another 3 cc, and then both left the bathroom to get some evening chores done. Five minutes later, Fred went to check on her.
“You have GOT to see this!” he yelled, and I went to see.
I’m pretty sure she vomited up everything she’d eaten over the past week. It was awe-inspiring, to say the least. And there, in the middle, was every bit of the fritter she’d eaten. She recovered pretty quickly, and by bedtime was back to her usual “You have food for me?” self.
For dinner last night, I made more fritters (we are seriously getting quite a bit of zucchini from the garden right now and we both like these fritters). This time, I made two without onion and garlic, and let her have one of them. It’s not anything we’ll make a habit of, but after making her vomit the night before, we figured she deserved a treat.
It’s always something around here, y’know?
“Here, here, pass it here! PASS IT HERE!”
“PASS IT TO ME, YOU STUPID CENTER!”
So close, and yet so far.
Doesn’t seem to bother her that she keeps missing, does it?
Clove loves to stand there and watch Maggie lovingly as she eats.
Clove.
Coriander.
Cilantro (couldn’t get her to look at the camera!)
“Why yes, I AM sitting in the basket watching my brothers drink. What of it?” (Declan in the basket, Macushla front left, Finnegan front right)
Have I mentioned that they love this cat tree beyond all reason?
Ciara, up close.
Macushla, up close.
Fergus Simon and Finnegan. I love how FS has his big ol’ rabbit feet pressed against Finnegan.
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It’s time for your weekly reminder: Corbie is gorgeous. That is all.
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Previously 2010: All the fosters, ever. 2009: (A story we recounted, and I do not exaggerate here, at least five times over the course of the weekend.) 2008: Taking a few impromptu days off.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry. 2005: I’ll try to drum up some drama for tomorrow, m’kay? 2004: (For the record, I do vacuum out there every couple of months…) 2003: A Day in the Life
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry. 2000: I will be hurting bad tomorrow, though.
P.A.W.S. Wakefield, an animal rescue shelter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, just rescued eight mothers and thirty-five kittens from one house (let me repeat: FROM ONE HOUSE) in Melrose, MA. They desperately need funds to get the cats spayed/ neutered and cared for, and if there’s anyone out there in the Melrose-Wakefield, Massachusetts area, I’m sure they … Continue reading “6/22/11 – Kitteh Wednesday”
P.A.W.S. Wakefield, an animal rescue shelter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, just rescued eight mothers and thirty-five kittens from one house (let me repeat: FROM ONE HOUSE) in Melrose, MA. They desperately need funds to get the cats spayed/ neutered and cared for,
and if there’s anyone out there in the Melrose-Wakefield, Massachusetts area, I’m sure they could use more foster homes, or adoptive homes for kitties! Their website is here.
Y’all help out if you can, and help spread the word, please?
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One of these things is not like the others….
Two of these things just don’t belong…
Can you tell which three things are not like the others…
By the time I finish my song?
(You can click on the pictures to go to Flickr, where there are notes on each picture pointing out who the interlopers are!)
So yes, as you might have guessed, the Spice Girls have gotten the run of the house along with the McMaos. It is, let me tell you, utter madness. But it’s also kind of delightful. I let them out in the morning, and then at bedtime we put the McMaos in the guest bedroom and the Girls in the foster room. We discussed putting all of them in one room, but I think it’s best to keep them separate at night for now. A couple of the McMaos (Ciara and Macushla) were a little hissy at first, but they relaxed pretty quickly.
Cori at the trough.
Let me tell you, I actually pulled all of those kittens off Maggie after a few seconds (before I snapped those pictures up there), because I was afraid she was being overwhelmed, but she gave me a dirty look and then called to the kittens to come to her. Who am I to interfere with her mothering?
Maggie, in the window in the dining room.
“What’s over HERE?”
Macushla, with Clove snuggled up behind him. Yeah, I’d say he’s adjusted well.
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Coriander would like you to know that she’s no fluffhead. She’s got BRAINS in that head of hers, and she knows how to use them!
One day last week I was watching something I’d taped several weeks ago. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the show, but it had three litters of kittens, and followed them from birth to six weeks (?) old. At one point, there were baby kittens on the screen crying, and Maggie came in, all “WHY ARE BABIES CRYING! BABIES DO NOT CRY ON MY WATCH!”, and sweetness ensued. (Sorry for the length of the video, I do try to keep them to under a minute, but I am no editor!)
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Stinkerbelle keeps an eye on those kittens from her perch up high.
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Previously 2010: I’m always behind on everything always, is what I’m saying to you. 2009: The airport for the night, then.
2008: No entry. 2007: No Mister Boogers.
2006: No entry. 2005: Oh, the hilarity that ensues when your car and foster kitten have the same name! I could almost hear the laugh track in the background. 2004: PMS, anyone?
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001:No entry. 2000: Charmed life, have I mentioned?
P.A.W.S. Wakefield, an animal rescue shelter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, just rescued eight mothers and thirty-five kittens from one house (let me repeat: FROM ONE HOUSE) in Melrose, MA. They desperately need funds to get the cats spayed/ neutered and cared for, and if there’s anyone out there in the Melrose-Wakefield, Massachusetts area, I’m sure they … Continue reading “6/21/11 – Tuesday”
P.A.W.S. Wakefield, an animal rescue shelter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, just rescued eight mothers and thirty-five kittens from one house (let me repeat: FROM ONE HOUSE) in Melrose, MA. They desperately need funds to get the cats spayed/ neutered and cared for,
and if there’s anyone out there in the Melrose-Wakefield, Massachusetts area, I’m sure they could use more foster homes, or adoptive homes for kitties! Their website is here.
Y’all help out if you can, and help spread the word, please?
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Paula sent me the link to this page yesterday – Louis vs. Rick – and it made me cackle. He hasn’t posted anything since November 2009, but that certainly didn’t stop me from adding him to my Google Reader.
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So, recently I was laying in bed and wasn’t ready to go to sleep just yet, so I looked on my iPod to see what TV shows I had to watch. I went ahead and bought this season of Gossip Girl on iTunes, but I wasn’t in a Gossip Girl mood. I did have an episode of Private Practice – the one where Charlotte is, y’know. I don’t want to say, so as not to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen this season.
I don’t watch Private Practice, but I’d read somewhere that that episode was a pretty powerful one, so I bought it, and then it sat on my iPod for lo these many months.
I blather these fascinating details to you so that I can then say that whatsherface, the surgeon who is McDreamy’s sister, mentioned to another character that she’d been drinking “a little too much” lately. And in an expository manner, it was revealed (though I’m sure that those of you who watch the show already knew this) that she is a recovering drug addict.
Which is when I was all, hold the phone here. Is it truly okay – an accepted practice – for a recovering drug addict to drink? I mean, to me it seems obvious that if I’ve got an addiction to drugs, I might fairly easily transfer that addiction to alcohol annnnd that could be a problem. No? What am I missing here?
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I didn’t drive the sweeper around the back forty yesterday morning because something bit me in the armpit when I was working in the garden on Sunday (some sort of bug, I mean – not like a rabid skunk ran up and bit me. Though that would be an excellent entry, wouldn’t it?), and wearing a bra is annoying because the strap rubs right on the swollen, bitten part, and also I took one step out the back door at 6:30 and it was already hot and muggy out, and I thought “I do believe I’m going to take this armpit-bite as an excuse to not do any outdoor work today.”
So I didn’t.
Which means now I gotta. Well, I don’t HAVE to, but I want to get it done and over with, so today’s the day. I’ll probably only do it for a couple of hours, though, since it’s supposed to get super hot again today and there’s no shade in the back forty. Since the back forty’s a decent distance from the neighbor’s house, I’m going to get started at about 7:00, I think. They shouldn’t be able to hear the lawnmower, but if someone stumbles out the back door and gives me a dirty look, I’ll wait ’til 9:00.
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“You SEE what I have to put up with?”
Fergus Simon’s goofy little face makes me laugh every day.
“Why, it’s AMAZIN’!”
“Yes, I’m wearing my tiny hat. What of it?” (Macushla)
“Howdy, pardner.” (Ciara)
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::thlurrrp:: Miss Cori.
“Hello, I am beautiful.”
I love it when they smile.
Rough life, ain’t it?
We bought a cat tree for the foster room, and the girls really like it. At some point in the future, we’re planning on doing a kind of built-in tree with platforms attached to the wall and such, in which case we’ll move this tree somewhere else in the house. Kittens need cat trees, is what I think, and this one will do nicely for the time being.
What’s funnier than a tiny cat on a little kitten? Nothing, that’s what.
“I’m wearing my cowboy hat and you are not!”
“I’m a cowgiiiiiiiirl!”
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Alice, on the cement pad in the back yard.
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Previously 2010: Fred pointed out yesterday that the kittens are always free, but the puppies never are.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry. 2007: Needless to say, Maxi’s persona non grata when the chickens are present in the back yard from now on. 2006: The discerning decorator always considers that cats are decor accessories as well as beloved, spoiled-rotten pets and takes into account the decor of their home before adopting said animals. 2005: “If I can make four percoset get me high for the next year, you just might.” 2004: (Don’t lecture me, I KNOW. I swear I’ll wear sunscreen from now on okay, MOTHER?)
2003: No entry. 2002: Hell. O. Dolly. God in heaven, they were SO DAMN GOOD. 2001: Plus I’m taking this newfangled thing they call “pen and paper.”
2000: No entry.
In case you missed it, I posted an entry about Coltrane yesterday. Thank you all for your kind words, here and on Facebook and Twitter. Even though Coltrane hadn’t been spending much time inside with us since the weather turned warm (he was briefly banned from the house after we realized he was spraying all … Continue reading “6/20/11 – Monday”
Thank you all for your kind words, here and on Facebook and Twitter. Even though Coltrane hadn’t been spending much time inside with us since the weather turned warm (he was briefly banned from the house after we realized he was spraying all over the place every time we let him in, but he looked so sad at not being allowed inside, that we relented because we are suckers. The boy had a bladder the size of Texas.), his absence is definitely felt. He was always so very happy to see us in the afternoon, when it was time to feed the pigs, and he’d follow us around and talk to us until we picked him up or at least petted him.
This is my favorite picture of him, from last September, though I didn’t post it yesterday because I was afraid he looked a little, um, not completely alive in it. (He was, though, he was just delirious with joy. He LOVED being held.)
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So, the garden is coming along. Today I’ll be driving the sweeper all over the back forty to pick up as much as I can of the grass clippings out there. Then I’m going to dump them in the back of the trailer, and go a-sweepin’ some more. I hope I don’t pick up anything too gross (as that’s where the dogs poop and all), but you better believe I’ll be wearing my gloves when I handle those clippings, just in case.
Saturday I weeded around the watermelon and cantaloupes in the big garden (as opposed to my watermelon that are growing in the straw bale in the small garden), and then I put down feed bags around the first row of pepper plants to stop weeds from coming up. I used landscape anchor pins in each bag, to hold it down. I used plenty of those things, and I suspect that come this Fall when it’s time to pull them all up, I will be HATING myself. But at least the damn bags won’t blow all over the place.
Sunday, Fred and I put landscape fabric down around the watermelons and cantaloupes. Weeds will likely still be able to come up right around the plants, but unlike a couple of years ago – when the weeds around the plants were waist-high after a little bit of neglect, causing us to give up on them – the plants will have fabric to spread out on, and won’t have to compete with weeds for sun.
Fred went off to do other things around the property, and I finished putting feed bags down around the rest of the row of peppers I’d started the day before, and did the same on the second row of peppers. Then I started pruning tomato plants (just cutting off the lowest branches) and was about a third of the way down the first row when Fred came to see what I was doing. I asked him what time it was, found out it was 9:00, and that was all she wrote. I think I’ve mentioned that I don’t work outside after 9:00 in the summer.
So today I’ll spend as much time as I need to (EVEN if it means I have to work outside past 9:00! Gasp!) gathering clippings from the back forty. Then Tuesday I guess I’ll start dumping clippings on the garden. Perhaps I’ll take Wednesday off from this “gardening” nonsense. We’ll see.
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About those baby robins in the nest in the front yard. I told Fred what Doodle Bean said – that baby birds get all the water they need from the worms and bugs their parents feed them – so he stopped giving them water. However, it took a couple of days before he accepted that they were probably getting enough worms and bugs from their parents to keep them alive, so he fed them some more worms.
This time, I followed him with the camera.
It was hard to make a video, because the nest is higher than I am, so I wasn’t quite sure if I was getting anything with the camera. I swear, I always thought that mama birds would eat the worms/ bugs and then vomit them back up into their babies’ mouths (or something gross like that) and I even told Fred that if he truly loved those birds he’d do the same (hee), but these babies sucked down the worms like they’d been doing it all their lives.
(I did make Fred stop feeding them. They seem perfectly healthy and active, and it’s better to let their REAL parents take care of them.)
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“OH MY STARS! Doesn’t ANYONE ever vacuum this room? Look at this mess!”
“::sigh:: And the MIRRORS!” Look, I clean them all the time! If these kittens would just stop sticking their noses on them!
Clove takes notes on this “cleaning” business in case there are any tips she can pass on to me.
Maggie wonders how she ended up in this room again, this time with three babies instead of six. Why, it’s like a vacation!
I love Cilantro’s crazy little face.
Maggie continues to clean whilst waiting to be let out.
Hmm. I wonder if I could train her to sit up like this for a snack?
Cilantro and the teaser.
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Ciara in the sun. She knows she’s a pretty girl.
Fergus Simon’s serious little face always cracks me up.
Newt’s keeping an eye on the kittens from the Newt Cave. The kittens aren’t sure whether it’s safe to approach or not.
Finnegan wonders if perhaps it might be time for the snuggle?
Sleepy Declan.
Ciara really likes the cedar scratching post.
Macushla gets a little time to himself.
The McMaos are still nursing – TRYING to nurse, I should say – and Maggie puts up with it for a bit, then decides they’ve had enough. Yesterday, Maggie was following me around in hopes that I might be overwhelmed with the desire to give her food, and she was in turn being followed around by Finnegan and Fergus Simon, and every time she stopped, they tried to nurse with her standing there. It was too funny.
One day last week she let them nurse briefly, and I happened to have the camera at hand. So I made a video, of course! (Please note: all that stuff was on the floor because Maggie knocked it down and I hadn’t had a chance to pick it up.)
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Tommy in the back yard. I love it when they lay like this!
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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry. 2008: This weekend I’ll probably give vacuuming a try and give the Roomba a break. 2007: And since it’s still muddy in the garden, no weeding for me again today. Darn! 2006: “Save your breath,” I said, gasping for air. “I don’t believe a word you say, you lying liar.” 2005: “Spot caught a copperhead!”
2004: No entry. 2003: Poor Gram. 2002: Oh, quit with the gasps of horror. 2001: Lynn is very very nice, but as I’ve mentioned, she doesn’t appreciate the beauty of silence. 2000: I was giving out dirty looks left and right, let me tell you.
Coltrane. 2006ish – June 19, 2011. Somewhere in his travels between our house and his other home, in the early hours of this morning, Coltrane wandered too close to the road and was hit by a car. We buried him in the spot where he liked to hang out the most, beside the garden shed. … Continue reading “6/19/11 – Coltrane.”
Coltrane.
2006ish – June 19, 2011.
Somewhere in his travels between our house and his other home, in the early hours of this morning, Coltrane wandered too close to the road and was hit by a car.
We buried him in the spot where he liked to hang out the most, beside the garden shed. He loved to nap there in the sun.
We’ll miss him an awful lot, especially in the evening when it’s time to feed the pigs. If we never saw Coltrane at any other time, we knew we’d see him then. We’d hear the undergrowth rustling, and he’d slink out to keep us company, talking with his distinctive high-pitched voice. We only knew him for about a year, but it seemed like he’d been part of the Crooked Acres landscape forever.
He was an absolute sweetheart and we are all the better for knowing him, even if only for a short time.
Don’t know if you have read about this case. It involves tax deductions for unreimbursed expenses for animal rescue volunteers. Stray Cat Strut: Woman Beats IRS One Easy Way to Lose That Charitable Deduction A lot of people shared this article with me this week, and I found it very interesting – and only partly … Continue reading “6/17/11”
Don’t know if you have read about this case. It involves tax deductions for unreimbursed expenses for animal rescue volunteers.
A lot of people shared this article with me this week, and I found it very interesting – and only partly because when a citizen beats the IRS, it’s a BLOW FOR THE LITTLE PERSON, huzzah!
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How do you keep your cats away from the catnip growing? I tried one time to grow up some nip, and my cats murdered that plant before it even had a chance.
The raised beds and bales are in a section behind the back yard with a fence around it, only accessible through the gate at the back of the yard. I was more concerned about the cats using the raised beds as litter boxes, but now that I’ve got the catnip going back there, I’m doubly glad there’s a fence!
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Just noticed the link to 2000 has a quote with the word “Mom” in it, which leads me to wonder how your kiddo is doing? You haven’t mentioned her in ages, which I’m hoping means that all is well in the land of Spud?
The Spud is doing very well – she’s now a manager at a fast food restaurant. I don’t know that she’s planning on staying there forever, but having the management experience certainly doesn’t hurt. She still has the yellow car I passed down to her several years ago, and her father and stepmother bought a house… last year, I think? She’s living with them. She’s going to be 23 in October, can you believe it??
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Hi Robyn – I don’t often comment but have been reading for years, and so when I saw this story I immediately thought of you! Well, I know folks in your neck of the woods are used to tornadoes (especially after this crazy Spring), but living in Massachusetts we most certainly are NOT! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we actually had a couple of devastating twisters come through our state completely ravaging a few towns. After reading this story this AM, I thought you might appreciate it….
It’s so mind-boggling that that tornado struck in Massachusetts, the weather has been absolutely nuts this year! I’m so glad that all of their cats were found safe and sound.
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I almost never open the door, and I don’t care if they’re looking right in the window at me (and now that we live in California, very often they are because it’s open). The door, like the phone, is for MY convenience, and my convenience is entering and leaving the house, not being harassed and/or cased for a burglary.
Anyway, here’s my suggested answer if they catch you, like that jerk did one day when I was waiting for the plumber to come back with a part: “I don’t discuss my current or future home security configuration unless I initiate the contact. You can leave a business card if you like*, and we’ll keep you in mind if we decide we have needs we need to discuss with you. Have a nice day.”
*Usually they won’t. Some of them are commission-only outside sales (base equipment is free, but extras and monthly monitoring are not) and don’t work for ADT or whoever. The others just want to break into your house.
Of course, in retrospect I wonder what the hell I was thinking. You know, so WHAT if he could look through the window and see that I was ignoring him, what was he going to do, tattle to the neighbors? “I could totally SEE her laying in there with cats all over her, watching the Housewives!”, and then the whole town would know that – gasp! – I don’t open the door to strangers? I’m absolutely terrible in the moment, though, and at the time I felt like I’d been “caught.” Next time, I’ll just roll my ass onto the floor so he can’t see me from the window.
Oh, and we DO have a security system – AND stickers on the window by the front door – so I was just a wee bit offended that he was casting aspersions on our perfectly good security system. I’ve never – and will never – buy anything from a door to door salesman and I don’t for the life of me know how any salesman could possibly make a living that way.
I would say that surely no one ever buys anything from a door to door salesman, but my neighbor signed up for some supplemental health insurance (I think it was) last year and then told the guys our names and that they should look for “the little blue car” (ie, Fred’s car) to know when we were home. I think you can imagine how much I appreciated that.
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Our security screen door w/dead bolt lock is a nice buffer between us and others. Because I’m cynical, I hesitate shaking hands with strangers at front door. They might yank me out of the house/hurt me and holler for the rest of their thug friends. I have an active imagination!!!
I was definitely kicking myself afterward for opening the door. I wish we had a screen door on the front door, but we don’t. That might be something worth looking into.
Last year (possibly the year before), two men stopped by and knocked on the (side) door. I figured they wanted to buy eggs, so I went out there – no actually, now that I think about it, I was already outside doing some chore or another, and they drove up the driveway and saw me, so I felt, y’know, “caught.” They were trying to ask if we had a pond for fishing – their English wasn’t great, I was having a hard time understanding them – and as we were standing in my side yard trying to communicate, I suddenly thought “What the fuck am I doing? This is how I’m going to end up in the newspaper, ‘A Smallville woman was brutally raped and beaten today…'” When I’m home alone and out in the yard doing chores, I’ve usually got my gun on me, but I wasn’t that day because it’s sometimes a hassle when I’m wearing shorts without pockets in them. A dumb move on my part in retrospect, I guess I was lucky.
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Robyn, about those Housewives…What are you not liking about this season? I feel like everyone is SUPER annoying, which makes it worth watching! But I have the feeling that without untreated alcoholism, none of the Housewives shows would have any action. (A friend who is a producer for one of them admitted as much to me.) Are you watching NJ? Did you watch OC? What do you think of how monstrous Vicki looks with those dermal fillers she got before the reunion? Sad.com!
I have – I am not even embarrassed to admit! – seen every episode of every season of the Housewives except for Miami because one of the women in that season scared the bejesus out of me with her face, and I gave that season a very wide berth.
What I’m not liking about NY is… mostly, everyone. Alex seems to be going out of her way to be confrontational which, okay, find your voice Alex. BUT she can’t find her words when she’s in the middle of a heated confrontation (neither can I, so I can sympathize, but don’t start a confrontation unless you’re able to follow through, is my opinion), and she gets all blotchy, and I think if you’re going to stand up for yourself, you can’t be standing there with your mouth gaping open while you search desperately for words. It just doesn’t work, and it leads to the other women steamrolling right over her. Sonya is annoying and that talk she had with Cindy about knowing her place, well, UGH. Luann is pretentious and condescending, and the more I watch the show, the more amazed I am that the woman was able to publish a book about etiquette – ETIQUETTE, seriously? – with a straight face. She’s mostly a bossy bitch who just wants everyone to do what she says and if they don’t she DAWLINGs all over them. Kelly is a lot less batshit crazy this year, but her shutting down every confrontational conversation so no one can come to a conclusion is annoying. Ramona MUST have a 75% blood alcohol level because nothing she does ever makes sense (and those eyes are the stuff of nightmares). Who am I forgetting? Oh, Cindy. About Cindy, I just say ::shrug:: meh.
I’m also watching NJ and I find the whole Teresa-Joey conflict to be weirdly compelling because I can’t decide whose side I’m on. I mean, she’s a loon, but Teresa DID write the letter to try to make amends. And Joey DID show up to Gia’s meet late. But then again, Teresa is pretty full of herself and that ridiculous “I HATE SPRINKLE COOKIES SO I THREW THEM AWAY!” made me laugh. I’m looking forward to the Jacqueline-Ashley blowup because that Ashley is one entitled spoiled rotten brat. Also, I like Caroline, but did she think that her boychildren were going to live with her forever? Did she truly structure her entire life around them without considering that one day they’d leave? She needs Bethenny to call her up and tell her to get a hobby.
OH. Did you SEE that weird scene with Melissa and Joey where she was singing Amazing Grace (“saved a wench like me”, she sang, by the way) and he was all “Shh, listen to Mommy” to the kids and then they had that stupidly weird, stilted conversation about how she has such a wonderful voice and a great body and how she’s gonna be a STAH. I laughed so hard at that damn scene!
I did see the OC reunion (both parts!) and you know what I don’t get? What I don’t get is why these women spend so much money on botox and fillers and put crap in their lips, and then they walk around with wrinkled and saggy necks. Now look, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG with wrinkled and saggy necks, but when you have a completely smooth and nonmoving face and then a wrinkled neck, it just looks awful. Your face should match your neck. None of these women even resemble living humans any more and for the love of all that is holy I do not for the life of me understand why anyone would ever have anything injected in their lips. It looks so AWFUL.
My favorite part of the reunion was at the end when Alexis was all “Oh, and I JUST got a text from my husband, he says Peggy STALKED him!” and I so wanted Peggy to say “Have you seen your husband, Alexis? No one is stalking his ass.” Alexis is the most ridiculous woman on that show, she’s desperately insecure, and her competitiveness with Peggy was idiotic. I mostly like Gretchen, though the whole “chubba wubba” thing with Slade made me want to poke her eyes out. That is so fucking RUDE.
Tamra is a shit-stirrer to the nth degree and does it surprise me that she couldn’t see how much what she’s been doing to Gretchen over the past couple of years is very much like what Jeanna’s been doing to her? Doesn’t surprise me one little bit that she doesn’t see it.
Okay, that’s all I can think of. Y’all weigh in now!
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I wonder if kittens who are allowed to nurse as long as they want are less neurotic than kittens who were taken from the mama too soon? I had a cat who would nurse in my hair. I’d wake up in the morning with a slobbery, rat’s nest from him sucking, drooling and sewing in my hair. We got him at 5 weeks, I believe.
Kittens who are weaned too soon do tend to do that – for years Sugarbutt would wake me up in the middle of the night, kneading on my shoulder and licking my neck. He eventually outgrew it, but I think that some cats never do.
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What I did last year was buy some “natural” (can’t remember what they called it) rolls of weed cover that gradually decomposes and disappears. It may even be organic; can’t remember. It’s long rolls of brown papery stuff, and you can plant right through it as well as put it between rows. After I rolled it out in the rows (I weighted the ends down with bricks so they wouldn’t blow away), i heaped grass clippings on top for an extra layer. And it really worked! Not 100%, but good enough that I only weeded once in a while, and then it was minimal. I bought this stuff at Lowe’s, and OF COURSE they don’t have it this year.
We actually saw some of that when we were at Lowe’s. We thought about it, but we have 17 rows in our garden, each of them 75 feet long, so it was cost prohibitive. I did cut feed bags (from pig and chicken feed) and put them down around the tomatoes; I’m planning to put some bags down around the peppers and squash plants, too, and then clippings on top of the bags. It’s a pretty damn good thing that we have 4 1/2 acres, because we certainly have need for a LOT of clippings!
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Do any of your cats get under the covers with you and then the others jump on top of them? 😀
Actually, no – Mister Boogers was one who would get under the covers with me almost every night, and then growl when one of the other cats walked across him or batted at him. None of our current cats get under the covers, though.
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You’ve mentioned allergies in the past. Does grass bother you or are you not allergic to it? It makes me go crazy. Do you take anything first? The grass clipping idea sounds great. Weeding is awful, especially in the oppressive heat.
Grass doesn’t bother me at all – I don’t really suffer from allergies, just a few days in the Spring. Back when I was cleaning at Petsmart every week, I’d get really itchy and I guess that was from so much cat hair in the room, but a child’s Benadryl helped knock that right out. You’d think I’d be itchy with all the cats we have in the house, but I’m not at all.
When I weed, I only weed first thing in the morning, and I refuse to do any outside work after 9 because it’s just way too hot. If it’s outside work that can’t be done first thing in the morning, I’m not gonna do it.
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Since it was my subconscious brain that declared there are cats every where…follow up question…are you ever anywhere in the house when there is NOT a cat around you or in the room with you or darting past? I have this picture in my mind of there literally being cats EVERYWHERE obviously 😉 But when you said in this post that you love seeing kittens darting about – it made me realize that there probably is no place in the house without a cat, right?
There is truly no place in this house where there’s not at least one cat – except, that is, for the bathroom. I refuse to have cats sitting and staring at me when I’m in the bathroom (or batting at the shower curtain when I’m trying to take a shower), so I kick them all out. I swear it’s just like having little kids sometimes, because I’ll see a little paw come under the door and wave around. I don’t know if they just want to let me know they’re there, or if they think they can reach me or what, but it always makes me laugh.
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Okay, so I know you’re not THIS bad, but you were the first person I had to send this to!
That cracked me UP. I also really really liked The Engineers’ response:
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When I first started to read your journal (oh so many years ago), I was struck by how similar my StanLee was to Mister Boogers. Now that both boys are gone, I look forward to each and every picture you post of Jake and Elwood. Those two don’t just look similar, they are wonderfully spookily identical to my StanLee down to the patterns in their fur. When StanLee was a kitten, the vet informed me he was a Russian Blue, even though he was a tubby boy and didn’t have the green eyes either, so I’d definitely agree that those two are Russian Blues.
I reference to today’s comment about the Blues Brothers…. Most people think all blue/grey cats are Russian Blues, but one of my two cats is that color (with the silver/shiny coat), and she looks & acts much more like a Korat, which also only come in that color.
My cat does have bright green eyes, which I noticed you said Jake and Elwood don’t have, but when I did a google image search one night for Korat cats when I was investigating what kind of breed I thought she was, (since I got her from the animal shelter, I don’t know for sure) I came to the conclusion that she was probably part or all Korat. I wonder if Jake and Elwood might be all or part Korat too? A lot of the pictures I found look like them too.
What’s kind of odd is that I think Elwood looks more like a Russian Blue, but Jake looks more like a Korat.
Do they do those DNA tests for cats? I know they do them for dogs. I sure would be curious to find out exactly what breed they are!
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Has having kittens — and foster kittens — made Maggie less vocal? Her miaow on one of your first posts about her was such a delight.
Actually, I didn’t even realize it ’til I read the question, but the only time I hear Maggie’s voice these days is when she thinks I’ve got food she thinks she should have. She figured out VERY quickly that the kitchen is where the food comes from, and I cannot step foot in there without her appearing from out of nowhere to demand that I give her food. She always acts like she is on the very verge of starving to death, even though cat food is always available.
About a week and a half ago, after eating a jar of chicken and gravy baby food every day since the babies were born, she suddenly decided she didn’t want it anymore, and won’t even look at it beyond a disgusted sniff. We keep a bucket on the counter to put kitchen scraps in, which gets taken out to the pigs at the end of the day, and we had to move the bucket to the cabinet under the sink because she was rummaging through the bucket looking for food. We can’t put anything at all in the garbage can that has ever held food, because she’ll knock over the garbage can and drag garbage out into the kitchen and lick food off the wrapping. I know she’s always hungry because she’s got babies still nursing, but I really wish she’d give me some idea of what she wants. One day she’ll eat an egg yolk, the next she turns up her nose. It’s kind of frustrating, but it’s more annoying than anything – I know she’s not going to starve to death because there IS cat food available, but I wish she’d STAY OUT OF THE TRASH, MAGGIE, DO YOU HEAR ME?!
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Brussel sprouts? Below the Mason-Dixon line? Wow, these miniature cabbages have really gotten trendy, haven’t they?
When I moved down here, most people didn’t know what they were.
I don’t know how trendy they are – Fred’s a born and raised Alabaman, and he grew up eating them. I was born and (mostly) raised in Maine, and I didn’t have a single brussels sprout ’til after I moved down here. (Of course, that’s due to the fact that my mother doesn’t like them, so doesn’t serve them, rather than them not being available.)
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I have a question for you about hay bale gardening… mainly – how do you do it? 🙂 I’m intrigued!
Here’s a page that has step-by-step instructions, but basically you spend 10 days watering and fertilizing a straw or hay bale (we’re using straw), and then you put soil on the top, and plant your plant in the top of the bale. So far our tomato and watermelon plants look happy (though one of the tomatoes is listing to the side a bit), but I’ll try to report back at the end of the summer as to whether or not it was worth it.
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This video should amuse Clove. It’s a cat playing in a hamsterball! Do the cats watch video?
That is SO CUTE! I actually took my iPod upstairs to play the video for her, and she slapped at the screen and then ran away. She’s not as brave as she looks!
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Clove, you are PURFECT!! Would a kiss be too much to ask?
::smooch::
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Clove is obviously a girl with plenty of cattitude. 🙂
Is she as vocal as she seems to be?
Like Maggie, unless there’s food involved, Clove isn’t terribly vocal. When food IS involved, all three girls will howl until the food is in front of them. Like such:
(my apologies for the accidental shots of the litter box)
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What kind of camera do you use?
Most of my pictures are taken with my Sony A100, but occasionally (especially for the up-close pictures of kittens who like to sit in my lap) I use a Sony DSC-W300. Enough people have asked that I should probably just put the info in the sidebar. 🙂
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Maggie = Your Butterbean?
I know, I know, everyone is always trying to get you to keep your fosters.
I kind of thought that very same thing, but I get the impression in the past few days that she’s tired of kittens, poor thing.
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Okay, here’s something to look forward to, but it may take a long time. I had a serious scaredy cat — she was born in a woodpile and chased around by some well-meaning kids who were trying to rescue her. For the first fourteen years of her life, she loved me and only me, and only if I approached her in certain situations, and very slowly. Then, she began to show some signs of deafness and perhaps a little cognitive impairment that the vet thought were just age-related. Well, she has totally forgotten that she is afraid! It probably helps that she can’t hear noises that might spook her, but she’s positively brave, social and engaged. She’s 18 now, and while still a little skittish, loves my husband, comes out to check out visitors, etc. Cool!
Our Spot, who passed away a couple of years ago, was a scaredy cat his entire life until his last few years. And now Spanky, our old man at almost 15, has always been skittish of strangers. But the last couple of years, he seems to be relatively unbothered when new people enter the house. I wonder if cats hit a certain age and they think “Well, no one’s killed me yet. Maybe I have nothing to worry about!”
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I’m sure this has been asked before, but I always wonder…
Why is the lovely Miz Poo called Miz Poo?
I guess I’m asking because I imagine some dramatic poop related incident! 🙂
For the life of me, I don’t know how exactly her name came to be Miz Poo. I do know that there was no poop involved, thank god. I always baby-talk the cats (I know, you’re completely shocked!), and I believe that somehow one nickname evolved into another, and I ended up with “Miz Poo.”
I have a friend who insists upon calling her “Mrs. Poo” and it makes me want to smack her because HELLO that is not her NAME! It’s MIZ Poo. MIZ.
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Did you get a weight on Maggie before she birthed them babies? She looks half her previous size!
and
Maggie’s looking really tiny without the baby belly. How’s she been after the operation?
Maggie is doing just fine – she is definitely a small cat right now, but her belly has healed up well, and she’s getting around with no problems at all. I managed to not write down how much she weighed before she had the babies, but I believe it was in the 11 – 11 1/2 pound range. I’ll try to get a weight on her this week, and will report back.
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Finnegan in the hammock on the cat tree in the front room. They love this cat tree EVER so much.
“What? What you want, lady? What?”
“YOWZA! I do enjoy a good nap!”
It’s exhausting being this cute.
Cillian (right) and Finnegan, napping on the guest bed.
Cillian and Mr. Bear, who you may (or may not!) remember from this picture of Terry from the True Blood 6:
Fergus Simon and Ciara, on the cat tree in the guest bedroom.
Cillian, on the condo in my room. He’s such a sweet boy.
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Miss Coriander’s all “What?”
Kitten-roebics. (Note Maggie in the background waiting by the door, all “You can let me out annnnny time now, thx.”)
“What? Sisters fight sometimes.”
“I bite you face!”
“No, I bite YOU face!”
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Elwood, who now has the nickname “Ellie Belly,” (and sometimes I call him “Ellie Bells”) hanging out by the blueberry bush. At 14.2 pounds, he’s one of our biggest cats, if not THE biggest. He outweighs Jake by almost five pounds!
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Previously 2010: I’m not judging Mark in Tennessee, but you’d better believe that I am struck with the urge to call and ask if the Venus Butterfly will be used in conjunction with the Pink DVDs. 2009: Their lobster roll is FABULOUS. 2008: And that whole throwaway “Well you’re fabulous of course at any size, Samantha, that goes without saying, but my CHRIST, when you gained the first pound and a half, how were you able to LIVE with yourself?!” line.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry. 2005: And I so desperately wanted to say “Did I see? Yes. Do I care? No.” 2004: Ten 2003: I’ve never been the patient sort. 2002: Damn YahooGroups.
2001: No entry. 2000: I’ve always felt that I have a lucky life.
Sights from around Crooked Acres. Carrots. I think they’ve got about another month to go before they’ll be ready. I don’t know what we’ll end up with – they probably needed to be thinned. I was none too careful when I scattered the seeds. Catnip! I transplanted these plants from pots. Hopefully they’ll spread like … Continue reading “6/16/11 – Crooked Acres Thursday”
Sights from around Crooked Acres.
Carrots. I think they’ve got about another month to go before they’ll be ready. I don’t know what we’ll end up with – they probably needed to be thinned. I was none too careful when I scattered the seeds.
Catnip! I transplanted these plants from pots. Hopefully they’ll spread like crazy. They certainly have the room now.
Cauliflower and brussels sprouts – and a couple of volunteer tomato plants. I don’t know that I’m going to get any cauliflower OR brussels sprouts, but the plants certainly look happy (if kind of chewed upon.)
Bale gardening with tomato plants.
Bale gardening with watermelon.
Blueberries! I ate one the other day and it was mighty good.
Grape vine.
Mimosa in bloom, near the garden. These sure are pretty trees.
Just about ready to pick and eat. One tiny cherry tomato isn’t all that filling, though. I wish the others would ripen already.
When it gets a bit bigger, we’ll have (oven) fried green tomato with dinner.
Tiny green beans!
Tomatoes on the left and right – and a nice thick layer of grass clippings in the middle to keep out the weeds.
Baby robins in the tree in the front yard. Fred peeks at them every day. Yesterday he decided they were dying because they hadn’t gotten any water (it’s been super dry around here), and so he syringe fed each of them water while their mother watched closely from a nearby branch. And then he went around with the shovel digging up worms. He fed a few worms to the babies, and then he tossed the rest to their mother, who snatched them up and fed them to her babies.
They came down our road last week and picked up the cut up trees that were knocked down by the tornado. They’ll be back through in a few weeks to get the rest, which Fred still needs to drag from the chicken yard.
This tree, clearly dead, is from the back of the back forty. I’m amazed the winds from the tornado didn’t knock it down.
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Gracie loves to be brushed.
I know this is George because I can see the dip in his back. He’s longer than Gracie and thus has a dip in his back whereas she doesn’t.
::Phblllt::
Laughing at his own joke.
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“He SAID that?!”
“Yeah, can you believe it?”
“He’s got some NERVE.”
“I know, right?”
“I can’t believe it. What a JERK.”
“I know!”
“I never liked the looks of him anyway. He looks like a sleazy jerk.”
“He said WHAT?!”
“I meant it as a COMPLIMENT!”
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Fergus Simon tried to flirt with Miz Poo, but she was having none of it.
“She’s purrrrty.”
Sleepy Macushla.
Cillian adores a good belly rub.
Fergus Simon on the cat tree in the front room.
FS in motion.
If you look carefully, you’ll note that all six McMao kids are in this picture.
Someone asked about this set of steps recently. I conceived of them (“We need steps or something so the little ones can get up on the bed!”) and after much harassment from me, Fred built them. They’re probably a little steep, but I wanted something that didn’t have a very big footprint. He put partial risers between each step so that the kittens can actually use them to get up to the next step if they’re very small kittens.
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Maggie’s been spending the nights with her own babies for the past three or four nights. She still goes in to visit with the Spice Girls for a few hours each day, but I haven’t actually witnessed any nursing lately. Which isn’t to say that it’s not happening, it very well might be. I just haven’t seen it, so I don’t know for sure.
“Hi. HI! Hi.”
Cilantro in mid-fall, I think. I do believe she grabbed for a toy I was dangling over her head, but missed. That or she’s high on catnip. Either is equally likely.
Clove, complaining.
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Spanky say, relax.
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Previously 2010: By the side door lives a container of cheap cat food. 2009: Then we had dessert. 2008: Something about the nickname “Angry Eyes” just makes me laugh and laugh.
2007: No entry. 2006: Anatomy of a Snooze 2005: This is the story of how my husband is a fucker. 2004: As you can imagine, I’m in a REALLY good mood. 2003: After much persuasion, he confessed that he’d seen the movie ratings poster on the wall and thought there was going to be a movie about the ratings system.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry. 2000: When I think about the incredibly stupid things I did as a teen, it makes me cringe.
Complaints? She haz them. Starring: Clove. “That camera is TOO LOUD! You’re always holding that camera when you could be holding ME!” “You need a pedicure! Looking at your ugly feet is making me wanna BARF!” “I’m hungry! And I have to walk all the way to the other side of the room to get … Continue reading “6/15/11 – Kitteh Wednesday”
Complaints? She haz them.
Starring: Clove.
“That camera is TOO LOUD! You’re always holding that camera when you could be holding ME!”
“You need a pedicure! Looking at your ugly feet is making me wanna BARF!”
“I’m hungry! And I have to walk all the way to the other side of the room to get to the food! I’ll probably starve first!”
“I AM FAINT FROM HUNGER!”
“I can barely stand to lick my reflection, this mirror is so gross! I don’t care if you cleaned it yesterday, you didn’t clean it today!”
“That’s too HIGH. I can’t REACH that! And some of your former fosters WHO YOU CLEARLY LOVE MORE THAN ME pulled all the feathers off! What use is a feather teaser without feathers!”
“YOUR LEGS ARE SO WHITE THEY’RE BLINDING MEEEEEEEEEE!”
“Cori is breathing in my FACE and her breath smells like gross stinky nasty grossness!”
“That is STILL too high, and I can’t reach it I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO TRY!”
“YOU are not PETTING me RIGHT. Can’t you do anything properly?”
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Alice vs. the Robin.
Slowly….
slowwwwwwly…
EVER so slowly and patiently the mighty huntress creeps toward the tasty, tasty Robin.
But then she lost sight of her goal and got too excited and pounced far too early, and off flew the Robin to a safe spot.
“Drat!”
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Previously 2010: Last night I sang “I’ma kick you in the a-ass. Snackin’! Time! is EARNED, mah friends. Snackin’! Time! is EARNED, oh yeah.” to the cats.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry. 2007: Which reminds me, last time I had a sit-down with The Lord, The Lord informed me that doing what might lead to business on Sunday is FORBIDDEN, but abandoning as many of His Creatures to be hit by cars and lay dying on the side of the road, as possible is A-OfuckingK with Him! It’s in the Bible! 2006: Not to mention that I woke up three separate times with my tongue COMPLETELY DRY. 2005: Due to Poop Watch version 2.0, there is no entry for today. 2004: Damn weather!
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry. 2001: It’s the wild monkey sex, I must confess. 2000: “It’s NOT a cult, Mom!”
