Category: CAE

Sights from around Crooked Acres.

Cardinal on the fence.

Bluebird on the fence post (sorry it’s not a better picture – I had the long lens on the camera, but was shooting through the window and, well, SOMEONE needs to clean that window so I can get better pictures, obviously).

Bird of prey, checking out the chickens.

Ditch between the front of the property and the back forty.

Time for another trip to the pond, duckies.

::splishitysplash::

::dive::

“Ahem.”

::flippityflap::

A panoramic view (yes, the ducks are stitched together oddly; blame the camera) to show you that the deep end of the pond is finally getting close to full! It’s not anywhere close to overflowing, but it’s nice to see this much water in the pond when we were starting to wonder if it was EVER going to fill up.

Rock Star is rockin’.

“You know you want fancy feather leggings like mine.”

Madame Featherhead tries to decide whether to come out of the coop.

Chickenbutt. This cracks me up:

“Oi, Madge, do I gots somefin’ in the end uv my beak?”
“Naw, Harriet, yer all clear.”

“Wot? Can’t a young rooster enjoy some sun without you stompin’ all around with that camera?”

I think this rooster is so pretty. I always tell Fred that he reminds me, color-wise, of a toasted marshmallow.

“That is some tasty water.”

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Reminder: the Sons are going to Petsmart tomorrow, and Everett, Lucy, and Sally Peppers will be coming back home with me for a break!

Jax and Clay, hanging out on my bed.

Tig doesn’t like to be kissed (he doesn’t like it when you get all up in his business), but he’ll lay on you ’til the cows come home, and if you want to pet him while he’s there? So much the better.

Opie, on the other hand, will let you kiss him a million times, hold him on his back like a baby, whatever you want to do to him, he’s A-OK with it.

(Jax is also a snuggler.)

“Got it!”

Clay’s the snuggliest of the bunch. He’ll come and lean up against you and purr like a madman (if madmen purred, that is).

Opie McSmuggypants.

Miz Poo came up to see what was going on, and laid down for a snuggle. Note that Opie’s laying on my hip, Clay’s up against me, Jax is flirting with Miz Poo. Where’s Tig?

Laying behind my knees licking his toes, of course.

Jax and Miz Poo’s tail.

“I wasn’t thinking of smacking her tail.”

“I WASN’T!”

“That would be wrong.”

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“Someone needs to vacuum.”

::smile::

“Alls I know is it won’t be ME.”

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Previously
2011: Good lord, if Jan developed the muscle control to flap those things, she could circle the Earth in no time flat.
2010: Behold, I liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!!!!!
2009: Fred is, as I have mentioned before, an overexplainer.
2008: No entry.
2007: “Oh!” he said, with a big smile. “You’re pregnant!”
2006: A SHELL ON A STICK.
2005: Every movie and every show we watch, he’s in there deconstructing it.
2004: Memes.
2003: A day in the life of Spot J. And3rson.
2002: No entry.
2001: Blech.
2000: I now officially have too damn many books to read.

Attention, Floridians in the Pasco area (or within an hour’s drive), I got this email (and pictures) from Jupe :

My mom has been doing feral cat feeding and TNR in Pasco, FL for years. As you know, this type of work leads to you adopting a lot of cats yourself. Last August, she rescued a group of 11 (2 nursing moms and 9 kittens) that were dumped behind a restaurant. She was able to adopt some out through the Humane Society (after having them fixed and shotted). After putting numerous ads in the paper, she was left with 4 kittens in the house and the two moms as free range cats. This brings her inside cat total to 20.

On top of this, she had to have a hip replacement on 12/1. I was up there for a month while she was recuperating, so got to spend a lot of time with these kittens (small cats now) firsthand. The boys (Spanky and Spanky Junior) are the sweetest, softest cats I have ever known (and I have seen her parade of cats). They are very easy to handle and love to lay in your lap. They are almost identical so we just call them both Spanky 🙂

My mom is very attached but aware that 20 is too many, especially after her surgery. The other two kittens (girls, black Spooky and tabby Suzy) are also good cats, not as friendly but will come to you on their own and enjoy attention. They are all fixed, have had baby shots, combo tested and dewormed. If you could post anything for people interested in adopting in the Pasco area of Florida, I would appreciate it. I would be willing to drive an hour each way from Pasco if someone was interested in adopting. These are seriously sweet cats otherwise I would not even ask!

Note: all the kittens are about five months old. Spanky & Spanky are from different litters, but they sure do look like twins!

Spanky & Spanky.

Suzy.

Spooky.

If you’re interested in adopting any of these sweet cats or might know someone who is, or have questions about them, you can contact Jupe at jupe (AT) tampabay.rr.com, or email me and I’ll pass your email along.

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ATTENTION PLEASE: If you are one of the people who uses my links list on a daily basis to check blogs that you like to read, please be aware that the “frugal” section of that list is going to be gone pretty soon. I fall so far behind in reading those sites that by the time I get around to checking them out, they’re useless to me, and they clog up my Google Reader, so they’re going to be cleared out.

I’ll likely go through and clear out the blogs that haven’t posted in a year, too, because that usually means they won’t be back.

Thank you for your patience. Mwah!

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In talking about tv shows you watch, I don’t know if you ever catch “The Big Bang Theory” but in one episode, Sheldon ended up with eight cats. If I could, I think I’d have eight cats, too! 🙂

I catch the occasional episode of The Big Bang Theory, but I haven’t caught that one yet. Do they sing “Soft Kitty“?

::sigh:: I remember the days when we only had eight cats… Okay, no I don’t. It seems like we went straight from eight to thirteen!

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Start around the two minute mark:

(Although the whole thing’s great, 2 is just the relevant bit.) I fucking. HATE. Geese. My sister got hit by a (slow-moving, non-injuring) car once fleeing from them.

Jaxy is sporting some monster-paws there, isn’t he? Or is it a trick of angle? Otherwise, that’s going to be a big, BIIIIG boy!

I’m glad I’m not alone in my geese hatred!

Jax is definitely sporting some big ol’ paws. I suspect he might end up being as big as Harlan Peppers!

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Two things I hate with a passion that “Literature lovers” and “film critics” couldn’t get enough of: We Were the Mulvaneys and The English Patient. Utter and complete piles of unrepentant, depressing drivel!!! GAWD!!!

Though, to be fair, the book that put Oprah on my shit list was The House of Sand and Fog. I was too stupid to remember that and picked up the Fucking Mulvaneys book to read when I inherited a pile of books when a friend passed away. At this point I could not seriously argue against the position that the Mulvaneys killed her 😉

I bet that goddamn Mulvaneys book would kill us ALL.

I have actually never read The English Patient or The House of Sand and Fog, and now that I type that out, I’m thinking that maybe all books that begin with “The” should be shunned. (That does not include Fred’s novella The Cove, of course. That’s the exception that proves the rule!)

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Also, Joyce Carol Oates UGH. I stopped trying to read anything of hers before the one about the Mulvaneys came out. Nothing good ever happens to anyone in a Joyce Carol Oates novel — or, if something good does happen, you know it’s only going to be a fleeting moment of bliss that will be snatched away and serve only to make the inevitable DOOM and MISERY that follows feel that much worse by comparison. I’ve read a few of her books and ended up wanting to go lie down in the road at the end of every one of them.

I actually BOUGHT and started to READ Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates because I wanted to give her another chance, but I got about 20 pages in when I decided “Hello, life is too short, FUCK THIS” and tossed it. I’ll never ever ever read anything by her again. She should change her name to Joyce Carol Mulvaney so we all know to avoid her.

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BTW, if anyone remembers George, Snip and Ollie, who needed a new home a while back, they are doing great with their adoptive family up in Keller TX!

Awww, good ol’ George, Snip and Ollie! What beautiful babies they were – y’all can go back a year and a half and read about them here. I’m so glad to hear that they’re doing so well in their new (well, not so new now that it’s been a year and a half!) home!

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Gah, watching the last ep of RHOBH made me anxious. I kept wondering if Taylor and Russell went home and he beat the holy shit out of her for “telling” on him. He definitely has the serial killer vibe. Kim – ??! You know she’s in rehab right now? That woman is a hot mess. Everyone else is pretty boring this season.

I wondered that EXACT same thing about Taylor and Russell. And I did know that Kim’s in rehab. I honestly don’t know why they keep Kim on that show; I’m wondering if Kyle has threatened to walk if they cut Kim. Kim’s gotten less air time than whatsherface. Oh, what the hell is her name? The “These sunglasses cost twenty thousand dollars!” chick who horrified Camille so much. Dana!

(As an aside, I don’t expect to ever be worth a million dollars or even a fraction of that, but even I know that you don’t go to a party with a bunch of rich people and brag about how you spent too much money on sunglasses. I’m not sure if you’re allowed to brag on spending a mere pittance on stuff – “I got these glasses for a dollar ninety-nine!” – but surely it’s more accepted than the other way around.)

Having watched the most recent episode, I’m finding that I’m starting to like Brandi more and more because she’s a mess, but she’s a funny mess. And for god’s sake, Kim’s boyfriend is CREEPY AND WEIRD.

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I didn’t finish reading and I have to go to work, BUT was Mr. Boogers’s tail short?

Mister Boogers had a stump of a tail, about half as long as an average tail. Like such:

When we were tossing around names for him on the way home after we’d adopted him, I really wanted to name him Stumpy, but Fred was all disapproving and said that that would be “making light of his disability” (can you sense me rolling my eyes here?), and that was when we were on our “All cats must have a name starting with S” kick, so he became Stanley for a while. (“Silent Bob” was a serious consideration for a bit, too.)

We – INCLUDING Fred – did call him “Stumpy” sometimes, since all our cats have to have 300 nicknames.

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I just watched an episode of Justified on DVR (refreshing myself on last season before the new one starts in a couple weeks). As soon as a certain someone showed up on screen, all I could think is “Boyd Teeth Crowder…Toothin along with his bad self.” I giggled at how wonderful and perfect your nickname for him is. But then I realized something. Boyd isn’t just Teeth. He is far more complex than that. Boyd is Teeth and HAIR! I swear, in some episodes, that not-so-expertly-coiffed concoction of his takes on a life of its own and makes him look about four inches taller. So now, whenever I see him, thanks to you and Fred, I will first think Teeth…Toothin along….and then I will think Hair…Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen…hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair…flow it…show it…long as God can grow it…Hair!

Haaaaaaaave ya noticed his forehead? Or as they say, his FIVEhead? Can you believe he played Almanzo Wilder??

(I know it sounds like I’m mocking him, with the talk of the teeth and the forehead, but I think he’s absolutely hot. Don’t tell Fred, I’m pretty sure he’d be horrified!)

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I recently got a new kitten, and as far as introductions to my grumpy old boy goes, things have been going swimmingly. Unfortunately, baby seems to like to eat my older cat’s food, and visa versa. For the baby it’s not so bad, but for my older cat, he has a sensitive stomach and also can’t really afford to put on the potential pounds from the kitten food (he’s not fat, but if he keeps this up he will be!)

You have so many cats; if you do, how do you keep them out of each other’s food? They both get fed twice a day, but they don’t always finish everything in one sitting, which leaves ample opportunity for one cat to go sampling the other’s fine food.

At this point, we’re lucky in that none of the cats are on any special food – Spanky does get a supplemental snack each night, which we give to him in the bathroom with the door closed so that the other cats can’t get to it.

I would recommend feeding the two cats separately for a set amount of time – give them each their food in separate locations, let them have it for 20 minutes, then take away what’s left. Ideally, you’ll have a place where you can shut one of the cats away so that they can’t get to each others’ food at all.

Readers? Suggestions?

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Have you seen these pet adoption PSAs? (There’s several, but that link is to my favorite.) I see them on TV occasionally, usually on one of the obscure little cable networks I like, and they nearly make me cry every time. Yesterday’s post about taking the kittens to Petsmart reminded me of it.

Oh good lord, that is so sweet and sad and YES it made me teary-eyed!

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Where did you get your game cam, and what kind is it? I would love to catch some of our garden invaders in the act!

It’s a Bushnell Trophy Cam, this one. I got mine, slightly used, off eBay for a little less than $100, but I just looked over at eBay, and I’m wondering if that was just a fluke – all the ones I saw that are available right now are around $200, which would make them actually cheaper on Amazon.

The picture function is good, but I prefer the video function, as you can tell!

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After all these years of reading your blog, I’ve never thought of this until today (not sure what sparked it either)…is Challenger’s House considered a no kill organization? I got to thinking about some of the cats that you’ve fostered that have been at Petsmart for a long time and wondered what happens if they’re never adopted? I thought about the Los Gatitos this morning and couldn’t remember ever hearing about their adoption (though it’s possible I just simply forgot). Thanks for the info!

Challenger’s House is absolutely a no-kill shelter. Cats who spend some time at PetSmart and aren’t adopted will eventually go to the shelter, which is a converted house. The shelter’s a free-roaming facility, and cats are not kept in cages there (except for new guys who need medication or are tiny and can’t go in with the general population). If a cat is never adopted, he or she will live out their life at the shelter. Any cats adopted from Challenger’s House will be accepted back into Challenger’s House at any time – there’s not a time limit, if a kitten is adopted out and 13 years later her owners can’t keep her for whatever reason, Challenger’s House will take her back.

Can you imagine how many cats we’d have here if Challenger’s House weren’t a no-kill shelter?

Oh, and about Los Gatitos, for anyone who doesn’t remember/ wasn’t reading at the time, they were the litter of white kittens who were only here for a week, since space opened up at Petsmart very quickly. Sofia (one blue eye, one green) was adopted straight from here, and I got an email a few weeks later from her new mom telling me how very much they loved her.

You know how black cats are adopted slowly and sit and wait forever sometimes? Well, with white cats it’s very often the opposite, especially blue-eyed white cats. All four of Los Gatitos were adopted, I believe, in less than two weeks.

Here, I whipped up a Los Gatitos collage for you!

(Side note, they all had Spanish names because they were estimated to have been born around May 5th, which is Cinco de Mayo.)

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I got the Greenies email today… Gracie was ROBBED Miz Robyn… Robbed.

Yeah, as it turns out some way-too-happy looking dog named Ferguson Finnegan won the Greenies Healthy Smile competition. When I broke the news to Gracie, she said…

“What’s a Greenie?”

Yes, now our dark, dirty secret can come to light: Gracie’s not a huge fan of the Greenies, at least not that we know of, because we’ve never given her Greenies. Not because we dislike Greenies (their pill pockets come in super handy with the cats!), but because we… just haven’t. Her teeth still seem pretty bright and white and pretty to me, so I don’t think her lack of Greenies has caused her harm. I was a little bit dreading having to come up with some LIE about how Gracie cries herself to sleep if she doesn’t get her nightly Greenies treat, so I think we can all rest easy now.

“I’m a fine upstanding Southern lady, so I’m not going to cast aspersions on anyone’s character, but is it just me who thinks that Ferguson fella looks just a little TOO perfect? ::cough::cough::cough::PHOTOSHOP::cough::cough::”

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Sixty years ago my parents were living on Guam with a cat named Charlie, a Siamese. They tried to give him to someone else but he walked the length of the island to get back to them. There may be a whole colony of jungle-dwelling cats named Charlie.

I love the idea of this so very much! I know that Guam – at least when we lived there – had a large feral population. I like to think that descendants of my Charlie still roam that island.

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How were the older Peppers when you dropped by?

They were just fine, plenty friendly, and enjoyed being petted and loved upon. I didn’t get much time to visit with them, because the morning cleaner arrived a few minutes after I did, and I wanted to get out of her way.

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I need some advice/suggestions from you and the blogosphere: I want to get some shelves for my kid to put his toys on. He has TONS of lego things he’s built, and transformers, etc so instead of keeping them in buckets (which he has to turn upside down on the floor more often than not to find something he’s looking for) I was going install some shelves on the wall. As you know though – I have two active cats, one of which (a) likes higher places, and (b) is a chunky butt with clutz tendencies. So I want to keep them off these shelves. They’re going to be crowded with bunches of stuff, and I just don’t want the hassle of them knocking stuff off. I was thinking of putting foil on the edges of the shelves to discourage them from jumping up there, but didn’t know if that would work or if you had better suggestions. I need something other than a water gun though as we’re not home all day and the cats do as they please.

I told Sherry that her kid needs a Lego wall – isn’t that neat? – but of course I was kidding, because can you imagine the cost of something like that? We keep the cats off our bookcases by piling so much crap on the shelves that they can’t get on the shelves, but of course that’s probably not an option here.

How about it – suggestions, y’all?

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I either said it or thought it before.. when those Sons get access to the rest of the house and allllllll those kitty tails, they’re going to go flipping nuts! There wont be a safe tail in the place! Can’t wait to see the mayhem!

I was actually saying to Fred the other day that the tuxies have had access to a tail – Jax’s – but that Jax has never had access to tails other than his own, so he’s going to go WILD!

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That printer video is fabulous. And since you think nothing is funnier than a swearing cat, I assume you’ve met Sylvester.

Oh god yes, I ADORE Sylvester. And Gibson. And for that matter, I do love me some Steve. Warning, those of you who are about to click that link: Sylvester’s got a potty mouth, but he is HILARIOUS.

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Aloha from the land of Surfing Goat Dairy.

Love it! I was in Hawaii for a week several years ago, and I would LOVE to go back, whether there are surfing goats there or not! 🙂

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Check out these paws!

Catriona tweeted that very link at me the other day, and I tweeted back at her that amazingly enough, I have never had a single polydactl foster kitten, can you believe that? We thought briefly that Terry, of the True Blood Six, this guy here:

was polydactl, but as it turned out, he had the normal number of toes, they were just divided oddly. Like such:

See? Three toes on one side, and then two over there where the “thumb” would be.

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My first-ever foster, Dublin, went off to his forever home on Saturday. His story is here.

I’m assuming you can reassure me that one does eventually get over the “no one can take as good care of him as I did” feeling. And of course our rescue group has another (single) kitten that they would reeeallly like me to foster. We’ll see.

You’ll get past it, I promise. If you’re really lucky, you’ll get an update from his new parents, and while you’ll be thrilled that he’s in a happy and loving home, you may think “But you said you loved ME, you little ingrate!”

The best cure for the missing-my-foster-kitty blues is more kittens, of course.

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My husband and I took in a cat from his parents’ neighbors, who’d lost their home, and also had a dog or two that thought she was a chew toy (I can even feel a scar on her thigh, poor thing.) She hid in the deepest recesses of our house for a month before she realized, “Hey! There’s no dogs here!!

Anyway, they also had her declawed, which is something I would never, ever do, and now I’m finding out firsthand why. I think she’s the one who’s been peeing outside the litter box. I can’t leave any kind of fabric on the couch, like a blanket or a sweater, or it will get peed on. We actually watched her walk straight up to the Christmas tree and squat and pee on the skirt. (Good thing it was just a piece of cheap green felt!) Now last night, someone peed on the fuzzy rug outside the litter box in her room.

We are assuming it’s been her, because we caught her most recently at it, and I’ve heard that declawed cats remember the pain from trying to use the box when they were first declawed, so it makes them litter-avoiders. She’s been fine for a while, but I’m thinking that cuz it’s been cold, her poor, sawed-off toesies are hurting.

I am taking her to the vet today to rule out anything medically wrong, but does anyone have any ideas about how to get her to use the box again? I’ve been using precious cat litter, switched about 6 months ago from Arm & Hammer to cut down on the dust, I scoop every other day. The box in her room doesn’t get used too much, for some reason. (I say her room, it’s my husband’s office, but when we first got her, we kept her in that room to slowly introduce her to everyone else.)

I also think part of her problem is she is declawed in a house with 4 other cats who are not. They have staring/growling contests, and about once a week, I hear the screech of an angry cat. I think she feels unarmed in a land of fully armed strangers, and it makes her defensive.

My newest idea is to buy some cat Attract litter, and shut her up in her room again for a week or two.

If I don’t find a solution, I’m gonna…I swear I’m gonna…keep cleaning up cat pee, cuz there’s nothing else really I can do, I’m not an animal abuser or a ‘drop them off at the pound at the first inconvenience’ person.

I am throwing this one out to the experts out there, because I really am not sure what to advise. I know that very often declawed cats don’t like the feel of litter on their poor little paws, and thus avoid the litter box, but perhaps there’s a different type of litter to try? I don’t think it would hurt to keep her sequestered away from the other cats – is it possible that one of the other cats is messing with her when she’s in the litter box and she doesn’t feel safe? Not that they’re necessarily being bullies, but trying to play with her or just watching to see what she’s doing.

But honestly, I don’t have a lot of advice on the topic, so those of you out there with suggestions or advice, feel free to jump in here!

And Doodle Bean had some great advice:

Hi Beccity! You are wise to have a vet check her out. My cats are wonderful about the litterboxes unless they are sick. When they ‘miss’, I’m actually grateful since I know someone is sick. Figuring out which one is sick then becomes the problem, but my vet does 2-for-1 office vists, so sometimes I just bring them both in.

Keep in mind I have 4 litterboxes for 2 cats… The rule-of-thumb is 1 for each cat + 1, but my two cats needed 1 for each cat + 2. So adding more litterboxes / adding one more litterbox might be something to try.

When you introduced the rescued darling, did you introduce her slowly? If not, you may want to try again (if she checks out as healthy by the vet). Here’s a good source of information on introducing a new cat into a cat-occupied household. It may be worthwhile starting over — it’s totally up to you!

Also, for timid cats, having a safe place to go is important. Do your cats have cat trees or other ways to get above other cats? That can go a long way toward making them all calm down.

Does the new one have a special place of her own? In my household, the skitty kitty owns the bed and the more confident one respects that… so, when she’s feeling scared, she can go lie on the bed and calm down — and does!

Sometimes just adding a cat bed for the new cat in an unusual place – like on top of the washer or on a rack over your computur monitor – does the trick… sometimes it’s harder. Either way, it’s great that you are concerned about her and your other pets. Because of that caring, I know you’ll figure it all out and have a peaceful, cat-filled household again! Just keep trying new things and it’ll work out.

Good luck!!

(Thanks, Doodle Bean!!)

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So the boys were all neutered yesterday, had their poop tested (no parasites, yay!), and their rabies shots. They are, as a matter of fact, ready and available to be adopted.

Unless something surprising happens this weekend or at adoption hours on Tuesday, the Sons will be going to Petsmart next Friday, and the black Peppers (Everett, Lucy and Sally) will be coming back here for a while to give them a break from the cage; I’m aiming to keep them here for about a month before they go back. Hopefully Jake will remember them and give them the full Loony treatment.

“Um….”

“This not funny, you let us OUT.”

When they got home from their neutering, they immediately swarmed to the food and water bowls. They were starvin’ Marvins.

“Somethin’s different. WHERE’D MY TAIL GO?!”

“Somethin’ else is missing, too…”

Tig, gazing out the window, reflecting upon how happy he is to have lived through that experience.

Seriously thirsty.

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Are you ready for some Corbs, beautiful Corbs? You know you are!

Total stressball.

Can you stand the gorgeous? I myself cannot.

That is the basket I bought to put in the foster room. It’s occupied 24/7 by either Corbie, Newt, or Jake. Sometimes Tommy.

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Previously
2011: Sights from around a snowy Crooked Acres
2010: the expensive ones do seem to keep on ticking, don’t they?
2009: The spud is a Twilight fan.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: If nothing else describes me, “Morally strong, with waffly ways” does.
2005: Who loves their readers more than me? That’s right, NO ONE.
2004: Let us go forth and speak of this no more.
2003: But one of these days he’s going to wake me up, and I’m going to pull his arm off and beat him about the head with it.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

Note: I did not EVEN proofread this monster of an entry. If I made any embarrassing and/ or obvious typos, please let me know so I can correct them, thx.

I hope you are watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Mob Wives because I am dying to hear what you have to say about them!!!!!

I’m watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but have never watched Mob Wives – I thought about it, but I’m trying to get back to reading more, so I have to be picky about what I watch (HA!). I watch all the Housewives seasons except for Miami, because I saw a picture of the cast of Miami and got the shit scared out of me. One of those women is SO FUCKING SCARY.

I’m spending a lot of time squirming while watching this season of BH, ESPECIALLY in the last episode when Russell was all like “Well, it’s an out-and-out lie!”, and Taylor got the “Yeah, not so much” look on her face. Also, I hate seeing Russell because – I know, I’m evil – the man gives (gave?) me serial killer vibes in a big way. Also, Taylor has dead eyes.

Also, Brandi alternately cracks me up and annoys me. And I want to like Kim, because I thought she was THE bomb-diggity when I was a kid and saw her on the Witch Mountain movies, I thought she was the most beautiful girl on earth, but she is just so ODD and WEIRD and her boyfriend has serial killer eyes. Also, Kyle can shut her face about never having had plastic surgery, because I’m sorry. Botox is plastic surgery, and not one of those women could frown if their lives depended on it.

That’s all I can think of at the moment – y’all feel free to chime in with your observations on those crazy bitches.

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How do you like the Kindle Fire. I was all set to buy one, but went with the ASUS Transformer instead because of extra features like being able to lock it and the removable keyboard (which I need when I travel)

I am really liking my Kindle Fire, but I have to say that it’s definitely not a replacement for my netbook. If I were traveling and didn’t expect to post entries or do much typing, or if I had a day where I needed something to help me kill time, I’d take the Kindle because it’s all about entertainment. If I were traveling and planned to post entries or answer a lot of email, I’d take the netbook.

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OH MAH GAH. Just when I think I can’t love coming here any more with the kitten and cat pics and the dawgs and the funny ducks and chickens and not to even mention your hilarious comments, I find out that you HATED We Were The Mulvaneys. I thought I was the only one! I am still not over that wretched, vile book! Have never forgiven Oprah. That is the book against which I judge all other sub-par books, and believe me, so far NOTHING has even come close. OH, I feel so vindicated.

I’m sure you know that Lifetime made a movie out of it. But then Lifetime would make a movie out of a steaming dog turd if it could get enough people to star in it.

It has been more than ten years since I read that book – I first wrote of my hatred for it here – and I still just loathe the holy hell out of it. Whenever I see it in a book store, I fantasize for a moment of buying up every copy and burning them so as to prevent some other sucker from setting eyes upon it and thinking “Hey, Oprah thought this book was good! Good enough for me!” That wasn’t the very last Oprah recommendation I bought and read, but I was certainly never as suckered in by her recommendations after that.

I remember seeing the commercial for that damn TV movie, and thinking “I should watch – wait, IT’S THOSE FUCKING MULVANEYS.” Ugh. Stupid Mulvaneys.

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I remember a really long thread on some forum about how (generally) men do not believe that anything their wives say is sensible. Men (again, generally) will listen to a neighbor, co-worker, stranger-off-the-street give the EXACT same advice and take it as the gospel truth. But, when the wife gives the advice she can’t possibly know what she’s talking about.
I was surprised how many wives piped up about this.

I cannot think of an example, and I can’t swear that this has ever happened, but I can certainly imagine making a suggestion to Fred, having him brush it off, and then some complete stranger giving the same suggestion, and Fred saying “That’s a really good idea! We should try that!”

I kind of want to go smack him upside his head, just thinking about it.

How many times have I suggested something to him to have him shrug it off, only to turn around day or hours or MINUTES later and then present the idea back to me AS IF HE’D JUST COME UP WITH IT ON HIS VERY OWN.

::FUME::

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What case do you have for your Kindle Fire? What do you think?

I have two cases for my Kindle Fire. The first one is this one, a plain and simple leather case, I got black. It worked really well, and I like having it as a backup. The other case I have, the one I kind of prefer, is this one, in pink. I like that it’s a hard case, and I like that I can use the cover as a stand, and really I just like the overall look and feel of the case. I think they’re both good cases, and you can’t go wrong with either of them, it really just depends on what you like in a case.

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I wanted to tell you about the dream I had while I was on vacation this last week, I thought it was pretty funny. I dreamt that a bunch of us Bitchypoo readers got together and rented a bus to visit you and Fred. You didn’t know we were coming, and when we got there, you were surprised, but very gracious. Fred put us all to work building goat pens (??), but here is the funniest part…the cats had their own house on your property, a really pretty Victorian style bungalow. A regular sized house that they all lived in. I woke up laughing because the house was so pretty, I was thinking maybe you and Fred would want to live there instead of the cats!

HA – you know, when the house next door was up for sale, I tried my best to convince Fred that we should buy it and turn it into a house for fostering cats. For some reason he wouldn’t go for that, go figure – it’s not a Victorian style bungalow, though. Maybe if it were, I’d be able to convince him. 🙂

(And we are NOT getting goats, so stop dreaming about goat pens!)

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On one other note I made use of “boxing day” here in the uk to turn boxes in to a cat tank. I’m not sure they fully approve yet but my cats will one day turn against me and use the tank. Hope you like it! Its not as good as a shop bought one but gave me hours of fun making it.

©jiva

I LOVE IT! I also love that you spent hours making it, because that sounds exactly like something I would do!

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Opie’s triangle marking on his face reminds me of Tubby.

Several people have mentioned that. Tubby, for those of you who didn’t have the pleasure of knowing him, was our great big 20+ pound cat. I believe he was our first adoption from Challenger’s House, we got him in the summer of 1997. He was a bit of an odd duck, but was loaded with personality and always cracked us up. He was very vocal when food was involved.

Here’s Tubby:

And Tubby side by side with Opie:

It’s funny just how similar their nose splotches are, isn’t it? Of course, there are more differences than similarities between the two – Tubby was white except for his tail and his nose splotch, whereas Opie is a Tuxie and approximately half black. Their personalities aren’t similar (that I can tell – Opie might very well turn more Tubby-like as he grows up, who knows?), but Tubby had a favorite sitting position that Opie came pretty close to replicating the other day:

So in summary, yeah, y’all are not alone. I see the resemblance, too!

And as a bonus, some Tubby videos (with awful quality; hard to believe that was THE BOMB ten years ago, ain’t it?)

And Tubby and Mister Boogers (back when Mister Boogers was a kitten and we were calling him Stanley The Bean), fighting.

Also, when we first got him, we named him “Snoopy” because we had decided to go with an “s” naming theme for the cats. He grew into his name a few years later. (Ha.)

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Warning: profanity. Nothing funnier than a swearing cat, though, if you ask me.

Don’t say I never gave you anything. And why is everything always funnier with a British accent?

God but I love that video. That’s EXACTLY what I’m like when I’m fighting with my computer or the printer. Only with more profanity and less of a British accent.

I could totally listen to a Brit swearing up a storm all day long. It’s the accent – it’s funny to listen to dirty words in that accent, I’m telling you.

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Robyn, don’t show this to Fred or he’ll DEFINITELY will want a goat:

(I can see them now, Fred and his goat. Canoeing together. Taking rides in the truck. Napping on the couch.)

You know, they’re really NOT much bigger than George and Gracie, surely we could –

Oh, wait. George and Gracie don’t get to come in the house. Nevermind. (Fred only wants goats inasfar as I don’t. When I tell him to get a goat and shut up about it, he suddenly isn’t that interested in goat herding. His current desperate want is for a goose. I LOATHE geese, ever since I was feeding geese at the UAH pond and one bit me on the butt.)

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I have 2 cats, one is almost 13 and one is almost 6, both girls. Abby, the older, has always been more affectionate, but lately, she will plop herself down on my lap very often when I’m sitting. Sometimes she does it right as I’m about to get up and do something and I can’t always put it off. How do you get anything done with as many cats as you have, and do you ever feel guilty/bad for moving someone to accomplish things around the house?

I think I’m at a disadvantage since I work at home and often have to stop cleaning etc to sit down and take a call.

Oh, I never hesitate to put a cat down because I have to go do something. They know that when I’m sitting at my desk, they can get all the love and head scritching they want, but if I suddenly remember that I have to get up and do something, they’ll be moved aside so I can do so. (I do feel a tiny bit bad about it, but then I get over it. Because stuff’s got to get done!)

Probably it helps that I’ve spent 12 years with Miz Poo, the neediest cat on earth. If I would just sit there and pet her 24 hours a day, she’d love it. But then stuff doesn’t get done, does it? STUFF’S GOTTA GET DONE. I should cross-stitch that and hang it over my desk and when I get the sad eyes I can point to the cross-stitch picture and shrug. STUFF’S GOTTA GET DONE, YO.

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I don’t like when you mention Tommy and Sugarbutt’s ages because I was reading for a few years BEFORE you adopted them, so now it makes me feel like a crazy stalker. I certainly hope you don’t get bored and stop blogging because even though you have a tendency to discuss litterbox content while I am trying to eat, I still love reading you and seeing all the kitty pictures:)

I wish I had a disgusting litter box story to share here, but sadly I do not so I’ll settle for sharing, once again, my favorite picture from when Tommy and Sugarbutt and their sister and brother were fosters.

That’s Tommy in the air, of course (back then he was named Barrett and Sugarbutt was Sad Eyes)(I did not name them), Sugarbutt on the ground calling out encouragement, and their sister Callie laying back there observing. I really think this might be one of my top five favorite pictures of all time.

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Tommy and Sugarbutt look like my 2 newest kittens, Trixie (black) and Tiffany Jr. – “TJ” (orange). Which is why I’m writing. They came from the shelter, they’re chipped, tested and feleuk negative, will be spayed soon, all for a token $85 to the shelter. They got a clean bill of health when they came home to us on Dec 8th including “fecal – negative” which I thought meant no worms/parasites? DOES IT?

TJ and Trixie follow me all around asking for canned food unless we’re playing with them elsewhere or they’re asleep. They also eat up all their dry food. They will eat our other 2 cats’ special diet(s) food too, if we aren’t watching and don’t quickly move it out of their reach. The kitten chow (Iams) cans say 1 can per day per pound, and they are both right at 1.5 pounds (so 3 cans/day total) but they would eat all day if they could. They are otherwise alert, healthy, loving, playful, mischevous, very smart, and wonderful! Not skinny or fat, still kitten-y, not at that slender teenager cat stage yet.

They’re getting fixed late next week and we are going to ask that vet about it then. Just wondered everyone’s experiences since this is the first time we have had such ravenous little piglets ever and we’ve owned cats since we were both little kids.

To answer the question as to whether “fecal – negative” means they’re parasite free, I have to say that’s not necessarily the case. It’s possible for them to have parasites that don’t show up in a single fecal test, especially if they’re recently, um, infested with one parasite or another (wow, that makes zero sense, right?) I’ve had fosters’ fecal tests initially show negative for something, only to find out a few weeks down the road that they have (insert your parasite of choice here. I particularly enjoy finding out that they have tapeworms, because UGH.)

A better indication of how they’re doing is to check out their litter box. Is everything as mostly-solid as it should be? If there’s diarrhea, especially bloody diarrhea (hey, look, there’s that litter box talk I was looking for! Were you eating breakfast?), then there might be a parasite issue.

It’s not uncommon for kittens to claim they’re dying of starvation around here, especially if I’m standing in the kitchen, and even though we free feed. You might want to increase their food a little, since they’re still little guys and growing. Also, do you know what their story is before they ended up at the shelter? Our dear departed Spot was never a big eater, but due to living on “the streets” before he showed up at Fred’s doorstep, it made him extremely nervous not to have food available to him at all times and even if he could see the bottom of the bowl, he’d howl the house down. If TJ and Trixie were street kittens for a bit, they could think that they need to eat when they can.

I know that there are readers out there with opinions or words of advice – please jump in here, I’d love to hear what the rest of you have to say.

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I love Tig! I especially like how he seems to have little white ears inside his little black ears… I’m not explaining that very well but it shows in the photos… He’s going to be a charming grownup cat.

I see exactly what you mean – I hadn’t noticed that at all. How neat! Maybe it was his twin, and he absorbed it in utero, and that’s why Tig has the personality of two kittens! 🙂

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I’m fed up with living with roommates and am downsizing (from a 3ish bedroom duplex) soon. I’m looking at a studio apartment that is only 220 sq feet- I’m a big fan of Apartmenttherapy.com so its kinda a fun challenge- but I’m worried about if my cats will be able to deal. Yes, plural, cats. Two, who get along very well, and have few behavioral problems. Is 220 sq feet too small for two cats?

Man, I hesitate to answer this, because I really don’t know. That sounds awfully small to me, but I think it depends on how active they are, and how willing and able you are to provide vertical space for them. If they’re older cats and not terribly active, and you can provide cat trees and/ or walkways for them up off the ground, then you may be able to make it work. But if they’re really active young cats, I think you’re going to have a problem because they’re going to run around and in a space that size, they’re going to run across your face sooner or later. Trust me, my face gets tromped across regularly. I’m surprised I haven’t lost an eye yet.

Readers, jump in here? Anyone out there with a similar amount of space now or in the past, who can offer some advice?

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Do you have any that just don’t get into the catnip? I have one that runs away from it and a couple of others that are like, eh… whatever.

Yeah, I think Tommy, Maxi, Newt, and Kara are not really into catnip. Joe Bob doesn’t seem to care for it either, now that I think about it. Miz Poo used to watch the other cats like they were nuts, but in her old age she’s gotten a taste for it. The kittens are usually like “What is going ON?!” when there’s a nipfest. Most of them, though, like it. They like it in different ways – Spanky will walk in, eat a pile of catnip, and move along, some of them roll around in the catnip and then lay there with their eyes twirling.

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This is duck-related and it QUACKS me up (groan):

Hee! SO CUTE!!!

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Okay, I’ll be leaving in a bit to take Charlie and Patty to Petsmart. I like to drop them off as early in the day as I can so that they have all day to acclimate to the cage and people walking by. I expect Patty at least will head straight into the litter box, and Charlie will likely join her, at least at first.

We’re not requiring that they be adopted together, but did put a note in their description that it would be nice if they could. I actually think they’ll be fine even if they’re not adopted together, as long as there are other cats in the home.

In response to someone’s question, I am not bringing Everett, Sally, and Lucy home with me. But if they’re still there in a few more weeks, when the Sons have been neutered and are ready to go, I may see about switching out the Sons for the remaining big Peppers, to give the big Peppers a break from the cage for a few weeks.

I’m sorry that your last sight of Charlie and Patty has to be when they’re so stressed out. What can I say? They’re just naturally high strung.

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This weekend, we start giving the Sons a bit of freedom. It’s definitely time – they’ve started all four rushing the door, which is usually okay unless I’m carrying something into the room. And then it’s (heh) anarchy!

Poor Jax. Who will ever adopt such an ugly boy?

Whatcha doin’ there, Opie, that has you looking so guilty?
“Nuttin’.”

::chomp::

Mr. Innocent.

They like to sit on top of the kitty condo and look out the window.

Couldn’t you just smooch his little face?

Opie, keeping an eye on something. Probably Jax’s tail. (Andrea pointed out that when the Sons are let out into Gen Pop, they’re going to go nuts with all the tails available for the swattin’. SO true. Charlie and Patty go nuts with batting at the big cats’ tails, and they have their own tails!)

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Edited to add: Oops! I uploaded these to Flickr, but forgot to link them here. I would never want y’all to go without your weekly dose of GORGEOUS!

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Previously
2010: “Snack?”
2010: Mike and Gus go to their new home.
2009: Squirrels in the side yard drive Suggie CRAYZEE!
2008: Cumin smells exactly like stinky armpit to me.
2007: No entry.
2006: “Oh. Were you gone?”
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: “Ohhhhh,” I finally said, the light dawning. “It’s a comedy.”
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

Other than (maybe) the Christmas kittens from a few years back (Noel? Or was it Kris Kringle that was so gorgeous and floofy?), I think Jax may well hold the title for Prettiest! Anderson! Foster! EVER!

SOMEONE has been reading me for a long time! Those Christmas kittens were from 2006, and they were Jack Frost, Kringle, Merry, Noelle, and Faith.

And because of course I have to share pictures of that gorgeous bunch:

(Top: Jack Frost and Kringle (boys). Bottom: Noelle, Faith and Merry (girls))

Fred told me last night that he didn’t think Jax was all that gorgeous. He was like, “Eh. He’s a brown tabby. Whatevs.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought about divorcing him, but I killed him and buried him in the back forty instead. George and Gracie were happy to help with the digging of the hole.

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So I know that you answered this before, but I just searched and couldn’t find it, but where did you get those attachments for the soda bottles to make them into bird feeders? My searching, however, did yield a recipe for a seed cake, which I hadn’t thought to make. I used to be able to get them pretty cheap at Petsmart, but now they’re about $7, and the squirrels demolish them pretty quickly. Petsmart once in a while has certain things in the wild bird aisle on super duper clearance and I can make a killing, but then for months everything is way expensive.

I actually got the attachments at the LL Bean Home store, but I cannot find them on the web site (I got them at the actual physical store a couple of summers ago), so I found them on Amazon instead. Here they are, right here, these are the same ones I’ve got. (It’s entirely possible that you can find them cheaper elsewhere on the web, I just tend to run right to Amazon ’cause that’s the kind of gal I am.)

Also, LL Bean is on my last nerve with their cat hatred. They’re ALL about the dogs, dog beds, dog collars, dog dishes, dogsdogsdogs. Nothing for the cats. NOTHING. Several years ago I managed to find a few small packages of cat toys tucked way in the back of the DOG section, but they apparently no longer carry them. Bastards. I even just now went to their site and searched on “cat” and what came up was a bunch of dog stuff. Which, I know, I could use dog beds for cats (they certainly enjoyed the hell out of Benjie’s dog bed when my parents brought him with them to visit last), but I’m not spending that much on a bed for cats who will probably ultimately pee on the damn thing.

Stupid LL Bean, is what I’m saying.

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I saw this calendar and instantly thought of you and your Rock Star chicken!

Ha! I love it!!!

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Out of boredom Saturday afternoon (and after checking to be comfortably sure I wasn’t going to end up with a nine thousand dollar phone bill), I dialed 1-800-FLUF-HED. A recording instantly came on the line saying something like, “Call us to chat at 1-900-” so I hung up right away (before they could transfer me).

On Sunday morning, they called me back.

I saw the number and knew it looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it, so I let it go to voicemail. Almost as soon as it stopped ringing, I remembered where I knew the number from.

No one left a message, but now I’m just a little bit worried.

HA – I guess I should have checked it before I put it in as the 1-800 number for the FURnace order number, no?

PLEASE keep us informed as to whether they call you back. Sounds like they REALLY want your business! Heheh.

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I keep meaning to ask. Do those cardboard scratchers make a mess?

They make a bit of a mess, if the cats are particularly vigorous with the scratching. There’s usually a scattering of little cardboard pieces on the floor that I have to vacuum up, but it’s not terribly bad.

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The best part of the Spankey video was “Ahr yew alaaaahhhhhhhhhive?” That made me laugh more than the video did. You’re as cute as your kittehs are! (Of course, that’s probably more funny to a Northeasterner than a Southerner……or a transplanted Southerner….)

Correction – I was confused in my laughery – It was the harassment video and Newt was the one not aalaaahhhiiiivvve. That’s what I get for chuckling at a Southern accent.

Oh god, I knew exactly what part you were talking about. Every time I hear myself in a video, I think “From now on, I’m going to SHUT UP when I’m making a video, because no one needs to hear that ridiculousness!”, but then apparently I cannot keep my big mouth shut. Must talk to the kittehs! It’s a compulsion!

Anyone who wants to be annoyed, the part we’re talking about starts around 32 seconds in.

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Cute videos. Especially the one of you talking to the cats. Of course, you know I have to post a link to this YouTube video that answers for the cats:

LOVE it.

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Before you got the house, weren’t you planning on naming it Horseshit Alley? If I’m wrong, I have no idea how I came up with that. And if I’m right, how on earth do I remember these things?! 🙂

No, it was my plan if I ever won the lottery, that I would build a mansion and name it Horseshit Alley to horrify the other rich people in the neighborhood. Which could still happen, you never know (note to self: buy lottery tickets), but I think Crooked Acres is more fitting for this place!

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So do the chickens taste extra delicious because of all the goodies you feed them?

They do taste extra delicious, but probably not ’cause of the extra goodies. Well, unless the goodies make them happier and happier chickens are tastier… or something.

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I LOVE that first drawing.. will you share who did it so I can check it out?

Samnet did the picture of Sugarbutt, this one:

And Punisher357 did the one of Stinkerbelle, this one:

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Have you seen this video of the silly screaming (yawning) cats? I intend to try it as soon as my furry overlords yawn in my presence.

That is hilarious!

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Those crinkle blankets seem a hit, Robyn? Spanky likes his, hey? Can you feel the warmtht if you put your hand under him? must buy some for the boys next year.

The thermal cat beds are definitely a hit – Spanky spends a lot of time on his, and the one I put on the couch is pretty much always occupied. I can feel warmth if I put my hand under him, but it’s not as warm as an electric pad would be. It seems to keep them warm enough, though – they certainly like them!

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Annoyed Chuckles is annoyed.

He is such a pretty boy.

::sigh:: “No, it’s okay, I’ll just huddle here on this paper bag with only a dried old okra pod to play with.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be just – ::sob:: – fine.”

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He is such a beautiful boy, isn’t he?

One in, one out.

(Yes, Tig’s ears are dirty, and yes – I’ve since cleaned them. Promise!)

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It’s TIME for your WEEKLY evidence of the fact that CORBIE is a BEAUTIFUL BOY!

Unfortunately, I only got a couple of pictures of him this week. I was a slacker. More next week, I promise!

That’s Corbie on the warming pad, and Tommy underneath the warming pad and the blanket. Apparently he was a bit cold.

After I took this picture, I kissed Corbie for y’all. You’re welcome.

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Previously
2010: Notice that they’re all giving her a wide berth. I suspect she’s taught them that if they get too close, there WILL be smackin’.
2009: CLEARLY I am filled with the Christmas spirit.
2008: It’s nice to have a clean house. I should probably try it more often!
2007: The eyes of a lover, the heart of a monster the world has never seen before.
2006: No entry.
2005: I have the best readers EVAH!
2004: Gotta love that Jack Bauer.
2003: When it’s such a noteworthy event that my child stops and stares in wonder, it’s possible I’m just not cleaning often enough, ya think?
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: That’s my girl!

Attention, those of you in the Phoenix/ Scottsdale, AZ area residents – two cats who were abandoned by their owners desperately need a safe home, whether it be a temporary foster, or a loving forever home.

ALSO, if you are in northern New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, or that general location, either (or both!) of these cats could be delivered to you later this month, if you’re interested in either (or both!) of these sweet boys. Go read here for more information!

Please help if you can – and please spread the word!

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You know you want a Crooked Acres holiday postcard. YOU KNOW YOU DO. You better hurry up, you’ve only got ELEVEN days to get your name and mailing address to me! (And yes, of course I’m happy to send cards to other countries!) Send your name and mailing address to hollydays@gmail.com .

I’ll take names and addresses until December 20th.

If you’d like to send me a card as well (never ever required, but always appreciated – I don’t keep track of who does and doesn’t send a card, I promise!), send it to: Robyn Anderson, PO Box 461, Athens, AL 35612 USA.

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Enter to win a copy of this adorable book, here! You can enter ’til 3 pm Sunday. I’ve got two copies to give away, so your chances are good! Again, go here to enter.

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What camera did you use for those closeups? They’re great. And what kind of non-electric heating pad do you use for the kitties? I think you mentioned it recently, but I can’t find the entry.

The camera is a Sony SLT-A55; I bought it after I dropped my A100 a few months ago. (I swear dropping it was an accident, but I sure do love my new camera!)

And the non-electric (self-heating) bed for the cats is called a “Slumber Pet Thermal Cat Mat“; I got a bunch of them off of Amazon and they’re quite popular with the cats! I should add, as a side note, that the thermal mats make a crinkly noise when the cats step on them (I think they’ve got Mylar or something similar inside – it reflects the cat’s body heat which is what keeps them warm). It doesn’t bother my cats, but keep it in mind because it might bother more sensitive kitties.

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When I see your photos of Rock Star, Tina Turner always comes to mind.

“What’s cluck got to do, got to do with it?”

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I cannot watch Sons of Anarchy! It’s a great show . . . but my blood pressures goes up 200 points and I find myself holding my breath . . . . um . . . . lol

TELL me about it! We just watched the season finale and I swear I thought I was going to have a stroke!

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What kind of geese is Fred looking at? I’m considering getting a pair myself, to act as guard dogs for my poultry. I have a psychopathic neighbor kid climbing the fence and messing with them, and while I am working on locks, camera, ect., I’d also like to fix her wagon with geese. I can’t use my dogs as guard animals or I wouldn’t have any poultry left, and I happen to have a friend with more geese than she wants. I think they’re Chinese, but I’m not sure.

Fred reports that he’s looking at Embden or Pilgrim geese. Though I still don’t particularly want a goose, I did read that Pilgrim geese are relatively calm and sweet-natured (unlike whatever the hell kind of goose it was that bit me on the ASS several years ago when we were feeding ducks and geese), so I could probably live with one of those.

I hope that you get some geese that are particularly good at biting kids on their asses, and I further hope that you are able to document the said ass-biting to share with us all. 🙂

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Wow, Elwood is a uh… um… thick cat, isn’t he?

Jake Sprat can eat no fat, his bro can eat no lean. Heh. Actually, although Elwood is a really big cat (and getting bigger by the second, it seems), I really don’t see him eating all that often. He’s not nearly as aggressive when it comes to food as the much skinnier Jake is. Of course, Jake runs and plays more than Elwood does, so perhaps we need to get Ellie Belly on an exercise regimen.

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The Grinch. That’s who Jake reminds me of in your banner.

(I was 9 years old when I spotted the resemblance between the Grinch and my father. Every time we point it out to someone new the response is always the same: A puzzled look, a slight gasp and widening of the eyes, and a hasty and embarrassed, “Oh, now, that’s silly” type of denial, followed by frequent sidelong and trying-to-be surreptitious glances. We were banned from watching The Grinch for two or three years because he’d get so bent at how funny we thought it was. So, the moral of this comment is, your cat looks like my father. I’m so sorry.)

I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say I would like to see a picture of your father, please. (But we also understand that perhaps that might get us ALL banned from watching the Grinch, so maybe not!)

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Ok…you seem to have knowledgeable and intelligent readers…anybody out there know where I can buy…
(1) a heated water bowl…something solar that does not require being plugged in.
(2) a heated shelter…again, something that does not require being plugged in…my feral cat feeding station is in the middle of a field with no access to power.

Any suggestions would be appreciated : )

Oldcat has this suggestion: Maybe what you need is a battery powered weatherproof converter that gives you normal power in the field. Then you can just get normal outdoor pet items.

Maybe campers have that kind of stuff.

I myself have no ideas, but I know you guys out there must have some suggestions – we’re all ears!

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Who says you can’t train cats?

The funny thing is that I didn’t actually realize I was training all the cats to go to their different places for snack time. It was just through several days of taking the big Peppers upstairs and not letting the little Peppers in their room, and then putting the little Peppers in the guest bedroom with their snack (and not letting the big cats go in there) that the cats all figured out where they were likely to get their food, and staying there. Kind of neat, isn’t it?

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This makes me wonder what each individual kitty sounds like. I picture Alice with a dainty little kitten mew, Miz Poo with a loud but loving meow and Stinkerbelle with a gruff, throaty mrow!

This gives me an idea – I’m going to do my best to get each cat’s meow on video and make one video with each of them meowing!

I can tell you, though, that Alice actually sounds almost exactly like Marty in this video:

Which is why Fred is 100% convinced that Marty and Alice were from the same litter.

Also, if you watch the Snackin’ Time video and forward to one minute and 59 seconds, you’ll hear a high-pitched “Me-ewwww!”, and that’s Stinkerbelle. She has quite the imperious meow, that one.

You’re right about Miz Poo, though – she certainly does have a loud but loving meow!

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Robyn, I met a guy named Marty at the vet’s office on Saturday that has 35 cats!! Well — “only” 32, really… he has four of his mom’s on a temporary basis. So, 32 permanent indoor cats, almost all rescued from the street or from abusive situations. He showed me pictures of all the cats on his cell phone (they looked healthy and happy)!! So there you go, another person you can refer to when someone questions how many cats YOU have… hey, it’s definitely not as many as are at Marty’s house!!

(and then)

I just had to correct the above statement, before anyone accuses me of being mathematically challenged. Reading the above, you’d think the cat total should be 36 — but I should have said that Marty has “four of his mom’s animals on a temporary basis”. And the animals from mom consist of 3 cats and 1 dog. So… the cat total is 35 🙂

My newest best friend Marty, you mean?

“How many cats do you HAVE, Robyn?”

“You know, it’s funny you ask that, I was just thinking about my best friend Marty. Would you believe he has 35 cats in his house right now? Boy, I could never imagine having that many cats, but they all seem happy!”

Have you ever noticed that we people who have TOO MANY cats will always qualify the answer? “Well, I HAVE 13 cats, but two of them are outside most of the time and one of them is kind of feral, so she spends all her time on top of the kitchen cabinets and only comes down to eat and use the litter box. Actually, they can all go outside during the day, so it’s not like ::embarrassed laugh:: we have 13 cats inside all the time, because THAT would be complete lunacy!”

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I’m still overwhelmed by the care that goes into snacktime at Crooked Acres! (Speaking of which, it was great to see that shy beauty Stinkerbelle in action.) And how many times daily does your dishwasher take a beating?

I only run the dishwasher once a day, at bedtime, believe it or not. I do wash the cats’ snack dishes, too, or if the dishwasher is full, I wash them by hand. Usually they’ll all fit in the dishwasher, though.

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My DVR is filled up with all the Walking Dead episodes from this season i haven’t gotten a chance to watch a single one 🙁

Well, don’t be too sad – you’ve got ’til FEBRUARY to catch up. February. Seriously. I object!

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Are you or Fred watching American Horror Story? I’m loving that one too.

We watched about half of the first episode. Fred wanted to keep watching it, but I wasn’t feeling it. We may give it another chance at some point. Pretty often, we don’t get into a show when we first watch it, then we give it another chance and end up falling in love with it. Case in point: we didn’t care for Arrested Development when it first came on, and then decided to give it another try once the series ended, and have since watched the entire series at least twice.

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Can Newtles Bing BE any funnier??? 😉

This made me LOL. Newtles Bing!

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The drawing of the rescue kitty reminded my of this photo from Good Morning Kitten of itty-bitty wittle ‘Stormy’.

Oh my god. So so so so SO CUTE!

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What’s the Walking Dead?

Zombies! I’ve never been a huge fan of zombie movies, but I really like this series (which is based on a comic book, or so I hear.)

I like Friends, too. Robyn, why not just buy the dvd’s? or is there no storage space for dvds?

There is storage space for DVDs, but I’m all about the instant gratification. You meant I have to GET OUT the DVD and put it IN the player and then SIT ’til the menu pops up and then CHOOSE the episode? I don’t want to do THAT!

Although I did recently figure out that I could buy the entire series through Amazon and then watch it on my Kindle Fire. I am very tempted.

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I have to say thank you. I adopted my cat as a 4 or 5 year old, and so I never got to see her as a kitten. Now I have, because she looks EXACTLY like miss patty! Although in personality she’s more of a Miz Poo. She has no truck for other cats.

::fume::

“She. Is. TOUCHING. ME!”

Miz Poo is no fan of Miss Patty – but you’ll note that Miss Patty is not fazed in the slightest.

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Stress runs in the family.

Hanging out in the foster room.

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It’s CORBIE TIME!

“What?”

“You can’t move this basket up to the foster room. It’s MINE.”

I may have mentioned in the past that one of the toys we have for the cats is a mink tail. I got several of them from my sister many years ago – someone gave them to her for her cats to play with, and they weren’t interested so she passed them along to me. My cats and fosters always really liked them, would carry them around and growl at the other cats and just basically act like the mink tails were their prey.

So then.

When I got back from Pennsylvania last month, I noticed that the cats had a renewed interest in one of the cat tails, they were playing with it all the time, carrying it around, and so on. But one day I happened to take a close look at it, and. Um.

It’s not a mink tail in that picture with Corbie. It’s a squirrel tail. Apparently, at some point while I was gone, the cats caught a squirrel in the back yard and, shall we say, separated it from its tail, and brought the tail inside for super fun playtime.

A squirrel tail, for some reason, grossed me out in a way that the mink tails don’t, and thus I tossed it out the door (the side door, not the back door. They can’t get to it in the side yard.) They were SO mad at me, but they got over it next time snack time came around.

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Previously
2010: Internet issues.

2009: I HAVE THE SOLUTION FOR YOU!
2008: Fred laughed and laughed and laaaaaaaaughed, because it’s always funny when someone else is the idiot, isn’t it?
2007: Miss Stinky Seethes.
2006: No entry.
2005: It’s the little things that amuse us, obviously.
2004: Mister Boogers does his Donald Trump impression
2003: FUCKING spam.
2002: Are you an innie or an outie?
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: God, the smell.

Time to let me know if you want a holiday postcard! (And yes, of course I’m happy to send cards to other countries!) Send your name and mailing address to hollydays@gmail.com .

I’ll take names and addresses until December 20th.

If you’d like to send me a card as well (never ever required, but always appreciated – I don’t keep track of who does and doesn’t send a card, I promise!), send it to: Robyn Anderson, PO Box 461, Athens, AL 35612 USA.

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I have a Kindle related question for you… I was in Barnes and Noble over the weekend, standing in the checkout line, when I heard the Nook guy going on and on and on about how the Nook is better than the Kindle. That’s fine. I have a Kindle and I like it, but I’ve heard nice things about the Nook too, and I’m sure it’s a fine fine product. However, then the guy started talking about how you have to pay extra for storage on the Kindle and how Barnes and Noble believes that if you buy an ebook it’s yours and blah blah blah. Having missed most of the conversation, and not being entirely sure of the facts, I didn’t jump in, but it really annoys me. I bought a Kindle 15 months ago, I’ve read 175 books and I still have tons of space. I know with the Kindle Fire you can download movies, etc, so I’m sure that takes up more space, but that’s kind of a different issue isn’t it? Is it true that if you get over a certain limit on books, they’ll charge you? I couldn’t find anything specific to books, although I did see that music storage is free.

Mostly, I think I’m just annoyed at the Nook guy. They just about mug you when you walk in the store anyway to tell you about the wonderful Nook. To make up shit just aggravates me.

I hadn’t heard anything of the sort, so I’m no help on this – anyone out there able to shed some light on this for us?

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Just wondering how you are liking or disliking the Kindle Fire? My hubby got me one for Christmas and I’m liking it enough to keep it. How are you doing with yours?

I’m really liking it – like I mentioned, I use it mostly to read books, blogs, and to check my email when I’m not near my desktop computer. I also got caught up watching a streaming episode of Arrested Development the other night (CHICKENS DON’T CLAP!) and it was really crisp and clear and I didn’t have any problems streaming it. The Fire will never replace my desktop or even my laptop (I have too many computer-type things, clearly), but I really really like the size and the weight and everything. I wish I could play Snood on it, but that’s not available yet (the Snood guys are “working on it”, I hear, and that’s been the word for at least a year), but other than that I like everything about it at this point.

NO WAIT. I really really wish – even more than I wish I could play Snood on it – that the Kindle Fire had a camera built in. I imagine that’ll be coming down the road a ways, but I think that would make it just about perfect for me.

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If you were a newbie to the e-reader world , what e-reader would you get? Thinking about it.

When I was a newbie to the e-reader world, I chose the Kindle because it was pretty much the only e-reader around. These days, there are tons of them out there, but I’m such an Amazon whore that I’d still stick with the Kindle. But since I AM such an Amazon whore, you can’t go by me. It seems like you’re either a Kindle person or a Nook person, and never the twain shall meet. Fred’s sister is hardcore Nook, and when we showed her the Kindle Fire she was NOT impressed.

(Side note: they should make a Kindle/ Nook hybrid and call it the Nookle.)

So really what I’m saying is that you should handle both the Nook and the Kindle and play around with them a bit to see what works for you. I believe that Best Buy carries both of them, so it might behoove you to make a trip there.

Anyone who wants to weigh in on the topic, jump right in!

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I has a question…how do you select your quotes for previous entries? Randomly? The one line that makes you guffaw? Because on some days, taken together as a paragraph, they’re hilarious, almost as if you planned it that way.

Usually I skim the entry and if I read something that either makes me laugh or even just smile, I’ll use it. For the years before 2010, I just cut and paste the code from the bottom of 2010’s entry to make life easier for myself.

There are some quotes – like this one, from 2005: “Well, GODDAMN,” I said. “NOT NOW, I won’t! I was GOING to, but now that I know you’d be sitting there all horrified about me reclining my seat in front of your parents, all worried that they’d be thinking ‘Good christ, look at her over there, so fucking LAZY she can’t expend the ENERGY to sit upright!’, I won’t! I wouldn’t DREAM of reclining on my OWN couch in my OWN home, I would HATE to embarrass you!” – that I immediately know what’s in the entry. And then there are others that catch my attention and I have to go back to read because it doesn’t sound familiar to me at all.

This is post #3,050, by the way. I sure do have a lot to say, don’t I?

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Been thinking about this all day.

“her blowhard husband irritates the shit out of me”

How do you handle people like this in real life (which includes the internet, but not reality TV)? If I were to make a list of “Favorite People Ever,” about half of them would have a spouse who’d go on the “Fuck Off And Die Now” list. It doesn’t seem like it’d be very productive to ever say, “I adore you, but please don’t ever mention your husband in my presence because just the thought of him sours my day,” but (with two people in particular, one f2f friend and one internet friend) I’m finding myself spending less time with them, because they either talk incessantly about the spouse or invite him along to whatever we’re doing.

I’ve tried looking for and focusing on the good qualities in the obnoxious spouse and reminding myself that I’m no prize either, but increasingly I think the only option is to limit the time I spend with the Wonderful People, and that makes me sad. Which I suppose is the only reason for this comment; I don’t expect anyone to have any actual tips other than the obvious (limit time together, change the subject, get over your dumb self) but sharing always helps.

Y’know, that’s a good question and I don’t really have any suggestions. Fred and I really almost never do anything with other couples due to his reluctance to do anything social, so most of my interactions with real-world (married/ coupled) friends is with just one of them. I even have a couple of friends whose husbands I’ve never met.

The two instances where I’ve had friends with spouses who I absolutely hated, both couples lived nowhere near me so I only saw them every now and then. And at this point, both couples are divorced, so I don’t have to deal with the irritating spouses at all YAY FOR ME.

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So which duck did you name Peanut?

The one on the left, of course.

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How do you keep the ducks on your property. Have they tried to fly away?

The ducks are Rouen ducks, and Rouens don’t fly because they’re too heavy. These particular ducks are so attached to their current home that we can hardly get them to go out to the pond – I imagine that if they somehow managed to escape the back forty, they’d all just stand at the fence and look sadly at the coop ’til we let them back in.

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As for Charlie:

I love Simon’s Cat SO SO SO much. He always gets it spot-on, and that kitten acts EXACTLY like Charlie – and about a million other kittens we’ve had.

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I just love sweet Charlie Peppers! What color are his eyes now? They look almost turquoise in these pictures!

They are kind of turquoise-y. They’re still not at their permanent color, I don’t think, but in the meantime they’re bluish-greenish and very very pretty. Fred helped me get a picture of Charlie’s eyes yesterday. Charlie was less than thrilled by Fred holding him still so I could get the picture, but lucky for us he forgives easily.

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Who is meowing in the video? Sounded like a “whatcha doin?”

I believe that that’s Everett meowing in that video. I’m not sure why he didn’t join in on the tail-smacking game because that is a game he loves a LOT.

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Re: heating pads, do you use crinkle blankets? Like this one they have this crinkly layer inside that reflects kitty’s body heat back to her. My vet turned me onto them, my cat *loved* it, and no electricity involved.

Oddly enough, I just got a couple of those EXACT blankets (in blue) and a couple of these as well. They’ve been enough of a hit that I’m likely going to switch over to the blankets and put the electric bed warmers away.

In the past, the only thermal blankets I could find were in a hideous pattern that I didn’t like. Now that they’re available in different colors and patterns, I think they’re awesome!

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That first picture of Bill reminded me of Oskar, a blind kitty (he made the front page of Reddit yesterday). His owners have a video of him first playing with toys:

A sillier one shows him battling a hair dryer when he’s a bit more grown:

They’re worth watching if you haven’t seen them. Couple more cute ones on their channel, including Klaus.

What a CUTIE! When I first watched the hair dryer one, I thought it was adorable, but felt like it was kind of mean. Oskar’s owner said in the comments to that video, though, that Oskar comes running when he hears the hair dryer turn on, and that the hair dryer is running on cool, not hot. I figure, hey – if Oskar’s happy, I’m happy. 🙂

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I have 17 and that’s what it looks like when I feed them each day. Mine are pretty good about not getting hissy when its food time too.

Much in the way that other people use me as their “How many cats do you have?” defense (“Not nearly as many as Robyn! She’s got THIRTEEN!”), you, Renee, have become my new best friend. From now on when someone asks “How many cats do you have?”, I will immediately respond with “Not nearly as many as MY NEW BEST FRIEND RENEE. She’s got 17!”

I think it’s amazing that cats who hiss and smack at each other on a regular basis (Kara and Corbie do not care for each other at ALL) can be seen rubbing up against each other when it’s time for their snack. It’s like the prospect of food makes them temporarily insane.

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Any updates on how Buster’s doing?

Buster’s still at Petsmart waiting for his forever home. I’m afraid it may be a while for him – he really isn’t crazy about other cats at all, and of course grown cats generally take longer to be adopted than kittens. And currently, adoptions seem to be practically at a standstill. This happens every so often; I’m hoping that adoptions pick up again SOON. Molly’s still the only one of the Peppers Gang who’s been adopted. What’s up with THAT?

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So, how much does Alice weigh in at these days?

Alice Mo, who – let me remind you once again – the vet told us would probably not get much over 7 pounds is currently weighing in at 10 pounds, 5 ounces. Not the tiny thing we thought we were going to get, let me tell you. TOTAL SCAM.

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I’m amazed at the number of cat beds you have. We USED to have a whole bunch but one of our cats is a bitch and she pees in every single one of them! I would soak the hell out of them and wash them and as soon as I put them back she would go around and pees in all of them! So my poor cats have no beds.

We’re lucky in that every once in a while a bed gets peed in, but for the most part they prefer to sleep in them, thank god.

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Is it just that Patty wasn’t opening her eyes all the way, or are they really set at an angle like that? I wish I could make hand gestures on the computer because I’m not sure how to articulate what I mean. It looks like, if you drew a line under each eye heading to the nose, the lines would form a wide-angled V, instead of a more or less straight line like on most cats. It’s beautifully exotic, but I wonder if it’s just the way she was looking at you.

They really are kind of tilted, which gives her a bit of an exotic look. She sure did turn out to be a pretty girl, didn’t she?

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Have you ever tried the K&H Outdoor Heated Kitty Camper? The neighborhood kitty (she’s about 2 years old and floats between neighbors – and one takes her to the vet when needed) is spending more and more time with me and sleeps on my porch a lot. Now that the temperature is dropping at night, I worry that the makeshift tent I made her on my rocking chair is inadequate. I’m thinking if I buy the camper I won’t be tempted to bring her in at night and upset Jinx and Trixie (who cry and shoot “eyes of het” at me through the windows when I sit with Stalker in my lap!).

I haven’t tried that exact outdoor house, but I’ve tried other K&H products – in fact, I have this unheated cat house, right here (which is currently unavailable at Amazon, apparently there’s a big demand for it) – and I think that they make pretty good products (I have a thermal cat bed in that house, and Newt uses it every night. Maxi uses the other house, the one with the heated bed in it, and she’s not much for sharing.)

I think that the Heated Kitty Camper would probably be a good idea for your shared kitty – it’ll keep her warm on those cold nights. Actually, it’ll probably keep her warm on those warm days, too – sometimes I go out on the porch when it’s 55+ degrees out, and Maxi comes strolling out of her heated house. Spoiled rotten kitty.

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Chuckles and Miss Patty, playing on the stairs.

“WHAT YOU DOIN’, LADY?!”

Carrying the teaser up the stairs.

Watching one of the big cats.

Charlie interrupted a Jake/ Tommy lovefest the other night. They didn’t let it bother them, though.

“What kitten?”

“No kittens here!”

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Corbie in a basket!

Corbie on a bed!

Corbs, beautiful Corbs!

Corbie on a stump!

And one to grow on.

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Previously
2010: I like the color, but let me point out that the purple isn’t quite as eye-searing as it looks here.
2009: No entry.
2008: Pics from around Crooked Acres.
2007: Forbidden Love.
2006: No entry.
2005: Ha on her! I DO have a kid! AND a husband! AND 6,000 cats! Look at me, I’ve got it ALLLLLLLLL!
2004: The internet just ROCKS, doesn’t it?
2003: Her date (”But not a DATE date!”) was more dressed-up than she.
2002: I did mention that I have airhead tendencies, did I not?
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: I am obviously not one to wallow.

2012 calendars. —————–>

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Someone always gets antsy around this time of year and wants to know WHEN THE HOLY HELL AM I GOING TO START TAKING NAMES AND ADDRESSES FOR THE ANNUAL BITCHYPOO CARD-STRAVAGANZA?!

Not ’til the day after Thanksgiving, damnit. I REFUSE to take your names and addresses ’til then, because this whole ridiculous Christmas starting in August thing just annoys the shit out of me. But WORRY NOT, I’ve already ordered my Christmas postcards (postcards being less expensive both for the cards themselves and also postcard stamps cost less).

(And by “Christmas” I mean “Holiday”, of course!)

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In case you read this site via Google Reader or one of the 3,000 other readers out there, you might have missed that I put up a new – designed by me – banner last week.

I’m so talented (seriously, it took me forever and a day to get that goddamn thing put together). And before you point it out, yes – it IS reminiscent of my August banner:

I say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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Sooooooooo, I know I’m late to the game but I finally got around to buying a copy of No Limit (Kindle version, Nook version) for the nook. HOLY CRAP, FRED! I’m hooked and wondering if ever there’s going to be another book in his future because this is great! 🙂

I tried to tell you guys how good it is, didn’t I? Fred is currently working on his next one, and though it’s slow going (after he works all day and comes home to do chores, he has a hard time getting motivated to sit down and write – and currently, he’s working his way through (and LOVING) Stephen King’s new book.) Slowly but surely he’s getting it written, though, and I think it’s the best thing he’s ever written.

He’s posted some of the new book over at Goodreads – you can see Chapter 1 here, Chapter 2 here, and Chapter 3 here. Also, his short story, Sweet Dreams, is available for free, and you can find out how, here.

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Have any of your cats come in early and demand crunchies? Ours have to come in just before dark and they get 3 little crunchy bits when they do. One of the fur balls started coming in the cat door several times in the middle of the day and demanding her reward. Sly little fucker.

Generally any time I step foot in the kitchen after about mid-afternoon, I’ve got a group of escorts. They sit on the rug and give me the big hopeful eyes, and will usually nominate one of them (usually either Charlie or Lucy) to howl and howl in case I forgot that they might want some crunchies, pleeeeease. I never ever give in to them (I don’t want to encourage the behavior – or make it worse!), but that doesn’t stop them from hoping!

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How many times per day are cat tails stepped upon?????? Do you have rocking chairs?????

No rocking chairs in this house! We do have some on the front porch, but on the rare occasion that we sit out there, usually the only cat present is Maxi, and she’s more interested in being in our laps than under our chairs.

I pretty much shuffle around the house – I figure if I don’t lift my feet, I won’t step on tails – but every now and then someone will be sitting behind me (usually when I’m in the kitchen) and I step back and step on their tail. I’d say it happens, oh, twice a week, maybe a little more.

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I know you’ve told us all along how gorgeous Corbie is, and it’s not that I ever doubted you or thought he was particularly UNattractive, but I literally went “WOW!” at that first picture of him and Molly in the cat bed. And I actually didn’t see Molly at first (she kind of blends in a bit). I don’t know if it’s the new camera, or just the perfect angle/lighting or what, but, yeah, WOW. I have thought he looks a lot like Maufry, but in that picture, the caramel and black colors are much more striking than I’ve noticed. Almost Bengal-ish.

I definitely think that Corbie looks rather Bengal-ish – he’s got the coloring and the stripes and the pure gorgeousness going on.

I think that not everyone agrees with me that Corbie is the most beautiful cat on the face of the planet, but THEY ARE WRONG I think sooner or later I’ll post enough pictures of him that everyone will have to give in. BECAUSE IT’S TRUE.

Slightly long story about snapping/finger-pointing: We went to my mom’s house on Halloween, and at one point I told my son, “Get me a [something, I forget what].” And I did not say please. Now, usually I am very polite, including to my son, but for whatever reason, “please” was just not happening. So of course my mother chose THAT moment to act affronted and go, “TJ, don’t you give it to her until she says please!”

TJ loves it when we take sides, so he raised his eyebrows and said, “Yeah. What’s the magic word, MOM?” I repeated, “Get me a [whatever], NOW,” and snapped my fingers two times for emphasis. TJ said, “Uh, ‘snap snap’ is not Morse code for ‘please,'” and my mom (accurately) said, “I’m just glad that’s ALL she did with her fingers.”

TJ looked at me and grinned and said, “Yeah, mom. Dot dot DASH,” and as he said “DASH,” he flipped me off.

Ever since then, “dot dot DASH” or “[snap snap FLIP]” has been our go-to phrase. (I mean, it’s only been a week, but we have really USED it.) He was irritating me the other day in the store and I was able to holler down the aisle at him, “Hey TJ! DOT DOT DASH!” without anyone glaring daggers at me for exposing their eyes/children to such vulgarity. I highly recommend it.

Hahahahaha – LOVE IT!

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didn’t the black cat just wanna to erm bite the chick? sorry, but I thought is like animal’s instinct… heh

Well sure, the black cat (that’s Tommy) would dearly have loved to have eaten that chick, but we never left the cats alone with the chicks when they were little. When they were bigger, we had them in a coop in a corner of the back yard with their own little fenced-off yard. Eventually, we let them out of their little yard into the back yard, where they were free to roam around with the cats, but by that point they were about the size of the cats themselves, and the cats never went after them. In fact, the cats were kind of intimidated by the grown chickens.

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Since you have 2 girl ducks and 2 boy ducks, does that mean in three years you will have 67 ducks?

PROBABLY. I don’t think we need ANY more ducks (never thought we needed them in the first place, of course), but Fred wants to have some baby ducks around. I’m not eating ducks, though, so if we end up with 67 ducks THEY’LL BE STAYING and I’m sure I’ll be complaining about it.

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Do you use a regular heating pad as a warming pad for the cats? Or is there something at Petsmart a person can get?

You can use a regular heating pad (set on low) as a warming pad, I’ve done that in the past. Currently, I use pads that are specifically made as bed warmers, and there’s a whole range of them available at PetSmart. I like the small K&H pad (that’s what Miz Poo has in her Poo Cave), and I have one of the large ones on the end of the couch (bonus: I can warm my feet up on it when I’m watching TV!)

They’re expensive – but if you’re not in a hurry and don’t mind waiting to have them shipped to you, they’re about half that price on eBay, which is where I get mine.

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Is that as deep as the pond ended up being or did they did deeper? That will definitely help with drainage!

I believe that that’s as deep as the pond got, but of course it got wider.

Do you have a Furminator For George and Gracie?

We do have a Furminator for George and Gracie. Fred’s in charge of brushing the dogs (which he does about once a week; you’ll note that in a lot of the back forty pictures I post, there are piles of dog hair from them being brushed) and he uses the Furminator and also an undercoat rake. When he gets out there and starts brushing, it’s absolutely amazing the amount of fur he gets off of them!

We also have a Furminator for the cats, which I use on them from time to time – usually when it’s nice out and there are a lot of cats in the back yard, I go out and chase them around and Furminate the heck out of them. I love doing it (it makes me feel so productive to get all that loose hair off of them!), but most of them don’t care for it.

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I have a question for you… you’ve had (and seen) quite a few black kitties in your time, I’ve seen black and white cow patterns, tux patterns, black with a white spot on chest, foot, etc… but I’ve never seen this before have you?

(Sorry for the bad quality our camera sucks rocks) Anyway, this is Ash, he’s going for ye ole ‘snip next week, he came to us looking like this:

and look at him now!

A handsome lad, but we’re baffled by his tail. I’ve never seen a black cat with a tail like his. Maybe he’s part Raccoon? ;- )

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that, either – that’s very neat! I think you may have hit the nail on the head, clearly he’s part raccoon. 🙂

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Alright, what’s a hush puppy? You’re readers aren’t all american you know, Robyn!

I’m not sure even all the Americans know what a hush puppy is, actually. Hush puppies are basically deep-fried corn batter – you can read more about them here. They’re good, but I don’t eat them very often. It may be because I didn’t grow up in the South so there’s not a lot of Southern cooking that is comfort food to me – though I didn’t grow up eating grits, either, and I think they’re the most comforting food there is.

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And how come you guys get so many more litter options than us? ’tis not fair, I tell you! and on a difft topic, excuse me, but is Dino Direct online shpooing (with free worldwide delivery!) an american site? I just haven’t heard of it before and wondered…

I don’t know WHY we get so many more litter options – I’m just grateful that we do!

I had never heard of DinoDirect, so I went to look, and I still don’t know if it’s an American site. It certainly looks like it might be, though!

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Stinkerbelle has the prettiest blue eyes

Isn’t she gorgeous? Fred loves his blue-eyed girl, even if he only gets to pet her once or twice a week!

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Any word on Gorgeous Gracie and The Contest She Will Win If The Judges Have Half A Brain Between Them?

No word at all on Gracie and who won the contest. I’m fairly certain that the winner was supposed to be announced on the 7th, and I haven’t heard anything and can’t find anything online either – so I’m going to guess that Gracie didn’t win?

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Seeing you talk about how big the cats were made me think of our local celebrity cat, Otto. He was on the Today show back over the summer…he was brought to a local animal hospital weighing in at 35 pounds! His previous owners didn’t take care of him well at all. He couldn’t even walk around. They’ve had him on a diet and exercise program and he is now down to 26 pounds! He can get around better and has even been playing outside some. He spends the weekends with a friend of mine who works at the clinic and he gets along with all her assorted pets and kids. Here is the link to the Clinic’s FB site..there are progress pics and they update often with Otto’s weigh ins! Just thought you might get a kick out of seeing it 🙂

Here’s the link to the backstory on the AAHA site.

Thanks, Denise! Poor sweet boy – I’m so glad that clinic refused to give up on him!

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Oh, and total non-sequitur but you might like this: Business Cat.

LOVE it!

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In the original size the trailer in front of the red building looks like it says Pork Chop Express. Is this the bus the porkers take to freezer camp?

Yeah, that’s the pig trailer. Back when we had our first couple of pigs, Fred mentioned the idea of spray-painting “Pork Chop Express” on the side, and it made us both laugh, so he did. I tried to get him to also paint “oink, oink” on it, and he refused to because he’s no fun.

What can I say? We’re warped.

Is Everett having balance issues or do you mean just how he looks? Did his sister chew off all the whiskers on that side or just the white one?

No, he’s not having balance issues, I was just joking about him being off-balance because Sally (or possibly Lucy) chewed off the white whisker on his right, but left the long white whisker on his left side untouched (of course, now that I said that, he’ll come through here with that one chewed off, too!) She chewed several of the whiskers on that side off, but of course the white one was the most noticeable, since it’s now a short little stump of a whisker.

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Did you ever mention why you got the ducks? Is it for duck eggs, or do you like duck meat, or is it just for their cute quacks?

Fred Anderson is why we got the ducks. He whined and moaned and complained and begged until I told him to JUST GET THE DUCKS SHUT UP YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAYZEEEEEEEE.

Basically, he wanted ducks so that they would follow him around and mumble-quack at him. I don’t intend to eat any ducks (though he is certainly free to process and cook duck for himself if he’d like)(I don’t know why I’m resistant to duck; probably for the same reason I won’t eat goat – don’t wanna, not gonna, you can’t make me)(I also do not eat deer)(I am a picky princess, clearly), but I’m certainly willing to bake with duck eggs, I hear that duck eggs make your baked goods really, um, good. Heh.

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Wouldn’t a zombie chicken prefer GRAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIINSSSSS?

LOL! Indeed she would!

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In clearing out my email inbox yesterday, I found two emails of note. The first was one that Cydney (another Challenger’s House foster Mom) sent me more than a month ago. She said:

Neither ladies nor kittens fart……they fluff. So when one of my dear ones jump up and promptly leave after leaving a not so dear aroma, we say we’ve been fluffed. 🙂

Believe me, I’m going to be stealing that!

The other was from Lisa – one of the Challenger’s House adoption counselors, the one who actually delivered the Peppers Gang to me. She forwarded me pictures of the Peppers Gangs’ Mama, Scarlett. If you’ll recall, Scarlett showed up at a man’s house, and he brought her inside and discovered she was pregnant. He had all the kittens in his house, but was going for surgery and couldn’t deal with recovering from surgery and also take care of the kittens. He kept Scarlett, though, and had her spayed and everything, and apparently she is one very happy little girl. She might resemble one of the Peppers Gang, though I can’t quite put my finger on who….

I kid, of course. She looks exactly like a long-haired Harlan!

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“Am sleepin, lady. You go ‘way.”

“That’s right, I snuggled with Ellie Bellz, and I LIKED IT.”

Sweet Sally.

Sweet Lucy.

Charlie has such pretty eyes.

Poor Tommy. Everyone loves him so much, he never gets a minute to himself.

Harlan, pre-yawn.

Apparently that one big ol’ rabbit foot wouldn’t fit on the windowsill with the rest of her.

Harlan and Charlie.

Have you ever seen such a contented little face?

I love it SO MUCH when the little kittens use the big kittens as body pillows.

Harlan, Sally, Lucy and Molly are headed off to Petsmart in a few hours. We sure will miss having them around, but I’m excited that they will (hopefully) find their forever homes soon.

Also, Charlie and Patty had their spaying and neutering yesterday, and all went fine. Charlie didn’t seem to realize that anything had been done, but Patty was pretty quiet all evening. Of course, it’s a bigger surgery for her than it was for him (though he might disagree); by this morning she was back to her usual active self.

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This picture of Alice reminds me very very much of…

This picture of Mister Boogers (I don’t have any idea when that picture was taken. It was at the old house, so more than five years ago. Six or seven years ago, maybe?)

Good ol’ Boogie. Indulge me for a moment while I post some of my favorite pictures of him…

He sure was a character. We still miss him an awful lot!

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What was I going to say….

I can’t quite remember…

It’s on the tip of my tongue…

Oh, right.

CORBIE IS BEAUTIFUL. (Also, sleepy.)

That is all.

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Previously
2010: Crooked Acres sights (and a house tour).
2009: No entry.
2008: The goddamn cats can’t go three feet without falling over a bed but, you know.
2007: Why should I answer the door if I’m not expecting anyone, I ask you?
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: That girl has some serious lung power.
2003: Not holding my breath – but a girl can dream!
2002: Let me tell you about the saga of the box.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: No entry.

The 2012 calendars are available! All the calendars are marked up by $1, and all profits go to Challenger’s House.

I’ll put this up at the top of the entries for the rest of the week for those who don’t read every day or who read via a reader, and after this week they’ll be in the sidebar to the right.

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okay, 13 cats. And now you have a swimming pool. Does this mean you might be ready soon to make your own Cat & Dolphin video?

Never say never!

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Did you have to pay anything for your revision, or is that something the plastic surgeon did for you because of you not liking the initial result? Just wondering, as I may be in the same boat.

I did not have to pay anything at all for the revision. My surgeon has his own on-site clinic, so it might have been a different story if the surgery took place at a hospital, but it was completely free (to me) in my case.

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When I glance at your bio box, every single time, the lines:

very happily married to
Fred (Fred no longer
blogs)

morph themselves into a different arrangement so that, and let me repeat that this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME, my brain processes it as:

no longer happily married
to Fred (Fred blogs)

and (EVERY SINGLE TIME!) I think, “Whoa, what happened, and why is FRED the one blogging about it?!”

In fact, that’s not quite true, because it’s happened so many times that by now, my reaction is more, “Yeah, they split up, I remember hearing about – wait, NO, that’s not right.”

Elayne, you make me LOL at least once a week!

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Where is that pile of dirt located on your property? What popped in my mind was grade it so it is easy to mow. Landscape it up all nice. Have a area on the top where you and Fred can sit and relax. Observe the goings on all around Crooked Acres.

It’s located in the middle of the back 40 (I’m looking forward to taking a panoramic picture of the back forty so y’all can see (1) just how big it is and (2) where it’s located). Fred keeps claiming that he wants to create a Devil’s Tower out of it, but he’s (mostly) kidding.

I’m trying to convince him that we could use it to make an adobe hut at the back of the back forty, and it could be our summer home (heh), but he doesn’t seem convinced.

He is planning on using some of it to even out bumpy spots around the property, and we’re going to raise the garden’s low spots a bit, and I’m sure there are other plans for that pile of dirt, but we’ve still got wayyy more dirt than we could ever use.

For the time being, the dogs and chickens are really enjoying running (and pecking) around in that dirt!

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Hubby digs ponds for a living (in Kansas or I would have sent him your way) and he’s never dug a square (ok, retangular) pond. That took alot of extra time to have it so perfect, ie extra money. Let me guess — that’s what Fred wanted, right? haha

Fred tells me there was no discussion on the shape of the pond – and we see a lot of rectangular ponds in this area, so maybe it’s a regional thing?

I would think that digging a straight hole with a backhoe (that has straight sides on the scoop thingy) would be easier than digging a round hole, no?

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I have been reading you for going on a decade, and have never commented (guess that makes me the ultimate-skimmer/lurker). Love your postings and miss you while you are gone! I can’t believe I am even posting this of all things I could have posted about over the years, but I have been watching reruns of the Big Bang Theory lately on TBS, and last night I totally thought of you, and your section today about the cat songs makes this (in my head) even more entertaining. Sheldon, one of the geeky main characters, likes to sing a song entitled “Soft Kitty” and last night he and the female character (don’t know her name) were singing it in rounds on the show. It made me laugh out loud, and I immediately thought of you and your brood. Sheldon only allows it to be sung when he or someone else is sick, so you may want to add that to your rotation if need be. Thank you for doing this and being so entertaining while doing it.

I absolutely LOVE that song. We don’t watch The Big Bang Theory (I imagine it’ll be like just about everything else we end up watching – people told us for years and years how awesome Arrested Development was, and we didn’t start watching ’til the show was cancelled, and fell in LOVE, I’m sure it’ll be the same with The Big Bang Theory), but I know of the song, and it always makes me happy to hear it.

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Hey are you and Fred watching “The Walking Dead” on AMC? Season 2 just started. It really is a great show. I’m not into the whole zombie thing, but the characters and story line in this show are great. If you haven’t seen season 1 you guys should Netflix it! I’m just sayin”.

Indeed we are! I’ve never been a big zombie fan either, but the show’s definitely worth watching. I recently read that they’ve already renewed it for a third season.

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I agree! That color green looks mahvelous on you. And once I picked myself up off the floor upon seeing you in something that is NOT a t-shirt that is FAR too large, my first thought was “I want!” Where did you get it?

I do all my shopping at Kohl’s because I’m a fancy bitch, so I’m sure it came from there. Might have been from last year, though – I think it’s been hanging in the closet for a while.

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happy 12th! i’ve been reading you since the summer of 2000. you, robyn, are my longest relationship. 🙂

And you are more beautiful than the day I started posting and you started reading, dahling. 😉

Yes, I completely missed the occasion, given that I was in Myrtle Beach, but my 12th blogiversary (journalversary, I think I used to call it) came and went on October 10th. 12 years, 3,031 posts, and I bet there’s more than one of you who’ve read every one of them, am I right?

Here’s to another 12 years! (I just burst a brain cell trying to figure out how old I’ll be in 12 years. But first I had to figure out how old I am NOW. Good lord.)(I’ll be 55 in 12 years, for the record, if my calculations that I’m currently 43 are correct.)

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We are going to expand our chicken yard and are wondering what kind of fencing materials you guys use for your chicken yard. We will be putting our flock dog in there with them as you guys did. I’ve tried looking back through Crooked Acres Thurs. pics and it looks like you might use several different types of fencing materials, but I wasn’t sure if the different types were for the chickens vs. pigs.

Will, I’m sorry it took me so long to get these pictures! As I mentioned in the email to you, the fence all the way around the back forty is 5-foot chicken wire. In addition to that, because we were having issues with chicks pushing under the fence to wander around the property, I went around last year and added 2 foot-tall welded wire fence around the bottom. I used wire snippers to cut pieces off, and then pushed the bottom into the dirt, and attached the welded wire to the chicken wire with zip ties. We still occasionally get some wandering chicks who get out of the back forty (there are some small gaps around the gate), but once they’re past a certain size, they can’t squeeze out, and stay in the back forty.

In the first picture, you can see the pig fencing off in the distance. That’s four-foot (I think) welded wire, and has electric wire running around the inside of it.

Actually, we had electric fencing around the inside of the back forty fence up until the tornado came through earlier this year, and the tree came down on the fence and the electric wire got hosed. Fred was planning to replace it, but we haven’t had any issues with George and Gracie getting out, or even trying to, so I’m not sure if he’s planning on doing that any more.

Look at me, rambling on and on about fencing. Who knew it’d be so fascinating? Let me know if you have any questions!

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My Gawd! When you said POND I imagined a nice little round rock pond. What you’ve got there is an Olympic Sized Swimming pool. Since you aren’t going to swim in it what are you going to do with it? Stock it with fish and have a fishing hole? It’s so big you are bound to attract Canadian Geese and THEN you will be sorry. Then you will be forced to buy some Chinese Geese to keep the Canadian’s in order. And those Chinese Geese will scare you and break your eardrums with their LOUD bellows. Just saying.

THE POND IS FOR THE DUCKS, you guys. THE DUCKS. Because this ridiculous setup, right here:

“Why am I not floating? Oh, right. Because I’m just standing here in this shallow, shallow pool.”

is not working for them. Who’s the brain trust who HAD to have ducks even though we didn’t have a pond? Who? Who went on and on and on about wanting the fucking ducks until I snapped and told him to get the fucking things and then stick them up his ass? I was not the one who HAD to have those fucking things so they’d follow him around and mumble-quack under their breath.

(But they are cute, damnit.)

Also, we are putting catfish in the pond, I think. I hope they don’t eat the ducks. (Catfish are the pigs of the water world, I hear.)

The main reason that pond is so big? So that when the rains hit this Winter/ Spring, instead of the back forty flooding and causing the ditch to flood and causing half the property to flood, the water will go in the pond instead of flooding us out. We’ll see how that works.

Also also, George and Gracie would never in a million years allow any stinkin’ old GEESE to set up camp in that pond. I base this on their reaction when they see a Robin set down in the middle of the back forty. They run those songbirds OFF and then they are so super-proud of themselves they just can’t stand it.

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That IS one big motherfucking pile of dirt. Any takers of the excess yet?

Not a single solitary one – like Fred Tweeted recently, people see a sign that says “You haul it” and think it means Fred will haul it for them. Uhhhhh, no.

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How are you going to fill the pond? How do you keep the water from soaking down?

The rain, hopefully, will fill the pond this Winter. The bottom of the pond is mostly a clay-type soil, and the guys who dug the pond are pretty sure that it’ll hold water.

(Yes, these are the guys who were surprised at how much dirt came out of the hole they were digging for the pond. SIGH.)

The guys who dug the pond packed down the clay with their big, heavy equipment (stop snickering), too. If the pond doesn’t hold water, there’s some sort of… something (sorry to be so technical, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is) we can sprinkle on the bottom of the pond to encourage it to hold water. If THAT doesn’t work, we can switch the fences around next Spring so that next year’s pigs have access to the pond, because apparently nothing seals a pond like pigs. Given how well their wallows hold water, I’m thinking that’s true!

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I know you probably mentioned it before, but I am too lazy to look for it….what camera did you end up getting?? I love the panoramic shots. I think my camera does that too but I have never used it…maybe it was my old one that did :-/ I need a new toy…it’s been a while since I got one, but I don’t think I will go so far as to have my pet pee on something to get one!

It’s a Sony Alpha A55. I looked at a bazillion different cameras, but in the end we’ve always had Sonys and really liked them, so after reading the reviews on Amazon and thinking hard about it, I decided on the A55. It’s lighter than the A100 was (though that could be because the lens is smaller), and it has a rubberized grip area so that it’ll be a little more difficult to drop (and unless I’m using it, I keep it in my desk drawer to avoid having it peed upon). So far, I really really like it. The next sunny day we have, I have a date with Fred in the foster room to get some jumping kitten pictures!

Also, perhaps I mentioned that I really like the panoramic function?

While I’m recommending things, I recently got and LOVELOVELOVE an Eye-Fi Card for my camera. In short, it automatically, via Wi-Fi, uploads your pictures to your computer. So if I’m wandering around snapping a zillion pictures, by the time I mosey back to my computer, all those pictures are ALREADY on my computer, waiting to be looked at. You can also use it to post your pictures on various sites (Flickr is the only one that I can remember at the moment), but I don’t use that function. You can read more about it at the main Eye-Fi site.

I love this thing SO DAMN MUCH, y’all. Like I told Craige on Facebook yesterday, if this were an infomercial, you’d see the text/ hear the voiceover “NO FUMBLING WITH CARD READERS OR MESSY CORDS!” and me fumbling through my Drawer of Doom looking irritable.

I swear, this is the best thing I’ve purchased this year. I HIGHLY recommend it. (I would have tried it before now, but the Eye-Fi wouldn’t work with the A100 and doesn’t work with my little W300.)

Go get you one! (I got the 4GB card because I’ve never in my life filled up a memory stick – I like a clean memory stick – and also because you can set the Endless Memory function so that when the memory stick is too full, it will automatically delete pictures that have already been uploaded. How neat is that!)

PS: Annika, I will post a more in-depth review of the camera when I’ve been using it a bit longer, along with pictures of the camera itself. I can tell you that it’s not a camera you’d throw in your purse and go. It’s got heft to it, and though I’d take it on vacation (to Myrtle Beach or Maine or any other place where I’d get scenic pictures), I wouldn’t take it with me, say, on a trip to the supermarket (that’s what my little W300 is for!)(Also my cell phone.)(Also my iPod Touch.)(I have too many things that take pictures, obviously!)

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beautiful mb pictures, thanks for putting them up – i miss the southeastern beaches, a lot (i was born and raised in blacksburg, va and spent time during every summer of my childhood at the beach – va beach, nags head, cape hatteras, annapolis, md). did you eat hush puppies while you were there? people out here (utah currently) don’t know what a hush puppy is. 😛

I live in Alabama – I don’t have to go to Myrtle Beach for hushpuppies, they practically hand ’em out on the corners here!

Okay, not really – but since I can have hushpuppies whenever I want, it turns out that I rarely do, and I didn’t have any in Myrtle Beach. Five bucks says that if I were to up and move to a place where I couldn’t get hushpuppies, I’d probably want them all the time!

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Wow!!! That is one giant sparkle ball! Where did you get it?

I wish I knew! I’m thinking maybe Pet Depot, though I think it’s also likely that I just saw it in passing somewhere, bought it, and wiped the location from my memory.

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Any word on Buster? It saddened me to hear that he did not play well with others. Hope he finds his forever home soon as well.

Buster is still in residence at Petsmart. Lisa (one of the CH adoption counselors, who brought me the big Peppers!) reported that the first time she let him out of his cage so she could snuggle him, he started herding her, like he did me in this video:

AGH, HE IS SUCH A SWEET BOY SOMEONE NEEDS TO ADOPT HIM RIGHT NOWWWWWWWWWW!

I will, of course, let y’all know when he gets adopted – his picture’s over there in the sidebar under “At Petsmart”; I plan to put a big red “ADOPTED!!!!” banner on his picture when he’s adopted!

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20 cats…WOW! Just how many litters boxes do you have in operation right now?? And does everyone come inside to go, or do you have some that prefer to do their business outside?

Right now, I’ve got three litter boxes in the laundry room, two in the front room, and two in the upstairs bathroom. In addition, I’ve got two in the upstairs foster room, and two in the guest bedroom.

(Getting out my calculator…)

So, that’s nine eleven litter boxes. Which I personally scoop twice a day.

I know that conventional wisdom says that you need to have one litter box per cat plus one, which would mean we’d need 21 litter boxes right now and I can just tell you that, um, no. We don’t have the room for 21 litter boxes. We don’t even have the room for the 14 we’d need (following that conventional wisdom). The number of litter boxes we’ve got seems to work well as long as they’re scooped twice a day and completely dumped out, scrubbed out, and refilled with clean litter every other week or so.

We are talking about getting air purifiers to put in a couple of different locations in the house. Not so much for the smell but more for the dust. Even the Cat Attract litter, which is the least dusty litter I’m able to find, produces some dust, and Fred’s been coughing a lot lately.

Most of the boy cats will use the back yard as a litter box (hey, don’t you want to come over for a cookout? We can hang out in the back yard! No, really, take your shoes off and walk around!) and I know Kara will too, but Miz Poo and Alice usually come inside to use the litter boxes, then go back outside. They’re layyyydeeez and they have some manners, don’tchaknow.

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How big is Joe Bob? My male cat, Logan, looks very similar (though he has more grey and less white) and I’m thinking they would be a match made in heaven. 😀 Logan’s 18lbs of tall, long Tom.

Joe Bob’s actually lighter than he looks – he recently weighed in at 11.8 pounds. He’s a big cat, but he’s more tall and long than heavy.

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I’m so glad I’m not the only one that makes up cat songs. I make up songs about our two cats all.day.long. In fact the other day I was hanging with my 2yo when our 22 pound tabby came over. His name is Youk, and after he KNOCKED ME DOWN head butting me, I referred to him as Youkapotomus. Then I began to sing, “Oh I want a Youkapotomus for Christmas,” which is now my 2yo’s favorite song EVER and he must hear it sung anything Youkie comes near us.

Love it!

(Also, I love “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” – I have to hear it multiple times every year or my Christmas season isn’t complete!)

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That Elwood, he’s HUGE. Do you know what he weighs?

14.2 pounds as of mid-July (I think). He is a big, big boy. I actually thought he was bigger than Tommy, but Tommy is actually about half a pound heavier. I won’t be surprised if (when) Elwood passes Tommy, though.

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Have you seen this kitty attacking apples…funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

Is that a Scottish Fold, do you think?

How cute is that!

I do think that might be a Scottish Fold, but I’m not super-familiar with the breed, so I can’t say for sure. Looks like it might be, though!

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Is Joe Bob an outside only kitteh?

No, not at all – Joe Bob goes outside during the day (and is supposed to stay in the back yard!) like the rest of the cats, but occasionally figures out how to get out of his collar and comes to let me know that “Hey, Mom, look what I did! Now let me roll around and purr!” I would have thought that he’d make the connection that finding Mom = being brought back inside and recollared, but somehow he hasn’t figured it out yet!

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I think you should calculate (as best you can) the total number of cats you’ve had in yours and Fred’s lifetime, plus all the fosters. When someone asks you how many cats you have, proudly announce that total: “Elebenty-billion!” and when they come to, laugh and say that you’ve had cats all your life and fostered many more, and all “your” cats are living all over the world. Then that ‘thirteen’ seems like nuttin’.

and

ooo, I like the way that sounds: your cats are living all over the world!

(ok, probably just all over Alabama, but it still sounds pretty cool 🙂 )

I’m not sure I could actually count that high – and wouldn’t I feel awful if I missed/ forgot someone!

My fosters are actually living all over the country, if not the world (though, with the Army base being in Huntsville, I wouldn’t completely discount the idea of them being all over the world!). Remember, Gus and Mike (now Topher and Dorian) went off to live in Oregon a couple of years ago. Hoyt (aka Lugnut) is in NC with Michelle, who drove down here specifically to get him. Starsky and Hutch (now Percy and Jack) are in Indianapolis with Jen and Kiefer. Dorothy‘s in St. Louis with Andrea. And let’s not forget Maddy, my very first bottle baby, who went to Pennsylvania to live with Nance and her family way back in 2006!

Hmm. This appears to be the time of year when people fall in love with one of my fosters over the internet and drive long, long distances to come adopt them! (Well, except that Michelle came in the Spring and Andrea in the Summer.) Something about the cold weather makes people in fall in kitten love, I guess. 🙂

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I love cats dearly but I think twenty in the house would drive me completely crazy. I currently have two and I always feel as though I’m surrounded by cats when I’m home. Like today I am home sick and have one cat under the blanket with me and the other sitting next to me on the couch. I can’t escape them. Twenty would bury me alive.

I have got to say that though there are times when I’m like “OH MY GOD I CAN’T BREATHE, GET OFF ME!”, those times are pretty few and far between. Right now, I’m sitting at my computer and there are four cats (Spanky, Miz Poo, Charlie Peppers and Sally Peppers) within reach, but they’re not on top of me or even against me. Molly will probably come and flop down in front of me in a little while (she comes, she stays for some belly rubbing and kissing, then she goes along her merry way). If I go watch TV later, one or two kittens will probably climb up for some love for a while, then go off to play or whatever.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the Peanuts character Pig-Pen, only instead of a cloud of dirt around my feet, I’ve got a cloud of kittens.

Also, I cannot stand having cats on me when I’m sleeping. I can handle having them up against me (and when the weather turns cold, more and more of them show up to sleep against me), but the only cats who reliably sleep with me are Miz Poo (ALWAYS – she’d crawl in my mouth and sleep there if she could) and Tommy, who sleeps in the cat bed at the end of the bed.

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What on earth do you and Fred do with all your cats when you both go out of town together? This issue has been on my mind since we’ve been arranging care for our three cats during our upcoming Christmas travel blitz (6 nights, 2 states, lots of driving!).

What is this “go out of town together” you speak of? Seriously, since we bought this house 5 years ago Fred hasn’t left overnight even once. I WANT him to come away with me, I keep harassing him about it, but he just… doesn’t want to. We used to go to Gatlinburg pretty regularly, and we even went to Ft. Walton Beach a few times, but since we moved here, EVEN THOUGH we’ve had friends and family members offer to take care of the animals for us if we go away for a few days, he just hasn’t been interested.

I imagine that if I could convince him to go away, we’d either ask a friend/ family member to scoop and feed for us, or hire a petsitting service to come in and do it.

Ideally we’d have a college-aged kid who could come stay in the house while we were gone, but we don’t so that’s a no-go.

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I should have known when the kittens started jumping down from the tops of the bookcases all of a sudden that there was something going on.

There was.

A wasp had gotten inside. I had no problems finding it, thanks to the kitten alarm system, and scooped it up and squooshed it before they could get stung.

(Alice’s face is cracking me up. She’s like “What fresh hell is this?”)

Harlan and Lucy watching bugs out the window, while Charlie gets a bit too familiar with the sniffing of Harlan’s chest. How RUDE.

“Someone need to clean this window, lady.” Shaddup, Harlan.

I love the way the sun is shining through Lucy’s ears.

Our Lucy’s getting to be a grownup lady cat, isn’t she?

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ATTENTION. THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY EMERGENCY NOTICE. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.

CORBIE.

IS.

BEAUTIFUL.

THAT IS ALL. YOU MAY GO BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED LIVES.

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Speaking of Corbie, back in the Spring, someone (or as it turned out, TWO someones) were spraying in a couple of spots in the house. We couldn’t figure it out who was doing it, and so we did the obvious: we bought a motion-detect webcam that would record when there was movement, and so in the mornings I’d come downstairs to a thousand short movie clips on my computer that I had to glance through.

I got a couple of clips that showed just how Corbie – who is kind of muscularly challenged from the midsection back (he’s perfectly healthy, there’s just a lack of muscle back there that makes it so he walks funny and can’t really jump. It doesn’t slow him down – he climbs well in spite of his lack of Arnold-sized muscles) – gets up on the couch.

One thing for sure – we can never clip his front claws, or he’d never be able to get anywhere!

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Previously
2010: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2009: No entry.
2008: Didja vote? Didja vote? Didja vote? Are you gonna vote? You’re gonna vote, right? You know there’s an election today? Didja vote?
2007: Good thing they’re not our cats, huh?
2006: No entry.
2005: Well, well, well. Look who’s a big tough talker, but when the can of whoopass is opened and a little orange kitten gets to smackin’, Mr. Badass cowers like a great big girly-man.
2004: Apparently I had nothing to write about last year, either, ’cause it’s all meme and comment-answering.
2003: No entry.
2002: Now, THAT is a church name!
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: She thought “gauze” was plural, so obviously the singular would be “gau”!

(Please note: I did not proofread. Pardon any typos.)

From Karen –

I volunteer with a small rescue group near Raleigh, NC named Alley Cats and Angels. We were recently contacted by another group looking for help with a very bad neglect situation. We took in three kittens and three adults, all in very poor shape. They’ve all been to the vet now, and though at first one vet thought at least one of the adults might be too far gone (she feared the foot wound infection had gone into the bones), we are now hopeful that all will be able to make it with proper care. But we could really use some help with the medical expenses for these cats, so have started a chipin campaign.

Our blog will be updated with ongoing status for these guys as they progress. The initial post about them is here.

Once again, the ChipIn for these poor kittens and cats is here. If you can help out, please do. Always remember that every little bit helps!

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Vote for Gracie! It’s the last week of voting. Gracie’s currently solidly in first place, and I’d like to keep her that way. After Friday, the three judges get to decide who wins, so it’s not in the bag for Gracie even if she gets a bazillion votes – but it certainly won’t hurt!

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Just so you know, I am currently recovering from surgery, so I wrote this entry ahead (wrote it on Tuesday) and scheduled it to post so you wouldn’t have to go without. I’m sure posting will go back to normal(ish) on Monday or thereabouts.

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Robyn! I had no idea you were covering for your polygamist Rooster! How many of those kids are his?? Does he keep each family in separate houses ala Big Love??? Does he share himself equally or does he fancy one hen more than others???

Oh, there are NO separate houses for this big, happy family! They all share one big house and (horrors!) the same big room! There are plenty of roosts in there so they have plenty of room and aren’t all up in each others’ space. As far as I can tell, the rooster doesn’t have any favorite hens – whoever’s closest will do, it seems.

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That’s SO cute about Alice’s song – do you sing it to a particular tune?

No, I sing it to different tunes – sometimes peppy like a sitcom theme, sometimes jazzy complete with jazz hands, sometimes slow and mournful. Depends on my mood!

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I swear to the God in whom I don’t believe, my eyes were reading “skip the bug pics” and my brain was saying, “Hmm, if there are bugs, there might also be frogs,” and then – boom! – it’s like you read my mind, IN ADVANCE! What would that be called, prescient telepathy? You’re GOOD, Robyn, you’re really really good.

Elayne, I am sad to inform you that from here on out, you will be forever in my brain as someone who hates frogs and toads. Probably because I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of anyone with that particular phobia before!

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I didn’t know assassin bugs had that cute stage. Have you ever been bitten? I had one in my jacket once and I got bit on the arm.. it felt like a nail going in my arm and then the swelling. My arm got huge and I had to take a bunch of Benedryl. So, be careful where you lay your jacket down!

I have never (yet) been bitten by an assassin bug, which is kind of amazing because they’re everywhere right now. In fact, yesterday I was watering the plants on the front porch, and looked down to see a juvenile assassin bug crawling on the front of my shirt. I leaned over so he could climb onto the hydrangea, and he went along his merry way. I think juvenile assassin bugs are aDORable!

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Just saw this and fondly thought of you and the Fredster:

Never Saw it Coming.

That cracks me UP!

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That pig story had me laughing so hard I am was about to cry. I’m sure it was terrifying then, but looking back, it’s pretty funny now, isn’t it?

OK, maybe not.

It actually is funny to me, now that time has passed. What always makes me giggle is remembering how the bucket clanged against the pig’s head and she grunted (but didn’t react otherwise, as she was in pursuit of food). It makes me laugh every time I think about it!

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Somehow I was relieved to hear about your pissy camera. I have had so many problems with my 2 cats, I’ve never been able to figure out how you can keep so many so successfully. Reading your blog not only gives me some hints, it makes me hopeful. Thank you.

Gallons and gallons of Nose Offense is how I manage! 🙂 The cats seem to go through stages where everything is peaceful and there’s hardly any fighting, and then for some unknown reason, they go through a stage where everyone fights with everyone else, or someone’s got an issue with SOMETHING I can’t figure out, and there’s spraying going on in the house. Earlier this year, when I was about to have surgery, I did some really stupid things. First, I completely changed the kind of litter I was using for the cats, and THEN I took the litter box out of the guest bedroom, and THEN I moved the couch from one side of the front room to the other so I could put a recliner in there, where I sat as I recovered from surgery.

This was the perfect storm that kicked off what I like to UNfondly refer to as “Sprayapalooza.” There I was, recovering from surgery, and every morning after Fred went off to work, I was wandering around the house with the light and the spray bottle of Nose Offense tracking down every puddle and every spray, spraying it, and then wiping it up. It very nearly drove me crazy, but eventually (once I switched the litter back to Fresh Step; I’ve since switched to a Precious Cat/ Cat Attract mixture – and I did it SLOWLY) the spraying stopped. Every now and then we’ll find a spray or two, and I go around the house regularly with the black light to make sure there’s not anything I’ve missed, but at the moment things are going well. THANK GOD.

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I think I just stopped feeling even the tiniest bit sorry for the “intelligent as a three-year-old child” pigs. Holy cow, that’s terrifying. Really glad it didn’t escalate beyond that. Did George and/or Gracie show any interest in the proceedings at all?

You know, I don’t know – I didn’t look over at them, but I also didn’t hear them barking or anything, so I rather suspect they were off keeping an eye on the chickens. They probably figure I can take care of myself!

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I’m curious–there’s only one rooster, so all the babies are his. When the babies grow up, do you keep them? and if so, aren’t they all inbreeding after that?

Before this year, we’ve made sure to bring “fresh blood” into the flock so that there was not any inbreeding. I completely failed to realize that we didn’t do that this year until I saw this comment! I said something to Fred, and he said that he’s planning to add some fresh blood to the flock next Spring, hopefully. I’d like to have a few more Silkies – they’re not terribly prolific layers, but they’re wonderful mothers, and they’re also pretty entertaining. I’d also like to have several Americaunas; although they’re terrible layers (at least the ones we’ve had are), when they do lay, they lay blue eggs, and I like seeing a variety of eggs in the egg basket.

We do keep the hens who are born here, but when they’re big enough, the roosters go off to freezer camp.

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Do you ever find feathers from The Rock Star laying around? I’d want to pluck her-she’s got gorgeous feathers! 🙂

I do find feathers from the Rock Star laying around. In fact, I have a small bag of her feathers around here somewhere that I was going to use for something, I don’t remember what – probably to attach to cat toys.

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Just saw this video today (If you haven’t seen any of these Simon’s Cat videos, click around and watch them all,it’s so worth your time), and it reminded me of Miz Poo, and her paw ‘o doom when she has no use for the little ones!

I LOVE Simon’s Cat – he does such an amazing job on those videos! And yes, that is precisely what Miz Poo is like with the kittens. In fact, just a few minutes before I wrote this, Miz Poo was laying in a cat bed, and Charlie Peppers tried to climb in with her. WELL. She smacked him a couple of times with the Paw o’ Doom, hissed, and then stomped off in a huff.

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Does Fred have help with the umpteen kitties when you decamp?

Fred has zero help with the kitties when I’m not here. He does the scooping, he keeps the food bowls and water bowls filled, and just about everything else goes by the wayside. Our cats didn’t get their morning snack while I was gone, the big Peppers didn’t get a morning snack while I was gone, and Charlie and Patty only got their morning snack because I wanted to be sure they were getting their Forti-Flora every day (though to be honest, at this point I think they’d probably be okay without it, they’re doing really well). He does a good job with all of that, and so if the house is a bit of a mess when I get home, I figure it’s worth it, because I know that he took good care of the cats while I was gone!

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I have composed several songs to my kittehs including the “Good Morning” song and “Coltrane, Coltrane, He’s a Helluva Cat”. Any major labels out there want to sign me up? Hee!

I have to admit that I might pay good money to hear “Coltrane, Coltrane, He’s a Helluva Cat”!

When you say the “Good Morning” song, do you mean this one? Because I sing “Cullen, Tom Cullen, weeee slept the whole night through, Tom Cullen, Tom Cullen, let’s eat!” sometimes (not always in the morning). That works with Miz Poo, too – “Pootie, Miz Pootie, weeeeeee slept the whole night through!”, etc.

Also, I use Alice’s song with Joe Bob, since it fits so well (“Jobey Joe, the tuxedo, sure does love his daddy!”)

Both Kara and Maxi get the same theme song, sung to a tune I made up. Maxi’s goes “Porkin’ along, singin’ her song, it’s Out! Side! Mama!” (because Maxi is an outdoor cat and also because she talks when she’s walking toward us. Also also, she’s kind of portly). We call her “Outside Mama” and Kara is “Upstairs Mama” because she used to spend a lot of time upstairs – these days, if she’s not outside, she prefers to hang out on the cat bed on the clothes dryer. Anyway, her version of it goes “Stompin’ along, singin’ her song, it’s Up! Stairs! Mama!” (She also likes to talk when she’s walking toward you.)

Clearly I can go on for DAYS when it comes to cat songs!

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If I were Alice, I’d growl at you for taking such an unbecoming photo of her (#1). The way she has her body twisted makes her look a little heavy – definitely not her “good side”.

Much in the way it’s not these jeans that make my butt look fat, it’s not the picture that makes Alice look a little heavy, if you hear what I’m sayin’.

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I hate to ask, but pigs wouldn’t actually try to eat a live animal (incl. human)…would they??

I don’t think they’d have much luck eating a healthy living human, but if you toss someone who’s kind of sickly and weak in there, well, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pigs chowed down, really.

I’ve not seen Deadwood (it’s on my to-watch list), but I understand there’s a pig (or pigs) who takes care of disposing of bodies. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was based on fact. Pigs are walking stomachs, and if they get hungry enough I believe they’d eat just about anything.

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My 15 year old tuxie makes the NONONONO noise whenever she is going to cough up a hairball. She also sounds just like the cat in the America’s Funniest Video clip of a tuxie saying “Oh Long Johson” and “Oh Don Piano”. She looks alot like it too.

I remember seeing that clip!

That clip reminds me of our cat Tubby, who passed away several years ago, and how a couple of times he said, in the creepiest, ghostliest voice EVER, “Mama. Maaaaamaaaa.” It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and it always meant that he was about to barf.

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I need good thoughts from the interwebs, by the way – I am getting three foster kittens next week. Unfortunately these three, although seemingly perfectly healthy right now, tested positive for feline leukemia so my house is probably going to be hospice care for them. I am hoping they make it to adulthood but I know the odds are against it.

Teughcats, I hope it’s going well with your foster kittens! I guess that’s a definite positive, there’s no chance they could retest and come up negative? I have been lucky enough to never have any fosters test positive for leukemia, though of course the Bookworms (and the Wonkas before them) were initially FIV positive. Those kittens are lucky to have you to care for them.

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What’s a sweet gum tree? is it anything like a eucalyptus gum tree?

I don’t think it’s like a eucalyptus gum tree, but maybe it’s in the same family and I don’t know! You can read about the Sweetgum tree here. They’re very pretty trees, and if it weren’t for the gumballs (large spiky balls) that they drop by the thousands, I’d love to have more Sweetgums on the property!

And when you put the big garden to bed, do you pull everything out, fertelize it cover it with mulch and just leave it till spring? Hey, I’m new to this gardening thing – might start up my own no dig garden bed this weekend and everthing! erm, how do I keep the cats off it?

We mostly pull everything up, then Fred tills the entire garden a couple of times over the course of the winter, and we call it good enough. I’m planning to toss a lot of leaves and grass clippings on the garden this winter to help amend the soil. We’ll see if I actually do it, though!

We don’t keep the cats out of the big garden – they mostly keep the squirrels, birds, and rabbits away and they don’t bother the plants for the most part. I keep the cats out of my little raised bed garden by putting a fence around it.

Those Peppers are adorable. are you going to re-intro version 2 with the original Peppers again any time soon?

At this point, both litters of Peppers are out in the house for the better part of the day. Fred mentioned, last night, the idea of putting the little ones in the room with the big ones overnight, but I’m a little concerned that Everett (who plays rough sometimes) might get too rough with them. We may eventually do that, depending on how long the big Peppers are with us (not many adoptions lately, so there hasn’t been room at Petsmart for them just yet.)

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I have a one letter editing suggestion for Alice’s song:
Alice Mo
the calico
sure does love
her daddy-O!

I actually had forgotten this – we’ve been watching Breaking Bad, and once the season started, I added a “yo” (a la Jesse Pinkman) to the end of Alice’s theme song!

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Regarding Charlie and Patty Peppers, and their “love bug” status….do you find that your little boy kitties are generally more that way than the girl kitties are? I keep hearing that female animals are generally more independent. You seem to be the best person to really know….given how many cats have been blessed to be with you.

You know, it’s possible that we’ve had more friendly males than females, but if it’s true that the males are friendlier, it’s pretty slight. I’m thinking of the Peppers Gang, where Molly and Lucy are great big lovebugs (we’ve been calling Molly “the hussy” because she climbs on you and demands that you give her love), Sally can take us or leave us, Harlan likes a snuggle if you grab him, but he doesn’t come looking for it, and Everett is a big snugglebug when he’s not off running around like his tail is on fire. So I guess my answer is… maybe the boys are friendlier, but not by a big margin.

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Back to say that I love the word “snoopervise” you should submit that to Websters. 🙂

Isn’t it a great word? I didn’t come up with it, though – I first saw it on Huffle Mawson‘s page, and stole it (I know I’ve seen it other places as well, but that’s where I first spotted it).

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So do the kittehs miss you when you’re gone and act all lovey-dovey, or are they all “what, you were gone?” and ignore you? I never know if I’m coming back to clingy kitties or aloof ones!

Miz Poo always greets me with “OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME NEVER EVER LEAVE ME AGAIN!”, and the rest of the cats are all “We’re glad you’re back, is it snack time yet?”

To be fair, that’s Miz Poo’s reaction whether I leave for 10 minutes or 10 days.

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Such stressed Peppers. Sad, no?

GOD, Everett! Sally! PLEASE try to calm down!

“What’s up there?”

“Hey, I like the way this thing smells.”

Lucy unsheathes The Claws.

Honestly, Everett. Am I going to have to put you on valium or something? BREATHE, for god’s sake!

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“Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again:

“I did not have snuggual relations with that kitten, Mister Peppers. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.”

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Previously
2010: Myrtle Beach pics!
2009: No entry.
2008: Let Me Out? No, Wait. Let Me In. IN, I MEANT.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: This is the month that makes the hell of summer in Alabama more than worth it.
2004: I need to win the lottery so I can hire someone to come to my house every day and style my hair while I read.
2003: Which is when Stanley thought “Hey! I shouldn’t just skulk back! I should run and leap! Into the air! Like a big mexican jumping Stanley-bean!”
2002: As if he was going to say to himself “By god, she’s RIGHT! I do not, in fact, reside here. What on earth was I thinking?” and run off.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: “Well, she took that well,” I commented.