Category: CAE

Have you ever heard the This American Life story “Squirrel Cop”? This is one of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard. This is totally worth the 15 minutes to listen to. The longer the story goes, the funnier it gets!

The “Squirrel Cop” story from Jack OnFlickr on Vimeo.

I LOVE This American Life, but hadn’t heard that story before! It does just keep getting funnier, doesn’t it?

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A new video! Be sure to watch to the very end!

That is a very catchy song! Heh.

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I got an email last week about someone doing the photography at my wedding. She broke down how much her fees were by each set of photos, including one that said she’d charge ‘a little extra’ for the sitting with the mother of the bride and mother of the groom, seeing as they ‘do not care for each other or approve of the marriage at all.’

I emailed her back and told her that would be the highlight of the job and she could probably get some very candid shots of the two of them fistfighting, as that is what they do best when in each other’s presence.

And then at the end of the email I told her I was just joking and that my name was not Kim and she had in fact, emailed the wrong person.

You made me LOL. 🙂

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Your squirrel reminded me that the radio station I listen to posted a video about a little girl playing with a dead squirrel. It’s actually kind of funny. Poor squirrels!

OH MY GOD, CHILD, PUT THAT FILTHY DEAD RODENT DOWN!

Pardon me while I go take a Silkwood shower.

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I’m sure you’ve Eddie Izzard’s bit on printers. I totally thought of this as I was reading 🙂

LOVE it!!!

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I don’t have a printer yet. My laptop is still on the kitchen table. I did have problems with gmail and lots of things freezing all the time. If I didn’t like the colorfulness of igoogle so much I’d switch to yahoo. I know too little but feel better when you say it’s acting up for you too so I know it’s not just me.

Rest assured that it is never EVER just you. If I took the amount of time I spend swearing at my computer on a daily basis and spent it doing something productive like studying science, I could probably have cured cancer by now.

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Forgive me if this is too nosy a question, but how will they handle the billing for the revision? Are you going to have to pay for everything twice? That’d piss me off, even though I understand the mechanics of medical billing.

Y’know, originally I thought that there’d be no charge at all, then after I read your comment, I was like “Oh, fuck me. Am I going to have to pay for this again? Because if so, there’s going to be no revision in my future, I cannot handle the thought of having to pay again!” But then yesterday my surgeon’s nurse called to talk to me, and told me that it wouldn’t cost anything and I just needed to tell her when I wanted to have it done. After finding out how long the recovery would be (about two weeks of not lifting anything heavier than 5 or 10 pounds), I told her it’d either need to be right away or put off until the Fall. The soonest it could be scheduled was for June 13th, so it looks like it’ll be this Fall. She’s going to talk to him to be sure there’s no problem putting it off ’til October (she expects that to be fine) and should give me a call back later today.

With the gardening revving up (FINALLY), I just thought it made sense to wait ’til I could afford to sit on my butt for two weeks.

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Have you seen this? I love the very end when he says “cheese”….

Awwww.

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My husband had a dream that we were animal control officers, and we would trap animals of all kinds and the city would pay us per animal to euthanize them. What the city didn’t know was that we would secretly in the middle of the night, load up the truck and take all the animals out to live with you and Fred. Thanks for helping us cheat the city and save the animals. 🙂

Oh, it’s our pleasure. 😉

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Apart from scooping poop most of the day, do you spend the rest of the time brushing the herd? They all seem to have amazing coats.

I brush the ones who’ll put up with it, because I LOVE using the Furminator on the cats. It’s so satisfying to get so much fur so quickly! Some of them – especially Spanky – don’t care for being brushed, though, and in fact will run when they see the brush. Which always makes me laugh – you’d think I use the thing to beat them with instead of helping to get that annoying loose fur off their bodies!

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In the kitten photos, are those double bowls attached to each other? Close up photo and purchasing information, please.

They certainly are! Here’s a closeup:

I got them at Old Time Pottery (I always want to call it “Old Tyme Pottery”) last year sometime. When you have a large number of kittens, it’s easier to use the attached bowls rather than trying to balance 6 individual dishes at snack time. I was actually looking for one of those hors d’ oeuvres dishes, one of the round ones with several individual bowls around the plate? That apparently doesn’t exist except in my own mind, since I can’t seem to find an example online anywhere. But now that I’m thinking about it, a deviled egg tray might work pretty well.

Actually, what would make the most sense would be to take a regular dinner plate and put blops (that’s the scientific term) of canned food around the plate and let them figure it out. It’s not like they stick to their own plate anyway, is it?

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The Andersons know NOT the insane amoount of photos I have stolen from them…I just use them as inspirations of future art works, nothing untoward!

I just would like y’all to know that as long as you aren’t using my pictures to make money, or claiming that you took them yourselves, feel free to use them as wallpaper or whatever it is you want to use them for – it makes me happy to think of my babies making y’all happy!

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Do you mean to say that that cheeky Alice has worked out how to exit the backyard? Why else would she be wearing the “special” collar?

The collar is just a preventative measure. She’s actually small enough that I don’t think she could get over the barriers we’ve put in place around the fence posts, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Fred would be very sad if he lost his bratty little princess!

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For some reason, I didn’t think Miz Poo ever went outside. She looks extra-lovely in the open air!

She doesn’t spend as much time outside as the other cats, but except for Stinkerbelle all the cats go out into the back yard from time to time. For that matter, Stinkerbelle could go out into the back yard, but she’s never quite figured out the cat door, and since she’s what we refer to as our “house feral”, I’d rather not have to worry about her getting outside and then figuring how to get over the fence, so I’m okay with her being inside-only.

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Oh wise (and slightly crazy) cat lady, I need your help.

For a few weeks, one of my 4 cats has been pooping in the corner of one of the bedrooms. Doesn’t matter if the litter boxes are clean or not. Keeping the door closed solved that problem. Then, on Monday, my husband decided we needed a dog. He’s an outdoor dog, the cats are both indoor and outdoor. None of the cats are happy about this at all. And now the oldest of our cats, an 11 year old male is spraying (I didn’t know fixed cats could do that!), peeing and pooping on all the bathmats/bathrooms in the house. Short of never letting him in the house again, what do I do? I promise to send you cookies if you can solve this problem for me! we are pretty sure the bedroom pooper is the same cat, but have no proof.

I’m sure there’s advice out there to be had – and anyone with advice, do feel free to leave it in the comments! – but despite the timing I’d still suggest you take the offending pooper to the vet to be checked over, just in case. The fact that the pooping started before you got the dog indicates that it could possibly be a health issue, especially given his age. If he checks out as healthy, all I can suggest is to try Feliway (the plug-ins and the spray).

I’m sure someone out there has more/ better advice for Jennifer. Chime in here, folks! (Note: Jennifer, make sure you check over at Love & Hisses, I’m sure there will be advice in the comments over there, too.)

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Gracie and George are the prettiest puppies ever. Do you have any baby pictures of them?

Have you met me? 🙂 OF COURSE I have baby pictures of them. Well – toddler pictures, I guess. They were about four months old when we brought them home.

There are a TON more of them, of course, over at Flickr.

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Someday soon, could you post individual photos of the McMaos and point out their distinguishing features? I know it’s a lot to ask, but they’re so darn cute!

I’ll have you know that I didn’t even have to go take more pictures to fulfill this request – the amount of pictures I take of these kittens is absolutely ridiculous – but I can’t help it! So in no particular order, here they are.

Declan:

Before I taught myself which kitten was which, I secretly called Declan “nostril” because one of his nostrils is black. In a comment, McFinn said Declan has always been the Batman kitty to me since he looks like he’s wearing a dark (tabby) cowl that comes down to his nose, exposing his lower face. Even has the bat ears going on. I can definitely see the resemblance, and now I like to hold him up and say “I’m Batman!”, which he does not appreciate in the slightest.

Macushla:

Macushla has a black nose and white whisker pads. He’s also a snuggler, and he and Fergus Simon are almost always either in my lap or about to climb into my lap. Macushla and Ciara are the darkest kittens.

Ciara:

Ciara’s the only girl, of course. She’s got the pink nose and then all that white on her face, and then the very dark fur. I’d almost call her black and white except for the brown tabby stripes on her sides and legs.

Finnegan:

Finnegan also has a pink nose, but his dark fur is a lot lighter than Ciara’s. He’s always the first one to run for the closet if startled, usually closely followed by Cillian. Finnegan plays really well with the other kittens, but is also just as happy to play with a toy by himself.

Cillian:

Cillian has that pretty clay-colored nose with the dash of white above it. He has such a serious little face, and he always looks like he’s worried about something. Whereas the other kittens jump right into playing, Cillian will observe what’s going on before he joins in. I call him my little detective, because he misses nothing.

Fergus Simon:

Fergus Simon is my little lovebug, and will usually fight with Macushla for dominance of my lap. He likes to sit in my lap and swipe at the other kittens as they race by (though he’ll eventually be overcome with the need to fight, and will go racing after them).

Can you believe these little monsters are 7 weeks old as of tomorrow? The time has flown by! I weighed them the other day (I don’t know that my scale is all that reliable, though, given that it told me Dorothy was over 2 pounds when we got her, and she was quite a bit less at the vet’s!) and except for Ciara, they’re all right around 2 pounds. Which means it’ll be time to spay and neuter the little monsters in a couple of weeks. But no hurry, we can wait a little while to be sure they’re all solidly over 2 pounds before I take them to the vet.

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Miss Dorfy, hanging out in her favorite cat bed.

::maniacal laughter::

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Stinkerbelle, atop the kitchen cabinet, keeping an eye out for her beloved Tommy.

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Previously
2010: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2009: Way to look ferocious and defend those chickens, puppies.
2008: And I’m sure there’ll be plenty o’ bitching.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: It is, in fact, a happy-go-lucky-shpadoinkle-dy daaaaaaaaaaaaay.
2004: First day with the new brain, you know.
2003: So, Fred got it into his head a few weeks ago that he wanted a kayak.
2002: And further, you don’t get to be indignant and hurt when they act pissed off and boo you off the stage.
2001: No entry.
2000: Yesterday, I sneezed twenty-three times in a row. Fucking allergies.

Fred had part of yesterday off from work, so when he got home, I suggested that we go out to lunch. I was thinking of Applebee’s so I could get a salad, but he wrote down two restaurant names on a piece of paper, held each in his hand, and made me choose between the two hands. We ended up going to a Chinese buffet in Madison.

I wasn’t too upset – Chinese food is one of my favorite kinds of foods, and who doesn’t love a buffet? – and the food there was really pretty good. Until I got to the last thing on my plate, a few pieces of Black Pepper Beef.

Oh, it was NASTY. I chewed on it and chewed on it, thinking I could just swallow it and be done, but the more I chewed it (and it was very chewy), the worse it tasted, and finally I had to spit it out into a napkin.

“It tasted like feet,” I told Fred.

Or what I’d imagine feet taste like, in any case. Dirty, sweaty feet. Gah.

Other than that, though, the food was pretty good. I think I would have been better off with a salad, though. The Chinese food had me all bloated and full all afternoon long, and I ended up needing a short mid-afternoon nap.

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Robyn, do you or your readers have a recommendation for a lightweight vacuum? We have the dyson, but I wanted something for the stairs. We adopted an elderly golden retriever and now we are a 3 dog, 2 cat household. We have tipped ourselves into pet fur taking over kind of household. I’ve tried a couple of handhelds like the Dirt Devil and the Shark, but they were never great. I would like an upright so I am not hunched over like Quasimodo every time I need to do the stairs. Any thoughts?

I have no suggestions myself (I either use the canister vacuum on the stairs or Swiffer it and use the vacuum at the bottom to get up whatever was pushed down the stairs), but I’ll be watching suggestions with interest! Who’s got a good suggestion, y’all?

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Wait…..I just noticed in your sidebar that Corbie is a permanent resident. When did I miss that? I remember when Coltrane arrived but I can’t remember when you decided to keep Corbie?

We made it official back at the end of March. I made everyone sad by announcing that he’d gone to his forever home and then announced that THIS is his forever home. Ya damn skimmer. 🙂 (But it wasn’t ’til earlier this week that I realized I hadn’t put him in the sidebar. What the hell? I’m such a slacker.)

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Do any of your cats get into noisy late night fights? I know some like to stay outside at night.

I will, very occasionally, hear a couple of cats get into it under my bedroom window. They probably also fight late at night on the side stoop, but since that’s nowhere near my window, I don’t hear them. The worst late night fights we hear are when Jake or Elwood get too close to Stinkerbelle (ie, within 10 feet), and she has the most hellacious hellcat scream. Somehow, despite the fact that it happens in the kitchen, right under Fred’s bedroom, he always sleeps through it. Luckily, she only does it once in order to scare the bejesus out of all of us (except Fred) in the house, and make whoever’s bugging her back off.

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Have you seen this? I have saved this as a link on my computer so that when I need a giggle, there it is.

That is WAY too cute. I think I might have to find a tarp and carry it up to the foster room!

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So – how are the hands doing with 6 sets of baby teeth and 12 pairs of needle like claws around? Or actually if you count Dorothy – you need to add another set and pair to the total.

The hands are holding up fairly well. No terrible scratches yet, just a million tiny ones. We finally clipped the McMaos’ claws yesterday, which helped quite a bit!

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I had a Ms. Poo dream. I dreamt she gave birth to a litter of puppies. The puppies came out the size of Yankee candle. For some reason, they were put into diapers and bottle fed like babies. Ms. Poo was treated like the Queen of Sheba but she did not have anything to do with the puppies/kittens. Oh and she had them under my bed. I don’t know what the heck was all that about, but I know you like it when we dream of Crooked Acres peeps.

I do love it. I love it quite a bit. And the idea of poor Miz Poo birthing puppies the size of Yankee candles makes me simultaneously cringe in sympathy and laugh. I can just imagine the look on her face if that happened!

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Maybe start a second compost pile you don’t really need to use, throw some tomatoes in there, and then completely ignore the tomato plants that grow in there… until it is time to harvest them, of course.

I think I said that last year for the first time I had gorgeous tomato plants that produced soooo much fruit. I had them in pots previously and threw all the yucky ones in the corner behind the pots. I have tried year after year to grow the stinkin things and the leaves turn yellow and don’t really produce much. Letting them bloom where they aren’t planted and ignoring them seems to be the trick for me. I did spy and spotted some plants coming up but I won’t let on that I know they are there and will ignore them for now.

I’ll admit, I kind of wish that I’d just left the compost tomato plants where they were – did I mention one of them has a flower already? There are more plants on the compost heap that I’m going to leave (we do plan to start a second compost pile) and just see how they do. I’ve also got a couple coming up in my raised beds (one or two with the carrots and at least one with the romaine) and I’m going to leave those as well and see what happens. The happier the tomato plants are, the more they’ll produce and the happier I’ll be, right?

The happiest tomato plant I ever had was the second summer after we moved in. Originally, we had 12 chickens and their yard was a corner of our back yard. They LOVED tomatoes, and got tons of them. By the second summer, the chickens had been moved to the blue coop yard, and in the early part of the summer, Fred pointed out that there was a tomato plant growing where the chicken yard had been. We left it, and mostly ignored it, and that was the happiest tomato plant I’ve ever seen, and it put out tomatoes until well into the Fall. It got so big that the cats would even hang out underneath it in the hottest part of the day.

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I’ve been looking at the last few entries and it occurred to me that Tiny Alice isn’t really so tiny any more!

Is she catching up now, do you think? (yay!) Or is it that Rufus is tiny as well?

Rufus is kind of a small cat, but I do think Alice is starting to catch up. She’s not nearly the tiny thing she was when we first got her. I mean, I expect her to remain on the small side, but she’s no longer abnormally tiny.

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If you don’t bring those plastic bags home – what do you scoop the litter boxes into? If there is a better method, I’m all for it.

I buy biodegradable poop-scoopin’ bags off eBay. They work pretty well, though I did have to go to a smaller scoop, because the big scoop I was using wouldn’t fit into the bags, and stuff was falling on the floor, and yeah. I wasn’t going to let that happen on a regular basis.

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So when the wee McMaos curl up in your lap, do you stay there, or do you eventually have to move? Because I always feel so guilty I end up sitting still until something goes numb.

I can sit for a pretty long time with my legs crossed, but yeah, eventually one leg goes to sleep and I have to move around. They’re pretty forgiving, but occasionally they look up at me and give me the sad little heartbroken meow, and I want to throw myself out the window for daring to disturb their rest. 🙂

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Good luck Rufus! Did he ever take a “non-cute” picture? Whoever adopts him will be very lucky; I think he’s a special kitty. And I trust your judgment Miz Robyn; I know I couldn’t do what you do. I would keep every kitty. BUT you have encouraged me. I am going to foster two cats this summer!

I don’t believe Rufus ever took a bad picture, no. And YAY! The world can always use another awesome foster parent!

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Those kittens are cute enough to eat! so scoop up-able and kissable and squishable – aaww…!!! Are they eating solid food on their own now?

Indeed they are. In fact, they now know what the sound of a cat food tin opening means, and they cluster around my feet and howl at me. For a while I was giving them all canned food just about every time I went into the room, but that had to stop and now they get canned food (mixed with baby food – which I guess I can stop doing any time now, too. But they love it so much!) in the morning and evening, and have kibble available the rest of the day. The only kitten who isn’t interested in canned food (weirdo) is Finnegan, and so when everyone else is bellied up to the plates, he just follows me around and supervises what I’m doing.

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I dreamt about the McMaos last night… At one point I had Declan and another baby, and was walking them on leashes. Clearly, I am obsessed with the babies.

I would like to see what Declan would do if I put a leash on him!

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*pets Rufus* Good luck to you, pretty boy! May a forever home with a fondness for soft, snuggle-able kitties turn up in a hurry. What color is he, anyway? I’m not sure I ever knew.

Rufus is a medium-hair gray tabby with white. Also, he’s SO PRETTY that I expect he’s going to find a home soon. I hope so, anyway!

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I’d like to hear more about the Pouty Princess and what she does to make herself seem pouty. I’ve thought all that she’s the most beautiful of this litter and to hear about her personality would be awesome!

The Pouty Princess is actually not all that pouty. She’s a little bit of a drama queen – she was always the hissiest of the bunch, and if you pick her up and she doesn’t WANT to be picked up, she will cry like a sad little princess. But she’s a sweet girl, and she was actually the VERY FIRST baby McMao to purr for me. That just happened a few days ago! Oh sure, they purr like mad for their mama, but for me they had nothin’. But then earlier this week I picked up Ciara and petted her, and she thought about it for a moment and then began purring softly. Then the next day Finnegan did it!

There’s nothing sweeter than a purring kitten.

Ciara also loves her mother with a passion, and can often be found giving her mama a look o’ love. She will happily play fight with her brothers, and she gives as good as she gets. She’s not much of a climber, but she’ll climb every now and then when the mood strikes her. And her favorite toy is the Kong Kickeroo – she very well might be taking after her mother, who always did like a good sniff of the catnip-containing Kickeroo.

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The photo of Alice on top of the cabinets reminded me of my favorite tumblr. Check it out, if you haven’t seen it already- it’s called Get out of there cat and features photos of cats in all sorts of crazy places, and typical places, like boxes and on top of doors. 🙂

I’ve seen that site several times this week and kept meaning to link to it, so thanks for the reminder! It cracks me UP.

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I just need to make sure y’all have seen Kitten Vs. Tennis Ball. I wouldn’t want you to miss it!

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We’ve been giving Miss Dorothy limited time out of the guest bedroom to explore and meet the other cats. She thinks it’s pretty neat to have all that room to run.

Sugarbutt did not care for this tiny little girlkitty getting all up in his grill, and a moment after I snapped the picture, he smacked her. She wasn’t too perturbed by that, and just ran past him.

Then she gave him a look like this:

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I love Finnegan’s stripes.

Declan. How did they get so grown up?! He doesn’t even have any blue left in his eyes!

“Yeah, come on down here! BRING IT ON!”

“That didn’t quite work out the way I’d intended.”

“HI MAMA!”

Finnegan contemplates.

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Happy Friday the 13th! ::cue scary music::

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Previously
2010: It’s like a big loaf of stink, rising and expanding to fill all available space.
2009: In self-defense, I had to do the unthinkable.
2008: Here’s a hint: Mister Boogers? Not the man.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Oh, it’s FUN to be a girl, ain’t it?
2004: Am I not stylin’?
2003: Like I repeatedly said to him yesterday, “I’m GLAD you’re ENJOYING my pain!”
2002: Momma don’t do food-related or cleaning-related stuff on Mother’s Day!
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

I guess yesterday was the day they got the tornado sirens fixed, because in the middle of a bright sunny afternoon, the tornado siren sounded for about 30 seconds before abruptly shutting off. A couple of hours later, it happened again. You’d think there’d be a way they could make sure it was working without actually having to run the damn thing and giving everyone in the county a friggin’ heart attack.

If I never hear another tornado siren, it’ll be too soon.

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I went and got a few groceries yesterday, and the store was completely out of odd items. First, no Baked Lays at all. Then the Keebler cookies that were buy one, get one free were completely gone, the shelves empty and the “buy one, get one free!” signs wafting mockingly in the breeze.When I went down the baby aisle, there was one lone jar of Gerber Chicken and Gravy baby food. I looked at the other chicken baby food on offer, Chicken Noodle Soup, or something along those lines. But that one had onion powder in it (you can’t feed onions or onion products to cats), so that was no good.

(I’ve been mixing a jar of chicken baby food with a can of kitten food to convince the McMaos that they want solid food. Some of them seem more convinced than others, but of course all babies won’t wean at the same time. I wasn’t out of baby food, but I was getting low on it, and had hoped to stock up.)

I actually guess I understand why all that stuff was out of stock – they’re all shelf stable products (unless you have a partial jar of the baby food), so people probably stocked up on it while their power was out.

And while I’m thinking of it, Huntsville Utilities announced yesterday that 100% of the power has been restored, yay!

So I got the stuff on my list that I could get, and I went to check out. I always carry at least three reusable bags into the store with me, no matter how long my list is, because I figure it’s better to have too many bags than not enough. In addition, I have three more bags in my purse at all times, and when I’m buying a lot of stuff, I say “I have more bags, let me know if you need them.”

SIMPLE ENOUGH, RIGHT?

I’ll be damned, when I got my cart to the end of the line, if I wasn’t greeted with my three reusable bags and two planet-killing plastic bags. I kind of wanted to pluck the bagger’s eyeballs out of her head and kick them down the ice cream aisle. Instead, I pulled a reusable bag out of my purse and repacked the stuff from the two plastic bags into the reusable bag.

(If I were Fred the Over-Explainer, there would have been a 10 minute dissertation on how I prefer not to have plastic bags in my house because I swear to god I CAN LITERALLY HEAR THE PLANET GASPING FOR AIR WHEN I USE THEM, but I just smiled at her.)

(I hate plastic bags. They are my own personal bugaboo AND I AM NOT JUDGING YOU FOR USING THEM SO DON’T GET ALL DEFENSIVE AND UP IN MY SHIT, Mother Earth knows I love her more. (Hee.))

She apologized for forgetting that I’d said I had more bags, and I said it was no problem, and she took the two plastic bags I handed her.

And she threw them in the trash can.

Whereupon I plucked her eyeballs out of her head and kicked them down the ice cream aisle and then I had a stroke.

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Did you see the new program that is going to be on Animal Planet? Don’t know the name of it but they are going to follow 3 litters of kittens from birth to 8 weeks of age. I thought about your pictures immediately. Anyone who has followed your blog has seen birth-8 wks. several times! Love it!

I had not heard of that show, but I went looking and found that it’s called Too Cute! Kittens, and it is FOR SURE my kinda show. I’ll be setting up the DVR to catch that, believe me.

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Am I alone in this or does Kara look like Wilfred Diabeetus Brimley?

You’re definitely not alone in that – someone mentioned it back in January and I agree!

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Do you just get lucky with the pictures or do you take thousands daily?

I take a LOT of pictures. In fact, recently, my favorite camera setting is the one where you just hold down the button and it takes picture after picture. It means I have to spend a lot of time going through pictures, but it’s given me some good ones!

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Do you build a separate building for the shelter? Or is it more like reinforcing one room in your house to make it storm proof?

The kind of storm shelter we’re talking about are the ones that look like a big bubble – they’re all one piece – and they dig a hole in the ground and sink the shelter under there. Like this.

Our front porch is concrete, and I think it would be ideal to have a storm shelter dug under there, with a doorway to it in the floor of the front room, but I think that would be prohibitively expensive. Which is too bad, ’cause it would be so much easier to run tornado drills with the cats if they didn’t have to go outside to get to the shelter. 🙂

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I live in Oklahoma (tornado alley) and there are very few houses with basements here. I’ve heard it’s because the clay is so hard to dig through to build one…don’t know about that. Most people have storm shelters (fraidy holes).

I cannot wait to have our own storm shelter so I can refer to it repeatedly as a fraidy hole! (Also, “Fraidy” would be an excellent kitten name.)

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I love the quilt that Elwood and Corbie are on. Is that hand made by someone? I used to make quilts like that.

No, I got it at Kohl’s. Quilting is one of the things I’d like to take up, but it’s toward the bottom of a very long list of stuff I’d like to do!

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Robyn – I don’t know if you’ve seen this but I thought it did a bang-up job of explaining cat colorations and patterns.

Not only have I seen it, I liked it so much, I ordered the poster and it’s hanging on the foster wall right now!

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Has anyone ever mentioned to you that “mao”, when said in a flat* tone, is the word for CAT in Mandarin Chinese?

* This is the 1st of four tones, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th being up, down/up, down

No one had mentioned it to me – but knowing that makes the McMao name that much more perfect for them, doesn’t it?

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Wait — Miz Poo has issues beyond the most obvious one, her name? Sorry to hear that.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE NAME “MIZ POO,” I’ll have you know. It’s a perfectly fine family name that was passed down for generations!

(Okay, maybe not. I don’t have a clue where the name “Miz Poo” came from, but if it makes you feel any better her “legal” name is Scrappy.)

Miz Poo is our money pit cat – there’s always something going on with her, and it’s never anything cheap. She has issues with rodent ulcers in her upper lip, she’s got dandruff, she’s neurotic and licks constantly, several years ago she had a blockage in her intestines and we had to cancel a Florida vacation to pay for it (and because I didn’t want to be away from her, truth be told). About two years ago, she had a cyst by her tail that burst (we didn’t even know it was there!) and she had to be knocked out so they could clean it out and stitch her up. When she was little, she had problems with her eyes. It’s always something, she’s always needing to go to the vet, and it’s truly a miracle that she’s the sweet lovebug that she is. I’ve told her she has to live to be 30 (she’s 11 1/2) to repay us for having spent so much on her.

She’s worth every penny.

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But if they stayed this little, Robyn, you’d miss them climbing your legs stage and the resulting, most attractive AAA road map look for your gams! ;-D

I tell you what, I don’t wear shorts in that room, EVER. Even if it’s a warm day out, I put on a pair of jeans before I go in there. Those little claws are SHARP!

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I wish you’d relax a little, Dorothy!

What the pictures don’t show you of Dorothy is that she’s got this tiny little stubby tail. It’s not cut off or in any way shortened, it’s just not as long as you’d expect it to be. It certainly adds to her charm!

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If you look closely at Rufus, you’ll see that a patch of fur on his back got wet and then dried. As if someone drooled on his back (JAKE) while they were curled up asleep on the shelf in the upper left of the picture.

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Ciara on the scratcher.

“Guys! Seriously, guys! It’s amazing!” (Cillian)

Fergus Simon in my lap, peeking up to see what’s going on.

“Tell it to the paw, bro.”

Fergus Simon fell asleep while I was holding him. And then I died from the cute.

Macushla. He’s totally my favorite.

“Guys, come on over! The climbin’ is fine!”

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These little monsters sure are lucky their mama is so patient. The look she gives me at about 30 seconds cracks me UP. Like she’s saying “This is all YOUR fault!”

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Gorgeous Corbs, I love you so.

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Previously
2010: AS MUCH AS I LOVE THESE KITTENS, I DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN
2009: If you ever thought of mother chickens as being sweet and maternal, get that thought right out of your head!
2008: I choose to believe it recovered and took flight.
2007: “GodDAMN I’m good-looking. Why am I taking orders from this old hag? Am I making enough money to put up with this over-polite shit*? I think NOT. GodDAMN I’m good-looking.”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Questions answered, and a meme.
2003: Once again, pot-kettle-black.
2002: You can imagine the temper tantrum that followed.
2001: I would have preferred a candy bar, but unfortunately, we don’t got none o’ them ’round these parts.
2000: No entry.

Fred’s book is now available on the German Amazon site, in case anyone out there’s interested!

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Have you seen the Eagle cam? 3 baby eaglets, so adorable!

Ack! SO FREAKIN’ CUTE!

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Robyn, admit it – you get those kittens all boozed up on vodka and rum before filming them, don’t you? I swear to God, I get the exact same looks on my face when I’ve been drinking (Declan’s wide-eyed “everything’s MOVING!” and Ciara’s “oh god, just gonna sit here for a li’l bit…”).

I read this comment, and then I went and re-watched the video:

And I GUFFAWED. Because YOU ARE CORRECT, MADAME!

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saturday night live does a sketch about a TARGET cashier who comments on every item her customers buy. she doesn’t shut up, ever. each time she always ends up leaving the register to go get an item for herself. the character is played by kristin wiig.

did you see any tv cameras around, because i think you went through her line. i immediately thought about it when i read your entry!

Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Kristen Wiig Videos or Saturday Night Live Videos

I didn’t SEE any cameras around, but it’s only because I have a healthy fear of ending up on “Watch What Happens” or some other undercover news show that I am unfailingly polite to all cashiers, whether they’re annoying or crabby or whatever. I don’t want to end up on TV as the asshole!

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Knowing nothing about wee baby kittens so I must ask: why do the ears take so long to stand up?

Good question, and I don’t know! It just… does. 🙂

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The look on Maggie’s face in the pic with the lone baby nursing is cracking me UP. “I used to have a career, a social life. I went to shows, went for drinks with my friends, and I could go to bed and get up whenever I damn well pleased. Where did it all go so wrong?”

The faces she makes when the babies are nursing always make me laugh, because she’s so patient, but she always looks like she is just biding her time ’til she can kick these babies out of the nest (so to speak) and go back to her exciting pre-baby life.

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I don’t know how anyone could go to Sams club and NOT get a slice of cheese pizza on the way out. Do they have pizza at 8:45 A.M.? (note to self:must go to Sams club when I get home to the USA!)

I don’t think I’ve ever bought a slice of pizza from Sam’s – and I think (though I can’t guarantee it) that they don’t start offering the pizza slices ’til the 10:00 open-to-the-public hour. Now you’ve got me wanting to try a slice next time I go!

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Who doesn’t love Tommy??

I don’t believe there is a single cat in this house who hates Tommy. He truly is the ambassador.

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i had another crazy robyn/fred cat dream. i was visiting you guys for some reason and you showed me a binder full of cross-stitch charts you had collected that had been requested by the cats. some of them were for these weird wraps that looked like saddles and had tapestries of flowers and garden hats and quilts, like those paula duvall patterns popular back in the 80’s. some were for booties that had nike logos on them. you would stitch them and fred would do some type of woodworking to them. i wasn’t interested in helping make cat girdles, so you guys made me leave and gave me some home canned pigeon-flavored dog food stew for my parson russell dug. you told me it would double his life expentancy, which is something we worry about, a she was a rescue we got 5 years ago and he was about 6 years old them. i’m sure you’ve never made a cross-stitched girdle for any of your cats.

LOVE it when you guys have dreams about us!

I’ve never made a cross-stitched girdle for any of the cats… but only ’cause I don’t have a pattern. 🙂

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My son just showed me this. Not a cat, but hilarious nonetheless. A ticklish penguin.

CUTEST. THING. EVER.

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I forgot your Dyson died (boo!). I had the same Kenmore canister before I bought my current Dyson. When my Dyson dies (which, according to most Dyson owners, is inevitable after a few years), I don’t know what I’ll replace it with. You can’t find one model of vacuum that gets consistently good reviews. I wish I could just tolerate filth…it would be so much easier.

I’m finding that the Kenmore canister does a great job on the floors, but a so-so job on the carpets. I’m seriously thinking of taking my Dyson to be repaired and just using that on the carpets. I’ll have to think about it for a few months and then get fed up with the Kenmore before I take any action, though.

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You know, I saw a youtube video where someone put some kind of tiny camera video thing that taped where the cat was going. It was from his/her perspective. That would be cool for Newt & Maxi

That is very neat. Charlene Butterbean (of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee) also wore a camera on her collar for a bit.

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Dumb question, but how in god’s name does that lovely chicken SEE?! Also, do you think her Momma chicken is running around somewhere all mad because her daughter’s feathers are in her eyes?

She’s long overdue for a trim, actually. Our crested polish chickens get semi-regular headfeather trims so that they can see the world around them. (“GET those FEATHERS out of your EYES!” Heh.)

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Of course, being a bit of a geek, the thing that stands out even more than the beautiful pictures and the mind-exploding cuteness of the kittehs, is the phrase “God willing and the creek don’t rise.” Is that a Maine expression or an Alabama expression? It sounds familiar, but I’ve lived in both north and south, so I’m not sure where I may have heard it.

I’m relatively sure that it’s a Southern saying, though I don’t know that I’ve ever actually heard anyone around here say it. God only knows where I picked it up. Maybe from Fred? It’s as likely that I read it somewhere, though. ‘Tis a mystery. 🙂

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You’ve probably said before, but how do you get across the ditch? (or is it pretty shallow in places?)

Fred and Rick (Nance’s husband) built a bridge across the ditch a couple of years ago. This time of the year the ditch is usually too deep to get across (at least for me), so we use the bridge. In the middle of the summer, the ditch generally dries up so that we can walk right across it.

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Sari asked:

I wonder why Maggie keeps a physical distance to them – does she get hot in the cave or maybe it’s too crowded for her liking? 😀

I didn’t know the answer to this, but Doodle Bean chimed in and said:

Scientists think that the mothers’ spending time away from the nest encourage the kittens to develop faster because they have to work harder and harder to get to the milk – using their eyes and noses to find her, getting it together to walk to her, etc.

It may seem harsh to us, but Nature is like that.

Which makes total sense. I notice that the older the kittens get, the less inclined Maggie is to go running over to check on them at every little sound they make.

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Does it appear that at least one, if not two, of the babies might be fluffier than the rest, and therefore destined to be medium- or long-haired beauties?

and

Those babies are so stinkin’ cute! I’m wondering if they have short hair with baby fuzz or are they going to be long haired kitties?

I do not believe we’ve got any that will turn out to be medium or long-haired cats, I think they’re all short-haired. But I could be wrong! (On a side note, of all the cats I’ve fostered, I’ve had very few that were long-haired.)

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Aww explorer Declan is wearing his wee white exploring socks and mittens 🙂

Here at Crooked Acres, one must be properly attired when exploring. It’s one of the things I insist upon!

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To: Robyn Anderson
From: Your fans
Re: Kara, Corbie, Alice, probably Stinkerbelle, Tom and Sugarbutt and maybe Rufus, Maggie and her kittens

We have read your posts over the years and have re-read Kara’s birthing story because you put that convenient link in there. We are getting the very strong impression that when you write “And no, we’re not keeping them”, what actually happens is that you end up keeping at least one. Just sayin’ that you’ve written that phrase about Rufus as well as Maggie and her litter…

Watch out! We’re going to start nagging any minute now!

As long as, after they go off to be adopted, y’all realize that it’s not ’cause I don’t WANT to keep them that I’m not keeping them. I pretty much want to keep all our fosters. These guys will be especially hard to give up, since I practically gave birth to them myself.

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Maggie’s “soothing mama” sound reminds me a bit of the trilling chirps in the “two talking cats” video:

I love that video – those cats are so SWEET.

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Looking at the kittens and Maggie, I can’t help but wonder what the Papa McMao looks like. I mean, the babays have more white than Maggie, does it mean it comes from their daddy?

I don’t have a clue, as I don’t really know much about cat genetics (catnetics!), but I’m sure someone out there knows. Anyone?

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WOW!! Where did you get all these fabulous chicken breeds?!?! They’re wonderful and so healthy and so proud and gorgeous!!! Oh I think I’m in love with your array of chickens!!! Lovely!!!

Well, thank you! The crested polish chickens were bought from a hatchery a couple of years ago. These days, most of our chickens are “mutts” because we decided why buy from a hatchery when we’ve got hens who can – and want to! – hatch eggs for us. We’ve got two hens sitting on eggs at the moment, and they should be hatching any time now.

We hadn’t intended to have baby chicks quite this early, but hens who are broody (ie, want to hatch babies) can be pretty tricky, and earlier this week Fred found a hen sitting on a clutch of 18 eggs. He candled them (shone a bright light through the egg) and found that 15 of them had definite growth. And as it happened, another hen was going broody at the same time, so he put 7 eggs under one hen and 8 under the other, and we should have babies any day now.

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Wee babies toes! I am 99% sure these are Ciara’s toes.

More nursin’.

Hungry babies.

LOVE.

“Your ear smells funny.”

“::gasp:: OH NO SHE DI’IN’T!”

Bath time for Maggie.

At just under three weeks old, the McMaos are spending more time out of their den of their own volition. I put a cat bed in front of the kennel to make it easier for them to get out if they want to, and occasionally they (especially Declan and Ciara) do. I was a bit worried the other night, because the kittens were out exploring the room at bedtime, and I was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to get back into their den. I put out some extra cat beds and made sure the ceiling fan was off, and figured Maggie wouldn’t let them starve or freeze. Sure enough, when I got up in the middle of the night to peek in on them, they were all back in the cave.

I can’t believe they’re almost three weeks old!!!

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(Elwood’s face is cracking me up.)

(And Corbie’s face is cracking me up here!)

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Previously
2010: He gave me the hairy eyeball.
2009: No entry.
2008: What the fucking fuck was going on, apparently, is that my motherboard was fried.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Annoying.
2003: Holy FUCK, look what JUST wandered across my front yard!
2002: The big flies make a very satisfying THWOOMP! sound as they fly down the attachment tube.
2001: No entry.
2000: Aren’t they, um, AMERICANS?

Reminder for the locals: Challenger’s House Cat Tales takes place in one week, on April 22nd at Monte Sano. Please join us as we celebrate cats & the people who care for them & love them. Enjoy the wonderful food & music as you browse & bid on donated art, gifts, & other items that will brighten your home & your life. It’s also a great place to shop for Christmas & birthday gifts. There will be a cash bar serving beer & wine. Dress is very casual so come prepared to have a good time.

Monte Sano State Park Lodge – 6:30 – 9:00 pm – $25.00 per person advanced or at the door.

We are still looking for auction items. We have lots of small stuff but if you know anyone who can donate gift baskets or other biddable type items, let Susan know (contact info at the bottom of the page, here.)

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I keep meaning to ask you…with all the kitten excitement, we all seem to be forgetting, how is your recovery going? Has the swelling gone down? Do you feel wonderful? What’s the dealio with YOU now a’days?

Oh, I am feeling just fine, completely healed up, and very little swelling at all! In fact, yesterday I decided that it was time to move my couch back where it belonged (I’ve been using the recliner since I got home after surgery), and I got the cover put on the couch, the couch moved (by lifting first one end and then the other) into place, and I got the top half of the recliner moved back upstairs to my room. I was in the process of trying to move the bottom half of the recliner upstairs, but it’s very very heavy and then Fred got home and carried it up for me. This morning, my muscles are sore, but the rest of me is feeling just fine. I’m happy with my arms and breasts, but the wobbly bit under my chin hasn’t gone away and will need to be revised at some point. All in all, I’m glad that recovery is done and over with!

Also…if I may beg your huge group of readers, Skeletors rescue daddy is looking for a landlord in Jacksonville, Fl., willing to rent to him and the adorable, well behaved, non violent Skeletor.

Readers? Anyone in the Jacksonville area know of a place where sweet Skeletor will be allowed?

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Thought I would share this video of cats getting into the fridge over on Justin tv. It starts right after the advertisement.

Watch live video from Kittycast From Kittyville™ on Justin.tv

That is WAY too adorable!

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Robyn, you keep your kitty rooms so clean. Your home always looks so nice… not a dust bunny to be found, I’m sure.

Oh, devil, if only that were true. My home is regularly INFESTED with dust bunnies and they roam in a gentle galloping herd from one end of the house to the other. They love to cluster on my stairs, and even after a good Swiffering, they wait a few minutes and cluster again. The foster room hasn’t been vacuumed since Maggie birthed those babies two weeks ago, and there’s Maggie fur matting the carpet from one side of the room to the other. This is a particularly bad time of year for dust bunnies, due to the cats shedding their winter coats, but do I respond by vacuuming more often? I do not. (Part of the problem being that I really miss my Dyson, which died a few months ago. I’ve been using the Sears Progressive canister vacuum we already had, and while it does a good enough job, I can’t say that I adore it the way I adored my Dyson. I’m not fond of canister vacuums, because the freakin’ canister is a pain in the ass to pull along.)

I think my home is just not meant to be spotless. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it. 🙂

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Was the order of Fergus Simon’s name chosen with a nod to the Flying Spaghetti Monster in mind?

No, he was named after Lori’s cats, Fergus and Simon (Fergus being the oldest). But it does make me smile that his initials are the same as the Flying Spaghetti Monster! Sometimes, when I am very tired and cannot remember whether it’s Fergus Simon or Simon Fergus, I pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to help me remember!

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How is old Flappy McGee doing anyway. Me thinks you treasured that bird for the celebrity she was, heck. I hope you gotter stuffed when she passed on, and she sits like the prized burd that she was! No doubt from gosh darn natural causes, heck if Wilbur and Charlotte could do it Flappy surely did’er too!

After Flappy McGee laid that monster egg, she pretty much stopped laying eggs and, uh, she was the first chicken we processed and ate. It’s kinda rude that she helped make us famous (heh) and then we ended up eating her, isn’t it?

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I was wondering if you have used Twilight character names for any of your fosters? Bella sounds Irish to me!

I haven’t used Twilight characters, but I did a quick check of the names list I got from the shelter, and Bella, Edward and Jacob have all been used in the past, rendering them ineligible for use by me!

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I remember Beulah! I always loved that tiny little girl. I can’t remember who ended up with her but have you been able to get any updated pictures of her?

I did get some updated pictures of her back in 2009 – see those here – but none since then.

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Do you have to brush George and Gracie? I know they live outside, and they seem relatively free of big nasty snarls!

George and Gracie need lots of brushing in the Spring when they’re shedding their winter coat. Fred goes out with the brush and brushes and brushes them, and the amount of fur that comes off them is absolutely amazing (I’ll have to get a picture next time he brushes them). They require occasional brushing in the Summer, too, and then hardly any in the Fall and Winter. I always say that their fur is made of Teflon, because they’ll get absolutely filthy, then you see them an hour later and they’re completely clean again!

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Have the permanent residents shown any curiosity about what is happenning in the “nursery”?

Not really – they sniff at the barrier in front of the door sometimes, but they’re used to not being able to go in there sometimes, so they aren’t all that curious.

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Newt goes roaming where?

Newt and Maxi are our two free roamers, who are allowed in the house and also allowed outside (the real outside, not the back yard outside) to roam wherever they want. I know they spend lots of time at the house two doors down, and I believe they go down the street further to where there’s a horse barn. I was just telling Suzanne yesterday that I’d love to put GPS collars on them both to see just exactly where they roam!

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I imagine that their eyes open with a little “plink!” sound.

and

And their ears will pop up with a sort of ‘sprojoing!’ sound

I love the idea of this more than I can possibly express.

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I think you may have addressed this question before, but if so I’ve forgotten the answer. Here’s a random (and kind of gross) question: what do kittens do before they learn to use the litter box?

Warning: grossness alert. If you have a weak stomach (or are eating), skip down to the next section. I’m not kidding!

Oh, it’s grosser than you suspected, I bet. Before kittens are about 2 1/2 weeks old, they cannot urinate or defecate on their own. Therefore, they need to be stimulated to do so by their mother. How does she do this? With her tongue. What happens to the, uh, results of the stimulation? She. Swallows. It.

You weren’t eating, were you? 🙂

When I said Maggie gave me this look after she’d been licking some kitten behind the other day, it was for good reason.

When I’ve had to bottle feed kittens who were without a mother, I had to stimulate them to pee and poop using a piece of paper towel (you can also use a cotton ball or a soft rag) to do the same job, but at least I could throw the whole mess in the trash.

There’s not enough money in the entire world to entice me to do that job the way poor Maggie has to. And after having to do that with all six kittens, numerous times a day, don’t you just know Maggie is THANKING HER LUCKY STARS that she’ll never have another litter?

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Movies!

Firstly, several people have asked what the “soothing-mama” noise that I’ve referred to sounds like. So I got it on video! You’ll hear her make it a bunch of times in this video (no kittens were harmed in the making of this video. I had to move them out of the cave so I could change out the bedding).

And then, kittens hanging out in a purple bed. I call this one “I sit on you head.” Watch it,and you’ll see why.

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Here are those wee babies at one day old:

And here are the little fatties at 10 (actually, might have been 11) days old, same bed:

Princess Poutyface would like to register a complaint, plz.

Fergus Simon McMao has a spotted belly. Awwww.

Cillian is confused.

Macushla rests his head on his brudder’s back.

::ROWRRRRRRRRRR!::

He looks SO much like a little lion cub, doesn’t he?

Sweet Miss Maggie.

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Miz Poo, Jake, Alice and Rufus, hanging out in the kitchen. (And no, Rufus is not becoming a permanent resident. We’re just waiting for room to open up at Petsmart.)

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Previously
2010: I give you three more episodes to figure that fucking horseshit out, and then I’m going to drown the entire fucking cast in the nearest body of water.
2009: Scenes from around Crooked Acres.
2008: It just looked like a great big blob of tumor, is what it looked like.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: “Light” my ass!
2004: An odd duck, that one.
2003: Unfortunately, he lived.
2002: 10 Things I Learned Last Week
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

New month, new banner!

Thank you once again to the wonderful Christine, who’s created so many of my banners recently.

As you know, Christine, you rock! Thank you!

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I was watching TV the other day – one of the hoarding shows I love so much – and had to pause, rewind, and listen again. Then I got out the camera and taped the segment to share with y’all.

Breath cancer, you say? I wonder what the treatment is for that.

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You do know that someone already did the box test. Maru who is a japanese cheezburger sensation. (Maru survived the earthquake)

Maru Box Tournament.

Actually, I must have missed that one. Maru always gets there first. Damn you, Maru! DAAAAMN YOUUUUU!

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Oh, and you are awesome for promising NOT to give in to April Fool’s ridiculousness. I hate that “holiday” because it glorifies practical jokes, which aren’t funny. The only people who find practical jokes funny are those with no real sense of humor to begin with. And, have you noticed that the people who find practical jokes the most funny are people who absolutely cannot stand to have a joke played on them? Talk about being able to dish it out and NOT being able to take it at all. /rant off

Six years ago, I wrote an April Fool’s Day entry that I was pregnant WITH TWINS, and though the majority of readers were all “Ha ha, very funny”, enough people believed it and were a TAD irate, that I swore I’d never pull another April Fool’s Day prank again. I don’t like it when people are mad at me! (But I am still a tiny bit gleeful that I was able to get anyone at all with that.)

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I was awake last night trying to think of an emoticon that I could do of maggie and her giant belleh!
here’s what I’m coming up with:

M
o
O=
s

the belly’s not nearly as huge as I would like for it to be, and you have to look at this like she’s lying on her left side, head up. But the fact that it spells MOOS is pretty damn hilarious.

Too cute!

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It’s about two weeks from being able to feel the babies move and them being birthed. Soooooo…. how long have you had her? How long have you been able to feel the babies move? At least a week, right? She MUST be nearly there, now in that case.

We’ve had her for three weeks as of today. And I’m sure it’s been at least a week since I first felt the babies move. More like a week and a half, I think. I would really really like it if dear sweet wonderful Maggie would BIRTH THOSE BABIES.

But no pressure, Maggie. Whenever you’re ready. I’ll just sit here and shut up, you TAKE YOUR TIME.

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I think you’re out of control. Leave some cats for the rest of us will ya?

That sounds like someone volunteering to take a couple of the more annoying ones off my hands. Shall I package up Elwood for you? 🙂

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I have a question that I have never thought before. What do they do with cats who just don’t deliver? Do they induce? Do you think Maggie has had kittens before?

That’s a good question – I don’t have a clue what they do with cats who just never go into labor. They must do something, mustn’t they?

I don’t know if Maggie’s had babies before, but as she’s guesstimated to be about a year old, it’s possible she’s had a litter, though maybe not likely.

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Awww, so glad to know Corbie has a forever home! Well, he always has, really, but now it’s official! I think you need to reclassify your place as a “cat ranch” or something. Maybe get one of those ranch signs that says “Anderson Cat Ranch” and have some claw marks or a picture of a litterbox on it 😉 And there’s no judging here on the number of permanent residents you have…says the woman who has 11 of her own…hee.

Oh sure, “Crooked Acres Cat Ranch”, with the sign that might as well read “Please dump your unwanted cats here!” (Wait. Maybe there’s already a sign like that out there I don’t know about – that would certainly explain this last year’s worth of dumpees!)

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I was driving behind a car with those stick figure family decals on the rear window and thought how tickled I’d be to see your “family” in decals — you, Fred, the dogs, and row(s) of kitties.

Every time I see those decals, I think about buying a bunch of them for my car. I haven’t yet, but I suspect I will sooner or later!

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Random question: when you take the stray cats you find to be tested, neutered, chips, shots etc., who covers the costs? Is it you and Fred, Challenger’s House – does the clinic donate services? Whoever is covering it is very generous.

If they’re becoming Challenger’s House cats like Newman did, the shelter covers the costs.

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My cat Enrique (mean old man) had to go on a diet a few years ago. I had to get a scale for him, and found the prices on most baby or pet scales were unreasonable for me. Robyn, your Jeffers scale isn’t too bad at $65, BUT what we ended up doing was getting a postal scale. We got an Ultraship 55lb postal scale (currently about $20-25 on Amazon) which was more than enough weight capacity for Enrique and still sensed small weights in ounces. The surface alone is not big enough for a cat, so we’d wait until he was sleeping in his favorite box, then scoop it up and weigh him in the box (deducting the box weight later). And now the scale is in the kitchen and we use it often for cooking and all kinds of random stuff we want to weigh.

This is an excellent idea – and someone else suggested the same idea, later in the week. Great minds think alike. 🙂

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BTW, every time I see this in The Stitchery catalog, I think of you.

I made this one for a friend a number of years ago; it was quick, easy and came out beautifully. I think it would make a nice addition to the kitchen!

That’s one of the patterns I always think of buying when I’m looking at their catalog! I just recently got back to cross-stitching after about a year and a half of not doing it at all, and I have a million and three kits I have yet to attempt. Maybe when I’ve made a dent in those, I’ll get the rooster as a gift for myself. The colors would certainly go well in my kitchen, wouldn’t they?

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I need that compost container! Did you buy it or add holes to a plain container?

It’s just a storage container I bought and drilled holes in (the lid and the bottom). You’re supposed to turn the compost every week or so and I, uh, kinda didn’t. So who knows what the hell I’m going to end up with? The cats certainly like sitting on it, especially Corbie and Elwood.

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She is almost certainly pregnant (the few conditions that would look like this, that come on this quickly would probably cause her pain and you would know something is wrong. Most kitties get enormous before giving birth and as I said a day or so ago Maggie is just now starting to look “ready,” which can still mean as much as a week before full term. The good news is she isn’t wanting to be touched much (probably tender) which is a GOOD sign when it comes to a birthing Momma.

I hate to tell you this but cats can look “ready” up to three weeks before they really are, but in Maggie’s case I don’t think you have to wait that long lol.

Hopefully April 1st, surprise babies, that would be fun..

You know, if this cat goes another three weeks I’m probably going to go nuts with the waiting. IS ALL I’M SAYING, MAGGIE.

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As for Corbie, he’s clearly King of the Compost! Any word on how his equally regal brothers are doing? And what do you do with those dozens of eggs?

I haven’t heard anything about Buster or Rhyme (though I am certain that they are just fine in their new homes), but I know that after 7 weeks, Reacher has FINALLY acclimated to his new home (and his new brother), which you can read about over at Kathy’s site. I have to be honest, I really thought at times that Reacher was going to end up having to come back here to live, because it didn’t seem that he was ever going to get over being a scaredy cat. He’s VERY lucky that Kathy was willing to be patient and work with him, and THANK GOD he finally came around!

As far as the eggs, when Fred brings them in, I go through and separate out the smaller eggs. The bigger ones go into egg cartons, and we sell them for $2 a dozen (we have a “fresh eggs $2/ dozen” sign that Fred puts up at the end of the driveway in the evenings and on weekends). The smaller ones go into the refrigerator, and we eat them. If we run out of the larger eggs, we’ll (when I say “we”, you should know that it’s Fred who handles most of the egg-selling) offer the smaller eggs at $2 for 1 & 1/2 dozen. Sometimes we’ll build up a supply of 10 or 12 dozen and think we’re never going to sell another egg, and then someone stops by and buys every egg we have on hand. People love the farm fresh eggs, and I think they like knowing that they can actually look at the chickens running around the back forty and know that they aren’t caged hens.

Egg sales help pay for chicken feed.

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Maggie’s babies are sure to be the most photographed kittens ever!! Is the camera getting re-charged every day?

Both the big camera and the little one AND the Flip Video AND my cell phone are constantly charging. I don’t want to miss out on snapping a million pictures of the little darlings WHENEVER MAGGIE HANDS THEM OVER THAT IS, DO YOU HEAR ME MAGGIE?!

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Maggie’s got the girth, and she’s looking a touch crabby. But still a fine looker! How long is a kitten’s gestation period?

61 – 69 days, according to their breed, is what I’ve read. And she’s been with us for 21 days. ANY DAY NOW, MAGGIE.

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Robyn, do any of your fosters have blogs their folks set up when they took them home? Just wonderin’.

As far as I know, no. Unfortunately. Because I think a blog written by Buster would be AWESOME.

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Hey Robyn, are any of the kitties in need of additional spoiling? 😀 Saw this article and immediately thought of you.

I’ll take one of each, please! 😀

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I have to laugh at that photo of you holding up Maggie so you can see her belly. When I saw Maggie, she reminded me so much of the foster mom I had that took 30 days to give birth at my house, that I knew it was going to be a while. Because here is my shot of her.

And I thought you might like this one too.

If I have to wait 30 days for Maggie to give birth, my head will pop off. I LOVE those pictures! 🙂

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You can always cut the permanent resident total by two by having you and Fred live in a tent in the back yard.

Why live in a tent when we could live in the chicken coop with the chickens? There’s plenty of room in there!

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And yay for Corbie staying! Such a pretty kitty. How’s the skinny back legs issue going, the supplements helping any?

It’s kind of hard to tell – I’ve thought once or twice that his back half was getting bigger, but then I looked at him from another angle and thought he looked smaller. It’s been a month – actually more like five weeks, I think – since we started giving him his supplements. I need to get him back to the vet and have her look him over so we can determine how he’s doing.

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So is there a limit imposed by your town ordinances or by the shelter?

There are no limits on animals imposed by town ordinances, because we live in the country and no one cares what we’re doing out here. 🙂 As far as the shelter, I’m sure Susan would put her foot down if we got to the point where we were overwhelmed or just had more cats than we could comfortably take care of. I would like to say here that 14 is our limit, permanent-residents-wise, but of course if I were foolish enough to declare that, we’d immediately have to add 3 more cats to the house.

Like I reminded Fred yesterday, at one point last Fall I honestly thought we were going to end up keeping all four Bookworms because they’d had no luck at Petsmart. But by keeping just the one Bookworm, we’re really DOWN in numbers from where I thought we’d be!

(Fred calls that “Robyn math”)

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People are fickle sometimes. I found a dog on the side of the road. She was 1 or 2 yrs old. Abused. Chow or chow-mix. Sweeeetest thing ever! She had heartworms and tick paralysis when I found her and she was super skinny. Who ever owned her had cut her hair really really short with sissors. Her fur was sunburned and in poor condition. We took her to the vet and had her treated for her ailments. I posted and asked around if anyone wanted to adopt her and stated that you need to have vision and see in your mind’s eye what she will become. NO responses. My sister-in-law, at the the time, was keeping her at her house. Her fur grew out quickly and she put on weight. She was a completely gorgeous dog! I sent around an email titles “If you were curious….” and showed her before pics and after pics. I wanted to educate people and a bit of it was a “fungule to you”…I admit! 🙂 Soooo many people wanted to take her home then. I told them “Nope!”…as my sister-in-law fell so in love with her that she was keeping her. She ended up being their very best dog…and much much sweeter than any of her golden retrievers.

I wish for everyone out there….”vision”.

By the way…chatty and social cats are the best companions. You won’t ever be lonely…and they are great company!

Two thumbs up; may more people develop the vision to see what a cat or dog can turn into, given time and love.

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Hmm… maybe you should have done a “how round can Maggie possibly get” pool! Have you ever thought to measure her belleh and see how much she is growing day to day?

I wish I’d measured her midsection when we brought her home, but I didn’t even think of it.

I can tell you, though, that she was 9.9 pounds when I got her from the vet, and yesterday she weighed in at 12 pounds 10 ounces!

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So, is Newman staying with you now? The other cats are gonna be all “Newman!” everytime they find him in one of their napping spots or eating out of the bowl when they’re looking for a snack, hee hee.

No, Newman went to the shelter Tuesday, where he’s being treated for all the parasites he has, poor boy.

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The Kitten Crew has a live cam of a mother with 5 kittens. I’ve been using it to treat Impatience-with-Maggie Syndrome. Plus, the little cow kitty has a panda face! And one of the white-with-tabbies opened his/her eyes this morning! Squeeeeeeeeeeee!

Live kitten cam here.

I’ve been watching that live kitten cam for the past few days, and it’s just making me more and more impatient for Maggie to get the show on the road! LOVE wee baby kittens and their squirming around. Squeeeeeee is right!

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I LOVE that last shot of Maggie (“A shot from above so you can see the spread”); it reminds me of a LOLcat that had me laughing all day.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Love it!

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Is it trouble with anal glands that causes cats to scoot? Only one of ours does it, just curious.

I think scooting can be caused by anal gland issues, yes. Cats with worms often scoot, too, and I can tell you from personal experience that cats who are too large to reach their own behinds will often scoot, thus using your carpet as toilet paper, which is THE NASTIEST THING EVER and should be a hanging offense.

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Ohmygod, SO RUDE, taking pictures of the pregnant lady from behind.

And from the side. (That’s the new scratcher I bought specifically for Her Majesty, because the one that was in there was too light and would flip up whenever she put her weight on it. And girlfriend LOVES her some claw-sharpening.)

Pregnant cat is pregnant. (And grumpy.)

She’s got that pregnant glow, no?

As a reminder, check in on the spreadsheet and/ or the Love & Hisses Facebook page. If she goes into labor, that’s where I’ll be posting it first, though of course I don’t think it’ll take me long to post it here, either. That’s what netbooks are for!

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Rufus, asleep atop the cat tree in the front room, covering his eyes from the flash.

He is SUCH a sweet boy. He loves to follow Alice around and watch her do naughty things like nose around in the sink to see if there are any scraps of food, or hover under my feet in case I’m struck with the urge to hand out treats. Wherever Alice is, Rufus is sure to follow. He’s also been spotted picking play-fights with Corbie and Jake. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – he’s certainly come a long way!

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Spanky: Pretty on Pink.

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Previously
2010: Random dogs and other stuff.
2009: Fred giggled helplessly. Which somehow did not help.
2008: However, I don’t subscribe to the “only pick it up if it’s heads up!” theory of thought.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: There’s a saying that men make plans and god laughs.
2004: No entry.
2003: Won’t be happening in my lifetime, thanks.
2002: No entry.
2001: I get the weirdest freakin’ referrals to my site.
2000: No entry.

Your best places for the up-to-date info on Maggie this weekend is to either check the spreadsheet – as the time of each entry passes, I’ll do a cross-out of that entry and a note on the side – or you can check the Facebook page from time to time, I’ll post there too.

Whenever it happens (unless it’s the dead of night, mind you), I’ll be there with the camera and my phone to make sure everyone knows what Maggie’s status is!

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Would you please let me know where you found the X shaped scratcher? I think my boys would really enjoy it. Thank you!

That is the Petstages Soothing Cat Easy Life Hammock and Scratcher. I got mine by using my Fresh Step points on the Fresh Step website, but they’re apparently not offering it any more. The only place I’m able to find it online is at Amazon, here.

It’s probably just about the most popular piece of “furniture” (if you can call it that) in the house. There’s always a cat on it!

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Sounds like a cat got on your dresser and ran off with the dead wasp’s body (I hope) 🙂

Well, my dresser is about the only piece of furniture in the house the cats can’t get on top of (partly because it’s so high and they can’t jump that far straight up, and partly because it’s always got stuffed piled on top of it and there’s no room for them), but I like to think that that murderous wasp limped out of the crumpled up piece of paper towel and plummeted over the side of the dresser before being eaten by a cat. Our cats regularly attempt to eat live, buzzing-around wasps, I’m sure a half-dead wasp would be no trouble for them!

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So I gotta ask how your phone is doing now that you’ve had it a week? I know you did post a short follow up when you got it. I actually did get the same phone myself but went to Wally World and got mine. This is completely new to me since I only had a basic cell phone before. It was really easy to set up and get a new phone number. I’m learning all the ins and outs of it. My husband actually has this exact model too (which I didn’t know since I don’t pay much attention to it), so he has been helping me out setting it up. I’m liking the FB, Twitter and mail things on it but finding it distracting. 🙂 What kind of plan did you get? I started off the smallest since I don’t really use my phone to call out a lot. I usually only have it for emergencies. At least if I start using it a lot, I can upgrade. My hubby is jealous because my plan is so cheap while he pays a lot for his and has a contract. This is through another provider and not Virgin Mobile. Anyways, thanks for the recommendation!

After using it for a week, my only gripe is the battery refusing to last for more than a day and a half. I did turn the back light way down (it was a little too dark when I turned it all the way off), and I did set it to not use the wireless in the house all the time, and that did help the battery last a bit longer (thanks, you guys who suggested those two options). I’d like it if the battery lasted longer, but it doesn’t kill me to plug the phone in every night, and I bought a car charger just in case I’m far from home (ha) and need to call someone or check my email.

I downloaded some free bubble-popping game, but what I find is that when I can, say, stand in line at the grocery store and check Facebook or Twitter or my email, I tend to do that rather than play a game.

I REALLY like the camera on the phone, I think it takes a pretty decent picture – I snapped a shot of Alice at the vet yesterday and was able to post it right to Facebook, which I liked.

I got the cheapest plan, the $25 a month, which includes 300 minutes a month and that’s far more than I will ever use. The unlimited text, email, data & web is what appealed to me the most.

If I spent a lot of time on the phone or a lot of time traveling and couldn’t plug the phone in to charge every night, I might have a problem with the battery not lasting very long, but that’s not an issue for me, so I’m going to say that the phone is a definite two thumbs up for me!

My new baby in her protective yellow case.

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My aunt used to joke that she would never let a cat of any form in her house so my mom and me as well as other friends of my aunt would hide cat objects in my aunt’s house. Occasionally, we’d get a letter in the mail with the object when she found it. We would always leave a clue with the object so she could figure out who gifted it to her. My favorite on was a whisker that my mom found in the car long after our cat passed. My Mom set it on a shelf. She found it and knew it was from us. A few months later, the whisker came in the mail. Ha Ha!

I love family stories like that – your aunt sounds like a hoot! 🙂

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How do you weigh your cats? Do you (or Fred) weigh yourself with and without cat, or do you have a scale that measures 20 lbs or less? My big boy is on a diet and I would like to track how he’s doing, but I don’t have a home scale and I don’t remember them being that accurate anyway. Thanks.

I own one of these scales, which I bought last year (I think). Before that, I weighed kittens in a bowl on the kitchen scale, but once they get past a certain age and weight, that isn’t very easy to do given how hard they can flail.

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I saw this and thought you’d like it.

That is so neat! One of the things I hate about cross-stitching is having to chart everything out myself when I want to do a particular saying. This is going to come in handy!

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Is Fred in fucking shorts already?! Is it warm enough there for fucking shorts! I hate you guys. Until babies you know, but until then…

Fred will wear shorts pretty much year-round, though in early January he switches over to jeans. But I should add, if I MUST be truthful, that I was wearing shorts on Tuesday because it was close to 80 outside. 🙂

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I was 13 years old and took in a stray cat, much to my mom and dads dismay. She was very pregnant. I would watch her lay on her side and see the babies rolling. From the time I saw the babies rolling, to the time of delivery was exactly 5 days. Not sure that will help you with your wait, especially with all the variables.

Adding another tidbit to that story. I woke up around midnight hearing little “mews” coming from down the hall. I knew that my cat had had her babies, so I followed their “mews”. Where was mama cat? On top of my 8 year old brothers chest, licking the 3 kitties she just gave birth to!!! I turned on the light, which awoke my brother (the light woke him up but not a cat giving birth to three kitties and all the bloody mess, go figure) and he looked down at his chest and screamed like he had just seen a monster, which I am sure looked like he did. Anyway…totally useless info, but a funny story, no?

Definitely a funny story!

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Today on the radio (in Dallas, TX no less) they mentioned a controversy surrounding a bill in Maine to name the whoopie pie the official state dessert. You know, of course, who I immediately thought of 🙂

Mmm… whoopie pies…. I could go for a lobster roll for dinner and a whoopie pie for dessert!

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I wonder if Alice and Miz Poo are going to turn into Mean Girls, making fun of Stinkerbelle and spreading rumors about her?

That would not surprise me in the slightest. They certainly have the Mean Girls look about them, don’t they?

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Are those starters in your house? We only have two cats, but every time I either try to start plants or nurture little ones from the nursery, my cats have a field day destroying them.

Oh, good lord no. I’d never in a million years try to start seeds in the house, and for that matter the only way I could see having any kind of plant in the house would be if it was hanging where the cats couldn’t get to it. Our flats of started seeds live in the garage, upstairs in front of the window where the sun shines for a good part of the day.

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When you started the seedlings in the styrofoam egg containers, did you poke a hole in the bottom for the water to drain? Or line them with pebbles or something? Or will water just drain thru the styrofoam? Or are you just so careful that you don’t overwater them? Because I can see an epic mess in my future were I to try that!

Fred’s a notorious overwaterer when it comes to seedlings, so I poked holes in the bottoms of the egg cartons. Otherwise they’d drown and I wouldn’t have my 90 tomato plants to keep me busy this summer!

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You should download WordFeud for the Android! It’s a fun crossword game, similar to Lexulous on Facebook. Also, I will bet you would like Angry Birds almost as much as Snood. 🙂

I suck pretty badly at Angry Birds. When those GODDAMN pigs smile at me I want to kick those motherfuckers. I’ll check out WordFeud, though, and continue to hope that one day there’ll be such a thing as Snood for the Android.

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It seems like your group can adopt the heck out of cats! I mean – you’re not the only foster mom and there seems to be space opening up fairly often. Do you know about how many adoptions your group does? And how many they take in?
My other question is kind of icky – but I’m asking anyway. You don’t have to answer. But, I know that vets will spay pregnant females – is that something that you guys are against doing or is it a timing thing? Not that I hate kittens – I’m just curious.

In 2010, Challenger’s House took in 180 cats and kittens and adopted out 169. That’s a lot of cats! (When I told Fred the numbers, he said “Did WE keep the other 11?” Ha!)

Someone asked about spaying pregnant cats last year, and I’ll just cut and paste what the shelter manager said then:

Yes, we do spay pregnant cats and yes we have spayed them right up pretty close to term. Every spring we get call after call about pregnant cats. Although we do spay many of them, most of us hate to. So early in the “season” the first couple pregnant cats we take are left to have their babies. When foster homes are full and there is no more space available then it becomes necessary to spay them while they are pregnant.

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Rufus reminds me of my sister’s cat Louis Arnold (she always gave her cats two names). He was so gorgeous and would actually come running from the other side of the house if we called him. Like all boy kitties, he was very affectionate.

Now I want to adopt Rufus. I’d have to name him Rufus Windsor or George Pompidou or something silly like that.

It seems like cats need two names, doesn’t it? I tend to add “McGee” many of my cats’ names (Suggie McGee, for one.). Alice is usually either Princess Alice or Alice MO-rales (and I’ve recently taken to calling her “Alice Mo” and “Ally Mo”). Elwood has become Elly Belly, and Jake is, of course, Loony Pants. Something about two names just rolls off the tongue a little better for some reason.

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Poor Joe Bob. Can you please get him a bigger box? He is making me uncomfortable. That has to hurt with corners and creases all up in his pits. Cats are such curious creatures.

I have GOT to do an experiment where I put two boxes down – one large, one small – and document the way Joe Bob and Spanky insist upon cramming themselves into the smaller box. It must make them feel safe. Maybe they’re reliving the feeling of being wee babies in the womb.

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Yesterday I was talking with my husband on the phone, he laughs and tells me “Squiggy is licking Lenny’s ass.” I say “Are they on your lap?” “Yes” My question to you is, do any of your kitties lick each others butts? Lenny and Squiggy are litter-mates, would that have anything to do with it? Or are our kitties especially disgusting?

ALL kitties are especially disgusting. Not three hours after I originally read this question, I saw Corbie lick Rufus’s ass. Rufus put up with it, and then looked appalled and ran away. I had to ask Fred if he’d seen any of our other cats do it, and he reminded me that Mister Boogers used to do it all the time. ALL the time.

Cats are so nasty.

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Love those blue boys!! It was hard to tell them apart as youngsters, not anymore. Does Elwood let Jake have any of the treats?

Although Elwood is a big eater (obviously), I find that Jake is the one who’ll come take food right out of your hand. He’s much smaller than Elwood, but he’s not starving to death. Maybe Elwood’s got a slower metabolism. Yeah, that’s it!

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Any changes in Maggie’s behavior? (We want kittens!)

No changes – she just keeps getting bigger and bigger! Still eating tons, still coming over for love and petting, still greeting me at the door and talking to me!

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How’s Rufus finding the great wide world?

Rufus is spending the better part of the day under the couch in the front room. He lets me pull him out from under the couch, and he’ll sit in my lap and purr. I take him into the guest bedroom and give him some time to use the litter box and eat without interference from the other cats, then I open the door again. Sometimes he stays in the guest bedroom and hangs out on his cat tree, and sometimes he sniffs around the house a little before he ends up under the couch again.

Yesterday, Corbie hung out with Rufus for a little while under the couch.

I think Rufus will come out when he wants to – until then, I’ll pull him out from time to time and give him lots of love and snuggles.

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Nooooooooooooope. Nuttin’ yet!

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Under the guest bedroom bed.

Laying in my lap, purring up a storm.

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Alice on the cat tree in the front room.

Yesterday, Alice had to go to the vet. She cried pitifully all the way there, and then she fought like a little demon when they tried to take her temperature (which they were ultimately unable to do), and then she gave the vet the dirtiest look when she dared to listen to Alice’s lungs.

Poor Alice has allergies, and the pollen is making her sit around with her mouth open because she can hardly breathe through her nose. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t something worse, and was relieved to find out it wasn’t. Like her daddy, Alice just suffers from allergies. She’ll have a miserable week or two, then hopefully she’ll feel better.

Not that being all stuffed up has slowed her down, you understand. She’s still eating just fine, picking fights, playing.

Just occasionally, she needs a nap. With her fangs showing and her tongue sticking out a bit.

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Previously
2010: And I said, “We have a lot of cats.”
2009: For they are fearsome creatures.
2008: “My flabby sections” would be an excellent band name.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: The spud is officially licensed.
2004: Ain’t it always the way that when you call someone names in your journal, secure in the knowledge that they’ll never see it, they always do?
2003: (And before you say it, yes. You shouldn’t give a shit what I think, either.)
2002: Is it just me?
2001: No entry.
2000: If you knew you’d get $341 million for being treated savagely and cruelly for 7 years, would you do it?

Good lord, I’ve been so lazy this week. I did go to the grocery store on Tuesday to pick up a few things, and apparently that was just too much for my delicate self to handle, because I’ve hardly done a single thing since. Lots of TV-watching, and I’ve been cross-stitching again for the first time in about a year and a half, visiting with Maggie and Rufus in their respective rooms several times a day, but other than that? Nada.

I think when a show like Extreme Couponing sounds like a show I want to check out, I might be watching too much TV.

I’m feeling lots better these days, but the end of the day swelling is more than a little annoying. I’m still putting the compression garment (the one that compresses my arms and chest) on at night and then taking it off in the morning, and wearing a sports bra during the day. My neck is still saggy and bothers me to look at in the mirror but I found this page so soothing that I bookmarked it and am going back to re-read it several times a day because I’m a dork.

The waiting is the motherfucking hardest part, yo.

I have been cooking dinner all this week, I guess that’s something. I made a New England Boiled Dinner for dinner yesterday because it was St. Patrick’s Day, of course. (The recipe is like this one, but the one I actually follow is in a Marjorie Standish cookbook that my mother gave me, oh, 20+ years ago. It’s the best cookbook ever, is what it is. I use way more veggies in my New England Boiled Dinner, and the one linked above doesn’t include onions. In fact, I’ll probably still be eating the veggies long after the corned beef is gone.)

So, that’s the state of me. Watching too much TV, doing some cross-stitching, and waiting for those damn baby kittens to be born!

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I don’t mind snakes so much as spiders. Had you had a picture of a huge, black spider on your tree, I would have freaked out. Brrrrr……. Even seeing a picture of a spider makes me itch. 🙂

Oh, just you wait. Spring is here, there’ll be plenty of pictures of creepy crawlies in the months ahead to keep you shuddering!

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SHITSHITSHIT!!!! I didn’t realize the fuckers CLIMB TREES!!! Oh, God…that is HORRIFYING. If I came across that while going about my business, it wouldn’t matter if it was poisonous or not (and really…who stops to actually check??) because I’d shit, then die.

This made me LOL. The only reason I mentioned that it wasn’t poisonous is because I knew SOMEONE out there would want to know. And Newt was spending so much time staring up at the damn thing that I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to get annoyed and turn around and bite and kill him.

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1) the snake is creepy, even if he is non-venomous. 2) have you seen this? 17 things about cats? Pretty interesting post from our local humane society – http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cat_know 3) you have some namesakes. My foster cats, who I refused to name lest they become permanent residents, well I started calling the girl kitty Bessie for some reason and then once I realized what I was doing, I had to name her brother Fred. They are both very cute, but Bessie definitely prefers to stay in her bedroom/my office and away from any strange people or dogs. Fred is more adventuresome, and luckily for him – very quick. And I guess they are now permanents.

The snake was WAY creepy – it was like that scene they cut from The Exorcist where she spiderwalks down the stairs. (Warning: CREEPY LINK HERE.) Just all kinds of wrong.

I had seen that link at The Oatmeal and think it’s pretty interesting.

And awwww, we have kittens named after us! Pictures, please?

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When my cat Misty had her babies, she was all over the place the day before and morning of labor. She was jumping from one place to the next and was very restless. I had to report for jury duty the morning she had them so I missed the action but I knew it was coming because she lost her mucus plug (which I found on my pillow!!!), when I came home she met me at the door (very unusual) and gave me a “I’m a proud mama come look at what I did” look. She led me to the birthing box and hopped in and got on top of them. I was only gone for about 4 hours, so she must have started popping them out right after I left.

Truly, the only two things I remember about Kara giving birth is that I knew it was happening because I found the mucus plug on the floor. And then she pursed her lips at me (I kid you not, every time she had a contraction, she pursed her lips at me. I wish like hell I’d gotten a picture of that, because I’d never known a cat could do that). So far, Maggie has done nothing but greet me at the door every time I go into her room, talks to me until I sit down, gets some petting, and then goes over to the food bowl to eat. I hope she’s not getting bored in there! I can occasionally hear her playing, so she’s amusing herself somewhat.

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Maggie sounds like AFLAC MAGGIE!

Indeed she does! She’s getting more talkative, too, I need to make another movie. She cracks me UP.

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I’ve been jonesing to start seeds but the news says that atomic dust particles will be coming our way (to the northwest coast) from the four Japanese reactors. It’s killed my enthusiasm to plant!

Aww, come on. Don’t you want to see what kind of mutant shit you’ll grow? (I’m keeping it light, obviously, but that all kinds of sucks.)

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Robyn, you really need to link to Nance in tomorrow’s post, just to make sure nobody misses out on the hilarity of the HoHo cake. I’m still dabbing my eyes and trying to catch my breath!

Here ’tis. I have to say, it might look like crap, but I bet you anything it was very tasty!

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The iPad is basically an oversized iPod Touch. In fact, we refer to our touches as iPad Nanos 😉

That is actually what I want an iPad for, to replace my iPod Touch! I’d like something with a larger screen to watch TV shows and videos on, and to catch up on blog reading. It’d certainly never replace my netbook, I love that thing too much!

I don’t use my iPod to listen to songs or podcasts on, because it was so expensive I’m scared I’ll break it. Instead, when I’m doing housework or working in the garden, I listen to podcasts on a Sansa SanDisk I bought at Woot. They had them for a pretty good price at one point, so I bought one and a backup just in case. It’s so small and light that I can just clip it to the front of my shirt and not worry about dropping it on the ground.

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All I could think of when seeing these pictures was, “Do chickens swim?”

They don’t swim, but they wade! I’m sure they were wishing they were ducks last week, though.

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Happy Virtual Anniversary (this would be year 15, right?)

That’s right, it’s been 15 years since Fred and I met online. And the day went by with neither of us remembering it. In fact when I said the next day “You didn’t even wish me a happy 15th anniversary!”, he had NO idea I was talking about the anniversary of the day we met. He thought I was referring to our wedding anniversary, and he thought we hadn’t been married that long (he was right, it’ll be 13 years this Halloween), but he shrugged and wished me a happy 15th anyway. Heh.

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Since you’ve been talking about the LG Optimus V from Virgin Mobile, you’ve got me interested. Can you tell me what’s great about this particular phone and using Virgin mobile? We have Sprint. I mainly use my phone for emergencies and hardly ever make calls. I like the fact that Virgin offers unlimited text, data, etc with little talk minutes. I currently pay $15/mo for my basic no text phone (yep that old). But my husband got it at a great deal years and years ago. I’m ready to upgrade, I think!

What mostly put me over the edge about the phone was looking at the reviews on the Virgin Mobile website – you can check them out here. It’s rated much higher by users than any of their other phones, and the reviews are pretty much glowing. I’m a little iffy about the fact that it doesn’t have a pull-out QWERTY keyboard (which is my favorite feature about the phone I have now), but I’m certainly willing to give it a try. Since I’ve been dying for a smartphone since the iPhone came out, but have always balked at the monthly fees for those things, I am VERY excited at the idea of having one.

And mine will be here later today! CANNOT WAIT!

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Just put his name on the permanent residents list and when Fred notices say “this old thing? He’s been there forever!”

I’ll make no bones about it – I do want to adopt Corbie and keep him here forever and ever. I’m having a hard time convincing Fred of that, though, which I ask you: is that fair? I think NOT. I’m sure Fred will cave sooner or later if he knows what’s good for him, but hell – I certainly don’t have to tell him every-damn-thing that goes on around here, do I? I could always shrug and say “I dunno! I guess no one wants him!”

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I am betting you Maggie holds out for a good long time. As much as I love little teeny tiny baby kitties, I think she has figured out that *this* is THE LIFE. Food, personal servants, more food, tummy scritches, her own private guest room and bath… I mean really, why mess that up with kids? 🙂

She’s no dummy, that’s for sure! She’s already figured out that sometimes when I go into the closet of the foster room (I keep that door closed, because I don’t want her to go in there to give birth, I want her to do it in the foster room itself!), sometimes I come out with a can of food that I then open and put onto a plate for her. When I have to go into the closet for any reason, she stands right there and quacks at me ’til I come back out. If I’m not carrying a can of cat food, she sits down on the floor and glares at me. She’s such a character.

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“I shall ignore you until you bring me the canned food. You bring me the canned food, I’ll think about possibly finding you a kitten or six.”

I think I haven’t mentioned this, but Maggie is foster number 144 (I’m assuming I counted right and haven’t forgotten anyone, which is entirely possible). If she has six babies, that will put us at a grand total of 150!

(But, y’know, no pressure or anything, Maggie!)

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Rufus, snuggling with my dirty sock and giving me the attitude.

Thinkin’ deep thoughts.

“WHAT?”

Rufus has finally felt comfortable enough around me that yesterday when I went in to hang out with him, instead of running under the bed to hide and then slowly coming out to flop against me like he usually does, he kept playing. He did eventually come over to me for snuggles, but I like that he finished playing first.

Now we need to work on getting him a little more relaxed. I’d like to let him out into the house because I think he gets bored in that room alone. Corbie did go in to say hi for a while yesterday, but I think having lots of cats and toys to play with is just what he needs. He’s still enough of a scaredy cat that I don’t want to let him loose in the house, though – he’d probably just hide under the couch and never come out. Maybe by the middle of the week next week we can let him out for a short roam and see how it goes.

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Joe Bob say, “Hel-LO laydeez! How YOU doin’?!”

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2010: Cat questions, answered.
2009: I don’t know what on earth ever made him think that my desire for plastic surgery has anything at all to do with the level of love he might feel for me, silly man, but bless his big bald pointed head for giving it the ol’ college try.
2008: Sadie’s like the older, tolerant sister who puts up with the brat.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No doubt she wishes I’d leave her the hell alone and just let her SLEEP, GODDAMNIT.
2004: I’m known for my dumbassery, though.
2003: Get your cart OVER TO THE SIDE SO I CAN GET PAST YOUR STUPID ASS.
2002: Good riddance to boring characters, I say.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

I’m wondering if any of your three older cats like to jump up on the shelves in the kitchen -(which was a great idea, by the way) – or are their high places days over?

Miz Poo doesn’t really jump up anywhere unless it’s to be next to a person (the highest place I’ve seen her in recent memory would be the back of the couch – just before she stepped down on me to settle in), and Spanky doesn’t go any higher than the kitchen countertops. Actually, Spanky on the countertops is a relatively new development, and he seems kind of unsure what exactly he’s doing up there. He jumps up, looks around, glares at the cats on the kitchen floor, and then jumps back down. Maxi doesn’t jump up on the shelves in the kitchen, but she’s made the platform in the front room all hers.

She spends a lot of time up there in the evenings and during the days when it’s cold outside. Occasionally Jake or Elwood will go up there when she’s off roaming outside somewhere, but for the most part it belongs to her.

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That might have been me with the initial golf ball suggestion because I remember writing about it here before. 🙂

In addition to the golf balls (which act as “obstacles to the food”), I do more frequent but smaller meals throughout the day which has been very successful. I got an automated pet feeder that can give up to 8 small meals a days when I’m not home – I had one for each cat. I have this one.

Wet food also seems to be less barf-inducing than dry food for my guy. But he won’t always eat the wet food, so I sprinkle a few kibbles of dry food on top, pushing them in a little to embed and coat them in the wet food, and he’ll usually continue to eat the wet food once the dry is all gone.

As well, my barfer is a groomer, so half the barfing was due to fur balls. I got a Furminator brush and it’s really really cut down on the fur balls. So if fur balls are part of the problem, I highly recommend this brush!

Sadly, my big guy who ate all the food was doing so because he had cushings disease (amongst other problems), and he passed away last year. Since then, his brother who is the barfer has slowed down when eating and I suspect it’s because there is no longer competition for that food. So if you can separate to eliminate competition that might help too.

Thanks for the tips, Dee – and I’m sorry to hear about your big guy.

(I second the Furminator love – those brushes are awesome!)

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Curiosity is getting the better of me. Is there a reason why you leave the chicken in the fridge for a few days?

I know with game meats you hang them for a few days before butchering because it tastes better and allows the all the blood to run out. Is it the same thing?

I had to ask Fred for the reason behind letting the chicken “age”, and he said that it’s because it tenderizes the chicken. Judging by the Crockpot Swiss Chicken we had for dinner the other night, I’d say it works well!

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I see you still have the Bookworms. You’ve had them for a pretty long time haven’t you? How long do you usually keep a litter before you take them in to be adopted? The 2 I have now I was only supposed to have for 2 weeks as they were so sick and they would have died at the shelter. They got over the respiratory sickness in about 2 weeks, but then had ringworm. Just finished the oral meds for that yesterday and Luvee developed an eye thing that is now much better as of yesterday. So now we’ve had them a month. They are very social and loving now. I’m thinking they’ll go back on Tuesday. At first we would keep a litter around 2 weeks, but now I’m thinking at least a month is needed for them to be fully social and loving. The ones I had only kept for about 2 weeks seemed to take longer to get adopted and the ones that are here longer were adopted within a week. Thoughts from you my Foster kitty momma Yoda?

March will be a year since the Bookworms came to live with us – they were about five weeks old at the time.

I think that on average, kittens stay with us for about 2 months before they go to the adoption center. There are those who stay for shorter periods of time, and some who stay longer, but 2 months is about average. Really, it all depends on the kittens – some of them come to us perfectly socialized, and some of them need more time. In a perfect fostering situation, they come to us, get over whatever issues they arrive with (almost all of our fosters come to us with coccidia or giardia – or BOTH), and then have a few weeks to have the run of the house, get used to the noise of the TV, decide that the vacuum cleaner won’t eat them (or decide that it will!), and just generally relax into what it’s like to live in a house with people and other cats.

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We need an invisible fence for our barn cats as we are moving. I was wondering what brand of fence you use and how long the batteries last in the collars?

PetSafe makes the fence and collars we use, and this is the system we use.

That’s the fence (which we run along the bottom of the fence in our back yard and around the tops of the gates), and we use both the collar on that page, as well as this kind of collar.

I would say that the batteries for the collars (I buy the batteries on eBay) probably last for at least 2 months, if not longer. You can also find the collars on eBay for less than you’d pay direct from PetSafe.

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Question (and if you’ve already addressed this, I apologize; I promise I’m not a Damn Skimmer!): What does your doctor say is your expected recuperation period following the surgery? You always seem to bounce back really quickly, but I was wondering, with numerous body parts involved this time, if you were going to be out of commission a bit longer than usual.

He told me that it’d be the standard 6 weeks, and I’m hoping it doesn’t take any longer than that because I don’t want my recovery time to mess with plantin’ (the garden) time!

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I’m just writing to my favourite cat blogger/guru with a query. We’ve just adopted two rescue cats here in the UK. They’ve settled in really well and we are loving having cats again after our old cat died in autumn last year. One small query though – one of the cats is obsessed with the water tap (faucet). He will frequently jump on the worktop or sink in the bathroom and lick the tap. Sometime the tap dribbles and he’ll sit and drink any water that comes out. I wondered if you’d had this problem with any of your cats and if anything can be done to discourage him? We put a full bowl of fresh water out every day for them, which they do drink from, but still doesn’t seem to stop the obsession with the faucet.

Any guidance welcome – I just can’t help thinking it’s not too hygenic to be using water from a tap that a cat has licked !!

I was going to recommend getting a cat water fountain (my cats use both the Petmate and the Drinkwell – I find the Petmate to be quieter, so the fountain in the upstairs bathroom (directly across the hall from my bedroom) is a Petmate. They don’t seem to prefer one kind over the other, though. Leonore had some advice (in case you missed it in the comments):

One of my cats is also fascinated with the faucet and loves to drink from it. She’ll lick the actual faucet sometimes but usually she’ll go for the puddle in the sink while waiting for me to turn the water on. She does drink from her bowl but prefers the faucet when she can get it.

From everything I’ve read, this is fairly normal behavior for a cat. There are a couple of theories: the cat prefers the fresher water straight from the tap; she is attracted to the movement of the flowing water; cats like to “find” their food and water, so “finding” running water in the sink is more appealing than the stagnant water in the bowl; cats prefer their water source to be farther away from their food.

As for the hygiene issue, I never really thought of it and don’t really know if it would be a big deal at all. I suppose if you’re worried about it, just running the water hot for a few seconds might wash away any germs left behind. Or you could always keep disinfecting wipes nearby and give the faucet head a quick wipe before using it. But I would probably be more worried about the cat ingesting any chemicals from the wipes!

Oh yeah, here’s an article I found that might be useful for you:

How to stop a cat from drinking out of a faucet.

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So who are the pee offenders do you think? (Or are they all crafty and make darn sure they can’t ever be busted?) I seem to recall you saying Sugarbutt has been guilty of it before. Do some of them get princessy? Hope they settle down soon! What number of cats do you think is good for keeping things stable around your home? (I hope MY looney Jake is not among them… I luurve him, and plan to steal him one day!;) )

Before Monday, I would have told you that Sugarbutt and Joe Bob are the offenders. However, Monday evening I was making dinner and goddamn Joe Bob came into the kitchen and casually backed up to one of the cabinets, sprayed it, and sauntered off. I didn’t realize immediately what he was doing, or I would have had a stronger reaction. As it was, I swore up a storm, got out the spray bottle, and cleaned it up.

Not two minutes later, Spanky walked into the kitchen, backed up to the pantry (diagonal across the kitchen from where Joe Bob had sprayed) and let out a full pee WHILE I STOOD RIGHT THERE. I was so outraged that I bellowed his name, which made him jump and run off, and Fred came running from the other room to see what the hell was going on.

So I can say that Joe Bob and Spanky are the ones who’ve sprayed various spots of the kitchen (I think you can imagine how lovely I find this) and I think Sugarbutt contributes to other spots in the house.

While I blamed the spraying to the large number of cats in the house, it didn’t actually start until after the Bradys went off to Petsmart – which lessened the number of cats in the house – so I don’t know what the hell the issue is. I’m vigilant about cleaning up the spray, and I’ve plugged in Feli-Way plug-ins in various places through the house (though I’ve heard it can take up to 30 days to start working?). The spraying seems to have lessened this week – though not stopped completely – and I’m hoping that this pissapalooza is nearing an end.

I truly don’t know what number of cats in the house would be the “right” number – I think it depends more on the cats’ personalities, and at the moment Spanky and Joe Bob seem to be battling for alpha cat status in the house. I never would have guessed Spanky to be one of the offenders, honestly, it was shocking to see!

Loony Jake would never pee outside of the litter box. He’s a GOOD boy (and I’m praying that just saying that will make it so!)

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Saw this, thought of you. Hope you get over the jumpies soon

6 reasons kittens suck.

So true!

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I had a Robyn/Fred dream last night. I just showed up at your house, since you were always inviting people to just stop by. Not only that, I just walked into your house and waited for you to see me! You were dressed in a football jersey (you had long blond hair and weighed about 100 pounds) and were about to head off to a “player’s meeting”. You said this was your “first day back” but I didn’t ask where you had been, since I didn’t want you to think I was a skimmer! You made me hide in the bathroom when Fred came home and you were telling him about this crazy woman. Then I woke up. The End.

Bwahah, that’s us! Always inviting people to stop by!

Have I mentioned that I love it when you guys dream about us? 🙂

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Taking those babies to Petsmart is one of the toughest things you must have to do, but it’s better for all. I came across this site and thought this might be a good project for Fred (lol).

Cat ladders.

I think we could definitely use some cat ladders in this house!

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Ruby our cocker is a cat chaser. Elphaba has grown up with it I think an older cat would freak. I scold Ruby but nothing seems to work. She doesn’t hurt her just tortures her with the chasing. I wonder if any cat/dog households have this issue and a possible solution? She seems to do it more now than when Elph was smaller. Ruby was less than two when she got here and Elphaba was only four months old when Ruby moved in.

Readers, any suggestions on how to get a dog to stop chasing a cat? Y’all know I have no idea, but I’m sure someone out there has suggestions!

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Hopefully over time things will mesh for you and the pee protests will stop.

The only practical thing I can think of that might help is more litter pans. We have a couple of “two-seater” arrangements, and no problems with random peeing through the house.

And we all know how chic a house full of litter pans is! 🙂

I don’t think that more litter pans would help, since it’s a territorial type spraying rather than having-to-pee. I’m resisting adding more litter boxes to any other areas in the house – but I might be forced to whether I want to or not!

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Whoopie pies! Did you already hear about this? If not, I thought you’d like to know! 🙂 I remember seeing your recipe for these.

Maine legislature takes on whoopie pies.

My favorite whoopie pies are the ones from Wicked Whoopies. And my favorite flavor combination? Chocolate with the white filling. I don’t like all the different fancy flavors.

I very much support whoopie pies as the Maine state dessert! I think the Maine state legislature takes itself a bit too seriously – NOT making the whoopie pie the Maine state dessert is NOT going to stop anyone from eating them, for god’s sake.

(I do like me some blueberry pie, though!)

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I wonder if Miz Poo reminds Alice of her mother?
Just a thought. 🙂

Entirely possible! Have I shared with y’all Fred’s suggestion that Alice is from Martin’s litter? Remember, Martin who Fred captured over the summer? I bet she is his sister – and I’d sure like to know where exactly she was all that time!

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Yesterday, I got to observe the other side of a animal surrender. Another new employee in my training class was late yesterday. He had to rush his dog to the vet after they dropped the kids off at school. He knew something bad was wrong. In the end, his wife and he had to decide to surrender the dog. She needed emergency surgery and $1000s in costs. He’s like me – been off work for awhile, went back to school and starting a brand new job that doesn’t pay a lot.

This was what I saw – a very upset man who had to make the hardest decision. He was worried about the dog, but knew he will never know how she’s doing. He dreaded having to tell his kids when he got home. He was grateful that the vet was able to connect him with a rescue who had foster families lined up for this type of situation. He was so glad, because he said the dog did not deserve to be put down, but he just could not handle the cost.

The animal lovers among us are prone to judge people like my co-worker, but I realized that there are always two sides to the story. My heart broke right along with his yesterday.

Very very sad – I’m so glad that the vet was able to connect him with a rescue!

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It’s great that Alice is now sweet as well as petite! Although now I’m curious as to what Fred’s t-shirt slogan is. Is it the key to his kitten-taming abilities?

I believe it says something along the lines of “No need to yell. I’m still not listening.” He has a large selection of t-shirts with obnoxious sayings on them. I bought a large number of them for him. 🙂

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I dropped Drum and Clairee off at the adoption center yesterday morning. I spent time with Rhyme while I was there, and I also let Heaven’s three small kittens out to play for a while. One of Heaven’s kittens – Flake – has a crush on Rhyme. Rhyme went over to the scratching post and sharpened his claws. Flake did the same. Rhyme batted at a toy mouse. Flake did the same. Rhyme jumped up on top of the storage cart… and Flake sat there and looked up at him and wished she was big enough to do the same! It was seriously adorable.

Rhyme came to me for snuggles several times, but was mostly interested in playing. Seeing him run around and play and seem just generally happy was comforting. He’s such a sweet boy that I really hope he finds a forever home this weekend!

Rhyme, showing Reacher who the boss is.

Sharpening his claws on the scratching post ’cause he’s a good boy.

In bed with Reacher (that’s Corbie in the foreground, obv.)

I lied when I said I was going to share the rest of the pictures I took of Drum and Clairee today. I took SO many of them Wednesday that I’ll share some of them now and then the rest on Monday. I’m not kidding when I said I couldn’t stop taking pictures of these two gorgeous sweeties!

She’s a little bit of a goofball.

Drum, keeping an eye on his wacky sister.

I LOVE her whiskers.

Fred liked Drum’s caramel-colored belly.

I think it probably comes across in the pictures that these cats were in wonderful shape. They were clearly well cared for in the home where they lived for a year, and their father was very sad to be giving them up. One of the things I love about Challenger’s House is that they’ll always take back cats they adopted out, even if it’s years and years after they were adopted.

As sweet and friendly and beautiful as Drum and Clairee are, I expect they’ll be adopted quickly!

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Miss Alice loves to watch those birds!

Silly girl.

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“Who, ME? Pee on the kitchen cabinet? Why, I’d never! I’m sure it was all Joe Bob’s fault.”

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Previously
2010: He looked confused and then looked back toward the back forty as though perhaps I was lying to him, and he’d see an army of fish marching toward us to prove that I was a big lying liar.
2009: Dogs like to chew! Who knew?
2008: “WHERE’S THE SCAR?! HERE ARE HIS WRISTS, WHERE’S THE SCAAAAAAAAAAR?!”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: How does one become a house appraiser?
2004: I told Fred about how little things remind me anew of our loss strike me when I’m least expecting it, and I cried again.
2003: And, oh and does fred annoy you? Not any more than I annoy him, probably. 🙂
2002: See something on the floor? Sit on it.
2001: No entry.
2000: Here’s a cute story to satiate your bitchypoo jones until then