Category: CAE

From Michelle:

While I don’t live in Nashville proper, I do live about an hour north, right along the KY border, and I work in Nashville. It’s been absolutely crazy around here since Saturday morning, and most of us around here who weren’t directly affected have watched in disbelief. And it’s not just Nashville…there are people in the surrounding counties who have been cut off for days with no phone, water, or food who are STILL being rescued by boat.

I’ll probably have a blog post about it this weekend, complete with some pictures.

Thanks, Michelle!

Since tomorrow is the question answering extravaganza, my question for you is what happens if the kittens continue to test positive for that FLV is it?

It’s FIV (FIV = feline version of HIV. FeLV = Feline Leukemia.) If the kittens continue to test positive for FIV, well, I’m pretty sure (without directly asking, because ignorance is bliss) that the shelter policy is to euthanize FIV positive cats. However, FIV doesn’t transmit from cat to cat as easily as Feline Leukemia, and cats who are FIV positive can live long and healthy lives. Should they turn out to be truly FIV positive, we’ll keep them here until we can find permanent homes for them. If worse came to worst, we’ll keep them permanently, although please note that AS MUCH AS I LOVE THESE KITTENS, I DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN (see: husband, unemployed), so y’all just pause for a moment and send happy thoughts in this general direction, would you?

For those of you who don’t know, the combo test that the kittens were given tests for FIV antibodies. Since their mother was FIV positive, she passed those antibodies on to the kittens through her milk. As they get older, they’ll hopefully shed the antibodies and a retest will show that they’re negative.

(Note: if someone knows their stuff better than I do and I’ve got some part of it incorrect, feel free to correct me!)

It seems to me that you could freeze all your summer fruits in the summer and fall and then make your jam in the winter months.

That’s the plan – we’re hoping that this year we’ll actually get some fruit! Last year, we had a thaw in January, which convinced all the fruit trees that it was bloomin’ time, and once they’d bloomed, Mother Nature came along with a cold snap, and as a result we ended up with perhaps a handful of peaches. Mother Nature is a beotch. This year seems to be going better, so we’ll see – it would be very neat to make peach-habanero jam with our own peaches!

Robyn, I am not a cat person at all. I’m allergic and most cats annoy me.

That said, for some reason I am ass-over-teakettle for Reacher. I’m gonna come over and steal him in the middle of the night, okay? Thanks.

and (from someone else altogether)

Man, Corbett is one cutie-pie isn’t he?

Oh, they’re all seriously cute. One moment I think I’m in love with Corbett, and then Bolitar comes along and purrs up at me. Then Rhyme grabs my foot and chirps at me, and I’m all “I love youuuuuu!”, and then Reacher saunters along and complains about something. They’re going to kill me with the cute, is what I’m sayin’.

I thought of this question yesterday when all the storms were going through the south. Do you guys have a tornado shelter, or a basement to take cover when the big storms are threatening?

We do NOT, can you believe that? And in fact, we don’t agree on where the safest place in the house is when the weather is bad (Fred thinks the downstairs hallway – I think under the stairs). I’m hoping that we’ll eventually be able to get a tornado shelter put in, but if a tornado drops out of the sky in the back forty and heads for the house, we’re screwed!

Laundry. I assume that you still hang it out to dry, and my question is this. Do you hang your towels out to dry, and if so, how do you keep them from being stiff. The only towel of mine that doesn’t get stiff is a $20 towel that my motherinlaw bought. I’m not gonna go out and buy 10 $20 towels! 🙂

The only things I don’t hang out to dry are cat beds (the dryer is better at getting the cat hair off the beds than a breeze would be), and cleaning rags/ dish cloths, because the dryer takes care of the lint that tends to stick to the cleaning cloths. I use white vinegar as a fabric softener, and it seems to help make the towels not quite so stiff, but they’re still a little stiff. I actually don’t mind a stiff towel (pardon me while I snicker like a 13 year-old boy), and hanging them out to dry seems to make them more absorbent than drying them in the dryer (I could be wrong about that, but they certainly SEEM more absorbent).

Anyone out there got any tips on this topic?

I use to work at a bank as a teller and your story was hysterical! It was even better when you got to the dye pack and setting off the alarm! Did the cops show up? I’m also surprised that you were able to get into the vault at an off banking day/hour. Ours would only open M-F and only between certain times.

We had to go to a training seminar given by the FBI on bank robberies. As one of the FBI agents was on stage talking all of the sudden some guy comes flying through the auditorium, waving around a gun (fake, I think?) and a cloth bag screaming “This is a robbery, etc.” As soon as he exited the room the guy on stage told us to write down everything we remembered about the guy. I always thought I was quite observant, but when they brought the guy back on stage I learned maybenotsomuch!

The police didn’t show up – I guess because the teller at least knew not to hit the silent alarm! (That damn silent alarm, I was always TERRIFIED I’d accidentally hit the damn thing.)

When I was going through training to be a teller, I had to go to classes in Augusta for a week. One day was devoted to what to do if the bank was robbed. The lady running the class had us all turn around so our backs were to each other, then she went around and had each of us randomly describe one of the other tellers in training.

Well OF COURSE she gave me the name of the one woman in the class who was of undetermined race – I believe she was part African American, part Caucasian, but didn’t know for sure and didn’t want to offend her – and I did NOT KNOW how to describe her skin color, so I said NOTHING about it at all. She also had this HUGE pair of fluorescent green earrings on that I hadn’t noticed at all. Luckily we weren’t being graded on our descriptions of each other, because the woman who had to describe me somehow failed to mention that I weighed in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, so I guess it was all good.

Do yours do this? When our three furry fools get a treat to eat, one of them plays ‘guard cat’ and sits at the cat flap and watches through the door whilst the other 2 fill their faces. When one has finished, they swap round. It’s remarkably democratic and v. funny to watch. Anyone else have a catty co-operation story?

I so wish I had cats who would look out for each other, but NAY. My cats would cut each other to get to the good Snackin’! before anyone else.

Meant to ask… is the Amish pantry finished or did I miss it? Last I heard it was still waiting to be oiled or stained or something?

The Amish pantry – which can be seen in this entry FROM A YEAR AGO – is finished, and it is residing in the motherfucking GARAGE because we have not yet tried to get it inside. I’ve been harassing Fred about it this week (I’m sorry, how embarrassing is it that the goddamn thing has been hulking out there in the middle of MY SIDE of the garage for a YEAR?), and I think the plan is to try to get it inside later today. If you don’t hear from me again, it’s likely because I tripped over something while trying to carry it into the house, and was immediately crushed by the goddamn thing.

What?? No pictures of the transformed front porch?

I’ll snap a picture once everything’s blooming, promise!

Last time I went grocery shopping, I found myself faced with a similar puzzle: Was brand A really cheaper than brand b? I don’t even remember what is was, but I know I thought of you and I didn’t get any smarter, but I felt better. Love ya!

Did you say to yourself “I am clearly having a Robyn Anderson moment, and should ask for professional help in figuring this out.”? 🙂

Does anyone have a problem with clumping litter sticking to cat’s paws and being tracked ALL over the house? Or could it just be the brands I have purchased?

How old are the cats who are doing the tracking? I ask because my adult cats don’t generally tromp through their pee clumps, but kittens always always always do until they’re about 8 weeks old. (Also, they tromp through their poo, which is especially fun when they’re suffering from diarrhea.) It could be the brand of litter, though.

Readers? Anyone else have this issue and/ or words of advice?

Regarding the bagel pricing…for Buy 1 Get 1 sales, some stores will just charge half price for each package, but other stores will charge full price for the first package and the second package rings up as free (this is what my stores in the Northeast do). Thus if you were only buying one package you may have been charged $2.59. You may have, in fact, saved yourself that $0.09.

What I would have done, though, would be buy two on B1G1 sale, then popped the second bag in the freezer. If you’re going to be toasting them, you can’t tell the difference.

What I love about Publix is that if they have stuff that’s Buy 1 Get 1, each item is half price. But you’re right – I should have just stocked up and frozen the extras. I did that today with english muffins.

Oh, how I LOVE the Buy 1 Get 1 sales.

Another sweet story for you about a mama cat, this time adopting a litter of dachshund puppies.

SO CUTE.

The Gulf oil spill news is terrible too. At least the cement box is supposed to be tried today, hope it works. I found a really good video of the oil spill made by a couple nature conservation pilots yesterday. If you have time to watch it (not long), I think it’s one of the best flyovers of the oil spill I’ve seen.

That is just incredible and horrifying. Thanks, Cara!

Seriously , you take the best kitty pictures ever. Have you thought of doing it as a side business? I am not joking. You seem to be able to capture just the perfect moment and that, my dear, is a gift.

Awww, you’re too kind! I haven’t thought of doing it as a side business, because I’m not so sure I’d be any good at photographing others’ cats. The only reason I’m able to get such good shots of my own cats and fosters is because they’re always right there for me to get a picture of. And I’m not kidding when I say that of every picture I share, I probably toss at least three!

I was vacuuming. They did not approve.

“Why, I oughta…!”

Corbett, grabbing for the camera.

Someone knocked the cat bed onto the floor, and Bolitar came along and decided it was the perfect place for a nap.

Rhyme and the ear floof.

Maura will be going home tomorrow. She’s kinda looking forward to being in a home where she’s properly appreciated, I’m sure.

“Is it time to go?”

Not yet, sweet girl. One more day!

Joe Bob, having slipped his collar, sits on the fence post.

Previously
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.

Paula’s walking in honor of Jane‘s Jugs on Mother’s Day to raise money for breast cancer services. Get your butt over yonder and sponsor her!

My friend Sue and her daughter Holly volunteered at a Soft Power Education school in Uganda last summer. They were overwhelmed by the need, and Holly has made a real effort to supply books for their newly formed library.

Read her entry at this site, and if you are willing, vote for her. Should she win, she and and her fiance Alan would do this volunteer work this summer as part of their honeymoon. Thanks, friends, And cross your fingers.

Do you know what happened to Shelley of Shelleyness?

Shelley of Shelleyness is alive and well and insisting on breaking our hearts by refusing to journal. Hmph.

Could you and Fred do a photo re-enactment of the famous Chaps Man entry?

We reenact the Chaps Man entry on a regular basis, but SOME things are meant to be private, you know.

(From Aimee): I don’t get coupons either. I subbed to a few coupon blogs a while back and I almost never see anything we’d actually use. Lots of processed foods and cleaning/hygiene products. I save money by not using paper towels for anything except cat barf- I use maybe a roll every 4-6 weeks and probably only that much because I have an elderly cat who pukes a lot. I also don’t use commercial cleaners at all anymore. I have two spray bottles, one that is 50/50 vinegar/water and one 20/80 Dr. Bronner’s/water (or something like that, I just squirt some soap in the bottle until I think “that’s enough now!” and then add the rest water). I clean everything with those. Sometimes I sprinkle a little baking soda for scouring. Besides things to clean US, the only commercial cleaning products I still buy are dish soap and laundry soap. The laundry soap is the pain for me. I tried making my own for a while, but I don’t have a good place to keep it in my stupid apartment and I didn’t actually like it very much. My kid and her dad have super sensitive skin, so I always have to buy the “free” or “natural” kinds.

I have my own favorite cleaning spray (that I make myself), but what I find is that in moments of weakness I buy other cleaning stuff, and then it just sits on the shelf and mocks me until I use it. Ugh. My goal for the rest of this year: to not buy any more cleaning products!

We use way too many paper towels – I’m trying to cut down on the amount of paper towels we go through, and I’ve been slightly successful. On the other hand, with 11 cats plus a varying number of fosters, there’s ALWAYS something nasty to clean up, so we’ll probably never get rid of paper towels altogether. (Used paper towels do go out to the compost heap, at least.)

I’ve actually stopped making my own laundry soap. I liked it well enough at first, but after a while, there was build-up on the towels and cleaning cloths so that they weren’t absorbing, and it got annoying, so I’ve gone back to the commercial products. Which I get on sale, and preferably use a coupon for!

Ok, this may be a dumb question, and it may have been previously addressed, but is it a rule that the piggies have to be purchased in pairs? You can’t just get one? Just curious!

I don’t think anyone else has ever asked this one before, actually (and if they did, I don’t recall). The conventional wisdom is that when you have one pig, they tend not to grow as quickly, because there isn’t that concern that the other pig is going to get all the food. When there are two (or more), they get into the “MUST EAT THIS FOOD BEFORE THE OTHER PIG GETS IT ALL”, and thus grow more quickly.

Also, we don’t want them to be lonely. 🙂

Also, those kittens are getting some serious teenage cat looks on their faces, aren’t they?

They are FULL OF ATTITUDE, these bratty little brats.

just found this and HAD to share, lol.

see more Celeb Look-A-Likes

Love it!

Talking of anal glands – lovely. Our male cat Fred is 12 and weighs 7.5kg (16.5lbs) – he’s just getting over having an abcess in one gland. It burst. It wasn’t pleasant. 2 weeks of antibiotics and pain relief and the ignominy of having his butt washed daily did not make a happy kitty. Not to mention the hole the size of a dime in his rear. I was wondering, are these prominent in ‘chunkier’ cats?

Good question! I know that our only cat who had an anal gland issue in the past was Tubby, who was a great big chunky chunk of a cat. Miz Poo also had an issue a few years ago with an anal gland adenoma (a cyst near the base of her tail burst, and it turned out to be an anal gland adenoma. The vet said that it could turn into a chronic condition, but we haven’t had any more issues yet), and she’s a bit of a chunk herself. On the other hand, as far as I know, Tommy’s anal glands are just fine, and he’s a big ol’ meaty chunk of a mancat, so who knows?

Do George & Gracie go nuts when they see the cats outside? What are the cats reaction to G&G? Also, have you ever had hate mail from someone who thought you were breeding kittens?

George and Gracie usually don’t notice the cats, but every once in a while Tommy or Maxi will run across the back yard and catch their eye, and they’ll bark and whine at them. They don’t lose their minds, though, thank god (how much would it suck if they went off every time they caught sight of a cat!).

The cats seem pretty unimpressed by the dogs, and for the most part don’t notice them, even when they’re barking at something. They must have realized pretty quickly that the dogs are behind a fence and can’t do anything to them.

I’ve never had hate mail from someone who thought I was breeding kittens, thank god, but of course now that I’ve said that, the timer’s ticking and I’ll probably get one before the weekend is out!

I had a dream last night that was a Bitchypoo/Pioneer Woman cross. In it you were taking pictures of the herd of cats as they milled around waiting for the feed truck to drop off fixings for Snackin’ Time. My head is SUCH a strange place to live.

I’m somehow enthralled by the idea of having to take a truck of cat food out at Snackin’ Time and drop it off for herds of cats. I’m sure it would get old pretty quickly, but still. It sounds like it’d be fun!

How is Miz Poo doing these days? She looks real tired in pictures. How old is she now? ‘Enquiring’ minds want to know.

I did my best to get a good interview with Miz Poo. I had it all planned out in my head, where I’d ask her a question, and she’d do her patented Poo chirrup, and it would be adorable. It didn’t quite work out, but here it is anyway!

She’s doing well – her only health issue at the moment is the constant grooming of her stomach, which is resulting in a bare tummy. For a while, we were keeping her doped up on elavil, because it was stopping her from the grooming. But we felt bad about that – when she’s on the elavil, she’s a bit of a zombie (even on a quarter dose) – so took her off it. If the grooming gets to be too bad, we’ll put her back on it.

She’s ten years old now – she’ll be eleven in September!

I wonder how many {pervy} hits you’re gonna get with your bloody cock story. LOL!

Can you imagine someone searching on that and ending up on this page? “WHERE THE HELL IS THE PORN?! ALL I SEE IS KITTENS!”

When you said “Maura’s mom”, I thought you meant her biological mom and that perhaps you were adopting her. Then I was thinking, “But how would they have been able to track down Maura’s mom and how would they know it was really her mom?”. And I’m not even blonde…

You’re not alone – apparently a large number of you guys thought I meant Maura’s biological mom. I guess I should have said her NEW Mom!

Secondly, I must insist that you quit throwing perfectly good kittens in the trash!

They throw themselves in the trash! I’ve got nothing to do with it, I’m just documenting it! I wish my TRASH would throw itself in the trash as well as the kittens do!

This is a good story.

Stray cat nurses orphaned bobcat kittens.

Man, I wish I had a litter of baby bobcats. How cool would that be!

If you have a Kroger near you, they have had Petpride scoopable cat litter in the 40lb. box on sale for something like $7.09 for weeks now. I love it and I have tried the rest and I really think this clumps the best. I have 4 cats and I am TERRIBLE about scooping and cleaning the box and the smell is fine for days… yes days, shut up I said I was bad!

I picked up a box of the Pet Pride litter on your say-so, Christine. I hope like hell it’s as good as you say – even at the regular price (just under $10), that’s a better price than the buckets of Fresh Step I’ve been getting at Sam’s.

Speaking of litter, I have to say that for the past few years, I’ve been buying Fresh Step litter at Sam’s because it was cheaper than Arm & Hammer. I thought that Arm & Hammer was the better litter, though. I remembered it as being litter that clumped harder than the Fresh Step and kept the smell down better. Well, a few weeks ago I got several boxes of Arm & Hammer on sale and had coupons, and I’m here to tell you that the Fresh Step is far better than the Arm & Hammer. The Arm & Hammer clumps okay, but not any better than the Fresh Step did. But as far as being better about keeping down the smell? No. When I walk into my bathroom, it SMELLS like litter boxes in there, whereas with the Fresh Step, it never did. UGH.

Ok, this is really bad and I am ashamed to admit it but I seriously still don’t get the bagel pricing thing. I have a fairly recently MBA too (shameful part) but they didn’t cover grocery pricing in my MBA! I can do derivatives though!

Several of y’all had a problem with this, which makes me think I wasn’t terribly clear in the storytelling. Tell me if this makes more sense:

I went into the store with the intention of buying Bagel Brand A because they were buy one, get one free (with a usual price of $2.59 per pack). This means that one pack of Bagel A would have cost half of $2.59. In other words, they would have cost $2.59/2 = $1.30 (rounding up).

Bagel Brand B was $2.50 per pack.

So instead of paying $1.30 for one pack of bagels (Brand A), I paid $2.50 for one pack of bagels (Brand B), because I confused myself. Had Bagel Brand A been the usual price, THEN I would have saved 9 cents. Instead, I paid $1.20 more by buying one pack of Bagel Brand B rather than one pack of (on sale) Bagel Brand A.

Please note that that’s Maura on the right, Jake on the left, and Miz Poo sniffing Jake’s tail. And NO ONE is hissing or smacking or even growling. It’s a miracle!

Maura, staring out the window at a bird.

We’ve given Maura the run of the house 24/7, and it’s going pretty well. Until last night, we were putting her in the foster room overnight, just to prevent any middle of the night hissing and smacking matches. But she’s been getting along so well with the other cats that we left her out last night, and all was perfectly fine. Have I mentioned what a sweet girl she is? (Only a thousand times!)

Corbett and Jake.

Bolitar, Reacher and Rhyme. Look at the ATTITUDE I’m getting from Reacher and Rhyme.

Corbett’s all “Yeah, that’s right. I’m laying here smacking the cord to the blinds around.”

“You got a problem with that?”

It’s a rough life.

Grumpy Spanky, trying to get some shut-eye and not appreciating the interruption.

Previously
2009: “THTOP calling her a bad mother! She is a good mother! I luff her!”
2008: It smelled like evil.
2007: I think you can imagine our happiness.
2006: No entry.
2005: Always/ Sometimes/ Never
2004: Erin should be more concerned with the fact that he’s been killing people and burying them in the back yard and less with his lying.
2003: I believe there’s a seat in the ass-singe section with my name on it.
2002: Sucks to be her.
2001: “Fuuuuuuuuck,” he said.
2000: Don’t come back here looking for no entry, my friends.

Upon reading through your comments on Monday’s entry (about how you found this site and how long you’ve been reading), it occurs to me that I ought to whip up a timeline of all the “big” things that have happened since I started this site, complete with links to each event. It sure would make my life a whole lot easier if I knew for sure when Fancypants went missing (2003), so I wouldn’t have to go back and search through my archives.

I don’t know, though. That seems like an awful lot of work.

Robyn, do you find that there is a differance in the way your male vs. female cats treat the foster kittens?

Do you find that female cats are just bitchier and less tolerant of others?

I think that while it depends on the cat herself, if my girls are anything to go by, then yes. They’re bitchy and less tolerant than most of the boys. With the exception of Sugarbutt, the boys are pretty tolerant of the kittens. Even Spanky, who usually has no use for other cats, will put up with the kittens getting close to him. As long as they don’t get TOO close, you understand.

Do cats have anal glands? Typically, when a dog “scoots” he/she is expressing those glands. My groomer showed me how to do it manually with a paper towel, but I can’t say I’ve been froggy enough to try it myself. Nothing says “pervert” like squeezing either side of your dog’s anus and pressing upward…I feel odd enough shaving around their private bits!

Cats do have anal glands – we’ve been pretty lucky, though, that except for Tubby, none of our cats have needed their anal glands expressed. I wasn’t there when Tubby’s were expressed, and after what I heard of the experience from Fred, I am SUPER glad I wasn’t there!

Random NY Housewives question – Why are they all orange? Esp Kelly? God, their skin must be like leather. Blech.

Oh, Shelly. Shelly, Shelly, Shelly. Obviously you don’t know that to be TRULY fashionable, you have to glow orange like George Hamilton. And THEN, when you die, they take your deep-orange leathery skin and make a lamp out of you! (I was going to say couch, but let’s be serious – none of those women have enough skin to cover a couch. Maybe a chair?) It’s the latest in high fashion!

I started reading back in 1999(98?). I used to read a lame ficitional diary on Redbook site. And in the forum someone said, if you want to read a real online diary, try these… and it was your url and secraterri (who I miss terribly!) and someone else I forget now. Shortly after, I started writing on diaryland and moved a couple times since then.

Oh god, I read that horrible Diary of V on Redbook!!! It started out pretty good, but devolved into a total unbelievable soap opera, didn’t it?

I miss Secraterri, too!

I really am happy, by the way, that you have kept with the email notifications and the one-entry-a-day, one-entry-per-page format and you haven’t migrated to Livejournal or devolved into just posting videos and links or deleted all your archives. I like the continuity here!

Generally, what you see here on this site is what I prefer to see at other sites – one entry per page, navigation links at the bottom of each entry, and fairly easy to figure out archives. It’s not always been easy to make the site look like I want it to, but it pretty much does these days. Which means, of course, that they’ll make some huge change to WordPress any second now and I won’t be able to figure anything out, and my page will be impossible to navigate. That’s what USUALLY happens, anyway.

You know, back in THE DAY, when journals were the norm and then blogs showed up, the idea was that people would use their journals for the long, personal entries, and then use their blogs to post links and videos and short blurbs. But then things progressed (AS THEY ALWAYS DO DESPITE MY PROTESTS) and journals and blogs morphed into one thing, and now you just never know what you’re going to get when you go to someone’s site.

Yours was one of the first blogs I read, probably beginning sometime in 2001 when I was in college, although I don’t know how I found you. Funny (somewhat related) story. In my first job out of college (2002), I didn’t have a ton of work to do, and so I would read blogs for part of each day, yours among them. Christmas rolled around and a Christmas card from you showed up at the office, addressed to my boss (this was back in the days when you sent cards to readers). My boss had checked my browser history, stumbled across your site himself, and added his name to the Christmas card list. I freaked out, but didn’t mention it to him. Several years later he admitted that he thought we all spent too much time surfing the web, and he used your Christmas card to let me know that he knew what I was doing online. Needless to say, I no longer work for that sneaky man– I mean, just talk to me about it, dude. /super-long comment.

What a totally hilarious, passive-aggressive thing to do. I love it!!!

Has anyone heard from Bonnie??

For those of you who don’t know who Bonnie is, she was originally at bontasia.com, and then she moved to another site, and ultimately ended up at This Will Fall Away. She last posted there in October 2008, and as far as I know she hasn’t been heard from since. I keep hoping that she’ll pop back up and let us know how she’s doing (and I hope she’s doing well), but so far, nothing.

If anyone hears or has heard from Bonnie, would you let us know?

Did you ever think you would have folks reading your blog every day for 10 years?

I never thought I’d HAVE a journal for 10 years! When I first started, I thought I’d last maybe a week before giving up, because I didn’t figure I’d have THAT much to say. Then I thought maybe a few months… and then I hit a year, and kept on goin’!

Who knows how long this thing will last? Shall we aim for another 10 years? 🙂

I don’t know why, but it continually amazes me just how much sleep these kittens require. They get up, run around like their butts are on fire for an hour when they’re first out of the room, and then the just CRASH. I try to never disturb a sleeping kitten, but boy – they are SO cute and fuzzy, it’s hard not to grab them up and snuggle them!

Maura, in the Maura Cave, while Miz Poo runs by as quickly as possible.

Maura’s been really enjoying having the run of the house. She spends some time in the Maura Cave, but she also has other favorite spots, too – on the mat by the back door, in the computer room smacking kittens (she has no use for kittens, apparently), on the chair by my bed. Really, she’s pretty sure she’s the queen of the castle, and none of the other cats are messing with her (except for Jake, who will go over and rub on her. She’s pretty tolerant of him, too.)

I know that cats “see” more by smell than eyesight, but our cats REALLY seem to think, when they glance her way, that she’s either Tommy or Maxi, and they don’t think anything of seeing her sitting there. There have been no smackdowns at all, and if anyone gets too close to Maura, she lets them know with a growl that if they’re looking for a fight she will BRING IT ON, but it’s probably been the most peaceful transition from foster room to general population that we’ve ever had!

Tommy in the back yard. Check out that frayed collar. Tommy needs a new collar (or new band for his collar, anyway).

Previously
2009: No entry.
2008: Being woken up by the phone in the middle of the night = FUN.
2007: Things I should have done this weekend but did not:
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Fred and I came up with the perfect name for a rapper: Skid Markee.
2003: Damn that Rob Rummel-Hudson. Damn him straight to hell. He gave me The Pink Eye!
2002: Note to self: Get life.
2001: how the hell did I ever get everything done when I was working full-time? (I still wonder this)
2000: I had hoped to see Tom Cruise’s penis, so I could pause the movie and look closely at it.

That “hug” Rhyme is giving you is actually the way cats in the wild would kill their prey. The hind legs would be used to disembowel the victim. Now, doesn’t that make your day????

You mean it wasn’t just Rhyme telling me that he lurrrrves me?! I am heartbroken! (Luckily he was distracted by a belly rub, or my life might have been in danger!)

I have a question from yesterday – you mentioned that you aren’t worried about the kittens being with your cats because your cats are “all vaccinated.” I’m curious – do you vaccinate for FIV? or Leukemia? I don’t remember hearing stories about the regulars going to the vet – so they must be fairly well behaved? hehe.

We don’t vaccinate ours for FIV, but they do the regular vaccination for Leukemia when they get their regular shots. I’ll admit that I don’t for one moment think that the Bookworms are truly FIV positive, so I wasn’t that concerned about letting them out into Gen Pop. If I really thought there was a chance that they’re FIV positive, I’d be more hesitant about letting them out.

And yeah, most of our cats are good about going to the vet. Can you believe that way back when, when Spot or Spanky needed to go to the vet, we had to make the appointment when Fred was home from work, because I couldn’t get them into the carrier myself? What a wimp! Nowadays, I grab whatever cat needs to go, pop ’em in the carrier, and off they go. Even Spanky making like a starfish doesn’t work – I’m getting to be pretty good at shoving cats in carriers. About time, too, wouldn’t you say?

Is Sugarbutt getting…dare I say it: portly?! Those two are adorable. But I felt the need to comment because looking at the picture of them snuggling as kittens, I was all “awww I remember that” and then I saw the date, and realized I’ve been reading your blog for well over 5 years and well…that kind of freaked me out! I mean at this point I feel like I know you, yet putting it in the perspective of YEARS; that made me feel absolutely voyeuristic lol.

Sugarbutt looks like he’s getting to be portly, but in actuality, he’s just a big, muscular cat. That’s not fat, that’s muscle – which apparently he builds up by running around the tops of the kitchen cabinets every night. I swear to god, one day those cabinets are going to start falling down under the weight of a running Suggie, and I just hope I’m not standing underneath them when it happens!

(Um. Not that I make a habit of standing UNDER the kitchen cabinets. But youknowwhatImean!)

I have someone in Chicago who’s apparently reading their way through my archives (hi, Chicago!), so think of it this way – at least you don’t have to do THAT, you already know my history, you voyeur, you. 🙂

Robyn, did Maura think she was pregnant … well how the hell would you know?! Ok, my question is, when she gets out with the kittens, if she thought she was pregnant, would she adopt them? Think they were the kittens she thought she was having when she thought she was pregnant?

I don’t think Maura thought she was pregnant – I think she was like “I don’t know why this lady is giving me kitten food to eat, and three snacks a day, but – okay! ::gulp::!” When Fred brought the Bookworms home, I honestly thought about putting them in with her, thinking that since she was SO close to giving birth (HA!), maybe they’d try to nurse, and she’d produce milk, and then she could take over mothering them. But I hesitated because she’s on medication, and I didn’t want her to pass anything along to them, and also, you KNOW how those mother cats can be – I thought it was a possibility that she’d be like “THESE are not my babies!” and eat them. Or at least wound them.

But Maura is SUCH a laid-back girl that when she’s allowed out into the house, she’ll let those kittens do whatever they want. It would be neat if they took to her as if she were a surrogate mother, but I’m thinking they’re getting to be a little old for that.

Besides I’M their surrogate mother! 🙂

Have you seen this site?

I thought you would get a kick out of the cat’s name… 🙂

I had not seen that site – too cute!

That is funny about calling the cats nicknames – I do that all the time! (hence why I probably find it so funny!) My latest thing is “bear”. My black lab is black bear, the cat is old bear and my horse is papa bear. Typing that all out sounds pretty silly. I’ve also been know to call them all some form of “mugs” – old mugs, mr. mugs, etc. 🙂

If you think I’m not planning to name a future foster kitten “Mr. Mugs”, you don’t know me at all. Hmmm. How about Mr. Mugs, Dr. Mugs, and Miz Mugs? The Mugses! Heh.

What’s in a name? Almost 2 years ago (when I began grad school) I moved in (with my one cat) with a lady who had 5 cats. All were rescues and all of hers had some sort of issue (one, I’m convinced, has cerebral palsy). I was convinced that one of her cats, named Furby, was autistic. This cat would not look at you, could not make eye contact, would run if she saw you looking at you, and would not allow anyone to touch her. About 2 months ago, for no particular reason, I began calling her Fur-Bunny (now just Bunny). Since then she has become a COMPLETELY different cat–She will look at me, I can give her treats and she will take them from my hand, and I’ve actually petted her. She responds to Bunny and will look at you if you call her (but only Bunny–she will not respond to Furby). She will even approach you. Still doesn’t like to be touched, but I have actually petted her tail.

I love love love LOVE LOVE this story! All this time, that cat has been thinking “No one knows me at all!” and then suddenly you called her by the right name, and she was like “SOMEONE KNOWS THE REAL ME!!!”

OMG have you seen this? I’m sure you can relate!

My Bookworms don’t get quite that excited – but they get PRETTY DARN EXCITED at snack time (they get canned food in the morning and again in the evening). I’ll have to see if I can’t shoot a video to show how happy and excited they get.

Gerri asked:

So sorry to hear about Fred. Will you have to cut back on fostering till things pick up? Hope not. Your kitten stories and pix just make my day. Also all the other guys. I’m not sure did you ever tell us Maura’s story. Where did she come from?

We definitely won’t be cutting back on fostering! Challenger’s House is absolutely awesome – they provide all the food and medication we need for our fosters, so none of that comes out of our pocket. We do, of course, spend some money on the fosters, for litter and toys and stuff like that, but that’s also stuff that we’d have on hand around here anyway for our own cats.

(Also, I think I might have a cat toy buying addiction, so I’m staying away from PetSmart for the time being. I mean, seriously – you spend $5 on a toy, and their favorite toys end up being things like toilet paper rolls and crumpled up balls of tinfoil!)

Having the fosters around is a definite stress reliever for both of us – especially now that they’ve got the hang of the litter box and all their litter box leavings are as they should be – so we’ll still be fostering, no matter how long it is ’til Fred is employed again (and hopefully that’ll be soon!)

Maura was rescued from a kill shelter in Tennessee. (It still makes me laugh when I think about the fact that she was NEVER pregnant. She’s no dummy – she thought “If they think I’m pregnant, maybe it’ll make them more likely to save me!” Heh!)

The Bookworms are getting used to the new routine ’round these parts. They’re closed in the guest bedroom overnight, until Fred gets up around 5 or so. He lets them out, and they run around and play until I come downstairs, usually a little after 7. When they hear me coming, they run into the guest bedroom and supervise my scooping of the litter boxes, then howl at me to let me know that they are STARVIN’!

(For the record, they have crunchy food available to them at all times. They’re just spoiled!)

I give them their morning ration of canned food, then after they eat they either curl up for a nap or run around like their tails are on fire. For the rest of the day, they alternately nap and run around. Yesterday, Corbett climbed up on me when I was taking a nap on the couch, and we napped together, and he purred so loud I swear you could hear him two rooms away!

They have their evening ration of canned food around 7, and then run around the living room for a couple of hours while we watch TV. We put them in the guest bedroom around 9, when we go upstairs to bed (we’re early-to-bed, early-to-rise types, if you hadn’t guessed!), and they don’t complain at all.

They sure are sweet boys.

Rhyme, on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. You can see Corbett flirting with Jake in the background. Corbett LOVES Jake!

Fight! FIGHT!

::thlurrrrp!::

Time for a nap.

Jake sure does love to be outside.

Such a crazy little face!

Happy Jake.

Previously
2009: Newsflash: Stupid Alabama woman is the last person in existence to realize that shit is less expensive at Wal-Mart than the local yuppy grocery store.
2008: And then I will duct-tape the stupid thing to me so that I don’t lose it!
2007: It’s a rough fucking life.
2006: No entry.
2005: The freakin’ notify list.
2004: You could take notes, motherfucker.
2003: Okay, okay! Just please stop asking!
2002: I guess I was a doofus even way back then.
2001: DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, EMAIL AND ASK IF I HAVE ANYTHING ON THIS LIST, STILL. I DO NOT
2000: I had to refrain from picking her up and squeezing her to bits.

Do you guys put newspaper in the carriers? Seems like it would make cleanup easier. Unless it’s projectile. You take such good care of the cats and George and Gracie, it doesn’t matter how many you have. It’s heartbreaking how many are in the shelters.

No, I usually have a small blanket or towel in the carriers. Newspaper would make cleanup easier, but it doesn’t sound all that comfy to me, and god forbid any cat should be less than completely comfortable for longer than thirty seconds. Cleanup with a towel/ blanket isn’t so bad – I remove as much of the solids as I can, and toss ’em in the washer.

Ah Ha, so I am not the only one getting my Bitchypoo blocked. At least I know there are other people trying to access the same ‘porn’ as me!

I told Fred that I should buy a new domain and mirror my entries on a weekly (or monthly) basis there, so that y’all can keep up with your Bitchypoo goodness from work instead of having to wait ’til you get home. We were watching something one evening last week (I don’t remember what), and I decided that RazzleDazzle.com would be an excellent domain – but it’s already been taken. Fred suggested SpazzleDazzle.com (heh), and I was reading an old entry and thought that FloopleTheDoop.com would be a good one, or even just Floople.com.

But it’s a moot point – having another domain and having to clean up the language before copying entries over there is both more money than I want to spend right now, and more work than I want to do. I’ll keep it in mind for the future after we’ve won the lottery and I’m a wealthy lady of leisure.

Rhyme has the darkest M of them all.

He really does – he looks like someone took a Sharpie and wrote an “M” on his forehead!

Living in Alabama, you have to know the rebel flag as well… or is that just in Tennessee?

I know the Confederate (rebel) flag, but I don’t really consider it a flag in the way that I consider state and country flags to be flags, if that makes any sense.

Look at this cat.

I don’t know if your guys can master that, but I’m thinking that they have a shot at out-gaping the amazed cat in one of the other videos.

I’ve had the occasional cat (especially Sugarbutt) stand up straight, but not as long as that cat can!

Last night my fiance told me that monkeys aren’t mammals… um, then what the hell are they? 😉

Wikipedia says Considered generalist mammals, primates exhibit a wide range of characteristics. Sounds like they’re mammals to me! 🙂

Saw this on the news this morning and thought of Maura!

The woman reportedly appeared at the hospital with her husband asking for a C-section. A resident in charge made the pregnancy diagnosis and doctors agreed to surgery after trying to induce labor for two days.

I don’t know why, but it makes me laugh my ASS off, thinking that doctors tried to induce labor for two days before attempting a c-section.

Hey, I do believe there’s a photo of your fosters in an article for Challenger’s House in todays Huntsville Times. I don’t get the print version, but found the article at the online news site al.com

Hope they raise a lot of funds for the kittehs!

Yep, that’s the picture I provided for the story about the True Blood 6! I’m still trying to talk Fred into attending the benefit, but I’m not sure how much luck I’m having!

I desperately want to know what the other Robyn’s reaction was to your reply email. I can only imagine that she was either nonplussed about it, thinking, huh, I don’t remember sending THAT email or that she was deeply offended and upset with herself for being so lazy! Or perhaps she has convinced herself that she’s got another personality! Imagine coming to THAT realization! Oh to have been a fly on the wall..

and

Hilarious! You should also send the other Robyn motivational stuff like “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and people like me!” 😀

and

You have GOT to start sending Robyn Anderson notes from herself! Like, “Are you sure you’re making the right decision with that thing you’re thinking about?” or “How about that dream last night! Do we have a weird subconcious or what?” Or, if you’re in an earlier time zone than her, send her notes from her future self! “You’ll regret it if you go where you’re thinking of going for lunch!”

and

I agree with Heidi–send that “other” Robyn regular emails “advising” her. Try “We’re going to have a super-dee-duper day today!” hehehe

and

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone sending themselves e-mails on what to do that day! I’ve made lists of stuff to do and then lost the list, but mailing it to myself? Not so much….

and

Emailing oneself. Hmmm. I’ve send myself reminders on my phone …

I’ve been known to email myself reminders from time to time, but more often, I send a text to my email address (usually when I’ve filled up the gas tank and want to remember to enter the correct amount into Quicken. Yes, I could get a receipt, but those tend to get lost in my purse).

I would email the other Robyn helpful emails of advice (“Don’t wear that shirt again, it just is NOT flattering. I’m only telling you ’cause I love you! Call me!”), but I think I’ve decided she doesn’t have a sense of humor, because I still haven’t heard anything back, and HMPH TO HER. Also, it’s her work email, and I don’t want her to get in trouble with her bosses because I’m sending her cat pictures at work or something. Heh.

Hilarious! Hysterical pregnancy even?

Well, she DID try to tell me she wasn’t pregnant, y’know. I guess next time a cat tells me she’s just full-figured NOT pregnant, I’ll listen!

My mom has a set of foster kittens (and their mama) and she needs to name them. There are 6 of them and all but one are stripey (like the Bookworms). How on earth do you tell your kittens apart? I tried looking for some distinctive mark (on their head, on their tummies, on their back) but they all look too similar!

Well, the Bookworms are different enough from each other that I don’t have a problem telling them apart. There are different ways to mark kittens so you can tell the difference – with the Cookies, I put a tiny dab of brightly colored nail polish on the back of their ears (which is how they ended up with the nicknames Blue and Orange). Another way to mark them is to put a dab of nail polish on the tip of one of their claws. Also, I know that somewhere out there are temporary collars that you can put on them – they’re made of some sort of tough paper and stick to themselves so you can make them whatever size works for you – but I don’t for the life of me remember where I saw them. Anyone out there know?

I used to have a dog, a female. (And she was spayed.) Then I got a cat, a kitten who was really too young to have left her mother but I didn’t know that at the time. After a day or two of getting to know each other, the kitten, seeking comfort, began nursing at the dog. Cue false pregnancy in the dog.

Two years later – two YEARS later!! – the swollen belly had gone away, but the dog was still walking around with milk-filled teats, and the cat was still nursing whenever she wanted. She’d walk up to the dog, yowl, perhaps pop the dog on the nose a time or two, and the dog would sigh and go find a comfortable spot to flop over. Damnedest thing.

Elayne, you crack me UP!

Robyn, I have never before joined in the chorus when your readers start predicting that you’re going to keep this or that foster, but this time…it’s different. How in the HELL are you going to be able to let those adorable babies go? I swear, if I didn’t have two dogs, and my husband wouldn’t immediately leave me, I’d take ALL of them!

I’ll tell you what, I was able to give up this one here:

(That’s Mikey of the Wonkas, if you don’t recognize him)

and if I can give up Mikey, I can give up anyone! Seriously, we STILL talk about Mike from time to time, and just the fact that Fred even remembers who Mike is is something – he rarely remembers the names of any of our fosters, once they go off to their new homes.

So yeah, I do love the hell out of the Bookworms, and they’re awfully sweet little brats, and I know it’ll be hard to give them up and I’ll miss them when they’re gone, but we’re not keeping them. We’re not!

(I know you guys never believe me when I say that!)

George and Gracie are gorgeous. Some of the pics of them remind me of a polar bear. Anyone else see that?

Oh, definitely!

What happened to the chart of which cats interact with each other? I was looking forward to that all week! ha :p

Here it is (click on it to see the bigger version). It’s nothing fancy, but it gives you the idea, I think. “No” means they don’t generally interact with each other, and “LOVE”, “LIKE” and “HATE” are pretty self-explanatory. If there’s anything unclear, feel free to ask!

Gorgeous Corbett.

Rhyme in the sun.

::thlurrrrp::

Rhyme in the sun.

Corbett in my lap, fighting off Reacher.

This pretty well defines this litter. Rhyme, Reacher, and Bolitar looking at something (my hand, I think), and Corbett fighting with his foot. Corbett marches to the beat of his own drummer.

Maxi in the cat bed on Fred’s desk. She sure is pretty.

Previously
2009: So, the great freedom-letting has begun!
2008: Now if I can just convince him to get going on that closet for the corner of the computer room….
2007: “What the fuck did you DO?” I accused Sugarbutt, who looked up at me with the most innocent face in existence.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Stupid Steven Cojocaru.
2003: I think I speak for most Alabamans in this area when I say “Uh, what the FUCK?!”
2002: sights from my walk
2001: I am SO PISSED OFF.
2000: It’s not stealing if I give them credit, right? Uh… right?

I vacuumed the hell out of the house (well, the downstairs at least) yesterday, and not ten seconds after I put the vacuum cleaner away, Joe Bob and Sugarbutt got into an altercation in the dining room, and tufts of cat hair went floating through the house, messing up my perfectly clean floor.

I just cannot have anything nice, EVER.

Fuckers.

A smile for you 🙂

LOVE IT!

I just literally laughed about the poop spoon until I cried.

The best part of the story is one I forgot to tell. You see, Jake and Elwood were hanging around outside the guest bedroom door when I came out with the spoon full o’ poo. Every once in a while, if the fosters don’t finish their plate of food, I’ll let Jake and Elwood eat it, so they’ve gotten it into their heads that every time I come out of that room, there’s a very strong possibility that I’ll have FOOD for them. I walked out of the room with the spoon in my hand, and they saw that I was carrying something, and they started hopping around, CERTAIN I was going to give them some food and perhaps they might not starve completely to death.

(They are the biggest fucking hogs, these two.)

I thought for a moment of holding the spoon down for them so they could sniff it and give me the Face o’ Disgust, but even I am not that cruel.

In the picture of Rhyme, the wood grain to the front right of the picture is very similar to the striped pattern on his head. I bet you didn’t even do that on purpose, did you?

I assure you that on the rare occasion that something cool like that happens, it’s by complete accident. I am no photographer.

“and then it shit the bed”

Also, I would like to hereby formally request The Rest of The Story behind “earlier this week it came to my attention that I am having RAGE issues over the stupidest shit.” I love your pissed-off stories.

Oh, I don’t have any specific examples, just drama queen THE WORLD IS AGAINST ME temper tantrums. Like, I couldn’t connect to the internet for a little while and I was all bellowing at my computer, “OH OF COURSE THE INTERNET IS DOWN, IT MUST BE A DAY THAT ENDS IN Y, GOOD THING I ALWAYS PAY THE BILL ON TIME, I HATE OUR INTERNET PROVIDER I WISH THEY WOULD ALL DIEEEEE!”, when in actuality, our internet access has been down very little in the last few months.

Just, uncontrollable rage over the stupidest shit that even while I’m raging about it, the calm and reasonable voice in the back of my head is saying “You know you’re being unreasonable, you need to walk away and calm down” and my response is “SHUT UP YOU GODDAMN VOICE OF REASON I HATE YOU I WISH YOU WOULD DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

That sort of thing. It makes me a joy to be around, I’m sure.

I was stuck in St Louis for 8 days relying on free wi-fi sources for Internet. Robyn, you’ll be proud to know that, in their infinite wisdom, the St Louis County Library system blocks access to Bitchypoo, while McDonald’s does not. Btw, this batch of kittens is ADORABLE.

If there was one thing I could go back ten years and change, it would be my domain name. I get my ass blocked all over the place just because of the name of my site. I OBJECT. THE MAN IS HOLDIN’ ME BACK! (The other reason my site gets blocked, you’ll be amazed to hear, is because of the language. What the fuck, man?)

WAIT! Stinkerbelle isn’t givin’ you the stink-eye in that picture! Is she goin’ soft???

Nah, she was just taken by surprise. I’m sure that in the next second, she had a good Hate-on going. Although, now that I think of it, yesterday I leaned past her to open the blinds in the front room and she did NOT squeal at me and run off or squeal and swipe at me. Maybe she IS going soft!

Someone should tell Newt that he can have the even bigger box behind him!

Silly – he KNEW the bigger box was there, but that’s not the box he wanted, because no one was using that box. He specifically wanted Joe Bob’s box for the reason that Joe Bob was in it. Once Joe Bob was no longer in the box, it became much less appealing to Newt.

Oh My God. Now see, if I were you and I had this site, it would’ve ended right after “… small black bird with white speckles …” because I’d’ve been filling out change of address cards. Well, after I changed my pants, that is.

I very much admire your quick thinking with the window. I’d still be cleaning my pants.

This comment made me laugh out loud for real. I should start doing like June and have a comment of the week!

(But I probably won’t.)

Newt and Elwood, huh? I never would have imagined them cuddling. You should draw up a chart one day of which cats will associate with which cats. For some reason I would like to see and know which ones have cuddled with which and which ones they want nothing to do with. Not including the fosters of course. Well, unless you want to lol

I shall work on this and post it next Friday!

Is Maura sitting on your purple velour pants or do you have a purple velour cat blanket? She looks cute and I agree she should rest up and hold out as long as she possibly can.

She was laying on/ against my purple velour pants. She seems to really like those pants, and I very well might just let her have the pants as a blanket. I’m all about making the kitties happy!

how on earth do you tell Rhyme and Corbett apart? Sure can’t tell from the pictures. They are adorable — tabbys are my fav too 🙂

I’ll try to get a better picture of the two of them, side by side, but in short this illustrates it pretty well. Corbett, in the back, has a lot of tan coloring in his face and body. Rhyme is all dark brown. Both are equally squeezable, though. Just looking at that picture makes me want to go pick them up and squeeze the stuffing out of them!

I just overheard one of my co-workers telling another that if you have over 2 cats, you qualify as a “crazy cat lady”. If that’s true, you’re in deep trouble!!! ha ha ha 🙂

and

I object. I have 3 cats but am not crazy; I swear!! I’d say over 5 is “CCL” material. 😉

I don’t know what the number is that determines crazy cat lady-hood, but I’ve got to say that two can’t possibly be the number. That’s hardly even cat PERSON level, right there. Five is probably approaching the crazy cat lady neighborhood, but it’s a moot point for me – I don’t think anyone would deny that when you have cats numbering in the double digits, you’re loony for cats. We hopped on that particular crazy train lonnnnnnnnnng ago. I can live with it. As long as you don’t walk into the house and say “Holy CRAP, how many cats do you HAVE?” from the smell, I’m okay.

I’ll one-up your poop story with tales of Mia, our very timid little kitteh.

After that trip the vet gave us some sort of anxiety drops to try next time to maybe prevent it. Keep your fingers crossed. Beyond that I’ll go armed with paper towels and plastic bags!

Two years ago, I took Kara’s babies to be spayed and neutered, and they vomited all over their carrier. I had nothing but one single handy wipe to clean up the mess. Since then, before I walk out the door with a carrier of kittens, I make sure I have a big handful of dry cleaning rags and a baggie with a couple of damp cleaning rags as well. That saved me last summer when I took some of the True Blood 6 to the vet, and someone pooped in the carrier. Cat poop can be one of the most vile substances on earth, only outnastied by cat pee.

Wait. Why do I have so many cats again?!

Bolitar’s all “What, lady? What you want?”

Rhyme on my slipper.

Reacher seriously needed those eye boogers cleaned off his face. I cleaned them off, then called him “Boogers McGee” for the next few hours. I amuse myself far too much.

>
“Madame, I don’t appreciate your tone.”

Reacher and Corbett scale Mt. Carrier.

I’m beginning to think that Maura may even have a few more weeks before she drops these babies. I’m still not seeing or feeling any movement, and as Fred pointed out last night, Maura’s not nearly as huge and uncomfortable as Kara was the day we got her (which was also the day before she gave birth). Don’t get me wrong, she’s definitely getting bigger, but she’s got a little way to go, I think.

She’s LOVING the twice-daily canned cat food snacks and personal attention, believe me. Really, who wouldn’t?

Kara, peering over the end of my bed.

Previously
2009: I am the High Priestess of Litter Box Scooping, Pig Treat Making, and Kitten Butt Wiping.
2008: It took me a few weeks, but I finally finished The Washingtonienne and today I am announcing that bitchypoo.com, in conjunction with vituperation.com, is awarding The Washingtonienne the title of The Most Vapid Book of This Century.
2007: I was filled with a black hatred for the goddamn lights and my goddamn husband and every goddamn thing that ever was.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Another reason I love the man: he makes me laugh every day.
2003: I’ll tell you what, he’s lucky I didn’t go get the cleaver and chop that fucking finger right the fuck off.
2002: My mind is blank…
2001: It’s just the little things that get to me, y’know?
2000: Married people! Having sex in the middle of the day! What IS this world coming to?

Okay, this is annoying me – it used to be when I hit the scroll button on my mouse to open a link in a new tab, it would open the new tab at the end of the row of tabs (I always have several tabs open at a time). Now, it opens the tab in a new tab directly to the tab I’m in. (Could I have said “tab” more often? TabTabTab!)

Anyone else having this issue and anyone have an idea how to fix it? It’s really bugging me!

Edited to add: Go here, and follow the directions. Fixed! Yay!

We had two Great Pyrs, one just crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, but the hair they leave behind is unreal. You would think they would be bald. most people do not realize that they are nocturnal. They sleep during the day as the animals that prey on their keep are nocturnal too. So they are ready and waiting for that fox that lurks during the night.

I’d never thought of it that way before, but it makes sense – that would certainly explain why George and Gracie spend a LOT of time barking at night!

Ran across a website today I thought you might enjoy:

The writer has a deal in works for a book based on his blog. Interesting.

Very neat – thanks for the link!

Lee left this comment that made me laugh out loud.

1) when my friend’s husband got a vasectomy, he decided to make him a bouquet of condoms filled with helium (we used to own a party supply company until party city moved in across the street!).

then i got that thought that makes you laugh so hard you almost pee your pants: if i needed 196 medicated douches to get through my day, i would probably, in all honesty, would REALLY be in no hurry to get back to work!

Is derogative a word? It sounds like a marriage between “derogatory” and “pejorative.”

Damn it, Jane, how am I supposed to depend on you to reliably answer my grammar and punctuation questions when you don’t know that derogative is, indeed, a word? Dictionary.com defines it as lessening; belittling; derogatory. But when I first read the comment, I was like Joey in Friends after Chandler says that “supposably” isn’t even a word. I was all “Derogative. Derogative. Sir, that is a derogative term!”

And of course, the more you repeat a word the more made-up it sounds. But it’s a real word! I swear it!

I remember that you quit drinking soft drinks after having weight loss surgery. I thought that meant giving them up for life but it sounds like you’re drinking them again. How long did you go without diet coke (nectah of the gods!)before drinking them again?

I did give up Diet Coke for a while after surgery. When it comes to soda, weight loss surgeons are in two camps. One camp says that drinking any soda will stretch your pouch out, the carbonation will do it. The other camp says it’s fine in moderation, because if you think of your pouch as a balloon with an opening at each end, it’s impossible to stretch out with carbonation because the gas created by the carbonation will escape from one end or the other. My surgeon is in the first camp…. and I’m in the second.

I actually sent out an email in July of 2006 – so, six months after I had surgery – saying that Fred and I were at the movies and he had gotten a Diet Coke and offered me a sip of it, since it was kind of flat. I took a sip… and it tasted HORRIBLE. I was like “Why on EARTH did I ever drink that stuff?!”

Over the next six months or so, I slowly went back to drinking Diet Coke, and I’ve been drinking it ever since. I still drink lots of water – about 2 liters a day – and I occasionally drink other flavored stuff, but the problem is that I was never able to find anything with flavor that I loved as much as I loved Diet Coke.

Of course, this is MY experience and I’m not necessarily recommending it for anyone else. You should never go against your surgeon’s advice, of course. Ahem.

Glad you’re back in action but please, Robyn, DON’T overdo. We’ll all get really peeved at you if you’ve got a litter of kittens you can’t photograph because you’ve had to return to bed. Just remember, you have a responsibility to your readers to satisfy their prurient kitteh-gazing interests. 😉

I am absolutely not overdoing it, I promise, I’m fully aware of my responsibilities to y’all! Yesterday, in fact, I took it super-easy, did nothing but hang out with Maura, snuggle and love on the new guys, and the rest of the time I caught up on my TV-viewing.

Less than a week, and I should get clearance from my doctor to resume normal activity, yay! I swear, I will vacuum this house 100 times once I’ve got the okay to do so!

Thanks, you guys, for your kind words yesterday. I do know that the mama cat wasn’t alone at the end, and even if I’d been there, it wouldn’t have meant anything to her, but I still felt bad. I still do, a little, but I told her boys about her yesterday (they seemed unimpressed, but it made me feel better!) and what a fighter she was, and what an awesome mother for taking such good care of them. I’d like to say that they looked wisely at me as though they understood, but their reaction was more along the lines of “O HELLO, IS THIS FINGER EDIBLE?”

Okay, they’re named. Please keep in mind that Fred was the namer this time around, so I wasn’t ignoring your name suggestions; he was. Heh.

Meet the Bookworms.

That’s Rhyme (as in Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme) in the front, and Corbett (Robert McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series) in the back.

Reacher (Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series).

And Bolitar (Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series).

Corbett bites Rhyme’s behind. Rhyme does not appreciate this.

Rhyme and Corbett, lookin’ guilty.

The Bookworms are doing well. They’re definitely older than the Wonkas were when we got them – they’re already lapping formula out of bowls, and though they’re showing no interest in eating canned kitten food, they’ve all been spotted belly up to the bowl of dry kibble. For now, what I do three times a day is put a couple of bowls of formula in the room, leave while they lap it up, then go back into the room after about ten minutes to offer them the bottle. They’re still taking the bottle, but they’re not desperate for it or anything – they’re like, “Oh, there’s a bottle? Well, okay. I suppose I’ll chew on it for a few minutes.”

They’re all using the litter boxes, and except for the first day, I’ve spotted no accidents. Of course, NO ONE ever goes to the litter box alone, even if they want to. Yesterday, Reacher was in the litter box, and one of other kittens was sitting outside the litter box swatting at him.

Thus far, I’ve only had to give one bath (Bolitar was kind enough to tromp through someone else’s poop), so that’s pretty good, right? I feel like I was bathing the Cookies every single day. Of course, the Cookies were a few weeks younger when we got them, too.

I’m declaring these guys to be about five weeks old, which gives them the birth date of February 8th. If you were wondering. 🙂

“Okay, lady, I’ve been thinking. If I were to actually give birth to these babies I’m carrying around, then I’d have to start with the cleaning and feeding and all that. I really like my current life of leisure. If I want to sleep for six hours, bat a toy ball around, and then sleep for another six, there’s no one to stop me. No one screaming to be fed, no one needing a poopy butt cleaned.”

“So I’m just going to NOT give birth, okay? That a problem for you?”

Snugglin’ Newt and Elwood.

Previously
2009: Someone’s always fucking up the risotto, sending Chef Ramsay into apoplectic rages wherein he bellows at whichever hapless fuckup is in his crosshairs.
2008: That Pioneer Punk is a bad, bad influence.
2007: I am such a prize, I really am.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: “Have you noticed that it smells like the bodies of fifteen [gentlemen of Chinese descent] laying in a pile in the ditch, rotting?”
2003: Always something, you know?
2002: “I’m starving to death. Meh. STARVING, I’m STARVING. Meh.”
2001: My baby’s growing up!
2000: No entry.