8/22/11 – Monday

I had a really good weekend, one wherein I got a lot of little things accomplished around the house. You know, just little stuff I’ve been putting off all week, like filling the bird feeders and cleaning the bird bath and giving the hummingbirds fresh food, and stuff like that. I stayed busy most of … Continue reading “8/22/11 – Monday”

I had a really good weekend, one wherein I got a lot of little things accomplished around the house. You know, just little stuff I’ve been putting off all week, like filling the bird feeders and cleaning the bird bath and giving the hummingbirds fresh food, and stuff like that. I stayed busy most of the day Saturday (though I did make time for a Saturday afternoon nap), slept like a log, and got up to get more stuff done on Sunday.

The garden didn’t require much tending this weekend (Sunday morning has become the day I do most of my weekend gardening), so I spent an hour picking tomatoes, okra and green peppers, and transplanted the Meyer lemon tree into a bigger pot, and called it good enough. It had cooled down a bit last week (and by “cooled down” what I mean is “become less swelteringly hot”), but the temps are back in the mid to high 90s again. I don’t guess Fall is here just yet.

I really like the kind of okra we’re growing this year – it seems less slimy to me than the kind we grew last year. I don’t know what kind of okra it is, unfortunately, since we bought it at one of those country feed and seed stores, and it was just labeled “okra.” Hopefully it’s not a hybrid, and we can just let it go to seed at the end of the summer, and plant those seeds next summer.

How often is Wisteria supposed to bloom, anyway? I think it’s blooming for the third time this year, and I didn’t think that stuff blooms in the summer. But I’m looking out the window right now, and I see a bunch of it blooming right now.

I have been eating a lot of watermelon lately. We managed to grow some really tasty watermelons this year. Fred has been talking about planting watermelons behind the back yard next summer (in the space between the back yard and the front of the back forty), but I suspect that that’s really the sort of thing we’ll talk about doing right up until it’s time to do it – then we’ll just plant them in the garden again.

Fred’s been trying to get hold of a guy he’d talked to about digging a pond in the back forty for about a year now. He’d call the guy’s number, get a message that his voicemail box was full, and give up for a few weeks or a month, then try it again. And so forth. Finally, on Friday, the guy called him back. Fred talked to him for a little while, the guy said he’d come over and talk to Fred over the weekend and… nada.

“I think you need to just accept that he doesn’t want to do the job,” I said. Fred, having finally hit his “That guy can go fuck himself” limit, is inclined to agree.

Of course, not having a pond doesn’t mean that Fred Anderson doesn’t want ducks. He does. Suddenly, it is ALL he can fucking talk about. Do I care if he gets ducks? I don’t give a fuck. Get a duck. You schmuck.

(Hee.)

Also, he’s talking about possibly-maybe-perhaps getting a smartphone. If he does actually go out and buy himself a smartphone, you better hang onto your ass, because I’m pretty sure that’s a clear sign of the apocalypse. He’s mostly interested in getting a smartphone because he thinks it would be cool to write apps for it. Also, his company pays all their employees a set quarterly sum to cover their cell phone bill, and his cell from 1983 doesn’t stay charged for long.

1983CellPhone
“Come here Watson, I want you.”

(But mostly, he wants to write apps for it because that’s fun or something.)

If he gets a smartphone and texts me, I’m going to fall over dead.

We finally watched Winter’s Bone Saturday night. It was a damn good movie, and I’m excited about seeing Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in The Hunger Games. (Also, I feel like I’m seeing Dale Dickey (aka Patty from My Name is Earl) in just about everything lately.)

I love Netflix streaming. I know they’re charging for it now, but we bumped our plan down to 2 discs (instead of 3) and unlimited streaming, and since we watch a lot less TV during the summer, it works out well for us.

Okay. Enough babbling – let’s get to the kitties, shall we?

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In case you missed it, I posted an entry on Saturday talking about the Spice Girls going to Petsmart, and Ciara staying (temporarily) here.

There were no adoptions over the weekend, unfortunately. I think that people are so busy with back-to-school activities and getting back into the routine of things, that they’re not adopting cats at the moment. Hopefully adoptions will pick up again soon.

(Pics from last week)

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Stressing hard or hardly stressing.

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Laundry inspectors on the job.

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Friday evening, I went into the guest bedroom to find that Fred had let Jake in to visit with the little ones, and there was this going on:

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For the record, Jake didn’t pay ANY attention to those kittens at all. But they were FREAKED.

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Note that Jake is all “Oh look, a toy! ::sniff::” and the kittens are all “STRANGER DANGER!!!!!”

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I don’t think it’s possible for Lucy to get any more floofed.

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While Everett and Sally trade “MY GOD DO YOU SEE WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” looks, Lucy and Harlan tail the interloper.

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“FLOOF, I SAY!”

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Practicing for Halloween.

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Jake was just trying to partake of some kitten food, and the little ones were SO freaked out and SO “YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE, STRANGER”, that Jake finally gave up and asked to leave the room.

Sunday morning, I was coming downstairs when I heard Fred in the guest bedroom, guffawing. He called to me, and as soon as I opened the door, Jake came running out. It turned out that Fred had let Jake in again, and the kittens all did their insta-floof thing. Then Sally, who was as floofed as possible, was standing there glaring at Jake. Jake sniffed her, and she stood and glared at him. Then Jake tried to rub his head on her and she went stiff and fell over like a fainting goat.

Every time I think of her falling over, even though I didn’t see it myself, it makes me laugh out loud.

Clearly I need to get in there with the little camera and take some videos next time Jake goes visiting!

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Regal Tommy.

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: I find that the older I get, the more I resent it when I have to spend more than 90 minutes watching a movie.
2007: No entry.
2006: How can you not die from the cute?
2005: So, that’s why I won’t be updating this week.
2004: No entry.
2003: And for the rest of the drive I would occasionally call him “Fo’-Thray”.
2002: Surely they can hear the thunder of Tubby approaching from miles away – you’d think they’d hide somewhere he can’t go, like under the shed or on the other side of the fence.
2001: That’s me, an expert at reading between the lines!
2000: It gives her a rakish air.

8/19/11 – Friday

Dexter was adopted by a staff member at the clinic he was treated in. Sadly after 8 weeks he was put to sleep. He had been getting better, we all watched as he moved in with Tiffany and got to live a great life. Was a shock when we all found out his fits had … Continue reading “8/19/11 – Friday”

Dexter was adopted by a staff member at the clinic he was treated in. Sadly after 8 weeks he was put to sleep. He had been getting better, we all watched as he moved in with Tiffany and got to live a great life. Was a shock when we all found out his fits had returned. Sadly the fits couldn’t be stopped and Dexter was allowed to toddle over to cat heaven where I’m sure his bro was waiting. There is a petition still going so do please sign. Don’t let Dexter’s death be without any real justice

Sign the petition!

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Just discovered this story: Pennie And Steve Lefkowitz Charged With Animal Cruelty After Nearly 700 Cats Seized.

The video at the bottom is just heartbreaking. I had to walk away for a few minutes around one and a half minutes in, when they showed the cat with the out of control rodent ulcer on his top lip. Miz Poo has had an issue with rodent ulcers in the past, and if she hadn’t received care, it’s pretty likely that’s what her upper lip would look like. So sad.

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With the clock right in the path of the kitty’s shelves, do they ever knock it down? I know my cats are fascinated with the second hand movement of our clock. It’s positioned right below a banister and every now and then I catch one up there, leaning over and batting at it.

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The clock that was there before got knocked to the floor a couple of times before it was broken and we had to toss it. I don’t think they’re batting at it – though Clove was VERY interested in that second hand! – I think they were just brushing by it and it was knocked down. This clock has a square of putty holding the bottom of the clock to the wall, so hopefully that’ll help extend its life.

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I’m not sure where information about a shortage of animals in the northeast came from but I can assure you that is not true in any sense of the word. Our shelters up here are bursting at the seams as well. There are so many stray/feral cats it breaks my heart. Shelters are constantly begging for money!

Lisa, I picked it up from this article, these quotes are what caught my eye:

When the van pulls out of Animal Services parking lot Thursday morning, it will be loaded with 38 dogs and puppies and 27 cats and kittens being taken to their no-kill shelter on Long Island, where people are waiting in line to adopt animals, especially puppies.

“By the time the puppies hit the floor, they are gone,” said Gleason while checking out some kittens he was considering taking with him.

Sheppard said there is a shortage of dogs in the northeastern United States because of strict spay and neuter laws enacted 30 years ago.

I should have known it was too good to be true. :/

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Nicole: Inquiring minds want to know…. did you name Lucy Peppers after Lucy Liu, another cross-eyed, exotic beauty? Or is it merely coincidence?

Elayne: Lucy Liu is cross-eyed? When did that happen? (45 minutes of staring at imdb photos and google images later)
One of her eyes is a bit differently shaped than the other, a bit narrower, but I don’t think she’s cross-eyed…

Nicole: Maybe Lucy Peppers isn’t cross-eyed, either. But they are both very pretty.

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Lucy Peppers is definitely cross-eyed, but she wasn’t named after Lucy Liu (I do call her Lucy Lu, though, of course, because everyone’s gotta have a nickname.), she was named after Lucy from Peanuts. Actually, Lucy and Sally’s names were stolen from another blog, where there’s also a Patty.

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I just had to share this video with you. Visa and Spike are just too cute together. Guess this must be Share a Video day!

That is one fearless little kitten! I love the sideways hops down the hall.

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OMG. Have you met Maru yet?

I’m pretty sure that these days, they’ll take away your blog if you’ve never heard of Maru. Love him!

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I never ever comment even though I have been reading you since 2004 or 05 (!!!!) – but I just have to delurk before Clove gets adopted away… If I could possibly adopt just one cat (I live in Ontario, and am going away to Europe for the year next week, so it’s impossible), I would jump on a plane today and scoop up Clove in a heartbeat! She is just the most beautiful cat ever seen on this Earth, IMHO – please tell her I said so before she goes off to her forever home! I look forward to new photos of her every day – and I do hope that whoever is lucky to adopt her stays in touch with you and sends on photos from time to time… She is the foster I will miss most of all you’ve had, and you can tell her that too! Big hugs from up North!

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“Will this box hold my toys, too, or should they buy me new toys when I get to Canada?”

(Clove thinks you have excellent taste.)

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Does Cilantro talk a lot? My Yenta has an oral fixation too, licks EVERYTHING and man, does she chatter, hence the name Yenta. Just wonderin.

She doesn’t talk a lot, no. She does, however, get “lost” when you’re more than ten feet away from her, and if she doesn’t know where you are, instead of looking for you, she meows until you call to her. (Right now, she is under the desk licking my feet, by the way.)

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Oh no – Jake is so skinny. What’s wrong with him? Did he have food poisoning? Is he allergic to his food? Poor guy. I hope he gets better sooon!

and

Look at Jake and Elwood! Elwood is, um, quite the portly man, isn’t he?

and

Elwood’s…bulking up. Lifting weights, is he? 😉

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There’s nothing wrong with Jake, he weighs what he and Elwood should BOTH weigh. Elwood weighs almost 5 pounds more than Jake, and it’s obvious in that picture!

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For the record I love and buy hot pepper jam or jelly from our local farmer who does up jams. Its delicious with cheese and crackers. I never get enough peppers from my garden to make jams, Canadian summers just aren’t long enough if you don’t have a greenhouse.

As for the Ghost peppers, there is a great spice shop in Charleston, SC that makes ghost pepper salt to sell. It has quite a kick (but I love hot) and I use it as a substitute for regular salt when I want to heat something up. I’ve never made a flavored salt, but I guess it’s the same as making a flavored sugar??

Well, I make Jalapeno jelly and Habanero jams, but the thought of working with the Ghost peppers has me a little nervous. Fred decided last night that he wants to use the first of the Ghost peppers to make a hot sauce, then he’s going to have me make a batch of strawberry-Ghost pepper jam, then who knows?

(For the record, I can eat Jalapeno jelly, but cannot eat Habanero jam because it’s too hot for me and I don’t like feeling PAIN when I eat!)

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Maybe I missed it, but did all the McMaos and Maggie find forever homes?

They did! The last two to go were Maggie and Fergus Simon, who both were adopted two weeks and one day after the whole bunch went to Petsmart (but weren’t adopted together). The only McMao left unadopted is Ciara, who goes to Petsmart in a little while with the Spice Girls.

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I’m glad that Ciara and the sisters will be heading off tomorrow — though only because they’re growing so quickly. Hope they can be paired off in cages and then permanently. Godspeed, lovely girls, and here’s wishing that Robyn will let you keep her up during your final night at Crooked Acres.

I did let them have the run of the house last night, and they were a bit calmer about the whole thing. Ciara settled down in the cat bed at the foot of the bed, and the Spice Girls took turns laying across me, laying against my legs, and curling up next to my head and purring loudly.

There’s a large cage available at Petsmart, so all four of them will be going into that cage together. I would love it if they were adopted together in one configuration or another. Fingers crossed!

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All three petitions signed. Dexter is breaking my heart. I know pretty much all of us wish we could beat this woman senseless with a baseball bat. I have special words for her. I am a prolific curser as well (I remember you saying this awhile back about yourself) and, to paraphrase from A Christmas Story, I have woven a tapestry of profanities to describe her to my other cat-loving friends.

I am too familiar with this closing of helpful cat shelters. The Humane Society here raided one about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis. This woman had owned the shelter for more than 20 years. (In fact I adopted Luanne from them in 2007, from a Petsmart.) She was given a certain amount of time to reduce her numbers by x amount. She’d gotten about half of those out and had scheduled the other half to be shipped to a few other no-kill shelters. The Dept. of Agriculture wasn’t satisfied even though she was doing what she could (despite low funds and the fact that she was sleeping on a cot at the shelter). They told her she had to euthanize 60 animals and she said she spent 2 sleepless nights making up the list (how AWFUL). She and her lawyers got the euthanization date pushed out for a few weeks and she was continuing to schedule some of the animals to be transferred. When she was out of town, the Humane Society here and the Dept of Ag raided her place, took film, said it was deplorable and the animals were all sick. (Please tell me what shelter has animals that are all healthy and glowing??? That’s why they’re in shelters.) So this woman was completely shut down. They took 165 animals, including the lab (her pet) she’d had for 10 years. They eventually gave it back. But all of these other animals who would’ve been spared (and who WERE spayed and neutered; this is where all her funds went) were taken in by the Humane Society. Petsmart canceled their contract with her before finding out all of the facts. I’m sure tons of the animals were eventually euthanized. The HS is now the Wal-Mart of the animal world. Instead of another no-kill shelter getting funds for doing good work, the HS can get more funds to kill animals. WHATEVER. I will never support them again. I have given money monthly to North Shore Animal League for more than 3 years now.

Sorry for my soapbox. I just hate these types of situations; they are so unfair.

Definitely unfair!

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“Today’s headlines: Civilization is breaking down, unemployment is at 110%, and a litre of petrol now costs more than your children’s college education. And now here’s Tom with the kitten report.”

It would make the news so much more bearable, am I right?

I think they ought to just televise kittens playing, and have the human anchors do the news in voiceover! (Also, you can scroll down in this entry to see the cats doing a news report.)

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I love the photos (and loved yesterday’s btw), but do wonder why the bed of Princess Smug of Smugonia is so plain. Shouldn’t it at least have rhinestones on it… oops! I meant the finest diamonds, of course.

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It is very plain, isn’t it? I just put that thing together earlier this week, and I’m trying to decide what exactly I want to do with it. I’m considering painting it white, and perhaps making some sort of floofy mattress-type bed for it. Then again, maybe I’ll paint it pink or blue. Orrrr maybe I’ll just leave it the color it is and talk about making a cute cat bed for it, then never actually doing anything at all. That last sounds most likely to happen.

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By the way, just in case you wanted a reminder, now you have a bunch of baby kittens, you could take a closeup picture of their faces once a day or once a week, and we could see how their face changes as they grow up?

I’m going to do my level best to make that happen!

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My Frankie is 1 year 3 months old now, and is still really scared of everything around him. If he’s sleeping next to me, he jumps up off the couch every time I get up, and he jumps and runs away at the smallest of sounds. Even still,he loves to be scratched and getting a body rub, but he is literally a scaredy cat. I don’t really know what to do to make him more relaxed. Any ideas?

If anyone out there has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I think that some cats just have a more nervous nature than others, and despite the fact that they live with you and you would never hurt them in any way, they still get nervous when you move around.

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I can now exactly see why one needs to wear jeans to the foster room, I can just imagine how needle-sharp those little claws are!

SO true – I went into the guest bedroom yesterday morning to give the Peppers Gang their morning snack, and I was stupidly wearing shorts. Molly didn’t care one little bit that I didn’t have jeans protecting my legs, she climbed right up my bare legs to my shorts, then finally stopped climbing when she reached my stomach. Suffice it to say that I have learned my lesson!

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My cat Luna was frosted like that when we got her. Her tail even looked like a raccoon tail! That’s how we named her, those little white hairs along her back made me think of moonlight on a lake. Anyway, she doesn’t look like that anymore, her tail is just fluffy solid black, along with the rest of her. Well, brownish black. Also, I have a white cat that had two teeny black spots on her head when she was born, then just one, now none at all. Her mom had a few black hairs on her head when we had her (we fostered her out & kept 2 babies) and I’m assuming she also had a larger spot that was slowly going away. What’s up with that? How is it that they can change colors like that? Anyone know?

Oldcat? I think this might be a question for you!

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“Shares of Boston-based Carbonite Inc. jumped more then 23 percent yesterday in the company’s first day of trading after its initial public offering. The online computer backup service priced its shares late Wednesday at $10 per share. The stock closed yesterday at $12.35.”

I am actually gonna put a (small) chunk of change on the stock for its entertainment value. Will give it a year and then donate any earnings to Challenger House! Anyone else want to see what comes of one of Robyn’s Favorite Things? 🙂

Very neat idea!

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Lori sent me the link to this video, and it cracked me UP!

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All five Peppers, hangin’ on the cat tree.

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Lucy and Sally, chillin’.

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Harlan haz a complaint. “This platform is too smaaaaaall, and everyone keeps trying to cram themselves on the platform wiiiiiiith me, and I don’t liiiiiike it!”

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Smilin’ Molly.

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The Peppers girls – and Harlan’s foot.

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Molly haz a complaint. “Sally keeps biting my taaaaaaail, and it huuuuuuurts and I don’t liiiiiiike it!”

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Something hath disturbed the Ciara.

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Cilantro’s looking for her next licking victim.

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This really doesn’t look like the most comfortable position, does it?

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Ciara and Clove, all stressed out.

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Ciara checks out the dryer.

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::thlurrp::

I’ll be heading out of here to take Ciara and the Spice Girls to Petsmart in an hour or so. Adoption hours take place this evening, and I like to let them have the better part of the day to become accustomed to their new surroundings (though I am certainly hoping they won’t be their surroundings for long!) I will, of course, let y’all know as soon as I know they’ve been adopted.

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“Hello, I am beautiful.”

(Your weekly reminder.)

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Previously
2010: “Because I feel like I can’t get a good, deep breath, so I’m pretty sure I’m going into multi-system organ failure.”
2009: I adore stories that talk about what a pain in the ass Gwyneth Paltrow is, and I always cackle when Dlisted refers to her as “Fishsticks Paltrow.”
2008: Or… is that how learning curves work?
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: she’s got the skank lines rolling off her, doesn’t she?
2004: Fred is just amazed that one portly cat can have so many health issues.
2003: ::Sproing!:: he went, leaping at least a foot in the air, and I watched, impressed that he’d contained that much energy in his dry and dead-looking little body.
2002: “TUBBY GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” I ordered, and grudgingly he did.
2001: No entry.
2000: Being completely, one-hundred percent useless in the slightest emergency, I slapped my hands to my cheeks and let out a horrified scream.

8/18/11 – Crooked Acres Thursday

Maxie asked yesterday whether those of you not in Alabama can sign the petitions I linked to, since they’re an Alabama thing. The answer is that I don’t know if your signatures will count, but they certainly won’t hurt! You can sign the petitions to stop the Alabama State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners from … Continue reading “8/18/11 – Crooked Acres Thursday”

Maxie asked yesterday whether those of you not in Alabama can sign the petitions I linked to, since they’re an Alabama thing. The answer is that I don’t know if your signatures will count, but they certainly won’t hurt!

You can sign the petitions to stop the Alabama State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners from shutting down spay/neuter clinics here and here.

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Sights from around Crooked Acres.

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I finally got around to putting feed bags (empty feed bags that once held chicken and pig feed) around the butternut and acorn squash, and putting dried grass clippings around each plant (to block weeds). I only got a little more than half the row done before I ran out of grass, though. When Fred got home yesterday, he went around the lawn with the sweeper and got me another big pile of grass clippings, so I should be able to finish up the row.

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Wee Acorn or Butternut squash-to-be.

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Look at all the blossoms getting ready to burst forth!

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This volunteer tomato plant grew on the fenceline to the back forty. It keeps trying to die, but then it rains, and the plant comes back to life. Note that there are no tomatoes at all on the side of the fence the chickens can get to!

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The Autumn Clematis are super happy.

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We’re really getting a lot of blooms on the Rose of Sharon bush in the back yard. In past years, we’ve gotten maybe one or two.

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Four years ago, all this foliage (except for the tree branches hanging down) was completely gone. Every summer I cut less and less of it back, and this summer I haven’t cut any of it back. The cats really like hanging out in there – though I guess it would behoove me to cut it back a bit so that when Tommy’s being difficult and doesn’t want to come in at night, we can reach him. You’ll note that the purple blooms in the middle of the picture are the Rose of Sharon flowers. That thing’s over six feet tall now.

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I finally got enough tomatoes (thank you, Katherine!) to peel and (mostly) deseed, chop, and slow-roast them with onion and garlic for three hours. I used the pastry cutter to chop the whole mess up, and then used it as a base for spaghetti sauce. It was DIVINE.

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Left to right, cayenne powder made from our own peppers, tomato powder made from our own tomatoes, and dehydrated bell peppers. (I use the tomato powder to make tomato paste – basically, add water to tomato powder until you have as much paste as you need.)

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That green tomato, with just a blush of red on it, is how I harvest my tomatoes. Then I leave them on the counter and let them ripen (if I have a lot of tomatoes that need to ripen, I put them all in a box. They ripen faster that way, and don’t clutter up my counter). If I try to let them ripen on the vine, the STUPID birds and squirrels take a single bite and leave the tomato there for me to find and gnash my teeth over.

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New growth on the grapevine.

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Bhut Jolokia (Ghost) Peppers, starting to ripen. “What are you going to do with the Ghost peppers?” I said to Fred. Apparently what Fred was planning to do with them was expect me to make jams with them. Who on earth is going to buy Ghost Pepper jam? Only a sucker for punishment, I think. (He’s also planning to make a hot sauce. I’m letting him handle that one all on his own.)

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After the heavy rain we had the week before last, we had about a million cracked cherry tomatoes. Grrr. (The chickens got them, and were very happy about it!)

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I continue to think that okra flowers are the prettiest flowers on earth.

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Ready to be picked so it can ripen on my counter!

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Teeny watermelon-to-be.

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Watermelon flowers.

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Not a great picture, but I’ve been making a lot of blueberry cake lately (I’ll post the recipe if I remember). The recipe comes from a Marjorie Standish cook book my mother gave me 20+ years ago. If I could only pick one cook book to carry out of a burning building, that would be the one. (Oh wait, this is the recipe right here. DO NOT cook it for 50 – 60 minutes, or you’ll end up with an overcooked cake. Start checking it with a toothpick at 40 minutes, but 45 minutes is what works for me.)

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I love this spoon rest; I used a plate hanger to hang it between the windows over the sink. I keep hoping to find something else to hang there with it, but haven’t found anything that’s the right size yet.

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Sweet pickled jalapenos.

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These okra pods were too long to use (if they get too long, they get tough and woody), so I dehydrated them for the cats. Cats think okra pods are THE BOMB, and once they’re dry enough, the seeds rattle around in the pod. I think I still have pods floating around the house from two summers ago.

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I think this hen is particularly pretty.

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Gracie’s keeping an eye on things from under the coop, where it’s cool.

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All our chickens except for two or three who were behind me.

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Little rooster.

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“You haz a snack for me?”

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“GIMME MAH SNACK!”

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“….please?”

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“Dat was a good snack.”

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Happy George.

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The chickens sure do love their tomatoes.

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Smilin’ girlie pig.

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Napping in the waller.

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Pig #2 comes over to see if a snack was given, and if so WHERE IS HERS.

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“No cookies here.”
“You’re lying, I smell chocolate on your snout.”

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Across the way, there’s a perfectly good waller located in the shade. The last two sets of pigs have refused to set hoof in that one, and I have no idea why. Maybe the Loch Ness monster has relocated to the Crooked Acres Waller.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

After I wrote about Sally Peppers being such a scaredy cat, yesterday I went into the guest bedroom to hang out with the kittens, who were all snoozing on the cat tree. Sally Peppers immediately jumped from the cat tree to the bed where I was laying, and snuggled with me with not the slightest hint of cringing or cowering. Harlan’s still a bit cringe-y, and none of them like it if you’re standing up and reach down to pick them up, but they’re a million times less scared than they were two weeks ago, for sure.

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Lucy Peppers, hanging out.

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Snoozin’ Molly.

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Harlan, Molly, and Everett like to squeeze onto the same platform.

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Sally and Everett apparently see a crazed serial killer over my shoulder. Or nothing. They’re not sure what the difference is.

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You can’t see them all, but Molly Peppers actually has hold of three toys. She wants ALL the toys.

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Harlan and Lucy came to investigate, and Molly let out a fearsome growl. She’s a growler when she thinks anyone’s trying to take anything away from her.

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Smilin’ Molly.

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Serious Molly.

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Lucy (left) and Sally, annoyed at having their conversation interrupted.

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“Who, ME?”

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I love it when they lay froggy-style.

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“Who loves me enough to come scrape this eye booger out of my eye?”

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I kiss Ciara 10,000 times a day, especially when she gives me this look.

Last night, after we’d put Ciara, Clove, Cori and Cilantro in the foster room, one of them (I suspect Cilantro) began meowing sadly at the door. Instead of ignoring it as we usually do, we decided to let them back out and see how it went.

I did not sleep well, is how it went. If I wasn’t woken up by Cilantro vigorously licking my feet, I was awakened by Clove chasing her tail or Cori attacking my feet. I haven’t decided if we’ll give it a try again tonight, or just ignore the sad meowing. Mama needs her sleep, you know.

Edited to add: I just got the word – there’s room at Petsmart for Ciara and the Spice Girls. They’ll be going Friday morning!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

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“Hey! You’re not allowed outside the back yard! Get back in here where Sheriff Mama can adequately protect you!”

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::giving me the I’m-not-kidding look::

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“I SAID, get back in here!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Previously
2010: When I see this picture, I can absolutely understand why Fred initially thought that Martin was a baby possum when he saw him sitting under the bush at the side of the house.
2009: They’re blue. They’re brothers. They’re Jake and Elwood.
2008: YES THAT’S RIGHT I SAID SIX-THIRTY DON’T JUDGE ME.
2007: No entry.
2006: He truly amazes me.
2005: If I insert a brillo pad into my ear, will it eventually get to my brain and scrub that song out, or is that an urban myth?
2004: You know, I’m getting PRETTY FRICKIN’ TIRED of finding cricket legs all over the damn place.
2003: “Mother,” said the spud, “That is an excellent idea, for I am going to melt into a motherfucking puddle of goo in about 10 seconds.”
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: In the future, the spud will be cleaning her own bedroom, since I took one look at her room and said “Fuck THIS.”

8/17/11 – Kitteh Wednesday

Back in June, a woman and her two young sons were brutalizing two small kittens at a park. One of the kittens was killed, but another – Dexter – was rescued by some kids. You can read more about little Dexter here. He was eventually adopted by someone who worked at the clinic that saved … Continue reading “8/17/11 – Kitteh Wednesday”

Back in June, a woman and her two young sons were brutalizing two small kittens at a park. One of the kittens was killed, but another – Dexter – was rescued by some kids. You can read more about little Dexter here. He was eventually adopted by someone who worked at the clinic that saved him, but yesterday, due to uncontrollable seizures, he was euthanized.

A petition has been drafted by People Against Cruelty asking the Hernando County State Attorney to ”take maximum prosecution under the Florida Statute Code in the Case involving felony animal abuse charges of the accused, Wilana Joenel Frazier, and her two children.”

You can sign the petition here.

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Here in Alabama, the State Veterinary Medical Examiners are doing their best to shut down the Spay and Neuter clinic in Birmingham, and to keep the one here in Huntsville closed. Dr. Robert Pitman from Athens is heading that attempt. In what looks VERY MUCH like a conflict of interest, Dr. Robert Pitman is under contract from the City of Athens and Limestone County to house and euthanize animals picked up or taken in when their time is up.

Imagine that a mama cat and six kittens show up on your steps. Imagine that the local area shelters are absolutely swamped and don’t have room to take them, have them spayed and neutered and treated for the parasites they inevitably have in their systems, and find homes for them. Imagine that you’re doing all you can to care for these cats, but when you call to see about having them examined and spayed and neutered, the cost you’re quoted is so far beyond what you have that it might as well be a million dollars. So you do what you can to keep these cats fed and safe, but imagine how many cats you end up with after a year.

I do not understand the mindset behind trying to close these clinics. It’s absolutely insane – between August and March, the local spay and neuter clinic fixed 2,000 cats and dogs. TWO THOUSAND. Two thousand cats and dogs who are no longer contributing to the pet overpopulation problem. It’s infuriating and it makes this state look ignorant. The North Shore Animal League has taken dozens of animals from Huntsville Animal Services to the Northeast. They have a shortage of animals up there. A SHORTAGE.

I dearly hope that one day I’m able to say to you guys “Unfortunately, I don’t have any wee kitten fosters because there just aren’t any kittens right now.” When someone with questionable motives is doing his best to keep a clinic closed, a clinic that spayed and neutered two thousand animals in this area, in the space of nine months, I just don’t see that happening in my lifetime.

You can sign the petition to stop the Alabama State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners from shutting down spay/neuter clinics here and here.

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The thing about Molly Peppers is that sometimes her mouth writes checks her Paw o’ Doom can’t cover.

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“And your mama dresses you funny!”

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::swat::

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::slow-motion slap::

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This is about the point where Molly Peppers realizes that perhaps she’s overstepped a little.

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Lucy’s all “You wanna piece of me?”

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“I say, you WANT a piece of ME?”

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A demonstration of the phrase “high-tailing it out of there.”

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::flip::

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“Hi-YAH!”

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Hopefully Molly has learned her lesson (doubt it!)

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Clove goes exploring.

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“The big hand is on the… oh! I’m late!”

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“How do I get down from here, again?”

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But then she realized that in that direction was an irritated Stinkerbelle, and thought better of going that way.

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(She did eventually make the jump.)

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Smug Miss Alice enjoys her bed.

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Previously
2010: That, my friends, was not a chunk of dirt. It was a mouse head.

2009: The fact that several weeks after our favorite little gray cat died, two little gray kittens have shown up on our side stoop, well, kinda seems like a sign, doesn’t it?
2008: No entry.
2007: “Muff the magic pussy, lived by the cheeeeeeks!”
2006: I also thought my brother made up the word “fart” when I was a kid, so apparently I think he’s a real trend-setter.
2005: You know who really just completely repulses me?
2004: The only way it’d be better is if we could call and vote on who’s the most annoying.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: Wouldn’t it have been ironic if I’d made assurances to the spud that we would probably all live for a long, long time, then promptly tripped over the cat, fallen down the stairs, broken my neck, and died?
2000: Man, I’m so unmotivated today (nothing new there).

8/15/11 – Tuesday

This is Tippy. Tippy has eyelid entropion and needs surgery. (You can read the details and a better explanation at his Chip-In page.) Please remember that every dollar counts, and help if you can! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ … Continue reading “8/15/11 – Tuesday”

Tippy

This is Tippy. Tippy has eyelid entropion and needs surgery. (You can read the details and a better explanation at his Chip-In page.)

Please remember that every dollar counts, and help if you can!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Also, Madison residents, keep an eye out for Tukey. His family misses him a great deal!

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Yesterday was my goofing-off, social day. I left the house around 8:30 and drove to Madison to visit with Katherine. Y’all know Katherine, she adopted two of Kara’s babies and now they are just spoiled rotten. Their names were Inara (now Dora) and River (now Nate), and they looked something like this, three years ago:

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(That’s Nate)

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(That’s Dora)

And also like this:

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(Nate)

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(Dora)

And then like this:

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(Dora)

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(Nate)

So then they went off to Madison to be loved and spoiled rotten, and I’ve seen them from time to time over the past three years. I haven’t always had my camera with me, but yesterday it just so happened that I did.

Both cats are beautiful, of course, but Nate is just strikingly gorgeous. Pictures absolutely do not do him justice.

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(Yeah, yeah. They’re all basically the same picture. I couldn’t help it. I HAD TO SHARE THEM ALL.)

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I had a hard time getting a good picture of Dora because she was untrusting of my intentions, but you can see what a pretty girl she is, too. (Kara made some awfully pretty babies!)

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Nate actually did come over and sniff my hand, but then he was so startled by his own bravado that he ran off and hid.

I visited with Katherine for about an hour, then I had to skedaddle because I had a 10:15 eye appointment in Huntsville. I don’t remember how long it’s been since I last had my eyes checked, but I’m sure it’s been well over a year. Possibly two years, even. The only reason I made an appointment for a checkup at this point is because I’m down to two pairs of contacts, and that makes me nervous. Also, the inexpensive glasses I bought online at… wherever the hell I bought them. Zenni Optical, I think? Anyway, the frame snapped underneath both lenses, so I figured it was time to get new glasses, too.

The appointment went just fine, and I ordered some extra contacts, and then picked out a couple of pairs of glasses, and headed to Suzanne’s house. Suzanne has always come out here in the past to visit and snuggle baby kittens and get eggs – I think I even dragged her out to meet George and Gracie and the pigs at one point. I haven’t been to her house because most of the time when I’m in her vicinity, it’s just to run a few errands at the crack of dawn and then get home to make sure the house hasn’t blown away or spontaneously combusted or something equally horrifying.

I got to meet her cats, after hearing so much about them, and oh my. She has not been kidding all this time about what gorgeous cats she has – Theo looks like Sugarbutt, only (I’m sorry, Sugarbutt. You know I love you.) prettier. Okay, and bigger. He’s a big hunk of a cat, that Theo. I got to meet the beautiful Gracie (I am telling you, so very very gorgeous), and got to pet her and Theo both. I got to see Moxie, mostly from a distance, and the kittens, Regan and Riley, also from a distance.

After some pettin’ and talking about the cats, we headed out to have lunch. We decided to have lunch at PF Chang’s, which I’d never been to, and it was really good. The only problem was that I was planning to bring the rest of my lunch home with me, but I was so into talking to Suzanne that the waitress came along and asked if we were done, and I wasn’t really paying attention and told her I was. So she took it off, and about five minutes later I realized that I hadn’t actually, y’know, ASKED for a box for my food, I think I thought she was taking it off to box it up, but not so much. Too bad, ’cause it was good!

(It was honey-something shrimp. Crispy honey shrimp? Oh, and we had lettuce wraps, too, and they were soooo good. Thanks again, Suzanne!!!)

Then we walked around and looked in a few shops. Suzanne learned my embarrassing secret, which is that I use Victoria’s Secret So Sexy shampoo on my hair.

(I imagine some guy with one of those cheesy 70s mustaches crooning “My ladyyyyy is soooooo sexyyyyyy” whenever I have to think of the horrible name of that shampoo. But I love the smell of it beyond all reason and have it for years now. I’m sure I walk around smelling like a sweet combination of Sooooo Sexyyyyy shampoo and (clean) litter dust.)

We went back to Suzanne’s for a little while, then I left and headed to pick up my glasses (remember back in The Day when your glasses would be ready in an hour? Mine weren’t quite ready yet when I got there, and it was like three hours later!), had to wait a few minutes there, then got my glasses, picked up some cat food (not at the glasses store, across the street at Petsmart, but it certainly would have been convenient to be able to get my glasses and cat food at the same establishment, no?), then headed home. I made a quick stop at Publix to pick up a few things, then got home.

Fred had forgotten that I was going to be out for the day, and he almost never comes home to find me NOT there, so I got a call from him while I was in Publix.

“Are you dead in a ditch?” he asked.

So, that was pretty much my day. It was really nice to have a day out where I got to talk to, you know, people who talk back (not that the cats don’t talk back, but sometimes I need to hear the voices of humans!) The house was still standing, thankfully (not that I was really worried, but you never know, do you? I totally need to set up a webcam for while I’m gone, so that I can check and make sure the house is still standing!), and I spent the evening catching up on email and snuggling with the babies.

Today, I garden. Also, clean the house! Yay?

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Harlan gets his butt kicked while the Kong bird looks on, unconcerned.

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::thlurrrp::

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Harlan contemplates his next move.

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Harlan and Everett tussle, while Sally looks away.

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I sense that Everett’s going to win this one.

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“You say it began itching and then your eyes suddenly crossed and you can’t uncross them? How bizarre.” Dr. Harlan Peppers is on the case. (I’m sorry, this picture just makes me absolutely guffaw. I think it’s the look of concentration on his face, combined with the look of long-suffering patience on hers.)

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Everett goes for a climb.

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The kittens sure do love that scratching post. That’s Lucy up top, Sally hanging off toward the bottom, and Molly and Everett on the floor.

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Lucy Peppers, if you aren’t adopted in ten seconds flat, I’ll eat my hat.

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When I see her little face, I have to kiss her one million times. She’s not terribly crazy about that, but she puts up with me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

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Why so stressed, Clove?

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Take a shot of catnip, Clove. Jeez. All your stress is stressing ME out.

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Ciara’s all “Her stress is stressing ME out, too. Let’s sneak some catnip into her food.”
Coriander: “Your idea has merit.”

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“Sign me up for a snort of the ‘nip.”

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“Y’all are hilarious. Now shaddup and let me sleep.”

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“Did someone say “catnip”?” (Spanky is a catnip fiend.)

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Previously
2010: when you’ve got this goddamn many cats running around, requiring a spotless house is a first-class seat on the train to Crazytown
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: And just like Alice, I get MY beefsteak wholesale, too.
2006: Questions answered.
2005: No entry.
2004: Oh, by the way? When you tell someone “Don’t worry, I won’t be back to read your journal”? Please. EVERYONE knows that means “I’m going to come back every six seconds to see the reactions to my asshole comment”.
2003: No entry.
2002: CHECK THOSE FEEDBACKS, people!
2001: 16 miles. Yeah, baby!
2000: I swear to god, that cat is half monkey.

8/15/11 – Monday

In case you missed it, I posted an entry late yesterday with an update from Jennifer, who adopted Starsky and Hutch last Fall! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   Saturday marked fifteen years that I’ve lived in Alabama. … Continue reading “8/15/11 – Monday”

In case you missed it, I posted an entry late yesterday with an update from Jennifer, who adopted Starsky and Hutch last Fall!

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Saturday marked fifteen years that I’ve lived in Alabama. I can’t believe I’ve lived here that long – it certainly doesn’t feel like it!

I celebrated by working in the garden for a couple of hours first thing in the morning, going to the flea market for a little while in late morning, and then Saturday afternoon I roasted a bunch of cherry tomatoes, then put them in freezer bags and saved them to use at a later date. Saturday evening, we watched several episodes of Entourage, and that was about it for the day.

I know how to celebrate in style, no?

Now I’m off in a little while to run errands and see friends, so I’m going to post a bunch of pictures and call it an entry!

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The many faces of Sally Peppers.

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That’s Sally on the right in the purple collar, Lucy in the left in the pink, and Everett on the floor keeping a safe distance.

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Little nuts.

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Just in case you were under the impression that they all just lay around and look cute all the time.

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::glare::

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That Kong bird is about her favorite toy.

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Big enough that she can really get into kicking its butt.

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Not so big that it can effectively fight back.

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Crazy face.

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Light enough that she can drag it all over the room.

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“YOU GO AWAY THIS ARE MY KILL.”

Sally is the scarediest of the Peppers Gang (well, maybe tied with Harlan). She’s the hardest to get hold of when you need to squirt medicine in her mouth, and the best hider. More than once, I’ve thought “Did she get OUT of the room? She must have squeezed past when I opened the door and I just didn’t realize it!”, only to eventually find her hiding in a spot I didn’t expect. She just isn’t sure that she trusts us, and when we reach for her, if she can’t turn and run away, she cringes away from us.

On the other hand, when I lay down on the bed and let the kittens come to me, Sally’s one of the first (if not THE first) to come over and stand in front of me and meow sadly until I pet her. Then she purrs and purrs. I know it’ll take time before she stops the cringing (and she’s a million times improved over how she was when they first got here two weeks ago), but I sure do hate seeing her scared.

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Did I mention that Cilantro cannot hold her licker?

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“What happen’?”

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As long as you’re comfy, Clove. It’s not like I was using that keyboard or anything.

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“Moooom! Clove melted out of the cat bed again!”

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Ciara realizes that this means she gets the bed to herself.

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Such a couple of brats.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

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Jake (left) and Elwood, watching birds.

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2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: This is how I feel right now.
2007: “Mister Seller tells me y’all are good Christian people,” she said.
2006: It’s been a year since we found Crooked Acres. Hard to believe.
2005: They are NAS-TAY, and trust me when I say that you’d be better off never bothering to try the nasty things.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: Looking at this hormone-laden piece of meat makes me… well, it makes me kinda drool, actually.
2001: I just smiled and nodded and kept walkin’.
2000: Mustard algae. Why must he doubt me?

8/12/11 – Friday

Attention, those of you who know stuff about dogs! Becca needs help. If you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments, or you can email me and I’ll pass your email along to Becca. Thanks! I love dogs, but never really had one as a pet, so their behavior totally eludes me. Here’s why … Continue reading “8/12/11 – Friday”

Attention, those of you who know stuff about dogs! Becca needs help. If you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments, or you can email me and I’ll pass your email along to Becca. Thanks!

I love dogs, but never really had one as a pet, so their behavior totally eludes me. Here’s why I ask:

On July 31st, my grandma passed away. She had a Chihuahua, Butchy, for between 6 and 9 years – none of us can remember when she got him, thus we don’t know how old he is. For Butchy’s entire life, it was him and my Maw, and the occasional cat – at any given time, Maw had at least one cat living with her, inside or outside. Butchy was very attached to Maw, he knew us, and would play with us, ask for belly rubs, etc., except for my dad, he must have scared Butchy early on – we think it was because Dad would rev up his motorcycle right outside the window and Butchy would go berserk over the noise. Butchy would freeze up and give Dad the evil eye when he was around.

My grandma passed away in her home, in her sleep (a shock to us all, but that’s a great way to go). Dad found her that morning (visited everyday, they were neighbors), called an ambulance, etc. I don’t know if the ambulace had it’s sirens on, but if so, that would scare Butch. So that day there were many unfamiliar people in and out of the house – Butchy stayed in his crate all day. He wouldn’t come out at all – he stayed curled up in the back and would shake, lay his ears back, and slightly growl if anyone tried to pet him. We didn’t want to traumatize him, so we let him stay in the house, one of us went over each day to fill up his food and water and slightly try to coax him out to go potty. He never came out. He’d hide.

On Aug 4th I managed to get him to come out of his hiding place and go into his crate, shut the door and loaded him into my car. He did wonderful on the 45 min drive to the town I live in, didn’t make a peep. My best friend decided to take him, give him a home. This was really wonderful of him – none of the family members could take him due to other pets, allergies, or, in my case, work required travel. The first day Butch came out of his crate on his own, checked the place out, drank some water, and went back to his crate. Again he would growl and snap at us if we tried to touch him.

So, we didn’t try to do much with him for a few days so he could get used to his new surroundings. He barely ate, only his treats (roast beef, and cheese- this is what my grandma fed him), and drank very little water. On Saturday, we were able to get him out and take him outside, where he seemed quite happy, even lying on his back in the grass for a belly rub. Sunday, people came over, a usual thing, which really, I wish they hadn’t cause everybody wanted to talk and pet him. He of course was not having it.

Monday I went over to let him out in the afternoon, and he was happy as a pig in mud to see me. He ran some little circles, even played a little bit, and covered me in puppy kisses (which i really don’t like, but he was so happy I let him). I snuggled him and loved on him for a few hours. My friend, Josh, was at work by the way – we’re wondering if Butch just doesn’t like men. Tuesday, I went over around 3 to let him out and Butch did not approve. He growled at me, and was shaking. Later last night I went back to try again – and he was all happy again! He even took a nap in my lap! After a couple hours of lovin on him, I left.

Josh says he’s still hiding under the kitchen table or in his crate when he’s there. This morning he growled at Josh and his dad. It occurs to me, the times I went over and he was happy I was wearing my favorite pajama pants (which I wear for 3 or 4 days between washes). I don’t know what to do. I thought he would be a little bit better by now, warming up to Josh more… I don’t want to keep going over there (Josh and I just broke up a couple weeks ago, still friends tho) and I don’t want Butch to expect me to be there, I don’t want him to be attached to me- for above reasons. But it breaks my heart that he’s so scared.

He’s a really great dog – cute, smart (when told to “go get ducky” he will retrieve his duck toy, etc) and a total lap dog. But it’s like he’s forgotten everything – he seems so lost without my grandma, which makes her passing even harder. Rehoming her dog was maybe the saddest thing I’ve ever done, made her death real, I guess. Butchy is a little piece of her, and I want him to be happy and know that he’s safe.

I’ve done some research, and from what I can tell, he wasn’t socialized well…I guess, but everything talks of how to help puppies, and young dogs. Butch is gray of the muzzle, can he be resocialized? I just have no idea. Anything, ANYTHING, will be of help. I feel like, just leaving him alone should work. Time to get used to Josh- but it’s been a week… And he’s still barely eating- evident of him barely pooping. Help us if you can- or do you know of a helpful resource?

Again, if anyone can help please leave a comment or email me. Thank you!

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I learned last week that your second odor solution (Hydrogen Peroxide, Baking Soda and Dishsoap) works terrifically on a dog that’s been sprayed by a skunk. Also gives him some stylish highlights. Just wanted to pass that little tip on.

I did not know that – thanks for the tip!

(Did anyone out there who grew up in the 80s try to give themselves highlights using Hydrogen Peroxide? I didn’t try it myself (that I remember), but a friend’s brother did, and his hair turned a very unnatural shade of red. I’m sure he’s not the only one who tried that particular trick!)

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My Hoover commerical vacuum has both a rug and bare floor switch. I’ve only got bare floors to can’t testify to how well it does rugs but I have used the smaller brush head to vacuum the furniture and I’ve been quite pleased. For $100, what do you have to lose?

P.S. Even though I KNEW what was going to happen in the spider video, I screamed anyway.

I am 99% sure that I did buy that very vacuum at some point in the past, and for some reason or another it just didn’t work out for me. It wasn’t in this house, though, and now I’m thinking that the issue was that we had carpet throughout most of the house in Madison, so maybe here where there’s more hardwood than rugs, it might work out better for me. I’m taking it under consideration!

And I jumped, gasped, and put my hand over my mouth even though I knew what was going to happen in that video!

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Previously, 2007. Bahahahahahah!

and

I’m glad I’m not the only one that was cracking up over the ’07 entry. Especially the part about the chances of keeping MaryAnn/Stinky being “nil”. 😉

and

The 2007 entry is funny. Did you ever try the kool-aid pickles?

and

I had to laugh when I read on you “Previously” for 2007—six cats (permanently living in the house) are our limit (famous last words). Who would have thought?

That’s regarding this entry, wherein someone asked Regarding Maryanne . . . I was wondering, what are the chances since Fred is her favorite, that he relents and wants to keep her??? and I responded with, I’d say the chances are nil that Maryanne will be staying. She’s cute and playful (though still skittish) and we like having her around, but six cats (permanently living in the house) are our limit.

Yeah. Four years later, we’ve doubled the cat population. You may have noticed that these days when someone asks if we’re going to keep one cat or another, I don’t say a definitive no because I have LEARNED never to say never.

(And no, I never did try those Kool-aid pickles!)

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I’m just catching up here so forgive me if I am repetitious with comment content, but I HAVE to tell you 2 things: First, that little Molly Peppers is GORGEOUS. Would you call her a gray tabby? A silver tabby? Whatever you call her, she’s a looker.

The other thing is, when I saw that you had named them “the Peppers” and that there were 5 of them, I was sure you had named them after that old-timey book series “5 Little Peppers and How They Grew” or some shit like that. I looked it up on Wikipedia and found this awesome description of one of the plots: “Things change for the Peppers after Phronsie is kidnapped by an organ grinder.”

Molly Peppers is considered a silver tabby – though if you referred to her as gray, I wouldn’t disagree with you.

And several people mentioned that book, and I have to admit that if I’d read a description like that, I’d probably have gone along with the naming theme. Well, except that the kids in the book were comprised of three boys and two girls, and I’ve got three girls and two boys. I’m going to have to keep those names in mind for a future litter, though, because “Phronsie” would be an excellent kitten name.

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Also, Robyn, you won’t regret the Miele vacuum. We bought ours almost 20 years ago and it’s still going strong. It loves cat litter, too. Last week, when I was trying to open one of those huge square bags of litter, I spilled about 5 pounds of it and that Miele was so happy, it almost turned itself on to get to it.

That certainly does sound like my kind of vacuum!!!

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LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

If I might add on fountains:

stay far away from the cheaper/regular Drinkmate. I’ll also recommend the Petmate fresh and flow. Perhaps most important: the quality of your water will drastically effect how well the fountain works. Another thing to keep in mind with fountains for anyone considering buying one… does the water fall actually splash into water? That’s noisier/etc…one of our cats doesn’t like that style (the drinkmate) but is fine with the other style (the Petmate)

One thing (well, two things) I forgot to mention about the Cat Mate fountain in yesterday’s entry is that it’s by far the easiest fountain I’ve cleaned. It comes apart simply, and there aren’t a lot of nooks and crannies that you have to scrub with cotton swabs because they’re too small for your fingers. The thing I don’t like about it is that the cord is really, really long, and since my fountains are fairly near to the outlet, I end up with a pile of fountain cord sitting next to the fountain and it’s annoying (but since the cords are covered, I don’t have to worry about the cats chewing on them).

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You’re like Oprah! I kept on imagining you would tell me to look under my chair and I would find a Ham-Mick and some Nose Offense! I can’t think of any suggestions, cat-related or otherwise, but I will cheerfully take yours. Thanks!

I thought about having a thing where people could enter to win one of each item that I mentioned, but there were a lot of items in that list. Also, it was kind of a spur of the moment topic, so I didn’t think of that until about halfway through the post. 🙂

(I should have called it “Robyn’s Favorite Things”, though. Can’t believe I didn’t think of that at all!)

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You must check out this site…I’m laughing. And figuring out how to convince my cats to stay on the scanner long enough to be scanned…

I don’t currently have a flatbed scanner, but I had one in the past, but I’ve never successfully scanned a cat. Usually when the scanner started up, whichever cat that was hanging out on it would skedaddle.

I did scan the spud’s face once, though, back in 2001.

Danielle, scanned, in 2001.

Hee.

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Once again great pictures…but an important question emerges: Did you paint your kitchen to go with Jake’s beautiful green eyes?

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The way you’re asking the question makes me think that there might be people out there who don’t decorate the house to flatter their cats, is that what you’re telling me?

Actually, that wall doesn’t have that tinge of green to it, in real life. It’s a cream color. And when we painted the walls, Jake and Elwood weren’t even a twinkle in their mama’s eye.

I’ve been thinking, now that we’re coming up five years since we initially painted the walls of this house, that it might be time for a repaint, if not an update (I still love the colors of our walls). When we painted, though, the house was empty and I didn’t have to worry about a zillion cats wandering through and brushing up against wet paint.

All of which is a long way to say that no, we didn’t match the walls to Jake’s eyes. But we should have!

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Harlan looks like Clove to me – could we have a side-by-side comparison? Photos are enough, since I know the Peppers still can’t enter Gen Pop.

People said that he looks like Corbie, too, so here’s a picture of Clove, one of Harlan, and one of Corbie, and y’all can draw your own conclusions. (That’s an awful lot of spotted stripey gorgeousness, isn’t it?)

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Oh my goodness Harlan is a fluffsome little cutie. Something about his head shape and expressions reminds me of this sand cat kitten.

If anyone knows of a way I can get me one of those Sand Cats, please let me know ASAP, thanks.

(I’m kidding, of course. But my god is that a cute kitten.)

I definitely see Harlan’s resemblance to the Sand Cat kitten, though. Or the Sand Cat kitten’s resemblance to Harlan. However you want to look at it, there’s a resemblance, is what I’m saying.

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The many faces of Everett Peppers.

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I love his “frosted” look.

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“I haz an angry.”

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“Hmm. Everett cannot be bothered with you and your silly camera. Everett has better things to worry about.”

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“Go ‘way.”

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“If I close my eyes, you’re not there.”

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I originally thought this was Everett, but the crossed eyes lead me to believe this is actually Lucy with her floofed-up self. So, surprise! It’s Lucy Peppers!

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“Lord, it’s so hard to be this beautiful.”

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“Did I mention go ‘way?”

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::glare::

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“Am so sleepy… is hard to keep the glare going…”

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Cilantro, in a rare non-licking moment.

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“Who, me? I’m not up on the step to the platform! I wouldn’t do that!”

(She is, as far as I’m concerned, allowed to go up there all she wants, but she acts like she’s not supposed to be up there.)

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Corbie the beautiful.

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Previously
2010: Damn her, she was right!
2009: It’s a rough life, but someone’s gotta live it, right?
2008: ”What are we going to do when we find out?” Fred asked. I still don’t know the answer to that. I just want to KNOW.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Right now, Fred’s upstairs trying to snooze while Mister Boogers comforts him.
2004: Does she think she’s Paris Hilton?
2003: Me, earlier today: “I swear to god, I’m going to go on a shooting spree!”
2002: ME LOVE LOBSTER, have I mentioned?
2001: No entry.
2000: It sure is good to be home!

8/11/11 – Thursday

This would ordinarily be Crooked Acres Thursday, with pics of various and sundry sights from around Crooked Acres, but I didn’t get a single dog or garden or chicken picture this week (I just haven’t been motivated to do a single thing outside this week because of the heat and also the lack of sun … Continue reading “8/11/11 – Thursday”

This would ordinarily be Crooked Acres Thursday, with pics of various and sundry sights from around Crooked Acres, but I didn’t get a single dog or garden or chicken picture this week (I just haven’t been motivated to do a single thing outside this week because of the heat and also the lack of sun for the better part of the week, because pictures taken outside when it’s overcast just don’t come out all that wonderfully), so instead I’m going to do a list of stuff I like and think y’all might like too!

FYI, none of this stuff was given to me, everything in this list was bought and paid for.

Stuff I Like (and you might like too!)

1. Carbonite. My friend Katherine suggested Carbonite to me, oh, sometime last year, I think? I made a mental note, and then I did nothing, because that’s just the way I am. And then I don’t remember exactly what spurred me to get my butt in gear – probably I was having issues with my hard drive – and I started thinking about the incredible number of pictures I have on my computer, and how sad I would be if I lost them all (or any of them!), and I finally signed up with Carbonite and installed the software. It took forever for the backup to happen, which wasn’t Carbonite’s fault because the way my failing hard drive was set up, I basically had two hard drives with everything copied over from one to the other, so there was a huge amount of information there. I think it took three weeks or so to get everything backed up, but once it was backed up, I set it so that Carbonite would update the backup starting at 10:00 every night, and I honestly never even notice that it’s there. Knowing that all those pictures and documents are backed up and safe makes me sleep a little better.

2. Neutrogena Body Oil. On Facebook, Catie mentioned that she’d used Neutrogena Body Oil instead of shaving cream or gel when she shaved her legs, and she got the best, closest, smoothest shave ever. I made a mental note and then promptly forgot about it until a few days (or weeks) later when Cait posted that she’d tried it as well, and she too got the best, closest, smoothest shave ever. This time, instead of making a mental note, I made a real ink-and-paper note in the form of adding Neutrogena Body Oil to the grocery list. Then I bought a bottle, and then I used it instead of shaving gel and OH MY. Catie and Cait were NOT kidding in the slightest – that is one excellent, awesome shave and I highly recommend it. Now, Neutrogena Body Oil is not the cheapest stuff on earth, but I can tell you the the one bottle I bought is hanging in there months later and I expect it’ll last another month or so. It’s definitely worth it!

(The rest of this list is cat-related. This should not surprise you.)

3. Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat, and Cat Attract litters. Let me tell you a story. Back in February, I did something very stupid. Actually, I did a bunch of very stupid things: I was about to have surgery, so in the course of less than a week, I (1) found a new home for Reacher (who is doing very well these days, by the way) and he left our house, (2) I moved the couch to another part of the front room, (3) I removed the litter box from the guest bedroom, since there were no fosters staying in there, and (4) I completely changed the kind of litter I was using from Fresh Step (which we’ve used for years) to a different kind of litter that I cannot remember the name of at the moment. What happened next was a furious flood of cat urine from one end of the house to the other. Cats in this house were SERIOUSLY peeved and they were intent on letting me know it.

It wasn’t until mid-April or so that we finally determined who the peeing-outside-the-box culprits were, and it shocked me to find out that Tommy, our wonderful, awesome, super-sweet boy, was the one doing most of the peeing, accompanied by his evil accomplice Elwood. Also, there was some occasional spraying by Spanky and Joe Bob.

The first thing I did was switch the litter back to Fresh Step. The second thing I did was to add the litter box back to the guest bedroom. The third thing I did was to (finally) move the couch back to where it belonged. That stemmed the flow of cat urine (and is there anything that smells worse than cat urine? I think not.), but I was still having to get up every morning and walk throughout the house, looking for cat pee and then cleaning up what I found. And I was still finding at least one puddle or spray, and most days multiple.

It was delightful.

I have finally (fingers crossed) managed to stop the spraying and peeing by adding a litter box to the front room (it’s at the other end of the front room, away from the living room area) and slowly, slowly, slowwwwwwly switching our litter to Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract and Precious Cat. Between the two, I find that Cat Attract is less dusty than the Precious Cat (though it’s possible I just got a particularly dusty bag of Precious Cat), and I haven’t found any puddles or sprays outside the litter box in a few weeks now. Now, Dr. Elsey’s is not perfect – Fresh Step remains better at holding down the litter box smells – but we were getting to the point where Fred was coughing a lot, especially after I scooped in the evening, and since switching to Dr. Elsey’s he hasn’t been coughing at all. If this means that I have to change out the litter more often, I think that it’s worth it not to have Fred die a slow and painful death from Anderson Litter Lung while causing damage to my hearing because when he coughs and hacks, he does so at a decibel that hurts my ears. Why can’t he cough and hack quietly? Why? Whyyyyyyy?

4. Odor removers.

(a) Nose Offense. I don’t remember where I read about this stuff, but it is flat-out amazing. I’m listing it first not because it works so much better than the other two (in section c), because they work very well too, but because it works well AND it has no smell at all. The problem with anti-odor sprays is that they have a scent added to them, and after you’ve used them for a while, in your mind you link the smell of the spray with the smell of cat urine and then you catch a whiff of the anti-odor spray and you think “Did I just smell cat pee?”. Nose Offense works immediately, it takes the smell of cat pee (or whatever horrendous smell you’re trying to get rid of) away and leaves no smell in its place.

When I scoop the litter boxes, I take the bags of scoopings out to a trash can in the garage. I have a spray bottle of Nose Offense by the trash can, and I spray into the trash can once a day, and even though there’s this kitchen-sized trash can filled to the brim with bags of litter box scoopings by Wednesday night (trash day’s on Thursday), it doesn’t smell at all. I was going to say that my only gripe is that this stuff doesn’t come in gallon-sized containers, the largest size it comes in is 32 ounces, BUT I just went and looked and that is no longer true, it DOES come in gallon-sized containers now. Yay!

To further convince you that you should give this stuff a try, the months when I was dealing with cat pee on a daily basis, I used this stuff. It took care of the smell, but what was even better was that after I’d cleaned up the pee, the cats would avoid peeing in that spot for weeks afterward. This was good because, well, they weren’t always peeing in the same spot over and over again. This was bad because it became a game of “Where’s the pee?” I really really like this stuff, if you couldn’t tell.

(b) 16 0z Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 Teaspoon dishwashing liquid, 1 Tablespoon Baking Soda. One of the places the cats were peeing to show their displeasure with everything under the sun was on the couch. Grrrr. Yes, I could have used Nose Offense to get rid of the smell, but even though Nose Offense is very reasonably priced, I wanted to soak the couch down, and that would have taken a lot of liquid. What I did instead was mix up the Hydrogen Peroxide, dishwashing liquid and baking soda, mixed it gently, and I soaked the heck out of that couch. It stayed wet for a long time, but when it was dry, the smell was gone. Thank GOD.

(c) Anti-Ickypoo and Simple Solution Extreme Cat Stain & Odor Remover. If for some reason you’re against trying Nose Offense (you weirdo), both Anti-Ickypoo and Simple Solution (which you can get at Petsmart) work really well. I like Anti-Ickypoo because the trace scent isn’t a flowery one, it’s more a spicy smell, kind of cinnamon-y, and it works just fine. They both work perfectly fine, but they do have those trace scents, which Nose Offense does not. I’m just sayin’.

5. You can buy pet cord protector to protect your cords from cats, who just loooooove to chew through wires. For reference see: the cord to my memory stick reader. Grrr. The problem with those cord protectors is that they’re treated with a “citrus scent” that smells absolutely awful. It smells like cat pee to me.

What I do is buy flexible split tubing and put that on the cords instead. It’s actually more flexible than the citrus-infused pet cord protector, and so far is working really well. The magazine where I read the tip (Family Handyman magazine, if you must know, and shaddup) said you could find flexible split tubing at Lowe’s, but I couldn’t find it there. Instead, I ordered a 100 foot roll of it from usplastic.com. I ordered the 3/8″ black tubing, but they have it in 1/4″ as well, which would work just fine to cover most cords (also, 1/4″ is smaller than 3/8″, which I confirmed with Fred the math major. Shut up. Math is harrrrd.) I’m not going to lie to you: putting the tube on the cord (or the cord into the tube, whichever way you prefer to look at it) is a pain in the butt, but once it’s done you don’t have to do it again, and it protects your cords from sharp little gnawing teeth.

6. Ham-Micks. We’ve had our Ham-Micks for a year and a half. I can tell you that our cats were immediately interested (Sugarbutt, especially, loves to curl up in the Ham-Mick in a corner of the computer room), and both Ham-Micks are still getting lots of use. The fosters like them, the permanent cats like them, everyone likes them! (If you don’t like the fabric available, I’d encourage you to email Forty Paws and see if you can get something different. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect they’d work with you.)

7. Cat toys.

(a) Sunstones’ crocheted catnip cat toys. These are so pretty and so well-made that I try to have enough on hand to send home in the bag o’ toys I send with my foster kittens. The cats love them and did I mention that they’re pretty? They’re SO pretty – and all proceeds are donated to animal rescue/ rehabs.

(b) Tee Tugs’ Kitty Bugs. Kitty toys made from recycled t-shirts. The cats love the toys, they’re reasonably priced, and they’re made from recycled t-shirts. How cool is that?

(c) Nip and Bones. I love this site, and I (er, the cats) love the toys I’ve gotten from them. Particularly the shaggy ducks and frogs, the kitty boinks, and the mylar balls.

(d) Meowing Deals. Do you know about this site? You get stuff for cats – usually toys, and usually KONG toys, which the cats and kittens ADORE – at a great price. I always get a little bit excited when I see that I have an email from Meowing Deals in my inbox. And I currently have about 300 Kong cat toys in this house. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good deal, especially when it involves cat toys. There’s also Barking Deals, for dog stuff.

8. Pet fountains. These are the pet fountains I have tried: Drinkwell Platinum, Petmate Fresh Flow, Cat-It Fresh & Clear, Pioneer Big Max, and Cat Mate.

Of these, the only fountain I do not recommend is the Cat-It. I was cleaning it and broke the globe within weeks of bringing it home. The Drinkwell and Petmate fountains were what I had in the house for the longest time, and the cats liked and used them just fine. The problem is that they’re made of plastic, and plastic can develop hairline cracks and hold bacteria, which can make your cats sick. So I got the Big Max, which is made of ceramic. I actually got two of them, with the intention of putting one in the upstairs bathroom and one in the laundry room. The one in the laundry room was fine, but the one in the upstairs bathroom didn’t work out because the hum was just too loud – the upstairs bathroom is across the hall from my bathroom, and even though I wear earplugs at night, I could still hear the hum of the fountain. So I sent that one back and looked around some more, and tried the Cat Mate.

The good thing about the Cat Mate: it’s super quiet. The bad thing about the Cat Mate: it’s made of plastic. The good thing about the Cat Mate: It’s dishwasher safe, so (I hope) any bacteria that get on/ in it is taken care of by the dishwasher; I run each Cat Mate through the dishwasher once a week. The other good thing about the Cat Mate: all the cats like it a LOT. The potential bad thing about the Cat Mate: a review I read (after I’d bought a couple) said that the pumps don’t last more than 8 months or so, and the company doesn’t sell replacement pumps. If that’s true, I won’t replace the Cat Mates, because that’s too much to pay for a fountain that only lasts several months.

And that’s all I can think of at the moment.

Now it’s your turn: tell me about cool stuff YOU like and think I might like too!

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The Many Faces of Lucy Peppers.

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I’m sorry, would you look at that little face? Could you just DIE?

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Lucy and Sally, conspiring, while Everett eavesdrops.

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“NO you don’t get to hear about how we’re going to rule the world! You go away, Everett!”

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One cannot rule the world unless one is properly clean.

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“Who, me? Yes, I plan to be a benevolent world ruler. Unless you annoy me then it’s OFF WITH YOUR HEAD.”

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“Planning to take over the world is hard. We sleep now with Everett, our evil henchman.”

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Solar powered Lucy sticks her ear into the sun for a little extra energy.

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“Must. Be. CLEAN.” (Lucy might be a little OCD about the cleanliness.)

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“Um, NO. I wasn’t sleeping! I was… um. Not sleeping! Is what I was doing!”

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Clove’s pretty sure that one day she’s going to figure out how that camera works.

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Sweet, snuggly Cilantro.

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I was thinking about Ciara and her nose freckle (god, I love that nose freckle), and I was thinking “You know, I really don’t think she had that freckle when she was wee…” so I had to go back and look…

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And FYI, at 4 days old, girlfriend indeed did NOT have that nose freckle!

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Nor did she at 9 days old.

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At two weeks old, she’s got a bit of darkness under her nose, but it’s not really in the right place, so I’m going to call that a booger or some sort of booger-like material.

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Three weeks old, I’m still not seeing it.

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Almost four weeks old, definitely not.

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Five weeks, the first sight of it.

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Six weeks, there it is! See it?

So, there you go. The evolution of Ciara’s nose freckle.

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Clove don’t care ’bout no nose freckle.

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She really reminds me of Dorothy more than a little.

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We really don’t get many squirrels on the side stoop, surprisingly, but this was a day when the bird feeders were getting toward empty, and there is that bowl of cat food on the side porch. Oh, this was driving Sugarbutt crazy – I can only imagine the visions he was having about getting his paws on that squirrel.

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That squirrel wasn’t skeered of Sugarbutt, though. Not at all. He was all “I have eaten my fill, I guess I’ll mosey off toward home now.”, and Sugarbutt couldn’t do a thing. Poor Suggie.

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Previously
2010: This is Maddy.
2009: Check out all the awesome new Fiesta ware I got in Pennsylvania!
2008: For the record Bill Phillips emus are very violent when you offer them a cup of corn.
2007: No entry.
2006: “You pipple giffs me zee headache.”
2005: God, I love the internet.
2004: Three days into the school year, and I’m sick to death of bus issues.
2003: My weekend can be summed up thusly: long periods of mind-numbing tedium broken with a stretch of horrified disgust, with a soupcon of panic tossed in for good measure.
2002: Maine recap.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

8/10/11 – Kitteh Wednesday

Please pardon any typos. I spent so much time struggling to get pictures uploaded to Flickr that I can’t bear to sit in front of my computer for one more minute. If there are any horrible typos or egregious errors, leave a comment pointing it out and I’ll fix it when I don’t feel like … Continue reading “8/10/11 – Kitteh Wednesday”

Please pardon any typos. I spent so much time struggling to get pictures uploaded to Flickr that I can’t bear to sit in front of my computer for one more minute. If there are any horrible typos or egregious errors, leave a comment pointing it out and I’ll fix it when I don’t feel like punching my monitor.

I need to ask how you manage with that many cats. I had 4 and my house was a zoo. I tried Feliway and everything else I could think of, but one of the females stopped using the cat box and substituting the couch instead. The two males are gone now, but the little female has never returned reliably to the cat box. She pees there, but poos in the house. I love cats. I would love to foster them, but I really don’t have a clue how to manage them. Do you have any references for me, or could you do a blog entry about how you do it? (all of my cats were neutered, three were kittens when I first got them- over a spread of 13 years, one wandered in at a year old).

Before I go on to discuss how I handle having 347 ridiculous cats in this ridiculous house, I’d like to offer a suggestion regarding the pooping outside the litter box issue. I have only really dealt with this situation once (or more accurately, with one kitten who pooped outside the litter box many times), but the pooping outside the litter box is a great big deal breaker for me and I spent many hours frantically Googling around the internet desperately seeking advice.

When I say that it’s a “deal breaker” for me, what I mean is that it stressed me out like nothing else I have ever had to deal with. Years ago we did have a cat, Mr. Fancypants, who would poop outside the litter box if he was ticked off at us, but he didn’t poop on the couch or our beds or even in the tub, but rather pooped near the litter box, but not IN the litter box. That was, well, not ACCEPTABLE to me, but I could handle it.

This pooping pooper I’m talking about developed a litter box issue caused by diarrhea, which caused him to make a mental link wherein pooping in the litter box = pain, so stopped using the litter box and instead used, oh, the middle of the rug or the end of the couch.

It was delightful.

So I desperately Googled around, looking for ways to fix this issue, and I saw pretty much the same suggestions, which spurred me to give it a try.

Firstly, I am quite sure that you took Poopin’ Petunia to the vet to make sure that she has no medical issues. But just in case you fell off the feline turnip truck, I’m putting it out there.

Now, assuming that she’s perfectly healthy according to the vet, this is what you do. You decide on a small room in your house where you can relocate the pooper for several days – a bathroom is the perfect size for this. You put the cat, her litter box, and her food and water in the bathroom. And then you keep her in there for at least three days. She’s not going to be happy about this, and neither are you. It SUCKS. (Side note: I highly recommend using Cat Attract litter while doing this, too. Might not help, but then again it might – and it certainly doesn’t hurt.)

Most of the places where I read this suggestion said that you only go into the room to scoop the litter box and to check the food and water a few times a day; otherwise you don’t go into the room at all. This didn’t work for me, because the cat I was retraining to use the litter box was a SUPER love bug and it was driving us both crazy to just leave him in there without giving him all the love he was desperate for. Instead, I went into the room several times a day, sat with him and told him what a great cat he was, etc etc.

The first day he was kept in the bathroom, he didn’t poop in the litter box. The second and third, he did. I made a big fuss over him every time I scooped the litter box and found that he’d used it; I told him how smart he was and petted and kissed him like crazy. At the end of the third day, I opened the door to the bathroom and invited him out into the rest of the house. Unfortunately, he pooped on the rug a few hours later, which necessitated a trip back into the bathroom for a couple of days.

At the end of day two, we moved him up to the foster room (which is bigger than the bathroom, of course) to see how he did. He did fine, used the litter box okay, and then we started giving him access to the rest of the house for longer and longer periods of time. In the end, he was retrained to use the litter box completely (THANK GOD) and except for a couple of accidents caused by stupid things that were completely the fault of the humans rather than the fault of the cat, there were no more problems.

So if you have the room and the inclination, I would highly recommend that you give the litter box retraining a try.

Now, as for how to handle fosters, all I can tell you is how I do it.

I have a room dedicated to the fosters. Well. I actually kind of have two rooms dedicated to the fosters at the moment, but that second room is technically the guest bedroom and isn’t actually supposed to be dedicated to fosters, but it’s not like we kicked guests out of the room to put fosters there, right?

But that’s not really the point. Let’s just say: I have a room dedicated to the fosters. This is important because when you first bring a litter of fosters home, they need to be contained not only because they’re usually little and maybe a bit wild, but also because you need to make sure they have nothing communicable before you allow them around your permanent residents. Even if they seem to be 100% healthy when you first bring them home and even if they had a fecal check done by a vet that showed no parasites and EVEN if they have perfect little poops at first, at our house right around day four or five they start with the diarrhea, no matter what.

(If you’re going to foster, get used to looking at a lot of poop and determining what to do about the diarrhea. I think that I’ve had perhaps one litter in my entire fostering career that didn’t have any diarrhea, but I can’t guarantee that that’s so.)

Our fosters have to be sequestered for, at rock-bottom minimum, two weeks before we’d ever consider letting them out into the house – and usually it’s longer because even if they’re perfectly healthy, many times they’re really too small or too nervous to let out into the house. The good thing is that even though they’re off in their own room, our cats know that there are fosters in the house (because on the rare occasion that there are no fosters in the house, I leave the foster room door open because a couple of the cats really like to hang out in that room) and they can smell them through the crack under the door and on my clothes. So even though they’re not face to face with the fosters, they know they’re there, and they get used to their smell.

Once we’ve determined that the fosters are healthy and old enough to be let out of the foster room, we open the door and allow them limited access to more of the house – the foster room is at the end of the hallway upstairs, and Fred built a door that goes across the other end of the hallway so that we can open the foster room door and they have access to the upstairs bathroom and my bedroom in addition to the foster room. We let them have that for a few days (until we’re tired of hearing Jake and Elwood scrabble their way over the hallway half-door to get to the kitten food in the foster room), and then at some point we fling the half-door open and start giving them access to the rest of the house.

Some of the permanent residents don’t think twice about the fact that there’s a flood of new kittens running around the house. Some of them get all hissy and hysterical. Most of the hissy ones adjust within a couple of days, as long as the kittens don’t get too much up in their space. Occasionally one of the big cats gets a little too aggressive, and Fred or I steps in to break it up.

When they first get the run of the house, we take the fosters back upstairs to the foster room a couple of times a day so they can remember where the litter boxes, water, and food is located, but they usually figure it out pretty quickly on their own.

Annnnnd… that’s all I can think of at the moment. If you have any questions, Jan (or anyone else), feel free to ask!

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I am sorry to confess to y’all that Harlan Peppers is not, in fact, named after Harlan Pepper from Best in Show. (Though I’ll admit that it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it was a subconscious sort of thing.) He’s also not named after the four-man band from Canada. He got that name just ’cause I liked the sound of it.

The Many Faces of Molly Peppers.

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Contemplative.

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Unconcerned.

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“No, we’re not sitting over here talking about you, why do you ask?”

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“This is a private meeting and you were not invited. Please leave before I call Security.”

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Annoyed.

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Bored.

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Dopey from the sun.

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Supermodel.

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Making you jealous with her gorgeous stripes.

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Snuggling with her boys.

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Warning: Kitten totally cannot hold her licker.

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Jake on his platform in the kitchen.

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Elwood on his platform in the front room. Those boys sure do love their platforms!

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: So, the boat.
2008: No entry.
2007: six cats (permanently living in the house) are our limit. (Famous last words!)
2006: And you know when I’m saying it’s hot, it must be like burning in the flames of Hell.
2005: I’m going to kill my husband.
2004: “THIS IS NOT THE FRONT OF THE SCHOOL,” I said. “THIS IS THE SIDE.”
2003: No entry.
2002: Stop making those gagging noises.
2001: Is it just me, or does Mother Nature not like it when the spud or I fly?
2000: No entry.

8/9/11 – Tuesday

Those of you who use Google Chrome as a browser, have you suddenly lost the ability to bring up the “search” box by hitting CTRL-F, or is it just me? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   I had … Continue reading “8/9/11 – Tuesday”

Those of you who use Google Chrome as a browser, have you suddenly lost the ability to bring up the “search” box by hitting CTRL-F, or is it just me?

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I had originally intended to work in the garden this morning, but given that we had a decent amount of rain yesterday, it’s going to be a muddy mess out there, so I find that I have no particular desire to work out there today. Maybe tomorrow. Or MAYBE not ’til this weekend!

We lost a couple of tomato plants in the storm last week, I think I mentioned that. The tomato plants we have left don’t appear to be too terribly happy with their lot in life. I fertilized them over the weekend and then we got a little rain Sunday and a little more yesterday afternoon and last night. Maybe they’ll perk up, maybe not. We’ll see. Except for the corn, it hasn’t been a particularly great garden season, that’s for sure.

The cucumbers played out in the last week or so, so I yanked the plants up on Sunday. Right now all we’ve got going are some cantaloupes, watermelon, tomatoes, and the butternut and acorn squash Fred recently planted. I’m past due for getting my cabbage started, but I have been feeling unmotivated, to say the least. I also need to pull up the rest of the carrots in my raised bed.

Meh. That’s how I feel about that: meh.

We’re still getting cherry tomatoes, and I see some blooms on the big tomato plants, so the garden isn’t quite dead and gone just yet.

The cantaloupes and watermelon did so well this year that we’re talking about using a large area behind the back yard (where there used to be a pond before we stupidly paid someone to fill it in a couple of years ago) to grow watermelon and cantaloupes exclusively next year. Whatever we don’t eat, the pigs and chickens will happily take care of for us.

Speaking of, when I picked tomatoes on Saturday, I got more tomatoes that were split or had holes in them than those that weren’t. Split, half-rotten, half-eaten and otherwise blemished tomatoes go to the chickens (unless I’m looking through my tomato harvest in the house, in which case any tomatoes that aren’t up to par go into the pig bucket). Pigs and chickens love the hell out of produce from the garden. I need to take the camera out with me next time I toss some tomatoes to the chickens, because it’s awfully funny to see chickens grabbing tomatoes and running away with them so that the other chickens won’t get them.

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The Peppers Gang is doing well. They still flinch when I reach for them (which I hate – don’t they know by now that I only want to pet and kiss them??), but if they’re on the cat tree when I walk into the room, they sit up and peep at me and clearly want me to come over and pet them. If I lay down on the bed and talk to them, they’ll all eventually come from the cat tree to the bed. I’d say they’re definitely coming around.

Harlan Peppers, as some of you pointed out, does bear a certain resemblance to Corbie. You know I love me some brown tabbies!

The Many Moods of Harlan Peppers.

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Contemplating that he’s got an awful lot of ear floof for a little guy.

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Snuggling happily with Lucy and Sally.

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Warming his ear floof in the sun.

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“I am but a wee baby kitteh who needs you to give me pettins, why are you all the way over theeeeeeere?”

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Sleeping smugly.

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Getting ready to give Molly Peppers a whoopin’ for being so forward.

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Making plans to take over the world.

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Making plans to take over the food bowl.

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Making plans to make plans.

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Best! Box! Everrrrrrrrrrr!

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“I do find this box rawther awesome.”

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“This is a most excellent box.”

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“Also, tasty.”

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I sure wish we could figure out a way to calm Ciara down. She’s so STRESSED, it breaks my heart. Do they make Valium for cats?

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Attila, I knew that if I skipped reminding y’all for one measly week, you’d completely FORGET who the MOST BEAUTIFUL CAT EVERRRRRR is. So here you go. Maybe you should make a note somewhere so you’ll be reminded every day. I’d hate for you to forget again!

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(He’s helpless against the siren call of the Best! Box! Ever!)

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Previously
2010: Yep, I’m in Pennsylvania visiting Nance and the gang.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: So I squished her.
2006: Hey, as long as she’s going to be an adult about it, right?
2005: “WAIT FOR THE BUS,” I said, then hung up.
2004: I do love the stumpy little bastard, but I wish he hadn’t killed that poor damn bird.
2003: No entry.
2002: Finally, I said “Would you CALM DOWN? I’m not going to divorce Fred and marry the cute waiter. Jesus!”
2001: (Dr. Phil likes to go for the sound bites and has drama queen tendencies, but I love him)
2000: Pictures from Maine.