Caturday |
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| By: SouthernDragon Sunday July 8, 2012 8:00 am | |
Saving one animal will not change the world but it will change the world for that animal.
Namaste
A quiet week at Chez Tigre if ya ignore hairball hell.
Oh, hai
Bottle time
Laser dot. I don’ need no laser dot.
This little guy will warm the cockles of your heart. A follow up. Be sure to follow the links in both pieces.
Share your tiger stories with us.
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187 Comments
Afternoon, firekittehs
Good afternoon! Kuroneko is interposing herself between me and the keyboard as usual, meowing to be let out and then demanding to be let back in, vulturing my lunch and generally being a pain in the ass. In other words, same thing as last week and the one before and the one before and the one before….
Yeah, they’re pretty predictable. *g*
Kinda like hairball hell…
Hej SD and all.
Hey Om…hope your Sunday is a good one so far.
Hi Margaret, yes, thanks. Yours too, I hope.
We were out at Dick’s looking at lake kayaks and now starting to do some online research about the ones that looked interesting.
Any plans for you for the day?
Caturday!
Hi everybody :)
my favorite this week is the three little kittens apparently resting up from looking for their mittens
It’s Caturday day now. Feels like a Sunday, in some ways.
Ha.
Same old animal stories at my house too.
Can someone tell me why my silly hound dog likes to lay in the hot sun? There’s shade, but he likes a nice laydown in the heat. But, not for a long time. ‘Bout 15 minutes or so, then he asks to come back in.
While I was playing my xbox but the disk is bad or something cause it keeps freezing on me. So now I’m reading and typing and trying to figure out why my feet are so fascinating to the mistress today.
Kittehs iz silly but goggies iz weird.
Do you have shoes on?
East Of Eden just came on TCM. Man, that Burl Ives is something else. Powerful. Almost not the same man who sang A Little Bitty Tear Let Me Down.
No, no shoes, unless you count being shod in cat hair.
He’s a silly one, alright. Still, it must feel good, for that while.
I looked to see if “Burl” was a shortened form of a name, but no, and his whole name was Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives. Don’t see that every day.
Loved their silvery coats. Speaking of which. Beach Populist, are you and Star and Big Boy around? Wht’z the news?
I’ve heard or read that some collect the fur and make stuff out of it. Stuff off Picky’s brush goes in the trash.
No, we don’t. Did you see the list of his siblings names?
Audry, Artie, Clarence, Argola, Lillburn, and Norma.
Argola? Lillburn?
I’ve noticed that people from the South have slightly “different” names from those in the North. But, Ol’ Burl was from Illinois. Hmmmm.
My first boyfriend’s middle name was Ellwood, which I found kind of different.
I don’t brush Neko because I don’t want blood in her cat hair.
Hi All.
Just got back from two week vacation, one of which was spent at my hometown in Ohio. Rosie, Cooper and Yoda are all tickled pink to see me, but Ki-Ke is giving me the cold shoulder. Hmmm…maybe she liked the house/pet-sitter better? Had a fantastic time in Ohio…got to see my newest grandson Noah… 3mos old. Gawd…I thought my heart was just going to bust out of my chest the first time I held him…(and every time thereafter!)
We flew into Cleveland, rented a car and went directly to my son’s house where we spent a couple days, then took off and wandered around the state of NY for a while. Hubby wanted to go back to his hometown by NYC so we did…and went to Manhattan for one day. Determined that I am NOT a big city girl…ended up with swollen ankles three times normal size (water retention) and far less money than we started out with. Beat feet up to the Finger Lakes Region, which is more my speed. The rest of vacation was fantastic..eventually went back to my hometown, which is a fantastic little resort town on Lake Erie. (in fact it is currently in the running for Rand McNally’s most fun places in America to visit!) We rented a cottage for a week and another one of my 3 son’s came up from Ky with his family to stay with us…(My oldest, the one with the new baby, lives there in Geneva year round)…so I got to see and spend time with four of my seven grandkids…it was fantastic. I didn’t want it to end…I didn’t want to come home…except to see my furkids. We’re gonna work out some way that I’ll be able to go back and spend a couple of months every summer there…either that or I think I’ll lose my mind. (Grandma needs her grandbabys!) Flew into LA and I’m spending today in bed with feet elevated, trying to get them back down to a somewhat normal size…LOL.
Thats whats new with me, so whats new here at Caturday??? Hope all are well….
w00t! Janice! Now it’s a party!
She doesn’t like a brushing? She scratches you? Is that your meaning?
Both true. She hates brushing and if I keep it up, she’ll bite the hand that brushes her. Hard.
demi, I have a collection of cat fur balls. . .so I’m answering the white courtesy phone on that call. AND for the call back, there is a cat named Ellwood buried in my back yard, one of the first who went there sometime after I moved here. He was a feral that we fixed and he died shortly later, not sure what happened.
Once as a conceptual exercise, I was going to make an urban map of the cats buried in the yard. I thought of having the yard be a stand in for a much larger area and at that scale, figuring out where in that landscape all the cats would be buried. There are a lot of mapping projects, and I thought that would entertain me. But I have not done that yet. You know, because I have so many other real things to do.
Wow, that’s quite the adventure. Got to see Jeremy and his new one, eh? That’s so cool.
I’ve seen rubber band balls before. What do you do with the fur balls?
No maps, huh? But do you have an idea, so as not to find them when you garden, or are they buried 6 feet under?
Janis, sounds like a fantastic trip. I have learned that drinking diet soda is not good in re: water retention. I once got a big drink of diet soda in an airport before a long flight, and it really caused big problems for me with swollen ankles. My cousin, who is a doctor (like that means a lot but whatever) said this is from the diet soda. I don’t drink it much any more.
My first true love was Myron. Never could understand how a mom could name a little baby Myron :)
Glad you had fun! Geneva-On-The-Lake looks all touristy. I try to avoid touristy places though I do make exceptions and frequently.
Good afternoon, everyone.
How can you say that, SD?
Why the wee YorkiePoo, here, has made every effort to act like his betters. He has learned to groom himself much like a cat, although he has yet to lick his paw and smooth down his fur …
He still is third in line for the ‘nip …
He eats any available “cat” food (of course, to be fair, both Feurae of the North and Thelonious are happy to eat Romeo’s fare …).
Firekittehs and wee goggie kitteh-wannabee unite in rousing me in the morning (very, very early) and counting the minutes between repasts …
they gather around me and give me “the look” …
Thank you for the pitchers and the cool, calm, place ya preside over, here (no doubt, as a good “pet”, in service to our more purrfect “owners”), it is a pure delight and an oasis in the larger wilderness of our wonderings.
;~DW
I can’t brush Ki-Ke either…for the very same reason. I’ll tell ya what…she’s turning into quite the little bitch in her old age. (She’s 2!). She was just laying in the window in my sewing studio and Steve was in there unpacking his suitcase and she started hissing at him! I walked up to her and she took a swat at me! So I took her out of the window and closed it! See how she likes that!
Yeah…you should see him now…nothing at all like the 8 year old you used to know. I was so proud of him….you would be too. :-)
I just have a “collection” of the fur balls for now, no project has presented itself yet. But now’s the season for making them.
I believe I dug up some of Ellwood’s bones when I buried Maybelline last year. It is getting hard to find a place in the yard where there is not a cat buried already. I made a list of all the cats I know about back there, it was long.
LMAO! She’s giving you the treatment, much like I get for being gone just overnight.
Actually Margaret…its not as bad as you might think. The “strip” is only a mile long and its so old fashioned that you can’t help but to feel nostalgic as you stroll down the sidewalks. And certain times of the day you can take that stroll and hardly pass another person…it has its quiet moments. Did you check out the page I linked to?
I did! And all the photos looked all touristy. Again, I’ve been known to make exceptions and the Niagara end of the Great Lakes is on my list of places to see before I die.
Some cats take the indignity of having “cat-sitters” more personally than others. The cats here got a little used to my being gone every weekend when I was going to LM’s, so they don’t do the “routine” when I come home. I am still gone a night or two a couple of times a month to take care of business at LM’s, and they seem to have adjusted to that too. But I also have not been gone for weeks on end. . .so maybe they would go a little wild if I did that. Weeks are a very LONG time for cats. . .
Also she gets upset when I add a tummy rub. Need a band-aid. BRB
Man, she is pissed at bein’ left with another two-legged. LOL Be interesting to see how long that lasts.
I can’t brush Sita more than a couple strokes and it’s look out time. And her hair is soooooooo long.
Thanks Bro…for the advice but I have never drank a diet soda in my life…not on purpose anyways. I must admit I’m a water bottle baby. I keep my water bottle full and cold and with me at all times. There was a time in my 20′s when I used to like cherry soda, and I’ll admit to the occasional black cherry creme soda (that I drink from a wine glass sometimes now that I’m not allowed to drink anymore…LOL) but most often its just water. I have some health problems that lead to the water retention…altho it HAS been a few years since its happened. Looks like I’ll be on the phone with the Drs office Monday…setting up appointments. Ugh. Welcome home…right?
Ya really think thats what it is? Boy…I must have a lot of making up to do with that one. Good thing the others are just happy to see me. Sheesh…Ki-Ke is currently sitting int he hallway howling like a cat in heat! WTF is her Problem???? BRB….gotta go see if she’ll let me cuddle her….
My brother got a puppy right before I joined the Navy. Muffin, called her Muff. I had to leave my kitteh Wow of course. I was talking to my granma years later and she loved Muff. She said that the dog had never had a bath because Wow had taught her how to clean herself. Only dog my granma ever allowed up on the bed.
So, it is a good thing you are going to get checked out. I think swollen ankles are actually not very good. . .I was told to get some compression stockings to help with that issue. It is a health concern in my family, I think. Circulation problems bite, IMO.
BTW, SD, the links and photos today are excellent. You do like to torture us with teh kitten videos.
Ki-Ke is the only kitty I ever had that likes a tummy rub…and thats only if you get her in the right mood for it.
BTW…she did let me cuddle her but I think the howling was just her way of complaining to the other cats that she wants to play and they are all being a bunch of lazy-asses….
You’re right…not a good thing at all. Very symptomatic of other problems. The good news is that after spending most of last night endlessly running back and forth to the bathroom, they have gone down considerably today. Still not normal, but much better.
Bet my hubby wishes that our cats had taught our dogs that trick…he’s in the yard now trying to give two big black labs a bath. I just don’t understand how two dogs can love to go swimming so much but hate the hose (and the baby pool) so bad!
The grandpa’s middle name was Burl. It was a family name. As an aside, he also had a very unusual first name that was also a family name. Where was Burl Ives from, anyway?
There’s no place left in America quite like my hometown of Geneva on the Lake Ohio. Its a 150 year old beach resort still going strong. I hope that someday you do get the chance to check it out. :-)
LM used to have what she called her “piddling pills.” She never liked them.
I need some update pictures of BeachPopulist’s new kittens.
I worried about that going wild thing while I was gone. Fortunately our pet-sitter was a constant presence in the house…she lives right next door (with her father) and used our house as her get-away from Dad place. But I don’t think she had much to do with Ki-ke. Ki-Ke has always been so aloof…and I believe she comes from a long line of feral cats….wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge. I’m definitely going to have to give her a lot of special attention in the next few days…maybe weeks.
New kittens? NEW KITTENS? Yes indeed…pictures please!
Ok…I’m talking far too much! Gonna go see whats up with the kittehs…be back in a bit…
So cute they’ll make your head explode.
Good morning SD & Kittehs of Fire:
Hey SD: Can you please figure out a way that I can reach into the screen and steal all those little babies at the top of the page? There’s just gotta be some way to, ya know, download them.
Diva’s taking a snoozer and Maestro is following me around, supervising as I do household chores. Hell, I’d never get anything done without his guidance.
Yes, I’m still here, and ready for the latest installment of The Adventures of Big Boy and Star. Lessee, where to begin?
Ah, yes. Was it you or YSD who pronounced Star a princess and warned me that she was undoubtedly planning an attack on my couch/fort? Right on all counts. Don’t know how she did it, but the little one managed to find a way to get under the couch. Not to poop, just playing hide and seek with her brother. Hadda pull out the barricade, retrieve her, then modify things to make it feline invasion proof.
Hey, Margaret — Speaking of the little darlings, they’re playing with my feet as I type. They’ve become fascinated by my shoes and socks — while I’m in them. Kinda funny and cute, but since it’s summer and I wear shorts a lot when they suddenly go from playing with my feet to wanting to climb up on my lap, well…. Also, walking with both of them underfoot, racing around at warp speed, and attacking my feet — esp. when I’m trying to go down the stairs…
Back to our regularly scheduled programming:
Big Boy and I are really bonding. I don’t think I adopted him so much as he adopted me. Really likes to be around me. Star hangs out with me a lot, too, but often seems to be following her brother’s lead.
Speaking of Star, her princess personality is really emerging. Big Boy has already pretty well grasped the concept of “No”. But Star? “No speek Ingliz”. Perfect example: they’ve become fascinated by activity on my computer monitor. A few admonishments and Big Boy settles back down. Star? Gotta pick her up and move her away from the monitor, sometimes all the way to the floor about a zillion times.
Star is also very passive-aggressive. When they play Big Boy often gets tired first and curls up to sleep near my work station or on my lap or someplace like that. Star then plops down next to him, starts washing herself, and then starts washing him. It reminds me of the old couples joke:
“Honey, are you asleep?”
“Well, I was.”
Big Boy pretends not to notice but I can see his eyelids and nostrils twitch so I hafta push her away and eventually usually she ends up on the floor.
Big Boy is also very talkative, but Star rarely meows. One of my favorite times is at night when they curl up on my lap. I love to watch them sleep, esp. Big Boy. Often he will streeeettttchhh his front legs way out in front of his head, then curl up again without opening his eyes. But when he does open them, he looks right at me and meows. I gently pet him between the ears and he settles back to sleep.
What’s also funny is that sometimes either of them will nod off to sleep in a position where their head is not supported. Then, in ultra slooooow motion, the little head shifts to the side or backwards. Sometimes they snap awake and reset, but sometimes the little head just keeps falling until it comes to rest against something supportive.
I was telling Abu Ali about Maestro’s exceeding handsomeness just yesterday. Now I can extoll his virtues even more.
I have a photo of Charlie sleeping on the old upholstered rocker that I want to link to, but the aforementioned Abu is installing an external hard drive on my computer, and I can’t do it from this spawn of Basement Cat.
Yes, I could see that plan of attack being hatched, lol!
Oh, BP, you three are a very happy family already, that is so great :). Love the image of Big Boy opening his eyes and seeing you and meowing. And you petting him gently between the ears.
Janis and YSD –
For the time being you’ll have to be content with the picture from last week’s Caturday that SD linked to.
Remember that I said that I bought a “half-assed” digital camera just to record their antics? Well, found out that “half-assed” won’t do the job. Need one with a motordrive lens so that I can capture them in mid-jump or balancing on the their hindquarters while swatting at something.
Note: Big Boy just joined me on the counter next to my workstation. Time out to pet him.
Okay, I’m back. So I returned the camera and went to buy a much better (better is a word that means “more expensive”) Canon. Got a great price (like $200 cheaper than most other places) but unfortunately…none in stock so hadda take a rain check. Hoping new stock comes in this week.
Note: Now I’m under attack. Star just joined Big Boy and they are both helping me type! (Just did a face nuzzle with BB.)
That is the purr-fect story of kittens. All the details are so right. Maybe the solution for me is to become a way-station for adoptables. I don’t think my brood would like that too much, but I would love the entertainment.
I did a tile project this weekend that has been on the back burner for Years. It is a lot of work. Of course the cats needed to supervise it, and it will really be a BFD when I move the furniture over and set up the place.
I moved into my “guest room” some years ago instead of the loft because I had encephalitis and then broke my wrist, and I didn’t climb the stairs. So things have been a mess up there for a long time, and this project will make my life very different if I move back to the loft for sleeping. It will be a game-changer for the cats. . .they have had the upstairs as their exclusive environment for a long time.
But the tile and the grout are black, and the tile has texture like slate, and What. A. Mess. it is to clean all that grout up. OMG. I am wiped out, and I still have not got it all clean. But it looks good, I think. I am thinking of renting a floor buffer for the final go rounds with it. I can certainly appreciate the work of tile setters. This was just one area, maybe 220 SF or so. Lordy. I am getting too old for this DIY business.
Use a grout sealer! They make several good products and it will make messes much easier to clean.
My cat story for the week is really about the chickens.
One of the Larrys went broody and hid a nest of 8 eggs. All hatched except for 1, so the kids are pretty sure that one isn’t viable. Yesterday a rat snake got into the box (at some point the kids found the nest and moved it into the brooder) and when Mary discovered it, 4 chicks were fine, 2 were dead, and the snake had a big bulge in the middle.
Sad, but the snake needs to eat, too.
Yep, will do that. First I need to get all the grout out of the tile. I’m taking a break.
Almost forgot: kittiez got a little road trip on Friday. Took them down to see their hooman Aunt Lori at her work. (Lori is the woman whose friend of a friend had the litter from which BB and Star came.)
Put them in the carrier but normally quiet Star put out an unending chorus of “Wah, wah, wah” so halfway there I relented and opened the carrier. BB stayed inside for quite a while, evidently not too worried about the situation. Star immediately went exploring and ended up perched on my shoulder like a pirate’s parrot. I tried to be gentle stopping and starting but each time the motion change causes her to “adjust”. (“Adjust is a synonym for “dig in”.)
Did I mention I was wearing a thin polo shirt? Good news is, I didn’t need a transfusion after all.
They loved Lori and everyone in the shop hadda stop work long enough to pet the little critters. On the return trip BB went to sleep on the passenger’s seat (co-pilot not helping at all!). Star curled up between the front seat and my feet, which made transitioning from throttle to brake and back a careful process.
Can anybody guess what the one bad thing about the road trip was?
Yeah, I knew you could. Now they both realize that there is a big wide interesting world outside. Twice since the trip I’ve come in or gone out the front door only to have a jailbreak on my hands.
Oh, I almost forget, again, to say this.
Ratfood! Miss you. If you’re lurking, just know how my affections and memories are.
((RF & Bob))
Big tile? Small tile? Is it a floor or a wall? Photos!
A friend of mine was telling a story last night about a snake in a restaurant where she was working. She said the owners had a couple of dogs that were hanging out after the place closed, and she noticed the dogs were acting strange by the cash register. She went over and saw a little snake there, so she picked it up, put it on a tray, and took it outside where the owners were visiting with a customer. As she was presenting the snake to them, it came off the tray and started striking at the customer’s boots. He was some kind of a wrangler, and he said, “You know what kind of snake that is, Miss?” It was a little rattler. Yikes.
Last week SD laughed and said that it didn’t take long for me to “fall into the kitteh abyss”.
That is NOT correct. As you can tell from the foregoing posts, I did NOT fall into the kitteh abyss.
I feel all the way to the bottom of the kitteh abyss. None of this superhero grabbing a vine or a tree root on the way down. None of this landing on a narrow ledge. No, I went all the way to bottom without any stops in between!
Lord, A’mighty, lady.
My family is lucky if I Clean the grout.
Sometimes I like the smell of bleach in the morning.
Great story, thanks.
For those who haven’t seen Big Boy (in front) and Star
I’m pretty handy at DIY. (Father was in the construction biz, built everything from houses to Bonneville Dam.) But I draw the line at tile. And like you, I’ve come to an age when not all projects that were once DIY are still DIY.
Hopefully by next week I’ll have some new pix of the kittiez up.
4 sizes, small (6 x 6) to large (18 x 18), a floor. I had made a layout for it, and I found one mistake (not much was interchangeable) where I transposed something and ended up with two tiles alike next to each other where I did not want them. The mastic part was easy because I only had one wall that needed cuts. I borrowed a tile-cutter from my neighbor and cut those tiles, and since they went down last, I left them ungrouted last night, and I am really just dreading that last little bit of grout just because of the horror of the mess I have had. I will try to take some pictures, but I think it will not really show much of the floor with it being all black. A lot of work for not much show, in the end, but whatever. At least it is done, almost.
Thanks, SD.
Hope Janis and Bgrothus approve! (And, of course, Demi and all the others who frequent Caturday.)
Kittiez got fed immediately but now I’m famished to going to get breakfast!
BBL.
She picked up a little rattlesnake. Yikes is right! Maybe they don’t have rattles when they are small. I would think the head shape would have been a warning sign, but lots of people just don’t know about that. So glad she wasn’t bitten.
Live and learn, never too old to get a new life lesson.
Om, I hate to say that one of the motivators for this project is that I found a Garnet Hill bedspread and pillow covers a few months ago at a thrift store that will look so great with the floor. So I have been imagining the room with the bedspread. Kind of pathetic, what motivates.
My life has been so discombobulated for so long, I am really looking forward to this change. So maybe I will take some photos with the bed. That is the picture I am looking forward to.
And little rattlers haven’t yet learned how to control the amount of venom they inject so often they just unload everything they’ve got and the victim is in deep, deep, trouble.
I bet it looks great! When you are in the midst of a real bugger of a mess it is hard to appreciate any of it or feel optimistic about the result. Right now you are dreading the mess and cleanup, but you will be wowwwed when it is all finished :)
BP, when you stop back, I hope you know that I too am in the abyss with kittens, so it will not be possible for me not to “approve.” Those are adorable, can’t tell if they have blue eyes, but they look a little like my neighbor’s cat who is part Siamese. He is also a totally great cat who never fails to entertain, even as he is not a kitten.
If there is a kitten that is not adorable, I have not seen it.
I can’t wait to see it. And, I know exactly what you are talking about. Once when we built a house I designed the entire interior colour scheme around the upholstery of a couch.
OMG…I think my heart just melted….
Sounds like a wonderful project.
Like everything else in life, we have goals and Life intervenes.
We duck, we bob, we keep going.
((BG))
Love to hear you remember your times with LM.
OK, I will take some photos and tell you when they are posted. I already know what the floor looks like with cat spit up on it since some of the tile was displayed on the floor for a long time before it was laid. But I will just let you imagine that part. It is what I do when I look at rugs: imagine them with hairballs on them. It usually stops me from getting rugs.
I thought I had seen a PBS special about venom and that was something a snake expert had said… I don’t mind nonpoisonous snakes but even they will bite, and the prospect scares me. You can’ t let go of a snake quickly!
You have kittens too? This is the first summer of 3 that I haven’t had kittens and I guess you cold say I’m jonesing. Kitten pictures please….more more more….
LOL!
Picky-LowLow has spent the last few hours outside on His Chair, an Adrionak chair with cushions, natch, but he just asked to come inside. It is starting to get Hot outside.
I just watered the yard, one more time. :)
Still waiting on the tomatoes. Some are yellow and turning orange, but my sonny doesn’t want me to start picking until they are Ready.
He’s probably right.
That has to be the greatest nickname for a cat, ever.
Thank you for the reminder. Potted plants crying for a drink and hummer feeders need washing and refilling.
Latererers.
I can’t think of a single good reason why one would pick up a snake with one’s hands.
Going down for a nap. I have instructions from hubby to stay cool and in bed with feet elevated. I don’t think this will be a problem. Been a rough couple weeks on my health but it did wonders for my spirit. BBL.
Because other methods may seriously injure it and most snakes are harmless.
Eyes are kinda greenish, but not the luminescent kind of green like Peg’s Neko has. (Maybe a little blue mixed in; IIRC, momma kitty has blue eyes.)
One thing I love about them is their cute little orange tiger noses. And when they sleep their little closed eyes and little chins are just soooo kyoot.
You can use a hook or a stick without harming them. Unless ya know what you’re doing the odds of being bitten by picking them up by hand are high.
Not everybody is Steve Irwin, who had a habit of handling large venomous snakes by the tail. *g*
Whoa! I wasn’t suggesting that! Just that snakes have a right to live among us too. My area is replete with venomous snakes and I know of nobody who has been bitten. I wasn’t trying to start a ruckus. Sorry.
Nah, you didn’t.
We’ve got all kinds of snakes around here too. Every once in a while somebody gets bitten by a rattler in their garden and most people leave them alone. Got a nice black racer that lives in my yard.
I am putting in a request to you cat lovers for prayers/good thoughts for my Max, formerly feral, presently two-year old kittah who is having hip surgery tomorrow morning. Please send good thoughts his way. I have such bad luck with the boy kitties, my friend asked if I felt like Maggie O’Donnell of Northern Exposure. My gal Kat would have been 18 last February, but she had to go right after Xmas.
No kidding. I am not one for killing them, and last summer we had a nice bull snake in LM’s yard. One of the caregivers who subbed for me when I was taking a weekend off killed it because he does not like snakes. I was really horrified that he could not leave it alone.
I may have told the story of a tenant who had a small snake in a big terrarium that he covered with a big piece of round glass and used it as a coffee table. He went to jail and was locked up for a while, and so his GF came to move his stuff. I thought we would just load up the terrarium into her car, and I took the glass off the top and was about to bend over to pick the container up when she told me it was a rattler. Cripes. It was a process to get it out of the terrarium and into a bag to put it in her car, but we managed it. I still shudder to think of that moment.
Right now I don’t know which is quicker, a snake or the two little ones racing around playing on the floor under me!
Opps: BB just joined me on the counter.
Thunder. Been cloudy all day. Prolly all noise and no water. Damn Bahia grass grows 6″ every time it rains.
Jealous of you/kittens, just sayin’.
I just can’t think about snakes. Although, I recognize their rights to life as much as any other living thing. I just keep my distance.
*
Off to make a couple of pies. I have premade flour pie shells that I’m baking right now. And, I have fresh strawberries, blueberries, bananas and peaches which I will chop up and add to yogurt and a little cool whip. Chill. Viola!
*
BBL with some extra pie slices. (I’m making two.)
Good afternoon. Just a quick drive-by. demi, do you remember that the Blues Brothers were Jake and Elwood?
We had a woodchuck move into our yard on Friday. It seems to have settled in.
The feral that we were feeding, Bustopher Jones, seems to have moved on. I don’t think anything bad happened; he just found some place else to go. He never tried to be friendly and was always wary of anything different.
Sending good vibes to Max.
Good luck tomorrow morning. We’ll be thinking about both of you. Keep us updated, please.
(((Max)))
(((Sharon)))
Yes, and Steve Irwin is now…dead. Always thought he was a fraud. Did lots of things that any competent reptile expert knows are dangerous and unnecessary, but gotta spike those ratings with phony drama.
Speaking of venomous snakes in FLA, rattlers and cottonmouths are bad enough, but don’t cross paths with a coral snake. Neurotoxic venom. Thank God they’re generally very reclusive little critters but a bite from one of them is potentially much more fatal than a normal rattler bite. (‘Course, out here we also got the neurotoxic Mojave Green rattler. And now some Pacific Black rattlers that were previously hemotoxic have started showing up with neurotoxic venom. Oh, goody!)
I truly don’t find them unpleasant. They are dry and unless they have taken a chill, poor things, are warm and smooth to touch.
Oh, ((Max)).
You got it. Sending it out.
Thanks!! (I’m only at comment 57, slowish reading but as self-described “EPU queen” I thought I’d get our request here before everyone was gone!)
Prayers for you and Max from me, Big Boy, and Star.
What do you think is causing the change in the toxin?
Red and yellow kill a fellow
Red and black a friend to Jack
BC –
After BG’s comment about having a cat named Elwood, I remembered the Blues Brothers.
If one got a duet of kittens at the shelter, those would be good names.
Jake and Elwood. Working for the Penguin.
Ha.
Thanks, Bear.
(((Max and Sharon)))
Vets do such great work, I’m very optimistic.
Yep, the advancements in both the science and surgery procedures over the last 20 years is phenomenal.
Thought you were going to say it grew 6″ every time it thundered :)
Yep, an excellent limric to keep you safe. Sure, some venomous snakes are other colors, but the rule is: if red and yellow touch each other without another color in between like black or white, the snake is venomous. That’s about the only way you can tell a harmless milk snake from a deadly coral snake. In general, really bright colors on reptiles are a signal to would-be predators that they are lethal to the touch or contact. Some frogs in South and Latin America secret a skin toxic that is deadly, deadly, deadly.
Damn near does. You can almost stand in the carport and watch this shit grow.
Many years ago my mother had a house in St. Pete (now she is in Pinellas Park). There was an old air conditioner unit that had been placed in a hole in the wall of the house. She didn’t want to go through the problem of closing it up so she left the unit in place. Then she found that a beautiful black snake was living in the unit on the outside part. My mother is the best person with animals that I have seen. When she would sit out on the little area at her front door with her little dogs, the snake would come out and lie close to her, but not quite in touching distance. I showed her some pictures because I never got to see it. The one picture she thought was closest was an indigo snake, which is protected in FL.
Can become a delimma when deciding to what extent and expense to treat our pets when they have serious and life threatening illness/injury.
So deadly the indigenous people make poison for their arrows with it.
(((SharonMI & Max)))
That is such a wonderful gift, that rapport with animals. She must have been very special.
We have a wonderful Georgia public television channel that features a program called Georgia Outdoors. The host and producer, Sharon Collins, is marvelous. She did a program about the Indigo snake. It is magnificent and has an enormous hunting range. Beautiful creature.
Tough call but at first I use my basic rule of thumb of what quality of life are they going to have. If routine surgery can save their life I have no question about that.
You should see some of my, what I call rabbit ears, cactus. During the spring and summer when they grow new “ears”, it feels like I can literally watch them grow. I’m talking, maybe a 14 ot 1/2 inch a day, or, that’s what it seems like. ‘Cause I watch ‘em.
And, the hummingbirds. Tried to get a shot for you the other day, but when I down or uploaded the shot, however that is, I couldn’t see the hummer in the shot.
They be fast little beauties.
Just thought I’d share the intention.
Far as I know, they haven’t figured out why yet. At first it was thought than maybe they were cross-breeding with Mojave Greens, but as I understand it, DNA tests at the Loma Linda Medical Center nixed that theory. (Loma Linda is our regional venomous bite center. There’s quite a good doctor there who is a reknowned expert on snake bites, spider bites, etc.) Maybe the snakes are just evolving as part of some great mysterious process. Speaking of which, they are now noticing in some areas of Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico where the rattler population has been extensively hunted that some rattlers are no longer using their rattles to warn off foes. Seems they’ve deduced that not calling attention to themselves is the best defense short of actually biting. Of course, that just means that when they do bite, it’s more likely to come as a complete surprise because nobody notices the snake hiding wherever it was hunkered down.
BTW, a word to all: snake bite experts advise that if it is possible to do so without further injury, try to bring the snake in (in a pail or other closed container) with the patient. Anti-toxins vary quite a bit according to the specific species of snake and some people are in as much danger from an allergic reaction to the anti-venin as they are from the bite itself. Getting the correct anti-venin for that specific snake can be of enormous help in treatment.
You have such a vivid imagination :)
Well, I messed that up.
1/4 to 1/2 inch…
Years ago, when Mrs. BearCountry and I lived in FL, there was a young boy (maybe 10th grade) that was a snake collector. He was chewed on by a coral snake and wound up in the hospital. He didn’t die when I heard about it, but I don’t know if he did survive.
Will pass that along. We have copperheads here and rattlers, and Cottonmouths in and along the rivers. No corals. Wasn’t aware of the allergic reaction possibility, wow.
Once on a canoe trip a snake dropped off an overhanging limb and into Bill and Jeff Hertzing’s canoe. They bailed out of opposite sides in an eyeblink. So funny! Was just a harmless black snake, fortunately, and it was more startled than they were.
Yep, hummers are reeeally fast. Gotta have a high shutter speed to catch them in flight. Just watching them they’re a blur.
From kittehs to venomous snakes. Interesting.
And chickens and goggies, don’t forget….
Chickehs
Copperheads can be especially hard to see because their coloring lets them blend in so perfectly with reddish-orangish fallen leaves. Their coloring is very much like that of a particularly deadly African pit viper; can’t recall the exact name now. Will try der Google.
True. You really must be aware of that when stepping over or sitting on fallen logs in the woods.
Found it: the Puff Adder. Kills more people in Africa than any other snake.
Never can tell where the conversation is going to lead, out here on your screened porch.
I tried with my little digital camera. No special lenses.
Lightnin’ fast.
The speedy thing was five feet from me, out the window next to my desk. I happen to keep my camera there, and tried.
Well, we’ll always have the internet photos.
As, stealthy as I was…can you see my hand ever so slowly reaching for the camera….
All we need is a mariachi band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrv8dYDZlQQ
Kittenlets, I’m going out to buy a beer.
Any orders?
I know. Beer with pies?
I don’t have to tell you, friends. I’m weird.
BBL w/ fruit pie.
Get Corona because it will be so good with the music! I have the limes.
From you, makes perfect sense *g*
You got it. And, you’re correct.
I just asked my Mr. and he requested Pacifico, which will also go with the music.
There’s a nice family Mexican restaurant in our town which features a live mariachi band on the weekends. Good, but, So Loud.
I love the trumpets.
BRB with your corona.
Sounds like a great place. Good to support our local businesses. We have a local Mexican restaurant, too, but no music. I think I’ll ask.
But, they do have a big portrait of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYdwe3ArFWA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The Most Interesting Man In The World.
There’s just something about a beer that tastes better when ya add fruit juice to it. :(
Fruit
It’s a funny looking word. Looks like a little moue with the mouth. Or an air kiss.
Got to go get salad stuff. SUGL
see you guys later
Thar really looks weird!
That. I meant to write. That! Lol! And I haven’t even had any fruitbeer yet!
Thank you for the sweet encouragement. I saw a Bill Moyers dvd set wherein he interviewed Joseph Campbell, a mythology expert. There was a little video of an Asian priestess kissing a cobra three times on the nose to have it rain. She was crouching a little near the snakes dwelling and weaved a bit sideways snakelike as she interacted with it. That was the most memorable scene of the series for me.
As far as expense for Max, I think the vet may be cutting me some slack as I’m unemployed because it looks like the procedure is more expensive according to internet sites. I also am trying to hit up my former neighbor as he’s the person who presented me with the 5 week old feral kitten. So far he emailed “good luck with Mad Max” but he’s supposed to visit for our local blues festival in a couple weeks so Max’ll be a sweetie and the man will help out, I think.
BTW, where do you post pictures so people can view them?
If you have Flickr account you can upload to there and link to them here. There are a couple other sites too but I don’t remember what they are. Picasa, perhaps.
Subj change. You can let us know how Max’s surgery goes tomorrow by going to the Lakeside Diner at the mothership and leaving a comment. We’ll check there. Just scroll down on the main page and you’ll see it. It’s posted first thing every morning but it’s open all day.
This is a test:
Max didn’t need no stinkin’ eyedropper!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katz4fun/7530604376/in/photostream
Awwww…
Thank you. I’ll do that. Can you see the picture? I have another great one that was on my camera forever and I didn’t know it since it was internal memory. It was probably a year old when I found it. Nice surprise:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katz4fun/7530548124/in/photostream
(Now hopefully I’ll be able to find my new account when I look later!)
He’s precious. In training for Basement Cat.
Flickr remembers ya forever.
Did it right, first time out of the gate :)
He is so sweet. What is the problem with his hip?
Bummer. RIP CDR McHale.
P.s. is the MI in your handle, Michigan? What part? It is such a beautiful state….
Lest you think he’s still little:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katz4fun/7530687754/in/photostream
The vet thinks he has Legg Perthes disease. At first he thought it was hip dysplagia but the Xray shows some degenerative something going on. The scary thing is that the leg Max is favoring looks the better of the two hips. I personally think it’s from being the runt and starving (that’s how my neighbor grabbed him: the other kittens scampered off, and Max stood there sort of weaving and meowing looking at the neighbor).
I am in Southwest MI, between Jackson and Battle Creek. It’s a cute town that has many historical homes, and in fact was possibly going to be the state capital, even built a governor’s mansion, but hopes were squashed when Lansing was chosen.
I just watched From Here to Eternity. RIP EB.
Yep, Basement Cat.
We’re all pullin’ for Max.
Gorgeous cat. So sad that his early life deprivations may be catching up with him… Will be thinking of you both. Please do check in at the Diner, as SD suggested. Lots of good, healing thoughts will be going out to both of you. You could probably do with some company and conversation to keep your mind off your concerns.
Our daughter-in-law is from the Hart/Pentwater area north of Muskegon. Beautifulul farming area with acre after acre of cherry and apple orchards, berry and asparagus fields.
I love historic homes and architecture. Would probably love your town.
Here is a photo of Charlie, sleeping. He had an accident as a kitten and suffered a broken jaw. He has a bit of a snaggletooth, even after surgery, and sometimes his tongue hangs out when he is tired or sleeping :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/airedales_rule/
Hope this works…
Just an aside here but wondering if Glenn Smith is on vacation or what?
Awww, cute.
Weird, the Find People thing says no member by that name found. I could have sworn I saw a post from him last week.
Hmmm, He is one of my faves, and I was at LM’s last week with no internets, and I have not had a lot of time around FDL lately, but I do expect him on Sundays.
He did have a post last week, maybe he’s on vacation.
Great picture….Just checking in late. Do you recall Angela also had had an accident and so she had a lop-sided smile? Her upper and lower jaws did not quite fit and caused a lower tooth to sit outside her mouth against her upper lip…funny. Made her all the more winsome, but since she was a late adoption, we didn’t know what had happened…maybe hit by a car, is what I heard. She seemed to manage.
Thanks for the memory…. Maybe she and Charlie would have been quite a pair…
Charlie looks like he spent some time here in sweltering Michigan…actually I’m happy to report it got to only 86 degrees today.
Stopping back, late, I know. But, I laid down on the couch to watch a movie, and who’d a thunkit? Nap.
Leaving some fruit/yogurt pie here for anyone who’s too hot to make dinner.
See youz allz in the am.
I do remember :)
Always loved it when you called Angela “winsome”. That is such an evocative term. Charlie is that, too, if you can apply it to a male. He is sweet and gentle and a little vulnerable. I think of Angela like that, too.
Hahaha!
I looked at the weather for Hart a couple of days ago, planning for our trip later this week, and the humidity was going to be higher there than here in Chattanooga! Over 50%. Aaarrrgghhh!
Sleep tight, demi :) See you tomorrow.
dinner, here. I’ll share….
Awready slept. Back up now to make some rice and salad to go with a stew I made last night in the crock pot.
More sleep later, tho.
Even though I don’t go out to work during the week, it’s still nice to nap in the afternoon on the couch on the weekend.
((Sweet Om))
Time to make real food (now my pistachio snack is eaten).
See you at the diner tomorrow.
Will be looking…and see you there, Sharon.
Yeh, I think it can work for the guys, too. This week’s Parade magazine has a nice piece on pets…Both cats and dogs. Have a good evening.
You, too.
Goodnight, People of the Cat.
SD, thanks so much for your wonderful hospitality, and everyone for such a nice day.
ohmmm
I’m gonna call it a day, y’all.
Thanks, everybody, for visiting.
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things
Namaste
*shudder*
*good thoughts* going out for Max.
I used to have a Max, short for Maxine when her true gender was discovered. She looorved a nice slice of deli ham.
Aargh–I’ve completely missed Caturday! Cannot believe it.
Well, it was a busy day – spent most of yesterday finishing reading a long novel (nearly 500 pages), so today was errand day, and then went swimming in the evening. Waitingon last of laundry.
Bad kitty…Smokey…spent all night out. He’s busily escaping whenever he can, and then he won’t come in. If I haul him in, he pees on the floor. Did it tonight, again. Grrrrrr.
Smoodgie is hanging in somehow…has strength to jump from ground to top of nearly 6 ft. wall, but won’t come to the patio anymore at all.Still enjoys having me rub her head,cheek, chin, etc. but the tumor is getting even bigger. She doesn’t appear until nearly dark or after dark, and vanishes in the morning once the sun is up. Have no idea where she hides out in between.
More healing thoughts and good luck wishes for SharonMI’s Max…what a cute baby he was, and a handsome grownup. Looks much like my Pushy.Beach Populist is as cute as his kittens with his enthusiasm. Clearly already madly in love with the little ones.
Heck, prolly talking to myself. Hopefully will have a moment to check into the Diner in the a.m.
Janis, if you look back, it’s good to see yourfonts again…glad you had such a good time with the kids and the grandkids. So sorry about your swollen ankles. My mother has had that trouble for years. I feel for you.
Hope Ki-Ke forgives you soon.