I’m sorry but with that black and white get-up, that himbo of a rooster reminds me of you know who, Zoolander.
I very nearly said something about him doing his Blue Steel pose!
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And the deviled egg plate is a great solution. So now you’re all ready for a litter of a dozen, or at least 11 + mama, right?
Oddly enough, the deviled egg plate actually has room for 15 deviled egg halves. Which isn’t to say that I particularly want that many fosters at the same time, but if I end up with that many, I’m all set!
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Carmela’s face = the young man in the black jacket with white hood.
HA – yes!
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OMG that picture in the mirror totally reminded me of an old SNL skit of Stuart Smalley.
That’s a blast from the past! I haven’t thought of Stuart Smalley in forever – it certainly fits that picture perfectly, doesn’t it?
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So, whats up with the new outside cat that Fred mentioned on facebook? Do we get a meet and greet?
The cat Fred mentioned on Facebook is Potsie.
He’s the same cat I mentioned on the 29th. He’s just, in the past week, started showing up at some point every day. We’re hoping to snatch him up and have him neutered next week. I still think (though don’t know for sure, of course) that he belongs to someone in the area. He comes around every day and sprays the side of my car, sprays the front door, sprays the side door. BOY aren’t unneutered males the MOST fun?
He has allowed Fred to pet him, and has let me pet him too, but only when we’re offering him canned food. Once he’s vetted and neutered, boyfriend’s not getting any more canned food, and we’ll start asking around to see if he belongs to anyone. If he does, then great. If he doesn’t, then we’ll see about finding him a home. We surely DO NOT need another permanent resident here – they’re still adjusting to Stefan’s relatively new presence, and I’ve had about as much angry spraying inside the house as I can handle.
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I’m assuming the Asian lady beetles are what we in the Midwest call Corn beetles. They come out of the fields at harvest time, and drive one of my two kitties crazy. The beetles congregate on the ceiling of our bedroom, and Anna (Siamese/Torti mix) talks and chatters at them, but thankfully can’t reach them with our ten foot ceilings.
The Asian Lady Beetles are actually different from the Corn Beetles (I had to Google that to find it out – we’ve seen a few Corn Beetles around here, though – mostly caught in the glue traps in the garage.) The Asian Lady Beetles look, to someone who doesn’t know the difference, exactly like ladybugs. But whereas ladybugs are polite and would never dream of intruding by coming inside the house, Asian Lady Beetles are extremely rude, enter the house by the hundreds, and leave nasty orange streaks all over the place. If you crush them (by, say, accidentally stepping on them), they stink to high heaven. They target light-colored houses (our house is white), and in our case they come in around the windows and doors. We’ve sealed up many cracks, but I think what we need is decently installed windows (that’s on my personal wish list of home improvements – which is very, very lonnnnnng.)
On the up side, with the weather cooling off this week, we aren’t getting quite so many in the house, and a trip around the house with the handheld vacuum to capture the ones that do get inside are pretty much all I need to do. They’re still congregating in the garage, though, which is nothing approaching airtight. I’m vacuuming up at least 500 dead Asian Lady Beetles in the upstairs of the garage every three or four days (I use the shop vac to do that).
In summation: I hates me the Lady Asian Beetles.
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BTW maybe it’s just me, but does anyone else see the kitty on Meadow’s back?
Um… maybe? Like the two black spots on her shoulder blades would be the ears?
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Oh, where do you get the mink tail?!?
The ones I originally got – several years ago – were passed on to me from my sister. Someone gave them to her for her cats, who wouldn’t touch them. When I needed to replenish the mink tail supply a few years ago, I found that you can get them on eBay. They’re not terribly expensive – I think last time I bought them, they were 8 for $12, or something similar. The adult cats will occasionally play with the mink tails, but the kittens just go nuts for them.
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Do the babes still try to see if the milk bar is still open for business ?
They certainly do! The other day Livia was laying in modified meatloaf position on the bed (paws stretched out in front of her), and Meadow nuzzled up to her, wiggled around so that her head was UNDER Livia, and proceeded to nurse. Livia put up with it for about a minute, and then ran off. She’ll occasionally let a kitten or two nurse if she’s feeling generous, but I don’t think she lets it go on for longer than a minute. Unlike the other mama kitties I’ve had in the past, she seems pretty determined that it’s time for these kittens to be weaned!
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In the 14th picture, the one with Adriana and Carmela floofed and leaning out/back from Stefan, it looks like his mouth is open – was he hissing or yawning, or just licking his chops? Or is it just a trick of the angle?
Oh, Stefan was hissing – he was pretty overwhelmed by the sheer number of kittens present (he kept looking at me as if to say “Where do they keep COMING from?!”).
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Livia looks smaller than I thought next to those pillows… is she a ‘tiny’ cat? (I have one at full grown, weighs 6.5 lbs – about half the size of her much younger ‘sister’)…
Livia is actually not a tiny cat. She’s almost 10 pounds at the moment, so she’s not HUGE, either, just average size, I’d say.
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Who is Top of the Flock with Toasty gone?
Fred wants the black rooster to be the head rooster in charge, but from what I can see, the speckled rooster seems to be taking on that role. There are enough hens that having two adult roosters shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but we shall see!
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I am hoping that you or one of the other readers can offer some advice.
We have recently added a rescue cat to our family. A very sweet cat, called Ollie. He is a total sweetheart and we love him to bits, but think his head is mostly filled with rainbow fluff rather than brains!
His issue is that although he uses the litterbox fine most of the time sometimes he will just decide to pee or poop elsewhere. We have had to shut him out of the bedroom as he peed on the bed a few times in the middle of the night (this is sad, as unlike our other cat Ollie is a snuggly sleeper and it was nice falling asleep with a tabby cuddling my legs!). As he was a rescue we know very little about where he came from so we don’t know where this behaviour may stem from (he is about 10 years old and found as a stray – though had a collar so was clearly a house pet at some point).
We are rewarding him for good litterbox behaviour, but are there any other suggestions as to what we can try to help him stop these accidents?
We are his forever home so we are committed to Ollie and hopefully with time and patience (and advice from seasoned cat owners) we can find a way.
Any advise appreciated!
These are the suggestions that come to mind: Have you had him checked out by the vet? Inappropriate peeing can be a sign of a UTI or other health issues. How does he get along with your other cat? Is it possible that he feels trapped or intimidated by the other cat when he uses the litter box? You could try adding more/ different kinds of litter boxes – uncovered so that he can see any potential “threats” coming, and in other parts of the house. Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract litter seems to help, you might want to give that a try.
I’m sure there are other things I can’t think of at the moment, but hopefully people will chime in with other suggestions.
Bless you for being committed to Ollie. He’s a lucky boy. 🙂
Catt later came back to the comments and added: He is due to be checked out by our VET later this week, but the rescue centre VET found no issues that might cause it. His thyroid levels were slightly higher than normal, so thats something our vet will check (our other cat is Hyperthyroid so its a medical issue we are familiar with). He and our original cat are not the best of friends but tolerate each other – a mutual agreement seems to have been made that upstairs is Ollie’s space and he has a litter box in the upstairs bathroom that Gabriel (our other cat) never uses. We have two other litterboxes in the house.
I have not seem Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract over here (we are in the UK), but will keep an eye out. Its pretty easy to be committed to Ollie as he is such a sweet, sweet cat!
So if you have any additional suggestions for Catt, please chime in! They’d be very much appreciated.
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In order to be fashionable, I think we all need one of these:
I am laughing SO HARD at the looks I’d get from my in-laws would give me if I showed up to Thanksgiving wearing one of those!!
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“LADY. AM HANGING OUT HERE RESTING MY FEET ON A GIANT COFFEE CUP. CAN’T I GET A LITTLE ‘ME’ TIME WITHOUT YOU SNEAKING UP AND TAKING PICTURES OF ME AND MY SHAVED BELLY?”
“Hi, hi! Hi wonderful, lovely, weird internet peoples! I know that I is your favorite, because you has excellent taste!”
Tony gets bitey.
Carmela was just HANGING OUT in the basket, minding her own business, when Melfi decided to flop down on top of her, and Silvio slid out from under the doll bed to grab her tail. Poor Carmela.
Silvio would like it known that it is now sleepin’ time. So go to sleep!
“You go ‘way, lady. I speak to this boy ’bout his attitude.” Silvio’s pouty face is making me want to kiss him.
“HEY LADY. YOU GO ‘WAY. WE WAS SLEEPIN’.”
Meadow, on the bookcase in Fred’s room. I think I need more light over by the bookcase, but Meadow doesn’t care.
Carmela was all “Why you put me on the bookcase? Not like it here.”
Adriana, however, was all “This bookcase is FABULOUS!”
Silvio wasn’t sure what he thought about this business.
Tony just wanted everyone to admire his stripedy stripes.
(Paulie and Melfi’s book shelf pictures came out too blurry to share. We’ll try again one of these days!)
Paulie and the mink tail: a love story.
Livia, very pleased with herself.
::thlurrp::
I took the Sopranos kittens to the vet yesterday so they could have their official Combo tests (tests for FIV and FeLV) and rabies shots. Livia was negative for everything, so it was no surprise that the kittens were, too. We weren’t worried that they’d be positive or anything, we just needed to have it official. I went ahead and changed Dr. Melfi’s name to just plain ol’ Melfi, since that’s what I always call her, and it’ll make record keeping a little easier. So Dr. Melfi is now… Melfi. I know, it’s a confusing name change. How will you ever know who I’m talking about?! 🙂
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Oh Corbie, you are SO BEAUTIFULLLLLLL.
“Duh, lady.”
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Previously
2012: The Americauna hen said “Stop all that slurping out there, I’m trying to molt! I need to concentrate!”
2011: Try to relax, Chuckles.
2010: He is SUCH a happy boy.
2009: “HELLO I HAZ A COMPLAINT.”
2008: No entry.
2007: “HALP, I SAY!”
2006: I hope he gets adopted before next Monday, though.
2005: Good thing for him he’s so cute, I suppose.
Re the kitty on Meadow’s back, it’s facing left in profile on her right shoulder, the tail down her flank. I was not the genius who first saw this but genuflect before that person! Re what you saw, Robyn: it looks more like a mouse. Wonderful pictures and text today, as always, and best of luck with releasing young Potsy’s nonspraying self.
YAY! I’m not crazy! 😀
That’s exactly how I saw it!!
I see it now! Now I’m wondering how I ever missed seeing it!!!
Oh my goodness! I am usually good at finding ‘guest cats’ on kittens and I totally missed this one until reading your description, Kerry. Sweet Meadow!
Okay, I saw a totally different kitty! The one I saw is facing RIGHT in profile with the ear/head on Meadow’s right shoulder. On her right back leg is the kitty’s front paw. Meadow’s tail is the kitty’s tail. 🙂
I see it! Meadow does haz a kitteh! Her right shoulder is side profile of kitty’s head and ears, left shoulder is kitty’s paw reaching out to play with a toy.
Yes, see the kitty on Meadow as above. Looks like the kitty on the kitty is playing with a ball 🙂
I have to admit – I don’t see a kitty – all I see is skull with no bottom jaw…. 🙂
The only thing I can recommend to the people with the rescue kitty not using the litterbox is to buy or borrow a large dog crate and crate him for a while. He can come out when he’s used the box. Give him treats when he goes in the crate and uses the box. It can sound kind of cruel to cage him, but I’ve recently done it with one of my cats and it worked. She was crated for a month and is back to using the litter box again. She did pretty good in the crate.
We did have him confined to our bathroom for the first 10 days as part of a phased introduction to our house and our current cat.
Ollie HATED it, so I am loathe to go back to that again.
He does use the litterboxes fine most of the time, current accident rate is about once a week (it was about 3 times a week when he had access to our bedroom and was always on the bed, specifically on MY side of the bed).
A story about cats peeing on the bed and all around:
We had a cat that was adopted from our shelter to a young family who had a 2 story house and a 5 year old boy. The kitty fit right in and all was well for awhile. However the family called the shelter and said they would have to return the kitty due to inappropriate peeing. On the bed, next to but not in the litter box, etc. Not good news of course. However, the family called back and said, oops, it was not the cat. It was the little boy. Apparently he was afraid to go to the bathroom downstairs at night so he just found a spot and peed. Kitty is still in his furrever home and presumably steps have been taken to make the little boy feel safer at night.
Wow! I never would have suspected the little boy! Interesting.
I like the bookcase for the kittens. Not quite a glamour shot setting but it’s close.
Silvio looks like he has dainty elbow length white gloves. How cute.
Livia does look small suddenly, or maybe it’s because those little monsters have grown so much, they look almost like grown cats!
Kerry and Natasha described the “kitty” on Meadow perfectly !!! Just like an optical illusion, once you are told where to look you see it !!!
Give Corbie a snuggle for me !!! Aw heck who am I kidding !! give them all a snuggle for me.
Regarding the rescue cat that pees inappropriately: Sometimes it is about checking the absolutely basics: the right type of litter and keeping the boxes very clean. I had two cats that I adopted as kittens. One has always been good about using the litter box, but the other would use the litter box most of the time, but other times pee in the bed, I can’t tell you how many loads of laundry I’ve had to do. We also took him in to the vet, whose first recommendations were to make sure we try changing litters and scooping more. But I didn’t seriously think about doing any of that because I didn’t THINK that was the problem, I thought the boxes were pretty clean. I started covering my bed and sofas when I leave the house, but then he just peed in the corner of the rooms. Grr!!! Until one day I was kneeled on the floor next to the litter box, and I realized that the area around and in the box smelled of urine. We used to use the crystal litter that I swapped out regularly, which is suppose to soak up the urine, we only scooped the solid wastes. But I realized that my other cat might be objecting to the smell since the urine is not being removed every day, and stopped using the box once he deemed it was too smelly or dirty. I also think it’s possible he didn’t like the texture of the crystals on his feet (I’ve always hated stepping on the stray litter myself, because they felt very sharp)
So I switched to a clay-based litter that is softer and more sandy, swapping it out with brand new litter regularly, and I started to use a odor elimination spray to wipe down the walls of the litter box, as well as the floor and walls around it regularly ( I use Arm and Hammer Carpet and fabric Pet Fresh Odor Eliminator; comes in an orange bottle and pretty easy to find) Ever since I did this, the inappropriate peeing stopped. It turns out one cat just prefers a meticulously clean box. Once you get your cat checked at the vet to eliminate the possibility of medical problems, try this: get down to your cat’s level and get right in there next to the litter box, as if you are about to hop in. If you can smell any odor, then try working on reducing that as much as possible, see if it makes a difference. We are much more removed from the boxes than they are, distance-wise and we won’t think it smells as bad as they might. Also do try experimenting with different types of litter. In my case, it still kind of blows my mind how long I bypassed the obvious, because I didn’t think it was not a problem, but my cat obviously did. I also marvel every day at how different my cats are from each other! Good luck to you, hope you are able to find the root cause of this. I have to admit, at the height of my frustrations, I thought about giving him up. I still feel guilty about that these days. Your kitty is very lucky to have you!
Thank you so much, Joy, what a great point about putting yourself on their level. I never would have thought of that, that’s brilliant!
We have swapped his preferred litterbox back to the woodchip pellets he was used to back at the rescue centre and we scoop whenever he poops and replace the litter every other day.
We will try replacing the litter more often and see if that helps.
Just came across this game of Kitten Whack-a-Mole at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgdWO5O7bpU. Soo cute and I can just picture the Sopranos enjoying the game…that is until they grew too big.
Is Meadow just the cutest little thing ever?! Well all the Sopranos are ridiculously cute, it’s true.
So I followed the “Good thing for him he’s so cute, I suppose” link for previous posts, and I have to say, I laughed my fool head of at “antics of one Sugar J. Buttocks”. Sugar J. Buttocks!!! 🙂
I totally love tony showing off his stripes!
Tony looks like he is posing for a sculpture. It would be titled “cat in midst of stretch.”. I love that picture!