Oh, and that one of Dandelion sleeping in the ball track thingy reminds me of this classic from IBKC about a few years ago.
So so so CUTE. The pic of Dandelion in the ball track reminds me of this picture of Beulah from 2009 (even though she’s not sleeping and her little alien face looks more like Tony Picklehead than Dandelion) :
Can I make a suggestion? Ok, it’s a lot of work for you, but I would love it if you had tags for each permanent resident! I love Miz Poo, and I would love it if she had her own tag so I could stalk- I mean admire her.
I’ll begin tagging for the permanent residents from here on out (you can see tags at the top of the entry), but I don’t plan to go back and tag the older entries, so you can stalk in the future, but not the past, I guess. 🙂 (And it’s not really much work – though I do need to figure out how to make it so that a list of the tags show up in the sidebar.)
My Cuteoverload.com page-a-day calendar has as today’s picture a white kitten sitting in a canning jar and looking somewhat askance, with the caption, “From The Cute Farmer’s Almanac: Remember to put up a supply of kitties to see you through the winter.” I thought of you and Dandelion. 🙂
SO cute. And whenever I have kittens as small as the Weeds are, I always say I’m going to get out the gallon-size Mason jars and get some cute pictures of kittens in jars. I need to actually DO that one of these days!
Looks like Tony the Terrible is growing into his big head, no? What a cutie!
He is totally growing into his big ol’ head. He still kind of looks like a little BatRat, but I suspect that one day he’s going to be (mostly) normal-looking.
ROFL at ‘Ears of Fume’… that’s the Cat Body Language indicator that follows just after ‘Ears of Annoyance’ and just before ‘Ears of I CUT U’, right?
Exactly!
In the picture of the Weed in the track ball toy (Dandelion?) she looks a little like Yoda.
and
I was thinking more of a pekinese or chihuahua. She has unusual shape of her eyes.
I can see Yoda. I can’t see chihuahua, but I’ll need to gaze lovingly at her some more and maybe I’ll be able to see it!
I’m both intrigued and mildly repulsed by bats. One of my local flickr buddies took the most amazing photo of bats – in flight – during the daytime and I can’t stop looking at it.
That is a truly amazing picture – I had to “favorite” it, and have been back to look at it like 10 times!
One of the last times we went to Carlsbad Caverns, we decided to stay for the evening bat flight. This meant we’d be getting home REALLY late, and a wearying several-hour car ride in the pitch black, but it was worth it. The guide started the talk at the proper time – a few minutes before sundown – and explained what we were about to see, and what to do/not do. Then, as if by magic… nothing happened.
We waited for several more minutes, and more nothing continued to happen. The guide was just in the process of saying that at this particular time of the year, sometimes the bats come out a bit later, but there were definitely some bats still using the cavern as their home (I think he said they migrate later in the year??? Can that be right, or was I doing drugs again?) but since it was cooler, there were fewer bugs out and thus the bats might be a little lazy, when a few clusters flew out. It was quite unimpressive, and rather disappointing in fact.
We had nothing better to do so we hung out for a few more minutes and after about 10-15 minutes, I heard some noises and smelled something indescribable, and looked back toward the cave entrance – and here they came. Like a typhoon rain, like a waterfall, like – I don’t know, like about a half-million bats all coming out of a relatively small cave opening at once. It was AMAZING.
Of course, it wasn’t really “at once” – there had been a steady trickle of a few bats here, a few there for the past few minutes. But then all at once it was like an illustration in a kids’ movie – a little stream of bats, looking like nothing so much as a tendril of smoke, swelling and growing until it was a solid, seemingly never-ending wall of bats flying out. They poured out of the caverns in that almost-solid wall for about three or four minutes, then slowed down to a trickle, and then they were gone – except for what looked like a dark cloud off in the distance, moving more quickly than a cloud should move. As we drove home, we could still see the “cloud” of bats for quite some time – I was surprised that they stayed together that way as long as they did. The guide said that since it was so late in the season there weren’t as many as there usually were, but my brain cannot even encompass the numbers he was giving us (3-4 times as many as what we saw).
I was sort of prepared for the noise, the wings and the clicks – but the SMELL… oh my. Nothing else in the world smells like a flock of bats, I’ll tell you that.
If any of you bat-lovers live near or ever drive through the eastern New Mexico region during the summer months, I STRONGLY encourage you to make whatever detours necessary to see the bat flights. (Apparently they no longer allow photography or video of any sort in the ampitheater, though. When we went, it was just no flash photography.) I haven’t seen the morning flight, where they return back to the cave after a night of eating, but I’m sure it’s just as astonishing as the evening flight. There are some awesome videos on YouTube etc, but they’re not a patch on the real, up-close-and-stinky experience.
Also, one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, is a world-class bat trainer, you might not have known that. (c:
That is WAY too cool – and I can only imagine what a huge flock of bats must smell like. 🙂
Suggie – that first photo is Cosmo centerfold worthy!! And the second reminds me of Sean Connery….me-WOW!
and
Sean Connery…
“Hello the name is Butt, Sugar Butt.”
and
Hee! He needs a little catnip martini photo-shopped in his paw now! “Shaken, not purred…”
If I had any photoshop skills at all, I would have put a martini glass in his paw – but you’ll just have to imagine that! (Also, you guys crack me up!)
Dandelion’s second shot: “In the name of the Father…”
Ha – YES!
Is it just me, or does Purslane look like Miz Poo’s “mini me”?
They certainly both have some Tortie-tude going on!
Is that a big hanging scratchy mouse that Dandelion is playing with? Way cool. Details, please!
That IS a big hanging scratchy mouse that Dandelion is playing with. I got it from another foster mom a few years ago. It’s got a loop on the end so that you can hang it from a doorknob, but I actually put up a hook to hang it from so that the kittens wouldn’t rattle the door when they’re playing with it. The ears on the mouse make that crinkly noise, the end of the tail has a rattly ball in it, and there’s sisal for sharpening their claws.
Recently, Jean sent me a picture from Publix with a picture of the same kind of mouse in it. I didn’t recognize it in the picture as being the same thing, but after you asked about it in the comments the other day, I made a point of stopping at Publix yesterday. It is totally the same mouse, same company, everything.
So I bought a new one with the intention of putting the old one in the guest bedroom with the Pickles (Polly really liked to climb the mouse when they were in the foster room), but as soon as I put the old mouse on the floor and hung up the new mouse, Dandelion said “Hey, this is awesome!” and climbed up the new mouse. At the same time, Purslane said “THIS IS AWESOME!” and jumped on the one on the floor.
Anyway, it’s called the Pet Select Scratch, Rattle & Roll Cat Scratcher Mouse, and you can find it at Walmart. If you have a Publix near you (that’s a grocery store, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it), they’re located in the pet section. They’re about a foot long, more or less, and the kittens almost always think they’re awesome. I haven’t noticed the adults paying any attention to them, but they do have catnip in them.
I noticed Dandelion’s (and the others) eyes looking much better. Which got me to thinking… how’s Dandie’s hearing (sorry if asked already)? That’s the first thing I think about when I see an all white cat w/blue eyes.
As far as we can tell, she can hear just fine. There are times when I’m making noises to get her attention, and she doesn’t seem to hear me – but then, that’s true of ALL kittens, sometimes they’re just too busy to pay attention to the stupid humans. But most of the time, if I make a noise unexpectedly, she turns to look, so I think her hearing is fine.
Hope Isaac missed you guys.
We haven’t had a single drop of rain. We’re located about as far from the Alabama coast as you can get and still be in the state of Alabama (the Tennessee state line is about 15 minutes away), so the weather from Isaac went pretty much around us. We could have used some rain – but I’m not complaining!
I just love Petey’s silly little face. He’s a total lovebug, this one. Actually, all the Pickles are pretty big lovebugs.
Percy in the basket. They LOVE sleeping in that thing.
Polly, trying to run from Percy, who’s feeling a bit chomp-y.
Polly swings! She… misses and falls over backward!
Polly, pushing Percy out of the way.
The Terrible Picklehead is growing up!
Joe in the sun.
Check out the sharp little fangs on Polly.
Percy in the basket, Petey biting his tail, and Polly in the background, trying to stay clean.
Petey and the fangs (would be an excellent band name.)
Dandelion and Thistle, at it again.
“THAT’S RIGHT I SAID IT’S MY SCRATCHER!”
She is such a fluffmonster.
Defensive posture. “YOU COME OVER HERE DANDELION MESS YOU UP!”
Snacktime for the Weedlings.
Is it just me, or does Purslane always look like she’s sighing in resignation?
Dandelion’s not sure about this “petting” thing.
Are those some gorgeous blue eyes, or what?
Yesterday I loaded up the Weeds and took them to the vet for their Combo testing. They tested negative for Feline Leukemia (yay!), but positive for FIV (feline aids) (boo!). This wasn’t a big shock, because their mother had tested a faint positive for FIV. This isn’t the first time we’ve had a litter test positive for FIV – the Wonkas and the Bookworms initially tested positive, but over time seroconverted to negative. I have every reason to believe that the Weeds will also ultimately test negative. From what I’ve been able to find online, it’s extremely unusual for a mother to pass FIV on to her kittens.
(Regarding the Wonkas and Bookworms – they actually had the same mother, a feral cat who roamed near where Fred used to work. We were able to trap her after Fred brought the Bookworms home (Corbie’s a Bookworm, for those who don’t know), and she was not only FIV positive, she was very very sick, so I made the decision to have her euthanized.)
So after the testing, we made it almost all the way home before one of the girls pooped in the carrier, then all three of them tromped through it. The first thing I did when we got home was give each of them a quick bath (and Thistle got a second bath because before I could get her completely dry she took her wet feet and stomped them around in the litter box!). And oddly enough, after they’d been bathed and dried, I went back into the room with them about five minutes later, and they were all markedly friendlier than they’ve been up to this point. Not that they’ve been UNfriendly, but this was the first time Purslane ran right over and climbed into my lap.
Maybe they secretly like having baths!
Today’s Crooked Acres Cover Boy? Corbie The Beautiful, of course!
“Corbie too busy being beautiful to pay attention to the likes of you, lady.”
Talking to Elwood like I’m not even there giving him moony-eyed looks o’ love.
::ignore::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: (LOONYFACE)
2010: Bolitar and Rhyme are off to the adoption center later today.
2009: This is how the kittens feel about Mondays.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: He just sat there and gave me this look like “I will never yawn for you again, so save it, woman.”, then started falling asleep while sitting up.