Your post a few days back inspired me to go out and get Da Bird and I absolutely love it! Possibly more than my cats do…
I don’t want to leave it out like their regular toys because I’m afraid they’ll just destroy it so I put it up in the linen closet after play sessions. It’s so funny because this is the first toy all three of my kitters absolutely love. They all just kind of sit at the foot of the closet door trying to devise elaborate methods to get it out. I know they are formulating highly complex schemes my own feeble human mind couldn’t begin to comprehend…
Then later, Russell came back and added:
I got it out a bit earlier and I took this picture of my calico Duchess. She grabbed it, jumped up on the bed, and started growling vehemently at the other two cats!
That girl is NOT kidding around! She’s going to mess up anyone who tries to take Da Bird away from her. 🙂
We always put Da Bird up on a bookcase shelf where (we thought) they couldn’t get to it. One day I walked into the front room (where the bookcase is) to see Everett Peppers trotting proudly across the floor dragging Da Bird behind him. Now we hide it on a shelf behind books… but I expect it’s only a matter of time before they find it there!
I do believe your dragonfly is really a damselfly.
I had never heard of a Damselfly, thanks for setting me straight! They’re awfully pretty, I hope I see more of them around here.
But the real reason I’m commenting is to relate my second ever Crooked Acres dream. In it, I was apparently doing a guest post for you, to be published on a certain day. I forgot and posted it on the wrong day without telling you. In fact, it was on a day when you had already put up your morning post. I was horrified that I made that mistake and didn’t want you to think I was trying to take your site over, so I tried to take the post down, but couldn’t. Somehow, in dream physics, I can hijack a site to post but can’t get back to to delete that post. I decided the only way to fix the problem was to break into your house and use your own computer which would already be logged on. This time, dream physics helped me. I was able to transport myself from NY to Alabama super duper fast through a pneumatic tube. I got into your house, which was a split level ranch it seemed, and found the computer. It was in a room that had a staircase to the next level, but you were sitting at a desk at the top of the stairway and could see into the room. I had to hide and only run to the computer when you got up for a few minutes. Then, I realized you were coming into the room. I hid behind a crib but you saw me anyway. I apologized and explained the whole situation, saying that it all happened because my brain is just not working right lately. I think we laughed and though you were still a little wary of me, you helped me take my post down.
Catholic guilt and popcorn before bed make for a hell of a dream.
Have I perhaps mentioned that I LOVE it when you guys have dreams about us? Is that weird to admit? I don’t care, I love it!
I love bats too! Ok, here is my bat story. It was twilight and I was outside in my yard. A helicopter flew over and something fell to the ground in my neighbor’s yard. I went over to investigate (they were outside also) with a flashlight. It was a tiny bat – looked just like yours. We (stupid us) thought that perhaps the electronic on the helicopter messed with the little guy’s radar or such and it took him down. Another neighbor came over and said that he would get him in a box and rehab him. Just as he was going to put the bat in the box, the bat looked up at us, showed us his tiny teeth as he chattered and unfurled one wing. Wrapped up in his wing was a she bat. We realized that we were peeping toms and were certainly interupting!!! The little guy really just needed some privacy and a cigarette!!! Whoops!!!!!
HA! I love this – he was tryin’ to get romantic and the humans were all “WE MUST SAVE HIM!”
In this picture, Tony Rocky Horror Pickle reminds y’all of:
A T-Rex.
Dobby from Harry Potter.
At first I was thinking he reminded me of the Grinch.. but then, with that flat footed stand… Godzilla? Rawr!
New name? Anthony Rex Michael Hall Dobbyzilla Rocky Grinchtastic Picklehead! (Not really, but I think it suits him!)
And the Weeds! I love them and their names! Purslane is one of my favorite ‘weeds,’ although I think it’s a flower!
I think there are different kinds of Purslane, but the type we were thinking of is considered a “nutritious weed”, and it’s very invasive. I grew some last year in one of my raised beds, and this year it’s growing like crazy outside the fence, about ten feet from where I planted it last year. It’s not hard to grow at ALL, apparently, but takes over in no time flat. It’s high in (I think) Omega-3s and Beta-Carotene. We like to eat it sauteed in a bit of olive oil with garlic and sometimes onion, or you can eat it plain on a salad.
We have no plans to eat Purslane the kitten, though. Yet. Though she’s such a cutie pie it’s hard not to!
Also.. isn’t it about time Razzie came home for a visit?
Right now, we have nowhere to put her (I wouldn’t want to just let her out into the house, because the permanent residents don’t take well to that sort of thing). If she was miserable where she is, I’d likely be more concerned about her, but I’ve seen her a few times in the past couple of weeks, and she’s actually pretty happy. They were talking about putting her in a cage with another singleton kitten, which I’m sure she’d like. I stop by every time I’m in the area and spend time with her, and she seems like she’s doing okay.
That said – I have a FEELING that this will be her weekend to be adopted! Pleasepleasepleaseplease let it be true!
Can we get a live recording of the Alice Mo ditty? LOL!
You cannot, because no one needs to be subjected to my horrifying singing voice. However, here’s her REAL theme song, as interpreted by a cartoon kitty.
I have a question about the Weeds and their mother…why did they separate the mother and kids…is it because of their age or is it another reason?
I’m not positive, but I think the rescue who took the mother weren’t really set up – or maybe didn’t have the room – to keep the kittens, too. Since they were old enough to eat and use the litter box on their own, it was considered okay to separate them. They certainly seem to be doing fine!
Is it sad that the first thing I thought when I saw “Weeds” was that all the kitties would be named after characters from the TV show? :-\
The show Weeds is on my list of potential naming themes – I’ll just have to make sure I have plenty of catnip on hand for that bunch. 🙂
I also plan, one day, to name kittens after characters from Breaking Bad. I love the idea of having a kitten named “Mr. White”, since that’s what Jesse always calls Walter. And Jesse Pinkman as a kitten? Yes, please!
My my….Tony really has quite the pot belly!!! I wonder if he will ever even out…or if he will always have to wear his britches low….?
I suspect he’ll even out – when we got Patty Peppers, she had an even bigger belly than he does. We thought for sure she was full of worms, but deworming didn’t change the size of that belly. Then we were sure she must have FIP, and… nope. The only thing that thinned her out was growing up. She eventually hit her long and lanky stage, and the belly went away! I suspect the same thing will likely happen with the little man.
Re: The Terrible Pickle
I found this:
It’s kinda catchy, isn’t it?
When exactly is Snackin’ Time and what do you give them?
In the ordinary course of things, Snackin’ Time takes place in the morning after I’ve showered and am dressed and ready to face the day. That can be anywhere from 5:30 to 7:30, depending on how late I sleep that day. It takes place a second time, in the evening between 5 and 6. I scoop at the same time that I do Snackin’ Time – I scoop twice a day unless kittens are having litter box issues that require more frequent scoop, so scooping and Snackin’ Time all happen at the same time.
This is assuming that we don’t have any kittens who are failing to thrive. When Tony Rocky Horror Pickle was doing so poorly, I was feeding him (and by extension, the rest of his litter, who wouldn’t HEAR of staying away from his food unless they had their own food) every couple of hours. It was completely lunacy, and got to the point where every single time I walked into the room, they thought I was going to give them canned food and they’d lose their little minds. Luckily, everyone is doing so well that we’re now on a strict twice-a-day Snackin’ Time.
Snackin’ Time consists of grain-free canned food. How much canned food they get depends on the size of the litter. I split a 5.5-ounce can between the five Pickles, and a 3-ounce can between the Weeds, so about an ounce of canned food per kitten.
(The kittens have kibble available to them at all times.)
When I was little, 7 or so, I got the brilliant idea to collect cicada skins. I had a bunch of them inside an old cigar box. I don’t know WHY I was saving them, just that it seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I tucked said box into the lower cabinet of a bookcase and forgot about them for years, and found them later, at the decidedly NOT bug-loving age of 22 or so. 😯
Don’t we have the MOST interesting (weird) ideas as kids? I decided, when I was 10 or so, that I was going to have a collection of bottle caps. When I had about 100 of them, I lost interest, and eventually tossed them. I have no idea what I thought I was going to do with them!
Also, the thought of you saying “Oh, this is a nice little box, I wonder what’s in – Oh. Ewww.” makes me giggle.
Love the video of Brandywine and the boys. I had a potential adopter at one point tell me she wanted a momma cat cause she has small kids and she was SURE the momma cat would be more gentle cause she had had kittens. Couldn’t help it – I snorted. Sure lady….ever seen a momma cat discipline kittens?? Momma cats are NOT to be screwed with….. 🙂
Of the permanent residents, we have two cats (Maxi and Kara) who were momma cats, and they have ZERO tolerance for shenanigans and would likely not put up with any nonsense that kids might want to deal out to them. Momma cats are neither gentle nor nurturing once the kittens are past about 6 weeks! (Maggie being the exception.)
Oh, you really can’t be too careful with cicadas! One time I was camping while they were dying (and they were the 17-year ones, so there were tons of them) and one of them totally dive-bombed me. Okay, more like fell out of a tree, but its intentions mattered less than the fact that it fell down my shirt and got caught in my bra. Where it proceeded to have its horrifying, scrabbly, buzzing death throes while I shrieked and hopped around. Not my finest moment there.
Yesterday, I was in the kitchen cleaning and listening to a podcast, and I thought “What is that noise?” I took off my headphones, and then here came Jake, skulking through the kitchen with a screaming cicada in his mouth. I followed him to the hallway, where he dropped it and ran off. I was going to pick it up by the wing and toss it back outside, but when I touched it, it flailed and screamed, which made me in turn flail and scream because they may not be VIOLENT, bitey bugs, but they are very ewwww. I ended up scooping it into a bowl with a spoon and then carried it outside and tossed it in the bushes. Blech.
Love that pic of Rupert even if he’s in the background. I can understand Brandy having a fangirl moment. Like Elvis in his white pantsuit, just had that aura that took over the room.
SO true!
That looked like a really fun day with the Perms in the yard! Sheriff Mama better hope that her “cutting loose” photo doesn’t pop up during her next election campaign! But where was the Looniest of the bunch during this?
I’m not sure where Loony Jake was – he’s usually right in the middle of it all when Da Bird comes out. Maybe he was off napping.
Whats a brown recluse??
Brown recluses are the devil. On the good side, they’re shy spiders and will do their very best to get away unless they’re cornered, whereupon they’ll bite and you may end up with a big ol’ necrotic spot resulting from the bite. They have a fiddle-shaped marking on their back, but I usually know them because they’re really fast, leggy spiders (thankfully, that speed is usually spent trying to get AWAY from me.) If I ever even suspect that a spider is a Brown Recluse, I kill it immediately. We’ve found a few in the house, but the majority of the ones we’ve seen have been in the garage. I’m fairly careful when I move stuff around in the garage, but probably not as careful as I should be!
The Cheezburger link one of your readers shared above reminded me of a kitten picture I have on my desktop at work – seems VERY appropriate for dear Tony RH so I had to share it with you. Obviously work is making my brain melt because I didn’t see the resemblance til now! (Warning for non-Robyns: strong language ahead!)
HA!
On the rheas… are those EARS towards the back of the head? And how come the one in the first picture doesn’t (seem to) have one? I am fascinated by whatever that (those) is (are)… looks like some kind of SuperSecretSpy device.
According to Fred (I didn’t notice this myself, so take this with a grain of salt), their ear holes (?) were opening and closing. I’m pretty sure they’re aliens.
So don’t ask too many questions but my staff and I have been conducting business all week speaking ‘Swedish Chef’. We’re an academic library staff, just go with it.
So we discovered today that a certain site will translate websites into your favorite language. Of course, I had it translate your blog and have amused myself ALL DAY LONG!!!
yeah. We are a bit weirder than usual this week. Kids hit the dorms on Saturday and classes start on Monday. This week has been our version of a three-day-commit.
That is absolutely freakin’ HILARIOUS! I started laughing when I got to Peeckles, in reseedence-a on the sidebar, and pretty much haven’t stopped yet!
Oh my gosh, those fluffy little Weeds.. I wonder if Dandelion is going to wind up flame pointed.. I can almost see color on her nose and maybe on her ears.. unless that’s from being dirty?
I can’t guarantee it, but I think that’s just from being dirty. Perhaps as she gets less goopy in the eyes and ears (and stops walking around with food on her nose), the dirt will clear up and we’ll be able to see exactly what we’re dealing with. A flame point would definitely be neat!
Percy, before I moved the Pickles downstairs to the guest bedroom, discovered the wall basket. He didn’t actually climb into it, but he thought it was interesting.
To Polly, Tony Rocky Horror Pickle said “Poke.”
Petey thinks tails are the best treat EVER.
Petey and Joe check out Tony Rocky Horror Pickle’s tail, while Tony Rocky Horror Pickle shows off his claws to me. He’s not kidding with those things.
Joe, and the roof of Petey’s mouth.
The sun always knocks them out. Petey is sound asleep here.
Three-way fight.
Percy, staying out of the way.
Our little man, Tony Rocky Horror Pickle, continues to do well. I weighed him last night, and he was at 1 pound, 4 1/2 ounces. Which means that he weighs MORE than the Weeds girls, who weighed in last night at 15 ounces (Purslane and Thistle) and 1 pound, 1 1/2 ounces (Dandelion).
You can’t tell from this picture, but Thistle’s eyes are definitely getting better, ever so slowly.
Dandelion is squinting here because her eyes were bothering her. By the next morning, they were fine.
Purslane, giving me attitude.
Belleh!
Dandelion in her box, about to eat her recommended daily allowance of cardboard.
“Where’d she go?!”
They love this thing.
LOVE the orange stripes on Purslane’s legs.
And the last of the Crooked Acres Cover Girls, Maxi. Kind of convenient that there are five of them, no? (Kind of sad that I had to go look at the list of permanent residents to make sure I hadn’t forgotten any girls!)
Not a fan of the other cats, but she doesn’t mind sitting and watching them, all judgmental-like. “Idiots,” she’s clearly thinking here.
Maxi has her own theme song, if you haven’t heard it.
Next week, I suppose we’ll work through pictures of the Crooked Acres boys ’til you’ve seen ’em all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: Molly reacts to Jake’s intrusion into her territory.
2010: He’s kind of like Godzilla, all flailing around growling while tiny Martin and Dodger and Melodie and Moxie go running for their lives.
2009: “Dear lord, please let me catch the laser light, it’s all I want in this world, thank you. Amen.”
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
My guy Bailey is completely freaked out by daBird of any sorts. He prefers these instead:
http://www.alaskancloudbuster.com/site/index.php?slab=catnip-pillow-toys
Not to fuel your cat toy addiction or anything Robyn (lol).
Its good to see Tony RH Pickle doing so well now. I’m sure in your loving care the Weeds family will soon completely healthy and running around like lunatics 🙂
We have grown Brandywine tomatoes in our little greenhouse this year and every time my mom mentions them I think of your Brandywine.
I actually have some of those! The cats enjoy them quite a bit. 🙂
Maxi has the prettiest shape!!!
Here is a link to a podcast I love. I didn’t know you listened to podcasts…so I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Start from the bottom of the page (chapter 1 part 1) and work your way up! Each story part is about 20 mins max.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/itpc/wwwwaylandws/Wayland_Productions/Were_Alive_-_Podcast/rssxml
You can thank me ;ater! 😉
Tony has a fabulous claw to paw ratio!!! If it stays, he will be a force to be reckoned with!
Oh, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check it out!
Purslane is already developing her Tortitude! I so love the Torties.
Maxi looks elegant in her shots, how about a “For the ladies” set of Man cat poses for next week?
Im so happy all the little babies are thriving and the info on Stompers in yesterdays comments was very nice! I can have a happy weekend 🙂
Yeah, I’m going to start with the boys and go through them ’til everyone’s had their picture posted. 🙂
OMG, the world IS in a terrible pickle, but how can one take that song seriously when there’s tuba in it?
If you get a litter of three boys and a girl, please consider naming it the “Seinfeld: FOUR!”
DEFINITELY need a Seinfeld bunch!!!
Just a note on babies with pot bellies, I have seen this happen naturally in some kittens and very often in stray kittens who spent some time without enough food. I have never had one that didn’t “loose” the belly when they got to the “long and lanky” stage. We do have one, Svarty, who was probably the smallest rescue we’ve had here, who was found trying to nurse his late mother by the roadside by the SPCA. He is now a huge, black and very round bellied obviously apple headed Siamese cross (you could see his points as a baby); but I think in his case the huge round belly is just from overeating as a reaction to starvation as a kitten. He did go through the normal lanky period before he got fat.
Baby Buzz (aka Buzzard bate the kitten from 1989) kept his little pot belly for most of his first year to year and 1/2 but lost it when he suddenly grew to full size around 18 months and he was the worst case of recoverable starvation I’ve ever seen in a baby.
Melodi, that story about Svarty makes me want to burst into tears. That poor baby!!!
Svarty? What an absolutely wonderful name for a black kitteh! And yes, what a sad beginning. But his story is happy all the same. So many foster/rescue babies have sad origins, but it’s not just where you came from that counts.
Lol! “Anthony Rex Michael Hall Dobbyzilla Rocky Grinchtastic Picklehead”, such a big name for a tiny tiny kitty!
Dandy’s fur seems so thin! I hope it gets fuller as she grows up. I can’t wait to see these three in a few weeks.
Terrific post today! LOVE the swedish chef translator-heesterical! and I saw yesterday’s post but did not go back and read comments. You’re going to have to put up a link so people don’t miss that there were Stompers updates like I did.
I’m going to cut & paste Kristyn’s update into Monday’s entry so everyone will see it. I would have done it for today’s entry, but I’d already written it before I saw the update. Aren’t we shocked that Stompers has everyone wrapped around his paw? 🙂
The theme songs cracked me up! I always check L&H on my Kindle while I’m waiting for my husband to get finished taking a shower in the morning. He was reaching for his sock drawer this morning, and he was saying, “Sock, sock,” because he’s the kind of guy who’s got to announce what he’s doing. I played the Maxi song and he said, “…That’s not a sock.”
Anyway, started my morning with a giggle. 🙂
I LOVE Purslane’s piquant little harlequin face!
LOL! “Sockin’ along/ singin’ his song/ it’s Noelegy’s hubby!”
I am going to HAVE to tell him that, you realize.
P.S. How did you do that? Is that an iPhone app, and what’s it called? 🙂
It’s an app – I have it on my iPod Touch – called Talking Tom Cat. I have wayyyyyy too much fun with it. 🙂
You mean Fred HASN’T gone back for those bird things? I was SURE he’d have a few by now. 🙂
1. Da Bird stays safely tucked between the top of the refrigerator and the cupboard above it, where Simba cannot get his tubby self. Otherwise, he was search and destroy daily. Whenever it’s left where he can reach it, I hear the metal pole being dragged along the floor… as he’s dragging da bird to his lair.
2. I hear the the “Bow Chicka Bow Wow” music whenever I read that one bat story, either that or Barry White… which is what I hear now when I think of my sweet foster Henry growing into manhood (which he tried displaying on his sister yesterday, making note to call the rescue and discuss neutering)
3. Dear Lord, I just visited the Dialectizer website and read both your blog and mine in various dialects. I may need to make that a daily habit. Hilarious! I may or may not have snorted. Only Norman knows for sure.
I translated your post but couldn’t read the whole thing. I did it to “redneck”, I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt and I don’t want to incapacitate myself!
Thanks for the start of the weekend !
Oh coolies! The Boys Of Crooked Achers! gonna be great!
I can just imagine those kittens, all running along, playful and fully awake.. they hit a sunbeam and bam! nap attack! lol!
I store my Da Bird in my buffett. It happens to be in the same drawer as the batteries. So everytime I go to get batteries, the cats come running… Can we play, can we play? It’s so cute!
I have to add that I have Da Bird for Dorfy. She knows where I keep it (in the bottom drawer next to the stove) and anytime I’m in the kitchen, she comes in there and rubs up against the door handle, back and forth, and squeaks at me. Anytime I OPEN the drawer to get something else out of it, she pokes her head in there. When I do take Da Bird out of the drawer, she starts jumping at it before I’ve even put it together (I dismantle it to fit into the drawer). It’s like CRACK.
It’s a good thing i don’t live near you, i would be kitten hoarding by now, i would have loved Brandywine (i knew she would be adopted quickly) and now i just love that little Purslane!!! Ms Poo is still my fave, though!
That next to last picture of the Weeds and the trackball – Dandelion is TOTALLY telling Purslane, “No, no, your head’ll fit just fine, trust me!” Poor baby, she looks so forlorn, I want to just scoop her up and kiss her all better.
My mom’s across-the-street neighbors revealed tonight, as I was leaving my parents’ house, that they have… kittens. A neighborhood stray (abandoned by former owners, a beautiful and so affectionate Siamese) gave birth to a litter of 3 underneath one of his bushes. Within 24 hours, she was letting the adults AND the kids handle the kittens, and tolerated their (indoors) dog after only a few days more. He’s been “keeping” them in the garage – where “keeping” means “putting food, water, and sand down and leaving the garage door open about 6 inches so they can come and go,” and now he’s trying to find homes for them, because all the shelters/rescues/etc are full up and not accepting any drop-offs. They are BEAUTIFUL but I am repeating to myself, out loud, over and over that I have no idea what they might be positive for/infectious with, I am no longer home all day to play with and socialize a kitten, my established five are stressed out enough because of me AND my son suddenly being gone, I have ten thousand reasons why a kitten would be a bad idea. But the baby girl of the litter is a dilute tortoiseshell with the most delicate-looking sea-green eyes I have ever seen on a cat, and the boys look like miniature a Jake&Elwood, and the momma is just a drop-dead beauty, and and and…