And you may have answered this before, but what is the Sheriff wearing around her neck?
We have an underground fence around the back yard that works with that collar Kara’s wearing. If she gets to within five feet of the fence, the collar beeps so she knows to back off. If she keeps going, she gets a zap from the collar. Elwood, Tommy, and Sugarbutt all used to wear collars so they wouldn’t go over the fence, but we’ve determined that they’re well-trained enough that they stay away from the fence and don’t try to go over it anymore, even without the collars. Kara, on the other hand, will always go over the fence if she’s not wearing her collar, so she and Joe Bob are the only ones who have to wear the collars now. (Joe Bob, unfortunately, is really good at figuring out how to remove his collar from time to time, but we’re lucky that if he does go over the fence, he immediately heads for the side stoop. It’s not that he wants to run free – it’s that he wants us to know he could if he wanted to!)
Kara must test her collar regularly, because the instant the batteries die, she goes over the fence. She usually goes over the fence and immediately hides under the neighbor’s shed, or in our wood shed. I’m trying to be more diligant about checking the battery so that doesn’t happen!
Didja notice that the entry for this date 2010 was of Maxi hauling away on Corbie, with his doing a preemptive fall over?
He is gorgeous, but knows to make way for the ladies!
Corbie is NO FOOL when it comes to the bossy ladies in his life. If they look at him sideways, he immediately falls over so they know that HE knows that they’re in charge!
You mean you don’t need a committee to clean a litterbox? I’m going to have to take this to the union.
Oh, you’re probably TECHNICALLY supposed to have a committee for litter box cleaning, but don’t tell the union, they’ll fine me!
(How many cats does it take to scoop a litter box? One to roll around in the litter, one to swipe at the scoop, one to dig around in the bag of scooped pee and poop clumps, six to snoopervise from the safety of the litterbox entrance. Hefty fines imposed for those not wearing hard hats!)
Hey! Guess what was in my co-op produce box yesterday? PURSLANE!!!! 😉
We love purslane! We’ve got it growing wild this year – that stuff is totally invasive. Just like the kitten. 😉
Have you heard of “Catty Stacks“? I donated a set of four to a fund raiser auction for the no-kill shelter I volunteer at. They were snapped up at full price — not cheap but less work. I wouldn’t want to purchase a wall of them!
Those are so neat! The only reason I haven’t bought some of those for my own cats is because my own cats are BRATS and eventually someone would pee on them. I refuse to buy anything with cardboard walls that would be ruined by cat urine. (But that makes me wonder if I couldn’t slap together some kind of kitty condo using Rubbermaid containers… Hmm…) Good idea to donate them for a fund raiser!
Was it on here that someone referred to a tail-tip coloration like Purslane’s as a “tail light?” That’s what I think of every time I look at her.
If someone said that in the comments here, I don’t remember seeing it – but I love it! That’s the perfect description.
Have been reading the old posts from 2005. Poor little Sad Eyes. I am so glad he got over his problem and grew up to be handsome Sugarbutt. I love that guy. Does he still purr like crazy?
Sugarbutt is the happiest cat on earth, just about. All you have to do to get him to purr like crazy is kiss him behind the ear (my preferred method) or pet him, or even just talk to him. I’ve always said that if he were human, he’d be a pot-smoking surfer, because he is so laid back and chill about almost everything. (Except strangers, who freak him out, maaaaaan, and make him go climb up under the blanket on my bed and hide!)
My cat Rufus just had a leg amputated due to cancer (F U Cancer!!!), would peeps mind sending some optimistic thoughts that the doc got it all? =^.^=
Sending lots of love and happy thoughts your way, Dawn!!!
Has Purslane started talking to you yet? Don’t know if it’s a Tortie trait or not, but all the Torties I’ve known were regular chatterboxes.
All three of the Weeds girls are starting to find their voices. Purslane, especially, likes to squeak at me. If she’s somewhere in the house and doesn’t know where anyone else is, she’ll stand where she is and howl at the top of her lungs (which is NOT very loud. They must be small lungs!) until one of us calls for her – or one of the kittens goes to see what the big fuss is.
And right as I’m wondering how Mr. Magoo (aka Tony RH Picklepants) compares to Thistle, I scroll down and there they are! Is it just the camera angle or are they about the same size? (Too lazy to go back and find where you posted everyone’s latest weights!)
Last time I weighed them – last Sunday – Magoo weighed 2 pounds, 4 ounces and Thistle weighed 1 pound, 12 ounces. So there’s a decent size difference there, though it’s not immediately noticeable at first glance.
Robyn, what will you do with those dehydrated jalapenos then?
I make casseroles, spaghetti, lasagna – whatever Fred requests – for Fred to take to work for lunches (he splits them up into single-serving containers and freezes them). When I’m making them, I toss a small handful of dehydrated jalapenos in, and they rehydrate while they’re being cooked. Fred’s the only pepper lover in this house (except for jalapeno jelly, which isn’t hot at all, and which I looooove), so I don’t know why every year I insist that we grow several jalapeno plants. We always get more than we can use and say “Next year, just one or two plants, right?”, and then Spring comes and I’m all “WE NEED MORE JALAPENO PLANTS!” 🙂
Ahem.
HA – I love it! (And is there really no way to embed an image from Cheezburger.com? I swear I’ve done it before!)
My internet access at work has been severely curtailed but I have a great friend Brinn who forwards me your rss emails. I amuse myself and make myself feel happy by sometimes taking key pics and making them my desktop. Usually I just have one, and for added fun make an attempt to match the background either to the dominate background color of the picture or even more challenging I try to match the kittie’s eyes.
My latest version of this little happiness oasis at work is for me to imagine things that the kitties are staring at, and this was my latest result: Miz Polly Pickle has obviously given my usually dauntless son a reason to reconsider his imagined profession of noble Knight. 🙂
LOL! (And also, what an awesome friend Brinn is, to make sure you have your daily kitty goodness. 🙂 )
I introduced Philo to a red plastic straw tonight, and he was all, “Where have you BEEN all my life?!”
Straws are the AWESOMEST, according to my kitteh sources. Between the red straw and the red string from the Winnie’s Wish FUNdraiser, those kittens have been SERIOUSLY busy the last few days!
Somebody please PLEASE teach me how to get the sound from the Pickles’ video as a ringtone on my (ancient) phone. I could not stop laughing there at the end. It would at least give me something to look forward to when the telemarketers and bill collectors call!
I have not the knowledge on how to do this, but surely someone out there can talk us through it (I’d love to have it as a ringtone, too!)
Don’t you just want to kiss Polly Pickle right on the lips?
Petey, kneadin’ and nursin’.
Sweet Polly again.
Left to right: Percy, Polly, Magoo. I think they were watching Alice go up the steps to the platform.
I love it when they tuck their paws under their heads when they’re sleeping. So SWEET. (That’s Percy, by the way.)
This doll bed sits in my room. For a while Miz Poo was using it regularly, and then Alice Mo had a turn at it. Then it lay unused for a long time, until Petey found it and claimed it for himself. (There’s another doll bed just like that one, downstairs in the dining room. That’s where Miz Poo likes to hang out during the day.)
Purslane, smacking at Polly’s tail.
More Polly. I guess it’s a Polly kinda day.
Dandelion and Purslane, hanging out in the foster room.
“What? What you want?”
She is such a sweet little thing.
A super-sized dose of Corbie gorgeousness!
Eye on Da Bird.
The look on his face is cracking me UP.
Elwood is not impressed.
He grabs! He… misses!
(I love Newt’s face. He’s like “THIS idiot.”)
“Hmph.”
“I have no athletic skillz, but at least I’m beautiful!”
So true.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: Cavorting Time (with George and Gracie.)
2010: Moxie has a crush.
2009: “Halp! Halp! CALL 911!!!”
2008: No entry.
2007: Again with the crazy orangutan arms.
2006: POOP IN THE LITTER BOX!
2005: So for the rest of their stay at Casa And3rson, Sad Eyes is going to become Sugarbutt, Little Cal is becoming Callie, and Barrett is becoming Bear, because he looks like a little bear. Smitty’s going to remain Smitty, ’cause that’s a pretty good name.
Awww Miss Polly what a cutie and so is Corbie too!
I totally get the litter box committee… except for the one that insists on attacking the bag of waste (trying to rip a hole in it, jumping inside of it). That kitten is generally the one who runs head first into walls at high rates of speed too.
The Picklehead is bigger than every last one of my fosters. Consider my mind blown.
He’s like a real kitten now!!!
Good luck with today’s TV segment, Robyn and whichever Pickles come along. Here’s hoping that the remaining ‘Maters make their way out of Petsmart this weekend. And all good thoughts go out to Rufus and Dawn.
“Don’t you just want to kiss Polly Pickle right on the lips?”
Er, no. Look at the second pic, she looks like she would use tongue. But I’ll give her approximatly 6000 kisses on the neck and cheeks!
Oh, I’d kiss her right on the lips…tongue or no. 🙂
Whatever rocks your boat, GD! 😉
Inspector Stompers not judging you.
Ha!!! I was thinking the same thing!
Oh good grief, Robyn – that picture is a keeper XD
For Dawn: I had a cat who had a leg amputated, too. His tumor was not cancerous but it was growing and pressing on his lungs. Had to take the leg and entire left shoulder off. It was heartbreaking for the first couple of days. He’d face plant when he tried to walk until he finally remembered that his front leg wasn’t there anymore, and the first night he came home from the vet, he got stuck in the litter box (and it was even the makeshift one I’d set up that was missing one side so he didn’t have to step over it!)
But within a week, he was pretty much back to his old self – even chasing his tail! Well, just a little less able to catch it, perhaps 😉 He was already an older cat (13 or 14) but the surgery gave him another two pain-free years before he got sick suddenly and had to be put to sleep two days after I realized he was sick. His name was Gomer Pyle and incidentally, looked just like Corbie. So much that I’d swear that Corbie is Gomer reincarnated 🙂
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they got all the cancer out of your Rufus. He’ll be up and running – literally! – in no time at all!
Here’s some good thoughts for Rufus (and Dawn). After a few days healing and a little time adjusting – – he will forget he is even missing that leg. We have a 3 legged cat Birdie and he gets around quite well, even working his woodoo to attract all the love of visitors…. And he can even run awy from the naughty Jack and Percy (Starsky and Hutch) when they are messing with him… 🙂
Yep, a friend of mine had a 3 legged cat and he could still climb trees!
Aww, so cute, all of them! I know someone says that at least once a day, but if I lived closer to you and my spouse hadn’t enforced a no-more-cats policy, I would snatch up Polly, Percy AND Petey. They make my heart melt.
And I still miss Russet. I see him once in a while as a wallpaper and I go Awwww everytime. And Stompers, too, but I think that’s everyone.
Good luck on TV! I’m sure you’ll do great!
Polly’s my favorite. Thanks for the pics. I wish I coulda picked a stripey kitten for myself but we have decided on the black and white one called Oreo. Will get pics as soon as I can AND can figure out where to put them so everyone can see (maybe Flickr).
Dawn-Hugs to you and your cat Rufus.
Annie B-You remind us that we need a Stompers update! Robyn??
Poor Corbie! Gigantor Mist will come put the smack down for him! Oh wait, he thinks he’s a baby.
Purrs to Rufus and Dawn.
Thanks for the info on Kara and her collar….too funny that she keeps testing to see when the batteries die
Keep up the cuteness – and have fun this afternoon
I’d love to make a screen saver just out of the marshmallow floofy fuzz that covers dandelion. That is one luxurious, yet charmingly ludicrous coat….
Robin, my cousin just sent me an alarming email re: toxoplasmosis and learning disabilities, etc. Have u come across any data re:?
Is that regarding kids whose mothers are exposed to toxoplasmosis while they’re pregnant? Because I know about that – and the recent scary link (sup-POSE-dly) between toxoplasmosis and rates of suicide. I’m not terribly worried about it for myself, since at this point I probably have it or don’t – though I’m very careful about washing my hands after scooping!
re: toxo
Cats excrete the pathogen in their feces for a number of weeks after contracting the disease, generally by eating an infected rodent. Even then, cat faeces are not generally contagious for the first day or two after excretion, after which the cyst ‘ripens’ and becomes potentially pathogenic.
You are much more likely to get toxo through the other ways, eating under cooked meat, digging in dirt, etc.
“The look on his face is cracking me UP.”
Me, too, and I’m not sure why. It’s a sort of goofy, dreamy focus.
I am concerned that 4 Maters are still unadopted – what’s going on? Can’t people see how beautiful and charming they are? How are they doing at Petsmart?
They’re doing just fine – I certainly don’t know what on earth is going on that they’re not being adopted, though. That’s just crazy!
And is there really no way to embed an image from Cheezburger.com? I swear I’ve done it before!
Robyn, you could try saving it, otherwise, get the image url and use the following code:
Let me try that again. Replace the () with the
(img src=”http://www.example.com/picture.jpg”/)
Goddammit!! I mean use the brackets that look like a sideways V.
Heh – yeah, I know about linking that way (that’s how I post my pictures in my entries), I just could have sworn there was a quick and easy way to grab code that would link back to Cheezburger.com that I could just cut and paste. I’m probably imagining things, though!
Yup, not sure why they removed it but they did. I’ve stopped going to cheezeburger because I’m not happy that they continue to post images that can cause harm to cats if people try to recreate it.
Hi Laney, when writing HTML in comments, you need to comment it out with a # at the start of each line.
Robyn, I think Cheezburger used to have an embed feature, but it disappeared with their site “upgrade” (last year?).
NOW she tells me!! 😀
Hey! Better late than never!!
🙂
To get those to show up, the HTML code is < and >. So those will come looking like < >.
Did anyone else see this? Funny but maybe not quite appropriate for work or young children around.
Proof that cats are more intelligent than dogs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TyXJ1sAQtaY
That video is too funny! I love it! Thanks for posting it.
Thanks for this!! I sent it to my father, as a reply to the one he sent me recently of a talented Jack Russel terrier (Jessie, I think?) along with the comment, “as if any cat could compare – this is why all the *successful* people only have dogs!” I also included a link to take it straight to the scene about the “dog-run interior design firm.”
LOL, that is awesome!
I’ve already watched it three times — brilliantly funny: the best narration and use of Bach ever! Many thanks for sharing it!
Is it my imagination, or is Purslane looking less worried. I wonder if it’s the fact that her ears are more on top of her head? She just doesn’t look as worried in her closeups.
I thought the Cattystacks were cardboard, also, but they’re actually made of that corrugated sign plastic. Go crazy, Robyn!
My best wishes to Dawn and Rufus that the cancer is now gone. Cancer does suck, doesn’t it?
Are they really? Yay! I know what I’ll be buying one day soon! 🙂
btw the link for the CattyStacks needs a little tweaking – but once I tweaked it, they look neat! I wonder if something like that might help my increasingly-aggressive/obnoxious Old Man of the house. (He’s only ~7 but acts 85, telling all them young whippersnappers to get off his lawn all night and day…)
Yep. They’re made of Ultraboard, which is that corrugated plastic material you see around in the form of signs. I don’t know about the tubes, though.
Wow, Corbie just gets more & more gorgeous–I never noticed the lion-y ruff around his neck before!
Yes, Corbie!! You are! You are!!
Take care
x
Yes, Polly needs a kiss! Petey needs a kiss! Picklehead needs a kiss!! Alright, line them up, time to kiss all of them!
Corbie, you’s too gorgeous to worry about athletic skills…
My tortoiseshell is one of the quietest cats I’ve ever had – EXCEPT every night right around 2-3 A.M., when she decides she’s lonely and would like to have someone to talk to. Even if it’s someone living half-a-mile away. There for a while I was keeping random objects on my nightstand so I’d have something to throw into the hallway/at the closed door to startle her into shutting up. (She seems to have learned that her night-time loneliness needs to be moved up to about 9-10 pm, when she is much more likely to get a response.)
I’ve found that answering usually stops calling, no matter the hour. Better than throwing things.
Thanks for all the wonderful wishes for Rufus! He is now getting around quite well and most importantly, pain-free. After much discussion with the vet, we have decided to forego any kind of treatment. It involves extensive car rides (which he hates) and lots of poking and prodding plus the effects of chemo. We will just love him for the rest of the time that he has on this earth!
I applaud your humane decision — Rufus needs to be able to enjoy himself, not suffer through painful therapy he couldn’t begin to understand. Best of luck to you and the special guy.
Hey Robyn,
You have out done yourself with these most recent pictures! They are absolutely beautiful!! You’re a star with a camera 🙂
I was looking at a web posting about zucchini and thought of you. I thought you might like to take a look:
http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/07/how-i-freeze-zucchini/