The picture of “Flash” Magoo and Jake made me laugh! Then the look on Jake’s face got me humming the song “The Streak”… I can hear him saying “Don’t look Ethel!!” :-0
HA!
My dad was in basic training with a guy named Donald Ignatius Schubkegel III. (I hope he doesn’t have a google alert set up…) The stories we heard about good ol’ Donald Ignatius Schubkegel III! And it was never “Don” or “Schubkegel” or “Shubby” or “Number 3,” it was always “Donald Ignatius Schubkegel III.” I asked about him the other day, in fact – wondering if he was real or one of those people parents sometimes make up to make their lame, 20-years-out-of-date jokes sound relevant – and was assured that yes, Donald Ignatius Schubkegel III was a real person, and really did all those things. So he’s who I think of whenever I hear a “the third.”
Is it just me, or would Donald Ignatius Schubkegel III be an excellent kitten name?
And does Magoo have white furs scattered in his black?
Magoo has a LOT of white furs on his back. And to make it interesting, his white furs are a teeny bit longer than his black furs, so he looks “frosted.” It’s really neat!
I am going to have to go out on a limb here and say that I bet your dining room table is NEVER used for eating…just cat sleeping! 🙂
Once a year on Christmas Eve, we clear off (and wipe down) the table, and Fred’s family comes over for brunch and we use it as a dining room table. The rest of the year, it’s covered in cat beds and laundry and used as a catch-all/ cat lounge!
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/ben-torode-kitten-in-japan
you’ve got to see that kitten!!
What a CUTIE!
A new LOL!
Ha!
Tiny question regarding my tiny Oreo-why when she was cuddling with me did she want to lick my neck? Is this just kitty kisses or is this weird? I found it odd after a bit.
She’s grooming you! Now you have to lick her back, y’know. 😉
13 perms! LOL!!! Not judging, just thinking that you need a few Roombas! 🙂
I am hoping that that permanent resident number will NEVER go any higher! Isn’t it ridiculous?
I actually used to have a Roomba, but decided that the Roomba never did as good a job as I could do myself with the vacuum, so the Roomba found another home. I SHOULD vacuum every day, but I usually only do it 3 – 4 times a week (and the downstairs gets vacuumed more than the upstairs does).
By the way, I’m on my 5th visit today just to look at the Maxi-Jake post again. It looks like you have quite a few stalker-stalkee duos in your flock! Jake-Maxi, Stinkerbelle-Tommy… Who else?
Elwood/ Jake and Kara! They’re always trying to rub on her. Sometimes she allows it, sometimes she’s had enough of their shenanigans and smacks them if they get too close.
A friend of mine on FB, who also fosters, wrote: “…there’s a little something I do when raising kittens. I clip their
claws from a very young age. As most of the people who have adopted from me have seen, I often will clip their claws on adoption day, in front of their new families, to show how chill they usually are about it. Even when they’re in play mode (not the preferred time to clip, but still doable) they’ll acquiesce. This can be HUGE for making sure they’re good
companion animals who will never tempt someone to declaw!” Obviously you don’t meet the adopters but do you do clip your kittens’ claws too?
The more you handle kittens and do stuff to them (clip their claws, clean their ears, give them baths), the more they’ll be accustomed to it, and put up less of a fuss as they get older (well, maybe not so much with the baths!). At this point, I’ve had to clean the Weeds girls’s ears so often that I can pick them up and put them on the counter, and they just sit there and let me do my thing. They don’t like it, but they’ll sit still for it.
I keep the kittens’ claws trimmed, and try to remember to look their claws over once a week and clip the ones that need it. That’s another thing that they don’t care for, but they’ll put up with it (especially because it’s usually over before they know it.)
Hey Robyn – this web comic today made me think of you. 😉
I get to do that every day, practically. Only instead of a box, I climb onto the couch and then the kittens join me. Yesterday I had 7 kittens laying on me while I played Words With Friends on my iPod Touch. It was fun ’til they started fighting, and then I had to kick them off me.
Man, Jake doesn’t even try to be cool, does he?
That boy wears his loony heart on his sleeve.
There are still Maters at Petsmart for the same reason there are still Washingtons at Petco. People are clueless. I almost don’t want to take the Adams kittens when they’re cleared… they’re so much teenier and “cuter” that my older babes might not stand a chance. Breaks my heart. 🙁
Whenever I have fosters at Petsmart who have been there a while and then I go by to check on them and find that there are cute little bitty kittens sucking up the attention, I’m like “NOOOOOOOOOO!” But all of my fosters have (eventually) been adopted, so I fully believe that the ‘Maters will, too. It just takes time sometimes!
Speaking of the ‘Maters, Lisa (who did the adoption) posted this on Facebook about Wellington’s adoption:
I was too tired to get online last night to post more about Wellington. His new mom came first. She and I were in the cat room for a long time and she immediately wanted to see the maters. So I sprung them and Wellington zeroed in on her right away. She was crouched down and he hopped right in her lap. Smart boy. The others were off playing, but he kept going back to her. She looked at some of the others while we were waiting for her husband, but when he got there she told him about Wellington. Wellington took about 30 seconds before his new daddy was wrapped around his little paws. His daddy was holding him and the look on that little kittens face was so sweet. They have a white cat named Albus (a former CHI cat we called Birch) who has his own cat tree so he could have his own space and they talked about getting Wellington his own tree, too. I think they might even keep his name.
He KNEW they were meant to be his people!
Robyn, my cousin just sent me an alarming email re: toxoplasmosis and learning disabilities, etc. Have u come across any data re:?
I said: Is that regarding kids whose mothers are exposed to toxoplasmosis while they’re pregnant? Because I know about that as well as 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!
And Connie added: 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.
Also, there’s a good link about it here!
There is nothing I love more than seeing a cat/kitten with their front paws tucked under their chest. The perfect little loaf, just as Dandelion at the top of the stairs.
and
“The perfect little loaf”, I love that. I refer to that position as the “meatloaf” or the “mama hen”. My friend, whose cat is a brown tabby, calls it the “beaver hat” pose.
and
When we had carpet in our house (tile and wood now), we called the cats who did this “carpet ducks.” Because they looked like ducks on the surface of a pond, and you could imagine their little paws paddling away beneath.
We’ve always called it “cat meatloaf”, but I LOVE “beaver hat” and “carpet ducks”!
I’m sure you’ve mentioned this before, but what happens with all the boy roosters? Don’t they fight with each other a lot?
When they get to the age where they start fighting each other, they grab their swim trunks and beach towels and go off to freezer camp. 🙂
Any idea what kind of spider that is? Every year around Halloween season a spider like that one shows up at our house. We call it “arana naranja” (with a ~ over the N in arana; it’s Spanish for orange spider). This year she decided to spin her web right in the middle of the walkway to our front door. Luckily we enter through the garage because if I walked into that web and felt that spider on me I’d freak out and go into shock!
I have NO idea what kind of spider that is! Fred refers to it as a “garden spider”, which is a pretty generic name. I’ve looked around online a little, and I’m thinking it’s some sort of Orb Weaver, but it’s colored differently. If I walked through a web and found a spider that size anywhere on me, it’s the last thing I’d do, because I’d die immediately of a massive heart attack.
Speaking of spiders, I never shared these three pictures – one, two, three – from June, when we found a wolf spider in the front room, eating a wasp. It was very very creepy and very very cool. Go look at the pictures at your own risk!
Sweet Miss Purslane is worried. You worry her.
She’s worried that Joe Pickle is misbehaving. He’s a bad boy. She’s worried and disapproving.
Thistle, keeping an eye on… something. Maybe Bad Joe Pickle.
Three Weeds on the stairs, two of whom are refusing to look my way.
::POKE::
Little floofy blue eyes.
Check out the crazy eyes!
Petey and Magoo.
Bath time!
Petey would like you to know that he is beautiful.
Magoo in a box o’ paper. That is the exact same box o’ paper that Fianna loved so much. I’ve had to add paper to it, of course. It’s very popular; I’m just surprised that no one has peed or vomited in it. YET.
Joe, checking out the step ladder.
Are you ready for the MOST! BEAUTIFUL! BOY! EVER!?
You should probably be sitting for this kind of gorgeous.
Rough life, Corbie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: “Let the party begin, I HAVE ARRIVED!”
2010: Nothing cuter than a disgusted cat, unless it’s a hissing kitten.
2009: “Oh WOE, I am lost, someone please save me!”
2008: No entry.
2007: Those are some awesome Crazy Eyes there on the left.
2006: But this is the ONLY position she’ll take her bottle in, standing on her back legs with her back against me.
2005: Hey. Did you SEE the Best. Picture. Ever.?
Three Pickles on the stairs? Aren’t those Weeds? ((Yes, I’m here to be your copy editor… sorry!))
You know what’s amazing? The day that I wrote about my fosters still being at Petco was the day I found out that two of them were adopted. One left to go! Of course, he’s now sick and upstairs in my family room at the moment so I suppose he’s not really left to go at the moment… but he will be!
Also amazing? The Maters who have been adopted are either black or an adult.
I don’t trim the fosters’ nails myself… seems like we’re at the vet often enough that the tech trims them pretty regularly. But goodness knows my crew are used to baths by now. My little 8-week-olds barely put up much of a struggle because they’re used to the drill and know exactly what will happen next. Here’s hoping that I don’t have to do it again before they go to Petco on Saturday.
Hey, I appreciate the copy editing! You’d think I’d have caught that – I even proof read it for once!
when I have orphans that need baths almost daily due to not knowing how to eat with out getting it all over them, I find they turn into adult cats who love water. My sister adopted one of those and she tells me that her kitty climbs into the shower with her and plays with the water droplets.
I never had to give Miz Poo baths when she was little, but when she was an older kitten, she used to sit outside the shower and howl at me. One day I opened the door to reassure her, and she jumped into the shower then huddled in the corner and got a look on her face like “What is going ON?!” 🙂
LOL@what is going on
Hey… guess what I did again today?? Just making sure before the midgets move to Petco tomorrow. Sprayed their room too and waiting for everything to dry. They tell me that they don’t appreciate the water, but they don’t fight me. It’s amazing… the Washingtons turned bath time into a dramatic bloodbath, but they were weeks older when we started the baths. I’ve been bathing these guys since they were just a few weeks old. It’s easy. ((Oh, and I would never EVER attempt to bathe one of my permanent residents. My blood prefers to be on the inside of my body))
I like that line Kelly-“my blood prefers to stay on the inside of my body”-LOL! I think mine does too but I am not willing to find out if it’s different at this time. Oreo eats like a little pig and I put the food on a saucer against the wall so she just leans over and eats. She is however, not so neat when she vomits. She must’ve found a fly or something that made her hack and she got some on her paw. I went to rinse off her paw and the minute I got her close to the water she was like “what the heck lady!”.
This thread reminds me of one of my favorite lolcats ever:
http://cheezburger.com/424976128
“You haz betraid my tiny trust”
I still make a squealy “awwww!” noise every time I look at that picture, all these years later.
Awwww, that is SO cuuuuuuute!
You are right, Roombas cannot do as good a job as you can…I just meant that it is just that inbetween, they can keep the house looking manageable. In just one day, I have little fur tumbleweeds rolling around and I only have THREE kitties, long haired sure, but there isn’t a TEEN at the end of my THREE! LOL
When my kitties were kitten, I would flpi them on their backs and touch them everywhere: between their toes, in their ears, inner thigh (where it hooks into the body) etc. I did this so that if they ever got a boo-boo or such, I could examine it without them jerking away. To this day, I can do anything to my kitties!
Percy is precious!! What a face!!!
Yeah, I thought the Roomba did a pretty good maintenance job between vacuumings – but mine used to leave clumps of cat hair on the rug (all the rooms have rugs as well as hardwood floors) and it bugged me. I did like to set it up in the bedrooms and let it get under the bed, though. I should have kept it just for that! 🙂
TrhP is getting so handsome, and his bro Joe could be challenging Don Corbione (my, what elegantly curled tootsiesyou have) for brown-tabby best-in-show. Speaking of tootsies, I concur on the importance of clipping claws from an early age. My first cat was too wild to let me do it, but my current two get toe massages as often as poss, and after being clipped they’re rewarded with a mound of catnip each. Have a great weekend, Robyn et al.!
I wish I’d known that trick when Gabby was a kitten. She’ll be 18 at Thanksgiving, and when she was very young, she wiggled and I accidentally cut into the quick as I was trimming her tootsies. She has NEVER let me forget about that.
I am always terrified that I’m going to cut into the quick. I did it to Gracie once, and felt SO awful!
I pay to have Charlie’s done (and Grizzly’s before that). Honestly, for 80-pound dogs they are big chickens about getting their nails trimmed. Charlie shakes like a leaf.
I wimpily only do the very ends, which means almost endless rounds of clipping and catnip. Far preferable, though, to having to dose my first cat with phenobarbitol before catching her and stuffing her into a top-loading carrier. (By the way, which genius decided that getting a cat into a narrow box via the smaller, front opening was a good idea for all concerned?)
I have a BIG ol’ baby boy cat (year and 1/2) who has never been the holding type. and I didn’t push it like I should have for his claws. and now the stinker actually clicks when we walks because his back claws are so stinking long. but last time I tried to clip them I lost large quantities of blood and I’m not willing to do it again. Someone suggested giving him a little Benadryl first and then doing it – which I’m probably going to try when I have some time and another adult around to help me out. Otherwise I’m going to have to take him somewhere and have it done, which is REALLY stressful for us all too. He’s not a mean cat, he just doesn’t want to be held and turns into a Tasmanian Devil when pushed.
Speaking of spiders, I work in the jungle in the summer. I am freaked out by spiders, and one day we hiked past a fat old tarantula. On the way back, we had to pass its tree again, and to get up the hill I needed to grab said tree. Spider was at head level, so I crouched down (to everyone’s amusement). I slipped, someone yelled “it’s on your back!” and…I screamed and farted.
Thank god they were just kidding. Flight or fight response, eh?
HAAAAAA! That seems like a reasonable response to having a tarantula ON you, if you ask me!
Just popping in to say this was an awesome collection of this and that’s. Loved the cats are smarter than dogs video. What you said about rooster freezer camp cracked me up.
Gotta say, Petey’s gonna Corbie a run for his beefcake money… Those two could be a boy-band, they’re so pretty.
The “Streak” picture: Tony Magoo is definitely going Boogity Boogity!
I was going to look at those spider pictures, but I’m terrified of spiders, but also curious. It’s a sickness. If I were Rebecca and had to walk past a tarantula I would die. Seriously. We have lots of spiders around our house, but they live outside, so I’m ok with them (plus – they eat stinkbugs!). We do have a giant spider that makes her web over our front door, but we use don’t use the front door (except for pizza deliveries) so we just let her be. We did try to move her once (and by “we” I mean my husband – I stand behind him all bunched up and ready to scream and run if the spider hits the floor) and she didn’t like it – so we left her. 🙂
We also get Wolf spiders and they make me nervous – what if they bite one of the cats? I make my husband re-locate them outside. I can get along with spiders as long as they are OUTSIDE of my house. Thankfully my Mother-in-Law is the same way – she often asks if we’ve found any giant spiders in our house, and has stated she’s not coming to visit overnight because of the spiders.
Anywhoolde – enough of the creepy crawlies – Corbie is gorgeous, and I love his curled toes. That’s my favorite kitty part – their toes. 🙂
Also – I love poor worried little Purslane. I want to hug her and kiss her and let her know it’ll all be alright.
You know, the pictures I posted of the wolf spider and the wasp are really neat, but they definitely make my skin crawl!!!
I saw a stinkbug in a spider web yesterday, and I was all “YES! You GO, girl!” I hate those stupid stinkbugs!
Your spider pics were icky but the Snake pic was even better. Last week, I found my 3 cats in a circle, just staring at a deck. I knew it was trouble, all 3 hate each other but they were shoulder to shoulder, staring, staring, and staring at the deck. Yup, rattlesnake came out as the day heated up. Oh dear, story ended with the neighbor and a shovel. All cats are fine; they seem to know how to stay out of reach.
Here’s a question for ya: in all of my years of co-habitation with cats, I’ve never had a “talker”, until now, that is. This cat complains about the dry food, the lack of can food, the state of the house, the wind blowing outside, the dogs, the other cats, the closed doors, the open doors… you get the idea. She is always complaining or commenting on something. The only time she is quiet is when she is eating, and then she sometimes makes those nom-nom noises. Do you have a talker? Does it change as they age? She has mellowed out since spaying, but this is one mouthy cat.
I have a black cat who’s always been a talker, and at the age of 11, definitely still is. Last night, I called my mom to wish her happy birthday, and the whole time, Murphy was sitting next to his bowl full of dry food (they get gooshyfood in the evenings as a treat, and that bowl was licked clean) and MEOWED and MEOWED to let me know how STARVING he was the whole time I was talking to Mom. She said on her end, he sounded like a baby crying.
Awww, poor starvin’ Murphy! 🙂
The late great Einstein was a talker, more so as she got older. If I talked back it was kind of like we were having a conversation. Norm is more of a conversationalist than Simba. He usually is talking about being able to see the bottom of the food bowl… or waking me up because he wants breakfast. And he talks when he’s eating about what he’s eating.
As long as they’re not screaming at me, I just talk back to them like I pretend to know what they are saying. That’s how I first became known as a crazy cat lady.
I have a talker! Sweet precious Lola. She likes to tell me all about her day, her plans for tomorrow and what she thinks of my outfit. She cracks me up! I really don’t mind it (except when it is 2 am). Normally, if I give her cheek scratches, she shuts up. When she talks to me, I just talk back to her. She is so incredibly precious that I even forgive the 2 am conversations as she stands on my chest!
there are certain breeds that like to talk – like the Siamese. So if your kitty has some of those genes, then you have a talker. You can encourage or discourage a talking cat by talking (or not talking) to it. My husband loves to encourage kitties to talk by having conversations with them and I have to keep reminding him that if he keeps it up he’ll have a talker on his hands and neither of us really wants that.
One of my girls is a Siamese/Torti – and she’s not a big talker, but when she tries to talk, it’s more of a squeak than a full blown meow. I am guilty of talking to both of my cats, since it’s only the three of us in the house during the week. We had agreed never to use baby talk around our son, but since he’s grown and out of the house, I talk baby/kitty talk to the girls. My hubby just shakes his head.
I actually don’t really have a talker. Miz Poo can be talky, and so can Spanky, but that’s only now and then, not constant. I think a constant talker might drive me nuts!
I have one that is a dilute something or ‘nother (she’s mostly grey with very little cream and orange interspersed, so she’s not calico and she’s not really a tortie either) who has become a talker. She was always the more vocal of the two I have, but she’s also the shyer one who hides when people come over for the most part. (She’s getting used to some people, but her first instinct is to hide and stay hidden) We fostered kittens for a couple of months (had to quit, it’s just me and my 9 year old son, and it just broke his heart to give them up for adoption when it was time to go to PetSmart) but my little gray girl (Smudge) had NEVER gotten used to the kittens. She’d hiss, and growl everytime one came near her. But honestly, ever since we stopped, she’s become a talker. I have trouble believing she misses them, but the timing was pretty funny. Now though, I talk to her and she talks back lots.
My Percy is a real talker. He’s all white but we’re pretty sure he has some Siamese in him. I don’t find it annoying though; he doesn’t wander around howling, he just likes to talk to you. I think it’s sweet!
“[The box o’ paper]’s very popular; I’m just surprised that no one has peed or vomited in it. YET.”
Somewhere in the Anderson household, several furry ears perk up and swivel; slitted eyes meet and hold in a silent understanding. Negotiations begin, their mode too refined for human perception.
Feline 1: So… the box with the blue and white pattern?
Feline 2: That’s the one.
Feline 3: If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right. That means preparation.
Feline 2: Teamwork.
Feline 4: Do we go barf in the box now?
Felines 1, 2, and 3: NO!
Feline 1: Not yet. We have to coordinate.
Feline 2: All right. Here’s what we do. 1 and 4, you go start a fight at the opposite end of the house. 3, when The Lady comes to break it up, you run down the hall, find the most expensive and hard-to-clean thing you can, and start making hairball noises.
Feline 4: But I don’t want to fight with 1! I like 1!
Feline 1: *bopbopbopbopBOP*
Feline 4: OW, 1, what’d you do that for?
Feline 3: But 2, you know how my gag reflex is – if I make hairball noises, I’m going to wind up puking before I can get to the box.
Feline 1: It won’t be a REAL fight, 4, you doofus. Pay attention.
Feline 2: Hmm, okay, 3 – I will make the hairball noises to distract her. You go to the box and… take care of business.
Feline 4: *whimper*
Feline 3: It should take me about 30 seconds to complete my part of the mission. 1, as soon as you hear 2 start making the hairball noises, floof up real big and act like you’ve found a bug.
Feline 2: That should distract her. 4, while 1 is pretending to be freaked out by the bug, you run to the box and pee in it. Go drink some water now so you’ll have plenty of ammunition.
Felines 1, 2, and 3: *snicker*
Feline 4: But I like bugs. Can I play with the bug too?
Feline 2: *bopbopbopbopBOP*
Feline 1: When do I get my turn – will I be after 4?
Feline 2: …Hmm, no, I think it’ll be better if we give her a chance to get it cleaned up. Then as soon as she puts it back down, we’ll spring the second round of attacks.
Feline 3: Ooh, I like it!
Feline 1: Now, we’re all going to have to look totally innocent when she starts asking who did it. Let’s see your “innocent” faces.
Feline 4: Wait, we’re going to do this in a cent? What’s a cent? I thought we were going to do it in a box.
Feline 2: “Innocent,” 4, like you don’t have a clue what’s goin- you know what, 4? Just use your regular face.
Feline 1: Ready, team? Let’s do this.
Felines 1, 2, and 3 [in unison]: Team Chaos!
Feline 4: Who’s Chaos? Is he a new guy? I like when we have new guys!
Felines 1, 2, and 3: *bopbopbopbopBOP*
Feline 4: OW, you guys…
(Don’t know who’s who enough to assign names, so numbers will have to do. I like to think of Jake as #4, though.)
Oops. Wall o’text for the lose. Sorry.
That’s OK! It was hilarious and worth the read. 😀
HAHAHAH! Oh god yes, Jake has GOT to be #4! 😀
Yeah, but who are the other three???
#2 is the manipulative planner of the bunch
#1 is the trusty sidekick
#3 is a puker
I need names!!!
Manipulative planner: Kara
Trusty sidekick: Newt
Puker: Tommy (who would also be a good trusty sidekick!) 🙂
Cat meatloaf…I call it “doorstop position” because they look like those weighted, stuffed fabric animals used to prop doors open. I’m not really sure when I saw one of those doorstops last, and in fact, it’s been so long that I start to wonder where I even got the idea that they exist! 🙂
Dandelion is going to be snatched up pretty fast when the Weeds go to Petsmart, isn’t she? She’s stunning with those blue eyes. Still, I think I personally would go for Purslane because her worried little face just kills me. I also love how the three Weeds look like a spectrum: white Dandelion, black Thistle, and Purslane a mixture of colors for the middle. Yeah…I’d have to take all three 🙂
I remember those things! The ones I remember were actually fabric and stuffing sewn over a brick as the weight.
For the longest time as a kid, I had a life-size plaster reclining cat as a doorstop in my room (old house, doors sometimes won’t stay open). It was decoupaged all over in bright, gaudy calico. Ugly horrible thing. Its tail finally got broken and it got thrown away. Wish I still had it. ♥
Yay, I’m not crazy! I’m glad someone else remembers them. 🙂 Definitely things you’d only see in older houses.
You know, I think that torties tend to be adopted pretty quickly. And Dandelion’s blue eyes won’t hurt her chances at all. It helps that all three are sweet little snuggle bugs, too. 🙂
Ms. Blue Eyes will probably be adopted quickly; she’s gorgeous, but so are here litter-mates!
I hope you’re right! 🙂 Everyone loves a blue-eyed kitty – I’m surprised Fred hasn’t suggested keeping her (or maybe he’s just biding his time!)
Robyn-you do have the most awesome, informed, internet-savvy readers! (Even if I do say so myself) You are all welcome for the video and Robyn thanks in return for the beautiful pics today.
Elayne-that transcript cracked me up!
Speaking of freezer camp. I mentioned the term to my husband a few months ago. He loves it. He often threatens to send my dog to the glue factory when he’s naughty. After he heard about freezer camp he refers to the glue factory as Elmers University..ROFL That just cracks me up.
HA! I’m going to have to remember that one!
So I took my arachnapohbic self to your flikr pictures of the spider and horrors – saw the pic of the snake on the lawn… OMG, what kind of snake was that? Here in California, out in the country we get (very infrequently) a rattle snake or two, and their nature look alike, gopher snake, gardner snakes and some yellow colored thing – but yours… not sure what he was and waaaay to close for comfort. In the south I always think of Copperheads and Cottonmouths… WHAT WAS THAT???
I think it was a King Snake, but I honestly don’t remember for sure. He slithered across the yard when I was filling bird feeders, and since I know nothing about snakes, I followed him and snapped pictures, then sent them to Fred to make sure it wasn’t poisonous. It wasn’t. 🙂 Also, I wasn’t that close to him – I had the long lens on the camera, just in case! He mostly wanted to get away from me, though.
I’ve only seen one Cottonmouth, from a distance. Those things scare the hell out of me!
Maybe Purslane and Thistle have crushes on badboy Joe Pickle. Careful, girls, he’ll only break your hearts. 🙂
OMG that video of “cats are better than dogs” had me howling with laughter! And the story of Wellington and his new parents had me crying tears of joy. I am so happy for him!
carpet ducks! Bwuahahahaha
The crazy eyes remind me of Dr. Robin Zasio!
PS. I wish I could drive to Alabama for Purslane!
HA – definitely! I call her Dr. Crazyeyes.
I believe that I have The Beautiful Corbie’s cousin; my cat Bunny. Same exact coloring, I believe, same runway model looks! https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/199463_10151093214622956_1487205496_n.jpg and https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/576966_10151093214467956_764488919_n.jpg for examples…
WOW – who knew Corbie had a beautiful twin out there?? 🙂
I’m pretty sure the spider in your garden is called a cat-faced spider, or Araneus gemmnoides if you want to get fancy. Where I’m from, we just call them barn spiders.
We always called them cat’s eye spiders, because the pattern on their backs looks like a cat’s eye.
We got an 3-month old kitten in January and I was determined to get him used to claw clipping. It did not work. He is now a bratty 14-lb manchild who puts all his weight into resisting me. But I’m sure it’s a good practice. Well, I’m glad I live in Cali because if I lived near you I would have one kitten from every foster litter, I swear. Wellington is a very good cat name, I would totally keep it.
@Elaine I’m dying laughing! I love it! And I don’t know the permanent residents nearly as well as anybody living in the house, but 2 is totally Cara. 3 could be Tommy… and 1 might be Elwood? Hmm.
@Leonore Draft excluders! I’ve got one not ten feet from me! Mind you it’s protecting the sharp corners at the bottom of the TV stand rather than keeping cold air from getting in here; I was sick of bashing my ankles every time I put a foot wrong.
I would like to thank you and Rebecca for the best laugh I’ve had all week. If someone told me I had a big spider on my back, I know I’d wet myself. I can’t stand to even look at a picture of a spider. I was channel surfing one night and there was a close up of a tarantula. I screamed and all three of my cats levitated off the floor and took off to the back of the house.
And I love the video about cats vs. dogs. My cousin (dog person) and I (cat person) were “discussing” the differences between cats and dogs. He said cats were nasty and dirty!!!! I said they were probably cleaner than a lot of people I know. I ended the discussion before we got into a fistfight about it. 😀
Corbie’s golden belly just kills me dead… dead I tells ya!
Elayne, you are hysterical!
Hello! I just wanted to stop by and tell you that my husband and I adopted little Wellington this Tuesday. He is doing really well and seems to love his new home. He has so much energy and loves loves loves to cuddle! Also, he also has our cat Albus (originally called Birch), who we also adopted through Challenger House, to keep him company. Thank you for posting so many pictures of Wellington and sharing so much about his personality. It has been a great help to us!
Also, I hope you don’t mind, but I also borrowed two of the pictures you posted of Wellington to share on my blog. 🙂 I linked back to your website.
Hi Jessica! Thank you so much for stopping by to let us know how Wellington is doing. It is absolutely fine that you borrowed a few pictures of him. Please give him kisses from all of us! 🙂
Thanks for the update, Jessica! I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ll be hoping to hear more from you and Wellington in days to come. (Will he be keeping his name?)
Look what I came across!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/25-different-kinds-of-kitten-hugs
Pretty, ain’t it? And then I got to number 21.
Oh Robyn. That baby blue hammock. Might actually start a trend, me thinks.
Kittehs do love a ham-mick! 🙂 Awww, Macushla and Clove. That was from last July!
Live kitten cam on Animal Planet.
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/too-cute-kittens/kitten-cam/
I call the Tortie.
Oh good lord, so CUTE!
I was watching it this morning. One of the orange kittens growls when he eats (the food is out of sight just below the camera).
Have you considered webcams in the kitten rooms, Robyn?