I hope that all of you in the path of the storm stay warm and safe and dry! I’m thinking of y’all and hoping that the Fraaaaaaaaaankenstorm fizzles out to nothing much.
NOTE: PLEASE SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT SECTION IF YOU’RE EATING OR HAVE A SENSITIVE STOMACH. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Friday morning, I got up and took my shower, then started the usual morning litter box scooping. The Pickles were especially excited about it being morning and me being awake and scooping the litter box and “HEY GUYS, THE LITTER BOXES ARE CLEAN, EVERYONE POOP NOW!!!!” I was grumbly and irritable at having to go back and scoop after they’d used the litter boxes I’d already scooped, but if there’s anything happier than a kitten in the morning, I don’t know what it is.
I was scooping the litter boxes in the guest bedroom, and there were kittens racing in and out, and Joe Pickle was having a really great time with a cat toy, tossing it up in the air and grabbing it and bunny kicking it. After I opened the blinds in the guest bedroom, I leaned down to grab the toy he was playing with so that I could toss it across the room for him.
Except it wasn’t a toy. It wasn’t a toy at ALL. It was, in fact, a HEADLESS SQUIRREL. Clearly one of the (insert very very bad descriptive words) permanent residents (I suspect Kara) had caught a squirrel in the back yard, EATEN THE HEAD, and then brought the carcass inside for the kittens to play with.
After spending 15 minutes scooping litter boxes, I find that the most super fun way of starting off the morning is by having to carry a headless squirrel through the house while trailed with kittens who think you’re going to toss it so that they can chase it and play with it some more.
You know you wish you had my glamorous life.
Petey Pickle, staying warm.
Rough life, Petey.
Percy did his best to climb into that basket of laundry, but it was a little too tippy for him, and he decided to find somewhere else to snooze.
Tommy was trying to sleep on that table, and Joe Pickle was making it a bit difficult, with the stomping and the smacking at Tommy’s ears and such.
Joe Pickle was all “Oh, it’s boring up here. I’m going to jump down.”
Tommy said “Here, let me help you with that. ::boot::”
Then Tommy tried to look all innocent, like he TOTALLY didn’t mean to do that. Riiight, Tommy. Sure you didn’t.
Thistle and Purslane, bathing each other.
::lick::lick::lick::LICK::LICK::
Then Dandelion popped up and said “All RIGHT. Enough with the licking. Could you guys BE any louder?”
Thistle stomped off to pout in the sun.
I found this video yesterday (it’s such a mess on my hard drive, pictures saved all over the place. It’s amazing I can ever find anything!) I shot it about a month ago – I was laying on the couch and Polly and Dandelion were halfheartedly playing. About 10 seconds in, you’ll see the picture shake and me coughing. Why, you ask, was I coughing? Because I kid you not, a FLY flew DOWN my THROAT. Ugh. (Every time I played the video for Fred, he guffawed when I started coughing.)
(Isn’t Dandelion gorgeous in the sun?)
Miz Poo, watching the bugs fly around outside the window.
She looks here like she’s about to jump down, but what she was actually doing was smacking at the string hanging down from the platform where she was sitting. She loves that thing.
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Previously
2011: No entry.
2010:I love the way Reacher and Corbett are basically the same pattern, in different colors.
2009: My poor babies.
2008: And if not, I can always buy their love with a plate of chicken baby food.
2007: Best. Picture. EVER.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Two thoughts come to mind regarding the headless squirrel (gross!): 1. Kara must really love those babes to bring them such a fine toy; and 2. That scene reads like it came out of a Stephen King book.
That is what I thought! What a big sweetie Kara is to provide such a great kitty toy to the babies. So kind. And she also provided you a story to share with all of us. She is so giving. I once was sitting on our porch when around the corner came one of our cats. With a bunny hanging by one ear from kitties mouth. Evidently they start at the crunchy bit and work their way down.
They ALWAYS seem to start at the head – headless squirrels and headless birds abound around here, just usually not in the house! Brains must be tasty. 🙂
Headless squirrel????? That just replaced #1 on the list of why my cats are not allowed outside. You poor thing.
Annnnd, now I’m singing a charming little ditty about swallowing a fly. Did it wriggle and jiggle and giggle inside you? 😉
You and Dandelion have had a rough weekend. Go have a snuggle and a nap.
I did not feel it wriggling inside me – but I DID keep an eye out for spiders, just in case. 🙂
SQUIRREL!!! LOL That is just too funny!
Of course Dandi is gorgeous in the sun….she would be gorgeous in a burlap bag! Don’t hate her cuz she’s beautiful! 🙂
I will add….my cats are strictly indoor kitties. However, one time long ago, I kept smelling a terrible stench outside and could not figure out where it was coming from. Finally, I looked up….and in my Crepe Myrtle tree was squirrel pants. Just the pants. Compliments of my neighbor’s kitty.
“Squirrel Pants” would be a GREAT band name!
The headless squirrel doesn’t sound as bad as the oozey frog parts I cleaned up from the middle of the living carpet many years ago, I’ll never forget that one!
Can’t believe you didn’t take any pictures to share with us!
Oh, I can beat that one. One of my reprobates caught a mouse, ate part of it and ‘buried’ the rest in the sheets at the foot of my bed which is her power spot. It was laundry day, so I gathered up all the bedding, tossed it in the washer and proceeded to wash that mess into all my bedding with hot water.
Yep, the stench was awful. Yep, it took lots of cleaning of mouse guts out of those tiny holes in the drum by hand since thw ‘drum wash’ feature didn’t get them. Yep, it took several loads with bleach to get that smell out of my bedding.
And yet, I love that furry bastard*? Why oh why?
*It’s true! Her parents never married!!
I guess I can count myself lucky that there was no stinky gooeyness involved! 🙂
What no pictures of the event?? with all the warnings I was expecting a few illustrations…
Dont you just love cats and their training the little ones habits?? My boys (before they left home)sat up late playing games in their school holidays and every day I would get an up-date on mouse and vole capture and munching, yes heads were the entree of choice and the dog cleared up what was left…
Would you believe that it didn’t even occur to me to grab the camera? All I wanted to do was get it out of the house!
Except it wasn’t a toy. It wasn’t a toy at ALL. It was, in fact, a HEADLESS SQUIRREL.
Robyn, you’re going to hate me – I guffawed when I read that. Ewww…but funny … but ew XD
Man oh man. The worst I’ve had to deal with so far is dead mice and dismembered crickets, and there weren’t that many mice. Here’s the story:
When I moved back in with my dad briefly, I brought two cats with me. We’ve never had cats growing up, and we had problems every winter with field mice coming in from the cornfield down the street a little ways. Dad had traps and poison and stuff out, and I had him take all those up. “They might hurt the cats, and you won’t need ’em. Promise.” Sure enough, exactly three field mice got in that winter. Each one was presented to us by a totally proud kitty when we came down in the morning – thoroughly dead. Kitties got congratulated thoroughly and given a treat, and the mouse got flushed. It didn’t take the mice long to get the idea, and he hasn’t seen so much as a tail since. When I moved out and took my cats with me, he had a pair of kittens two weeks later. (I think he missed my babies.)
God still wins for best mousetrap ever made.
🙂
SO true!!!
The natural instincts of our fur babies can be horrific, we had dead birds, live birds, baby squirrels all come in when we weren’t paying attention. Now ours stay in doosr…but you never know when one of these outdoor creatures sneak in they usually don’t have a chance.
We are in CT about an hour from the coast. Only light rain now, they are saying we don’t expect any high winds & heavy rain until later today and overnight. The coast is in for severe flooding. We all are waiting and hoping it spares and we don’t lose power. Last year’s freak October snow storm left most residents without power for 7 days and longer..and the first time ever Halloween was canceled..poor kids.
Fred was just saying that the worst part of the storm is going to hit overnight – bad enough to have to deal with it, but in the dark? Yuck!
The worst I’ve dealt with was the mouse on my pillow … yuck! BTW – I just voted for Challenger’s House in the Animal Rescue Site’s latest competition. If all of your faithful readers would vote daily at http://tinyurl.com/9mn8kl6 maybe we could do that little extra for your group. Each year I pick a different shelter, and since I’ve been following you and your sweet babies for close to a year, it’s high time I started voting for Challenger’s House, and to challenge all of your followers to do the same! Love your babies, and would take Purslane in a heartbeat.
On your pillow. I would not want to wake up to that. It would give you quite a start!
She actually left it for me to find as I was going to bed… Nightmares!
Many years ago, Spot caught and killed a Robin… and then left it on my bed. Fred said it was a threat. 🙂
What? No headless squirrel pic? Too bad you got rid of it, it could’ve gone to a taxidermist to be mounted on a black Barbie-size horse. Perfect for Halloween! The Headless Squorseman.
XD I love it.
That is hilarious and so wrong at the same time! But I can’t totally picture it, too! 🙂
I mean I *can* picture it…err.
Very Bloggess, right?
I often wonder how The Bloggess keeps her cats away from the taxidermy. My fosters would have those things strewn all over the house.
the next hit in Halloween costumes – the headless squirrel. laughing cause I can so see it, but also so VERY glad it wasn’t here. 🙂
Yes, I’m afraid I laughed too, mostly because of your description of carrying the corpse followed by excited kittens…also the “poop in a fresh litterbox” syndrome!
After that, what could possibly be worse all day??
Thanks, don’t know what I’d do for entertainment with my coffee each morn without this (well I do find out on the weekends!!)
The Headless Squirrel!!! Perfect Halloween tale for the wee kittens to tell…”then the skeery lady grabbed the squirrel and it was NEVER SEEN AGAIN!!” 🙂
And I was so surprised that we weren’t treated to some “adult” language when you swallowed the fly! I would have been cussing up a storm in between the coughs and gags!
Hee, hee Tommy giving Joe the boot – too funny!
Ha – I was concentrating on not choking to death. 😀
Okay, I’m sorry but for an instant I thought that first picture of Thistle was with the headless squirrel!!!! Thankfully, it was just pretty Purslane at an odd angle 😀
Thank you for no action shots of the headless squirrel kitten toy.
Eww GROSS! I would not be the person “carrying” the object out to the trash. I would be squealing like a girl and closing the door and waiting for hubby to take care of it. I would probably even shoo the kittens out of the room and not let them “play” with it. Yes, I am mean! Anyway, thanks for NOT sharing a pic Robyn.
Deb, it sounds like you are near where my rellies are in CT. I hope it’s not too bad up there. I think here in PA we might have to cancel Halloween this yr. Lots of rain so far. It started about midnight last night. The steady wind has not been too bad yet but there have been a few gusts. I hope everyone else can stay safe and dry-I will try.
I’ve become badass in my old age. 5 years ago, I would have waited for Fred to take care of it. Back when we first fenced in the back yard, the cats killed a vole. I was afraid they’d bring it into the house, so I picked it up by the tail to toss it out of the back yard. It twisted in my hand (in the breeze), and I thought it was still alive, so there might have been some pretty hysterical screaming on my part. 🙂
Y’ain’t no old lady, Robyn, but all I could think of is the nursery song, “….I don’t know why, she swallowed a fly.” Let’s hope a spider isn’t next.
I was just thinking the same thing. Now it is playing in my head and it won’t stop. First the fly, then the spider, then the bird, then *GASP* the cat !!!! I don’t think the cats would enjoy that much.
well wasn’t that nice of your residents to try to teach the fosters about hunting..
They’re all heart, aren’t they?
Haven’t come across any headless squirrels, but my husband found a pile of squirrel tails in our garage. 🙁
When we first bought this house and Maxi was a mama, we found that she’d been living in the garage (which didn’t have doors at the time), and there was a large pile of squirrel tails in one corner of the garage!
Robyn, I’m up in Ohio and we’re under a high wind warning with 50-60 mph gusts!! We lost power in June/July for about a week and I’m hoping and praying we don’t lose power again…..
As for the headless squirrel, do you and Fred watch The Walking Dead? If so, sounds like someone takes after the Governor. If you saw the last scene in last night’s show, you’ll know what I’m talking about! 😀
We haven’t watched it yet, but we’re supposed to tonight. I’m looking forward to it! 🙂
When I was growing up, our beloved semi-recovered feral tortie Miss Kitty once proudly presented my mom with a field mouse. When mom thanked her and promptly disposed of it (ew), Kitty must have thought, “Oh fine, she must want another one” and went under the deck to retrieve another ex-mouse, one that she had been keeping in reserve for SOME TIME, for just such an occasion. EW! :-X That would be how Miss Kitty got one of her less cute nicknames, “Mouse Mouth.”
Everyone stay safe!! I am up here in Northern Virginia/DC and my power just flickered….yipes!
Some years ago, my younger brother told his cat, in all apparent seriousness, that if she did her job and kept the house mouse-free, she would be allowed to stay inside at night. The NEXT morning, she had three dead mice lined up on the back porch.
I found a dead mouse–or parts of it, anyway–under my Christmas tree one year. Alistaire, my previous old-man black cat before Murphy, had been an outdoor cat before he adopted me, and he never quite forgot it.
Our cats are indoor babes, but we did have a mouse infestation about a year and a half ago, and they had the chance to demonstrate their hunting skills. I think they were having a competition to see who could kill more rodents (Buddy eked out a 3-2 win over Gravy). They refused to give them up once they had caught them (unless I bribed them), but they didn’t always kill them. Poor mice. The only experience I’ve had with squirrel parts was while dog-sitting for my dad and stepmom several years ago. Sweet little Maddie, their Portuguese Water Dog, decided to pick up a treat during our evening walk, and in the dark I didn’t realize anything was amiss until we got inside. Then I smelled something horrible and noticed she had something in her mouth. When I finally got her to drop it, I saw that it was a maggot-infested squirrel head. Somebody left the best part for her! Lucky Maddie.
Here in Brooklyn we are on high ground and have a lot of wind with some rain, but (knock wood) the power is on and we have plenty of water and food. I’m a teacher, and school is closed today and tomorrow (yay!). My biggest concern right now is the fact that I’m about 37 weeks pregnant — I DO NOT want to go into labor in the middle of all this (especially since my hospital is in Manhattan and an evacuation zone!). Keeping my fingers (and legs) crossed!
Well, if the kid does come today/tonight, you know what to name him/her! It was nice of the Hurricane Center to name this one with a unisex name!
Best of luck to you. I’m in MA, which is on the edge of the storm, and the wind gusts here are scary. I haven’t seen my skitty kitty all day except for occasional glimpses of her being wide-eyed and spooked as she runs from one hidey-hole to another. She was buried under the comforter for awhile, but I don’t know where she is now. My other cat is, as expected, completely blasé.
Alexandra, I hope y’all came through last night unscathed – and still pregnant!
Are you familiar with Shorty & Kodi?
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShortyTheCat2010?feature=g-high-u
I love those videos! I’ve seen them before, but I need to link them so everyone else can see ’em too! 🙂
Wow!! What a morning for you!! A headless squirrel!?!? Yikes!!! Now I’ll just reply the gorgeous Polly and Dandelion clip and feel that all is well with the world! 🙂 Take care
x
Aw, Miz Poo is my favorite because she’s just like my grumpy cat who loves us to pieces.
Growing up, we had far more gifts that I can even remember. A baby rabbit on Easter morning (while we were taking family photos), the guts of what had to be a raccoon-sized creature on the garage steps…the next, smaller cat was an expert birder and left half-dead birds in the screened in porch at least once a week. She also brought home a neatly severed rabbit head–like someone had taken a cleaver to it.
And my husband’s friend’s dog once dug up his neighbor’s buried dead rabbit and brought it over…for Easter.
Not going to lie, I was always fascinated by it as a kid and am still intrigued, if nauseated.
Miz Poo is DEFINITELY grumpy and definitely a lover of humans. Other cats, she can do without (or so she TELLS us. Not quite sure I believe her.)
Considering how many cats we have, I consider myself lucky that it’s fairly rare that a dead rodent/ bird makes it into the house!
One of my feral cats killed and ate a Coopers Hawk over the weekend. I was impressed. Saddened and sickened, but still impressed.
He left the tastiest bits on my back porch as a gift. I should probably feed them more than twice a day so they aren’t so tempted to kill the birds who grace my back 40.
No, if you fed them more than twice a day, they’d still kill the birds – they just wouldn’t eat them. 🙂
I just wanted to say thank you. I recently lost my three-legged calico kitty to lymphoma. During her illness, and then during my grief afterwards, your blog was one of the few bright points in my day. So again, thank you for doing what you do.
Awww, I’m so sorry for your loss!
Up here in the greater Cleveland area in Ohio the schools are closed due to Sandy. Still, I think we have it better here than they do New York & that region & better than my extended family in southern West Virginia. It’s just about the freakiest weather ever that I can remember.