drive-bys.
From the February 14th issue of People magazine, in the “Scoop” section:
In case you can’t tell, that’s Julia Roberts, leaving her house. In the left picture, a nanny is carrying one of Julia’s twins, with Julia about two feet away. In the center picture Julia’s husband is carrying “supplies”, and in the right-hand picture is a close-up of the twin an “assistant” is carrying.
From the March 7th issue of People magazine, in the “Mailbag” section:
To: editor@people.com
From: me
Subject: “Mailbag”
Regarding the letter in your “Mailbag” section from Erika Gebhardt of Chula Vista, CA.
Erika Gebhardt, who said “What kind of mother doesn’t carry her own children?” is amazing. She saw a picture that captured one instant in the life of Julia Roberts and her children, and instantly discerned that Julia is an uncaring mother.
I guess that Erika Gebhardt has never allowed anyone else to hold or carry her children – if she indeed has any. Bravo, Erika Gebhardt! What America really needs is more mothers like you who sit around and decide that viewing one moment in a celebrity’s day is enough to judge the rest of her life.
By the way, Erika: who watches your kids while you’re busy reading PEOPLE and firing off those indignant letters?
Robyn And3rson
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I think that Erika Gebhardt is a bit of an asshole. I think her real gripe is that Julia Roberts can afford to employ nannies and assistants to get her kids from the house to the car. I mean, please. Because for one fucking instant Julia Roberts isn’t carrying her children, Erika Gebhardt questions her fitness as a mother? I mean, has Erika Gebhardt never put her children down so she could take a shower or a nap or pee? Does she have her children surgically attached to her so that the little dears never for one instant in their lives have to be an entire foot from their judgemental asshole* of a mother?
Those must be some seriously well-adjusted children.
*Yeah, yeah, pot-kettle-black.
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Pet store kitty pics from Monday are
here.
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From my comments:
Hey Robyn, My favorite part of your journal is the petstore kitties. How do you manage to work there every week and not bring one home? Second is the adoption rate pretty high? I live in rural east Texas and unfortunately our Animal Control is a far cry from a pet placement organization. I have two young cats and I am considering another . Have you made any observations about deciding a kittens future temperment? I have 4 kids. We adopted both of our cats full grown, now the kids are set on a kitten. I just know it needs to be a pretty confident cat to handle our house! Have you every adopted a pet and it did not work out? I would love to read anything you would like to share about the petstore and choosing your own cats. Thanks!
There are days when it is really, REALLY hard to put all the cats back in their cages and leave them there. I guess that main thing that keeps me from bringing home cats is the knowledge that the shelter I volunteer for is a no-kill shelter, so even if the cats don’t get adopted while they’re at the store, they’ll just go back to the shelter and live a pretty happy and pampered life there.
Also, if I started bringing home cats without discussing it with Fred first, I’d get my ass divorced. Heh.
The adoption rate seems to be pretty good – I think they had 70ish cats and kittens at the shelter last month and around 20 adopted out. I think that’s a pretty good rate, since adoptions kind of fall off at this time of the year. In a few months when all the unspayed (grrr) cats are having their unexpected babies, which are dropped off at the shelter, adoptions will pick up quite a bit. The highest number of adoptions tend to take place (if I recall correctly) between June and December, then drop off for a while.
In my experience, you can get a pretty good idea of a cat’s temperament as long as you spend a few minutes holding the cat and playing with it. For example, when I first held Miz Poo, she howled at me until I picked her up and started petting her, which is when she rubbed her face against mine and just generally acted like a little princess. That gave me a pretty good idea of what she was like, and to this day she thinks she’s a tiny little princess.
We got an idea of what Mr. Boogers’ temperament was like when we saw this picture:
That picture, right there, tells you all you need to know about him. We could tell he was feisty and wouldn’t take shit from anyone, and that’s held true.
I guess, basically, what I’m saying is that you generally know right away what a cat is like, as long as you can spend a few minutes in a quiet place with them and really pay attention to how they act.
We’ve never had a cat who didn’t work out, but a few years ago we did
adopt a dog and ended up
returning her to the humane society. We found out pretty quickly that we’re cat people, not dog people. We felt bad for returning her, but better that she go back to the humane society and have the chance to be adopted by someone who would spoil her, you know?
And lastly, it’s been my experience – I’m sure this doesn’t hold true across the board, and that there are exceptions – that if you’re going to bring a new cat into a home where there are already cats, it’s best to bring home a kitten, because they seem to adjust better than older cats. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a feisty cat who will hold his or her own and will happily play with the older cats when they try to put the smack down.
Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
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I don’t think that’s exactly a look of love Spanky’s giving Miz Poo…
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