2012 calendars. —————–>
Someone always gets antsy around this time of year and wants to know WHEN THE HOLY HELL AM I GOING TO START TAKING NAMES AND ADDRESSES FOR THE ANNUAL BITCHYPOO CARD-STRAVAGANZA?!
Not ’til the day after Thanksgiving, damnit. I REFUSE to take your names and addresses ’til then, because this whole ridiculous Christmas starting in August thing just annoys the shit out of me. But WORRY NOT, I’ve already ordered my Christmas postcards (postcards being less expensive both for the cards themselves and also postcard stamps cost less).
(And by “Christmas” I mean “Holiday”, of course!)
In case you read this site via Google Reader or one of the 3,000 other readers out there, you might have missed that I put up a new – designed by me – banner last week.
I’m so talented (seriously, it took me forever and a day to get that goddamn thing put together). And before you point it out, yes – it IS reminiscent of my August banner:
I say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Sooooooooo, I know I’m late to the game but I finally got around to buying a copy of No Limit (Kindle version, Nook version) for the nook. HOLY CRAP, FRED! I’m hooked and wondering if ever there’s going to be another book in his future because this is great! 🙂
I tried to tell you guys how good it is, didn’t I? Fred is currently working on his next one, and though it’s slow going (after he works all day and comes home to do chores, he has a hard time getting motivated to sit down and write – and currently, he’s working his way through (and LOVING) Stephen King’s new book.) Slowly but surely he’s getting it written, though, and I think it’s the best thing he’s ever written.
He’s posted some of the new book over at Goodreads – you can see Chapter 1 here, Chapter 2 here, and Chapter 3 here. Also, his short story, Sweet Dreams, is available for free, and you can find out how, here.
Have any of your cats come in early and demand crunchies? Ours have to come in just before dark and they get 3 little crunchy bits when they do. One of the fur balls started coming in the cat door several times in the middle of the day and demanding her reward. Sly little fucker.
Generally any time I step foot in the kitchen after about mid-afternoon, I’ve got a group of escorts. They sit on the rug and give me the big hopeful eyes, and will usually nominate one of them (usually either Charlie or Lucy) to howl and howl in case I forgot that they might want some crunchies, pleeeeease. I never ever give in to them (I don’t want to encourage the behavior – or make it worse!), but that doesn’t stop them from hoping!
How many times per day are cat tails stepped upon?????? Do you have rocking chairs?????
No rocking chairs in this house! We do have some on the front porch, but on the rare occasion that we sit out there, usually the only cat present is Maxi, and she’s more interested in being in our laps than under our chairs.
I pretty much shuffle around the house – I figure if I don’t lift my feet, I won’t step on tails – but every now and then someone will be sitting behind me (usually when I’m in the kitchen) and I step back and step on their tail. I’d say it happens, oh, twice a week, maybe a little more.
I know you’ve told us all along how gorgeous Corbie is, and it’s not that I ever doubted you or thought he was particularly UNattractive, but I literally went “WOW!” at that first picture of him and Molly in the cat bed. And I actually didn’t see Molly at first (she kind of blends in a bit). I don’t know if it’s the new camera, or just the perfect angle/lighting or what, but, yeah, WOW. I have thought he looks a lot like Maufry, but in that picture, the caramel and black colors are much more striking than I’ve noticed. Almost Bengal-ish.
I definitely think that Corbie looks rather Bengal-ish – he’s got the coloring and the stripes and the pure gorgeousness going on.
I think that not everyone agrees with me that Corbie is the most beautiful cat on the face of the planet, but THEY ARE WRONG I think sooner or later I’ll post enough pictures of him that everyone will have to give in. BECAUSE IT’S TRUE.
Slightly long story about snapping/finger-pointing: We went to my mom’s house on Halloween, and at one point I told my son, “Get me a [something, I forget what].” And I did not say please. Now, usually I am very polite, including to my son, but for whatever reason, “please” was just not happening. So of course my mother chose THAT moment to act affronted and go, “TJ, don’t you give it to her until she says please!”
TJ loves it when we take sides, so he raised his eyebrows and said, “Yeah. What’s the magic word, MOM?” I repeated, “Get me a [whatever], NOW,” and snapped my fingers two times for emphasis. TJ said, “Uh, ‘snap snap’ is not Morse code for ‘please,'” and my mom (accurately) said, “I’m just glad that’s ALL she did with her fingers.”
TJ looked at me and grinned and said, “Yeah, mom. Dot dot DASH,” and as he said “DASH,” he flipped me off.
Ever since then, “dot dot DASH” or “[snap snap FLIP]” has been our go-to phrase. (I mean, it’s only been a week, but we have really USED it.) He was irritating me the other day in the store and I was able to holler down the aisle at him, “Hey TJ! DOT DOT DASH!” without anyone glaring daggers at me for exposing their eyes/children to such vulgarity. I highly recommend it.
Hahahahaha – LOVE IT!
didn’t the black cat just wanna to erm bite the chick? sorry, but I thought is like animal’s instinct… heh
Well sure, the black cat (that’s Tommy) would dearly have loved to have eaten that chick, but we never left the cats alone with the chicks when they were little. When they were bigger, we had them in a coop in a corner of the back yard with their own little fenced-off yard. Eventually, we let them out of their little yard into the back yard, where they were free to roam around with the cats, but by that point they were about the size of the cats themselves, and the cats never went after them. In fact, the cats were kind of intimidated by the grown chickens.
Since you have 2 girl ducks and 2 boy ducks, does that mean in three years you will have 67 ducks?
PROBABLY. I don’t think we need ANY more ducks (never thought we needed them in the first place, of course), but Fred wants to have some baby ducks around. I’m not eating ducks, though, so if we end up with 67 ducks THEY’LL BE STAYING and I’m sure I’ll be complaining about it.
Do you use a regular heating pad as a warming pad for the cats? Or is there something at Petsmart a person can get?
You can use a regular heating pad (set on low) as a warming pad, I’ve done that in the past. Currently, I use pads that are specifically made as bed warmers, and there’s a whole range of them available at PetSmart. I like the small K&H pad (that’s what Miz Poo has in her Poo Cave), and I have one of the large ones on the end of the couch (bonus: I can warm my feet up on it when I’m watching TV!)
They’re expensive – but if you’re not in a hurry and don’t mind waiting to have them shipped to you, they’re about half that price on eBay, which is where I get mine.
Is that as deep as the pond ended up being or did they did deeper? That will definitely help with drainage!
I believe that that’s as deep as the pond got, but of course it got wider.
Do you have a Furminator For George and Gracie?
We do have a Furminator for George and Gracie. Fred’s in charge of brushing the dogs (which he does about once a week; you’ll note that in a lot of the back forty pictures I post, there are piles of dog hair from them being brushed) and he uses the Furminator and also an undercoat rake. When he gets out there and starts brushing, it’s absolutely amazing the amount of fur he gets off of them!
We also have a Furminator for the cats, which I use on them from time to time – usually when it’s nice out and there are a lot of cats in the back yard, I go out and chase them around and Furminate the heck out of them. I love doing it (it makes me feel so productive to get all that loose hair off of them!), but most of them don’t care for it.
I have a question for you… you’ve had (and seen) quite a few black kitties in your time, I’ve seen black and white cow patterns, tux patterns, black with a white spot on chest, foot, etc… but I’ve never seen this before have you?
(Sorry for the bad quality our camera sucks rocks) Anyway, this is Ash, he’s going for ye ole ‘snip next week, he came to us looking like this:
and look at him now!
A handsome lad, but we’re baffled by his tail. I’ve never seen a black cat with a tail like his. Maybe he’s part Raccoon? ;- )
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that, either – that’s very neat! I think you may have hit the nail on the head, clearly he’s part raccoon. 🙂
Alright, what’s a hush puppy? You’re readers aren’t all american you know, Robyn!
I’m not sure even all the Americans know what a hush puppy is, actually. Hush puppies are basically deep-fried corn batter – you can read more about them here. They’re good, but I don’t eat them very often. It may be because I didn’t grow up in the South so there’s not a lot of Southern cooking that is comfort food to me – though I didn’t grow up eating grits, either, and I think they’re the most comforting food there is.
And how come you guys get so many more litter options than us? ’tis not fair, I tell you! and on a difft topic, excuse me, but is Dino Direct online shpooing (with free worldwide delivery!) an american site? I just haven’t heard of it before and wondered…
I don’t know WHY we get so many more litter options – I’m just grateful that we do!
I had never heard of DinoDirect, so I went to look, and I still don’t know if it’s an American site. It certainly looks like it might be, though!
Stinkerbelle has the prettiest blue eyes
Isn’t she gorgeous? Fred loves his blue-eyed girl, even if he only gets to pet her once or twice a week!
Any word on Gorgeous Gracie and The Contest She Will Win If The Judges Have Half A Brain Between Them?
No word at all on Gracie and who won the contest. I’m fairly certain that the winner was supposed to be announced on the 7th, and I haven’t heard anything and can’t find anything online either – so I’m going to guess that Gracie didn’t win?
Seeing you talk about how big the cats were made me think of our local celebrity cat, Otto. He was on the Today show back over the summer…he was brought to a local animal hospital weighing in at 35 pounds! His previous owners didn’t take care of him well at all. He couldn’t even walk around. They’ve had him on a diet and exercise program and he is now down to 26 pounds! He can get around better and has even been playing outside some. He spends the weekends with a friend of mine who works at the clinic and he gets along with all her assorted pets and kids. Here is the link to the Clinic’s FB site..there are progress pics and they update often with Otto’s weigh ins! Just thought you might get a kick out of seeing it 🙂
Here’s the link to the backstory on the AAHA site.
Thanks, Denise! Poor sweet boy – I’m so glad that clinic refused to give up on him!
Oh, and total non-sequitur but you might like this: Business Cat.
LOVE it!
In the original size the trailer in front of the red building looks like it says Pork Chop Express. Is this the bus the porkers take to freezer camp?
Yeah, that’s the pig trailer. Back when we had our first couple of pigs, Fred mentioned the idea of spray-painting “Pork Chop Express” on the side, and it made us both laugh, so he did. I tried to get him to also paint “oink, oink” on it, and he refused to because he’s no fun.
What can I say? We’re warped.
Is Everett having balance issues or do you mean just how he looks? Did his sister chew off all the whiskers on that side or just the white one?
No, he’s not having balance issues, I was just joking about him being off-balance because Sally (or possibly Lucy) chewed off the white whisker on his right, but left the long white whisker on his left side untouched (of course, now that I said that, he’ll come through here with that one chewed off, too!) She chewed several of the whiskers on that side off, but of course the white one was the most noticeable, since it’s now a short little stump of a whisker.
Did you ever mention why you got the ducks? Is it for duck eggs, or do you like duck meat, or is it just for their cute quacks?
Fred Anderson is why we got the ducks. He whined and moaned and complained and begged until I told him to JUST GET THE DUCKS SHUT UP YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAYZEEEEEEEE.
Basically, he wanted ducks so that they would follow him around and mumble-quack at him. I don’t intend to eat any ducks (though he is certainly free to process and cook duck for himself if he’d like)(I don’t know why I’m resistant to duck; probably for the same reason I won’t eat goat – don’t wanna, not gonna, you can’t make me)(I also do not eat deer)(I am a picky princess, clearly), but I’m certainly willing to bake with duck eggs, I hear that duck eggs make your baked goods really, um, good. Heh.
Wouldn’t a zombie chicken prefer GRAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIINSSSSS?
LOL! Indeed she would!
In clearing out my email inbox yesterday, I found two emails of note. The first was one that Cydney (another Challenger’s House foster Mom) sent me more than a month ago. She said:
Neither ladies nor kittens fart……they fluff. So when one of my dear ones jump up and promptly leave after leaving a not so dear aroma, we say we’ve been fluffed. 🙂
Believe me, I’m going to be stealing that!
The other was from Lisa – one of the Challenger’s House adoption counselors, the one who actually delivered the Peppers Gang to me. She forwarded me pictures of the Peppers Gangs’ Mama, Scarlett. If you’ll recall, Scarlett showed up at a man’s house, and he brought her inside and discovered she was pregnant. He had all the kittens in his house, but was going for surgery and couldn’t deal with recovering from surgery and also take care of the kittens. He kept Scarlett, though, and had her spayed and everything, and apparently she is one very happy little girl. She might resemble one of the Peppers Gang, though I can’t quite put my finger on who….
I kid, of course. She looks exactly like a long-haired Harlan!
“Am sleepin, lady. You go ‘way.”
“That’s right, I snuggled with Ellie Bellz, and I LIKED IT.”
Sweet Sally.
Sweet Lucy.
Charlie has such pretty eyes.
Poor Tommy. Everyone loves him so much, he never gets a minute to himself.
Harlan, pre-yawn.
Apparently that one big ol’ rabbit foot wouldn’t fit on the windowsill with the rest of her.
Harlan and Charlie.
Have you ever seen such a contented little face?
I love it SO MUCH when the little kittens use the big kittens as body pillows.
Harlan, Sally, Lucy and Molly are headed off to Petsmart in a few hours. We sure will miss having them around, but I’m excited that they will (hopefully) find their forever homes soon.
Also, Charlie and Patty had their spaying and neutering yesterday, and all went fine. Charlie didn’t seem to realize that anything had been done, but Patty was pretty quiet all evening. Of course, it’s a bigger surgery for her than it was for him (though he might disagree); by this morning she was back to her usual active self.
This picture of Alice reminds me very very much of…
This picture of Mister Boogers (I don’t have any idea when that picture was taken. It was at the old house, so more than five years ago. Six or seven years ago, maybe?)
Good ol’ Boogie. Indulge me for a moment while I post some of my favorite pictures of him…
He sure was a character. We still miss him an awful lot!
What was I going to say….
I can’t quite remember…
It’s on the tip of my tongue…
Oh, right.
CORBIE IS BEAUTIFUL. (Also, sleepy.)
That is all.
Previously
2010: Crooked Acres sights (and a house tour).
2009: No entry.
2008: The goddamn cats can’t go three feet without falling over a bed but, you know.
2007: Why should I answer the door if I’m not expecting anyone, I ask you?
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: That girl has some serious lung power.
2003: Not holding my breath – but a girl can dream!
2002: Let me tell you about the saga of the box.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
1999: No entry.