Category: CAE

Hey! Do you live in or near the Orange County part of New York? Were you just saying to yourself “I sure do need a sweet little brown tabby and white kitten to love and hug and call George”? Or were you like “I think Mom needs a kitten so she won’t be so lonely. I should get one for her!” ? Well, fret no more. This little monkey needs a home. Go check him out!

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Sweet pickled jalapenos??? Is there such a thing??? Where can I get the recipe?? :0)

There is! And you can get the recipe right here!

Sweet Pickled Jalapenos

4 c. sliced jalapeno peppers
4 c. onion, sliced
2 bell peppers, sliced thinly

Pickling liquid:
2 tsp mustard seed
2 tsp celery seed
3 c. sugar
2 c. cider vinegar

Combine all pickling liquid ingredients. Bring to a hard boil. Add veggies; bring to a boil again and seal in hot, clean jars. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

*Notes: I don’t always use an equal amount of jalapenos and onion – it all depends on what I have on hand. Same with the bell peppers.

The printable version is over yonder.

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My daughter’s new BF came over last night for a meet and greet, during which we learned that in addition to his mother having a nasty-ass Chihuahua and his having an iguana, they also raise chickens. Without even thinking I asked if they raise them for freezer camp. That brought the conversation to a screeching halt while everyone stared at me. Turns out they raise the chickens for eggs. FINE, THEN! WHATEVER! It was a perfectly rational question! Geez. Kids today.

What I love about “freezer camp” is that it’s self-explanatory! Heh.

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Fried green tomatoes seem to be an American thing. I know I could google recipes but they wouldn’t be And3rson endorsed so is there any chance of you posting or linking to the recipe you use for oven fried green tomatoes? Downunder, we seem to only eat our tomatoes red and I’d love to try the green version.

Any current fosters that Fred knows by name?

I use this recipe right here (be sure to read the note at the bottom for an update). I keep a container of that breading in the fridge all summer long, and it makes oven-frying super easy. Love the oven-fried veggies!

Fred calls the current fosters “Maggie’s baby” (Ciara), “AJ/ Alice Junior” (Coriander), “The Brown Tabby” (Clove), and “Not the Brown Tabby and Not AJ” (Cilantro). So I’d say, no. He doesn’t know any of them by name! He thinks they’re at the perfect age, though, I can tell you that.

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You know, sometimes it’s tempting to glamorize your Crooked Acres life — it sounds really lovely, and I often think about how nice it would be to have such a big nice garden or keep chickens or live out in the country. And then you go and write about those goddamn spiders, and I realize, NEVER NO WAY UH-UH STAYING RIGHT HERE IN THE CITY THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Well DAHHHHHHHHHHHLING, not every can handle such a glamorous life. 😉 (Glad to help out!)

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Robyn, enjoy this article I read today about a man possibly killed by 19 black widow spider bites. You’re welcome!

You are eeeeeeeeeeeeevil. (Fred swears that Black Widows don’t come into the house. Uh huh.)

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I see your brown recluses and black widows and raise you… WOLF SPIDERS. They often hang out in our sprinkler box and HOLY HELL they give me a serious urge to grab a shotgun. Check this shit out. They’re not poisonous but that doesn’t matter ONE BIT.

UGH. My metaphorical testicles just crawled up inside my body. Those things look like they’re practically big enough to roast over an open fire. GAH.

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The New York Times has a “Think Like a Doctor/Medical Mystery” column that can be pretty interesting. They had one a couple of weeks ago about a mysterious ailment in a gardener that turned out to be a black widow spider bite. It was fascinating. If it doesn’t squick you out too much, check it out:

The mystery.

The followup.

That is simultaneously interesting and creepy! I’ve always heard (well, from Fred, anyway) that Black Widow bites are particularly painful – that even if it doesn’t kill you, you’ll wish you were dead.

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Ugh. I just read on Wikipedia about a case in Kansas where 2000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a house in Kansas. The 4 people living in the house had never been bitten, though. Two THOUSAND! Man, I just gave myself the shivers.

I had to go look that up, and let me quote from this page:

(In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them.[12]) The spider usually bites only when pressed against the skin, such as when tangled up within clothes, towels, bedding, inside work gloves, etc. Many human victims of brown recluse bites report having been bitten after putting on clothes that had not recently been worn or lying undisturbed on the floor.

Just CREEPY. The thing I find most repulsive about Brown Recluses is that they’re so LEGGY. They’re like all LEGS and I cannot abide a leggy insect. Gah.

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Do you ever get nervous/annoyed having random strangers stop in for eggs? God, I hate it SO MUCH when anyone comes to my door for any reason whatsoever.

I’m usually more annoyed than anything, and nine times out of ten, if someone pulls into the driveway and I see/ hear them in time, I’ll go hide in the center of the house so I don’t have to deal with them. I don’t take too kindly to strangers, y’know. But the times when I’m outside when someone pulls in, or the driveway alarm doesn’t go off and I don’t spot them until I glance over to the side and they’re standing at the bottom of the stoop and I’m stuck having to deal with them, it’s actually not so bad. It doesn’t happen a LOT, thankfully.

I never ever ever answer the front door if someone knocks if I can help it, because no one who’s been here would ever come to the front door. We always use the side door, so anyone knocking on the front door is going to be a stranger, most likely trying to sell me something.

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Could “yeff” be yes?

It’s possible, but I got the impression that “yeff” was what he wanted rather than a response to my asking if he wanted eggs. Someone suggested that perhaps he was trying to say “Ouef” (French for “eggs”), which I suppose is also possible. I think what I need to do is actually take a Spanish class so I can communicate at least in rudimentary Spanish with our egg customers!

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I just read about purslane on Suzanne’s site. Have you eaten it yet? It sounds… interesting. We have had it growing in the flowerbeds here and I have been pulling it out and ditching it for years. It is pretty when it first starts but then takes over so quickly.

We have eaten some purslane, and it was pretty good. We ate it raw in a salad, and I’ve also stir-fried it with onions in a little olive oil, and it was good both ways. I may try planting it in the big garden next year (was it on Suzanne’s site where I read that it’s a good companion plant for corn?), because the raised bed is really too small to grow a decent amount. I’m impressed at how tenacious it is, actually. I cut it down to the dirt several weeks ago, and it just grew back bigger and bushier than before.

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The picture of Joe Bob and Ciara made me think of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. LOL.

HA! Yeah, I can definitely see that.

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So wasps DO have a useful purpose in life? They eat other nasty insects? Who knew?! Seriously, I thought they existed just to sting us and maybe provide food for birds.

I figured they existed just to dive-bomb my head and make me run around in circles like a big baby!

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I bought that “kiss my ass” magnet last weekend in Las Vegas. My icebox is now nearly completely covered in irreverent, sarcastic magnets. It’s taken years to collect them but I can’t imagine having a magnet-free icebox.

I love a good sarcastic magnet!

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Yikes, big waspy scary bug thing! Have you tried www.whatsthatbug.com? They might be able to tell you what it is. I think it’s skeery and am glad you posted teeny pictures!

I went and looked, and have decided that it might be a red paper wasp, only the back end on “my” wasp is darker than the rest of its body, so I sent in a picture and asked for help. If they get back to me, I’ll be sure to let y’all know!

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I have a kitten who is roughly the age of the McMaos, maybe a week older. I also have 2 older cats, a 7 year old and a 14 year old (my Miz Poo clone). The kitten has had free reign of the house for about a week and a half now.

Boundaries between the kitten and the 14 year old are well established — the 14 year old is a hisser/growler/spitter, and the kitten has learned to keep his distance.

The problem is with the 7 year old (Tashi). The kitten follows her around like a shadow, always poking at her and trying to jump on her. Tashi has started growling and hissing more, but the kitten isn’t really getting the hint and it’s stressing Tashi out. Poor girl feels like she has to hide all the time.

Any suggestions for getting the kitten to back off a bit? I’m hoping Tashi will start to be more aggressive and assert herself and that the kitten will start to get into a normal routine, but in the meantime Tashi looks like she needs a valium. If I’m home I can mediate a bit, but I’m out of the house at least 3 days a week.

Help, oh guru of kitty integration!

When you originally introduced the kitten to the other cats, did you do it gradually, or did you just kind of let him have the run of the house? Because I’m thinking that you might want to go back a few steps and keep the kitten contained in a room by himself and introduce him slowly. You also might want to try Feliway (I don’t know that it really makes a lot of difference in our house, but some people swear by it), and possibly also some Rescue Remedy for Tashi might help chill her out a bit. Other than that, I’m kind of at a loss, so I’m tossing this out for others to chime in on! (Make sure you check the comments at Love & Hisses, too, I’m going to post it over there as well!)

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Spanky looks SO SOFT and fluffy. Is he?

and

Spanky, as you all probably know is my favorite. He looks so soft. Is he a lap cat? Actually I prefer a side cat. Meaning I like to have a sweet kitty cat laying next to me on the couch.

Spanky has very silky fur which makes him a pleasure to pet. I also think he has the prettiest eyes, they’re such a lovely sea green.

He’s not a lap cat at all, though every once in a while if you’re snoozing on the couch he’ll settle in between your legs so that you’re stuck in one position for the duration of your nap, whether you like it or not. Most of the time he prefers to sit next to you, and if you’re not paying enough attention to him, he’ll touch his cold nose to your hand or leg – or any exposed skin, really – until you give in.

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I loved Gus and his floof, I wonder if he is still as floofy?

I suspect, given the amount of ear floof he had, he’s probably still just as floofy. Here’s a shot of him when he was less of a wee kitten, and it cracks me up because of the ear floof:

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Pancho has the Mark of Zorro in his ear!

and

Somehow I’ve forgotten about Pancho….maybe you could refresh my memory your Friday post? I’ve never had a solid white cat! No idea why not, except that all my cats have been strays, and a white cat just never wandered into my path. In my neighborhood most cats are either black or grey tabbies.

Pancho was one of Los Gatitos, a litter of white cats (their page is here). They were only with us very briefly – July 15th – 23rd, 2010 – and were given Spanish names because their date of birth was guesstimated to be May 5th, Cinco de Mayo. Pancho had two green eyes, his brother Hermano had two blue eyes (he wasn’t deaf, as some blue-eyed white cats are), their sister Evita had green eyes, and Sofia had one blue and one green eye.

The kittens had numbers written inside their ears at the vet’s office so they wouldn’t be mixed up, and Pancho was number two, which explains the Harry Potter lightning bolt inside his ear!

We have only seen one white cat come through here – yesterday, Fred looked out the side door, and said “We don’t know that cat, do we?” I looked, and there was a white cat casually laying under the truck. When I opened the door, the cat looked over, got up, and moseyed off. I suspect he belongs to someone in the neighborhood, but if he shows up again, I’ll try to get a picture (right before we trap him and whisk him off to the vet for testing and spaying/ neutering!)

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Robyn, have you seen this? Woman With 700 Cats Says “I’m Not Crazy, What I Do Is Crazy”

Could be your future ;-p

Oh no no no, I’m perfectly happy to be a foster home, NOT an actual shelter!

That said, I cannot wait to see that special!

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Wow, the Spices have hit that long, lanky stage! When did that happen? And Clove is turning from the cutest little ball of fluff into just the loveliest girl. Want!

I think it pretty much happened overnight, as they always seem to. I swear, I watch them and watch them, saying “They’re going to hit their lanky stage any moment now!”, but then I blink and they’re all of a sudden long and lanky! I need to keep a video camera on them at all times to capture the moment of lankiness-onset, obviously!

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A suggestion for your camera – assuming it has a memory card – do you remove it and put it into the computer, rather than hooking the camera to the computer?

A while ago I took a class from National Geographic photographers and they stressed *very strongly* to move the memory card from the camera to the computer when transferring files.

Also, after moving all the files from the card to the computer, they also stressed that *reformatting* the memory card, in the camera only, erases all tid bits of leftover data when one erases/deletes the files. (End of suggestions. ->^..^<- )

I do have a card reader for my memory card and look at the pictures that way (mostly because I hate using up the battery while looking through the pictures!) I also reformat the memory card in the camera, though I don’t reformat it every time I erase pictures, more like once a week or so.

The issue I was having getting the pictures off my camera is that SOMEONE chewed through the cord to the memory card reader. I don’t know who, but I have my long and lanky suspicions!

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Does Cori still have her sweet little meep eep eep eep eep! meep! meow? I kind of… you know… melted into a puddle when the video featuring it was posted before.

She doesn’t actually meow very often these days, but I’ll see if I can’t get another video of her doing so. She’s got more of a husky meow, now that she’s a big girl.

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Just wanted to say that I might be inexperienced, but I don’t recall ever seeing a shoe box with the lid attached. Is that because I do all my shopping at discount stores and on ebay? My two love ‘traditional’ shoeboxes, the tighter the better, but I bet my big guy would love one of those with the attached lid.

That shoe box is actually one that a friend sent me some cool stuff in. I can’t tell what kind of shoes came in it, but a Google search showed me that they’re called “flip lid shoeboxes”, and the first couple of links are about how to wrap them. It’s still the most popular box in the house, and if Jake or Elwood isn’t in it, then one of the little girls is. Who knew it’d end up such a hit?

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You have had Corbie checked for FIV, haven’t you? I had a beautiful shaded silver Persian who was diagnosed with FIV at several months of age. She kept getting ear infections. The vet was fairly certain she got FIV from her mother.

All Challenger’s House cats are tested for FIV and Feline Leukemia. Corbie and his brothers all initially tested FIV positive because their mother was FIV positive. They were tested when we first got them (around five weeks, I think), then again at four months, when they were a very faint positive. They finally tested negative at (I think) six months, and Corbie’s been tested again since then, just to be safe. He was definitely negative.

On a side note to newish readers, Corbie and his brothers (collectively known as The Bookworms) are half brothers to the litter known as The Wonkas (they had the same mother). The Wonkas initially tested FIV positive, too, and then eventually tested negative once the antibodies had left their systems.

That poor mother cat (who was absolutely feral) produced the best babies – I was absolutely in love with all the Wonkas AND all of the Bookworms, and I still miss all the ones who went on to forever homes.

(Okay, wait. I guess I’m always in love with ALL my fosters, aren’t I!)

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Do y’all remember last week when I posted this picture of the pigs:

and said: Is it just me, or does this look like a Charlie’s Angels pose?

Well, Sofia ran with that concept!

Crack. Me. UP!

Thanks, Sofia!!!

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“I see what you’re doing, and I’m appalled. APPALLED, I SAY. Stop it right now!”

Clove reminds me very much of Fergus Simon in this picture.

Nap time in the sun!

Until Cori comes along and has to be put in her place.

Ferocious creatures.

Clove is pretty sure she’s the boss, now.

Sisters snoozing in the kitchen.

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Now! Winner of The Most Beautiful Cat Ever! As judged and awarded by the completely impartial ME! I bet you will be SO SURPRISED!

That’s right, it’s Corbie! I know you’re shocked. You shouldn’t be. I mean, look at that gorgeous boy!

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Previously
2010: Unimpressed with me, was Mr. Frog.
2009: No entry.
2008: Hint to the chickens: You can ensure yourselves a long life by being friendly.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: “Did you fart?” I said accusingly.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: “KITTIES!” I scolded, and after a moment the thumping and running stopped.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

What do you do with the dehydrated zucchini and squash? Do you just eat them that way? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question. I have about 5 zucchini sitting in my fridge and am going to make your over fried zucchini this weekend.

That’s not a stupid question at all! Sometimes I eat the dehydrated zucchini and squash like chips – the squash, especially, is really good.

Usually, though, I saute dehydrated squash and zucchini in a little olive oil with some onion and dehydrated cherry tomatoes. We call it “vegetable medley.” I also made a test batch of scalloped squash with dehydrated squash and zucchini, and it was really good!

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Robyn, have y’all lost any chickens due to the heat? We belong to a CSA that’s based in Hohenwald, TN, and they were losing 300+ chickens a DAY due to the excessive heat. The chickens are free-range, and any time a predator (like a hawk) would show up, they would run, get over-heated, and just fall over dead. They’ve now have an employee whose only job on hot days is to ride back and forth with a water truck, misting the chickens to keep them cool. I had no idea chickens were so delicate!

We’ve been lucky, I guess – we haven’t lost any chickens to the heat. On particularly hot days I do have to go out around noon to make sure everyone has water (and even if they do, I empty and refill the waterers with cool water). I wonder if the chickens would like it if I went out with a spray bottle of water and misted them? I might have to try that!

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Have you ever tried the Genie Bra? I know you’ve written several times about your favorite bra. I’ve been thinking about buying a Genie Bra, and I’d love to hear if you or your readers have tried them and what you think about them

I’ve never tried the Genie Bra myself, and in fact had to Google around for information on it. I ended up here, and a lot of women have a lot of complaints about the Genie Bra, go check it out!

Readers? Anyone out there try the Genie Bra and have an opinion?

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Hey, I like how you have your oven mitts on the refrigerator. I have mine in a drawer where they take up waaaaaaay too much room. Where did you score that nice magnetic thing-y with the hooks? I mean, yeah, I could probably figure it out on my own but it would be so much easier if you would tell me where to go buy it. In fact, if you could just buy it for me and then drive it here to me in Maryland, that would be the easiest thing of all.

I honestly can’t remember where I got it (I’m thinking The Container Store, but I don’t have a receipt for it in my email anywhere, so that might be wrong), but you can get ’em at Amazon, here.

It is SO handy having them hanging on the fridge, because we have shallow drawers in the kitchen and the damn things wouldn’t all fit in one drawer.

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Robyn, I was reading an interesting article in National Geographic about growing/raising heirloom foods/breeds/varieties. The article has pics of chickens that made me think of you, Counting on Uncommon Chickens. I noticed the Orpingtons and the Gold Sebright reminds me of some of your chickens maybe? The Phoenix is gorgeous.

Those are some gorgeous chickens! The Gold Sebright looks a lot like our Golden Crested Polish (who we call The Rock Star), and we do have some Buff Orpingtons. We used to have a couple of Hamburghs – I called them “The Pigeons” because they looked like pigeons to me for some reason – and they were such light birds that they’d roost in the rafters of the chicken coop, far higher than any of the other birds. We had a Black Silkie, too, for a while, but now we only have the White Silkie, who is probably the best mother of all our hens.

The article discusses seed exchanges and how to grow heirlooms, again, you came to mind. Check it out: Grow your own heirlooms.

Thanks for the link!

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Invisible Cats. Thought you might like it!

You thought right – I had to immediately add it to my Google Reader!

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I have lurked FOR YEARS but have never commented but I had to let you know that my three year old loves looking at photos of cats so she always looks at your site with me… Now she wants me to “go and get Clove!”. I was also wondering, with all the cats you have had is there ever one that just got on your nerves like no other? I am keeping my brothers cat while he moves and fixes up his house and I have to tell you that back when I had four cats all four of them together didn’t get on my nerves like this cat. I am an animal lover and I feel so guilty, but I can’t wait until he leaves!

Oh, without a doubt there have been cats who get all over my nerves like that (and I typically respond by giving them more love because I feel so guilty!). I don’t think every animal lover is going to wholeheartedly love every animal – just like you’re not going to like every person you meet, you’re not going to love every animal. Just be glad that your brother’s cat will be going back to your brother instead of staying with you!

Give your daughter a kiss from Clove!

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Last night I dreamed that I went to get new tires and sat in the waiting area holding a sleeping kitten. It was Clove! Now that is a brilliant idea! Include adorable kitties available for adoption for people in waiting rooms to snuggle. I wouldn’t even mind waiting an hour for a 5 minute oil change then.

That is the BEST IDEA EVER. They need to have kitten waiting rooms EVERYWHERE!

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Please tell me that Cat-on-Top-of-Fridge is not going to…leap…down…to the…floor…!! (Although it’s been done here.)

No, she (that’s Stinkerbelle) usually jumps from the top of the fridge to the counter and then to the floor from there. If someone were chasing her, or she was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to see her beloved Tommy, she might jump from the fridge to the floor, but I think I’ve only seen that happen once or twice.

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How is the beautiful Corbie doing health-wise? He looks like he’s faring well, hopefully he’s only been improving all along!

Corbie is doing well – he’s not better than he was, but he’s also not worse than he was, he’s pretty much staying the same. We treated him with Taurine and L-Carnitine for 4 months, and there was no difference at all. We’ve stopped giving it to him, because it was stressing him out a lot and not making any difference.

Corbie was recently at the vet, and his opinion is that Corbie’s physical condition was caused by his mother being FIV positive (for those of you who weren’t reading at that time, Corbie and his brothers were found near Fred’s office. We trapped his mother and took her to the vet, and she was not only FIV positive, but also very ill; I had her euthanized.) Fred pointed out to the vet that Corbie was perfectly normal when he was a kitten, that it wasn’t until he was about a eight months old that we noticed something was going on, but the vet seems pretty convinced that the mother cat’s FIV status is what caused it. So who knows? I’m just glad that he’s getting around so well and that it’s not getting worse!

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I was trying to figure out what kind of spider that is, but I can’t see close up enough. It looks like it has a light-colored stripe down the cephalothorax and thorax, so it could be a baby grass spider. If it’s an adult, I have no idea.

I think it’s just a grass spider – all I know for sure is that it wasn’t a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse, thank god!

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All about Elwood.

My mom was over and walked past the computer and said… Why is that bear wearing a collar?

Ha!

My goodness Elwood is a big kitty!!! He doesn’t look fat just like a big-boned kitty! :0) Maybe it’s just the pictures…

Let’s just say that he weighs one pound less than Tommy (Elwood’s 14 pounds) and Tommy carries his weight a lot better than Elwood does. He’s fat AND big-boned!

Elwood, I iz skeered of u!!!

Aww, don’t be skeered of the Elz. He looks mean and like he’d slap your mama and steal her cake, but in actuality he’s a big ol’ lovebug who has a sweet, squeaky purr. Just don’t squeeze his belly; he’s sensitive about his gut.

Elwood is gorgeous! And full of cattitude. What is that on his collar?

That is the collar that goes to the in-ground fence around the back yard. If he gets too close to it, it beeps to warn him. If he keeps going, he gets a short zap from the collar. Most cats (Elwood included) only have to be zapped once (it doesn’t hurt them, but it does startle them unpleasantly). Most of the cats don’t need the collars because they are GOOD cats and don’t try to escape the back yard. Elwood, Kara, Tommy, and Sugarbutt, however, are naughty cats and must wear the collars. Which I personally hate, because I think the collars ruin otherwise perfectly nice pictures! But we’ve gotta keep ’em safe, whether they like it or not.

The Elwood box is the best box ever!! What is it from?

That’s a shoebox with the lid attached. Elwood’s actually laying in the lid, and then the box part is behind him. There’s another box behind that, because I had gotten a couple of packages in the mail that day, and I usually toss them all in the kitchen and wait to see which one they’ll like before I take the others out to the garage.

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So do your fosters never come back from PetSmart? When mine go off I know if they don’t get adopted after a week or two (depending on how many cats/kittens the rescue has needing time in the adoption center) I’ll likely get them back for a bit. Makes it a little easier to send them off…even though I know the little kittens are likely going to be adopted sooner rather than later so probably won’t be coming back….

They do come back from PetSmart occasionally – if, after a few weeks, they aren’t adopted, then they can come back here for some R & R for a while before they get another try. We’re lucky that most of our fosters are adopted pretty quickly.

Back in 2007, we had a litter of five sisters who were five months old. I don’t know how many times those cats went to Petsmart and then came back, then went to Petsmart again. One of them, Elle, absolutely stole our hearts and the last time she went back to Petsmart, Fred and I agreed that if she wasn’t adopted within two weeks, we’d bring her home and make her ours. She was adopted the day after I took her back to Petsmart.

This is her:

Oh, look. A brown tabby. How shocking that I loved her, right? She’s on the list of our fosters who, if they are ever returned to Challenger’s House, we will likely snatch her up and keep her forever. One of my favorite videos is of her, sitting on a cat bed and kneading:

It cracks me up that Fred sounds like an old Southern lady when he says “Elleh Belleh!” (And yes, she was the original Ellie Belly!)

HG is another one on that list:

Basically, if Fred knows the kittens’ name by the time they leave us, that means they’re probably on that list. Four years after Elle was with us and three years after HG was here, he immediately recognizes their names and (most telling) even remembers that Elle was a brown tabby and HG was a tuxie.

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What is the watermelon sitting on?

That’s landscaping fabric. It helps protect against weeds (though you’re supposed to put something on the fabric to protect it from the sun) and this is the first year we’ve used the fabric and also the first year our watermelon and cantaloupe plants haven’t been swallowed up by weeds!

Do roosters get aggressive to the chicks if one is another male?

Roosters won’t get aggressive toward male chicks until they hit adolescence (for want of a better word). Since the last thing we need out there is more roosters, any chicks who turn out to be males will go off to freezer camp before it gets to be a problem.

And isn’t Maggie desexed? Can she still lactate?

Yep, she was spayed, but she kept on lactating until about 10 minutes before I took them off to Petsmart. In fact, I put a note on her cage telling the cleaners and adoption counselors that it was okay to let Maggie see her babies, but not to let them nurse. Five bucks says that if any kittens tried to nurse on her right now, she’d probably start lactating immediately.

Doesn’t unripe tomato taste “bluchh?” Must try some this summer.

I wouldn’t eat green tomatoes in slices the way we eat ripe tomatoes, but coated in a cornmeal/ flour/ parmesan coating and oven-fried, or cooked with spices and other vegetables, they are very, very good!

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Cilantro loves Joe Bob’s scratcher.

Clove and her incredibly long arms.

Sweet Miss Cori.

“You woke me up for THIS?”

Ciara shows off her stripes.

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Who, him? Oh, just some cat. Nothin’ special. Corbie, I think they call him. ::shrug::

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Previously
2010: Vacation pics.
2009: Dehydrating zucchini slices.
2008: It’s a rough life, but someone’s gotta live it.
2007: No entry.
2006: Maine facts.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: “Okay, first of all she wasn’t married to Frank Gifford, that was Kathie Lee, and secondly FRANK GIFFORD ISN’T DEAD!”
2002: “Hallo, Clarice,” he said.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

I’ve grown tomatoes for years and have never pruned them. Can you give me a quick rundown on the how and why? Do you get a higher yield?

I can tell you that although there’s a way you’re supposed to do it – see this page here for reference – I tend to start out doing it that way, but then I kind of start… hacking away at the plants with the idea that if there are fewer non-fruit-producing limbs in the way, then I’ll see the tomatoes that are ripening more easily. This is, I think, the third summer I’ve pruned tomato plants, and I have seen no real difference in the yield. Of course, we have yet to get one single decent tomato this year – they’re all cracked around the stem – but every year hope springs eternal. SIGH.

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This is going to sound so stupid, but every time I see a picture of a chicken, my first thought is “My God! The poor thing has no arms!” And for some reason, “Macushla” is always “Mashugana” in my brain. I am feeling very feeble minded, suddenly.

Every time I read the first part of your comment, I cackle. I don’t know why, but that really hit my funny bone – maybe because it’s the sort of thing I would think myself!

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I want a metal bucket like that one holding green beans. Do you remember where you got it, Robyn?

We have several of them, and they come in handy for all kinds of things. I got them from Jeffer’s, but you could probably find them at your local co-op.

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I read you every day, but I saw Corbie’s pic on the perm residents. Can you post a link when that happened? Its hard to keep track of these things!

It was at the end of March, entry here. I convinced everyone that Corbie had gone to his forever home… and then announced that THIS is his forever home!

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LOVE the pictures of Stinky! She’s is such a beautiful cat, but…is she getting a little on the tubby side? (For God’s sake, don’t tell her I asked – she might hunt me down and rip my throat out!)

Nah, she’s not getting tubby. It’s hard to tell from pictures, but she’s actually a pretty small cat. You’d think she’d be bigger, actually, given that she spends all her time on top of the cabinets watching the other cats or looking for her beloved Tommy.

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Any advice to handle a kitten that is just downright mean? She is only 6 weeks old or so, but she bites and attacks out of anger. She has never been mistreated, but I would swear she had been. This kitten may be too much for me!

Do you have other cats? Generally kittens who aren’t around other cats or kittens will act that way toward humans (because they don’t have other cats around to put the smack down). If the kitten attacks and/or bites you, immediately (and consistently) blow in their face to make them stop that shit. Of course, the best solution would be to spray water or compressed air at them, but you can’t always have those on you, and time is of the essence (you want to do it immediately; otherwise they won’t have any idea why you’re spraying water at them). I’ve heard of people who respond to a mean, bitey kitten by biting them on the ear. I’ve never tried it myself, but it might be worth a try!

Anyone else out there with advice? Feel free to share!

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Robyn, isn’t when Fred starts calling someone ‘beautiful’ the indicator they’ll become a permanent resident?

Can we cross our paws and hope?

Part of the reason I was SO beyond thrilled about the fact that Cillian was one of the first kittens adopted is because Fred developed a late-stage crush on him and I was worried he’d harass me into going to get the boy and bring him home. As it is, all I can do is shrug and smile. He’s already in his forever home, what’m I supposed to do?

(God help us if something doesn’t work out and he’s returned, though!)

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Wait…what…Coltrane? I mustv’e missed a day…when was this?

June 19th is when I posted about it, entry here.

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BTW, you do realize you are one of a very few people who can say “… we only had five cats…”? 😉

Ha – I know, right?? I cannot believe we have so damn many cats. When I moved to Alabama, two cats was an INSANE number of cats, in our opinion. Then we got Spanky, and we had three. Then Tubby. Then Fancypants. And now suddenly, we have what is TRULY an insane number of cats. But I cannot for the life of me imagine only having two cats again. Sometimes – especially last weekend, after we’d reduced the number of cats running around this house by six – I think “How do people with two cats even know they HAVE cats?!”

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Paula said:

Robyn, yesterday I was behind a car that had those stick figure decals representing family members on their rear window. You know, like a kid with a soccer ball, a dad with a briefcase, etc. Well this one had no people, just two dogs and three cats. I think you said one time that you would love to get those decals, and when I thought of that and then this clown with a mere five, I thought, “AMATEUR!!”

And I was all “I know, right? I wish they had chickens and pigs in those stickers! But alas!”

Then Paula said:

Familystickers.com has pigs and chickens!!

Damn you, Paula. DAAAAAAAAAAMN you. (I’ll provide pictures when such a time comes that I actually get my ass in gear and order the proper number of stickers!)

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Smug Miss Cori again looks like Smug Miss Alice.

Indeed she does! We’ve actually started calling Coriander “AJ” (for “Alice Junior”), so Fred will know who I’m talking about!

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I know the odds are that Maggie will do just fine wherever she lands, but I’ve been harboring the hope that she would get adopeted with at least one of her babies… how great would that be?!

That would be SO awesome. Fingers crossed!

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When the kitties are put up for adoption is there any background information on when/where they came from? I’m sure if potential adopters saw how they are raised with you, people would be doing cartwheels into Petsmart to adopt a Robyn/Fred kitty!

I actually got permission to include a note with the bag of toys directing adopters to Love & Hisses so they can see the whole story behind how their babies grew up.

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On the ‘hidden’ calitabby – the fact that you can see both colors makes her a non hidden one. Basically on a girl cat, different regions of the body select at random to be orange or black. In theory, all the regions could choose the same color like flipping a bunch of coins and getting all heads or all tails. Such a case would be a hidden tortie or calitabby, since you could only tell if she had kittens and had both orange boys and black boys. (Male cats get their orange gene from the mom only, since the Y comes from dad).

and

As Oldcat says, Clove is no longer a “hidden” Cali-tabby but just a very “obscured” one, that’s not a cat breeding term, I just made it up. But before I wondered if she was hidden because I thought I saw orange reflections in her mostly brown fur, but obvious it was actual orange furs mixed in with the brown ones.

The older Clove gets, the more orangey her orange spots have become, by the way. But I find this whole thing very confusing and thank my lucky stars that y’all out there know more than I do and are willing to share. 🙂

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A lot of my friends get those plastic kiddie pools and fill them with water for their dogs to cool off in.

We actually tried that with George and Gracie, and they said “Meh. Not interested, I’ll be under the coop thx.” I wonder if part of the reason they’re not very interested in laying in a pool of water is because their fur is so thick and water repellent. I wouldn’t be surprised if being submerged in water would still not be enough to get them wet to the skin. After the deluge of water that came down on the day of the tornado, I went out to check on them, and the top of their fur was soaked, but as I petted them, I realized that at skin level, they were perfectly dry. I need a raincoat made of George and Gracie fur, obviously.

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Any news about more adoptions?

Not yet, but adoption hours are tonight and tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll have news for y’all on Monday!

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Finally, that gawky rooster has feathers on his legs and feet?!?!?! I’ve never seen that before, although my experience with chickens is limited (and my experience with chicks is very limited to just the incubator stage). What’s the deal with that?

He’s at least part Light Brahma. We have several Light Brahma hens and our one rooster is a Light Brahma as well. Brahmas have feathered legs! The chicks who were hatched this Spring and Summer are at least half Brahma (since their daddy is a Brahma), and some of them – but not all – have feathered legs.

We like Brahmas because they’re relatively calm birds. They get pretty big, and they’re decent egg layers. I wouldn’t mind adding some different kinds of chickens to the flock just to keep things interesting (and hey, there are Buff Brahmas and Dark Brahmas too!), but we haven’t gotten around to getting that done, just yet.

This is what our Light Brahma rooster looks like, though you have to look closely to see his feathered legs:

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Miz Poo in the box, Clove on top.

Clove, mildly annoyed (I love it when they put their ears back like that).

If only Ciara could make herself comfortable.

Ciara with sass.

“You haz a snuggle for me?”

Ciara, Cilantro, and Cori, hanging out.

Cilantro sure does love that toy mouse.

Green beans: best cat toys EVER.

Cilantro hangin’ with Cillian and Fergus Simon, last week.

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Your weekly announcement: Corbie is beautiful. You know you forgot that!

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Previously
2010: Vacation pics.
2009: Is it called “BeelzeBoogs”?? Oh, that sounds like a FUN book.
2008: “Huh. An armadillo. Weird. They don’t usually come this far north!”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: “Bessie,” he said. “That is CAT POOP, not kitty treats!”
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: Our kitties, spoiled? Nah.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

If people haven’t heard, there was a horrific case of kitten abuse in Florida and it would be great if people could sign the petition for the Florida AG to prosecute the woman who beat two kittens with a bat and encouraged her young sons to abuse the kittens as well. One of the kittens died and the other was rescued by some brave children in the park. The story and petition are here.

The petition is important since there is some pressure from the alleged perps relatives and neighbors to let her go. It’s so bad, that the mother of one of the children who rescued one of the kittens was surrounded by about 30 angry people on the day of the incident. They were yelling at her for calling the police, if you can imagine.

Let’s support her, her brave son and decency by signing and publicizing the petition. I’ll get off my soapbox now with a link to the Facebook page for the surviving kitten, who is named Dexter and is slowing recovering from his injuries. He’s as cute as a very cute button!

I signed the petition! How about y’all?

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I don’t know how you do it Robyn – I would just sit around and cry every time I had to let go of a batch of those adorable babies. I have often thought that I’d like to foster cats but I don’t know if I could just foster them – I’d want to keep them all.

Well, you’ll note that we only had five cats when we started six years ago!

It is awfully hard to take them to Petsmart, but I try to keep in mind that they’re going to go to homes where they’re adored to bits. I know I’m going to miss these guys something awful and this house is going to be awfully quiet without them here!

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I’m guessing from previous July 5 entries (spider drama notwithstanding) that your holiday weekend at Crooked Acres was relatively peaceful? Quiet neighbors are the best thing ever.

Actually, the neighbors were pretty annoying this year. Now that we’re out in the country, there are more neighbors shooting off fireworks, but they’re further away than they were when we lived in a subdivision in Madison. It still makes my blood boil, the way our Madison neighbors shot off fireworks in the street in front of our house (we were at the end of a cul-de-sac) and then left fireworks shit all over our lawn for us to pick up. I don’t think there’s enough money on earth to convince me to move back to the ‘burbs, even if it WAS awfully convenient having the grocery store and Lowe’s three minutes from the house.

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I had a crooked acres dream the other night – and I think it ranks up there as one of the weirdest! I dreamt that you died (sorry – I’m not usually morbid!) and Fred decided to keep running your blog. No one knew you were dead until a bunch of your readers decided to come down for an impromptu visit. We were all duly impressed with how well Fred was able to imitate your writing style.

I am charmed by the (wronnnnng) idea that Fred would ever try to keep my blog going, and further that he could ever capture my writing style. Well, unless he got drunk and typed “Awww, look at the KITTY!” over and over again. 😀 But yeah, that’s an odd one!

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Funny how you mark the time – I clicked in this morning thinking to myself – “I think it’s the anniversary of Mr Booger’s passing.” Why? I really don’t know, other than I do know he had always been my favorite. A cat I’ve never met! How insane is this? Anyway, wanted you to know I am thinking of him. And I do truly adore Looney Jake for probably just the reason that in my mind, he and Elwood are Boogie descendants 🙂

It has, indeed, been two years since Mister Boogers died. (It was actually June 30th, 2009, but I wrote about it on July 1st.) We still miss him, and talk about him from time to time. He had such a personality, and it was a shock to lose him so unexpectedly. After Coltrane died, I told Fred that obviously June is a cursed month for us, and I was glad to see June FINALLY end. I think that next year we need to just bring all the cats inside and hole up in the house for the entire month of June!

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I had my first Crooked Acres dream. I’ve been reading since 1999 and haven’t had a dream, but I finally broke the seal last week (does this mean I’ll now have a Crooked Acres dream every 5 minutes?). I don’t remember a lot of the details but a few things still stand out. There were a lot of your readers at the house, all hanging out in the yard like it was Woodstock or something. It was like they were waiting for you to come out onto the porch/stage and start the show. For some reason, I was in the house and had to take care of some of the cats in a small side room. I ended up spilling something – can’t remember what but it was apparently a Bad Thing To Spill. I got all freaked out, cleaned it up, and then screwed up the courage to tell you that I spilled something. You seemed like you would have been super pissed if I hadn’t cleaned it up, but as long as the situation was under control, you’d just settle with a warning glare. Then I went out to tell the crowd that we could stay the night, but we’d have to sleep outside.

I think this was one of the nights that I drank blueberry tea before bed. That stuff gives me weird dreams!

Have I perhaps mentioned that I LOVE IT when you guys have Crooked Acres dreams? They crack me UP. (Also, I don’t even know what kind of show I was going to put on!)

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The bit about cats burying their food bowl made me think about our cat Henry’s annoying habit of purposefully dumping food in his water bowl. When we first got him, we thought he was just a sloppy eater, which he is, but my husband & I have both seen him move his food bowl next to his water bowl & scoop food out of the food bowl & into the water bowl. We can’t imagine why he does this, because it makes his water really nasty. A friend of mine said she thought she heard somewhere that big cats “wash” their food before eating it, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. It seems that Henry likes the taste of the water better when there’s food in it, maybe. Of course, he gets most of his water from lapping at the tub after we take showers, so maybe he’s just being a brat. He looks just like your Corbie, by the way, and is the friendliest cat I’ve ever met, so we can’t get too mad at him. Anyway, I’m curious if you or any of your other cat owning readers have encountered food dunkers!

I usually have to rinse out and refill the water bowl in the laundry room most mornings because it has a piece or two of food floating around in it. I feel like someone told me that cats will put food in the water bowl so that they can tell where the top of the water is, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. Anyone out there know?

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LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

But have the little “hellions” as Doodle Bean (who I seem to follow around the blog world) called them, had their “little operations”? How did I miss that? Really? Hmm…must be geting old.

Yep, they were spayed (Ciara) and neutered (the rest) on June 2nd. Challenger’s House doesn’t adopt out kittens unless they’ve been spayed and neutered and are up to date on their shots!

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I’m starting to think Clove is a “hidden” Cali-tabby but can’t be sure just from photos. Of course, since she’s not ever going to be a Mommy Cat, this doesn’t matter the way it would as it does when cat breeding. Then you hope to be able to predict if the Mother has “the red gene” or not; but even then sometimes you don’t know.

and

On the calitabby – the real test is not to look at the background hairs, but at hairs of a stripe. These will be all black all over for a brown tabby, or will be two shades on a calitabby.

Okay, I FINALLY picked Clove up last night and took a closer look at her brown-or-are-they-orange? spots. The hairs on her orange / brown stripes are two colors. So this means she’s a “hidden” calitabby?

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Love the pic of the black kitten jumping for the feather toy! Expecially the face of the orange tabby. She looks like she is cheering him on and in awe!

and

Every time you post a picture of the black kitten with the crossed paws in mid-leap I start humming a chorus of Kung Fu Fighting! Oh the concentration on that little face!

I should have mentioned (and maybe have mentioned in the past, I don’t remember) that that picture? This picture right here:

That black kitten is our very own Tommy. And on the ground cheering him on are Sugarbutt, and their sister “Little Cal”!

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Are you ever tempted to get Gracie & George severe summer trims for the heat? I can’t recall any pic’s with extreme haircuts but that doesn’t mean anything.

We’ve talked about it, and in fact last year we went to Petsmart and bought a trimmer that the guy working there assured us would be strong enough to deal with their coat. It didn’t trim worth a damn, and we ended up returning it. Fred called around to groomers in the area, and was quoted a price of $150 PER DOG, which just isn’t going to happen. What we do now is brush them regularly, and then a couple of times during the summer Fred goes out there with the brush and a bottle of dog shampoo and really concentrates on getting them wet and clean, and uses the brush to get out as much undercoat as he can. It actually makes a big difference!

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If you don’t read the Love & Hisses Facebook page (and why NOT?), you won’t have seen the post from Wednesday night where I announced that as there’s room for Maggie at Petsmart, she’ll also be going later today. Ciara is still a bit under the weather, so she’ll stay here at least through the weekend.

It’s going to be awfully quiet around here without Maggie and the boys! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they go in pairs. Preferably this weekend. PREFERABLY tonight, but I know that’s probably a little much to ask.

“I am NOT faking it. Stop looking at me like that.”

Cilantro and Fergus Simon, flirting.

Siesta time for Macushla, on the kitchen floor.

Macushla watching the big cats run around in the back yard.

Smug Miss Cori.

Declan and Cillian, snoozing on my desk.

“What?”

You can’t really tell from this picture, but Macushla has a bit more of the ear floof than the other cats do.

I love Fergus Simon’s spotted belly.

Fergus Simon learned a new trick. O joy.

Fred has taken a shine to Cillian. He calls him “Simba” and talks about how beautiful he is.

I have a bunch more McMao pics on my hard drive, so will likely be sharing those through all of next week!

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Your weekly reminder: Corbie is beautiful. That is all.

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Previously
2010: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2009: Garden pics
2008: Boneheaded things I have recently done
2007: No entry.
2006: Just a quick picture to let y’all know what we did with our Saturday morning.
2005: I turned and gave her the Bug-Eyed Look of Annoyance*, to no avail.
2004: “Agh!” I yelled. “I hate you kitties! I hate you all!”
2003: Do motherfuckers retain water?
2002: “Your cheatin’ heeeeeart…”
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

New month, new banner! Another great banner from the talented Christine. Thanks, Christine!!!

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Just wanted to say I just spent an hour in the hot, hot sun picking green beans. (I was volunteering with a harvesting group.) Oh my, what a PITA that was. I have newfound respect for you.

To be fair, I do my picking before the sun comes up, for I am a delicate flower. Also, I’m on antibiotics, so I’m supposed to stay out of the sun. Also also, I have a rolling cart that I sit on and roll along the row (my back thanks me), so really my picking is a lot easier than yours, it sounds like! But it’s borrrrrrrring. Thank god for podcasts to listen to!

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How old are the kittens? I thought they should be done with nursing after 2 months.

They are THREE months old as of Saturday, can you believe that? And yes, they should have been done with nursing long ago, but it looks like they’re going to be nursing as long as Maggie puts up with them. I actually have a movie of Kara’s babies, at 16 weeks old (!), still nursing!

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And here’s something for you to think about when you’re groping through those damn bean bushes: snakes just luuuurrrve to hide out under them. Trust me, I speak from personal experience.

I ain’t skeered of no snakes! Actually, it’s kind of odd, but I haven’t seen a snake in the garden. YET. Of course, now that I said that, I’m sure I’ll see 73 of them the next time I go out there.

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The fate of Summer Robyn reminds me very much of this post about Future Kate.

HA. I love it!

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I planted an heirloom tomato plant. Ripe, they’re green with yellow stripes. I have no idea how to tell when they’re ripe because they develop the stripes very early. Any tricks?

I also planted ancho chili peppers and cilantro, I’m awaiting some heirloom tomato salsa later this summer 🙂

My only thought is that ripe tomatoes are easier to pick than green, so if you try pulling them off the vine and they pull off easily, then they’re ripe? Maybe? Honestly, I’m hoping someone out there has words of wisdom. Readers?

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Is the camera you use one with a lot of bells and whistles? I like the “point and shoot” cameras but the close up pictures you get are so clear that I have a feeling I’ll have to dish out some bucks to get one that good. 🙂

The camera I use most of the time is a Sony Alpha A100 with a… um. A 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens. (I had to go get the camera to figure out what the lens is.) It is a camera that really outweighs my capabilities and many many bells and whistles. I have two books that supposedly will teach me how to use it properly, but my good lord do books about how to use cameras bore the everloving snot out of me. (The only thing I find more boring is books about writing.) Also, the information refuses to stick to my brain cells. It’s like the information is made of Teflon and slides right off my brain and out my ears.

That camera was expensive, yes. Just seeing how much the lens cost makes me want to cry. I don’t think that you have to have the big fancy camera to get good pictures, though. I also have a smaller Sony, the DSC-W300, that I use to shoot videos and get pictures of kittens who prefer to be on me (which makes it hard to get a decent picture with the bigger camera!). It was with the W300 or possibly the camera I had before that (I don’t remember which one it was, it had a lower megapixel – but it was definitely a Sony) that I took these pictures with, and I think they’re pretty good.

What’s most important, no matter what kind of camera you have, is that you be willing to mess with the settings, and be willing to take a LOT of pictures to figure out what settings work for you!

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Seeing the first picture of this post this morning made me remember that I had a dream about you and your sweet kittens last night! I was cuddling kittens and telling you that I can’t tell which is which, except for Ciara. Which is true, but I love them anyway!

How obsessed with your blog do I have to be to dream about it at night?

Aww, surely not THAT obsessed. Really, they’re so cute, how can you NOT dream about them!

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Is it just the camera and lighting, or is Clove growing up to have tiny bits of Calie-Tabby in her fur? I’ve seen mostly brown ticked females like that before, mostly brown tabby but with hints of orange or gold in a few places.

She does seem to have several splotches of goldish orange on her, especially on the back of her head and some spots on her back. When we first got her, those splotches seemed to be a golden brown color, like Corbie has, but the older she gets, the more orangey they seem to be.

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The picture of Alice and Jake reminds me of some comic book or cartoon with Alice being the smart one trying to take over the world and Jake being her looney sidekick. Very Pinky and The Brain.

Alice and The Loon!

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Did that big Amazon box Spanky is in originally arrive with cat toys in it? 😉

Noooo, that would be silly! I don’t get cat toys from Amazon!

(I do not think we could fit even half the cat toys in this house in that box, though. Shhh, don’t tell Fred!)

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I was wondering, Coltrane looks like a bigger cat, how much did he weigh? Since he was an outside cat, did he get along or socialize with any of the other cats or animals in the yard? It looks like he had some sort of rivalry with Maxi at least.

I would say that he was about Joe Bob’s size, and Joe Bob weighs almost 12 pounds. He was long and lean and pretty tall (that sounds like a country song!). Maxi is kind of a small-framed cat, so being next to her might have made Coltrane look even bigger than he was.

He got along really well with other cats, as long as the other cats got along with him. Maxi hissed and smacked at him if he got too close, so he’d hiss back, but Maxi hates all the other cats except Newt (and sometimes that’s debatable). I think that if she weren’t such a brat, he would have gotten along fine with her. I know that he snuggled with Jake from time to time when he was in the house, and he liked (or at least tolerated) the kittens. Really, he was an all-around good boy!

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I was wondering if your male cats ever “mother” the kittens? My three male cats have taken to kitten raising like, well, a cat to catnip! My 14 yr old cats follow the young’uns around the apartment and bathe and cuddle with them. of course, the kittens were younger (4 weeks) but they still all sleep together now at this age (they are 4 days older than the Mcmaos).

I wish so so SO much that one of my boy cats would step up and mother the fosters who wander through here. The only cat who comes closest is Jake, and he doesn’t so much mother them as play with them like an older brother.

I envy you your boys who are clearly in touch with their mothering side!

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I was wondering, what is it like when you and Fred eat dinner? When my fiance and I eat dinner at our house, we each have one arm scarfing food in our mouths and the other pushing at least one of our two cats away. When they finally “give up,” they sit there and Stare. So of course, I have to wonder what it’s like at your house with much more cats around!

Now, y’all know that I am a pushover when it comes to my kitties. However, when it is breakfast/ lunch/ dinner time, I do not tolerate the nonsense. When I am eating, I keep a can of compressed air next to me, and if ANY cat in the house starts with the “OH MY GOD I AM STARVING DO YOU HAVE FOOD GIVE ME SOME FOOD I AM DYING DYING DYINNNNNNNNG” hysterics, I shoot a blast of air in their direction (never directly at them, just enough so that the noise startles them a bit) and they immediately back off. At this point, they’ve all learned to leave me alone while I’m eating, and if they forget themselves, I remind them with a quick blast of air.

You don’t have to use compressed air – you can use a squirt bottle of water or a can of pennies, or whatever works for you. The most important thing is to BE CONSISTENT.

I figure, I don’t come complain at them when THEY’re eating, so they don’t need to complain at me while I am!

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Aww! So are Fergus Simon and Clove the new cat couple? Good mix: he is mild to her spicy. I read it in the Encaterer.

I have to say, the McMaos and the Spice Girls have integrated really well. There was some hissiness from a couple of the McMaos at first, but now they eat together, play together, and sleep together. The only thing they don’t do is spend the night together, and that’s only because I figure they can use a break (and 10 cats is an awful lot to cram into the guest bedroom!) Fergus Simon, Macushla, and Finnegan spend the most time curled up with the girls, but all the McMaos have been spotted snuggled up from time to time. It’s just a big lovefest!

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“Stomach on legs” YESSSS that’s the term I’ve been looking for to describe my Maine Coon kitteh. She is a year old and only 6 lbs. Was a stray brought in off the street. Loves tomatoes, lemons, pickles (no onion/garlic), bread, beer, strawberries, avocado, you NAME it, she eats it.

Yesterday, I got groceries. As soon as I got home, I put alllll the groceries away while Maggie followed me around in hopes that I would give her food. I realized I’d left my purse in the car, and went out to get it. I was gone PERHAPS two minutes. By the time I got back inside, Maggie had discovered the pack of tortillas I’d stupidly left on the counter, chewed a hole through the plastic, and ate a small piece off of every single tortilla, thus making them not fit for human consumption (I do not care for the idea of cat spit on my food).

I have to make sure not to leave ANY kind of food on the counter – in a package or no – because she’ll give it a try. Drives me crazy!

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I have a cat that tries to bury his food bowl. He is a messy eater so I have his bowl on a placemat, but he will try to cover the bowl with the placemat-sometimes for 5 minutes straight. I looked it up online and it said that cats in the wild may try to bury their food so they can come back later to eat it. I have tried everything to stop him from doing it-it drives me crazy and he ignores everything around him when he does it. Have any of yours had this problem?

I’ve definitely had cats who try to bury their food bowl! When Maggie was in the foster room with her kittens, she’d almost always cover their food after they ate; once she dragged a cat bed across the room to cover it. It is definitely an instinctual thing, the kittens do it, too.

I ended up putting a (clean) cleaning rag near their food every day so that she could drag it over the food and be satisfied that it was covered. Then, if the rag had food on it, I’d toss it into the hamper and put another rag down for her at the next mealtime. It worked out pretty well!

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Maggie is a saint. How is she getting along with the resident kitties?

She’s got to be the most laid-back mama cat I’ve ever seen. Strike that – the most laid-back cat ever, mama or no. As long as no one is threatening any of the kittens, she has no issues with any of our adult cats. She hasn’t tried to make friends with them, particularly, though I’ll occasionally see her touch noses with them, and they’re pretty relaxed about her, too.

I actually saw her PLAYING with one of her kittens yesterday, and that’s the first time I’ve seen her playing since before the kittens were born. I think right now she’s so focused on getting food in her belly that she can hardly think of anything else.

I weighed her the other day – she weighs 7 pounds, 14 ounces, which is one ounce more than what Alice weighs. She actually weighs less than Kara, and Kara’s a much smaller-boned cat.

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we need advice…Just rescued a 6 week kitten, female. She’s in a dogpen separated from our other cat (who needs his shots up to date). She appears to use the litter box but DOES NOT cover her poo! any advice? Kitten v. healthy, we adopted thru our friend the AC officer, so everything has checked out otherwise, except a superyoung kitty livin’ on the mean streets….

I do not have any advice here at all, so I’m hoping someone out there does – if you’ve got advice on training a cat to cover their poo, please speak up. Sugarbutt also does not cover his, and I’m pretty sure the gates of Hell are located in his bowels.

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Just curious as it seems you have such a menagerie of animals — do you guys have any ducks/geese?

We do not have any ducks or geese. Ever since the day Fred and I were feeding geese at the UAH lake and a geese bit me on the butt, I have not cared for geese. We’d like to have ducks, but we don’t have a pond for them. We want to get someone out here to dig a pond for us in the back forty (so that the back forty doesn’t flood all winter long), but that hasn’t happened yet.

The irony is that there actually WAS a pond here when we moved in – it was located behind where the back yard is right now. But it dried up, and we decided to have it filled in and now we’re regretting it.

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I love all the photos, but that chicken flock pic is great! Is that the entire flock?

That’s not the entire flock – I’d say it’s maybe half the flock. Some of the chickens were under the coop hanging out, and I think some were out toward the back of the back 40, and the rest were probably in the pig yard (they love the pig yard!). Fred estimates that we’ve got 50 – 60 total chickens.

Are those chickens eating popcorn?

and

Yep (you can really see the popcorn when you blow the photo up in Flickr). So, Robyn bakes cookies for the piglets and, apparently, makes popcorn for the chickens. That farm is animal heaven!

::sputter:: I don’t make popcorn for the chickens! Ha ha, that would be, why that would be craziness! That was leftover popcorn from Fred’s snack the night before, and he always saves the extra for the chickens.

Oh, OKAY. I USED to pop popcorn for the chickens. In fact, at some point in the past I bought a 50 pound bag of popcorn kernels at Sam’s. I popped so much popcorn at once, that the top of the air popper melted. Chickens are so funny when you give them food that they love (tomatoes!) that I always want to give them lots of food they love. I’m a sucker, what can I say?

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All six McMaos and all three Spice Girls are present and accounted for!

Maggie and the Spice Girls. This is like a vacation for her!

Spice Girls at the milk bar.

Finnegan’s face is cracking me up. “THIS ARE MY SPOT YOU GO AWAY.”

I should just squeeze Clove ’til the marshmallow Fluff comes out her ears, shouldn’t I?

Such a happy girl.

Poor Maggie.

But let me tell you a quick story: the other day all the kittens were devouring Maggie ALIVE, and so I pulled them off her, and I took her into the guest bedroom, where there’s a bowl of the really good kitten food on top of the dresser. I put her there, and not ten seconds later, she was back in the kitchen calling to the kittens. She can’t hate it too much, is what I’m saying.

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Nothin’ happier than a Loony Jake.

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Previously
2010: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2009: Mister Boogers.
2008: I find that I’m filled with hatred a lot these days.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: That Tom Cruise. What a fuckin’ loon, huh?
2004: Jesus christ. After almost five years of marriage, wouldn’t you think he’d KNOW that there are only two ways to answer that question?
2003: And then she vaulted her portly ass across me to say good morning to him, cracking three of my ribs in the process.
2002: We went to see Minority Report on Saturday, and though I really liked it, I did NOT enjoy sitting next to Billy Bob ShutTheFuckUp, who was compelled, when not clearing his throat loudly and phlegmily, to remark upon each and every plot point.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

Have you ever read this blog? Her entry for Tuesday is hysterical!

And that’s why you should learn to pick your battles.

I read that earlier this week – and it made me laugh out loud. Can you think of anyone on earth who needs a giant metal chicken more than I do? I would put that thing on the front porch and it would scare all the door-to-door salespeople away. Or if they persisted on knocking on my door, I’d say, “Well, let me ask Alfred. Alfred, do we need supplemental insurance?” and I’d cock my head to the side as if listening to the chicken, and then say “Well, Alfred says we’re fine, but thanks anyway. Alfred! How rude! Don’t say mean things about this man’s tie. I’m sure he’s doing the best he can.” Also, I’d put Christmas lights on it. AND A WREATH AROUND ITS NECK.

Man. I wish I had a giant chicken.

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Have you seen this?

Cracks me up!

Yes! It cracks me up, too. (Also, that is one pretty, pretty cat.)

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I thought the first two pictures were of Alice, so then I continued to think that the calico was her, and was astonished to see her nursing. I had several seconds of, “WOW” before I remembered about the Spice Calico.

I think Alice would have to be sedated to be anywhere near Maggie. They don’t care for each other at all – but I kind of wish she would, if only for the picture-taking opportunities. Of course, Alice would lead to Elwood, and then Jake and perhaps Tommy, and then there’d be no Maggie left, she’d just be a dried-out husk in the middle of the floor!

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Don’t know if you’ve seen this video of a “barking” cat on CNN. I just watched it, could NOT believe that cat sounded exactly like a dog barking. When the cat sees owner approaching with video-cam, it switches to meowing. Amazing!

That is so neat! I thought at first it had to be a trick – like, there was a dog outside barking, but nope. That cat was barking!

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Oh! I think the show you were watching was “Too Cute” on Animal Planet? I saw it over the weekend. There was a Persian litter, an Abyssinian litter and a Bengal litter. Was that the one? If it was, did you see when they used the blow dryer on a brand new Persian? The poor widdle ting, with his lips in a little “o.” Oh, and “Tiny Dancer!”

That’s it! It was amazingly adorable – I loved the kitten being blown dry. And it made me realize something that should have been obvious: if I want to get cats accustomed to something, I need to start while they’re still teeny tiny. Thus, with my very next foster litter, I swear I’m going to take them on regular (short) rides in the car (in a carrier, of course), and then give them a treat when we get home. That way, they’ll link the car ride with something pleasurable, and won’t freak out about being in the carrier, in the car! Right? Right!

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I’m not going to cut and paste Elayne’s whole comment, but you can read it here. This section especially interested me:

I have known someone with a history of painkiller addiction who would have a glass of wine once every two or three weeks, whenever he and his wife went to dinner – just the one glass, because his wife enjoyed having a glass or two of wine but felt uncomfortable “drinking in front of him” if he wasn’t drinking.

because I’ve heard of this concept, where people are uncomfortable drinking in front of other people. I listen to the KATG podcast, and Chemda (“the Girl”) doesn’t drink and has said that people tell her they don’t trust people who don’t drink. What I want to know is, who are these people who CARE whether other people are drinking or not?

I will say that I immediately thought it might be like when I’m out to dinner and want dessert, but don’t want to be the only one eating dessert. BUT, if you have a glass of wine and your dining partner has a glass of Diet Coke or whatever, you’re both drinking something even if both drinks aren’t alcoholic (ie, if I get the chocolate whatever for dessert I’m not going to insist you also get the chocolate whatever, you can get the blueberry pie, as long as you’re eating dessert and not sitting there watching me eat mine), so what’s the difference?

Clearly I’m not a drinker at all, so maybe I just don’t have the right mindset to understand?

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I went to look at all his [Coltrane’s] pictures and ran into a little hitch – all the links to kitty pages go to private pages on flickr that cannot actually be seen. All links from here.

When I had to switch from self-hosting my pictures to having them all hosted at Flickr, I had to make it so that all the pictures I share (even the ones on the sidebar) link back to Flickr. So if you clicked on the picture to go to any of the cats’ pages, you would have gotten to a page at Flickr that wouldn’t allow you to see the source picture, because I had set them to private. There are links under all the pictures that actually go to each cat’s page – I hope! If anyone is still getting the private page at Flickr, please let me know. It’s kind of a pain, but I don’t want to chance being shut down by my host again!

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I came here today to show you a website with cute kitties wearing ties

Father’s Day Ties.

SO cute!

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You did forget to address Jill, though! I probably like Jill the most, although she is also nosy. I’m so sad she had such drastic plastic surgery and now looks like she has Scotch tape pulling her temples toward the crown of her head. (Do you read Jay Mohr’s recaps on the Bravo website? They are HILARIOUS! Seriously, he is incredible, and boy does he hate Ashley.) Jay Mohr says that Ashley makes Eeyore look like Richard Simmons. Bwahaha!

I can’t believe I forgot about Jill! I have to say that this season, now that the Bethenny drama is over with, I find Jill less annoying and even occasionally entertaining. I love that she’s so nosy and doesn’t hesitate to ask ten million questions (as in Morocco!) But I wish she would never ever wear her hair pulled back into that tight ponytail, because I don’t think it’s a good look. I like it when her hair is down!

I have now read all the Jay Mohr recaps, and you’re right, he’s absolutely awesome, not LEAST because of his Ashley hatred.

I keep meaning to bring this up about the opening credits to RHoNJ – you know when Melissa’s in the cat suit for Halloween, and she makes the purring noise and then she does these odd jazz hands? Can someone explain to me what this is about, please? Because it makes me want to fly through the screen and decapitate her, it annoys me so much.

Did y’all see the OC “Lost Footage” episode? Because I have to ask: Did Gretchen really keep saying that she wasn’t a good “drawler” (instead of “draw-er”), or was I hearing wrong?

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BTW, I think I saw that guy in some funny YouTube videos. In fact I’m sure of it; and they were about cats. Too funny.

That would be the Professional Engineer’s Guide to Cats and Advanced Cat Yodeling.

Love that guy! (And his “assistant” TJ.)

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Wow! Elwood is one big (and kinda intimidating) boy, isn’t he?

He is 14 pounds of lurrrrrrrrrve. He looks intimidating, but really he’s a great big lovebug. Until you annoy him, in which case he will put the smack down. You be nice, he’ll be nice. He and Kara have a love-hate relationship. One minute they’re doing this:

The next he’s chasing her around the back yard and she’s hissing at him.

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When and why did you stop cleaning at Petsmart? Surgery related? Are you going to go back? Just curious! 🙂

Oh, it’s been a while, definitely before surgery. It just got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it, and it felt like a hassle to get up and go to Petsmart. Basically, I was hurrying through it instead of taking my time and playing with the cats, and I felt that they deserved better than that. I do occasionally fill in for other cleaners who are going to be out of town (though it’s been a while since even that), and I enjoy that.

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I just want to say thanks for still being around. Do you know that you are the very first blog I ever read?

Hard to believe I’ve been around for 11 years, isn’t it? I know that when I first started this site, I didn’t figure I’d to 30 days, let alone 11 (and a half!) years. So thanks for reading, all of you!

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I have one thing to say.

PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN!!! 🙂

Would you believe, for once in my life I didn’t even think about grabbing the camera when I saw that pile. So, no cat vomit pics for you! (Everyone else: you’re welcome. Heh.)

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Did you notice that in the cat tree pic, one little monkey is in mid-air?!?!? LOL

Indeed I did! That’s Fergus Simon, and that describes his personality completely – he’s always flying through the air like a wild thing. Nothing slows this boy down.

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I keep on thinking that Coriander is actually Alice!! They have quite similar, gorgeous coloring, and are both small! 🙂

It’s my goal in the next week to get a picture of Cori and Alice side by side, so y’all can compare. They do have the same colors, but Alice is not nearly the tiny thing she used to be – in fact, I’d say she’s pretty much an average-sized cat now.

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Reminds me of a story here where a woman was arrested at a casino when someone found about 35 animals (cats, dogs, and kittens) in her CAR in the parking garage. She’d been kicked out of her apartment (go figure) and was using the casino’s computer to look for new housing. She’d cracked the windows of the car–this was in summer! None of the animals were hurt or harmed or sick from the heat.

I cannot imagine having, say, THREE cats in my car, let alone 35 cats, dogs, and kittens. Craziness!

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As for your (non-hoarded) cats and kittens, Robyn, I swear they get cuter everyday… or maybe that’s just the hats! I swear that Alice has become a full-size cat based on how big the collar power supply is. Is that true?

It really is – I’ll see if I can’t remember to weigh her in the next week so I can see just how big she’s gotten. I had kind of hoped that she’d stay tiny, but I guess she needed to get bigger to fit all that personality in!

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I went back looking because I remembered a video of him saying hi. Isn’t it nice to have videos to remember with?

It really is nice to be able to see him again and hear his voice. I actually posted two videos of him – one recent, and one from 9 months ago. I called them both “Coltrane says hi,” as a matter of fact!

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By the way, I noticed the traffic noise in the video of the baby robins. Is that “the” road? Sounds like there is quite a lot of traffic.

The road in front of our house is actually busier than you’d expect. It’s the main road leading to one of the area’s biggest employers, so at shift change there’s a lot of traffic. The tree is also very close to the road – here’s a shot from the end of the driveway. That tree near the mailbox is the one with the nest in it.

And here’s a shot from the end of the driveway to the house (you can’t see the tree, but you can see the shadow of the tree on the ground).

We’re closer to the road than I’d like to be – I’d actually prefer it if our house was at the very back of our property. I don’t love living on such a busy road, but if we didn’t live on such a busy road, we never would have seen this house and ended up living here.

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IS THAT A GUN in the picture of Newt in his Newt cave??? Do you really discourage outsiders to the farm that strongly?? 🙂
It looks like a pistol with a really long barrel, but then again, I’m from Englandshire, and I don’t think I’ve even held a real gun in my life!

That’s a shotgun. Here at Crooked Acres, the cats don’t take too kindly to strangers.

(I actually had a “the cat don’t take too kindly to strangers” doormat, once upon a time.)

Living in the country, someone (who is not necessarily me) feels safer with firearms with which to protect ourselves. Despite the traffic at certain parts of the day, we do still live out in the country, and some scary people walk past here on a daily basis.

So when I’m home alone and working outside in the garden, I almost always have a gun on me – though not THAT gun.

I’ve never had to use the gun I carry, and to be honest I don’t know that I could shoot someone unless they were coming at me in a crazy-eyed crack-induced rage (or made a disparaging comment about one of my cats)(I kid!), but I know how to aim and fire it. I’m not the best shot on earth, but I could get the job done if I needed to.

(Are ya scared yet?)

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In the meowy Spice Girls video, I can distinctly hear two girls yelling for food, but then there’s one who has a teentiny adorable little squeak! Who is that? I almost melted from the sheer cuteness of whoever was going meep! ee-eep! meep! eep! meep!

That’s Cori!

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Not to be a busybody or anything, but in future years you’ll need a more hefty support for the grapevine. Think about vineyards in France with wooden fence posts and heavy wire supports — the vines get so heavy that they need that strength of support. Hope this helps. Thanks for letting me be a know-it-all.

Doodle, anytime you want to be a know-it-all, I’m listening. 🙂 I don’t know about needing a heftier support for the grapevines, though – we’re growing muscadines on a similar fence, and they seem to be okay.

Though they are only about three years old. In any case, if we need something sturdier in the future, I’m sure Fred can figure something out. The main reason we planted grapes in the back yard is that we hope they’ll spread out along the fence and provide us with some privacy (the house next door is very close). If they get to be too much for the fence, we can always trim them back.

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This has been around several years. Have you seen it? I was able to download this song & it’s always on my playlist!

I had not; that’s very cool. And here I was all impressed with myself for cutting a few holes in a big box and getting Spanky to think it was pretty neat!

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Do you recarpet your cat trees? I have a couple that need it, and I have a nice piece of carpet my neighbor gave me when he recarpeted his bedroom, but I’ve never done it before. Do you take off the old carpet? Do you glue it down (what kind of glue?) or staple it or both? I figure if you don’t know, some of your readers will! 🙂

I have never recarpeted a cat tree, so I’m posting this in hopes that someone will have some words of wisdom!

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I bought a t-shirt from icanhascheezburger.com a couple months ago, and every time I wear it, it makes me think of poor little Maggie (and I laugh at the same time!). I’ve been meaning to post a picture of it for you for ages!

That is AWESOME! (And in Maggie’s case, SO true!)

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We were wondering when Maggie’s babies will go up for adoption?

They’re all set now – we’re just waiting for room to open up at Petsmart. Could be any day. I am going to seriously miss these guys when it’s time for them to go.

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Cillian’s just not sure…

“Are you sure these Declan hats are all the rage in England?”

Macushla in a basket!

Looks like Cillian might have a touch of the Loony Jake about him.

Declan’s a helper, making sure there are no groceries in that bag.

I wonder if we could have fit a few more McMaos in that ham-mick.

Cilantro on the scratcher, keeping an eye on her tail.

Clove, batting cleanup. (In the morning, the Spice Girls get their snack upstairs in their room while I’m scooping litter boxes. Usually by the time I’m done scooping, they’re done eating, so I let them out. Then I go downstairs and give the McMaos their snack, and on this particular day, Clove wandered along and realized there were leftovers to be taken care of.)

Dorian suggested, a couple of weeks ago, using a muffin top pan to give the McMaos their snack. It works wonderfully (I usually put a couple of dabs of food in the middle in case Maggie wants to join in – which she doesn’t, lately.) and it’s a lot better than having to juggle an armload of dishes! Thanks, Dorian!

Clove and Fergus Simon, in the cat bed under the table. That cat bed was originally on one of the chairs, but they kept knocking it down, so I gave up and left it there.

Sweet Miss Cori, on the ham-mick in the kitchen. We have three ham-micks in this house, and that one’s the most popular by far.

Sleepy Spices. (Front to back: Cilantro, Clove, Coriander.)

She looks oh so sweet and innocent, doesn’t she? Don’t be fooled! (Clove)

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Loony Jake and Alice snuggle up.

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Previously
2010: “YOU BETTER KEEP THOSE KIDS QUIET OVER THERE. I KEEP MY KIDS QUIET, YOU DO THE SAME WITH YOURS, YOU HEAR ME?!”
2009: I don’t mind telling you that I’m ready to burn the goddamn house down.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: For the record, that’s the sort of thing that gives me a fucking stroke.
2004: Oh, Rayford Steele, you manly stud.
2003: Now, do I look like the kind of gal who enjoys hiking?
2002: Some people have wild sex dreams. I dream that I’m chatting with my husband and kissing him goodbye for the day. Somebody stop me!
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

Don’t know if you have read about this case. It involves tax deductions for unreimbursed expenses for animal rescue volunteers.

Stray Cat Strut: Woman Beats IRS

One Easy Way to Lose That Charitable Deduction

A lot of people shared this article with me this week, and I found it very interesting – and only partly because when a citizen beats the IRS, it’s a BLOW FOR THE LITTLE PERSON, huzzah!

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How do you keep your cats away from the catnip growing? I tried one time to grow up some nip, and my cats murdered that plant before it even had a chance.

The raised beds and bales are in a section behind the back yard with a fence around it, only accessible through the gate at the back of the yard. I was more concerned about the cats using the raised beds as litter boxes, but now that I’ve got the catnip going back there, I’m doubly glad there’s a fence!

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Just noticed the link to 2000 has a quote with the word “Mom” in it, which leads me to wonder how your kiddo is doing? You haven’t mentioned her in ages, which I’m hoping means that all is well in the land of Spud?

The Spud is doing very well – she’s now a manager at a fast food restaurant. I don’t know that she’s planning on staying there forever, but having the management experience certainly doesn’t hurt. She still has the yellow car I passed down to her several years ago, and her father and stepmother bought a house… last year, I think? She’s living with them. She’s going to be 23 in October, can you believe it??

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Hi Robyn – I don’t often comment but have been reading for years, and so when I saw this story I immediately thought of you! Well, I know folks in your neck of the woods are used to tornadoes (especially after this crazy Spring), but living in Massachusetts we most certainly are NOT! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we actually had a couple of devastating twisters come through our state completely ravaging a few towns. After reading this story this AM, I thought you might appreciate it….

It’s so mind-boggling that that tornado struck in Massachusetts, the weather has been absolutely nuts this year! I’m so glad that all of their cats were found safe and sound.

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I almost never open the door, and I don’t care if they’re looking right in the window at me (and now that we live in California, very often they are because it’s open). The door, like the phone, is for MY convenience, and my convenience is entering and leaving the house, not being harassed and/or cased for a burglary.

Anyway, here’s my suggested answer if they catch you, like that jerk did one day when I was waiting for the plumber to come back with a part: “I don’t discuss my current or future home security configuration unless I initiate the contact. You can leave a business card if you like*, and we’ll keep you in mind if we decide we have needs we need to discuss with you. Have a nice day.”

*Usually they won’t. Some of them are commission-only outside sales (base equipment is free, but extras and monthly monitoring are not) and don’t work for ADT or whoever. The others just want to break into your house.

Of course, in retrospect I wonder what the hell I was thinking. You know, so WHAT if he could look through the window and see that I was ignoring him, what was he going to do, tattle to the neighbors? “I could totally SEE her laying in there with cats all over her, watching the Housewives!”, and then the whole town would know that – gasp! – I don’t open the door to strangers? I’m absolutely terrible in the moment, though, and at the time I felt like I’d been “caught.” Next time, I’ll just roll my ass onto the floor so he can’t see me from the window.

Oh, and we DO have a security system – AND stickers on the window by the front door – so I was just a wee bit offended that he was casting aspersions on our perfectly good security system. I’ve never – and will never – buy anything from a door to door salesman and I don’t for the life of me know how any salesman could possibly make a living that way.

I would say that surely no one ever buys anything from a door to door salesman, but my neighbor signed up for some supplemental health insurance (I think it was) last year and then told the guys our names and that they should look for “the little blue car” (ie, Fred’s car) to know when we were home. I think you can imagine how much I appreciated that.

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Our security screen door w/dead bolt lock is a nice buffer between us and others. Because I’m cynical, I hesitate shaking hands with strangers at front door. They might yank me out of the house/hurt me and holler for the rest of their thug friends. I have an active imagination!!!

I was definitely kicking myself afterward for opening the door. I wish we had a screen door on the front door, but we don’t. That might be something worth looking into.

Last year (possibly the year before), two men stopped by and knocked on the (side) door. I figured they wanted to buy eggs, so I went out there – no actually, now that I think about it, I was already outside doing some chore or another, and they drove up the driveway and saw me, so I felt, y’know, “caught.” They were trying to ask if we had a pond for fishing – their English wasn’t great, I was having a hard time understanding them – and as we were standing in my side yard trying to communicate, I suddenly thought “What the fuck am I doing? This is how I’m going to end up in the newspaper, ‘A Smallville woman was brutally raped and beaten today…'” When I’m home alone and out in the yard doing chores, I’ve usually got my gun on me, but I wasn’t that day because it’s sometimes a hassle when I’m wearing shorts without pockets in them. A dumb move on my part in retrospect, I guess I was lucky.

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Robyn, about those Housewives…What are you not liking about this season? I feel like everyone is SUPER annoying, which makes it worth watching! But I have the feeling that without untreated alcoholism, none of the Housewives shows would have any action. (A friend who is a producer for one of them admitted as much to me.) Are you watching NJ? Did you watch OC? What do you think of how monstrous Vicki looks with those dermal fillers she got before the reunion? Sad.com!

I have – I am not even embarrassed to admit! – seen every episode of every season of the Housewives except for Miami because one of the women in that season scared the bejesus out of me with her face, and I gave that season a very wide berth.

What I’m not liking about NY is… mostly, everyone. Alex seems to be going out of her way to be confrontational which, okay, find your voice Alex. BUT she can’t find her words when she’s in the middle of a heated confrontation (neither can I, so I can sympathize, but don’t start a confrontation unless you’re able to follow through, is my opinion), and she gets all blotchy, and I think if you’re going to stand up for yourself, you can’t be standing there with your mouth gaping open while you search desperately for words. It just doesn’t work, and it leads to the other women steamrolling right over her. Sonya is annoying and that talk she had with Cindy about knowing her place, well, UGH. Luann is pretentious and condescending, and the more I watch the show, the more amazed I am that the woman was able to publish a book about etiquette – ETIQUETTE, seriously? – with a straight face. She’s mostly a bossy bitch who just wants everyone to do what she says and if they don’t she DAWLINGs all over them. Kelly is a lot less batshit crazy this year, but her shutting down every confrontational conversation so no one can come to a conclusion is annoying. Ramona MUST have a 75% blood alcohol level because nothing she does ever makes sense (and those eyes are the stuff of nightmares). Who am I forgetting? Oh, Cindy. About Cindy, I just say ::shrug:: meh.

I’m also watching NJ and I find the whole Teresa-Joey conflict to be weirdly compelling because I can’t decide whose side I’m on. I mean, she’s a loon, but Teresa DID write the letter to try to make amends. And Joey DID show up to Gia’s meet late. But then again, Teresa is pretty full of herself and that ridiculous “I HATE SPRINKLE COOKIES SO I THREW THEM AWAY!” made me laugh. I’m looking forward to the Jacqueline-Ashley blowup because that Ashley is one entitled spoiled rotten brat. Also, I like Caroline, but did she think that her boychildren were going to live with her forever? Did she truly structure her entire life around them without considering that one day they’d leave? She needs Bethenny to call her up and tell her to get a hobby.

OH. Did you SEE that weird scene with Melissa and Joey where she was singing Amazing Grace (“saved a wench like me”, she sang, by the way) and he was all “Shh, listen to Mommy” to the kids and then they had that stupidly weird, stilted conversation about how she has such a wonderful voice and a great body and how she’s gonna be a STAH. I laughed so hard at that damn scene!

I did see the OC reunion (both parts!) and you know what I don’t get? What I don’t get is why these women spend so much money on botox and fillers and put crap in their lips, and then they walk around with wrinkled and saggy necks. Now look, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG with wrinkled and saggy necks, but when you have a completely smooth and nonmoving face and then a wrinkled neck, it just looks awful. Your face should match your neck. None of these women even resemble living humans any more and for the love of all that is holy I do not for the life of me understand why anyone would ever have anything injected in their lips. It looks so AWFUL.

My favorite part of the reunion was at the end when Alexis was all “Oh, and I JUST got a text from my husband, he says Peggy STALKED him!” and I so wanted Peggy to say “Have you seen your husband, Alexis? No one is stalking his ass.” Alexis is the most ridiculous woman on that show, she’s desperately insecure, and her competitiveness with Peggy was idiotic. I mostly like Gretchen, though the whole “chubba wubba” thing with Slade made me want to poke her eyes out. That is so fucking RUDE.

Tamra is a shit-stirrer to the nth degree and does it surprise me that she couldn’t see how much what she’s been doing to Gretchen over the past couple of years is very much like what Jeanna’s been doing to her? Doesn’t surprise me one little bit that she doesn’t see it.

Okay, that’s all I can think of. Y’all weigh in now!

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I wonder if kittens who are allowed to nurse as long as they want are less neurotic than kittens who were taken from the mama too soon? I had a cat who would nurse in my hair. I’d wake up in the morning with a slobbery, rat’s nest from him sucking, drooling and sewing in my hair. We got him at 5 weeks, I believe.

Kittens who are weaned too soon do tend to do that – for years Sugarbutt would wake me up in the middle of the night, kneading on my shoulder and licking my neck. He eventually outgrew it, but I think that some cats never do.

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What I did last year was buy some “natural” (can’t remember what they called it) rolls of weed cover that gradually decomposes and disappears. It may even be organic; can’t remember. It’s long rolls of brown papery stuff, and you can plant right through it as well as put it between rows. After I rolled it out in the rows (I weighted the ends down with bricks so they wouldn’t blow away), i heaped grass clippings on top for an extra layer. And it really worked! Not 100%, but good enough that I only weeded once in a while, and then it was minimal. I bought this stuff at Lowe’s, and OF COURSE they don’t have it this year.

We actually saw some of that when we were at Lowe’s. We thought about it, but we have 17 rows in our garden, each of them 75 feet long, so it was cost prohibitive. I did cut feed bags (from pig and chicken feed) and put them down around the tomatoes; I’m planning to put some bags down around the peppers and squash plants, too, and then clippings on top of the bags. It’s a pretty damn good thing that we have 4 1/2 acres, because we certainly have need for a LOT of clippings!

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Do any of your cats get under the covers with you and then the others jump on top of them? 😀

Actually, no – Mister Boogers was one who would get under the covers with me almost every night, and then growl when one of the other cats walked across him or batted at him. None of our current cats get under the covers, though.

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You’ve mentioned allergies in the past. Does grass bother you or are you not allergic to it? It makes me go crazy. Do you take anything first? The grass clipping idea sounds great. Weeding is awful, especially in the oppressive heat.

Grass doesn’t bother me at all – I don’t really suffer from allergies, just a few days in the Spring. Back when I was cleaning at Petsmart every week, I’d get really itchy and I guess that was from so much cat hair in the room, but a child’s Benadryl helped knock that right out. You’d think I’d be itchy with all the cats we have in the house, but I’m not at all.

When I weed, I only weed first thing in the morning, and I refuse to do any outside work after 9 because it’s just way too hot. If it’s outside work that can’t be done first thing in the morning, I’m not gonna do it.

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Since it was my subconscious brain that declared there are cats every where…follow up question…are you ever anywhere in the house when there is NOT a cat around you or in the room with you or darting past? I have this picture in my mind of there literally being cats EVERYWHERE obviously 😉 But when you said in this post that you love seeing kittens darting about – it made me realize that there probably is no place in the house without a cat, right?

There is truly no place in this house where there’s not at least one cat – except, that is, for the bathroom. I refuse to have cats sitting and staring at me when I’m in the bathroom (or batting at the shower curtain when I’m trying to take a shower), so I kick them all out. I swear it’s just like having little kids sometimes, because I’ll see a little paw come under the door and wave around. I don’t know if they just want to let me know they’re there, or if they think they can reach me or what, but it always makes me laugh.

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Okay, so I know you’re not THIS bad, but you were the first person I had to send this to!

That cracked me UP. I also really really liked The Engineers’ response:

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When I first started to read your journal (oh so many years ago), I was struck by how similar my StanLee was to Mister Boogers. Now that both boys are gone, I look forward to each and every picture you post of Jake and Elwood. Those two don’t just look similar, they are wonderfully spookily identical to my StanLee down to the patterns in their fur. When StanLee was a kitten, the vet informed me he was a Russian Blue, even though he was a tubby boy and didn’t have the green eyes either, so I’d definitely agree that those two are Russian Blues.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

 

I reference to today’s comment about the Blues Brothers…. Most people think all blue/grey cats are Russian Blues, but one of my two cats is that color (with the silver/shiny coat), and she looks & acts much more like a Korat, which also only come in that color.

My cat does have bright green eyes, which I noticed you said Jake and Elwood don’t have, but when I did a google image search one night for Korat cats when I was investigating what kind of breed I thought she was, (since I got her from the animal shelter, I don’t know for sure) I came to the conclusion that she was probably part or all Korat. I wonder if Jake and Elwood might be all or part Korat too? A lot of the pictures I found look like them too.

What’s kind of odd is that I think Elwood looks more like a Russian Blue, but Jake looks more like a Korat.

Do they do those DNA tests for cats? I know they do them for dogs. I sure would be curious to find out exactly what breed they are!

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Has having kittens — and foster kittens — made Maggie less vocal? Her miaow on one of your first posts about her was such a delight.

Actually, I didn’t even realize it ’til I read the question, but the only time I hear Maggie’s voice these days is when she thinks I’ve got food she thinks she should have. She figured out VERY quickly that the kitchen is where the food comes from, and I cannot step foot in there without her appearing from out of nowhere to demand that I give her food. She always acts like she is on the very verge of starving to death, even though cat food is always available.

About a week and a half ago, after eating a jar of chicken and gravy baby food every day since the babies were born, she suddenly decided she didn’t want it anymore, and won’t even look at it beyond a disgusted sniff. We keep a bucket on the counter to put kitchen scraps in, which gets taken out to the pigs at the end of the day, and we had to move the bucket to the cabinet under the sink because she was rummaging through the bucket looking for food. We can’t put anything at all in the garbage can that has ever held food, because she’ll knock over the garbage can and drag garbage out into the kitchen and lick food off the wrapping. I know she’s always hungry because she’s got babies still nursing, but I really wish she’d give me some idea of what she wants. One day she’ll eat an egg yolk, the next she turns up her nose. It’s kind of frustrating, but it’s more annoying than anything – I know she’s not going to starve to death because there IS cat food available, but I wish she’d STAY OUT OF THE TRASH, MAGGIE, DO YOU HEAR ME?!

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Brussel sprouts? Below the Mason-Dixon line? Wow, these miniature cabbages have really gotten trendy, haven’t they?

When I moved down here, most people didn’t know what they were.

I don’t know how trendy they are – Fred’s a born and raised Alabaman, and he grew up eating them. I was born and (mostly) raised in Maine, and I didn’t have a single brussels sprout ’til after I moved down here. (Of course, that’s due to the fact that my mother doesn’t like them, so doesn’t serve them, rather than them not being available.)

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I have a question for you about hay bale gardening… mainly – how do you do it? 🙂 I’m intrigued!

Here’s a page that has step-by-step instructions, but basically you spend 10 days watering and fertilizing a straw or hay bale (we’re using straw), and then you put soil on the top, and plant your plant in the top of the bale. So far our tomato and watermelon plants look happy (though one of the tomatoes is listing to the side a bit), but I’ll try to report back at the end of the summer as to whether or not it was worth it.

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This video should amuse Clove. It’s a cat playing in a hamsterball! Do the cats watch video?

That is SO CUTE! I actually took my iPod upstairs to play the video for her, and she slapped at the screen and then ran away. She’s not as brave as she looks!

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Clove, you are PURFECT!! Would a kiss be too much to ask?

::smooch::

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Clove is obviously a girl with plenty of cattitude. 🙂

Is she as vocal as she seems to be?

Like Maggie, unless there’s food involved, Clove isn’t terribly vocal. When food IS involved, all three girls will howl until the food is in front of them. Like such:

(my apologies for the accidental shots of the litter box)

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What kind of camera do you use?

Most of my pictures are taken with my Sony A100, but occasionally (especially for the up-close pictures of kittens who like to sit in my lap) I use a Sony DSC-W300. Enough people have asked that I should probably just put the info in the sidebar. 🙂

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Maggie = Your Butterbean?

I know, I know, everyone is always trying to get you to keep your fosters.

I kind of thought that very same thing, but I get the impression in the past few days that she’s tired of kittens, poor thing.

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Okay, here’s something to look forward to, but it may take a long time. I had a serious scaredy cat — she was born in a woodpile and chased around by some well-meaning kids who were trying to rescue her. For the first fourteen years of her life, she loved me and only me, and only if I approached her in certain situations, and very slowly. Then, she began to show some signs of deafness and perhaps a little cognitive impairment that the vet thought were just age-related. Well, she has totally forgotten that she is afraid! It probably helps that she can’t hear noises that might spook her, but she’s positively brave, social and engaged. She’s 18 now, and while still a little skittish, loves my husband, comes out to check out visitors, etc. Cool!

Our Spot, who passed away a couple of years ago, was a scaredy cat his entire life until his last few years. And now Spanky, our old man at almost 15, has always been skittish of strangers. But the last couple of years, he seems to be relatively unbothered when new people enter the house. I wonder if cats hit a certain age and they think “Well, no one’s killed me yet. Maybe I have nothing to worry about!”

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I’m sure this has been asked before, but I always wonder…

Why is the lovely Miz Poo called Miz Poo?
I guess I’m asking because I imagine some dramatic poop related incident! 🙂

For the life of me, I don’t know how exactly her name came to be Miz Poo. I do know that there was no poop involved, thank god. I always baby-talk the cats (I know, you’re completely shocked!), and I believe that somehow one nickname evolved into another, and I ended up with “Miz Poo.”

I have a friend who insists upon calling her “Mrs. Poo” and it makes me want to smack her because HELLO that is not her NAME! It’s MIZ Poo. MIZ.

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Did you get a weight on Maggie before she birthed them babies? She looks half her previous size!

and

Maggie’s looking really tiny without the baby belly. How’s she been after the operation?

Maggie is doing just fine – she is definitely a small cat right now, but her belly has healed up well, and she’s getting around with no problems at all. I managed to not write down how much she weighed before she had the babies, but I believe it was in the 11 – 11 1/2 pound range. I’ll try to get a weight on her this week, and will report back.

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Finnegan in the hammock on the cat tree in the front room. They love this cat tree EVER so much.

“What? What you want, lady? What?”

“YOWZA! I do enjoy a good nap!”

It’s exhausting being this cute.

Cillian (right) and Finnegan, napping on the guest bed.

Cillian and Mr. Bear, who you may (or may not!) remember from this picture of Terry from the True Blood 6:

Fergus Simon and Ciara, on the cat tree in the guest bedroom.

Cillian, on the condo in my room. He’s such a sweet boy.

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Miss Coriander’s all “What?”

Kitten-roebics. (Note Maggie in the background waiting by the door, all “You can let me out annnnny time now, thx.”)

“What? Sisters fight sometimes.”

“I bite you face!”
“No, I bite YOU face!”

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Elwood, who now has the nickname “Ellie Belly,” (and sometimes I call him “Ellie Bells”) hanging out by the blueberry bush. At 14.2 pounds, he’s one of our biggest cats, if not THE biggest. He outweighs Jake by almost five pounds!

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Previously
2010: I’m not judging Mark in Tennessee, but you’d better believe that I am struck with the urge to call and ask if the Venus Butterfly will be used in conjunction with the Pink DVDs.
2009: Their lobster roll is FABULOUS.
2008: And that whole throwaway “Well you’re fabulous of course at any size, Samantha, that goes without saying, but my CHRIST, when you gained the first pound and a half, how were you able to LIVE with yourself?!” line.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: And I so desperately wanted to say “Did I see? Yes. Do I care? No.”
2004: Ten
2003: I’ve never been the patient sort.
2002: Damn YahooGroups.
2001: No entry.
2000: I’ve always felt that I have a lucky life.

Is Clove the teeniest, tiniest little tabby girl you have ever seen? I know all the Spice Girls are wittle, but she looks tiny next to her litter mates even – aww!

She’s pretty little – Coriander outweighs her by half a pound, and Cilantro a little less than that. I expect that both of her sisters will hit two pounds a couple of weeks before she does, at the rate she’s gaining. On the other hand, I’ve had little ones who gain slowly at first, and then have a growth spurt, so it’s hard to tell. All I can say is that all three of them are the most kissable little girls you ever did see, and they all instantly purr as soon as they see me. I love that in a kitten!

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I just had a brilliant idea! Sleep away cat camp! I have been trying to find summer activities for my 10 and 8 year old daughters and they would just LOVE it. Throw in a little gardening camp too. Our local YMCA charges like 700 bucks a week per kid for sleep away camp. I am thinking you could make a mint.

I don’t know that that would work, because I don’t think I could come up with enough to do to keep kids entertained. On the other hand, if I make it a sleep away cat/ WORK camp for troubled kids, they could be rewarded for working hard (weeding the garden! Mowing the back yard! Scooping the litter boxes!) with kitten time. Hmmm. I must think about this a bit longer. 🙂

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Robyn, do you have a food dehydrator? I want to buy one to make duck cat treats and for backpacking trips. There are so many designs and price points–any experiences to share?

I do have a food dehydrator, it’s an Excalibur 2500 – which, of course, they don’t sell anymore! My only real suggestion is to go bigger than you think you’ll need, rather than smaller. When we got ours, I thought “There’s no way I’ll fill this thing up!”, but of course whatever you’re wanting to dehydrate starts out much larger than the end product. They do have a big footprint, which can be a pain sometimes.

I don’t really have any tips as far as dehydrators go (I don’t remember how we decided which one to get – I expect that Fred did a lot of looking around and then we discussed it and we got the Excalibur), but I KNOW someone out there probably does, so if you have any tips on the dehydrators, please share.

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Speaking of my mom – she had a favorite kitten a year or more ago – but she can’t remember the name and they aren’t on the foster page. Was there an orange kitten named Kringle? It’s making us both crazy trying to remember his name. 🙂

Kringle was one of the Christmas Kitties we had, but that wasn’t recent, it was in December of 2006. This is what he looked like:

He was brother to Jack Frost:

It’s entirely possible that I’ve mentioned Kringle in the last year or so, though, so maybe that’s where she saw him? (That picture of him and the one of Jack Frost are among my favorite kitten pics.)

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I’m so happy for Dorothy. Are they going to keep her name?

Yes, Dorothy will remain Dorothy. I’m sure she’ll pick up a nickname or two!

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Okay, nothing to do with today’s entry (though I am so happy that Dorothy loves her new home!) but have you seen this? It’s gone viral so you probably have but it’s soooo darn funny!

Oh, I’ve seen it, but I don’t know that I’ve shared it before (I may have on Facebook). The guy who did the dog’s voice did a GREAT job!

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I suppose Cranky Spanky wasn’t always so grumpy? Looking at your note from 2000 it seems he used to be quite the howler. At least that stopped, right?

You know, it wasn’t ’til I read this comment that I thought about it but yeah – Spanky hasn’t howled nearly as much in recent years. Every now and then he gets a wild hair and does some howling, but I can’t remember the last time I had to yell “SPANKY, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!” in the middle of the night.

Typing that made me think of the movie I made of him “talking” to me several years ago.

Silly boy.

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Speaking of marshmallow fluff, do you read From Away and did you see this recipe? I AM SO TRYING IT because they don’t sell the REAL Fluff in Arizona, just that jarred marshmallow crap. And I’m DYING for a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich.

I didn’t read From Away before, but I do now! I am for sure going to give making that marshmallow fluff a try – it looks so good!

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“This is a common misconception, and I’m here to set the record straight: kittens are actually made of silly putty covered in fur, and have heads filled with marshmallow fluff.”

It’s also common knowledge that cats have variable mass, wherein they can sound like a herd of elephants racing through a house, weigh a bloody ton when they don’t want to be moved, and be as light as a feather in the next moment. That and they are solar-powered fer sure.

Ain’t THAT the truth!

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The FEMA program reimbursing you 75% isn’t exactly true for all of us here. Homeowners can’t apply for it on their own. The counties that were hit here are apply for the grant and then certain homeowners can apply for the assistance via that grant. However, I believe there are certain income restrictions so if you make too much money you don’t get the assistance from FEMA. They are trying to push it through quickly so that it is in place for people whose homes were destroyed can include storm shelters in the rebuilding of their homes as it’s less expensive to do it at this phase vs. putting one into existing homes.

Thanks for clearing that up – I think we’re still planning to get a storm shelter, whether the cost is reimbursed or not.

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Which Spice Girl is the lap kitty? Or is it a Spice Girl you’re referencing there? I love lap kitties!

Clove is the lap kitty – she’s always the first one in my lap, and the last one to be lured away by the promise of a toy to play with or a tail to chase.

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That giant teacup is priceless! (How “giant” is it anyway?)

The tag on the bottom of the giant teacup says it’s 10″. It’s meant to be used as a planter, but of course as soon as I saw it, I envisioned kittens in it!

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Corbie is, of course, still a darling. Hi, Corbie. Any word from Rhyme or Bolitar’s forever families? Reacher’s forever mom has a livejournal. Heh. 🙂 For that matter, any word from Rufus’s people?

No word from Rhyme or Buster’s families, unfortunately, nor from Rufus’s family either, but I’m sure they’re doing just fine. Maybe we’ll get an update in the future. I did get an update (with pictures!) from the former Greg Brady, which I will post over the weekend.

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And doesn’t Clove look a lot like Corbie when he was a baby in that “luff you” pic?

I hadn’t noticed it before, but you ain’t kidding! That’s Clove on the left, Corbie on the right:

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Robyn, I gotta know – How long does it take you to do this blog every day? You put so much effort into covering all the questions, talking about all the kitties, and getting all the gorgeous pictures in with captions. You’re a superhero! I look forward to coming here every morning to read – it’s my very first stop because I’m always so eager to know what’s going on (which has been every day for a few years now)! Thanks for being so dedicated!

It’s really kind of hard to know, because I don’t sit down and do it all at once. I’ll look through my pictures and decide which ones to post, then wander off to do something. Come back and look through the pictures again, and name them for uploading at Flickr. Then I’ll write a little, wander off, come back eventually, write some more, wander off, etc. If I had to guess, I’d say it takes about an hour and a half, all told. Some days it takes more, of course, and some days less. It’s a labor of love, is what it is. 🙂

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Robyn, do you think Jake and Elwood might have some Russian Blue in them? They have that beautiful coat and goofy face.

I think they very well might! They don’t have the gorgeous super-green eyes of a Russian Blue, but they have the personality, and Jake (it’s hard to tell with Elwood, because he’s a big cat) has the body shape of a Russian Blue. I sure wish I knew where they came from and what their story was before they showed up on our stoop!

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How do you tell George and Gracie apart? I’ve been trying to figure it out, but to me they both look like big, furry, fluffy white dogs!

In person I have no problem telling who’s who because George is so much bigger than Gracie. In pictures I can usually tell who’s who because (to my eye) Gracie has a prettier face, and George has a big ol’ block head. But I certainly get why someone who doesn’t know them wouldn’t be able to tell them apart – sometimes I have to ask Fred who I’m looking at.

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Is that an antique three quarter size bed in your guest room? I have a similar one, (cherry wood, not as fancy) and have never really seen anyone else have one! I always thought it would be my bed forever, then I married a 6 foot tall guy.. oh well, it’s in my guest room now, lol

It’s an antique bed (Fred actually slept in it while he was growing up), but it’s a size Full, not a three-quarter (I had to look on Wikipedia to see what a three-quarter size bed is!) There’s a matching dresser to it, too – Fred’s father and stepmother bought it at an estate sale. It’s a little fancier than I usually prefer (I prefer the clean lines of Shaker furniture, myself), but it’s possibly the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in.

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(Oooo, someone’s a Stephen King fan I see!)

Yeah, we’re both Stephen King fans. Hey, I’m from Maine, after all – I actually met him once when he was signing books at a movie theater (I think “Christine” had just been released). I was too tongue-tied to say anything at all to him, just stared wide-eyed while he signed. Good thing my mother was with me, because he asked my name, and I said “Robyn”, and she stepped forward and said “Robyn with a ‘y’.”, because I was too starstruck to say it!

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I let Maggie in to visit with the Spice Girls a couple of times yesterday, and she mostly sniffed around for food, ate a few bites, and then asked to go back out. I have no intention of making her stay in there if she doesn’t want to (and both times, the girls sniffed at her, batted at her tail, then went off to play), so I’ll let her visit when she wants. She did lick Clove on top of the head a few times, and Coriander did this fantastic bit where she reared up on her back legs in front of Maggie, air boxed (never making contact with Maggie), and then ran off like her tail was on fire. Maggie was not terribly impressed.

Of course, no pictures again, but I’ll get some over the weekend. Promise!

I bought that big black and white stuffed cat to use as a pillow when I’m hanging out in the foster room and am overcome with exhaustion and MUST lay down. It’s a Pillow Pet, I believe, and very comfy. (Oh, look at that – it’s Ms. Sassy Cat! That’s fitting, no?)

I don’t know what’s in that bucket, but it’s clearly AMAZING.

I LOVE Clove’s pattern.

Left to right, Clove, Coriander, and Cilantro.

Is there anything cuter than kittens playing? I think not.

Playful Coriander.

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The McMaos are having a pretty good time exploring the house for several hours every day. They tend to migrate back to the guest bedroom around noon each day, and I close the door and give them some time to chill out. I have to put their food up where no one can get it when I open the door to let them roam, because otherwise Jake and Elwood will come in and eat all their kitten food. So I put their food down for them when I lock them in, then when I hear them moving around in the afternoon, I set them loose again and put their food up.

I love walking down the hall and seeing kittens racing in all directions.

Macushla on the stairs, watching the big cats go by.

And hanging out in the guest bedroom, guarding the litter box.

Sleepy Cillian.

Fergus Simon. I had this cat bed on the bed, and they’d knock it down and sleep on it. Then I’d put it back on the bed, and they’d knock it down again, and finally I just gave up. It’s not hurting anyone if they sleep in the cat bed under the bed, I figure.

“WHERE MY FOOD, LADY?”

Finnegan. I always want to call him Ferguson.

Cillian is such a sweet boy. When I go over to pet him, he throws himself on his back and waits for me to rub his belly.

Macushla with attitude.

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Miz Poo. She’s the sweetest girl on earth, but if she doesn’t stop waking me up by rubbing her nose on my hand, I’m going to… well, I guess I probably won’t do anything but be annoyed. How can I be mad at that face?

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: Spent the night in Dulles, finally arrived in Maine.
2008: “Well, I didn’t get the Clinique for YOU, princess,” I said, then handed him the tube and stomped back into the computer room.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: You are SO jealous of my life. I can tell.
2004: I’m going to drag myself kicking and screaming into this century if it’s the last thing I do, dagnabbit!
2003: “She was over there looking at stamps a minute ago. She did – she cut in line!” he said, and then tsked in disapproval.
2002: I am NOT picking that up, I thought definitely.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

That second picture of Macushla makes me think of dear sweet Mister Boogers!!!!

I can see that, actually. Macushla does have a bit of the Boogie ‘tude going on, doesn’t he?

Good ol’ Boogie. Can you believe it’s been almost two years? This picture still makes me cackle every time I see it, Mister Boogers doing his Donald Trump impression:

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Robyn, is that your stomach growling at the beginning of the Dorothy and Jake video or do you have a demon infestation?

That is, indeed, the nasty nasty sound of my stomach making its presence known. I don’t know why, all of a sudden, my stomach insists on being in the sound to every single video but I would like it to STOP NOW, PLZ. (I’m sure I had recently eaten lunch, and my lunch was “settling.” Or attempting to summon the dark forces, one or the other.)

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Well, add me to the list of Crooked Acres dreamers! Although, technically I didn’t dream about Crooked Acres, the PLACE, I dreamed about the inhabitants. Specifically Robyn (complete with adorable southern twang) and the cats. Don’t ask me why we were all in some upstairs penthouse type sprawling city apartment. I know I was particularly looking for and playing with the McMaos and I referred to them as such in the dream. My gawd, but there were cats everywhere!!

I guess it was a matter of time that this would happen given that I’ve been reading here for up to three? four? years and that I’ve had an Anderson kitty calendar for the last two.

I really feel like I need to cross-stitch a “My gawd, there are cats everywhere!” sampler. 🙂

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A little off topic….but are you and Fred aware that if you build a Storm Shelter FEMA will reimburse you 75% of the cost? Only 3% of the population who should have storm shelters actually do. After all the tornados this Spring, I bet that figure jumps drastically.

We received some help from FEMA last year due to some massive flooding here in the Midwest. I can tell you the quick and helpful response was impressive. Just thought I would mention this.

Thanks for the tip, and I’m posting this here so others in this area will learn about it, too! We definitely want to get a storm shelter, and knowing that we’ll be reimbursed part of the cost will probably get us moving on it that much faster.

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Do you do anything with the chicken feathers from your eatin’ chickens? And have you ever considered raising meat rabbits?

Fred feeds what’s left of the chickens (the feathers and, uh, you don’t need the specifics actually, do you?) to the pigs. When he processes chickens during a time when we don’t have pigs, he puts everything in a big bag and sticks it in the freezer for a time when we do have pigs. Didn’t know pigs would eat feathers, did you? Neither did I ’til I saw it for myself!

We haven’t considered raising meat rabbits because I am completely unadventurous when it comes to meat, and prefer to stick to pork, chicken, and beef (and, well, just about any kind of seafood that exists). I also don’t want to eat goat, no matter how much Fred mocks me for my refusal.

Also, bunnies are too damn cute, even when they’re grown.

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I was curious, do you only eat sweets on the weekend? That seems like a great idea, and I vaguely remember something about you and Fred having a “free” night, or something like that?

Years ago, we were doing the Body for Life way of eating, which allows you a “free” day every week to eat whatever junk your heart desires. These days, we mostly eat healthily during the week, and then on Saturday we eat out for lunch and maybe have ice cream or whatever. That’s also the day I tend to bake if I’m going to. I’m more willing to eat the occasional junk food during the week than Fred is, but we do try to keep it limited to the weekend.

Unless I’m on vacation, of course, in which case it’s OPEN SEASON ON WHOOPIE PIES.

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Every time you post pictures of Kara I always think she looks like a little wildcat. She looks like a mini-cougar in this entry’s picture.

and

I know I say this EVERY time you post a picture of Kara, but I’m doing it again anyway:

DIABEEEEETUS!

Just call her Kara Brimley.

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How the heck do you catch them in action. Like in the air? Great job!!!!!

I wait ’til they’re playing (or I entice them into playing with the feather teaser or some other toy) and then I snap picture after picture. Then I go through about 100 pictures to end up with 10 decent ones!

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Every time I see those mirrors on the wall in a picture, I think they are holes you cut in the walls so the cats can go to the next room. Then I say to myself, that’s right, they’re mirrors.

I would LOVE to have little windows cut in the door so that the cats in the foster room could look at the cats outside the room – and vice versa – wouldn’t that be cool? I’m afraid it’s beyond my skill set, though. And probably Fred would have a fit if I cut holes in the doors, because he is NO FUN.

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It seems like a lot of your fosters have been brown tabbies, especially recently. Good thing they’re so pretty. 😀

I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for brown tabbies. They’re so beautiful, aren’t they?

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I LOVE IT when kittens poof up like that!

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So what is the total cat count in the house up to now? It must be approaching critical mass. 🙂

Twenty-five, is what the total cat count is. Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard? Twenty-five cats in one house! When we had the Cookies and the Wonkas, we had 21, and I was like “This is WAY too many cats.” Now, with 25, I’m like “Huh. I bet we could fit a cat in the bathroom if we needed to.”

It’s an illness, really.

(But I should point out that since it’s now summer, Maxi, Newt, and Coltrane spend 99% of their time outside.)

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Extreme cuteness warning:

SO SWEET.

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I can’t imagine Fred smoking. Does he?

He used to smoke, actually. He wasn’t a super-heavy smoker, never smoked more than a pack a day. In January 2001 he decided he wasn’t a smoker, and he stopped smoking immediately because he is a huge pain in the ass and he wants everyone who can’t quit smoking to hate him. He’s smoked one cigarette since then, but it was so nasty that he wasn’t tempted to start smoking.

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I love the hydrangea, is that a perennial for you? Ours never survives the winter, but I don’t mind buying one each year, they are so beautiful. Do you call those pansy that just start growing johnny jump ups? That is what my grandma used to call them, and I have some in my gravel driveway that show up each year. I just leave them they are so cute.

Yeah, the hydrangea is a perennial here – this year is the first year it’s really taken off like that, and I hope it just keeps getting bigger and prettier every year!

I had never heard them referred to as Johnny Jump Ups, but a look on Google tells me that if they’re not the same flower, they’re certainly kissing cousins. I’ve never been a fan of them in the past, but in the last few years I’ve started really liking them. They’re pretty, easy to care for flowers, and they pretty much grow year-round here.

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Are kittens really made of marshmallow covered in fur?

This is a common misconception, and I’m here to set the record straight: kittens are actually made of silly putty covered in fur, and have heads filled with marshmallow fluff.

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What do you mean by “volunteer tomatoes”? And besides tomaters, green beans, squash, and peppers, what else are you growing in your garden?

A volunteer is a plant that comes up on its own rather than being planted deliberately. The tomato plants that are growing on the compost heap and along the fence line weren’t planted, they just landed there somehow (I imagine that the tomato plants along the fence line came from seeds which first journeyed through chickens’ digestive systems) and began growing. I figure, what’s the harm in letting them grow? Worst case scenario, they don’t provide any tomatoes, and since I’m going to just ignore them and let them do their thing, it’s not any big deal if they just peter out.

I am mentally walking through the garden as I type this list, so if I forget anything, you can blame my faulty memory. We are growing: corn, green beans, peppers (cayennes, bell, jalapenos, tabasco and a couple of bhut jolokia), tomatoes, eggplant, okra, squash (zucchini, crookneck, straightneck, and pattypan), cantaloupe, watermelon, onions, and cucumbers. That’s in the big garden.

I also have a little raised-bed garden behind the back yard where I’m growing: brussels sprouts and cauliflower (I don’t honestly expect to get much from those plants, as it’s gotten so hot lately), radishes, carrots, purslane, and spinach (the spinach didn’t do anything this year, for some unknown reason). I’m experimenting with bale gardening this year, so I’ve got two tomato plants planted on a straw bale, and three watermelon plants on another. For herbs I have two pots of catnip (of course), lemon balm, lemon thyme, dill, cilantro, and some very unhappy garlic chives (stupid chives, I do NOT know what their problem is!). Also, there’s a little potted Meyer lemon tree that Fred bought at Lowe’s last weekend, and which we’ll move into the garage this winter, then back out when it warms up next spring.

Whew! I didn’t realize we were growing so much until I listed it out like that!

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What, exactly, is that tomato plant volunteering for? To go in a sandwich? To serve on the PTA? To sing a church solo on Sun?

To GET IN MAH BELLEH, of course!

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Do the piggies have names? Can I name one of them if I donate to Challenger’s House? Can I pick up Clove and stick my face in her belly fluff?

We don’t usually name the pigs, mostly because we tend toward calling them “Big Pig” and “Little Pig”, though that’s not going to work this time since we have three. At the moment, we’re calling them “Bold Pig”, “Hernia Girl”, and “The Other One. No, not the bold one. No, not Hernia Girl. The OTHER one.” If you would like to name one of them, Bean, you certainly may. 🙂

You know what Clove would do if you stuck your face in her belly fluff? She would stare up at you with love-filled eyes, and she would purr so loudly that The Other One would stop eating grass and lift her head to listen. Then Clove would bunny-kick you right in the eye and run off to jump on one of her sisters. But you wouldn’t mind being blinded by her sharp little claws, because she is the cutest thing on earth.

“Dat’s right. Come closer. Clove not hurt you. Clove LUFF YOU. Maybe hurt you little bit, okay? Okay.”

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Which McMao is in the sunlight in the first McMao picture? Amazing stripes! Soooo pretty!!! Did the “not so bright” piggy ever get her cookie? It looked like another piggy got it!

That’s Finnegan. He has the most well-defined stripes of the McMaos. Gorgeous, isn’t he?

What usually happens is that the bold pig grabs the first cookie, then runs off to eat it, and about half of it drops onto the ground where the other pig gobbles it up. They usually all get some cookie, if not an entire one.

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I love the solid blue cover for the Ham-mick…. where did you get it? I’ve looked at the site where they sell the Ham-micks, but all they ever have are busy print patterns that don’t blend well with my decor, but I’d reconsider for some solid color ones.

I made that my own self, actually, using the one that came with the Ham-mick as a pattern. If you look closely, you’ll see that I am no seamstress, but the cats don’t mind, and it works well enough.

I can’t speak for the lady who makes the Ham-micks, but I suspect that if you told her you were looking for something in a solid color, she might be willing to work with you.

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Miss Dorothy has the most symmetrical coloring on her face I have ever seen. So pretty! I have recently acquired two kittens, a calico and a torby, from my grandma (my sister and I gave them to her for Mother’s Day, after her direct instructions to find her a calico kitten, then it became two kittens) but she is currently hospitalized and it is not yet know if she’ll be coming home :(. So the kittens are the sweetest pair I’ve ever met; I want to keep them, but I know I can’t: I already have three of my own, plus I feed the whole neighborhood of cats, which is about 7, one of which looks like she might be pregnant (yay, more mouths to feed). So, I guess I’m saying if anyone in the Western KY area is looking for a pair, I have em. I plan on keeping them long enough to fatten them up (they are tiny) and teach them some manners, I will indeed use the blowing in the face.

Western Kentuckyans, if you’re looking for kittens, let me know (or leave a comment) and I’ll pass you along to Becca!

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Jake really is made of awesome. Did Alice like him this much too?

Alice really doesn’t have a lot to do with Jake, actually. I think that if she were in the mood to cuddle with another cat, she very well might give him a snuggle, but on a day to day basis she doesn’t hang out with the other cats all that often. She did like Rufus – they played together a lot – and she snuggled with Reacher from time to time. Which is to say, I’m thinking that perhaps Alice has a “type.” We’ll have to test that theory next time we have a gray tabby!

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Could you possibly shoot Dorothy from above? — her markings look so beautiful in the vid.

It’s kind of hard to get a shot of Dorothy from above, because she mostly wants to look and see just what it is you’re doing. Here are the results of my attempt yesterday morning.

So there she is, kind of from all angles!

She’s off to her new home tomorrow (details on Monday!) and I couldn’t be more excited. I know she is going to be well loved and one happy little girl.

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“I KEEL YOU!”

“Whazzat?”
“Dunno….”

“But it sure makes me wanna DANCE!”

“I am a sweet little baby monkey. Suckah. Um, I mean… Mrowr?”

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So yesterday morning I walked into the guest bedroom to scoop the litter boxes, and was beset by an angry mob of hungry kittens, who told me ALL ABOUT the fact that someone took their food away the night before and they were STARVING and WHAT was I going to do about this tragedy?

I scooped and left the room, is what I did.

Then when I went in an hour later, there were McMaos flopped sleeping in the sun as far as the eye could see. In fact, two of them were sleeping IN the carrier, and it was ever so simple to scoop them up into carriers and close them in. Maggie stood and watched and made curious “What’s up with this?” sounds, but she didn’t freak out or anything, and the babies were mostly (sleepily) curious.

They didn’t cry very much on the trip to the clinic – this was their very first car trip, you know – but they were just a little freaked out as we weighed them and put collars on them so they’d be id chipped with the correct names. I had breakfast with friends, and then headed into Huntsville to run errands. I didn’t get home until after 1:00, and I worried that Maggie would have freaked out while I was gone, but when I walked into the room, she was sleeping on the bed. She supervised while I emptied, cleaned, and refilled a couple of the litter boxes and then vacuumed and wiped the dust off all the furniture. When I was done, that was one clean room and Maggie decided to take another nap.

When I picked the babies up last night, they were perfectly fine, if a little subdued. When I got them home and into the guest bedroom where Maggie was waiting, they swarmed out of the carriers, and she sniffed them and licked a couple of them. Ten minutes later, it was like they’d never been gone.

“What babies?”

Ciara (right) and Fergus Simon examine the bedside table.

I love the smile.

Finnegan and his whiskers.

Best! Water! Bowl! Ever! (They didn’t have a water fountain in the foster room due to limited outlets, so this was new to them.)

Ciara in the sun.

“HI MAMA!”

That’s a lonnnng way down for a little man.

(By the way, here’s a tip: looking for something to attach to your cat tree or scratching post for your cat or kittens to bat at? The drawstring from a sweatshirt is the best, most durable thing ever. Everything else I’ve used the staple gun to attach has been bitten off or shredded, but the drawstrings are standing (hanging!) strong after months and months.)

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“I see what you’re doing, and you stop it right now. RIGHT. NOW.” Spanky is the disapproving curmudgeon of the Crooked Acres gang.

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Previously
2010: I have none of the signs of leukemia and a history of low iron, so probably what it’ll end up being is lung cancer caused by litter dust inhalation.
2009: Sights from around Crooked Acres.
2008: I suggest that you expect entries to be incredibly light on content for the foreseeable future.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: I need to invest in shirts that are low in the back so I can show off my badass scar.
2003: I’m about to enter the PMS Zone
2002: What I’ve done since Thursday
2001: No entry.
2000: God help me, I’m going to go upstairs and strangle Spanky if he doesn’t stop that infernal fucking howling.

Goddamnit, Robyn, I was going to suggest you name your pigs Pork and Mindy, but since you’ve got a third one, that doesn’t work.

I cackled loudly when I read this. We tend not to name our pigs (usually there’s a “big pig” and “not-so-big pig”), but I’m going to have to keep Pork and Mindy in mind for the future!

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Since you turned me on to Snood a few years ago, I’ve always been grateful! I recently got a new computer so downloaded the latest version 4.10. Oooh! There is a puzzle preference option where you can pick puzzle games made by other snood players! SOooo much fun! Thought I’d tell you in case you didn’t know. I only like the easy/medium ones not those evil evil levels!

I tend to stick to the medium level because I am a lazy ass and prefer not to be challenged in the slightest. Every once in a while I try one on the “evil” level, but then I go fleeing back to medium. I sure do love the hell out of Snood, even after all these years.

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If they ever make a Crooked Acres Movie, they need to get Jack Nicholson to voice Loony Jake.

LOVE IT.

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Here in The Little Lair, we call that lounging on the back of the chair thing being a “lard doily”…

Nice to know our house isn’t the only one with lard doilies!

HA – lard doilies! We have many lard doilies in our house, Sugarbutt and Tommy chief among them.

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I’m visiting my mom this week and in her MASSIVE collection of garden catalogs, I found this and wanted to make sure you saw it: Asian Ladybeetle Traps.

I couldn’t remember if you’d already solved your ladybeetle invasion problem. 🙂

The year before last, I got two of those traps and put one in each of the worst locations (ie, where those awful Asian Ladybeetles were coming in the most). I didn’t notice it making much of a difference that Fall, but the following year (last Fall), the invasion wasn’t nearly as bad. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the traps or if it just wasn’t such a bad year, but I’ve decided to believe it was due to the traps. And they’re a little expensive, but since they last for 2 – 4 years, I think they very well might be worth it.

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I’ve been curious about this, and I can’t remember if you mentioned it before – why does the shelter not like to repeat names? I get that you don’t want twenty kittens named Spot running around at once, but it must be hard to think of names after a while.

and

What happens if the shelter gets a cat that HAS a name, and it’s a name that’s already been used? Like, someone adopts Uniquenamecat and in their home he becomes (say) Rufus. Then two years later something happens and they have to return now-Rufus to the shelter – since he’s been Rufus for so long, would the shelter continue calling him Rufus even though there was already a Rufus I? Or if, for another instance, a stray was found with a collar that had the name “Rufus” on it but no contact info. Would they make an exception to help (I would think) make the transition(s) easier on the cat? I’d think it’d add to the stress to suddenly have a new name on top of everything else.

Oh, the things I think about, trying to get myself to go to sleep…!!

(The name “Rufus” is now nonsense to me, by the way.)

The shelter prefers to use names that haven’t been used in the past just because it’s simpler for record keeping purposes – if there are 15 black and white cats named “Spot”, it’s hard to know who’s who after a while. I know that after a certain amount of time, or if a cat passes on, the name is allowed to be used again, so it’s not like once there’s a cat named Spot, it is NEVER used again.

I’m honestly not sure what happens if the shelter gets a cat with a name that’s been used in the past – if, say, I turned Sugarbutt in to the shelter and there’d already been a Sugarbutt, I suspect that they’d probably just list him as “Sugarbutt Anderson.” Or if a cat showed up with a name that had been used before (this is just a guess on my part), they’d either keep the name as is (assuming that the previous cat or cats with that name weren’t the same kind of cat) or add a second name.

There are ways to get around the whole naming thing – for instance, I was pretty tied to the idea of naming one of our then-fosters “Cara”, but since that had been used before, I went with “Kara.” Had “Dorothy” been used in the past (can you believe it hadn’t been?), I would have gone with “Dorothy Gale.”

I’m forever surprised by names that haven’t been used, and as of yet I haven’t had a terribly hard time coming up with names. I actually have a whole email folder of names that I go and look through if I’m stumped. There are a lot of names out there. I name kittens expecting that they’ll be renamed when they’re adopted and go to their forever homes, so I don’t get TOO attached to the names, and I’m never ever insulted when one of my fosters is renamed.

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The mom wants to know if you ever take a crummy shot…she can’t imagine it. LOL.

I take a MILLION crummy shots. Seriously, earlier this week I spent some time in the foster room with Maggie and the McMaos, taking picture after picture. When I got to my computer later and plugged it in, I had just under a thousand (THOUSAND) pictures on the memory stick. Of that almost 1,000, after I went through and deleted all the blurry shots and all the duplicates, I went through them again and deleted the ones that weren’t so hot. In the end, I had less than a hundred left. So when I say I keep about one of every ten pictures I take, I am totally not kidding. Thank god for digital cameras – if I had to pay to have all those pictures developed, I’d be one broke woman!

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Is it me or Maggie looks smaller now? I know she gave birth but she is smaller than what I expect she after she gave birth.

and

Hey, looks like Mama’s tummy is starting to tighten up! How is she doing with weaning the kittens? Are they nursing much now, or is it mostly when they pounce her and she goes along with it? I remember pictures of Kara sort of getting up abruptly with an irritated expression on her face, haha.

Maggie is much, much smaller now – in fact, I think she’s too thin. Every time I go into the room, I give her a can of kitten food or some other sort of treat, because she really does need to put some weight on.

The kittens are still nursing every now and then, but Maggie doesn’t think twice about getting up and walking off if she decides she’s had enough.

From earlier this week.

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I was at an estate sale early this morning that had an hors d’oeuvres dish, but it was Spode and it was $40. Sorry! 🙂

What, my babies aren’t worth it? Hmph!

I kid, of course. I’d KILL anyone who spent that kind of money on something like that for my babies. I thought about buying a deviled egg platter, but in the end just putting seven blops of food around the edge of a dinner plate is working out surprisingly well.

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Further to the divided-dish discussion, you might consider a Seder plate — seriously!

I actually saw a couple of really cute Seder plates, but I was worried that it might be considered, y’know, offensive or something.

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Miss Maggie McMeowball is a brown tabby herself, isn’t she? I can never remember.

Indeed she is! And a very pretty one, too, if you ask me. 🙂

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Love the teenage pics of George and Gracie! I remember you’ve said before that they keep your chickens safe. How did you train them to do that? Are they just super smart and intuitive, or did you have to specially instruct them in protecting your animals?

Their parents were working livestock guardian dogs, and they grew up (for their first few months, anyway) around chickens.While they were still awfully young when we got them, they apparently got and understood enough of the training from their parents that they became good protectors.

A few days after we brought them home, I was in the back forty gathering eggs. When I stood up and turned around, I saw someone standing at the fence, and it startled me. I gasped and said “Oh!”, and George and Gracie immediately got between me and the fence, and the entire time I stood there talking to the guy and his wife (they wanted to buy eggs, I think), George and Gracie barked at them.

Then, a few days after that, someone we knew stopped by while Fred and I were out in the back forty, and we stood and talked to them. George and Gracie barked a few times, but what I found most telling is that they stayed between our visitors and the chickens at all times.

They’re awfully good pups.

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Does Fergus Simon have the longest whiskers of the bunch as well?

No, his are pretty comparable to the rest of the litter’s whiskers.

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I just noticed the little round mirrors low on the wall (reflecting the kicker-roo). Do the kittens like them?

They do – every now and then I’ll see a kitten looking at himself or herself. Here’s Ciara checking out the view:

And Maggie:

“How do I get into THAT room?”

“I bet THOSE babies would be nicer than the brats in this room.”

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Little Miss Dorothy is going to grow up to be one gorgeous cat.

(Are her legs a little short, or is it just the angle of the photo?)

It was just the angle of the photo. Miss Dorothy is perfectly proportioned!

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So, Miss Dorothy has been spayed and got her ID chip and was tested for parasites (negative! Yay!). She’s all set to go, and for the time being she’ll cool her heels here, play with the permanent residents, and just basically make herself at home.

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“High five!”

Declan is very daring little BatCat.

Cillian swings! He misses!

There’s that Ferguson latte you ordered. I hope it didn’t get cold.

“You forgot the catnip sprinkle on top. AS USUAL.”

“WHAT?”

The McMao babies are going next Thursday to be spayed and neutered. They’re all over two pounds, and will be eight weeks old, and so it’s time. This means, of course, that the time is drawing near where they’ll be going off to Petsmart to be adopted – I mean, it’s not like they’ll go off immediately or anything, but we’re counting the time in a matter of weeks rather than months – so y’all start preparing yourselves.

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Yesterday, after I dropped Dorothy off at the vet for her procedures, I had breakfast with the shelter manager and other friends.

(There was a baby there. He was tiny, and his Nana said “Guess how old he is!” and I demurred, saying “I’m as bad at aging humans as I am at aging kittens!”, but I was thinking “Six months?” Yeah, no. That baby was two months old. I am SERIOUSLY bad at aging babies! Also, a while later after the baby had eaten and fallen asleep, they were putting him in one of those car seat carriers, and he looked so comfortable that I turned to the shelter manager and said “Don’t you wish they made those for humans?” Then I realized what I’d said and was like “I mean ADULTS!” You really can’t take me out in public, I’m afraid.)

The shelter manager was talking about these kittens that had been abandoned at a local business, and how she really didn’t have room for them but what are you gonna do, right? They were about five weeks old and all girls, a calico, a calitabby, and a brown tabby. We commiserated about the total flood of kittens going on right now, and ate breakfast and talked and so forth.

When we left the restaurant, she headed off to the clinic to pick up those kittens (who were being tested), and I called Fred. Then I went to the clinic.

Would you like to meet The Spice Girls?

This is Clove. She’s a brown tabby, and the tiniest of the three (just under a pound). She’s also the sassiest of the three, and is the first one to greet me when I walk into the room.

Cilantro is a calitabby. She’s almost as friendly as Clove, and very very playful (they all are, but Cilantro’s especially so).

Coriander is a calico. She was a little bit nervous at first, but warmed up pretty quickly and now when I walk into the room, all three of them run over to be petted.

They are all three very sweet, friendly, playful girls. They’re in really good shape, and I looked them over carefully, but didn’t see a single flea or tick on them. I would like to offer, given how friendly and in what great shape they are, that they were probably living in someone’s house (they’re not scared of people) up until they were abandoned.

By the way, when I got home with them, I moved Maggie and the babies down to the guest bedroom (it’s a bigger room), and put The Spice Girls into the foster room (after I cleaned it). Dorothy, given that she’s parasite-free, is now out in the house 24/7. She’s not sure what exactly is going on, but I do believe she likes having her freedom!

*Edited to add: Yes, I know that Coriander and Cilantro are the same thing – or rather, that Coriander is the seed and Cilantro is the plant. That’s why I thought it was so cute, although Coriander & Cilantro might have been better mother-daughter names now that I think about it!

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::slurrrrp:: Tommy, sauntering across the back yard.

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Previously
2010: I’d like to think this is a play on words (“So stainless it’s a steal!”), but I kinda doubt it.
2009: So we moved George back out to the big coop, and George’s baby could not possibly care less, he’s staying up late and making prank phone calls and eyeballing the girl baby chickens, and I think he’s going to be nothing but trouble.
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: I have renewed faith in my fellow man.
2004: No entry.
2003: “AT LEAST THEY KNOW I DON’T HAVE A BOMB IN MY SUITCASE!”
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: The man is full of compliments, ain’t he?