Posts tagged ‘Himalayan cat’
Separated at birth?
Congrats to Pekingese Malachy, the little “stump of a dog” who “wobbled” away with top honors at Westminster this year.
Someone compared him to an “alien footstool”, but I just see Cody the Shoo Bear when I look at him.
Malachy (image from B985.com)
Cody
Is it possible that the nation’s top dog is a dead ringer for a cat?
It’s officially summer.
For all the yadda yadda yadda about weather in southern CA, some of us think the place should be characterized as sub-Arctic most of the time. Not this week! It is a glorious, warm, sunny day.
Hope and the chicks enjoying a summer stroll
Autumn is almost done with her antibiotics and so busy enjoying her re-claimed life that I can hardly get her to stand still for a photo.
Back among the living
My stitches are out to prevent additional scarring, steri-strips are in place for the next few days and then we will see how well this monstrosity heals. In the meantime, I hope your summer day is as beautiful as ours!
"It's a good day to have a detachable fur coat!"
Pets on Prozac
Yes, I know, cats are inherently evil, (Angie sent me this link as proof: http://www.catswhothrowupgrass.com/kill.php) so short of smothering sleeping infants there’s hardly anything a cat can do that would surprise anyone. Maybe that’s why they try so hard.
"Actually, evil comes quite easily to me"
Our cats, specifically the three males (someone from the Greek chorus shouts “Why do you have three male cats to begin with?”) vent their anger, frustration or sheer meanness by what is euphemistically termed “spraying”. But you know what that really means, which is why, anytime you see a cat back up to draperies, furniture or the clothes you left laying on the floor, you go all Rambo and heave the closest heavy object in reach directly at said cat’s noggin.
Just in case you need the diagram (from www.sprayalert.com)
Or you purchase large quantities of scat mats, which has been a chosen approach since neither of us has a decent aim.
Scat Mat (from www.smarthomeusa.com)
According to the product description, a scat mat produces “startling, unpleasant static” and “memorable deterrence”, which, having mistakenly stepped on them numerous times in bare feet, I can attest to as being an accurate statement. Cats being cats, you can even buy ”faux” scat mats, which look like the real ones but minus the battery apparatus, they cost a bit less. Don’t bother with these, because, cats being cats, they quickly figure out the ruse (Greek chorus in unison: “You expected less?”) and will spray defiantly on the bogus mat, leaving fragrant pools of cat urine for the man of the house to clean up.
Did I mention that cats are evil?
It wasn’t always thus. Harmony reigned until Dodger showed up. Maybe the other cats don’t like the color orange?
The Artful Dodge
Whatever the reason, soonafter Dodger’s debut, the problems began. And persisted. Being the new kid on the block, Dodger was blamed and the CE laid down the law: “If he pees, he leaves”.
Here are the things you do when you have a cat that sprays:
1. Spend a fortune ordering “cat attract” litter and a black light (http://tallyville.com/litterboxhelp.html) that helps you identify where the cat is spraying so you can remove as much of the offending stain and odor as possible to deter the cat from returning to “his” spot.
Cat Attract litter, available from amazon.com and many other vendors
2. Take your cat to the vet and spend another small fortune running tests to determine if he has a urinary problem
3. Skip steps one and two because (at least in our experience) they were a waste of time and money, and ask the vet for a Prozac prescription (for the cat, not yourself), as it has inexplicably been known to curb spraying behavior in cats. (Here is a good web site on the subject: http://tallyville.com/litterboxhelp.html)
Then, be patient. It takes awhile. Months. But amazingly, Dodger now greets me every morning and obediently jumps up on the counter so I can jam his Prozac pill down his throat.
Good boy!
This has worked so well with Dodger that as of this week, Dizzy and Cody have their own Prozac prescriptions. I’m choosing to ignore the Greek Chorus comments about just how dysfunctional my life must be if my cats are on anti-depressants and I am not. Perhaps it should be the other way around, but hey, I get the occasional jolt of electro-shock therapy from the scat mats, which keeps me sane enough to not bring home any new kittens…
"Proof of a world gone mad: they're giving ME the Prozac"
Happy Halloween!
No big plans for us gimps this year, but the CE and PG did decide something must be done as a nod to the holiday. Thus, we have here what I guess you could refer to as a Pumpkin Tart:
Am I cute?
Another view, just to make sure you get the full impact
No costume for Chloe, as I don’t believe they make Plus Plus sizes. Good news, though – we think she seems just a bit friskier since beginning thyroid medication last week. When she weighed in at a whopping 113 pounds after being on a restricted diet for several months, we decided to have her thyroid tested and, sure enough, it came back lower than low. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that she’ll shed some pounds and feel better as time goes on.
Will there be less of her to love?
I found something appropriately Halloween creepy in the coop the other day – a shell-less egg:
Creepy, but common
I’ve read about shell-less eggs many times, but this was the first one I’ve seen. It was laid by Hope, along with a normal egg. When chickens consistently lay eggs without shells, it can mean they are calcium deficient. Not the case for Hope – I make sure the girls have access to calcium-rich oyster shell at all times. I’ve been assured by other chicken-keepers that the occasional shell-less egg is just a glitch and nothing to worry about.
Halloween? We were thinking of going as -- chickens!
Who needs a costume when you look like this?
Have a great and ghoulish weekend!
Quality time.
He wasn’t here for very long, but it was oh so nice to have Daniel at home! He headed back to the city today to move into his dorm for summer school, where he will be learning Greek (not the oops-our-country-is-broke contemporary language, but the ancient Greek of Homer and Herodotus.) Hey, why major in Poli Sci or Econ when you can do something REALLY easy like Classics, right? Our sympathies are with you, dear Booookie…
We celebrated his 20th birthday a few weeks early with the traditional family spaghetti dinner. Big gift this year: two tix to Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour concert at Madison Square Garden (thanks, Bobby, for helping out with the broker!) I was hoping he would ask me to be his date, but no such luck. Best gift: Granny bestowed upon Daniel the Steiff bear I gave her as a thank-you gift twenty years ago when she came to help out after Daniel was born. What a special present!
How can my baby be 20?
Granny returned from her trip to Florida in time to join us for spaghetti
As usual, Victoria had to share her seat with Dizzy
Daniel and Dad
Daniel, Granny and the bear
There's still time to invite me, Daniel!
Worth coming all the way home just to wear a Shoo Shoo Shooby Doo
Do not try this at home!
He got in a wee bit of piano time
Headed back to the city
We'll miss you, Daniel!
Animals behaving badly.
There are moments of clarity, rare, but icily lucid, where things come into focus and I realize I am living like a crazy person. The week in review:
I look out my office window and this is what I see. No wonder I have not yet written the great American novel. Or, for that matter, a post it...
We install a lovely fountain...so Chloe can wash her tennis balls?
Someone call the Health Department...
We invite people to dinner so Birdie can stalk them. (Thanks for being understanding, Julia.)
Chloe thinks she's a lap dog! (Thanks for being understanding, Grant)
And after you've cooked dinner and sit down to eat, Dizzy takes up most of your chair. (Thanks you for being understanding, Victoria)
Okay, well, sometimes they are just adorable, right?
But other times...Dizzy, GET OFF THE KITCHEN TABLE!!!!
They ask impertinent questions. Like, "why do you have your head up your...whatever?"
Or theywalk around doing their headless chicken impression
"It's all part of my diabolical plan. Eventually I will have them all committed and it will be mine, all mine!"
Well, at least the week wasn’t a total loss. That gaping hole in the lawn is gone.
Just wait - my money is on the raccoons rolling this up during the night
How was your week?
Blog, blog, blog…
Many thanks to all of you who have phoned, emailed, weighed in and commented in support of the blog. Much appreciated. I’ve given more thought to this in the past few days than it probably deserves. I’ve been feeling a definite “dropped by the network” bond with Conan – maybe we can team up!
After all, he does look a bit like a chicken...
I’ve had the luxury of living a fairly sheltered life. Maybe that’s why I don’t really share the fear that there’s a bogeyman in the shadows waiting to pounce. In my experience, the blindsiding generally comes from much closer to home. For the record, I have never used last names or addresses. My humble opinion is that you are safer on this blog than on Facebook, where millions of people make it surprisingly easy to connect the dots.
Privacy violation? Try sharing a litter box!
However, I need to respect the concerns of others. For the few of you who have raised concern to me or through someone else, I will do my best to minimize or eliminate future reference to you on the blog. I believe I can also delete specific photos and posts, so let me know if you would like me to do that.
As of today, the blog moves to a weekend format
There are (as amazing as that may seem!) a few people who really count on the blog, which makes me reluctant to shut it down completely. Therefore, my proposed compromise is to shift the blog to a “weekend edition” in hopes that condensing a week’s worth of events and trivia will dilute exposure but still provide an opportunity for those who would like to be updated on the general goings-on around here.
Thanks to all for your interest in the blog. Selfishly, I’m disappointed to “clip its wings”. Since I experience a considerable amount of physical pain on a daily basis and my lifestyle is thus limited, the blog has been a great exercise in cheerfulness for me – taking the time and effort to find something mildly amusing, something interesting, or something to be grateful for every day and then sharing it with you has been a lot of fun and very therapeutic for me. However, it’s not fair to do so at the expense of others, so, hopefully, “downsizing” the blog is a workable solution for everyone.
Un-named dog shepherds un-named chickens after the rain.
See you next weekend!
Why Cody is a bird’s best friend.
People often tell us about their fine “mousers”, cats that keep their owners’ (or, rather staff’s) yards impeccably clear of riff-raff like gophers and mice. We tell them about Cody, who will wait for hours on end bent over a gopher hole, just to say g’day when its head pops up. Then he blinks and goes back into a deep Himalayan slumber.
He demonstrated his pacifist approach yesterday when the chickens were free-ranging under the oaks.
This is how Cody stalks chickens
"Mmmm...I do love the taste of chicken"
"Sigh...but that would mean work..."
"I'll just wait here until the humans bring me some take-out"
"And you think I'M a ridiculous creature?"
Spared once again from the clutches of the dreaded Himalayan...
Some Christmas pix and a movie review
A familiar expression
Sous chefs prepping the stuffing with help from Birdie
Daniel learns how to stuff a turkey
And so does Taylor
Jean, did you send the catnip or did Gail? I’ve blanked on it but the cats thank you – here are Dizzy and Cody stoned out of their minds
Daniel and the Tart
Grant and Julia joined us for Christmas dinner and started their Santa collection
Victoria gave the CE a beautiful bonsai for the Chicken Kingdom
Victoria, Taylor and their beloved Smeagol aka Dizzy
We all went to see Avatar last night. The kids enjoyed it; the CE and me, meh- not so much.
Loved the art direction – inventive plants, sleek, snarling animals and pteradactyls harnessed like wild mustangs. But the plot is predictable, wearily pagan and bears more than a passing resemblance to The Lion King. Best things about the movie: actor Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch gives the film’s best performance and Giovanni Ribisi is excellent in what would otherwise be an unmemorable role. Also, if we truly get new bodies when we go to heaven, I want Neytiri’s…
model for Neytiri (from www.indimoviesonline.com)
In the Kingdom of Chickens
Polla Amiga and Kirk stopped by this afternoon to pick up an egg and drop off a birthday present fit for a Chicken Emperor – a basket overflowing with snacks to be enjoyed in the company of chickens. We all – all meaning the humans, the chickens and assorted pets – sat out on the new deck for a bit and agreed there was no better place to enjoy a late November afternoon.
Amelia decided to get a bit closer to the action and she and Pamela shared a few crackers:
Of course, once Dizzy realized we were there, he had to come over and check everyone’s passports:
I love how shiny the chickens look in the late afternoon light:
Hope your Saturday was as pleasant as ours!
