The Post Office is releasing a half-pane (set of 10) stamps in support of Adopting a Shelter Pet. You can even buy a mug with your favorite pet on it!
On the one hand, as the housekeeper for three rescue dogs and two-out-of-three rescue cats, I approve of anything that supports the concept. And the stamps are really cute. On the other hand, back when I was a stamp collector in middle school (late 1960s), the joke was that the “pretty” stamps with pictures of animals came from Communist satellite nations where nobody could agree on political topics, or from pathetic ex-colonies trading kitschy artwork for foreign currency. So I guess it’s time to admit that if America has, at the very least, condemned its national postal service to Third-World status…
freelancer
Since it is (technically) Sunday, allow me to display my affection for the church.
That said, beyond the incipient, inherent guilt, I want to give aim toward the feeling the Church has always aimed for, but fell most short of. Here’s some awe for y’all.
E Pluribus unum.
Night folks.
stuckinred
ARF!
bob h
We have a stray tiger-stripe kitten that we are feeding on our front porch. We want to admit him to the house, but our family cat violently objects. How does one go about this?
Linda Featheringill
Good morning.
Cute stamps. And yes, arf!
I was amused by the snobbery of the stamp collectors. Part of the human condition?
I saw on television the idea proposed that schadenfreude is experienced in the same spot on the brain by everythone. These folks further theorized that glee over someone else’s abasement is part of the human make up and therefore we are hardwired to be jerks.
It is not my fault. My internal anatomy made me do it.
I don’t know about that. I think I have more faith in human nature than the guys on TV do. It is an interesting thought, though.
demkat620
Morning all!
Having my coffee and I just looked, President McCain is not on my tv this morning. How did that happen?
Sarah in Brooklyn
@bob h: do you have a room where you can keep the kitten separated from your cat for a few days? that’s often a good strategy for introducing a new animal – let them co-habitate separately for a bit, get used to each others’ smells, and then see how it goes when they’re together.
i love these stamps – just wish they were raising money for animals, not just the usps.
arguingwithsignposts
WTF is up with that Road Warrior bike outfit sarahcudda was wearing? And please get these people out of my politics!
Chat Noir
@arguingwithsignposts: Agreed! And moar Smudge, plz.
Josie
@bob h – Sarah is right, but first take the kitten to be vet checked. Then keep it separate from your family kitty for quite a while, gradually introducing them into the same room for short periods of time. Slow and steady is the way to go. There will be hissing and growling, but they will eventually learn to live together. I just finished such a process with a rescue and my two kitties, and it takes a while to accomplish.
Robin G
@bob h: Agree with Josie — make sure you get a feline leukemia test first before you let the cats near one another. An overall vet workup is a pretty good idea. So just stash the baby in a bathroom, then, of course, take lots and lots of pictures and post them here.
debit
@bob h: I agree with everyone else; get the kitten to a vet, then give the fireworks time to settle down. It’s different for every cat. Our second cat took two months to stop hating everyone. It took cats 1 and 2 about a week to stop hating cat 3 (now cats 2 & 3 snuggle and mutually groom each other pretty much all day). The cat we cat-sit when her owner travels overseas for months at a time never stops hating everyone, but will peaceably interact with us after a month or so.
ETA: and after two months or so, I think they’ve finally forgiven me for the dog.
scav
Grey Cat on the upmost left should possibly be named Tom, although Tom was, in fact, a rescued barncat. And, well, not so much rescued as a barncat with aspirations, well, aspiration (singular), namely getting out the barn into the danmn warm. The evolution of Grey Poupon to Tom I am unable to recount.
Skepticat
As Sarah notes, too bad these aren’t like breast cancer stamps, which combine postage and a charitable donation. At least they may draw attention to an important issue though.
Waiting for a call from the vet to tell me whether one of my formerly stray cats lived through the night after emergency surgery. The cancer has spread a great deal, despite chemo, but he’s a fighter. If having pets weren’t so wonderful it would be hell.
Bob K
Tea Party rally in searchlight was attended by an estimated 9,000 people. You probably couldn’t rent a bus anywhere in the state of Nevada. I remember this press release from earlier in the week. Reid’s campaign sends us this statement, from Reid himself: “Searchlight doesn’t get many tourists so I’m glad they are choosing to bring all their out-of-state money to my hometown. The influx of money will do the town some good. I encourage everyone to drop by the Nugget to say hello to Verlie and grab a 10 cent cup of coffee.”
This article in the NY Times about tea partiers just makes me shake my head in parts. I guess listening to Faux Nooz helps develop an immunity from cognitive dissonance. Fairly Unbalanced – full steam ahead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28teaparty.html
SiubhanDuinne
These are terrific stamps, and I’ll be stopping by my friendly neighbourhood Post Office tomorrow morning to buy a few booklets.
Not the first time the USPS has featured cute puppies and kittens, however. In 2002 they released a series (I think with the Humane Society) to promote spaying and neutering. I don’t remember any coffee mugs, but I bought a tote bag with one of the kittens (hmmm, haven’t thought of that in a while, wonder where it is?).
Svensker
@Sarah in Brooklyn:
But when you buy the stamps, Halo puts in money for food for shelter animals.
RedKitten
Nicely done, Harry!
Is it just me, or has Reid appeared to have grown a pair in recent weeks? Maybe he was embarrassed when he realized how much bigger Nancy Pelosi’s balls were than his own…
Pasquinade
@SiubhanDuinne, I don’t think the stamps go on sale until the end of April.
@bob h, 80% of orange tabby cats are male. – learned that when I rescued a stray female orange tabby kitten.
SiubhanDuinne
@Pasquinade: Thanks! You saved me a trip.
raptusregaliter
@Bob K:
How to tell the difference between Democrats, Republicans, and Tea Party Patriots while on the road:
1. A Democrat will pull over to help you fix a flat, but he will somehow manage to set your car on fire.
2. A Republican will slow down if you have a Reagan bumper sticker, but he will never stop because that would require him to actually help someone in need.
3. A Teabagger will stop, get out of his car, and yell at you for being weak. Then he’ll threaten to shoot out your other three tires for being a Commie Socialist Nazi who has caused him an inconvenience. Rage momentarily assuaged, he will get back in his car, throw an empty PBR can at your head, and resume his trip to WalMart so that he can buy matching “Palin/Beck 2012” t-shirts for his entire family.
The “Democrats” line is a direct steal from Dave Barry. The other two come from a lifetime of personal experience.
HeartlandLiberal
As a long time serious stamp collector, and part-time, hobby business dealer, let me also comment on the sorry state of modern U.S. stamps.
Not only are the designs of 90% of them just sadly shallow and pathetic (although there are occasional exceptions, e.g. the lighthouse series), the new peel off stamps are designed and made with glue that sticks so firmly to the paper on envelopes that it is extremely difficult to soak the stamps and remove them from paper. It takes warmer water and longer soak times, and then you run danger of damaging the inks, or of the glue infusing the paper and darkening and spoiling the appearance. The current generation is not such a total disaster as the first generation of peel and stick stamps, but it is still a serious problem.
Although I have completed my United States collection up until just a few years ago, I make no real effort at it, the appeal is just not very great. I primarily collect and deal in pre-WWII U.S. and European stamps. And the further back you go into the 19th century, the better the design and intrinsic beauty of the stamps. Meticulous engraving and artwork just stand the test of time a lot better, IMHO.
AhabTRuler
Better not, or you know who might have to hurt ya!
Nicole
I like the stamps. And I generally like the USPS, so I hope they sell well.
Other than my first dog, my parakeets and the fish, all of the assorted pets I have known in my life were bought or acquired “used.” The second dog, the cats, the guinea pig, the rats. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Speaking of the latest vintage acquisition, my uncle let me know Cosmo, the horse, made a break for freedom while being taken to the paddock. He lasted ten minutes as a renegade, and then walked himself back into the barn because he missed his buddy. Sigh. Cosmo’s much less the lone wolf traveling the great unknown on his motorcycle and much more the hotel guest complaining that the towels aren’t fluffy enough.
kay
Well, as a former postal worker, I can tell you-all these aren’t for stamp collectors. They’re for individuals and specialty mailings.
The obvious specialty mailing is Christmas cards, and people there either choose the “religious” stamp or the secular, or a mix of the two.
Wedding invitations are another biggie: people use the various love stamps or there is (or was) a lacy looking Valentine stamp that was really popular.
People loved the spring flowers series.
If you write letters or send cards or hold fundraisers or have a lot of parties, you care about these things.
Nicole
@kay: I noticed there’s now a specialty wedding stamp- I just got a wedding invite with a pretty image of two wedding bands on it.
I’m not a stamp collector, but I was a sucker for those 20th Century by decade sets in the early part of this decade. I think I got the whole century.
CynDee
Bring on the kittehs and doggehs and all their kind. Our recent “first-class” stamps showing national symbols — a harshly stylized neo-connish jingo-marketing flag and the ugliest-ever image of the liberty bell are pretty much a sign that the U.S. has gone Pottersville.
The sweetness of innocent animals is one of the concepts we can employ to rescue ourselves.
HRA
Palin:
…some of you are like so many of my friends and my family, including my own husband, just independent, not registered in any party. Just true, blue-blooded Americans.”
Blue-blooded?
I have to stop reading what she said yesterday for my own health.
gbear
@SiubhanDuinne:
Check the date of release. I don’t think they’re out yet. Not until sometime in April.
(edit: note to self – read all comments before posting)
The dark grey kitty is named Willow.
gbear
@kay:
I use specialty stamps for everything. They’re fun, cool and they don’t cost anything more than a boring standard stamp. You can even annoy your conservative siblings with them.
WereBear
@bob h: It’s best to let them establish separate territories, and then gradually merge them.
As the kitten becomes more fed, less desperate, and more affectionate, they will be less likely to trigger the older cat’s alarms over their motivation in showing up in “their” territory.
And being happy about the kitten helps. At some point, the “new” cat isn’t new any longer… and the response lessens.
RE: the stamps; I’m thrilled the kittehs are getting equal real estate.
kay
@Nicole:
I’m glad to hear that. The postal service is a little slow off the mark, but they actually know what sells.
I only go in now to send certified mail, sadly.
I worked in a small rural office and people who care about how the envelope looks were fun to spend time on, because I had the time, and I love that attention to detail. Weddings especially. People put so much work into the invitation. If they’re making their own, they forget about the “can’t be over an ounce” issue, and then the whole front is spoiled because there is an extra non-thematic stamp.
They go nuts for kids birthday parties, too. Enclose a ballon with the vitals of the party written on it and then the recipient has to inflate the ballon to read the invitation. For a while everyone was enclosing confetti. There are fads.
The postal service is absolutely in cahoots with the greeting card industry, by the way. I remember there was a popular Christmas card that had an unusual length to height orientation that made it “hand processed”, so requiring extra postage. People were really upset. The recipients were getting Christmas cards that came “postage due”, because it goes if there’s insufficient postage, and they collect it on the other end. The card-maker didn’t check with the USPS, amazingly.
If it were up to the USPS, there would be a holiday that requires a card every month :)
kay
@gbear:
I get letters with Ronald Reagan on them, from a relative in California.
I don’t know if this is deliberate, but I have suspicions.
Mnemosyne
It’s funny how the cats all have that look of deep suspicion that they get when a stranger is taking their picture. “Who are you? Why are you pointing that thing at me?”
Also, I really like that they used cats and dogs, not puppies and kittens. It gets people thinking in the right direction.
Chaf
Good point on the communist-country stamps.
On a related note, has anyone else noticed that the U.S. Passport, in its recent redesign, has changed from a sober and dignified document into something that closely resembles third-world currency?
heydave
Doggies!!1!
OriGuy
@HeartlandLiberal: I used to collect stamps. I was wondering how today’s collectors deal with the new peel off stamps.
I edit a semi-monthly newsletter that takes the two-ounce stamps. Usually the only stamps I can get are the ones for wedding invitations or that say “LOVE” on them. I never get around to ordering them ahead of time.
Skepticat
@kay: I absolutely loved the bat (not baseball, winged echolocator) series. The people at the local post office told me that–not surprisingly–I was in the minority.
asiangrrlMN
Kittehs! I will buy. I love me the shelter animals.
gbear
@Skepticat:
The ‘Insect’ and ‘Reptile’ series were pretty good too. Nothing like sending a birthday card with a huge spider or salamander up in the corner.
@kay:
I sent a square birthday card to my sister that had a note on the back warning it would require extra postage because it wasn’t a standard size.
kay
@gbear:
I send hand-written notes, too. You and I share that with George H.W. Bush. That’s what we have in common with him.
Just drop the zip code to the last line of the address and use block numerals, okay? And don’t cross your sevens. This is America.
Hob
I prefer the critters-in-habitat stamps where the whole landscape is lavishly painted. But I must say these are pretty durn cute.
Also loved the series of early football & baseball players, because they all looked so surly.
John Emerson
Mongolia’s Three Stooges stamps were the champs.
01jack
I’ve got the shelter animals on order, and just bought a couple pages of the abstract expressionist series. The Jackson Pollock is more than two inches wide!