From commentor Shell:
My tomato thief. Yes, poor old Clemmie. Funny, the older she got, the more fond she became of them. But would always try to hide her munching. In this photo I’d caught her in the act but she’s walking away like ‘Who me? No, no, nothing to see here.” While the half-eaten green tomato lies on the ground in the upper right corner.
From commentor Opie Jeanne:
The bowl contains our first tomatoes, a handful of the many tomatillos we got this week (they’re like gold in the Seattle area) and cucumbers and some tiny sweet peppers.
The clematis is growing on a shed at the back of the property and is just about done. I took the photo last month.
The rabbit lives in the garden and doesn’t bother anything other that the leaves on the liatris plants. She seems to be content with eating the red clover around the edges of the property and in the back driveway.
It’s finally cool enough here (mid-60s) that I should be able to browbeat the Spousal Unit into helping with some pruning chores I’m not quite tall and/or strong enough to handle on my own.
What’s on everyone’s agenda for an early-Fall Sunday?
MacKenna
Ah, Anne Laurie, a breath of fresh air.
Elizabelle
Clemmie’s beautiful.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Look at sweet Clemmie!
LoudounLib
Really nice photos. Clemmie is very cute, and so is that bunny!
jeffreyw
We spent several hours yesterday at the shelter open house, participating in the good times and fish fry. But I repeat myself:) Of particular interest was a momma terrier with two suckling pups-along with a tiny kitteh she has adopted. I have some pictures, although not the best, and will be putting a few up over at the W4dinner place soon.
Kane
Impossible to look at this photo of the bowl of fresh vegetables and not crave a salad.
OzarkHillbilly
The only way Clemmie could look more guilty was if she had tomato seeds in her whiskers.
Today? Dodging rain drops.
Skepticat
My sister had a fabulous garden this year, but she’s been busy with other things and now is out of the country while tomatoes of all shapes, sizes, and colors take over the world. I’m going to pick them all and see if I can find a food pantry on the mainland or take them to the ferry dock with a Help Yourself sign. Of course nearly everyone on the island seems to have a bumper crop themselves
jeffreyw
Here’s the link to the story about the momma dog adopting a kitten.
JPL
Clemmie has good taste. Just picked tomatoes, yum!
@jeffreyw: What a sweet story.
The kitten loves her snuggles.
Linda Featheringill
Clemmie is a cutie! And I’m so glad you can just live with your rabbit. How nice.
Linda Featheringill
@Skepticat:
Fresh produce would be very welcome at a food pantry if you could find the time to get it there.
RossInDetroit
We were told never to give our dog tomatoes or potatoes because they’re of the nightshade family & somehow bad for dogs in a way they’re not bad for us. Ditto grapes, raisins and peppers. Is this true, or is it folklore? I guess I could Google it but 98% of the pet info out there is bunk and it’s tough to know what to believe.
harlana
stories of puppehs plucking and eating tomatoes off the vine sorta makes my day
harlana
@RossInDetroit: my mom’a dog, long-haired chi (you would think he had a delicate constitution, right?) eats anything, never gets sick (even when he is a veritable pig) – guess it just depends on the individual dog, really.
RossInDetroit
On deck for today is some garden work. I have to tear down an old shed that we’ve replaced and sort out the contents for recycling. I have a large weeping fig tree that needs to go in a bigger 24″ pot and to be brought indoors until spring. I probably should have repotted it when I put it outdoors in June, but there was a lot going on in the gardens then and I didn’t get to it. This particular tree was purchased in a 4″ pot as a gift for my grandmother when she was in the hospital 25 years ago. She passed away and the plant has been potted up and passed around the family since. I think our house is the only one big enough for it now so we’re the caretakers of Grandma’s tree.
Linda Featheringill
@RossInDetroit:
“Grandma’s tree”
What a lovely idea!
Do you get figs off of it?
Mino
@RossInDetroit: Tomatoes fine; raisins, never, nor grapes.
RossInDetroit
@Linda Featheringill:
I think this is the species called Ficus Benjamina. Your basic indestructible commercial/industrial foliage plant. Periodically it litters the floor with pea sized green fruits, but nothing edible.
Maude
@RossInDetroit:
Those are lovely trees. Pretty soon, you’ll cut a hole in the roof.
When I worked in a garden center, the grower sent the house plants for the greenhouse in March. There were aphids on them. The owner had to bomb the greenhouse twice. They weren’t freedom bombs.
Linda Featheringill
My spring garden was composed mainly of plants that had been started already. The fall garden is all seeds-in-the-ground and I am suffering from impatience. I want plants! Not a bunch of undifferentiated green things!
RossInDetroit
@Maude:
I’ve been heading off its growth for years, trimming longer branches and keeping it bunched up with wire so it has a reasonable footprint. In fresh soil I’m sure it’s due for a new expansionary phase. It lives in a 900 sf room with 250 sf of north facing windows. I used to augment its light with a dual 48″ full spectrum fluorescent fixture in the winter but it doesn’t seem to need that as long as it gets rotated regularly.
A Mom Anon
@RossInDetroit: The ASPCA has a pretty reliable list of toxic plants,flowers,veggies and the like on their website. Or,just ask your vet for specifics.
electricgrendel
Tomatillos are delicious. I am glad they are so available here in Austin. My favorite thing to do is take the larger tomatillos, slide them up somewhat thick and bread them and fry them like green tomatoes. They’re fabulously delicious! I serve them as tacos with a cherry tomato, avocado, red onion and hot sauce relish and queso fresca on corn tortillas! Fried green tomatoes also make super tasty tacos!
RossInDetroit
@A Mom Anon:
Thank you. That’s just the info I needed. I’ll Google that up & share it with my wife so we can treat Geezer the dog without making him sick.
ETA: here it is: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/people-foods.aspx
Omnes Omnibus
@RossInDetroit: I just looked at the list. Who feeds their dogs garlic and onions; isn’t regular dog breath bad enough?
Cat Lady
This is how you do it, emoprogs:
RossInDetroit
@Omnes Omnibus:
Our dog would eat anything if it was frozen, even onions.
I had heard that grapes/raisins were bad for dogs. I know several people who give them as treats. Now I know to warn them against this. The list isn’t very long, which is reassuring.
Omnes Omnibus
@RossInDetroit: I didn’t know about the grapes thing until Raven (formerly stuckinred) had an incident with one of his beasts; one can learn a lot here at Balloon Juice.
Kristine
@RossInDetroit: I stick to the vet sites when I look up info. According to what I found, the compound that causes the trouble is present in greater quantities in greenies, stems and leaves; ripe tomatoes contain much less of it and are fine. The compound, alpha-tomatine, can cause stomach upset, but the vet in question had never had to treat a dog that had gotten sick from eating tomatoes. The issue affects cows and other ruminants more because they can ingest entire plants.
cmorenc
I’ve got rabbits who live around my yard, who can be seen most evenings quietly nibbling on the lawn near the border with the landscaped ares of dense shrubbery the rabbits retreat into when they need cover. I’m very glad for both them and for my otherwise wonderful Italian Greyhound that despite her being a “sighthound”, she has a surprisingly hard time seeing the rabbits unless they move, and the rabbits seem to know this about her. The younger, less experienced rabbits are skittish in the spring when they see her come out of the house on a leash to go for a walk, and are more likely to bolt and attract her attention and chase instinct. But by early summer, most of them have had enough experience with her passing nearby to know she’s not much of an actual threat, and they’ll sit quietly nibbling as she passes by oblivious, or if she does try to chase, bolt only far enough to be widely clear of her leash range rather than bolting for dense cover in the shrubs.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s not just people feeding their pets unhealthy foodstuffs out of ignorance. Our four-legged family members are sometimes seized by the urge to, um, liberate nomz not intended for them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: Yes, my dog loved almost any human food. He was particularly fond of pancakes and watermelon, but hated carrots (raw or cooked).
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: Yes, my dog loved almost any human food. He was particularly fond of pancakes and watermelon, but hated carrots (raw or cooked).
Okay, FYWP, if I already said this, where is the original comment? Well?
JPL
Without thinking I game Miss Moxie homemade beef broth that had been made with lots of onions. Fortunately, she was fine and I learned my lesson because I had to dry clean every comforter in the house. She had to find some place to throw up all that nasty stuff.
also, too.. boxed broth contains onions so beware.
Omnes Omnibus
FYWP is marking a comment about the eating habits of a dog had years ago as spam. Lovely fucking filter. Jesus.
@Amir Khalid: I was attempting a substantive response to you, but it appears to be forbidden.
Kristine
In other news, I’ll be taking part in a fundraiser this afternoon for the vet clinic from which I adopted Gaby. It’s an outdoor fun ‘n’ games/agility get-together at a local park. The funds go toward treatment expenses for the animals that the clinic takes in. Of course, it hasn’t rained in NE IL for weeks, but it’s raining today. One of the staffers told me that it rained on the event last year as well. So, guess I’ll dig out the rainsuit. Gaby’s coming with me, but she doesn’t care about weather. King of the sensitive ears, however, will be staying home because he is a hothouse flower. He spent the last hour pacing and is now sacked out on the couch, which is where he flees when the weather is bad. Except it isn’t storming, just sprinkling lightly. Something about the pressure change must affect him, because he gets restless hours before rains arrive.
RossInDetroit
@Kristine:
That’s useful info about tomatoes. We’d been very cautious, prohibiting tomato products in any quantity. It’s good to know that if some spaghetti sauce drips on the kitchen floor we don’t have to head off the pooch from cleaning it up.
Amir Khalid
Liverpool FC are two goals down at Tottenham Hotspur and have two players sent off, each for a second yellow card. AAARGH!!
ETA: Make that three goals down. AAARGH!! AAARGH!!
Linda Featheringill
@Amir Khalid:
So true. Consider how many dogs steal slices of pizza. It’s so common that it’s a cliche.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Omnes Omnibus: It was actually both dogs, they were eaten in the van while I was swimming so we had to take them both to the emergency vet to the tune of $1500. I have been trying to find out why grapes and raisins kill some dogs and not others. One recent vet school grad told me I had it backwards, some grapes and raisins are poison to all dogs. I’m still not sure I get it.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Kristine: NE Illinois, I lived in North Chicago many many moons ago.
Old Dan and Little Ann
We had a neighborhood block party last night and I would up talkiing with some drunk republican. He got all up in my face about Obama and country going down the shitter. He was irate. I calmy explained to him what I thought about the current administration and the GOP. His eyes got real wide and he basically told me, “I’ve never heard anyone with opinions like you. This is really interesting.” He was sincere, too. Unfuckingbelieavable. Soon after I heard his wife tell mine that there’s no such thing as poverty of money, just poverty of spirit. I thought about biting my tongue but then I ripped into her, too. Shortly after THAT they introduced me to his son who looked like a bad 80’s movie dick. I shook his hand and told him, “It’s always nice to meet a young republican.” It was one of those nights.
Mino
@RossInDetroit: I have seen tomato pulp listed as an ingredient in many high grade dog foods. It is fine for dogs.
I think it’s on the list for raw diet, also.
Mino
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Well, we had a pom who ate skinned grapes. I wonder if the problem is in the skin?
jeffreyw
Nice puppies! er…ah, puppy!
Kristine
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): I know the area.
Mino
@jeffreyw: Caught yourself, did you?
Amir Khalid
At The final whistle it’s Spurs 4 Liverpool nil. I’m going to hang down my head and cry for a bit.
jeffreyw
@Mino: Important to maintain a professional distance, yes.
Catsy
Today is laundry and housecleaning day. It’ll actually be nice because it’s been raining the last few days with temps in the 60’s instead of disgustingly hot (read: mid-80’s), so we don’t feel like we want to just park in front of a fan and Netflix and not move.
Hopefully my Bricklink order comes tomorrow, because it’s less than two weeks until Brickcon and I have to finish the centerpiece I’m building for the Numereji 2421 display.
In other news, I am a huge geek.
gelfling545
My dog has never shown any interest in any veggies but my sister’s 2 (a pug & a dachshund)will eat any veg planted in any state of ripeness. They’ve never had a problem from this She has given up home grown veggies because she rarely got one. One of my cats did like to take a bite out of tomatoes & then spit it out just to prove who was in charge but avoided them when I started surrounding them with marigolds – one of the few battles I won with her.
bemused
@jeffreyw:
Perfect match. Lucky kitten. Our two new kittens (about 11wks old) look just like that wee one.
Nevgu
Is that wascally wabbit a pet or a squatter?
Elizabelle
LA Times story on donkey rescue: donkeys used on sugar cane plantations have been freed and roaming wild in Kona, Hawaii for years. (The “Kona Nightingales.”) Development is overtaking them; they’re becoming a nuisance. 120 have been airlifted to a Tehachapi, California donkey sanctuary.
In Texas, facing drought, farmers and ranchers are abandoning their donkeys on highways, where the animals are frequently shot by authorities.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-donkey-airlift-20110918,0,7544722.story
Mino
@Elizabelle: Odd; donkeys are brush eaters. You’d think it would be horses, who require hay.
CaseyL
I just got back from 5 days at Yellowstone, so I’m in recovery mode. Laundry, restock the larder, get reacquainted with my kitties. (Actually, this is the shortest away-time I’ve had in years; they barely knew I was gone. Their Auntie Peggy – friend and neighbor – takes care of them when I’m out of town, and sometimes I think they like her more than they like me.)
The Park was amazing. Saw mountain goats, wolves, coyotes, elk (including some bugling bulls), and a gorgeous bull moose along with his lovely lady-friend. Plus: BISON! More of ’em than you could shake a stick at. Bison on the road, beside the road, crossing the road, in the far distance… and hanging out in a parking lot at one place, where some amazingly dumb tourists were trying to pet one of the bulls. Our guide swore up and down, and went to get a ranger out there. About 10 (?) years ago, a Frenchman visiting Yellowstone went up to a sleeping bison bull and kicked the animal so it would get up and do something interesting. It sure did: it gored the guy and IIRC he took 10 days to die.
I would never kick a bison. But I confess I’d be awfully tempted to give it scritches – which would likely have the same outcome.
I would give up a fairly important body part to be a Park Ranger.
Amir Khalid
@CaseyL:
Served that mean, dumb sonofabitch right, I say.
Mino
@CaseyL: Jealous, here. I went to Estes a few years back, but the lack of oxygen at that elevation was tough.
Michele Quarton
When our dog, Puck-Red hair Brittany, was younger the garden was his favorite place to bury his bones. He would get quite put out when I would turn the earth disrupt his burial site.
quannlace
Aww, thanks, Anne,for printing my photo of Clemm. (My mother named her after Winston Churchill’s wife, Clementine.)
Wanted to ask. Is there going to be another ‘Pets of Balloon Juice’ calender this year?
Lizzy L
Spent part of the evening yesterday at the ER vet because my 8 yr old dog ate a chicken bone. Scary. Xrays, fluids, big megillah, watchful waiting for 72 hours. (He’s fine, no bad effects so far, can’t figure out what all the fuss was about.)
Beautiful Sunday. Mass this morning, then off to the local street fair to drink beer, eat ribs, look at classic cars and cheap ugly jewelry. And yes, Mayweather is a punk.
Elizabelle
@Mino:
Good point.
PS: Can’t remember what precisely, but I was thinking “yes!” when I read one of your comments last night.
CaseyL
@Amir Khalid: Totally agree.
But it’s interesting what people think they can get away with, with animals. Bison are enormous – a ton or so of giant-shouldered, sharp-horned, herd-protecting muscle. What on earth was the guy thinking? What did he think the bull would do when he kicked it?
Pedantic point: Bison are not buffalo, though many people do call the critters in Yellowstone “buffalo.” True buffalo are the gargantuan – and quite dangerous – critters in Africa, water buffalo and Cape buffalo. Bison are as close as we get in North America, and that’s probably why someone started calling them that.
opie jeanne
@LoudounLib: Clemmie is cute.
The rabbit is a wild rabbit who hangs out in our garden. She’s not particularly worried about us, will let us get really close to her before she moves. She had a litter of bunnies in a flower bed, which we discovered when we watered it and two tiny bunnies jumped out onto the lawn.
opie jeanne
@Kane: We’ve been eating cukes and tomatoes and tomatillos and squash like mad. Squash is a problem because it all gets ripe the same week and we’ve got way too much of it. The neighbors are all growing it, and the ones who aren’t are the ones who hate squash. Can’t give the stuff away.
Last night I made a flatbread with zucchini and black olives (thin-crust pizza). I’ve got half the dough left so tonight I’m going to make a pizza sauce with the tomatoes and tomatillos and top it with some Italian sausage that’s lurking in the fridge. Want to use it up before it goes off.
The cucumbers have been amazing.
opie jeanne
@jeffreyw: Great story. Very good for the kitten.
opie jeanne
@Linda Featheringill: Squash?
opie jeanne
@electricgrendel: This is the first year we’ve grown tomatillos, but they’re like gold in the Seattle year so we are very glad that we’ve had so much success with them.
Made some salsa verde with them that was amazing. Roasted them first.
opie jeanne
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I had a fight with a neighbor a couple of days ago. I didn’t pick it, and I didn’t do much, but I made him repeat a couple of the ridiculous things he said.
This is a guy I like, but when he said Obama is not a person I made him repeat it for me so I was sure he heard what he said.
He ended up so angry he was shaking, and I was pretty wound up for a long time.
He’s a guy who has never owned anything, only owns a pickup and only has a place to stay because his employer let him move into her spare room when she closed the company, and he thinks he’s a libertarian, thinks Ron Paul is a genius. Irony and self-awareness are not strong in this one.
opie jeanne
@Nevgu: That is a wild rabbit but we claim her as ours.
Haven’t seen her recently. We hope the coyotes haven’t gotten her.
opie jeanne
@quannlace: The Clemmie photo is really cute. You can see that she knows nothing, nothing at all, about that green tomato on the ground back there.