Just got back from the vets for the annual check-up for all three, and I am pleased to announce that Tunch’s ten year streak of bleeding the vet every time we go remains intact. His record remains unblemished.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 92 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Maude
A can of tuna for Tunch.
BGinCHI
I’m surprised they don’t work on him inside one of those enclosed hood things where you reach in with rubber arms. Or a mechanical arm.
schrodinger's cat
Pictures or it did not happen.
Just Some Fuckhead
I had to take two of the cats to get their rabies boosters yesterday. They handled the whole affair with their usual cat class and grace: howling, growling and public defecation.
Valdivia
Ah Tunch. I take my cats one at a time I think I would die trying to take both of them for their check ups.
BerkeleyMom
Well the vet’s office usually bleeds me. Last time they wanted $1,200 to take out a couple of the cat’s teeth.
beltane
My cats only act up during the car ride; they are little angels once they get to the vet’s office.
Just Some Fuckhead
The third cat was booked for a grooming appointment last week and they called us and asked us to come get him because he attacked one of them and otherwise wouldn’t be groomed.
Fucking cats.
God has to be looking down on us wondering what the fuck we’re doing trying to domesticate cats.
Just Some Fuckhead
This one attacked the groomers.
Mino
@Just Some Fuckhead: To be fair, that was taken a year ago.
Valdivia
@Just Some Fuckhead:
but he is so so sweet looking!!!
I will steal him.
pragmatism
you’d better maintain the tire pressure in the wheelbarrow you use to cart tunch around.
Comrade Mary
Look, Tunch only bled the vet because his/her humours needed balancing. Really, you should have charged the vet for medical services rendered.
cathyx
I can’t believe that cat isn’t a diabetic yet. He must have good genes.
Raven
I have had one cat. Years ago my ex and I took itty bitty kitty to the vet. She wanted to put it in a box but I said, ah what for? When she walked out the door with it the damn thing bolted from her arms. Never found it. They are both gone.
WhoopTDu
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/mitt-romney-obama-slowed-recovery-on-purpose
At a campaign appearance in San Antonio, TX Wednesday, Mitt Rommey accused President Obama of slowing down the economic recovery on purpose in order to get his health care plan passed.
donnah
Our most recent adoptee is a big, fluffy, cream-colored doll baby of a kitty named Fiona. (Burn Notice) The first time we took her to the vet, she was as sweet as pie. The only bad thing that happened came when the vet gave her the booster that gets delivered with a needle gun that makes a loud clacking sound at the injection. Fiona sat calmly through the first two shots, and the vet assistant petted Fiona as she got those, but when the vet deliverd the noisy one, Fiona leaped vertically onto the assistant’s chest like the face-grabbing monster in Alien. We all were shocked, especially the cat.
When we took Fiona to a groomer before taking her into our house, we warned them that she was new to us and we didn’t know how she would react to being bathed and trimmed. We went to pick her up afterwards and the groomer said she was as good as gold. And she added that Fiona is a smart cat, too. I asked how in the world she would know that, and she said they use a blower hose to dry the animals in their cages, and Fiona didn’t like it, so she figured out how to shut the switch off. Three times.
R-Jud
Tully earned a trip to the vet after breaking a lamp and stepping in the shards today. He didn’t attack anyone, but he did eat the newspaper we lined the cat carrier with. Should be fun when it comes back up.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mino: He still looks the same, just three times bigger. And he still acts the same.
Until you take him somewhere.
NancyDarling
Cats are not really domesticated. The only thing that keeps them in line is their size. I do love my cat though—and my dog. Best friends ever!
As of yesterday I am fostering a 4 month old puppy. My neighbors dog found her up the hill behind where they live. She was likely dumped. Long story short, but the husband won’t let my neighbor keep her—they have 3 dogs already. She had taken her to the vet already for a check-up, worming, etc. The vet says to keep her isolated from other pets for a couple of weeks.
Also, the vet thinks she is dachsund/shar-pei mix. She definitely has doxie paws. Lots of wrinkles on her face and front shoulders give her a perpetual worried expression. She looks like she is made of spare doggie parts by a mad scientist. The look is growing on me. I think I’m falling in love.
I have a 10X10 chain link pen which we assembled. Neighbor/husband agreed to help us if we set it up at my place. When I checked on her at 10 last night, she was in the dog house. She growled a little growl when she heard me coming until she saw me. She didn’t cry all night. She shies a little when I go to pick her up, but not bad. Then she snuggles into my neck. Today, I gave her some toys and when I walked away she grabbed one and gave it a good shake.
She will definitely NOT be going to a shelter. I may be looking for a home for her later. I haven’t decided yet. My sister is egging me on to keep her. I said it would be double kennel fees when I travel. She countered with it would be double the fun the rest of the time.
I’m thinking of naming her Nina (Spanish pronunciation; I don’t know how to add the diacritical mark) to match her big brother’s name of Mijo.
Jane2
@Just Some Fuckhead: That kitty is adorable!
yopd1
This made me happy.
Ash Can
@WhoopTDu: There is nothing shitty that the GOP is doing that they won’t accuse the Dems in general and Obama in particular of doing.
Yutsano
Lexie has been to the vet twice, once for her fixing and once for her initial check-up. Apparently she’s quite the charmer around strangers. For me all she does is butt her head whenever I’m typing on the gray box and playing run out into the hallway whenever Daddy’s running late. Damn furballs.
Violet
I can’t believe you’ve had Tunch for ten years! Glad all your fur kids are doing okay. You didn’t really need a pet medical issue on top of your dad’s medical problems.
SiubhanDuinne
@NancyDarling:
I don’t know how to add the diacritical mark
NancyDarling
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks. I don’t have an iPad and I don’t know how to access my character map or if I even have one.
I am most at home with garden hoes and wheelbarrows.
gbear
I used to take my fist cat to a neighborhood vet for her check-ups. She had an issue where I needed to leave her at the vets overnight and when I came in the next day, the vet’s assistant told me ‘Your cat is untreatable here’. I had to go into the back room myself to get her to come out of the holding cage and she wasn’t happy.
I found a new vet right after that incident and there were times that blood was drawn at vet visits, but unfortunately it was always my blood. Things worked out better when I just left it to the vets. They thought she was a great kitty and she never bit them once.
gogol's wife
@beltane:
Mine act up (and bleed me) when I’m trying to get them into the carrier. At the vet’s they are meek and mild. I have big suede gauntlets that are supposed to help, but they only make things worse. You can’t really get a grip on the cat with them.
JGabriel
John Cole:
Maybe you should trim Tunch’s nails before vet appointments?
Just a suggestion.
.
4tehlulz
Dolchstoß up in this shit.
Complete with Jewish traitor shoutout!
Cluttered Mind
Tunch is just taking out all his aggression on the vet because he cannot successfully catch birds.
floridafrog
Just picked up one of my kittehs, Lily from the vet for yet another blood sugar curve. Apparently she has decided she doesn’t want to be insulin dependent anymore and has stopped being diabetic. The vet says that occasionally a cat’s pancreas will switch back on after a few months of insulin. Wish we could do that for people.
Stuck in the Funhouse
We should have run Tunch against Scott Walker
gelfling545
Taking Snarla D. Dogg to the vet or anywhere in the car is a nightmare. She wants to drive and there is no restraining device that can keep her in her spot. She manages to get out of it and tie the seat belt into a knot just to add an extra fillip of disdain. The last time we took her in my daughter’s station wagon with a solid panel topped by one of those pet restraint mesh things. She was in the front seat before we had gone two blocks. I have informed her that she will suffer the indignity or the cat carrier next time. My daughter says she’s betting on the dog getting out of it within .5 miles.
gnomedad
OK, I admit I clicked on a Facebook ad, but this is good. A kid asks the Prez why people hate him, and of course the Kenyan plays the race card, blames Republicans, hates on white people, etc.
OK, snark off; this dude know how to handle himself.
gaz
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s fun to wish people a happy new year in spanish without the diacrtic thingamajig ;)
Yutsano
@gaz: Oh you are sooo mean. I like it!
Brachiator
By the by, earlier there was a post here about dopey reactions to Facebook privacy policies. However, the Internets can be a scary place. If you haven’t already heard about it and use LinkedIn, change your password. Now.
gaz
@Yutsano: Also too, there needs to be a female Pope, just to piss off the spanish speaking catholics.
sharl
@Just Some Fuckhead: Hah, I’m glad to see you still have this in your photo stream. I love that, and fondly remember the back-story you provided some time back. [Hint: the situation is not as ominous for that wabbit as it may appear.]
Yutsano
@gaz: It won’t make a lot of Italianos happy either. We sometimes forget that tends to be a rather conservative culture as well.
Alison
Small world, just got back from taking my own cat in for her annual check-up too. Funny how much easier it is to get her into the carrier at the vet’s office when we’re leaving than here at home :P
gaz
@Yutsano: Actually I was referring to the fact that “La Papa” means “The Potato”
lamh35
Hmm seem someone kinda called Tapper out for monopolizing the daily briefings.
“ABC News’ Jake Tapper Ices Reporter Who Interrupts His Drone Strike Question”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/abc-news-jake-tapper-ices-reporter-who-interrupts-his-drone-strike-question/
gaz
@Yutsano: Speaking of Italians, I won’t eat Calzones. It means underwear in spanish. Considering how close the languages are… yech.
My wife is like “so what? it’s a thing you wrap your sausage in!” As if that makes me more comfortable.
EAT MY SHORTS!
Yutsano
@gaz: It means pant leg in Italian. I can see underwear shooting off from that. Though now I want to know what the Latin root means.
Also: is the site loading slow for anyone else?
Steeplejack
@BerkeleyMom:
Oddly enough, this makes me feel better. I had a checkup at the dentist on Monday, and now I am scheduled to have a couple of ancient fillings replaced next Tuesday. Dentist’s estimate: $900.
Steeplejack
@beltane:
It’s something about the steel examining table. I had one cat that could tear down the house and maim two adult humans in the process of giving her a pill, but put her on that examining table and she was the most docile creature imaginable. The vet always looked at me like, “You wuss, you couldn’t give this sweet little cat a pill?!”
burnspbesq
@WhoopTDu:
What’s worse: that it would occur to Romney to say it, or that 30 million people think it’s true?
Steeplejack
@NancyDarling:
You mean Niña?
There are HTML codes to do all the special characters, but I often copy them out of a Word document. (In Word, click Insert | Symbol and then pick the character you want.)
gnomedad
@burnspbesq:
So the economy is recovering? Wait …
That’s better.
gaz
@Yutsano: Site is slow for me too, so I begged off for a bit. Happens pretty much every day.
TG Chicago
Just heard a report on NPR about the Bush Tax Cuts. They said that Obama wants to end the cuts for households making over $250k.
This isn’t true!
He wants to end the cuts for incomes over $250k. EVERYBODY in the US will still get a cut on the first $250k that they make. The tax cut will continue until you get to the 250,001st dollar. Every dollar from 1 to 250,000 still gets a tax cut no matter how much you make.
This point is vitally important for Democrats to hammer. It’s not class warfare. EVERYBODY gets a tax cut on their first 250k. EVERYBODY loses the tax cut on every dollar over 250k.
So even if you end the tax cut for incomes over $250k, everybody‘s taxes are still lower than they were before the Bush Tax Cuts went into effect. I really wish this could be made more clear.
Roger Moore
@Just Some Fuckhead:
FTFY.
Patricia Kayden
@TG Chicago: When exactly do the Bush tax cuts end anyway? I assume that if Obama is not re-elected, this issue is moot since Romney will definitely cut taxes for
himself“job creators”.Roger Moore
@NancyDarling:
Yes, they are. They’ve been selectively bred in captivity, and that makes them domesticated. I challenge you to find any wild cat, however raised, that thinks the right thing to do when it encounters a strange human is to roll over on its back and wait for a tummy rub; I find plenty of domestic cats that do exactly that. If that isn’t a sign of domestication, I can’t think what is.
Yutsano
@Patricia Kayden: They expire on January 1st 2013. And the way this Congress is going they may not get renewed.
Roger Moore
@gogol’s wife:
The best approach is to trick them. I leave my carrier out (with the door removed) all the time so my cat gets used to it. When I need to take him somewhere I put the door on, then look inside as if there’s something very interesting inside. The cat just has to find out what’s so interesting, and I can close the door behind him.
jnfr
@Just Some Fuckhead:
We have one cat, a Maine Coon type with huge amounts of fur, who has to be shaved every summer because of heat plus he is allergic to his fur if he gets too much in his stomach. They sedate him as a matter of course; don’t even try to groom him without drugs.
I’m taking him in tomorrow, in fact.
jnfr
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Oh Lord, but your little thing is just adorable. Here’s my big boy. He’s all muscle under that fur.
NancyDarling
@gogol’s wife: I stand the carrier on end, then lower the cat in feet first. I had a vet from Scotland once. I loved him. He always called me “lass”. He taught me the pillow case trick. They feel quite safe in a pillow case and think now one can see them.
I had a cat once with a cornea problem with one eye. The treatment involved having his eye lids sewed shut for a month. When I went to pick him up, the vet assistant was gone a long, long time. He finally said I would have to come and get the cat myself. He was on top of the cages in the most glorious rage that can be imagined. He was a pussy cat when he heard my voice.
@Roger Moore: I think you could probably give a lion or tiger a belly rub if they have been raised in captivity close to humans. That doesn’t mean they are domesticated.
TOP123
@SiubhanDuinne: I have actually gotten so used to this feature, in such a short time, on the iPad and iPhone that I find myself at a loss when looking to add accents and tildes and whatnot on the laptop. Mac needs to integrate that feature (if they haven’t; my knowledge of how to use my various iDevices couldn’t fill a hat).
So, since Spanish led to Italian, I’ll ask:
It’s been a while since I read my Dante, but what circle of Hell exactly is Dick Morris bound for? (At my elderly mum’s with BFO’Reilly on…)
gogol's wife
@Roger Moore:
My cats won’t go near the thing. It’s out all the time but they think it’s Satan.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Roger Moore: I stand the carrier up and drop them in, letting gravity do the hard work.
Elizabelle
@gbear:
Why I read this blog.
muddy
@Just Some Fuckhead: I do the lid facing up drop with the carrier on the table, so we are just having a nice cuddle, then oops, poor cat fell in a box, so sorry! Slam.
My ‘fraidy cat grey Tunch impersonator was placed on the scale at the vet, before we could gasp in amazement at the number, he tried to run away even though it was in the corner, and got pretty far straight up the wall before gravity did him in. It was a bit Wile E. Coyote-ish.
I used to have a long haired calico Brianna, who was just stunning, and seemed to know it, she would always place herself in the exact middle of whatever, and strike various poses. If you said she was pretty she’d start walking off *very* slowly, stretching her legs out straight behind her like some sort of slo-mo gymnast or ballerina. She was also a Tunch-esque fine figure of a cat, only dainty. One time the vet asked, Does she always pose like this, and I said *always*. Even sleeping, always carefully arranged.
My b-i-l was crazy about her, so for his birthday I dressed her with various strings of pearls and silk scarves etc and gave him a packet of glamour shots. She acted like she had been waiting all this time to be be-jewelled. Finally!
I got her from the shelter, she had been abused and burned and then left in a cornfield, she was 2 months old but only 1#. At first I thought she wouldn’t make it due to not knowing how to eat. She learned very well in the end. She felt like a handful of angora around a collection of pins at first. I had taken my son to get a kitten, we disagreed on which one so we got 2.
Now that’s good parenting, if I do say so myself.
gaz
@muddy: Kitteh transport is a two person operation in our household. We have a maine coon, which is like the pitbull equiv of a cat – essentially a muscle covered in fur. one of us pulls the top half of the carrier off (it is detachable) drops the cat in, while the other then holds the cat down, while the first person tries desperately to fasten the thing back together. Sure it has a door, but the door is useless when it comes to that cat. We have to rock/paper/scissors over who does what, because one of us generally gets wounded quite badly in the process =)
BTW, you messaged me on my blog saying you responded to my post here at BJ, but didn’t link back to the post or the thread, so I have no clue what you were referring to. I looked back over the past couple of days of archives here, and couldn’t find anything that stood out, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. =)
gaz
@Brachiator: Thanks for the heads up BTW. I deleted my linkedin account. I bet they really wish they didn’t have a field where you could type in why. I doubt my response was the worst they’ve had, but it was pretty ugly.
koalaholik
Last time I took my Spookers to the vet he managed to open the cabinet under the examining table and tried to hide in there. The vet thought it was hilarious.
gaz
@jnfr: Ahh, looks like a grey maine coon. We have one of the brown ones =). They are pretty powerful. Mine terrorizes anything on four legs that comes within a 50 yard perimeter of our porch. He also invites himself into our neighbors home and hangs out, despite – or likely BECAUSE OF – the fact that he hates their cat the most. =) He loves people though, even toddly ones (who he not only tolerates, but adores and is very gentle with)
muddy
@gaz: It was this:
https://balloon-juice.com/2012/06/03/unclear-on-the-concept/#comment-3310735
I hope that goes to it, it’s #54 and #55 is related. Cheers.
gaz
@muddy: A fellow rescuer. Good on you, your kittehs are lucky to have you. I’ve got one that was underfed when young. He’s slightly cross-eyed, and his tail is too long for him – and he mews like a kitten, but it’s the most precious fucking thing in the world. I can’t stay mad at the little snot, because all he has to do is look at me with his big crooked eyes and mew at me and I melt =) rescues are the best.
muddy
@gaz: Every animal I have ever had came out of abuse and/or near death. So worth it. Did you read my story a couple months ago in here about the love story of a cat and a dog?
https://balloon-juice.com/2012/03/11/early-morning-open-thread-true-companions/
gaz
@muddy: Adorbs! But you are not allowed to make me cry right now! I’m hormonal, and wearing liquid eyeliner! =)
I must have missed that post at the time.
Our last 4 cats were rescues (not including the kittens that were a product of one which was abandoned while pregnant). Before that I’d usually get them as part of a friend or relatives litter, but I like rescues the best – I’ll never go back now. I think they actually love you more. =)
muddy
@gaz: I recently got a waterproof eyeliner pen from here:
http://www.eyeslipsface.com/
The prices are wicked reasonable, and they have specials all the time.
gaz
@jnfr: I looked at your kitty again. He looks like he’s mixed with something other than MC, maybe. He’s missing the telltale pointy tufts at the end of his ears. Still he’s pretty, and definitely has the maine coon face and fluff. I love their noses and gradiated cheek coloring. Plus they look like they are wearing eyeliner all the time. Pretty kittehs. He’s beautiful in any case. He’s a bit fluffier around the neck than mine, so I wonder if he’s mixed with another long-hair. =)
Mnemosyne
@jnfr:
Our Annie looks exactly like that — she even has the “M” on her forehead — but she’s only 8 pounds.
We call her our midget Maine Coon.
gaz
My Maine Coon, Maxwell. Covered in catnip, passed the hell out, happy.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7245/7161874801_6cd9a71037_z.jpg
ETA: He was snoring quite loudly as I recall.
Bago
@Roger Moore: But then they will go over to the door, and look at you with a face that says ” I gave you a belly rub, why isn’t this door open yet?”.
Mnemosyne
@gaz:
Here’s Annie — you can just barely see the tuft on her right ear.
Keaton definitely has even more Maine Coon in him, but I can’t find the picture of his tail that would prove it.
gaz
@Mnemosyne: Annie looks very much the Maine Coon =) she looks like a sweetie too =)
I’ve always wanted one, and now that I ended up with one, I’ll never go without one again. I absolutely adore this breed. Pretty much everything about them, appearance, temperament, intelligence, their hardiness. They are like the perfect cat. If I had any quibble, it’s the long hair, but they don’t seem as bad as other long hairs for having all of that fur.
muddy
My sister had a MC, they called it Alice, and it had a tiny squeak of a voice. Turned out to be Alphonse after all.
gaz
@muddy: Ours is very vocal. Especially when he encounters cats he doesn’t like (pretty much any other male cat aside from Groucho, and most females). He doesn’t hiss. He doesn’t poof. He just stands there and yowls at them. It almost sounds whiny, but it terrorizes the other cats just the same. He wakes us up at 4 in the morning demanding to be let out. He first meows from the floor, and then when that doesn’t quite stir us into waking, he’ll get right up on the bed and meow right in my wife’s ear (occasionally mine, but he usually picks on her). He’s not squeaky by any means, but he does sort of sound like a big cry baby. I wish he liked laps. He doesn’t. He generally wants me to lay down next to him and brush him, and explains this to me very loudly =)
muddy
@gaz: My cats hate brushing, but love a little old Ace comb. It really gets the undercoat right out!
Mnemosyne
@gaz:
One of the things that makes me think that Annie has less Maine Coon in her than Keaton does is that she has more of a traditional “longhair” coat and tends to get mats under her armpits. Keaton has the classic silky Maine Coon coat (longer on top, shorter on the bottom) with a full mane and britches.
Plus he has the classic squeaky voice — if I take him to the vet, people are convinced I have a kitten in the carrier until they get a look at him in all of his 15 pounds of glory.
And that tail! That tail!
gaz
@Mnemosyne: hehehe. he actually kind of reminds me of Groucho (my mutt kitty) – particularly with the long tail and squeaky kitten voice. You may be right, although overall Annie looks the part – or at least in the face =)
gaz
@muddy: Maxwell demands the brushez.. we have a comb-like one, and a bristly one. He likes the latter more, although the first is better for getting the undercoat. He also loves kitteh massages. I tend to really work him over =) he digs that. Probably because he’s older. He’s roughly 7 and a half or so now. Groucho is about a year old. He tries to eat the brush.
Mnemosyne
@gaz:
People usually think of Maine Coon cats as being brown tabbies, but they can come in any color (except pointed, ie like Siamese cats). He’s definitely not purebred, though, since he has no ear tufts, though he has splendidly fuzzy toes to make up for it.
His (and Annie’s) only problem is that they live in Southern California, so around July they start to give us these looks that say, “Why do I have so much fur?” I keep threatening to have them shaved (or at least trimmed) every summer but I haven’t done it yet.
jnfr
@gaz:
Quite probably a mutt. He and his sister were abandoned on a street corner in Denver and we adopted them. She is white with black spots, looks nothing like him. He does have tufts inside his ears though, and between his toesies, too.
gaz
@Mnemosyne: Groucho has bigger toe tufts than maxwell, and as I mentioned, the squeaky voice. He may have some maine coon in him, but I don’t count him as one – he’s a mutt – an unbelievably adorable mutt. It could be that he’s just a long-hair, and squeaky. Right now he’s trying to convince me to play with him, but I just woke up. He fetches like a dog, which is cool – and precious. Some day I’ll try to get the fetching game on video, but it’s tough to capture, since he gets distracted easily if I’m not completely focused on him, but OMG is it fucking precious.
ETA: meh. Poor Maxwell is sneezy right now. He haz teh allergies. =/
gaz
@Mnemosyne: “People usually think of Maine Coon cats as being brown tabbies”
I’ve seen them in brown, grey and orange. I guess I just assumed the other colors were due to being mixed-breed.