I know this is kind of meta, and I know that Mistermix talked about it earlier, but I just can’t tell you how upset I am about Inkblot’s untimely demise. I’ve thought about it about 20 times today, and it just depresses me. Several times, Tunch was sitting next to me bitching and talking and I almost yelled at him to shut up, then remembered what happened to Inkblot, and scooped him up and gave him a big hug.
If it weren’t for Kevin Drum, I would never have started posting pictures of Tunch. I knew how happy Tunch made me, but watching how happy pictures of Inkblot and Jasmine made others, I started pet blogging. From that, we were able to create a Balloon Juice store with picture of the girls and Tunch and the annual calendars, and we have raised about 20k plus from store sales alone (and that doesn’t count the donations from bleg posts) for Charlies Angels Animal Rescue. Jasmine and Inkblot were to catblogging what Tinkers to Evers to Chance were to the double play.
So, Inkblot, it is sad to see you go in such an untimely and horrifying manner, but, unwittingly, you helped save hundreds upon hundreds of animals. That ought to get you an eternal kitty heaven supply of tuna, and not that healthy albacore stuff, but the greasy oily tuna I know you kitties love. You done good.
srv
Not a cat guy, but that’s a helluva tribute.
Quaker in a Basement
Years ago, a friend in dead-tree media learned the same lesson. She was a talented journalist. As an editor, she learned that folks really want to see a cat.
RedKitten
A fine legacy for a fine cat.
And it’s not surprising that this has upset you so. For starters, you are a very empathetic person. And you know that Kevin loved Inkblot as much as you love Tunch — so you can easily imagine the horror and sadness he’s experiencing right now.
It’s tough. We parents feel it too. Anytime I hear about anything bad happening to a kid, I give SamKitten a big hug (doesn’t matter if he’s asleep or awake), just to reassure myself that he’s here and he’s okay.
SIA
We lost our beautiful Romeo the same way around this time a few years ago. I couldn’t even read Kevin’s post. RIP Inkblot and Romeo.
JR
(I think you mean Evers, not Evans)
Yutsano
@RedKitten: And then he looks at you funny. The innocence of kidlets. :)
Walker
Coyotes are a big problem with pets. Around here, my neighbors say that the average lifespan of an outdoor cat (one adapted to outdoors, not a loose indoor cat) is less than a year.
Jane2
Inkblot and Jasmine, and then Inkblot and Domino, have been part of my online world since Kevin started calpundit. He was a prince of a cat, and I feel like I “knew” him.
I can’t imagine the sadness and grief I will feel when one of my three feline terrorists goes to the rainbow bridge.
karen marie
I have had Lucy in my lap for the last two hours, with her head resting on my forearm, despite how incredibly difficult it is to type (I was working) because she was so frightened by the curtain blowing and then the thunder, and I understand how important it is to make every second count when life is so short and uncertain for all of us.
I think we should take up a collection to mail the Sequim cat to Kevin.
cynn
Kevin needs to adopt the kitty in the bleg below. It’s Inkblot incarnate, true serendipity. Hell, I’ll pay the airfare, if you all make the arrangements. We’ll see who the real cat people are.
lamh35
Watching the 400m Men’s relay and I’m just sayin’, but Lochte needed a bit of humble pie and an attitude adjustment. Dude was an ass with the sports lady.
And the USA Women’s Gymnastics qualifications events, were soo sad and brutal.
Only 2 of teammates will make it to all-around. I was and still will be rooting for Gabby Douglas, but still feel bad for the other girls.
IrishCC
I’ve been waiting for your post on this, as I knew you couldn’t NOT have been affected. Personally, I cried when I read the first “lost” post — and I don’t even have a cat!! And I found myself going through the whole range of grief reactions (WHY did you let him get out, Kevin?) before I accepted the fact that you can jail a cat and leave him/her unhappy or let then be free and accept that freedom often has tragic consequences…. I was surprised at how upset this made me… Long live Tunch!!!!!
Libby Spencer
What a lovely eulogy. RIP Inkblot. He was a very good cat.
Valdivia
so beautifully said.
geg6
@Quaker in a Basement:
Some people want to see a cat. Some of us would be perfectly happy to never see another one (sorry Tunch, but you’re not my type at all). But I do feel bad about Drum losing his cat to violence. And I probably dislike Drum even more than I do cats.
But I do have a pet and I would be devastated if something like that happened to my baby boy, Otis.
That said, did he allow his cat to roam? In California? Where there are regular coyote and wild cat attacks? I do not understand that at all, if that was the case.
WaterGirl
Me, too, Cole. My thoughts keep coming back to Inkblot. I must have cried about Inkblot at least
sixseven times today.I usually pick up my kitties one at a time after I get home, but as soon as I walked in the door a few minutes ago, I scooped them both up together and held them for a long time.
Rest in peace, Inkblot. You have left quite the legacy.
kindness
I feel for Kevin. We live on the outskirts of town and so do coyotes. I see them in the field and hear them sometimes howling after sirens. Neighbors have lost several cats and we’re all pretty sure it’s the coyotes. My cat doesn’t go out in the field and I try to keep it that way but she’s a country cat. She comes in when we’re home through the critter door and during the day she goes where she wants. I worry but I have an indoor outdoor cat. I hope she continues to make good calls. Sadly, Inkblot didn’t. I’ve sent energy since he announced the misssing & then more when he announced the found. I wish all the same to everyone & their critters here.
RedKitten
@geg6: My understanding is that Inkblot was an indoor cat, who sadly, got out.
Ash Can
Hear, hear.
Evelyn
Yeah, I lost a cat to foxes a few years ago and it broke my heart, my 17 year old man cat is still hanging on and very chipper (although he’s entirely lost his meow now), but he only gets to go outside when he’s being supervised. Glad that so many animals are being helped by the Tunch and Lily swag! :)
Alison
@geg6: God, why have so many people felt the need to tsk-tsk at him letting the cat out? For the record, the cats were mainly indoor cats, though (as many catblogging pics attest) they did spend some time in the yard, but as he said in the post about Inkblot being missing: “It’s not the first time I’ve failed to close all the doors at night, and never in his life has he ever strayed more than a couple hundred feet from home.”
So he made a mistake, a very simple one, that has never proven disastrous before. And now it has, and he’s heartbroken. Can people PLEASE keep the finger wagging to themselves? Just express condolences and fuck the rest, seriously.
JGabriel
__
__
John Cole:
Wait, I thought the greasy, oily, tuna is the healthy stuff. It’s not?
No, seriously. I thought the oil retained a lot of nutrients that get lost in water-packed tuna (and other water-packed canned fishes).
.
dead existentialist
Maybe this will ease the sorrow. The white buffalo of prophesy has been born. One in 10Mil occurance.
pat
Our Tigger was left on the screened porch (three feet off the ground) overnight, and a coyote clawed/chewed through the screen and pulled him through. Tigger had never been outdoors, and we figured that with the porch being built so far above the ground we did not have to worry. But Tigger was so … dumb?.. trusting?.. ignorant? that he did not realize that that creature outside his porch was dangerous.
After a frantic search of the neighborhood (when I got up that morning and discovered he was gone) I found the back half of his body in the ravine behind the house, along with the skulls of three other cats.
On a little bit happier note, we still have his sister Susy, and she is never left on the porch overnight.
Johannes
Thank you, John. Beautifully said.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@dead existentialist: That’s the best news of this year. I’m going to consider it an omen.
I’m very sad about Inkblot, and my sympathies are with his people. I’ll also suggest that it is unseemly to look to blame anyone in such a sorrowful time.
FoxinSocks
I’ve done animal rescue for over ten years and I’ve seen some bad stuff. I was devastated at the news and so sad for Kevin, but in the end, Inkblot had a great life and so many cats in the world don’t get that. He was 13, he was fed and loved. He got to sit out in the sunshine all day long. He was in cat heaven and that’s all you can ask for. The cat had a joyous life so I’ll celebrate that and honor his memory.
gbear
Cat question: I had two cats up until a year and a half ago when one passed away. I’ve been hoping that the other cat would like being an only cat, but I’ve come to think that she needs a feline buddy.
At work, there are two people trying to give away cats. One is a spayed two year old orange tabby (my Halley is a tort) that is used to other cats, seems to be pretty mellow and is an indoor cat like my Halley.
The other cat is a brand new baby with some Maine Coon. The baby kitty is an only child. There was only one kitty in the litter. I’m wondering if this might be a problem if I bring her home and she has no relationship to other cats other than ‘mom’. That would be a double freak out for Halley.
I know there’s cat advice here. Any suggestions?
kc
Aw, what a sweet tribute to Inkblot.
gogol's wife
I feel terrible for Inkblot’s family too. I’ve had cats who go outdoors and cats who stay in, and sometimes even when they stay in all the time and are treated like little princesses, a bad cancer gets them and there’s nothing you can do. All you can do is love them while they’re here and do your best.
catpal
a very nice tribute to Inkblot and condolences to the Drum family for their loss. I really liked Friday Cat Blogging, all pet blogging.
I too am hugging my cat tonight, or I should say that she is hugging my foot which is starting to fall asleep, ouch.
hoppipolla
@FoxinSocks: word. the best any of us to hope for is to have a good run.
ETA: “CAN hope for,” damnit.
kc
@geg6:
Shut up. Thanks.
BethanyAnne
@gbear: Gbear, I’d look at Pamela’s blog, The Way of Cats. If she hasn’t covered the topic, I know she does an Ask Pammy feature where she answers questions like that. She comments here as Werebear, she might just see the question directly. Personally, I’d go with the not-kitten, but I don’t know that I have much reason behind it.
Violet
A beautiful tribute. You’re a good man, John Cole.
Dennis SGMM
Back home in the foothills of the San Gabriels the missing pet signs are ubiquitous. We have coyotes and they are big and they’re hella smart. You needn’t be neglectful to lose a pet to them.
feebog
And this is why I stick with dogs. Big dogs, who would have no problem dispatching a coyote or two. The coyotes in these parts are pretty bold, but I have never heard of them taking on dog of any size. Cats and toy poodles are fair game. I’m sorry for anyone who has lost a pet, no what kind of critter. Best cure is to adopt another from a shelter, there is such a need.
piratedan
@gbear: get both… cats need good people to watch over.
beckya57
My cats have always been indoor cats, but sometimes they sneak out, no matter how careful you are. I always age 10 years when that happens. Inkblot’s fate could easily have happened to one of mine. I feel really bad for the Drums.
The Right Honorable Member for, the Very Reverend Mother, Her Duchal Serene Highness. Dr. Hortense Sussudio Fuuckerfaaster
so, john. you haven’t talked about jesse’s girl in a while. saying that drum was a seminal influence got me to thinking, and since everyone else on your parody site likes playing pop-shrink i figured it would be unneighborly of me to not take a turn.
i think, your “conversion” to liberalism, even as a parody of a liberal as you portray it, has almost everything to do with losing the girl of your dreams.
Donald
I’m sad too, and I stopped reading Drum a long time ago. (I don’t dislike him–he just stopped being a priority on my list of blogs to read.) But I always loved his catblogging and his cats.
Poor Inkblot.
gbear
@piratedan: Halley’s already decided I’m a lost cause (Torts can be that way).
Two cats is my max.
Evelyn
Also, the fact that so many BJers open their homes to the pets that need rescuing from Anne Laurie’s posts is really mightily impressive. I think it’s really neat that you’ve managed to create that kind of community, in addition to the funds that go to Charlie’s Angels. So definitely kudos Inkblot for creating that spark.
suzanne
@RedKitten: I do the same thing with my Bear and my Mouse. I think at times that I could bear absolutely anything in life except harm befalling them.
So very sad about Inkblot. I’ve been loving on both my kitties today. Even the obnoxious one.
Donut
thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/29/michael-tomasky-a-candidate-with-a-serious-wimp-problem.html
Is our Village turning on Mittens?
Then dig the Face the Nation interview clip embedded with the article and watch his face when he sees the cover. That is a man swallwing a shit sandwich.
I am stuck on how much he tries to bluff his way through every question. He sounds like a fuckin greenhorn fresh out of college, still getting used to answering situational interview questions.
He is unbearably bad at this stuff. Brutal.
Arundel
Oh God. My sympathies, truly, but I thought you were talking about the death of another well-read blogger, a human being. “Inkblot” sounds like a blogger’s name!
Nothing against cats, or lamenting that they died. Just, this was written in a way that made me think a person had died. The way it’s written, it assumes we know “Inkblot” was a cat. And that we knew who that cat was. And that we really cared. That we all had a long interest in Inkblot’s health problems, when some of us can’t afford doctors for our own.
See, just reading that, I thought it was a human being with friends and family mourning and such, maybe a valiant blogger speaking truth that we lost. Oh, it’s a cat. Could you note that next time? Just sort of include it in the post, that you’re talking about someone’s cat, and it’s not like, a human being dying leaving his kids in poverty or something? Just sort of note that you’re talking about a fucking cat?
Here’s a secret: when cats die, they don’t care. They’re dead. When people are dying and die they care, they know, a lot of people care. It’s kind of different, but maybe I’m a species-ist.
Or, just turn this blog into a pet blog. Because it’s maudlin and overbearing and maybe dilutes the purpose? Maybe it’s too soon to speak, since someone’s cat died somewhere. It’s your railroad. But yeah, I think there’s something mawkish and maudlin and weirdly self-congratulatory about how much you care because someone else’s cat died. Dude, have you alerted the media? Will there be a moment of silence? Just, I think the pet obsession makes this place a really fringe website, way more than it used to be. It’s all pet and garden talk (and nothing wrong with that). Let’s have five open threads in a row!
Your contributors are lazily phoning it in, these days. You should notice that if you want to keep this place vital reading. It’s far from vital these days.
I’m sorry someone’s cat died.
andrewsomething
Same here… I tried to explain these feelings to a friend who neither owns a cat nor reads liberal blogs. He seemed deeply perplexed why the death of a cat I’ve never met owned by some media figure got me so down.
karen marie
@geg6: Someone may have already come to Kevin’s defense on this, but he said in his post that he did not let the cat out at night, Inkblot escaped the night he disappeared, as cats will do.
I live in a fairly wild part of Arizona, with a lot of coyotes around. My cat has escaped a couple times at night (she’s allowed out during the day, if she wants to go) and as I watched her back end disappear into the dark I knew it might be the last time I saw her. I take good care of my cat but sometimes, despite your best efforts, they get out when they shouldn’t.
It’s not fair to blame Kevin. He loved that cat, and he did his best.
@JGabriel: I had a vet tell me that there’s a chemical in tuna that is bad for cats if they have it on any kind of regular basis. He said it’s not good to even give them the tuna water or oil. In fact, the oil is VERY bad because it causes swallowed hair to adhere to the intestine wall and turning to cement. To help the cat pass the hair through, give them mineral oil only, never any kind of vegetable oil.
Canuckistani Tom
I’ve also recently lost a special katkin. 20 years ago I was 12 years old and staying with my aunt and uncle in Scandinavia. It was my first solo flight from Toronto. There was a language problem, my uncle spoke no English and my Aunt’s was limited. Fortunately for me there was a friendly new kitten named Mantaa who purred in English. The little fluffball kept me company.
Last weekend, Mantaa was put down. She’d gone deaf the year before, but was otherwise fine until recently, when she started loosing weight and her back legs were becoming wobbly.
I still have a photo of her on my wall
andrewsomething
@Arundel:
Since this is at least the third post on Inkblot in the past few days on this blog, it’s not an entirely unreasonable assumption.
Keith G
@geg6:
Then maybe this would be a good time to separate your fingers from the keyboard.
JoyceH
@gbear: Bear, I think with very few exceptions, most any cat will adjust to another cat coming into the household. They may not love one another, but they’ll tolerate at least (though, as I say, there are exceptions). It might take several weeks, but equilibrium will be achieved.
I do think, though, that the adjustment is easier if the newcomer is a kitten. Then the resident cat can be the wise old mentor, slap the kid down when he needs it, and be smug that he’s got a padawan.
karen marie
@gbear: In my experience, if the animals are opposite sex you stand the best chance of them getting along with no issues, especially since that’s the way it was before.
Keith G
@Arundel: Sooooo you never got over your dad not letting you have a pet.
Sorry about that. These bouts of displaced hostility don’t have to derail your ability to relate to others. Help is available.
Alison
@Arundel: I HAVE AN EVEN BETTER IDEA. How about you go fuck yourself nine ways to Sunday?
Jesus crap, people, what the hell is wrong with you scumbags. This is really a moment for not saying a damn thing if you have nothing nice to say. Your asshole comments do nothing but make you look like a cold, unfeeling waste of oxygen.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Arundel: Many of us have followed Inkblot in his blogging appearances much like we’ve known TBogg’s bassets. We likewise know Tunch Lily and Rosie here.
There have been at least a couple of threads identifying Inkblot as a cat, so even those who haven’t followed his adventures at Drum’s now several blogs, could figure it out.
TooManyJens
@karen marie:
I’m skeptical of this. Some vets believe pretty wacky stuff (I had one who was into homeopathy; I don’t take my cat to her anymore). pets.webmd.com and aspca.org both say that the problem with tuna is that if you feed it exclusively, the cat will be deprived of nutrients that he or she needs. They say it’s fine for occasional treats, though.
hilzoy
@gbear: In my experience (which involves a fair amount of unexpected fostering of kittens), cats react better to new kittens than to new grown cats. You do have to watch them at first, to make sure Halley doesn’t attack the kitten, but you should do this when you bring in any new cat: put it in its own room to allow Halley to get used to the new cat’s smell, and vice versa, before letting them in together.
Cats are innately conservative (in the ‘don’t like change’ sense), but newly appearing kittens seem to trigger this less, in my experience. At a certain point, especially female cats seem to think: oh, for heaven’s sake, *someone* has to take care of this kitten!! And they do.
Indoor/outdoor: when I got my first cat, it was without warning: he was a feral kitten, a friends’ dog had chased his mother, the mother and all her kittens but one had gotten away, the one being Nils. My friends had not only the dog but allergies, so I got Nils. Since I had no warning, I had no time to prepare, and since I had grown up in the suburbs of MA, where there were no indoor cats, it didn’t cross my mind to keep him indoors. I got my next two cats, also feral kittens, less than 24 hours later (when it rains, it pours.) By the time I realized that keeping a cat indoors was an alternative, Nils in particular had fallen in love with Outdoors, and even if I’d been able to keep the three of them inside, which I don’t think I would have, they would have been miserable.
I lost one of the three to a coyote. It was awful. But, rightly or wrongly, they seemed to me much happier than they would have been inside. (This is just them; as I said, they were adopted feral kittens. I’m not trying to say anything general about cats, and as I said, I didn’t realize I was making a *choice*.) I have really second-guessed letting them out for the sake of the mice, voles, birds, etc. that Nils (in particular) killed (though since he’s now 17, and I’m living in the city, his hunting days are over.) But I don’t second-guess it on the grounds of his quality of life.
In any case, I wouldn’t do that to Kevin, right now.
Jewish Steel
@Arundel: Imbecile.
Yutsano
@Jewish Steel: In a charitable mood tonight are we? :)
satanicpanic
Poor guy, sorry to hear he met his end this way. Bummer.
dead existentialist
GAH! Cats are smart enough (as are dogs) to loath the fucking idiots who own them.
That said, may we have a moment of reverence for my friend of 14 years, Jake the Lab, who was put down the other day about 2 or 3 years after my compassionate used by date. (And I had the joy to enjoy the old boy’s company these past several weeks.)
Seriously, having followed this blog and the various pet trials and tribulations of the last few years, I would HATE to be one of your pets because you wouldn’t understand me or protect me from real discomfort when it comes to your fucking responsibility to see MY best interests through. Too often I’ve seen the horseshit platitude “you’ll know when it’s time,” bandied about here when, in fact, your pet would have pleaded (had it your language skills) “please kill me.”
Most ofall of you here would find it reprehensible to “own” another human being. Take the “human” out of that equation and justify how owning another “being” is a different thing.Sorry for the rant. I don’t hold pet owners in high regard, but then I think most people do a shite job of driving their automobiles and raising their children. I’ve raised a few pets but ended up not owning them. They all ran away.
In other words, both sides do it.
scav
Arendal’s just a wanking liar and a poor one as the concept petblogging is explicitly in the second paragraph. Because it is just so so often that photos of people inspire one to petblog. What did exhibitionist solo masochists do before the interwebs?
YellowJournalism
Someome spiked the water supply with asshole pills, I notice.
John, don’t let anyone ver tell you that you would never understand what it’s like to be a parent, because the way you described that bit with Tunch…you’re a parent. Your kids are just a little extra furry.
(And in Tunch’s case, he could be a childhood obesity statistic.)
DPS
@Arundel:
You’re comparing dying to being dead. Like people, cats tend to notice when they are being killed. And people don’t care when they’re dead either, because they don’t exist anymore.
Yutsano
@YellowJournalism: Troo dat. I’ll never biologically reproduce. But my little girl, for as much as she drives me batshit meschugnah, is my child. When she goes over the Rainbow Bridge I shall be a total wreck.
MikeJ
Pets? I know a hawk from a handsaw. David Tennant as Hamlet is on PBS. Whoo hoo!
The prophet Nostradumbass
@DPS: I don’t understand why, on a thread like this, there are people who absolutely insist on being shits.
Mnemosyne
@Arundel:
Inkblot was killed by a coyote. I’m pretty sure his violent death was not the reason some humans don’t have health insurance.
Also, go fuck yourself.
Chief Windbreaker
@dead existentialist:
White Buffalo taste the best.
I know this because I am a Native American.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mnemosyne: I don’t get why some people, on a thread like this, insist on being assholes.
JR in WV
@gbear:
We had Maine Coons, they’re all love kitties in our experience. And Kittens are so much fun.
But we also have had several orange tabbies, and they’re also affectionate and active cats. So I think if your surviving cat is older, go with the orange tabby, and if he’s younger and active, go with the kitten.
Cant’ go wrong!
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Is that the one where he gets naked?
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Is that the one where he gets naked?
YellowJournalism
@Mnemosyne: Don’t you just love how people tell you that you can’t have joy in your life because there’s too much sorrow in the world?
@Yutsano: My unfurry babies are down in Washington visiting with family right now. I’m so grateful for their furry big sis to keep us company. Poor puppeh seems to miss the kidlets almost more than we do! She runs up to me when I get home in a way that, if she were human, she’d be pushing me aside to see if her boys were behind me. She’s going to go nuts when they’re back next week.
YellowJournalism
@Mnemosyne: Don’t you just love how people tell you that you can’t have joy in your life because there’s too much sorrow in the world?
@Yutsano: My unfurry babies are down in Washington visiting with family right now. I’m so grateful for their furry big sis to keep us company. Poor puppeh seems to miss the kidlets almost more than we do! She runs up to me when I get home in a way that, if she were human, she’d be pushing me aside to see if her boys were behind me. She’s going to go nuts when they’re back next week.
karen marie
@TooManyJens: No, no, you’re right — it’s the nutrient thing. It was so long ago that I misremembered. Thanks for correcting me.
But the business about the oil is absolutely true. Some cats will drink the mineral oil on their own, some you have to give them some assistance. Our Gracie is one of the former. I put a tiny bowl (about 2 tspns) of mineral oil next to her food bowl a couple times a week, sometimes more frequently in the summertime. It is a huge help in eliminating hairballs.
The prophet Nostradumbass
FYWP
FlipYrWhig
@dead existentialist: Hopefully whoever raised you did a decent job of it, and then it was you who opted to throw that decency away to play self-congratulatory one-upping jerkwad games on a dead pet thread.
People suck.
Ash Can
Once again, thank you, Cleek, wherever you are.
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano: One more syllable than the
postcomment was worth, probably.TooManyJens
@dead existentialist: What the actual fuck was that?
Thymezone
I used to live in Mission Viejo, not far from where Drum lives, and we had coyotes in the neighborhood all the time. My dog was attacked by a coyote in the back yard, and how my cat at that time avoided being coyote food is beyond me. Howling coyotes often serenaded the neighborhood to sleep at night, and we were in the middle of some very densely populated ground. But the hillsides and creeks belonged to the critters, and coyotes and mountain lions owned that territory. Pet attacks were common. Anyone who lets a pet out in Orange County, California should not count on seeing the animal ever come back. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
Gex
@Arundel: Indeed. Truly it is a terrible thing if people can expand the circle of living creatures they care about. There’s too much love in the world goddammit!
Yutsano
@YellowJournalism: Puppehs are famous for celebrating our returns after, well, any kind of absence. We are their pack after all!
@Jewish Steel: I just chose to ignore it. And hope the commenter comes to realize their own stupidity on their lonesome.
Thymezone
PS I am now in Phoenix, almost dead center here in the middle of a metro area of 4 million .. and I have seen coyotes walking down the street in the middle of the day right here with no apparent misgivings about being among so many people and cars. The coyotes and other critters were here first, and they have adapted to our being here better than you might think. To them, a pet is just lunch. Which rhymes with Tunch.
suzanne
@dead existentialist: Here’s a nice, tall, icy cold glass of Go Fuck Yourself (Because With A Personality Like That, No One Else Will). Enjoy.
scav
@Yutsano: I’m assuming you mean a naked Tennant but personally I’m having a fantastic time imagining at just which soliloquy Hamlet would shed all his weary weary gsrb . . .
ETA And for no particular reason, I’ve heard the term Yuccies, for Young Urban Coyotes.
suzanne
@Thymezone: Visiting, or a new resident? Always good to have more liberals/BJers in town.
Yutsano
@suzanne: Seriously. Is it a fucking full moon or something?
@scav: I never underestimate the creativity of artistic directors to find appropriate places to shed clothing. Or even inappropriate and gratuitous.
PeakVT
Here’s the Veep rumor of the day.
seaboogie
@Arundel: I think that you’re being put out for the night…and I think that I hear coyotes …
Ash Can
@PeakVT: Not a bad rumor, I suppose. She’s pretty, despicable, and has sweet fuck-all to lose. I still think it’ll be some boring loser white male, but it’s not impossible to have a real gift of a VP pick dropped in our laps — it happened last time, after all.
ETA: And PS, I wonder if a pick like that would make Miz Ann crap herself.
Hill Dweller
@PeakVT: I doubt it happens, but putting anyone associated with Rick Scott’s administration on the ticket would be a Palin-like mistake.
eldorado
it’s tldr here in this thread, but i’ve been following drum, frustrating as he is, since his calpundit days. heartbroken for his loss, inkblot was a part of my family too. i’m not religious, but godspeed little cat
suzanne
@PeakVT: After Darth Cheney’s comments about Palin today, I think that is an extreme long shot, to put it mildly.
suzanne
@PeakVT: After Darth Cheney’s comments about Palin today, I think that is an extreme long shot, to put it mildly.
Anne Laurie
@gbear:
I second the idea that an older cat will usually adapt better to a kitten than to another adult. The “it’s a baby, you have to be tolerant” coding is pretty hardwired, for obvious reasons.
Two other reasons to go for the youngling: One, most Maine-Coon types are dedicated politicians — they will work to make another cat/person/dog like them well beyond the point where the average moggy would just decide, well, be like that and ignore me, see if I care. Two, if for whatever reason the new roommate doesn’t work out, it’ll be easier for a kitten-adolescent to adapt to another placement (and to find one, for that matter).
Whichever you decide, I’d encourage you to go with it. I’ve seen soooo many older “only cats” revived by living with a new kitten… starting with one of my first post-college roommates, who moved to a no-other-pets house partially so his grumpy old guy wouldn’t be “bothered” by the younger cats using him as a jungle gym. Six weeks later, old Shadow progressed from following Jon around & whining, to going off his food. Jon hastily found another kitten to adopt — and Shadow was happy again, telling that young punk to Get Off His Lawn Dammit!
slag
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
I was wondering the same thing. I’m looking at it as a cry for help. And thus, for each asshole among us, I’m giving 10 bucks to the Lavender donkey farm that was linked to in the previous thread. Bring it, assholes! Your complete and utter lack of self-control can have some value after all. Just not for you, obviously.
Yutsano
@PeakVT: Is she even old enough to be Veep? Mon Dieu she looks like a baby!
Thymezone
@suzanne:
Hometown since 1951, although I have lived in CA for short stretches here and there. Now a few blocks from the local Drinking Liberally venue.
Anne Laurie
@Alison:
It’s a form of magical thinking. “A bad thing happened to Kevin’s cat because he ‘let’ his cat out — but I’ll never make a mistake like that, so my cat will never suffer like that / make me suffer like that! Because I observe the proper rules and shibboleths, I and mine are immune to the chaos demons!”
It’s the same reason people feel compelled to explain that a dead child’s parents “must have” been careless or stupid or wicked. (Even if the kid died of leukemia.) Or those people who insist on explaining that a rape victim was somehow “asking for it”, or that a cancer victim “had the wrong attitude”. If you’re terrified enough about the random cruelty and senselessness of our imperfect world, it’s important to find someone to blame rather than accept that sometimes bad things happen, with or without a “reason”, much less a culprit.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
According to a Miami Herald story that the Business Insider links to, she’s 46 — two years older than Palin was in 2008.
Lee Hartmann
An illustration of your humanity.
Alison
@Anne Laurie: You are very right. It’s depressing that we humans are so…fucking stupid. Sigh.
eclare
OMG how can people be so mean? This person just lost his cat. I feel bad for humanity, let the insults pile in.
jenn
Great post, John. And while it is almost certainly too soon, I couldn’t help but see the Sequim kitty as a tribute (? Can’t think of the word I want) to Inkblot. Hope she/he finds a home.
karen marie
@PeakVT: Here’s Jindal’s interview for the position.
WereBear
@gbear: I would get both; because two cats coming in as a unit will bond, orangeys tend to be “mellow yellows” and can be a playmate for a kitten. Your tortie’s age means she might not be that interested in PLAY, while the two younger can keep each other out of her fur.
Torties like things their way. Both of these cats should have laid back tendencies, and are good choices. But remember the PLAY factor; they both need it. Can your existing cat supply it?
Triassic Sands
@beckya57:
So true. There is no such thing as successfully keeping a determined cat indoors 100% of the time. Especially since so few of us are perfect.
WereBear
@Arundel: Look at you, how cynical and humanitarian, all at once, you are!
Are you aware that your behavior makes it seem as though you are treating love and caring as though it must be parceled out as a miser’s pennies? When it is supposed to be the most abundant substance in the Universe?
By all means, let’s NOT care when someone else has the circle drawn big enough for living feeling beings who are not of our species. It’s not like that ever, you know, caused problems or anything, has it?
Do you really think you care more when you put all kinds of conditions on it. How many children must this mythical dead guy leave in poverty for you to deign to care?
I’d rethink that whole “caring” thing you got going here.
WereBear
@gbear: Ah, you have a 2 cat limit; so the older cat is the better choice. But you can see which Halley prefers, with the cat smell test.
Triassic Sands
@Arundel:
I’ll be glad to pile on.
First, a cat cares when it’s being violently killed by a coyote.
Second, when a cat dies, his or her humans care — sometimes a lot.
You’re obviously not an animal lover, but your post is probably the low point of this thread. If you don’t care, don’t comment. Unless you feel compelled to make an ass of yourself in public. If so, congratulations, you’re doing a splendid job.
Funny, there’s nothing in your comment that would lead anyone to believe that statement.
Once again, if you don’t care, don’t comment. The hallmark of Wingers is they don’t care about others. There is enough sympathy and empathy in the world for sincere individuals to care about both humans (who are often vile) and animals, who sometimes are better and offer more than most humans.
Your comment really, really sucked. I don’t know you, but I doubt I’d want to, if that is what you consider an appropriate response to the death of someone’s much loved pet.
Triassic Sands
@TooManyJens:
Yeah, there’s definitely something in tuna that’s bad for cats and humans (in too large a quantity) — it’s called mercury.
The following seems like perfectly reasonable advice regarding tuna for cats (and people):
That’s from pets dot webmd dot com. It sounds like the problem is not what is in tuna (apart from mercury), but what isn’t — it’s not a balanced nutritional meal.
My cats would eat tuna till they died, whether from malnutrition, mercury poisoning, or just an exploding gut, if I’d let them. But I rarely eat tuna — mercury! — so I figure why hurt them just because they want me to.
Avoiding the oil in some tuna does sound like a good idea.
Raven
@Triassic Sands: Pulling a 132 pounder out of the Pacific nearly killed me!
Triassic Sands
@Raven:
I’ve heard they’re strong. I certainly hope you disposed of it in a biohazard site — that’s what we’ve done to this poor planet — the fish are toxic.
Patricia Kayden
“Several times, Tunch was sitting next to me bitching and talking and I almost yelled at him to shut up, then remembered what happened to Inkblot, and scooped him up and gave him a big hug.”
Would love to decode what he’s saying to you. Need a video.
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: I said almost the same thing after the shooting at the Batman premiere – when people were talking about people taking their kids to a midnight show. I worked with a rape crisis service, and I found this to be a frequent reaction: I never leave my windows open at night, what was she doing out so late, etc.
It’s a defense mechanism, albeit a very unattractive one.
I know it’s the internet, but seriously, what kind of person would write stuff like this in repines to someone who just lost their beloved cat?
Peace to you, Kevin, if you’re reading this.
ET
I have also been a little upset over Inky’s demise and have had to pick my kitty up and give a squeeze (much to his annoyance).
Maude
@WaterGirl:
Someone who craves attention, is full of poison and feels self superior.
lou
I just saw the news about Inkblot and I’m crying. I just lost my beloved 14-year-old tuxedo cat to cancer a couple of weeks ago and as painful as that was, I can’t imagine losing a pet to a coyote instead. At least we had time to prepare, although we still weren’t.
Trinity
There is something that a pet gives that we find no where else. I don’t understand the bond but I have treasured it. My Kasey lived to the amazing old age of 21. He died of old age in 2005 and I still grieve. My deepest sympathies to Kevin Drum.
Chat Noir
Wonderful post, John. I felt the same way since Friday when I found out Inkblot was missing. And then when I saw the RIP post yesterday, I cried. He was the same age as two of my cats. Needless to say, I’ve been showering them with extra love and attention (not that they go without any other time, though).
geg6
@RedKitten:
Thanks for the info. Really sad for him then.
@Alison:
I feel for the guy but, I’m sorry, he should have been more careful. I don’t let my dog out, on purpose or by accident, to roam because I live along a major road in my area. Hopefully, he’s learned a lesson and he won’t lose another cat. That is a good that can come from a tragic mistake.
@kc:
Go fuck yourself. I’ll say whatever I want. Cole can ban me if he doesn’t like it. You don’t get to.
@karen marie:
I asked if he let his cats roam in an area where domestic animals are often attacked by local wildlife. Since he didn’t do that (via Red Kitten), I feel for him. But he was careless and I hope he will be less so in the future. He has my sympathies.
Just One More Canuck
@Arundel: You are missing the point about what makes Balloon Juice such a good blog. The fact that John can write with as much passion and intensity about Tunch, Lily and Rosie as he can about the latest example of Republican assholery is what brings people here in the first place. Add in that he has been able to attract many engaging writers to post here and that there is a very large community of commenters who truly care about not just politics but life in general and pets in particular increases the appeal that much more. If you don’t like a particular post, then don’t read it – it really is that simple.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
We saw this tendency in action between Keaton and our late great Boris. 12-year-old Boris was not sure that this bouncy black-and-white kitten was a suitable replacement for his pal Natasha, but Keaton was convinced from Day 1 that Boris was his new bestest friend despite the hissing and the growling and spent a lot of time rolling around looking adorable.
And it did eventually work — the boys became buddies and Keaton was totally devoted to Boris when Boris was fatally poisoned by fucking Chinese rice gluten. Every vet who saw Boris in those last few months said he was the best-groomed dying cat they’d ever seen, because Keaton groomed Boris like Boris was his kitten.
LanceThruster
It is refreshing to see this sort of rational love and grief over a beloved pet. My sister recently lost one of her brood when it wandered off and was found dead a week or so later. I provided the emotional comfort I could with condolences and noting it was truly loved and cared for.
She is still in the agonized grief mode though it has been almost two months, and treats anyone not in lockstep with her lever of grief as some sort of unfeeling sociopath, further alienating her familial support group. I have no problem acknowledging that one’s feelings are what they are regardless of other’s expectations, but to turn around and treat others like crap because of one’s sorrow seems a bit uncalled for.
I have two elderly cats whose health is good for their age but the clock is ticking. I just continue to love them as best I can, the same as I always have, and resign myself to the knowledge that someday that painful event will happen.
I agree with a previous poster who commented on “a good run.” None of us are assured anything, but you hope for all you love a good run.
dj spellchecka
i really want to thank john for this post….i encountered it last evening at about 2:30 am…sleepless from wresting with my feelings about kevin’s loss…it helped a lot!
inkblot, and john, you done good
BCHS Class of 1980
@Arundel: I do not know if you’re a regular commenter or even familiar with Kevin Drum. Moderators, feel free to delete, but I feel I speak for a large part of the audience when I respond with these two words:
Bite me.
BubbaDave
@suzanne:
Golf clap.
BubbaDave
@geg6:
Geg, I understand that you said something hurtful and didn’t mean to. But remember Molly Ivins’ First Rule of Holes: “When you’re in one, stop digging.” Cats will be cats, and humans are only human, and sometimes the cat manages an escape AND IT’S NOBODY’S FAULT. Grieve with those who grieve, and if you need to take away a life lesson, do it quietly.
Just my two beered-up cents.
WaterGirl
That just needed to be said again.
Thymezone
@Thymezone:
Let me say, by way of clarification … I am not criticizing anyone for letting their pets out in coyote territory. I did it every day. I figured that the cat was an outdoor cat and deserved to be out there and taking that risk. She was a wily cat .. apparently more wily than the coyotes, since she lived to be 20 years old. I was pretty attached to the cat, she sits on a bookshelf in a little box now right above where she used to sleep.
Kevin Drum is a pretty smart guy. He surely knows the ropes about pets and coyotes in his neighborhood, and I would wager that his next cat will not be kept indoors either. Cats get run over by cars. Cats get killed by dogs. I have had two cats killed by neighbors’ dogs. My Mission Viejo cat would never have been kept in the house, no matter what I did. She had me outsmarted from the get go. In that particular area. I could still beat her at gin.
LanceThruster
@WaterGirl:
Sadly, yup.
My cat got a skin cancer from lounging in the sun all day and it cost me a pretty penny to have it cut out (they trimmed the ear tip). Yes, I could have kept her entirely indoors for all of her life as if she lived inside a submarine (and I have many friends who have done just that – no problem there), but Keba came from the outdoors when she adopted me and I left it up to her to live the live *she* wanted. She was always a low/zero maintanence kitty and it wasn’t until her later years that she switched to preferring the cat box to “taking it outside.” Now she is exclusively indoors (her choice again) and her own rule is that she and she alone is queen of the master bedroom (each of my 3 cats has their own designated and exclusive space, which is apparently how they like it – spoiled little buggers!).
I feel honored to be chosen by Keba to be the recipient of her constant affection (though she generally shows it by largely ignoring me at this point).