Going to sleep in my house, a photo essay for the Max-o-philes.
10:15 pm:
10:20 pm:
10: 35 pm:
If I really hated you all I would embed an auto-play video. You will just have to imagine what it sounds like when a hundred pound doberman cries like a baby for TWENTY FREAKING MINUTES because his ball rolled under the bed.
Chat about whatever.
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Tokyokie
A cat would get the ball itself. And tear up the bedroom to do so, then get distracted by a tree roach.
Paul in KY
He has a very expressive face & eyes.
raven
Michelle Nunn’s first video ad.
mike with a mic
@Tokyokie:
The cat would only get the ball himself because he can fit under the bed. Cat’s are just as helpless as dogs.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Nothing like a nod to George H. W. Bush to bring on the indifference.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Nothing like a nod to George H. W. Bush to bring on the indifference.
D58826
oh the humanity!!!!!!
David Fud
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Georgia. You know, Georgia? We do prefer to keep the Senate, right? Just curious.
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Well, if she has a ghost of a chance in this redneck motherfucker that’s the way she’ll have to play it.
Mnemosyne
@Tokyokie:
Charlotte has recently decided that the best possible time to play with her favorite tossing/pouncing/biting toy is about 4:00 am, and the best possible place to play with it is at the foot of our bed. While we’re in it.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@David Fud:
Gee, I didn’t know that we wanted to keep the Senate. Thanks for the heads up. I prefer raven’s reply.
Tokyokie
@mike with a mic: Perhaps not quite as helpless, but certainly more useless than dogs. Mine have retained enough prey instinct to chase after anything small that moves, but not enough to actually feed themselves. We have five cats, and a couple of times have had to set out mousetraps, because the kitties were all scared of the teensy-tiny rodents.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne:
That’s what feet under blankets are for.
Roust that cat. Cute as she be during waking hours.
Tokyokie
@Mnemosyne: Cats consider anything or anyone on furniture to be part of the furniture. You’re lucky Charlotte isn’t playing with her toy up around your heads.
kindness
Did Max finally get the toy or did you have to dig it out for him?
Tokyokie
@Elizabelle: I used to have a cat, who, in her kittenhood, would demand to play footsie every night before I went to sleep, and if I didn’t play sufficiently long to satisfy her, would turn around and scold me until I resumed. Plausible deniability with cats is pretending that the foot moving under the blanket is not at all associated with the head sticking out over the other end.
Of course, most cat owners I’ve known, myself and the spousal unit included, take great delight in gently annoying out pets. So I guess it works both ways.
satby
Second the soulful eyes.
satby
Second the soulful eyes.
Tim F.
@kindness: It depends on which day you are talking about.
Karen in GA
I signed up to do Maggie’s Culture Crawl while I’m in London in September. It benefits Maggie’s Cancer Centres, which is a good cause; but it’s a 15 mile walk starting at 6:30 in the evening. I think I’m going to find out how young I no longer am.
But hey, I was going to wander around the city anyway. At least this way I get to do a little bit of good at the same time.
(I’m not above charitywhoring, BTW. Email me if you want a link to my donation page.)
Tata
Dogs are the loveliest people. Thanks, Tim.
Yatsuno
MAXPUPPEH!!!
No one told me border collies were big whiners. But oh man if you ignore Jack he will NOT shut up until you scatch him. And if you stop it’s worse.
IowaOldLady
Oh get up and get the poor thing’s ball. What kind of dog parent are you?
Betty Cracker
Beautiful doggie.
Gene108
@raven:
Ad strikes a good tone.
JPL
@raven: Oh no, not another community organizer! It’s a good ad.
Butch
We have four dogs, and three of them are crazy for what we know as “sticksies” (which is to say anything that can be retrieved, but most often tennis balls); the fourth one gives you a look that clearly says “I didn’t throw it. You get it.” Now that we are finally starting to see bare ground here in the frozen north, there are tennis balls poking through the snow all over the yard.
shelly
My Katie cries and cries if a rain storm is coming. A storm that still has three hours to get here. We’re on the east coast of New Jersey and the rain is still massing at the Pennsylvania border. But…disturbance in the Force, I guess.
MomSense
@raven:
That’s a great ad. Does Sam Nunn still have some residual popularity/respect in your “redneck motherfucker”?
Kay (not the front-pager)
@mike with a mic: Some cats are helpless. The key is to get a second, helper cat. Reilly is a sweetheart, but a big, dumb (not dumb; he’s as talkative as a Siamese), helpless thing. Fortunately he has Loki, who has appointed himself Reilly’s Samurai bodyguard. If we have the dog gates up Reilly is stuck. He just has to call and Loki comes running to open the gate for him. Loki comes running if Reilly cries from loneliness, because he has a tummy ache, because he’s stuck, scared, wants to play, etc. It’s very sweet. Also noisy. And heaven forbid the dog mildly teases Reilly. Loki will not stand for that. For context, Reilly is 17 lbs., Loki is 10 lbs., and the dog is 6 lbs.
The dog is at least as helpless as Reilly, but he has to depend on his humans.
shelly
Any stray Christmas decorations showing up?
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
I would, except that Keaton the Maine Coon Mix doesn’t like to be shut into or out of the bedroom. And when he is, he throws himself at the closed door with his full weight. For HOURS. So we have to put up with some early-morning kitty shenanigans to otherwise get a decent night’s sleep.
schrodinger's cat
Physics Kitteh reviews Cosmos Episode 4.
ETA: Review of episodes 1-3 here
JPL
Finch tripped and hurt his paw, and the result was several minutes of howling. I was ready to bring him to the emergency vet. My son looked at me in disbelief cuz that’s not how I reacted to his injuries. The poor pup cries when he sees the needle at the vet.
gogol's wife
Thanks, I needed that. I wuv Max.
JPL
In case it hasn’t been mentioned, Charles Koch is the latest billionaire to whine about his treatment to the WSJ.
haha
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I foolishly downloaded Sims FreePlay to my iPad and am slowly becoming obsessed. If you have your iPad closed, the Sims will call to you in Simglish to come play with them.
raven
@MomSense: Some.
Kristine
@shelly: My late King started out afraid of thunder and grew worse as he aged. By the end, he became a canine barometer, growing restless as the pressure changed–pawing me, pawing the baseboards, crawling onto the couch and my lap, 115lbs of anxiety.
I tried various calming aids. Nothing worked.
The only time thunder bothers Gaby is when a blast really shakes the house. She sleeps through most everything else.
PS: Max is adorable!
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense: He does indeed. And Michelle’s ad strikes just the right sane, moderate, non-scary tone that, as Raven noted, is key to winning this motherfucker. Now if only the GOP puts up a sufficiently mouth-frothing, hair-tearing candidate….*
*Oh, wait, I was forgetting. This is Georgia. All of them, Katie.
NorthLeft12
I know that look, and yes, I know what a whining eighty pound Chocolate Lab sounds like too. I am sure it is very close to the sound that Max makes.
Gus [my dog] will whine if the ball is under furniture, he is not getting enough attention, a cat or visiting dog is blocking his way, the neighbourhood kids won’t pet or play with him, another dog will not play or say hello, but will not whine if he is hungry, thirsty, or needs to go outside. I still love the big brown bastard.
Tokyokie
@Kay (not the front-pager): My big, dumb cat is Lyle, except he doesn’t have much in the way of a helper cat. Maybe Keyser, the Balinese, who’s so sweet-tempered that all the other cats like him. (The few times I’ve seen another cat get annoyed with him and take swipes at him, he flinches, then licks the face of his tormenter.) Keyser will keep Lyle warm when they’re sleeping on the bed. Unfortunately for Lyle, the two youngest cats, Vladimir and Marvin, are larger than he is, and Marvin (a lilac-point Siamese) considers all the other cats to be toys. Marvin is probably the smartest, largest and least helpless (except when he gets shut in closets and the like, which is a couple of times a day) of the cats, which is kind of a problem. (Marvin, being Siamese, is very vocal, but doesn’t have the typical deep Siamese voice. Keyser, being half-Siamese, is even more talkative, and has more of a Siamese voice, meaning he’s much louder.)
I’ve been telling the spousal unit for a couple of years that we need to get a Siamese kitten to annoy Marvin the way that Marvin annoys the other cats, but the spousal unit thinks that too much crazy for the house.
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
A few months ago, I brought Charlotte over to the vet for a checkup. I was sitting in the waiting room minding my own business when a big brown head laid itself in my lap. A brown lab was looking up with me (with those big lab eyes) and saying, I have an owie. Her owners had let her out into the backyard to pee that morning and she came back limping, so they brought her to the vet.
Of course I scritched her ears. How could you not?
dopealope
The intervals between Max pictures ARE WAY TOO LONG !!!
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m just not sure Sam’s legacy can overcome what we are up against. Worth a shot but I won’t curl up in a ball if it doesn’t happen.
rikyrah
Scott Walker signs bill allowing election observers close to voters
Madison — Election observers could stand a few feet from voters and poll workers, under one of a series of election bills Gov. Scott Walker signed in private Wednesday.
The law would allow observers to stand 3 to 8 feet from the table where voters announce their names and addresses and are issued voter numbers, or from the table where people register to vote. Walker’s office said that the law will safeguard the fairness of elections by ensuring observers can see how they are being conducted.
In recent debate in the Senate, Democrats argued the bill could lead to longer lines at polling places and voter harassment, with Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) saying observers would be “breathing down the necks of poll workers.” GOP lawmakers approved the measure in votes that largely broke along party lines.
Another measure signed by Walker requires that, when practical, poll workers of opposite political parties perform certain duties together.
Under existing law, clerks are to choose poll workers from lists submitted by the major political parties, putting similar numbers from each party at each polling location. The legislation signed Wednesday specifies that when two or more poll workers must perform a task, they should be of opposite parties.
Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walker-signs-bill-allowing-election-observers-close-to-voters-b99238940z1-253573081.html#ixzz2xq0GUTfT
Follow us: @JournalSentinel on Twitter
kc
What a sweet face.
PurpleGirl
Hugo would come over to me, look at me with a look that meant “It’s time to pet me. Where is your hand?”
ETA: Max Puppeh!!!!!!!!
WereBear
It’s not like you’re doing anything.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven: oh, I agree it’s a long shot, but Michelle is a good, decent candidate and I think can hold her edge over whichever crazy-ass Repub gets the nod (probably that imbecile Broun). Money and ads will obviously be a factor, but so too will GOTV, and as I’ve mentioned before, she has a good ground organization statewide.
Tokyokie
@rikyrah: I’ve always wondered how loud the shrieking would be if the Democrats used lots of very large, deep-voiced black men to act as poll watchers.
ThresherK
My wife’s cat has a “trophy pelt”, a cover ripped from a toy mouse ages ago. When he’s lonely he’ll carry it all through the house crying like he’s in pain.
This is a question for cat people: Since Petfinder and other aggregating sites have made it easier to see what felines are for rescue, it seems that every kitten or cat comes with a name.
Who here has renamed a cat, and why? If you adopt one from a non-home situation (stray, abandoned, etc) who was only given a name to have something to put on the internet picture, are you more or less likely to give it a name of your choosing?
(I’m not asking dog people because dogs listen when you call their name and sometimes obey. It’s a part of training them, whereas I firmly believe that cats train us.)
Betty Cracker
When my two boxers see a critter walking down the street (from inside the house) they do this weird sing-songy whine in two distinct tones. Sounds like a duet!
WereBear
Since cats have tons of nicknames anyway, it simply becomes another in the collection, and you can re-name them anything you wish.
The Importance of the Name
Another relationship, another name they are called by. Works for cats.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Tokyokie: I love Siamese cats. They have so much personality and are so interactive! I had a semi-Siamese who was the smartest cat I ever owned, and a chocolate point who got me through my mom’s final illness and death, and my children’s births through elementary school.
Reilly is talkative, but not Siamese. He’s a 2 year old semi-Maine Coon who is not fat and not done growing. He has the highest, silliest , most incongruous voice of any cat I’ve ever heard. Loki is also a semi-Maine Coon, a month younger than Reilly, but health problems have kept him small. These 2 head bump and lick each others’ faces like long-lost family members every time they run into each other. Which is, like, every 20 minutes.
When my kids were little I always secretly thought people with easy, “normal’ children must be bored to death. Now I think the same thing about people with ‘normal’ pets.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t think Broun will win the nomination.
raven
dupe
PurpleGirl
@ThresherK: I follow several kitten cams and the kittens all get names. (It’s becoming a fundraiser for the shelter and/or foster parent to hold an auction to name a kitten(s).) Anyway, we viewers do become attached to the names and then the adopter sometimes renames the kitten. Some people don’t like that but the fosters usually tell us to be polite, the adopter gets to decide if they want to change a name. I can think of a bunch of times kittens have been renamed.
raven
@ThresherK: I was at a yard sale years ago when we had raven. A lil ole lady asked his name and I said “well, his name is Raven but we call him boo-boo and he’ll answer to stinky”. She said., “My vet told me if a dog (insert pet) has more than one name it is truly loved”. To this day my bride calls me Mr Boo Boo!
JPL
@raven: Some of us have been known to vote in the Republican primary.
raven
ThresherK
@WereBear: TWOC is great.
Nicknames are cool, but the real name has to “fit” the cat for some folks (like me and my spouse).
And the nicknames come along when its personality develops or its relationship with the household. My first time adopting a grown cat surprised me by how long it took to decide to be “part of the family” (i.e. be around us before it was ‘begging for food’ time).
Sometimes the name is easy, like the nameless 10-week old who got his moniker on the trip home from the humane society.
Sometimes it doesn’t, and two kittens are “the light one” and “the dark one” for a week. With a couple it can almost be a Rorschach test.
JPL
Palin is in town to campaign for Handel.
raven
@JPL: Whoo hoo! I’m on it like a duck on a june bug!
Kay (not the front-pager)
@ThresherK:
That’s the “Come play with me” call.
We renamed Loki because his shelter name was completely inappropriate for his appearance and personality. We should have renamed Reilly to Lebowski, but we didn’t, and now it’s too late. Cats do know and respond to their own names. They just don’t know anyone else’s name.
The dog (OK, Nikko) knows everyone’s name. He also is the one who is most likely to come when I call “Here kitty kitty.”
Felinious Wench
@ThresherK: We renamed our cat…she was about a year old, and had been called Cookie. Cookie. For a cat. She is now Princess Mia Meow and answers to “Princess,” because she’s a cat.
Our rescue dog had been named Kira by the shelter. We kept it…it means “sunshine” in Persian and perfectly fit the character of her Lab-mixedness.
WereBear
It depends. I can ask our cats where someone is, and they look there, or even go there.
Years after the death of Bubby, the cat who raised James Bond, I would mention his name, and James would go crying around the apartment, looking for him.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
How is James Bond doing?
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: “Shaken, not stirred”
Kay (not the front-pager)
@WereBear: OK, Reilly and Loki do know each other’s name, and may know other names, but they don’t (usually) act on that knowledge. Especially if the name is “Nikko.”
WereBear
The good news is, the vet didn’t find anything physically wrong.
The bad news is, the vet didn’t find anything physically wrong.
This means his erratic and restless behavior is part of the feline dementia we’ve been dealing with for three years now. Mr WereBear mixed up a new batch of herbal stuff for him; that, and special nutrition, is how we’ve gotten him this far.
So we will see how that goes. If it doesn’t work, I do consider the brain an important organ; one which can cause pain and suffering when it’s not working right. If he keeps acting distressed, and looking distressed, he’s in distress.
He’s a big Norwegian Forest Cat and he’ll be 18 in May. He’s already a “medical miracle.” Both vets we consulted this week couldn’t believe he was that old… and looked that good.
Here is James Bond.
ThresherK
@PurpleGirl: It’s becoming a fundraiser for the shelter and/or foster parent to hold an auction to name a kitten(s)
Kitten cams? Auctioning off naming rights? That’s neat.
@Kay (not the front-pager): Cats do know and respond to their own names.
I’ll add, “When they feel like it”. Sometimes “success” in calling a cat is getting it to bend one ear in my direction.
@Felinious Wench: Answers to “Princess”.
That haughty sense many cats have is very well suited to peerage nicknames.
Our “The Little Prince” was once the hellraiser kitten, but at 8 is still “The Little Prince”. (And he coexisted with “The Duchess” at times just barely. But when she took the big sleep, he went thru a period of missing her more than we ever thought he enjoyed being with her.)
Wow, so much input. I knew this would be the place.
raven
@WereBear: Sweet kitty.
WereBear
I have come to believe cats can understand an incredible amount of what we say.
They just usually don’t see how it might apply to them.
WereBear
@raven: Thanks! Yes, he is the trope of the grumpy old guy with the heart of gold.
Gex
An interesting thing about the Boomer Esiason controversy calling out the Mets 2B taking paternity leave to see his child born. Didn’t we just see a link on BJ about how early elective C-sections may be a risk factor for autism? Yet apparently that’s what he’s pushing.
Mnemosyne
@ThresherK:
Of our three cats, only one retained her original name, mostly because we couldn’t think of a better one. Keaton came to us as “Kiki,” but we saw his gigantic paws and knew he was going to outgrow a cutesy name like that. (He is also known now as “Mr. K,” “Mr. Big,” and “Mr. Charm & Personality.” Occasionally “Keaters.”)
Annie came to us as Annie and stayed Annie because, well, she’s an Annie.
Charlotte started as KittyKitty (G found her in a parking lot so she’s our self-rescue), then was Chuck when she and her sister were Chuck and Olive, and then became Charlotte when Olive was adopted by one of G’s co-workers. Just as Keaton’s full name is Buster Keaton, Charlotte’s full name is Charlotte Charles, The Lonely Tourist. Annie is Annie, though I suspect the full name she originally got was Little Orphan Annie.
JPL
@Gex: Yes we did. It was an oped piece by Sam Wang in the NY Times. I thought of the same thing when I heard Boomer mention that.
Lectriclady
@ThresherK: Haven’t re-named cats, but a few horses I re-named died early and ugly deaths. I quit doing it, bad karma.
Belafon
@schrodinger’s cat: Mr. Tompkins. I was trying to remember that name so I could find these for my kids. Thanks.
BGK
@ThresherK:
I got my cats from Animal Services, the public shelter here. They’ve named their cats going back more than ten years, so they all had names.
I kept Jack’s name as it really seemed to suit him. Rizzo was named “Jiggs,” which I thought was dumb. I named him Rizzo from the Muppet Rizzo the Rat. I think Ava’s shelter name might’ve been “Oreo,” and I really believe cats should have real names. Yes, Ava is named after Ava Gardner, but the story takes many paragraphs. I think Sophia was named “Cookie.” I renamed Sophia after the one-time resident cat in the Arthur Ave. Market in the Bronx. If you sat a few moments for an espresso, she’d rifle your bags. She must’ve been 20 pounds, as everyone in the Market fed her. Angus was named “Batman” because his original owner thought his face resembled Batman’s face mask. I gave him the only appropriate name for a wee Scottish Fold.
All of mine respond to their names, most times coming when I call them.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
That’s Keaton to a T, though he is not a Supervisor (that would be Charlotte). G always says that Keaton is the first cat he’s seen who seems frustrated by the limitations of being a cat — Mr. K still hopes to someday sit at the table and drink the coffee. Annie and Charlotte seem pretty content to be cats.
Karen in GA
@raven: @SiubhanDuinne: I’m not sure anything can overcome what we are up against. The crazy is strong in this motherfucker.
When it comes to elections, I’ve learned to compartmentalize. My hope goes in one place, where I let it run unchecked. The rest of me watches it the way a disinterested parent raises a toddler — spurts of attention between long stretches of neglect. “What’s that, hope? You want to donate money? Fine, here’s some money. Donate it and stop bothering me.” “You want to vote, hope? Fine, I’ll take you out to vote after work, but then leave me alone.”
The rest of me is just sitting back and watching the carnage. “Hey, hope, you don’t want to stick your tongue in that outlet — ah, fuck it. Go ahead. You’ll learn.”
Butch
@shelly: We took ’em down right away after Christmas. We have a small water feature that we put a tank heater in, and the fish actually made it through their second winter. We had 58 days below zero…..
ThresherK
@BGK: Oreo?
You didn’t mention “the cat previously known as Oreo” ‘s appearance, but in some states it’s the law that any Oreo be a tuxedo with white whiskers. I live in one of those states.
I go towards people names, but non-current sorts.
Karen in GA
@JPL:
Oh, Jeebus. That was the thud I heard a while back — her arrival. The state’s average IQ plummeted to the floor.
PaulW
I dunno if I’ve mentioned it on here before, but I had recently adopted out of the apartment parking lot this sweet little tuxedo cat… that turned out to be pregnant and literally honest-to-god gave birth just as the Super Bowl ended two months ago.
It’s been two months and the six kittehs – Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Inara, River, and Simon – she’s given birth to are now old enough to get adopted. I am taking five of the kittehs (save Mal, who has become a friendly kitteh to me) to the local SPCA shelter and hopefully they will find good homes.
I am trying to post with a link using my wittylibrarian blog address where I have an ongoing series of pictures posted. For some reason, whenever I add that wittylibrarian URL here, it won’t post. Is there a filter or something?
Felinious Wench
I read in one of those “Why Cats Don’t Love You” articles that many cats do not know their names and will not come when they’re called. So, either I’ve got a weird cat or the article is bullshit because she SPRINTS to me if I call her, every time. Scritches, you see.
The dog runs too, because she expects her supply of scritches to match. Then they get into a scritch argument and I just walk away. They eventually realize I’m gone.
PaulW
Lemme see if I can post a pic directly…
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8wGXVG6tlbo/UypBhZq_COI/AAAAAAAAAfY/VnGqDAssE90/s1600/ocean_kittens_futonphase2.jpg
schrodinger's cat
@Belafon: You are welcome, I love that series, the illustrations are pretty great too.
WereBear
Great Fritz Leiber reference!
From the greatest cat short story of all time: Space Time for Springers.
PurpleGirl
@PaulW: Are you a Fire Fly fan? A cat fosterer in Vancouver had a family of mom cat and 7 kittens who were named for characters in the series.
ETA: Great picture.
ETA2: I’ve never owned a cat but have friends who have provided me with opportunities to play with cats. And since I’ve been watching the cams, I’ve become a crazy cat lady.
WereBear
@PaulW: Ermagerd, too cute!
When I moved in, Mr WereBear felt my two cats were a great addition, and plenty. Then he decided three was an even better number. Then we fostered a fourth… who stayed.
But we do not have room for a fifth one. Sadly.
ThresherK
@PaulW: Squee time!
Looks like they’re at that “climbing with claws” stage.
PurpleGirl
@WereBear:
Then we fostered a fourth… who stayed.
Ah, a foster fail…. how nice.
Paul in KY
@ThresherK: I have 4 cats & I renamed 2. Just didn’t like the names they had at pound & they were both kittens, so no problem.
Paul in KY
@raven: Maybe we could give her some other naming options ;-)
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Tim, Thanks for the picture of that handsome and terribly sad Maxpuppeh.
@PaulW: Altogether too cute to be legal.
BGK
@ThresherK:
Ava is black and white (as are all my cats), but in a Holstein pattern. I’ve had her for ten years, so she’s not exactly a recent arrival.
As for not knowing their names, well. If one treats one’s cat like a furry houseplant, expect the personality of a houseplant. I was working from home when I got my cats, and gave them as much attention as they could stand. They’re very outgoing and not at all nervous around people – event the vet, to a degree. I also credit Jack for being a benevolent top cat. He is, as Mnemosyne put it, somewhat frustrated at his being “just” a cat. Should he speak to me in English some day, I will only be modestly surprised.
Tokyokie
@WereBear: I, too, usually have a name picked out before I acquire the cat. Keyser is named after Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects. Only he turned out to be more Verbal Kint, but as he actually comes when you call him (although when he arrives, he can’t seem to understand why he’s there), we haven’t changed his name. I’d long been wanting to name a Siamese Marvin after Lee Marvin, figuring it was a good name for a cat with blue eyes who’s talkative and at least a bit crazy; that the kitten I selected at the animal shelter’s adoptathon was a lilac-point (in other words, silver-haired), made the name even more apropos.
When we get a seal-point, I’ll probably name him Django, after Franco Nero, because they’d both have dark features and piercing blue eyes. And I’d also like to get a flame-point Siamese and name him Phineas, after the Gene Evans character in Sam Fuller’s Park Row, as well as a Turkish Van I’d name Lancaster, after Burt, who of course starred in The Swimmer. And maybe a Maine coon I’d name Brega after the hulking character actor whose character dies in scores of spaghetti westerns. (He plays the guy handcuffed to Eli Wallach in Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.)
Svensker
I love Max.
Mnemosyne
@PaulW:
Cuties! I’m sure they’ll find new homes in no time. And I think we all warned you that at least one kitten was going to end up staying. :-)
JR in WV
Our most recent rescue dog has started limping, to attract more attention, because, as everyone knows we don’t pet our dog or cats, not ever!!
Problem is, she forgets which foot she’s pretending hurts.
We once had a dog decide her foot hurt, to the point where the vet picked her other front foot, and she fell right over! Now that was a dog who could ACT! No, there wasn’t any thing wrong with it – she saw us messing with the other puppy’s foot, which was cut badly.
Paul in KY
@Gex: Baseball has 162 game season. Pro football 16. Think that has to be taken into account.
WereBear
@Tokyokie: It sounds like an excellent plan. I’m sure you will embark on every part as soon as possible :)
Mnemosyne
@Tokyokie:
I dunno — I’m not sure you’re a true Samuel Fuller fan unless you have at least one animal named Griff.
(Which I guess means I may not be a true fan by my own metric. D’oh!)
Paul in KY
@Felinious Wench: One trick to see if they know their name is to call them with names that sorta sounds like their name, but isn’t.
Like if cat’s name is ‘Dick’, say here Nick, or Fick, or something like that.
schrodinger's cat
I has another post on Cosmos, this time it is about the Pundit reaction to Cosmos, it includes B-Juice favorite, Sully.
Tokyokie
@Mnemosyne: Hey, Park Row was Fuller’s favorite of the film he directed. That should count for something. And I did have a cat (one of the two or three best ones I’ve ever had, and yes, he was part Siamese) named Neyle, after Neyle Morrow, the squirrelly character actor who shows up in almost every Sam Fuller movie and never worked for another director. Does that count?
satby
@satby: @ThresherK: The shelters and rescuers just name the cats and kittens as they come in, so if you rescue a cat, chances are it hasn’t had that name all its life anyway.They’ll learn a new one just fine. Unless you adopt an older cat that was relinquished due to a family problem that’s had the same name for years, in which case I would keep the same name just because the poor thing has already suffered enough loss.
D58826
So a guy with, maybe, mental issues gets a gun, walks on to Fort Hood and kills 4 people. According to the esteemed congressmen Stockman it’s all the fault of the anti-gun activists. John Boehner says that crazy people should not have guns but won’t pass legislation that would address that issue. Country has long sense pasted the ‘going to the dogs’ stage
Tim F.
@Paul in KY: Hell, I can convince people that Max speaks four languages. I trained him with hand gestures.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Who do you think will get it? Kingston? (Not, god help us, Handel?!)
raven
@D58826: With his problems the military wouldn’t let him near a weapon but no such issue with buying one downtown.
satby
so hating the clickpad on my new laptop! screws up all my comments.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s what I’m thinking, don’t know much about Perdue.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Now that’s some funny shit right there.
raven
Stockman blames gun control.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
:-)
James Bond, WereBear’s ailing 18-year-old cat.
bemused
Our two kitties are litter mates from a shelter. They do play together but not as much as our previous two cat families have. They look at us while hovering by the Turbo Track and it’s obvious they expect us to scoot the ball around for them to bat. They were very sick soon after we got them, one having to be syringe fed, and got a lot of nursing care from us so I’ve often wondered if they think we are their mommies.
bemused
@raven:
Oh god just no.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
He’s a beauty, all right. I hope the herbs and special food can help restore him to the cat you’ve known and loved for almost two decades. And if not, well, you know better than anyone here that they let you know when the distress outweighs the joy of life.
Please give him a little scritch for me.
D58826
@raven: report is he bought the gun at the same store as the last fort hood shooter. Owner of that store must sleep well at night
ThresherK
@satby: That was sorta what I thought.
@BGK: If one treats one’s cat like a furry houseplant, expect the personality of a houseplant.
Nah, it was more like:
The first episode I had were the two littermates who got the whole place to themselves just moved right in.
Years later we had a grown cat kept in a “quarantine room”, so the smells and sounds could mix from it to the cat-in-residence. I slept on the floor a few nights then, and I think it helped.
But, to show one example, she has revealed herself as extreme “chow cat”, who’ll just stand there and eat the food out of the bucket once I remove the bricks off the lid, or climb into the cold oven because that’s where chikkins come from.
However, in her first week at her new home, we just left the bag of food and she didn’t even touch it. It just took some time for her real personality to come out.
Regarding “speaking to you in English”, I have named a cat Tobermory. I think it’s a very underused cat name.
cckids
@Tokyokie:
My cat would have an epic wrestling match with the ball, growling and scratching and kicking, then leave it for me to trip on.
ruemara
@ThresherK: I renamed all my cats. Whatever it was became Smudge Rudy Clayton Valentino Vazquez-Smudge for short; Bacardi became Butterscotch But Er Nut-Butter for short; Theodore Bear became Otajamakushi Taifun-Takkun for short; and Blackie became Kage Basho. I had to see who they were first, but they all lived up to their new names. Smudge was handsome, elegant and aloof, but loving, Butter was a ball of fluffy love and himbohood, Takkun is the tiny ball of fluffy energy and you never know what dark shadow Kage will appear out of, since he’s magic. I’ve gotten scared walking past the cat hotel because the seeming darkness sprouts two glowing demon eyes-oh, it’s Kage. Good names are crucial for a cat.
BTW, I love Max Puppy! That. Nose. The new gig will have me surrounded with pets. I hope to master the art of editing with a kitten in my lap. Who am I kidding, Takkun was a brilliant editing assistant.
WereBear
I will!
He likes to hear that he is Famous on the Interwebs :)
ruemara
@WereBear: He’s a beauty. No matter what happens, he’s had a great time with you.
Roger Moore
@Gex:
Football players don’t understand how baseball works. Football games are once a week, and players schedule everything around that one game. Baseball games are every day, and players sometimes have to put the game on hold to attend to their lives. Most players get a day off once in a while anyway, so having it come because of a family event rather than just to take some time off is not a huge deal.
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
I hope it’s not Handel, although I think Nunn could beat her, easily. But if the two contenders are both female, we’re going to see an unprecedented level of misogyny, if not blatant sexism — not from politicians, but from the press. Every debate will be characterized as a “cat fight,” and there will be an unhealthy focus on appearance, fashion choices, etc.
Perdue has already shown that he can be contemptuous and sneering to a female candidate (I kind of doubt he would have made the “high school” remarks about another man). If he gets the nom and tries that on Michelle Nunn, I think it’ll backfire.
Another Holocene Human
Yesterday on this blog, some motherfucker asked this: The question nobody seems to want to ask – why would they? What does a white person gain by talking about race? Keep your month shut and everyone assumes you’re OK, open it and reveal the depths of your ignorance. Privilege is most certainly real, and by acknowledging it a privileged person gains…what, exactly?
Now, to be fair, this is my politician’s answer here but… why not just LISTEN?! Listen, go out of your way to be respectful, treat people like you’d like to be treated. And sometimes… sometimes, when you’ve established a baseline that you respect someone as an individual, offer a bone. “Hey, I think it’s terrible what’s going on with Stop’n’Frisk.” “Wow, I couldn’t believe they didn’t allow Black people into the UF stadium until the game was over.” And maybe then you do sound like a dumb, naive white person but you’ll never cross the river of ignorance if you refuse to slow down and catch the ferry. I mean, people want to talk about these things, but they aren’t going to start a conversation with someone who isn’t listening. JMHO. And sometimes you just have to sit back and be educated. It is absolutely shocking to me the kinds of things I used to believe and take at face value. I’m glad I know better. And I’ve made friends and bettered my life along the way. I’ve had opportunities I never imagined I’d have. If I could go back and do it over I think I’m a better person having made the choices I have. Though I know my life would have been easier if I would have made that choice long ago to stay in my sheltered white collar world. I got so much more out of life.
Yes, often white people ask “What can I do?”. Listen. Consciously address your own biases. Be a mensch. Treat people like people–some are good, some are bad, some are happy, some are sad, some are vulnerable, some are dangerous. What’s the big deal? This is the big deal. Right here, right now. Life is not a dress rehearsal.
Villago Delenda Est
That last shot with Max’s dejected visage on the bed is priceless.
How can anyone not sympathize with that face?
Another Holocene Human
@Another Holocene Human: Actually, you know, everybody in the thread gave good answers. Well, I feel better getting that off my chest anyway.
Roger Moore
Is anyone else having problems with the hundreds digit of the post numbers getting lopped off?
Villago Delenda Est
@D58826: Sort of like the deserting coward when he ordered the utterly illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq.
Like a baby.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: YES
Mike E
My sis renamed her 1st rescue ‘Gus’ because, you know, he looked like a Gus.
Her 2nd rescue was named Dozer and remains so. He isn’t a sleeper so much as a bulldozer, and the name just fits.
ruemara
@Roger Moore: Yes. I got quite confused on how I time traveled. And that this is what I chose to use that power on? Jeez, fricking lottery ticket is what that’s for.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore: Yes, happens all the time on my iPad. If I just pinch the screen (whatever it’s called, you know, to smallify the image) it will usually readjust and show the hundreds column again.
Another Holocene Human
@Roger Moore: Yes, on this post, but oddly enough, not when I reloaded a post from yesterday. Something for the code monkeys to puzzle over.
Paul in KY
@Tim F.: That’s above & beyond, Tim.
Paul in KY
@bemused: All cats think you’re their mother.
Paul in KY
@ThresherK: Tobermory is probably an underused people name as well.
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: Have you ever noticed that when the ‘muricafukyea’ troll posts a comment, you can’t post a reply to it?
Wonder why that is? I think it is because that’s a front pager doing that & has disabled the reply feature as they wouldn’t respond to any reply anyway (my conjecture).
tybee
@raven:
well, i’m a gonna vote for his dumb ass ’cause i think he’ll be the easiest lunatic to beat.
Mike E
@Paul in KY: He’s the farrt in the machine.
cckids
@Paul in KY:
Mother . . . staff, whatever.
Sir Laffs-a-lot
Max Pix!!!!!! thx Tim; now perhaps a Max Vid?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@ThresherK:
It depends on that they think of the name and how well it fits them. Of mine who came with names:
Punkie had to be rehomed because when one half of her original family (an elderly couple) died, the other had to be moved to assisted living and couldn’t take her along. She kept her name.
Duchess got her name when she was picked up as socializable during a TNR project at a feral colony. It fit, so it stayed. (Imagine the Dowager Lady Stavely holding court at Almack’s.)
Pixel was a foster name. He answered to it, so it stayed.
Valentine and Ruby were misidentified as girls when they were dropped off as starving and sick kittens. Their correct gender was only identified when they went in for spaying and, well, there was nothing there to be removed. (They were more than a year old before their “little men” dropped.) They spent a couple of days as Things One and Two before one was christened Miles (after a fictional escape artist of sorts) and the other Max, and took to the new names immediately.
dww44
@SiubhanDuinne: Late to this thread, but I don’t think Broun is gonna win the nomination. Signs and ads I see around here in the middle of the state are for Price, David Perdue (who really knows how the private markets work, since he once headed up Dollar General) and Jack Kingston who’s gonna repeal Obamacare. Broun is strong in No.Ga. but not in the center and further south in my opinion. Karen Handel who lost to Deal in 2010 is also vying and once again got Sarah Palin’s endorsement and promise to appear in the state on her behalf.
I’m attending Nunn’s opening here on Sunday afternoon of her first regional office outside Atlanta. This is her father’s home territory. I like her fine, altho she’s a bit too centrist for me, but I can handle that. But her opposition in the Dem primary, Dr. Rad, is a real progressive and back in the summer went around the state having informative Obamacare seminars with an actual navigator.
Perdue is apparently an arrogant asshole:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/04/03/georgia-senate-candidate-slights-opponent-for-lack-of-college-degree
PhoenixRising
Named the kitty Evinrude, per suggestion of someone here. He doesn’t answer to anything except the pop-top of canned food, but he’s 6 months so that may change.
Kept the Dane’s name, which the family who left her at rescue bestowed on her when she was a 7 week old puppy, before they had some troubles that precluded feeding a 3 year old 130 pound dog who can inhale the crumbs off the counters…by accident.
When my wife awarded the then-10-year-old kid a 15 pound poodle mix, because it was ‘her turn’ to pick the dog, I gave her 3 choices. She went with Spike, but Fang or Brutus would each be equally hilarious. We call him Sputnik, because he’s our first non-retriever breed and is constantly orbiting his girl.
The next Dane–they don’t get old, typically, so we’re planning ahead–will be one of the hard to place black males, and we will teach him to answer to Steinway or Baldwin, depending on who wins the toss.
Amir Khalid
@Paul in KY:
I take it you have no German. Fick is rather a blush-worthy word.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: How lucky for you!
rea
See, this is why we have a minature doberman. Looks and acts just like a doberman, but is only slightly larger than a chihuahua.. Can get her own darn ball out from under the bed.