Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

This really is a full service blog.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The revolution will be supervised.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / My Open Thread Brings all the Pups to the Yard

My Open Thread Brings all the Pups to the Yard

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My office assistant Lovey sound asleep on my arm while I work:

officeasst

Naptime is quite a procedure these days.

naptime

Rosie is underneath the covers, Ginger is underneath the bed hiding from her puppies, and I am relegated to about a quarter of the bed. The puppies are now to the stage where they bitch if they are not included with the other dogs, so they are now napping in the bed. I’m going to start crate training them this week, with set hours (10pm bedtime, 7 am wakeup) so it will be easier on their forever home families.

No pics of Ginger because she is not feeling very sociable, as she is still recovering from her surgery and a little tired. Plus, the puppies keep tryingto nurse and she simply has no milk left, so she is avoiding them. I had to cancel her appointment today and we will go to the doggie spa on Monday.

As soon as I can get it on video, I will have some puppies on Steve sparring action. He is such a champ- so gentle with them. Just lies on the ground and baps at them as they attack him, and he never uses claws. When he gets tired, he stands up and shakes them off and climbs his cat tree.

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  3. 3.

    the Conster

    Just reading the names Lovey and Thurston makes me laugh every.single.time. You should change your name to John Doolittle.

    ETA: any suggestions about how to leave food out in 5 feet of powder snow? I watched a bunny struggling on the surface, and throwing pieces of carrots and apples doesn’t work, because it just sinks. There’s nothing to eat outside for the suburban woodland animals, here in the land of ice and snow.

  8. 8.

    the Conster

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I left cat food out for the crows on the one bare piece of real estate – the deck railing. It wasn’t touched. We’re going to get another foot + tomorrow, and it’s bumming me out for the animals.

  9. 9.

    Pogonip

    Lovey’s a really pretty dog. I like the way her colors swirl together.

    My God, Thurston’s enormous.

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    @the Conster:
    Have a kid’s snow saucer or anything flat that will stay on the surface? Maybe a piece of thin plywood? They might be able to navigate to that.

  11. 11.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    Puppehs! Ginger is smart to hide from the kids.

    How’s Rosie liking them? She’s usually (IIRC) under the covers anyway, so that’s not really a clue.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    When he gets tired, he stands up and shakes them off and climbs his cat tree.

    And they’re at the base yelping that their toy is beyond the reach of their tiny little paws.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    Ohhhhhhh…….so adorable! Look at those sleeping pups! Sleeping Lovey is too cute and we get a bonus Lily pic! Yay! Glad everyone is doing well. Hope Ginger recovers soon and is up for her well deserved spa day!

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    On the heels of 2014 shattering historical temperature records globally, statewide and locally, 2015’s off to a rollicking start.

    Sacramento set a record temperature Friday as a strong high pressure ridge continues to warm up the region. Downtown reached 77 degrees, breaking a previous record of 74, set in 2006, according to the National Weather Service. Sacramento Executive Airport hit 73 degrees, one degree higher than the record, also set in 2006.

    “It’s extraordinarily warm,” said weather service forecaster Eric Kurth, noting that more records could be broken through the long President’s Day weekend. “The high pressure ridge will get even stronger,” he said.

    The Sierra Nevada got its own dose of sun on Friday, when South Lake Tahoe broke its previous record by 8 degrees. It was 65 degrees at Lake Tahoe Airport, beating the 57 degree record of 2011, according to the weather service.

  17. 17.

    the Conster

    @Violet:

    When I moved in September I got rid of so much of stuff that was just lying around in my old basement, but maybe a cover to a plastic bin or something. I’ll have to posthole my way out to where there is a place to leave it. I’ll have to wait, though, until the BLIZZARD THAT’S COMING WITH SO MUCH MORE SNOW to make it worthwhile doing.

  19. 19.

    JPL

    I’m jealous. It appears to be the ideal home. Since Lovey, Thurston, Steve, Lily, Rosie and Ginger, won’t say it, let me be first to say Happy Valentine’s Day. btw.. Store any chocolate up high, and if possible behind locked doors.

  20. 20.

    Pogonip

    @trollhattan: Would you mind going to the next topic down and explaining to Cornerstone why we Hodor Bob?

    I can’t believe I just typed that sentence. I gotta get a life. ( But not this weekend–it’s too damn cold!)

  27. 27.

    Keith G

    Steve is sure a wise ‘ol cat who is secure in his status as head of household.

    @the Conster: I am thinking that a wild rabbit has the DNA-given skill set to get to that carrot even if it sinks in a snow drift. Finding food buried in snow is what they have done for millennia…or else they wouldn’t be here now.

  30. 30.

    the Conster

    @JPL:

    The winds will upend anything light, and anything heavier sinks. I think there’s a trash can lid that the landlord left me that might work, but I’ll have to make my way to a more protected area, which is much harder than it sounds. Imagine cold deep light quicksand – it’s a little scary now, because the snow is really fucking deep. It’s officially out of control.

    @Keith G:

    That’s the little story I tell myself, but watching it struggle – they’re not all going to make it through.

  31. 31.

    Pogonip

    If we ever get another dog I’d like it to have Lovey’s color pattern. The more I see her the more I like it.

  32. 32.

    pat

    In my experience, rabbits are more likely to eat bird food, especially sunflower seeds, than bits of veggies. Just a thought.

  47. 47.

    Howard Beale IV

    @SiubhanDuinne: I always loved his appearances on Rowan and Martin’s “Laugh In” when he would close his appearance with “…and Morgul as the Friendly Drelb!”

  48. 48.

    the Conster

    @efgoldman:

    I stopped feeding birds when I had feral cats living on my property – nothing like luring creatures to their deaths. I don’t really have a good place for a birdfeeder, but I would like to leave something for the crows. There’s no good place unless I want to shovel until April. Which I don’t. I can barely turn my car around.

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    All the puppies!!
    I don’t blame Ginger. I remember those nursing days and how exhausting it could be. She needs a steak and some sleep.

  50. 50.

    David Koch

    @JPL: I wouldn’t give fixxed news any credit. The average age of their audience is 68.8 years. In fact, the average age for BillO’s show 72 years old. Most septuagenarians aren’t on the internet.

  54. 54.

    the Conster

    @efgoldman:

    feral cats kill everything that moves – and consume parts of lots of different things. I had “gifts” almost every day in the summer – frogs, birds, lizards, guts of who knows what, mice, baby rabbits, baby groundhogs, chipmunks, etc. etc. The ferals disappeared one by one though – the night I saw the fisher cat made it clear why. That thing is creeeeeepyyyyyyyyyy.

  60. 60.

    jl

    Somebody needs to send out a rescue party for Cracker. She near Boca Raton?

    ‘ Gosar said that if the U.S. were to pay ransom to terrorists, then “every American citizen traveling abroad becomes a subject in regard for kidnapping and then the plight of how much money has been captivated in the Boca Raton group.” ‘

    GOP Congressman Mixes Up Boko Haram And Boca Raton
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul-gosar-boko-haram-boca-raton

    Edit: do we have some competition for Gohmert in this guy?

  61. 61.

    David Koch

    @Mike J:

    “I understand that you don’t use all of the Internet. … You don’t email, you don’t Facebook, you’re not Pinteresting or Tumbling,” Colbert asked Bill Clinton.

    “Oh, no. I do Facebook,” Clinton replied.

    But when Colbert asked the former president if he “tweets,” Clinton said he thinks he may be too insecure.

    “What if you tweet and nobody tweets back?” Clinton asked, garnering laughs from the crowd. “There’s nothing worse than a friendless tweeter, right? You’re just wandering around in cyberspace.”

    Clinton admitted that his absence from Twitter may be a generational disconnect. “You have to understand, when I became president, there was no email. Email was largely interoffice,” Clinton explained.

  63. 63.

    elis

    @the Conster: Not metal, as the food might freeze/stick to it. Have any scrap plywood? My friend in Northern Mass. uses plastic lunchroom trays to set out food in bad weather.

  68. 68.

    the Conster

    @jl:

    I mean this thing. It’s bigger in person than the picture, like a wolverine, and they’re common in the northeast apparently. They hang out in trees!!

  70. 70.

    David Koch

    @Mike J:

    CNBC: I’m curious, have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?

    BUSH: Occasionally. One of the things I’ve used on “the Google” is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jl:

    It’s easy to do. I mix up Louis Gohmert and Gomer Pyle and Denver Pyle and Bob Denver and Bing Crosby and Bill Cosby and Brick Oven Bill (“BoB”) and Bob in Portland all the time.

  77. 77.

    debit

    @David Koch: In my house we use the phrase “I used the Googles.”

    @Cole Lovey is so sweet and pretty. I really hope that whoever adopts these puppies sends regular updates so we can see how they grow up.

  79. 79.

    David Koch

    @Mike J:

    “The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.” ~ Ted Stevens

    Bill O’Reilly: I’ll tell you why religion is not a scam. In my opinion, all right. Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    It’s great that Steve is teaching the pups how to play with cats — the rescue will probably be able to say that the pups are cat-friendly (unless they turn out to have an irrepressible prey drive or something).

  86. 86.

    David Koch

    @Mike J:

    Thank you, Newt Gingrich, for this YouTube gem; I think America needed a good laugh. Last week, the former Republican presidential front-runner and moon colony-enthusiast called upon the wisdom of the Internet to come up with a term for an Internet-connected phone, apparently not knowing that they are already called “smartphones”.

    If we had told you that Newt Gingrich’s “multimedia production company” had made a YouTube video titled “We’re Really Puzzled”, it would have been too ridiculous to fabricate. We cannot make this up.

    “You probably think it’s a cell phone,” said Gingrich. “But think about it, if it’s taking pictures, it’s not a cell phone…This device, is something new and different. I’ve been calling it a handheld computer.

    It gets better: “So having failed for several days to come up with an adequate term for the device we call a “cell phone,” we want to open the discussion up to you. Let us know in the comments what you think we should name it, and we’ll feature the best ones in a future newsletter.”

    The YouTube comments are priceless:

    –“Smartphone? How about smartphone. Oh hey, look, we already call it that.”

    –“I suggest calling it a “horseless telephone.”

    –“There’s a book on the shelf behind him titled “Social Marketing”. LOL”

  87. 87.

    jl

    @efgoldman:

    ‘ We saw one crossing the street in broad daylight a couple of years ago. Very, very rare ‘

    I assume you mean rare to see one. Fishers aren’t rare, they are just very very discrete.
    Which will creep constar out even more: they’re all around, up the trees above you. They can see you, but you can’t see them!

    Kind of like bobcats in California, a lot of them, but damned if they will let anyone see them. And same for fishers here too.

  93. 93.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @David Koch:

    Bill O’Reilly: I’ll tell you why religion is not a scam. In my opinion, all right. Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that.

    And yet, amazingly it can be explained.

    Which means that religion is a scam, after all, but BillO’s own logic.

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    So, let us follow the trail. If he never graduated from college, then whatever degree he got afterwards was a joke. Then that means that he was unqualified to practice. So, what does that mean for all the patients he saw?

    …………………………………………

    FRIDAY, FEB 13, 2015 03:15 PM CST
    Rand Paul caught lying about his college record
    Senator’s office forced to admit that he never graduated from Baylor University
    LUKE BRINKER

    Ophthalmologist-turned-politician Rand Paul may have a medical degree from Duke University, but the Kentucky senator and likely 2016 presidential candidate never completed his undergraduate education at Baylor University. So why did Paul assert twice yesterday that he holds two bachelor’s degrees from the institution?

    The senator embellished his record during an appearance at the Lincoln Labs “Reboot Congress” event Thursday. In two instances highlighted by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, Paul falsely suggested that he had obtained undergraduate degrees. First came this exchange between Paul and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington:

    http://www.salon.com/2015/02/13/rand_paul_caught_lying_about_his_college_record/

  99. 99.

    David Koch

    Rand Paul caught lying about his college record
    Senator’s office forced to admit that he never graduated from Baylor University

    Remember when Cole insisted Baby Doc would be a formidable candidate in 2016.

    Good Times.

  100. 100.

    satby

    @the Conster: Last year we had 3 feet of snow with drifts that were higher, so I kept shoveling flat areas under a bush and out under some trees where I could put food for the bunnies (under the bushes) and the deer (under the trees). At one point I had a heard of 18 deer at the back of my yard at the salt link and feeding station. Clearing the snow made it low enough for them to paw the rest of the way down to the frozen grass when they were out of corn.
    I bought juice carrots and marked down veggies for the bunnies.

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    Does this face look familiar? Valerie Jarrett’s ancestor honored with stamp.

    By Krissah Thompson February 12

    The presidential aide and confidant stood beside a blown-up image of her great-grandfather, looking up as it towered over her. She shares his broad forehead, his cafe-au-lait complexion — and surely his drive to achieve.

    Here was Valerie Jarrett on stage at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, beaming proudly as her forebear Robert Robinson Taylor became the 38th person inducted into the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Stamp series. She called her mother to the front of the crowd. She whispered to her daughter. She thanked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for coming to the ceremony.

    “Well! This is a celebration that we are having today,” she began.

    In 1892, Taylor became the first black to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to become the nation’s first academically trained black architect and developed a long relationship with educator Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/does-this-face-look-familiar-valerie-jarrett-ancestor-honored-with-stamp/2015/02/12/e5791dfc-b22a-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html

  104. 104.

    David Koch

    NBC has expanded its probe into embattled news anchor Brian Williams to examine his expense accounts, New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reports.

    Williams and his agent met with NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke and were presented with a dossier of Williams’s apparent lies, according to sources.

    $10 million per year, with a first class travel and entertainment expense account, among other perks, and he still felt the need to cheat his company.

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    His M.D. is bona fide, but his “board certification” in ophthalmology is from a fringe organization that he founded himself. Mention of this causes veins to stand out on the forehead of my brother, who is a board-certified ophthalmologist.

    ETA: You can specialize in a specialty and not be board-certified, but that is the gold standard. Basically, Paul pioneered the bitcoin of board certification.

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    “Cads.” I have been waiting for years to use something I once saw—a reference in a 1920s women’s magazine article to an oily character as a “tango pirate.” Boom! “Lounge lizard” doesn’t even come close.

  115. 115.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I found a pretty cool old TVZ concert – here. He’s got some very, very funny patter.
    ETA: The sound is quite good for something of that vintage.
    E.g.:

    If you think this song is good, in the morning you should seek professional help.

  119. 119.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m ever so glad to hear that you are enjoying it. The story he tells about Pancho and Lefty and the 3 day gig in Houston made me laugh until I cried.

  121. 121.

    catclub

    @David Koch: When the company has decided to come down on you like a ton of bricks, it will prosecute you for taking pencils from the office. Nobody else will be prosecuted for this. And it never mattered until you were the focus of attention.

    It could mean he did not have receipts for actual expenses that he was reimbursed for. Now it matters.

  122. 122.

    Mary G

    The puppies are adorable and also, too, huge, especially Thurston. I don’t blame Ginger a bit for hiding out.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yeah. I can summon a certain level of low-key style when necessary—the last time I wore a tie was bro’ man’s wedding in July—but I don’t even try with all that exotic GQ outer-limits stuff. A man’s got to know his limitations. Didn’t somebody cool like Dirty Harry say that?

  124. 124.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, I’ve been in a background-TV lull, and now suddenly there’s Love It or List It, Too and Crime Scene Cleaner. Former is a “shelter show” with nice scenery (co-host Jillian and Vancouver, B.C.). Latter is a dark comedy from Germany on my Eurotrash micro-network MHz. Been watching it the last few weeks and haven’t quite decided about it. Trailer here.

    From Here to Eternity just started on TCM, and I do like me some Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed, but I’m just not in the mood tonight.

  125. 125.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: I know my style. It works for me. I won’t step outside it. I feel like I am wearing a costume not clothes if it isn’t my thing. My ex taught me a couple things about style that I absorbed, but otherwise, I stay with what has always worked for me. I never did parachute pants or any other really unfortunate things since I had control of my wardrobe.

    @efgoldman: One is making efforts.

  126. 126.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I know my style. It works for me. I won’t step outside it.

    That’s pretty much where I’m at. I have a few signature touches, but they’ve been long since broken in and field-tested.

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: I apparently have a variable eye color. If I wear blue, my eyes seem blue-green. Gray: gray-green. Green: bright green. Oddly, the ex and my mom both have encouraged me to wear green whenever possible.

  134. 134.

    Comrade Mary

    Are those flannel sheets? The hell with the pet hair attraction powers, flannel keeps you from turning into a yousicle.

  135. 135.

    Comrade Mary

    @Omnes Omnibus: Blue-grey-green eyes here. Haven’t noticed clothing colours affecting eye colour. Only thing that makes my eyes really green is crying or allergies. Not recommended.

  138. 138.

    David Koch

    @catclub:

    Nobody else will be prosecuted for this

    Why would anyone else be prosecuted for his ridiculous fabrications?

    He also claimed that, nearly a decade after this supposed embed, a member of SEAL Team 6 sent him a souvenir from the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. “I got a white envelope and in it was a thank-you note, unsigned,” Williams said during another Late Show appearance. “And in it was a piece of the fuselage of the blown-up Black Hawk in that courtyard. Sent to me by one of my friends.”

  139. 139.

    Montarvillois

    If you haven’t been around a litter of puppies or kittens for a long time, you forget how lovable they are and so heart wrenching it is to give them up.

  140. 140.

    Pogonip

    @e Montarvillois: I think Cole has more in the pipeline–and if this dog rescue is as fussy as most of them, he won’t have to give them up because no one will ever qualify to adopt them.

  141. 141.

    mainmati

    @the Conster: A la the sledding principle, you need to put the food out on a largeish tray or board that won’t sink and that will accommodate, maybe, small mammals. The more enterprising bunnies may find exposed surfaces to mine.

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