Update on Miri from commentor & cat-mensch Mark:
Took her in [Wednesday] for a check-up, and she is up to 11.62 lbs. The vet estimates kittens in about ten days to two weeks (so soon!). On the recommendation of the vet, I picked up kitten food to feed Miri for the remainder of her pregnancy. As you can see she was a very sweet girl while at the vet, and was complemented on her disposition by the vet and the vet tech – she is a real people oriented kitty!
And on the pitiable Mobile boxer Belle, from her rescuer Joy:
Just wanted to give you an update on Belle. She is thriving with her fosters. I believe she has found her forever home with them. She now weighs a healthy 55lbs and had her spay and leg tumor removed. She began heartworm treatment before her surgery but now is on doxycycline up until her next treatment in 3wks. She looks like a completely different dog with the TLC she has received.
Thanks for your support!
***********
That’s two sweet companions whose current circumstances we can all be happy about!
What else is on the agenda as we start another week?
Jordan Rules
Yay!!!!
Great updates!
My sister is about to burst. I anticipate getting the call sometime this week and off to the hospital I’ll go to see my nephew being born. I’m so excited!!!! We had a family dinner tonight and she wasn’t comfortable, but who would be at 8.95 months prego during a Phoenix summer. I got her the strawberry shortcake popsicle she was coveting tho and that helped.
Randy P
Was in the PetSmart (chain pet-supply store) yesterday and saw a beautiful golden retriever being shaved bald (except head and tail) in the grooming area. When I commented, appalled, to my wife, a nearby clerk said that yes, that was just something some owners requested. We all speculated that perhaps it was because of the summer heat or tangles in the fur.
I’m still appalled. Has anyone ever heard of this?
We also stopped briefly to look at the kitties, which I think are all rescues. I’m a cat person by marriage, not so much by disposition, but I still found myself kind of drawn to a very large Steve-like fellow. But we do NOT need another cat, we do NOT need another cat, we do NOT …
Major Major Major Major
I am very scared and confused because of insomnia right now so (no i don’t need to go to the hospital) if anybody could just give me some kind words i’d love that.
Major Major Major Major
cute cat on the top one btw
Keith G
Such a precious momma-kitty!!
Patricia Kayden
@Major Major Major Major: ((hugs)). Sometimes when I can’t fall asleep fast enough, I watch tv or read. Hope you’re okay.
Love the happy pet stories to begin a new week.
Keith G
@Major Major Major Major: I recently went through an extended period of disrupted sleep. I am just now coming back to a threshold of sufficient sleep time. It has been very frustrating, but improvements followed (slowly followed) adopting many of the common sense guidelines that are out there.
JGabriel
Rapper Chief Keef wanted to raise some money for the families of a Chicago friend who was killed in a shooting and a baby who was run over by the shooter while driving away.
Keef decides to do a benefit concert. But he has outstanding warrants in Illinois, so he arranges to do the performance from a soundstage in California, and beam the performance to a venue in IL via hologram. I’ll let the Trib take it from here:
What the fuck? Isn’t this like shutting down a movie theater in California because it’s showing a Roman Polanski film?
I’m not a fan of Roman Polanski, and I don’t know anything about Keef’s music or outstanding warrants, but Keef wasn’t physically at the concert. The police couldn’t arrest Keef, so they rip off his fans who paid for the show instead? How is that right?
Would the police have done this if, for instance, James Hetfield had an outstanding warrant and Metallica was playing in Chicago by hologram?
Can they shut down bookstores for selling novels by people with outstanding warrants?
The police are just showing vindictiveness towards Keef’s fans, abusing their policing powers to shut down a fucking hologram show, without any foundation in protecting public safety or serving the public interest, just to show they can.
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major: On the way to bed myself, but the most helpful comment I’ve ever heard about insomnia came from my dad, goddess rest his soul: Not being able to sleep is like seasickness: It won’t kill you, but it’ll make you wish you were dead.
And in common with seasickness, worrying that you’re about to fall victim makes it that much more likely to happen!
One thing I’ve been trying recently that really helps me drop off & stay asleep is a sleep mask. I always thought it was a stupid idea, another gadget-driven snipe hunt, but a cheap drugstore model has made a perceptible change for me…
Tommy
Have you ever had a cat that had kittens? I took in a stray years ago. Didn’t know she was pregnant at the time. Gave birth on my chest of all places (long story). It was kind of awe-inspiring watching her care for them.
One passed away. Two grew up and I found houses for them.
Major Major Major Major
@Keith G: i know what they are damnit, no offense. i was stuck in a bomb threat zone tonight and then my husband got mad about it. i’m just having a hard time no matter how much chamomile and wine and smokeable items i have.
ETA: Not to say I’m overdoing it, maybe that’s the problem hah
Schlemazel
@Randy P:
I had a beautiful afghanhound I bought for $25 years ago. It belonged to a woman who bred and showed miniature poodles and one other (I forget the other breed). She was an odd duck but then most show dag people I ran into seemed a bit “different” to me. So she died suddenly one night and her husband came home from the hospital and shot every one of her dogs except this hound. He shaved the poor thing though. When I got her she had grown out to a military cut.
Not just a gorgeous dog, she was the smartest, taught herself tricks and when I came home she would stand on her hind legs and wrap her forelegs around my shoulders & give me a hug!
Tommy
@Anne Laurie: I long ago started to embrace my insomnia. Fighting it wasn’t working. Now when I am awake at hours most are not I clean, read, cook, heck post here.
Major Major Major Major
@Tommy: I already did all of those, Tommy. I just want to sleep but everything is so confusing and when I lay down the visions are the worst.
Tommy
@Major Major Major Major: One thing that can help is a very, very hot bath. It would seem getting your body/skin temp up, then getting out of said bath in a “cool” house can cause you to be sleepy. When my insomnia is at its worse this is what I do.
mai naem mobile
New York.magazine has a long piece on 35 alleged victims of Bill Cosby. Seeing 35 people in the same piece really makes an impact. I can’t believe this guy got away with this stuff for 50 years. There’s one of the comments that asks if Cosby’s ever had one of his alleged victims die from an OD from the quaaludes. I also figure there’s more recent ones out there. If you’re a serial rapist and basically gotten away with it, you aren’t going to stop.
sparrow
@Major Major Major Major: Turn the lights down low but not so low you can’t read. Lay on the couch with lots of pillows to make you comfy, and get a boring book to read — something soothingly boring (I would pick Thomas Hardy, full of long descriptions of landscapes). Put something repetitive like the weather channel on low in the background (unless they are doing a stupid show… this used to be my trick back when they had soothing classical music). Chamomile tea if you have any — if it’s hot where you are (I’m guessing it is), then you can make it and put ice in it, then sip it slowly, slowly, while you are in your fortress of pillows.
Tommy
@mai naem mobile: It is hard to wrap your mind around isn’t it. Even harder for me as a male. As you said how did he get away with it for so long?
I guess at some level he was both rich and powerful.
But my gut is if 35 or so ladies have come forward he did it to dozens if not even hundreds more. That we have a society where women feel they can’t report a violent rape, and my understanding is more than a handful of women tried, we need to reevaluate what the heck is going on.
Keith G
@Major Major Major Major: If I understand you then, what you are describing is more of an acute episode and not a chronic one stretching out over many weeks.
If that is the case, take heart in that after a sucky day or two you will get back to regular. That might be slight comfort in the short run and I understand the frustration.
You write, so this might not be the best suggestion, but since I subscribe to Audible. I use history books as an occasional sleep aid. Right now I am listening to
Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors: The History of England,
It is very comprehensive and the narrator has a thoroughly soothing voice. It is very interesting, but there are no plot lines with rising action to compel me to stay awake for the next paragraph (I already know what happens to Becket). I set the 30 min sleep timer and seldom make it to 10.
edit
And isn’t it the case that time in front of a computer monitor can increase restlessness?
Turn this fucker off and do something else.
JPL
@sparrow: Just reading that, caused me to think about climbing back in bed.
satby
@Major Major Major Major: Hang in there, this feeling will pass. It’s sucky now, but it’s not going to go on forever. You’re going to be ok, you’ve been through feeling like this and come out the other side before. Peace and blessings to you.
Patricia Kayden
@mai naem mobile: I wonder if Cosby was so calculating that he stopped in the early 90s and kept a low profile until the statue of limitations lapsed. Sounds bizarre but I can’t explain how none of the rapes occured within a timeframe that he can actually be charged and arrested.
OzarkHillbilly
The kitten who nobody would admit to naming is gone to the big city with my son. A couple folks up there had expressed interest and Bob said he’d take it if nobody else would. Seeing as everyone pointed at my grand daughter when confronted over the naming, I suspect that this is the real plan. My wife and I will pay for the neutering in a couple months and I fully expect this will be a really sweet natured cat for him.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Good for you. A kitten is a welcome addition to any household.
satby
I’m delighted that everyone can see how much their generous help improved Belle’s life. I know that Joy has taken financial responsibility for keeping Belle vetted but the fosters really love the dog, so Belle is safe for the remainder of her years.
And Mark is indeed a mensch for taking on a pregnant Miri, every single picture shows what a sweet cat Miri is. Hope the litter is small though. Mark, if you contact a cat rescue in your area they may take the weaned kittens and safely adopt them out after they’ve been spayed or neutered too, so that you know they’re going to good, responsible homes.
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major
It sounds like you were stuck in a very frightening and stressful situation and then did not receive the reassurance and support you needed. I’m so sorry. I would feel really unsettled and scared, too. I have been through periods in my life where worry and stress had me spinning and I couldn’t sleep. It is a terrible feeling and I’m not sure I have any advice about what to do about it except to say that I will keep you in my thoughts and send you a big hug now. This will pass at some point and you will be ok and you will figure out why this hit you so hard tonight. Until then just be patient with yourself, breathe, and give your body and emotions time to heal.
TheMightyTrowel
@Major Major Major Major: I get similar episodes of insomnia – usually work stress related for me. Sending some good vibes and sleepy thoughts from Europe. Hope you feel better soon .
(ps: the trick I use – at least to relax and take the edge off is literally to…. take the edge off, if you know what I mean. Sometimes it works and I fall asleep, but mostly it just helps me be a bit less freaked out as I lie there exhausted)
Kristine
@Schlemazel: I’m glad you wound up with a great dog, but jeezus, what a thing he did, for whatever reason.
Kristine
@Randy P: I admit to having had Gaby summer-shaved a few times. Then a groomer said that this encourages the growth of the undercoat (to make up for the loss of top coat) and makes shedding worse in the long run. It also doesn’t cool off a dog as much as one might think–the coat provides insulation in summer as well as winter.
Then I read that there are two schools of thought. Some folks think shaving is fine, and some don’t. No one knows for sure.
I don’t get Gaby shaved anymore. Trying to slow her undercoat growth–that may never happen. She doesn’t like to move around much in temps much higher than 80F, but she never did. She’s always been a cold weather dog.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kristine:
I’m with Gaby. There condensation on our windows this morning. That means the gym will be a sauna.
ETA: Listening to reports on Obama in Kenya. Glad to hear him talk about equal treatment for girls.
CaseyL
Hi, everyone! I’m awake 2 hours before I need to be – not insomnia per se, but hugely swollen eyelids, esp. the left eye. Ugh.
Tried putting a cold washcloth over ’em, and it did not one bit of good, so I gave up and got out of bed.
@Major Major Major Major: Insomnia caused by stress is a bitch, because in the wee hours all the issues that kept you from being able to sleep are magnified and stay that way into the day. Hardly anything is as bad as it seems in the middle of the night.
I second the recommendations to read a book. A book, mind you, not a screen. Something about the light of a computer screen keeps your brain awake. A book is good because you can get absorbed into the story, and distract your thoughts.
Best of luck!
satby
@JGabriel: Can I just point out that Hammond is in Indiana? Not sure why police in Indiana would shut down a hologram based on warrants in Illinois… unless of course the predominant ethnicity of the audience was a factor. Ya think?
PurpleGirl
@Randy P: Both PetSmart and PetCo work with cat rescues and shelters to place kittens and cats in homes. Other smaller chains (PetLand Discount) and independent pet stores are also working with rescues/shelters to place kittens/cats. The cat rescuer I know in CT has adoption events at a PetCo. It benefits the animals because there is a place to see the kitten/cat and maybe pick up an animal an adopter has seen on-line. Many people who rescue animals do not have a physical location, they work out of their homes and the stores provide a place to them.
NotMax
Cracked open a tub of what’s labeled Greek yogurt jalapeño dip from Costco. Not bad, not bad at all.
khead
Need some advice on trapping a mom cat and her kittens. I figured this would be a good thread. Starting with…. How in the hell do we catch ALL of them at once? We have a MomCat and 3 kittens living behind our house, and they are friendly enough to come to our porch and eat, but they do not trust us enough to let us touch them.
rikyrah
she looks so cute. glad she’s getting the help she needs .
Randy P
@mai naem mobile: I find my feelings are complicated about Cos. I’ve spent so much of my life admiring his accomplishments and enjoying his comedy. Every kid I knew memorized “Noah” and “Chicken Heart”. I was never a regular watcher of “The Cosby Show” in the 80s but it was widely acknowledged as the best sitcom on TV. I never get tired of hearing his old standup stuff, and treasure the memory of when we heard him live.
So it has me pondering the lines between entertainers’ personal and professional lives. And this stuff goes beyond “terrible person in private” to “he should go to jail”. He’s not the first entertainer to commit criminal acts though.
So where am I personally? I’m saddened to see reruns being pulled but I understand. I don’t have the heart to watch or listen to them either. I think at this point I’d like to see him make no more money from those things, and then we can go back to remembering Cosby the Comedian after he dies.
rikyrah
WELL….it’s been a week since Trump’ insulted ‘McCain…
and, where are his polling numbers?
BWA HA HA HA AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
CNN/ORC poll: GOP voters want more Trump
By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN Polling Director
Updated 10:31 AM ET, Sun July 26, 2015
cnn.com/2015/07/26/politics/cnn-poll-trump/index.html
rikyrah
oh my…I really want to see this.
Inspiring Doc ‘The Curators of Dixon School’ Screening at Black Cinema House in Chicago Sunday July 26
Shadow and Act
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
July 24, 2015 at 9:02PM
The Dixon Elementary public school located on Chicago’s South Side is without question one of the most unique public schools in the country. The teachers and administrators who run the school intended it to be not only a place of learning, but also a place of inspiration.
As a result, the school has surrounded the hallways and the outside property with over 200 beautiful and colorful works of art, and priceless sculptures by some of the foremost African-American artists in the country, such as Dayo Laoye, Carolyn Elaine, Peter Gray and Faheem Majeed.
And as you can imagine, there were battles with the Chicago Public Schools bureaucracy who didn’t take kindly to having teachers inspiring young black impressionable minds in a positive way.
But it had to be done to encourage students to interact with, and respect beautiful works of African-American art, but also to “remind students and visitors that the African-American experience is a complex one and helps students connect with their history, their community and each other”.
Filmmaker, journalist and playwright Pamela Sherrod Anderson spent over two years making her documentary feature film, “The Curators of Dixson School,” about the school and its mission. In the past three years the film has traveled around the country on the film festival circuit.
vimeo.com/69555341
blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/inspiring-doc-the-curators-of-dixon-school-screening-at-black-cinem…
PurpleGirl
@Randy P: What you need to know about are some of the not-so-great other things he or his production company did. Remember the opening of the Huxtable show — the school yard? — well, they saw the painting on the side of a school in NYC. The contracted with the PTA of said school to use it in the opening scene. The PTA thought it was a one-time use and Cosby’s people ended up using all the time. The PTA went to court after Cosby didn’t want to renegotiate the deal. (I worked at the law firm that handled the suit pro bono.)
Later I worked at an educational non-profit. One year we were fundraising for a specific reading program and contacted Cosby. He responded with a letter turning us down that was so badly written I was shocked because he kept up the facade of being soooo interested in education. (Remember he got the Ed..D. in education even after he making it as a comedian.) Whoever wrote and typed that letter was functionally illiterate.
Cosby lost a lot of his stature in my mind.
PurpleGirl
I’m glad both Belle and Miri are doing so well. They are beautiful critters.
dm
I just love that sweet little face of Miri. There’s something special about her.
Glad all critters are doing well.
Betty Cracker
So glad to hear these sweet animals have found loving homes.
gelfling545
For any who have lost their animal friends: a peek at what goes on at the Rainbow Bridge.
RedDirtGirl
@Major Major Major Major:
So sorry you had a rough night. My thoughts are with you!
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Major Major Major Major:
Everyone else has had good advice about the immediate problem, but it has sounded like you’ve been unsettled for a few days now. It may be worth checking in with your doctor to see if your meds are working correctly. I think it was BellaQ who said that summer can be a little rocky for some people because of routines being upended etc.