Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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Reader Interactions

101Comments

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Here is a confession. I love Tunch so fucking goddamn much that I have an entire photo album of pictures of him, just because I can. Gone for three years, never forgotten.

    And I would have loved to see Tunch and Steve in the same space, maneuvering for domination.

  3. 3.

    MomSense

    Has anyone seen The Secret Life of Pets? One of the cats had so much attitude. She reminded me of Tunch. The best scene is at the end when they show all the pets greeting their humans at the end of the day.

  4. 4.

    Jerzy Russian

    Why did Tunch need “one for the thumb”? I didn’t know cats have thumbs.

  6. 6.

    atlliberal

    They are both magnificent in their own way. Without Tunch, you would not have Steve. I’m glad Steve made it home safely. (even if covered in burrs)

    )

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    Neutered male cats can actually become very attached buddies. It’s probably a good thing he and Steve didn’t live together, because you would have been sleeping in the garage while they ruled the house.

  13. 13.

    eemom

    Miss the great white kitty….and I’m not even a kitty person (very allergic).

    Miss General Stuck too.

    Fuck death.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    Aww, and here I am sniffling. All hail Tunch! Never forgotten, forever missed.

    Imagining Tunch and Steve as co-conspirators gives me a happy.

    John wouldn’t be able to see the TV through the sheer mass of critters on his lap.

  27. 27.

    Haydnseek

    I know it’s not your fault or intent, but this just brings tears to my eyes. I’m reminded of my cats that died before their time. Strangely, I’m saddest about the cats that lived a full, loving, 20+ year life. Leaving the vet whose going to put them down, even though you’re doing the right thing, is a pain that never really goes away.

  29. 29.

    muddy

    @Mnemosyne: I have a male tuxedo cat called Ailill. His male friend Diarmuid passed, and he was lonely. I adopted another male, Breekin. Then kind of accidentally adopted another male, Ruari, a month later. Ailill was not that interested in Breekin until Ruari came, then it was all “you and me against him, dude!” It’s been over a year and still Ailill and Ruari are sworn enemies.

    The problem is that despite a large number of litter boxes in the house, Ailill won’t use a box once Ruari has used it. Ailill would rather go on the floor, and he always went right under Ailill’s feeding station, just to make his protest specific. I’d rather he didn’t go on the floor, especially since in an old house it runs across the floor and goes under the baseboard if you don’t catch it instantly.

    I took note of when and how often he was doing it, it was only once a day, late in the day. After I fed him I put him in a large dog crate, which was big enough for a litter box and a cat bed. Left him overnight. Let him out in daytime and closed the door so Ruari didn’t use it. Did the same the next night, and the protest was basically token. On the 3rd day, Ailill comes around in the afternoon showing an interest in the crate. I opened it and he went in and used it, I didn’t close him in. I never thought he’d get the idea so quickly. Now he asks for his special litter when he needs it, and is back to sleeping in the bed with me. I think he is just so happy to have litter again.

    Meanwhile Ruari keeps checking the floor in the old naughty area, wondering why Ailill hasn’t christened it recently. Breekin has snuck into Ailill’s litter a couple of times, but Ailill allows that apparently. Just not that horrible Ruari and his reeking poisonous piss.

  33. 33.

    khead

    RIP Tunch.

    Tunch and Steve would have gotten along fine given enough time. Trust me. We have 8 and only one is a real asshole to the rest of them.

  35. 35.

    JMG

    I am glad you are able to post these wonderful pictures of your beloved pet, John. Memory is the only palliative (there is no cure) for grief.

  37. 37.

    Exurban Mom

    I can’t forget that day. Scared my family with my horrified reaction as I read the news. He was magnificent and will always be remembered.

  38. 38.

    Chat Noir

    He was a beauty. He looked just like my Sherman (RIP). Cats really are magnificent beings. ?

  44. 44.

    rikyrah

    Kay, you wrote this this morning:

    Kay says:
    July 23, 2016 at 8:48 am
    @Baud:

    I listen to it around elections partly because I feel they snuck up on me in 2004 in really an unfair way :)

    I didn’t know how much they loved Bush. They adored him. Some of them tried to say they had the same fervor for Palin but it wasn’t the same. The truth is religious Righties here wouldn’t respect Palin because her kids were out of control. They would say she wasn’t supervising them because she wasn’t home enough. The biggest compliment they give women is their children are “well raised”- they mean obedient.

    So, what did they think of First Lady Michelle Obama?

  46. 46.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Tunch was this blog’s spirit animal. So many ways that cat animated this blog community. What a shocking, terrible day. RIP Tunch, you floofy magnificent bastard who kept us on the same page through all the crazy human politicking. EAT.

  49. 49.

    ThresherK

    @Haydnseek: I am waiting for that to happen to us. My wife has always had a cat, and when we moved in together we started getting them in pairs.

    Well, with the exception of the already-very-grown cat she had when she met me, we are on our fifth and sixth cats. The elder just celebrated his tenth birthday, the younger is six. The other four cats I’ve had a hand in raising lived to five, six, nine and nine, in order. Three of them add up to 20, or one long-lived cat.

    I know I’m not cursed. It’s just a relief to see her cat have a tenth birthday.

  50. 50.

    geg6

    @Exurban Mom:

    I was at a party for my sister and her new husband (they’d had a destination wedding that few could afford to attend, so party when they got home). Checked in to BJ during a lull in the action and promptly burst into tears and loud sobbing. People thought someone in the family died. I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was to explain my grief over a cat (I’m a well-known dog, not cat, person among my IRL family and friends) that I not only had never met IRL but whose owner I had never set eyes on IRL at that point. A few got it somewhat when I explained the connection between my Koda and BJ, but I know they were all thinking I’d lost my mind.

  51. 51.

    Yutsano

    Proper authoritahs have been alerted. I miss the glorious fat bastard.

    EDIT: We just need to poke Sister Sarah out of hiding now.

  52. 52.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    Tunch! I doubt Thurston would have survived him. And I can’t begin to imagine the throwdown with Steve.

    They leave such big paw prints on our hearts. RIP Tunch.

  53. 53.

    asiangrrlMN

    Oh, Tunchie, How I miss the BJ mascot! I have a mug, a couple of shirts, and a thong with his furry face on it. (Valiantly restrains from making the obvious joke). Sir Willie Whiskertons III is a magnificent cat in his own right, and I bet he and Tunchie would have been bestest buds, but no one can replace Tunchie in my heart.

  56. 56.

    Haydnseek

    @ThresherK: It’s hard. But if I may be so bold to suggest, you have the right idea. Please don’t give up. Cats make our lives immeasurably better. I take care of several cats that have been abandoned by their owners. I can’t Imagine doing that. Apparently others simply don’t have the compassion gene.

  57. 57.

    K488

    Thank you for the pictures. I think of Tunch every day, as his visage graces a mug on my work desk. Very glad to hear that Steve returned safely.

  59. 59.

    Barb2

    Japanese Bobtail.

    What is interesting of all the mostly bobtailed cats – page down and on the right is that cute photo of the BJ cat in need of a home – the black sweetie.

    Yes the link to that photo goes back to the BJ post for the dark bobtail.

  60. 60.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @Haydnseek: Oh, I wouldn’t go without. My Best Cat Ever was only here for six years in my life and she bonded with me real fast and real strong. I sorta graduated from “cats seem to like me” to “I’m on Team Cat” with that one.

  67. 67.

    seaboogie

    @Haydnseek: My first childhood cat that I got for Christmas when I was five lived to be 24. My first adulthood cat was hit by a car at the age of three, but her replacement is now 21. She’s deaf and arthritic, but still very much her own little cat self. Little Zoe is now my longest cohabiting soul I’ve ever known, and she is kind of like the Energizer bunny in the way that she keeps going and going – even with chronic kidney disease for the last few years. She’s not terribly affectionate, but I will miss our mutual “knowingness” when she shuffles off this mortal coil.

    My landlady’s cat is visiting me just now, and he is my “Boyfriend” – this kitty and I are a mutual admiration society. Unfortunately I have been given notice to move by Oct. 1 because LL’s sweetheart is moving in, and I will really miss our “shared” kitty.

  68. 68.

    satby

    @Baud: It was a horrible day. My now ex BF couldn’t understand why I was sobbing for hours about a person and a cat I never met. He couldn’t grasp we had all met, just not in the conventional way.

  69. 69.

    No One You Know

    @SiubhanDuinne: Scrapbook for a cat. That’s a fabulous idea. I’m going to start one for my cat. I think I’m about to be grateful for my compulsive picture habit.

    Today we started the palliative regimen: high-protein wet food mixed with egg yolk to slow down the muscle wasting, salmon oil for the dry skin, prescription disguised in the the gooey stuff. Vet says she has no pain now. I hope he’s right. Her appetite seems to have picked up a little. Hoping her energy does soon.

  72. 72.

    PurpleGirl

    @Jerzy Russian: What most non-cat owners don’t know is that there is a secret research project to either create a thumb or train cats to use one of their digits as a thumb. See the milk ad from Cravendale milk (a UK company)…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CcxJQq1x8

    ETA: I miss Tunch too. And Balloon Juice is why I got into watching kitten cams. One of the the commentariat talked about the cams and I looked into them.

  74. 74.

    seaboogie

    @No One You Know: Good luck to you and your feling companion with your regimen.

    On the subject of scrap-booking, maybe y’all will indulge me with several words, since this is a cat thread.

    So my childhood cat that I got for Christmas when I was five moved with us kids to Toronto from WI after Mom and Dad divorced, and we went to live with Dad when I was 14. Ryder truck full of kid’s beds and dressers and bikes in the back, Puss doped up in my arms while we drove for three days – the three of us kids moving right when Dad had to shift gears on the truck.

    A few years later, after dating a few women who “wanted to be our mother” (Dad is very handsome) whom we summarily rejected, Dad met Marilyn – a wonderful woman with the requisite sense of humor and loving warmth to become our step-mother. However, Marilyn was raised on a farm and didn’t hold to having a cat in the house. We patiently explained that Puss was older than my younger sister, and therefore a part of our family, and given a choice between Marilyn and our cat – we stood solidly behind Puss.

    Dad married Marilyn and she became the mother that we always craved. And Puss had a particular genius around sussing out who was the dominant female of the family, and sucking up to her. In Puss’ later years she had gone deaf, and when I phoned up the parental units I could hear her yowling from the kitchen (back in the days when a phone was still attached to a wall) while Marilyn cooked a turkey every month – half for the cat, and half for them. Puss would lie on the rug in front of the oven, waiting for her turkey.

    Not long before Puss passed away at 24, Marilyn hired a professional photographer to come in to take her portrait. What you could not see in the pic of an emaciated, messed up old cat posed against a backdrop of black velvet were Marilyn’s hands supporting the kitty so she wouldn’t fall over, because kitty had a brain tumor (or as they say in Canadia, tumour). Marilyn (who was very thrifty) and my father spent thousands of dollars on Puss’ elder care.

    Once Puss was gone, Marilyn made a whole photo album dedicated solely to Puss, and you couldn’t mention Puss’ name for a few years, else Marilyn would start to cry. Now Marilyn is recently gone too, and this is a very sweet memory that we all have of her – she took on our entire rag-tag bunch, including our kitty.

  76. 76.

    MLC

    Regular reader, infrequent poster. Thank you for the great and utterly expressive photos of Tunch.

  77. 77.

    Mandarama

    Oh, that was such a sad day…my sister called me to tell me I needed to check Balloon Juice NOW. We were heartbroken for you.

    I still wear my Tunch t-shirt!

  79. 79.

    Interrobang

    Tunchie!

    What a horrible day that was. I literally gasped and then started to cry. (It didn’t help any that a good friend of mine had just lost a cat in almost the exact same way.) My deepest condolences again, John.

  83. 83.

    sacrablue

    @Barb2: He is actually still with us and he is an amazing cat. He isn’t black, he is smoke. His eyes are two tone as well. There is a green ring around the pupils and gold on the outside. His favorite thing at the moment is drinking water from the bathroom faucet. So cute. I miss the lovable Tunch so much. OBEY.

  84. 84.

    Barb2

    @sacrablue:
    Oh thank you for the update. When I saw his photo, and his sweet face I hoped you still had him. That face, and that look.

  85. 85.

    JustRuss

    I lost my best kitty buddy of 19 years just over a year before Tunch’s demise, and from the same cause. Reliving that pain sucked. Hope they’re together in kitty-heaven, playing Quien-Has-Mas-Attitude?

  86. 86.

    Gemina13

    I loved Tunch. He was an excellent cat, and I miss him. I was a lurker for the most part back then, but Tunch was one of the reasons I started reading Balloon Juice. Reading about his end tore my heart out, especially as my cat, Lucky, had had to be euthanized barely a month earlier.

    Steve, though, is also an excellent cat, and I love him too. If I find a cat who measures up to Lucky or Tunch, I’ll be happy, but if I find a cat like Steve, I’ll do cartwheels.

  89. 89.

    Csbella

    Awww beautiful Tunch. A few of my livingwithcat friends don’t have a clue about BJ but knew Tunch via photos I’d share. Immortal cat.

  92. 92.

    HinTN

    @Gemina13: There’s a kitten waiting at the shelter now. Get two, they’re far more fun. In less time than you will notice they will have won your heart, whether like Steve or Tunch or not. Our squeaker is growing into himself at one year. Our squawker has always been an old soul. Go now!

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    I love how in the top photo Tunch is staring at the Tunch-sized pile of fur like he’s waiting for another cat to emerge from it.

    RIP, Tunch.

  94. 94.

    Althea

    I have come out of hiding to comment, because I still miss Tunch. I totally loved that kat from afar. My kitty is 20 y.o. now and is in failing health although her sweet, loving, happy personality has not changed and she is still eating. We’ve been through so much together and am thankful for what days we still have left together. Long Live the Tunch.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    A day late to the thread, but I am crying at the loss of our beautiful Tunch. Truly a prince among cats, once in a lifetime. We haven’t stopped loving you, even though you are gone.

  97. 97.

    Sherparick

    JC, he was and always will be a great cat and your soulmate. He lives with us still in our hearts. He reminded me of the tomcat who adopted us in Germany. He was also affectionate and patient in teaching me the ways of cats. Thanks for the photos of Tunch, a great cat.

  100. 100.

    cat copeland

    John, a big “thanks” to you and Mustang Bobby(BBWW) for the rising stock in tissues I’ve used this past week!!

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