Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

A consequence of cucumbers

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

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The words do not have to be perfect.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

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

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Second rate reporter says what?

No one could have predicted…

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

So many bastards, so little time.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

This fight is for everything.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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Reader Interactions

139Comments

  2. 2.

    Josie

    Oh, John, now you’ve done it. I laughed so hard, I started coughing again. Shit.

    ETA: But I like to think I am strengthening my stomach muscles.

  3. 3.

    chris

    Bert did that when he was a puppy. Sneaky little bugger would wait til I went to bed so one night I caught him in the act. That resounding smack on the butt is the only one he’s ever had but the Voice of God has kept him safe from porcupines and other menaces. And he’s never touched the litter box again. Good luck with a Jack tho.

  4. 4.

    TenguPhule

    The sliming of the Douglas High Victims continues to step up into high gear.

    But at least some in the media are finding this beyond the pall even by their standards and are stepping up to call the trolls out.

    And Dinesh D’Souza needs to be burned alive.

  5. 5.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Eeeww. I have been thinking of adopting a dog. These posts remind me why I prefer kittehs.

    Do note the problem is that Cole has dogs and cats at the same time. For instance, the litter came from the kitty, the poor dog just brought it into the bed.

  6. 6.

    suezboo

    Poor Thurston ! I think he is just acting out because it is obvious you love Lily and Rosie so much more. A sad, neglected child craving attention. Ya think ?

  7. 7.

    LAO

    Maggie would totally do that. Thank goodness I don’t have a cat. It’s bad enough she discovered her love of rabbit poop when we visit family.

  8. 8.

    ET

    This one is for schrodingers_cat

    So this AM was just lolling in bed for a few and the cat was playing in the bedroom. I didn’t think much of it – he likes to play with the toy mice I have have strewn about – but it did sound a bit different. I just thought he was being a little naughty. He is a cay and a Siamese at that.

    I get up take a shower, dry my hear, put on my make-up and as I am getting dressed in a semi dark room he is still playing. The room was a bit dark and so I couldn’t see that well. Then I turned on the light and saw what he had been playing with. My little predator had caught a mousw and played with that thing until it expired. Picking up a dead mouse is not what I wanted to do first thing in the morning.

    Of course he didn’t want to leave the bedroom where he last saw his prize/toy. He came down briefly but went back upstairs. I assume he will be up there when I get home and off and on for the next few days.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    Also, FUCK Gillibrand with a fucking red hot poker. The woman is a piece of shit.

    Her late show interview with Colbert destroyed any last vestige of doubt that she’s a blind backstabbing weasel who’s only concern is herself and fuck everyone else.

  11. 11.

    PaulWartenberg

    Weston and Davie are long drives from Parkland, so walking there? Ouch, them feets. If I were a younger man, I would… walk about as far as Sawgrass Mills mall and then take an hour-long break in the food court before jumping on a transit bus. The spirit is willing, but the flesh it sweats easily…

  12. 12.

    Planetpundit

    Isolate the litter box from the dogs; collar with a electronic tag and a cat door to the room (basement or elsewhere). Only thing that works.

  15. 15.

    danielx

    One of those mornings here as well. Boris and Natasha were all “oh boy, dad is making the bed AND folding laundry! A twofer!”.

    Even though they still act like kittens, they don’t quite fall under that heading any more. Boris now weighs in at 13.4 lbs, Natasha at (maybe) 7. Neither are at all fat, it’s just that Boris has more than his share of giant hulking tabby cat genes.

  16. 16.

    Taking Out Enough To Win

    When you undoubtedly yelled at Thurston, I’m sure he whimpered S-O-R-O-S in Morse.

  20. 20.

    suezboo

    In the past (she’s not so active anymore, like most of us), when my cat proudly entered with a semi-dead mouse, bird or (AArgh) snake, I escorted her to the bathroom, closed the door and left her to it. Tiles clean up easier from bloodstains and the poor critter was doomed anyway.

  21. 21.

    LAO

    @JPL: I did — it’s normal that the superseding indictment was filed under seal. Typically, a charging instrument isn’t unsealed until after the defendant is arraigned. But I do want to know what the new charges are now!

  23. 23.

    danielx

    @JPL:

    Could be worse – the late great Pie the Calico once discovered a nest of baby rabbits. She kept bringing a dead baby rabbit up to the back door every five minutes or so for a half hour. Headless dead baby rabbits; she had a totally unexpected tastes for braaaains…

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    @PaulWartenberg: “I believe the women. I have sons and this kind of behavior is unacceptable.”

    Execution upon accusation and fuck her trying to excuse herself by hiding behind her family.

  27. 27.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    So Billy Graham died at 99 and Mike Hucksterbee is calling it fake news, saying Billy has “never been more alive.”

    We see where Sarah Sucks-to-be gets it.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    @danielx:

    Headless dead baby rabbits; she had a totally unexpected tastes for braaaains…

    Has she been licking your head a little too enthusiatically?

  30. 30.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    Question for all those of you who are experienced cat servants:
    I am fostering a Burmese-Siamese looking rescue who 1) poops in the show although he uses the litter box to piss in, and 2) poop doesn’t look like cat poop, it looks like melted brown ice-cream.
    I am trying to keep the litter box scrupulously clean and the cat does not otherwise appear sick, although he will only eat Fancy Feast and dry cat food from the bodega.
    All help appreciated, thanks all.

  33. 33.

    Sab

    @TenguPhule: We are kicking out dreamers and Haitians, blocking all kinds of other people, and yet we let this guy and Rupert Murdoch in. Weird priorities.

  34. 34.

    Amir Khalid

    @ET:
    Cats are predators, and predatory animals have a violent side. Catching and killing smaller animals, and playing with their kills, is what they do. They can also show love to their humans in a predator’s way — by bringing us fresh-caught food. Like dead mice, or disembowelled squirrels, both of which Bianca has gifted to me. We might prefer a kneading or cuddles or a tongue bath or playfulness, but we have to remember what they are.

  35. 35.

    chopper

    @TenguPhule:

    “I believe the women. I have sons and this kind of behavior is unacceptable.”

    MY GOD! i mean, MY GOD! that is literally the most piece-of-shit thing to say, ever. she should be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

  37. 37.

    Olivia

    @Gin & Tonic: We had a cat who did that too, rabbits and squirrels, sometimes live and sometimes dead. We had a little dog who would grab turds out of the cat box and walk around with one looking like he had a cigar in his mouth.

  38. 38.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @TenguPhule:

    I thought he had croaked years ago. Apparently had dementia and hydroencephalitus. Yet somehow wrote a book a year or so ago. Those in the know say it was the son, Franklin, who wrote it, hoping for sales, cuz who wants a book by Franklin Graham?

  40. 40.

    LAO

    @chopper: Actually what @TenguPhule said was:

    Also, FUCK Gillibrand with a fucking red hot poker. The woman is a piece of shit.

    I mean really — no misogyny there.

  42. 42.

    Shell

    One hot summer night my dog got into an altercation with a skunk. The skunk lost. I guess we did too, cause as I was calling her in and she appeared out of the darkness, my first thought was, ‘Why is her face all wet?’ and then that wall of reek hit me.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @danielx: Pie is quite a cutey. I was concerned that Peter might be Patricia who was guarding her nest, but I haven’t seen evidence of that.

  45. 45.

    chopper

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    i think it’s something like, “i have sons and i would literally murder them if i found out they did something like that”? or like “we all need to make sure we raise our sons better”?

    or we could just call her a piece of shit and say she needs to be fucked with a hot piece of metal, i guess that works too.

  47. 47.

    No Drought No More

    I assume I’m not the only one in America that thought Billy Graham had kicked years ago. It’s like hearing Elmer Gantry suddenly praised to the heavens for having graced Bizzaro America with his fictional presence. Then again, the great and good Johnny Cash certainly heard a redeeming message which Graham delivered, one which he deeply felt. Go figure..

  48. 48.

    guachi

    @LAO:

    I mean really — no misogyny there.

    Not really. It’s the kind of language we see all the time at BJ. Scorn and derision with no accounting for gender.

  49. 49.

    LAO

    @Shell: Growing up, my family had a killer lab/retriever mix. As he aged, the only animal he could catch and kill were skunks. In his last 2 years, he averaged 6 skunks encounters a year. It was a trying time.

  50. 50.

    Just One More Canuck

    @danielx: When our wonderful Scully was 16, she caught a chipmunk outside and trotted proudly across the yard to show me – fortunately, she believed in catch-and-release – when she put it down by the door, it ran away back into the bushes.

  51. 51.

    gvg

    You need a different litterbox. I had the original Boodabox that they no longer make. When it broke after 20 years and several cats, I discovered how inferior most others are. About 5 years later I found someone was doing a knock off and ordered several. Marchioro Freecat Maxi
    It has a super high sides, about 6 inches and then a covered hood a cat can get in but most dogs can’t. the point of the high sides is that a careless cat that doesn’t squat enough won’t cause leaks. It is also a large box and my large male cat was always too cramped in normal litterboxs. Steve is large too so he may appreciate it as well. If you have a stubborn dog you may want to bungee a top on.
    Another option I haven’t tried is the top entry boxes. My boycat had back problems so it wasn’t suitable for him.
    When I don’t have a dog I currently like the automated scoopfree one.
    Booda box makes a round one with a ramp entrance that only tiny dogs can get in however they were too small for the big cat I had then. My sister tested litterboxes by going to pets mart with her hound, then putting food inside each one to see if Abby could get into them. the one she couldn’t was bought.
    When house shopping, someone had a cat door into a closet for the kitty litter box. They also had large dog beds so it was clear why. Not sure if thurstan is smaller than steve though.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Richard M. Nixon‏ @ dick_nixon
    The thing about Graham was he’d cut throats for you.

  53. 53.

    Faithful Lurker

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: Our very old cat had always been scrupulous about her box until last fall, when she started peeing in the box and pooping,like your cat, wherever she wanted. Turns out she had an intestinal infection that almost killed her before we got it under control. You might have your foster cat checked for that.

  56. 56.

    sherparick1

    @TenguPhule: There is so much this turd Dinesh has said and done over the years that should have made him radioactive, but at least until this episode he has been a “favorite” conservative intellectual critic on the Sunday shows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinesh_D%27Souza I expect that he will, like his “friend” Newt Gingrich will have to serve a “time-out” before being invited back on to spew more lies and BS as nothing these Conservative dicks do can get them permanently cut off from the corporate media gravy chain and Right-Wing Welfare complex.

  57. 57.

    TenguPhule

    @chopper:

    MY GOD! i mean, MY GOD! that is literally the most piece-of-shit thing to say, ever. she should be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

    She is saying this now, after those bullshit stories fell apart, after the whole ratfucking is rather obvious and she is NOT ONE BIT FUCKING SORRY AND SEES NOTHING WRONG WITH HER BEHAVIOR.

  60. 60.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @JPL: Ha! I can top THAT one of mine came home with a live chicken in her mouth. I was asleep, and awoke to the sound of clucking. I looked up and there was Dweebe with the chicken in her mouth and it was softly clucking. I was in bed and of course nekkid. I got up gently took the chicken out of her mouth and then somehow managed to get dressed while holding a live chicken under my arm. I returned the chicken to the swamp (from whence it came) followed by a parade of cats. It was not a household chicken by the way but part of a feral flock that had been released into the swamp years and years ago by someone and they had just multiplied. Chicken was not harmed in the least, other than being covered in Dweebe slobber.

  61. 61.

    stinger

    @TenguPhule:

    FUCK Gillibrand with a fucking red hot poker

    Any chance you would consider moderating your violent and sexually charged language against women with whom you disagree? Asking for a friend who has a finger poised over the Pie button.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Litlebritdifrnt

    I returned the chicken to the swamp (from whence it came) followed by a parade of cats.

    Explains the origin of the rumors that flew about the neighborhood about your house, “That’s where the witch lives.”.

    :)

  63. 63.

    Shell

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Clearly,what Dweebe was trying to say was, “2 hours at 350 degrees, some cut lemon and a sprig of rosemary in the cavity and dont forget to save the liver!”

  64. 64.

    brendancalling

    @TenguPhule:

    Nah, don’t burn him alive. If you do that he can’t be fed to stray dogs.

    Truly amazing to watch the grand OLD party throw away yet another voting group. Guarantee, these kids will NEVER vote for Republicans. Ever.

  65. 65.

    Miss Bianca

    @Shell: My God, how long did *that* take to abate?

    Luna the Wonder Husky rolled in some (already dead) skunk (I think – because the stink would have been exponentially worse if she had been sprayed by a live one) during the fall and I swear it took *weeks* – and repeat douse/scrubbings with Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor Remover – before the top of her head ceased being whiffy.

  69. 69.

    chris

    Coolest thing the cat ever brought in was a flying squirrel. The cabin is all pine boards and those guys are fast! Took me four days to live-trap him on top of the fridge. Fun while it lasted.

  70. 70.

    jl

    No pix? Cole advertises this place as a full service blog.
    Yet another full service blog fail.

    Edit: was Cole naked-mopping when this happened?

  71. 71.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I don’t know… red-hot pokers in any orifice of any gender is pretty hardcore. I try to avoid the phrase, but obviously it’s a style choice.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    Le sigh.

    Not the weather forecast preferred to see (emphasis in original).

    A rather significant weather change is on the horizon, as yet another upper level low pressure system moves closer…drawing rich tropical moisture over the state. Moist and unstable conditions will arrive over the Big Island and Maui County first. This stuff will then push over the other islands Thursday through the weekend, with another period of heavy showers and thunderstorms expected. This wet pattern may continue into early next week, especially over the western end of the state, keeping these anything but normal conditions active.

  74. 74.

    stinger

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I used to live in an old leaky farmhouse. It wasn’t unusual to find a decapitated mouse from time to time, but I’ll never forget the morning I came downstairs and found blood all over the kitchen floor. And, over there, a dead garter snake. Gina the Cat had apparently whacked it against the floor over and over until it quit its wriggling.

    Which would I rather have, a live snake in the house or a dead snake and a bloody kitchen floor? Decisions, decisions.

  77. 77.

    raven

    I’m struggling with what to do with Lil Bit. Her Lar Par is trading to really worry me and , even though I took her in Saturday and the vet said she was dong ok, I’m really worried about what is going to happen when it gets hot. The do a “tie back” surgery

    The goal of surgery is to permanently open up the larynx to allow more air to get in. These days, most surgeons will do a “tie-back” procedure. Typically, surgery involves placing two heavy nylon sutures (i.e. permanent) to open up the left side of the larynx. Only one side is opened up to minimize the risk of aspiration pneumonia.

  79. 79.

    Kirk

    Can’t top, can sorta match.

    In one corner, kiki, 8 pounds of declared calico rescued by my wife. In the other, a series of rats weighing 6 to 10 pounds, of outdoor mien but driven to find warmth during that extraordinary freeze who discovered and chewed through the dryer vent hose.

    Four days in a row, one to four rats a day, deposited neatly at my wife’s feet. ( waking with a weight at the foot of the bed still causes twitches.)

    She was ambushing them. She’d hear them scurrying in the hose, get on top of the dryer. And drop straight to the neck as they came out. That’s how I finally found their entrance, watching her make a kill then drag the thing as large as herself off to mama.

    Last kill she had to make. I replaced the hose and put a better stopper over the vent.

  80. 80.

    Fair Economist

    @NotMax: Not sure if it’s linked but the Bering Sea area has record low winter ice and that causes some big climactic shifts. It’s tied to the ongoing drought in California (we got one year off from El Nino, but now it’s back).

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax:
    Send it east! Much of California may make it through February with no measurable rain. February is historically the last of our three wet months when the rain and snow that provide water the rest of the year is generated. Come fall the reservoirs will be drained and all eyes turn skyward while fingers are crossed.

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    @ET:

    My little predator had caught a mousw and played with that thing until it expired.

    Bring a vicious little predator into the house, and you shouldn’t be surprised when it acts like a vicious predator. I’m not anti-cat, mind you- I have a cat of my own- but people with cats need to know what to expect.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Am at the movie theatre, about five minutes away from the start of this month’s TCM Big Screen Classic, The Philadelphia Story. Love this film very much, and am excited to get away from craziness for a couple of hours.

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    @stinger:
    Our Dal Gracie (RIP) was a bit of a ratter. One day she came inside and I noticed her back fur was matted and sticky. Ewww. Investigating the backyard I eventually found portions of rat, head here, hindquarters there, viscera elsewhere. Evidently she’d caught, dispatched, quartered and rolled in the thing. Double-ewwww. Pondering how she caught a generally nocturnal critter in broad daylight I decided it was probably a poisoned rat and given it was not all accounted for, off to the Sunday (most expen$ive) vet. Stomach pumped and vitamin k to counter potential anti-coagulants.

    The things we learn.

  87. 87.

    MJS

    @Roger Moore: Also, my understanding is that they’re not “playing” with their prey. Instead, it’s their instinct to tire the prey out so as not to get bit, or scratched which could lead to an infection, illness, etc.

  91. 91.

    Sis

    Hi John –

    Did you see my suggestion in another thread – an idea that a feline behaviorist told me about? Just use a clear plastic storage box, a big one with high sides, as a litter box. A big dog could get in, but little dogs can’t. The feline behaviorist said that clear plastic is preferable to opaque because apparently, kitties like to feel that they can see who’s approaching. I already had a bunch of boxes that I used for Xmas decoration storage, so I tried it right away, and it worked with my little terrier mix. Good luck!

  92. 92.

    Tenar Arha

    @TenguPhule: If you’re thinking of the bot stories on Newsweek & Rawstory, Snopes has been on this because the original reporter has pointed out:

    Oluo pointed out the reports flipped the timeline of events. She had written the piece after it was already known that Franken planned to resign.

  94. 94.

    Calouste

    @germy: I say “thoughtsandprayers” to the gun owners, and by “thoughtsandprayers” I mean “fuck you”.

    Was the NYT writing in the 1850s that we should have the South lead the way on the slavery issue? They would now.

  95. 95.

    BruceJ

    @ET: Our first cat caught one one time, and played with it until it broke, too. We found it’s head placed neatly on the top of the stove. Never did find the rest…

  96. 96.

    chopper

    @guachi:

    dunno, when a dude’s talking about a woman, much less one who crusades against sexual harassment and assault, and uses that particular turn of phrase, it seems…not well thought out.

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: My kitty started doing that – pooping outside the box and it was, let’s just say “not solid”. Took her to the vet and she had a TON of bacteria in her poop. They said I could try a special antibiotic or that I could first try a bland diet. I fed her roast chicken thigh and rice for a week, then went with roast chicken thigh and canned pumpkin after that. Recheck was perfectly clear, poops are back to normal, and they are in the litter box where they belong.

    Whenever my guys do anything outside the litter box, I consider it a cry for help and there has always been something wrong. UTI or something else. Try the vet first.

  99. 99.

    frosty fred

    When I had an outside cat I blamed her for bringing in several lizards and one (small, harmless) snake. The other day I was sitting here and a lizard dropped from the ceiling right in front of me, apparently it got in around the chimney somehow.

    This tends to suggest that cat may have been credited with actions not her own, but leaves me wondering when to expect the next snake; recognizing it’s harmless after the fact doesn’t really do anything about the raised heart rate occasioned by stepping on it in the dark on the way to bed.

  100. 100.

    WereBear

    @WaterGirl: Whenever my guys do anything outside the litter box, I consider it a cry for help and there has always been something wrong. UTI or something else. Try the vet first.

    Totally. This being a foster, parasites and food adjustment are also possibles. Cats will eat anything to stay alive. I knew one who couldn’t get over the dumpster diving he did at a fast food place, and he had to have periodic milkshakes for the rest of his life :)

  101. 101.

    Quinerly

    Poco, the ex inner city street dog (who at one time relied on the kindness of crack whores for survival) has acquired a taste for horseshit on these NM trips. He has become a connoisseur of sorts….some he won’t even look at, some he sniffs and immediately rejects, and some he tosses in the air and catches with glee. It could be worse, Cole. Just think of catshit as little appetizers carefully prepared by Steve for Thurston. If Thurston starts tossing them in the air in front of friends….well, then hide in embarrassment.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: i have no experience with that at all, so no help there. I just know what it’s like when we love them so much and they are getting old.

  103. 103.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @WereBear: Thanks to you, WaterGirl, I’ll try the vet first. Then I’ll try the bland diet but the cat is a picky eater and so fare won’t eat anything but Fancy Feast and dry bodega cat food. I know cats can get diarrhea from a change of circumstances so I figured this was just what he was used to.
    But if he has to put up with real food to get better, it’s going to be that or starve…

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: My guys think roast chicken is the best thing ever. I leave the skin on the thighs when I roast them, but I don’t actually feed them the skin. I also make sure not overcook the thighs which makes them dry. My kitties ADORE the canned pumpkin! Give it a try.

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Well, that’s got to make you feel a lot better about it. Yay for that. i’m sure you already feed your guys on a raised platform, right?

  109. 109.

    Gravenstone

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: First, I hope you meant shower rather than show (or you have an exhibitionist cat). Do you have any other cats? Might be a territorial issue where he feels it’s not “his” box. That aside, don’t necessarily be alarmed by the consistency of the stool. My tomcat has what might euphemistically be called “loose” stool as a general rule – and that’s an improvement over what came before. *sigh* Some critters are just that way it seems.

  111. 111.

    Aleta

    @JPL: cat used to fill the house with live chipmunks in the fall. took days to catch and release them all.
    It was the end of the open cat door and her yard time.

  113. 113.

    debit

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: Take a fresh poop sample in for a worm check. If he’s worm free, try the suggestions above about changing diet to something super bland (your vet might also have a bland, prescription food).

    I’ll also suggest switching from “grocery store” cat food to a better quality. My cats all eat Nutro chicken or turkey pate for wet food, and tiny bit of Nutro Wild Frontier dry food for when they simply can’t wait for a meal. I don’t mean to come off as snobby, but foods like Friskies and Fancy Feast are the cat food equivalent of McDonalds: okay in a pinch or for a rare treat, but not a steady diet.

    Gonna get on my soapbox: cats and dogs can have food allergies just like people. I used to think that it was natural for my pets to have gunky ears, until one of my cats had food allergies so bad that my vet put him on a highly restrictive diet. His ears cleared up in a matter of weeks. I switched my other pets over, and now every time they go in for a check up my vet goes into raptures over how beautiful the insides of their ears are.

  115. 115.

    Aleta

    @raven: Don’t know details, but lately there’s a different kind of anaesthetic procedure for older dogs. If you decide on surgery, it would be worth asking around to find a place that has it. Consider looking for a surgeon who has done a lot of that exact surgery, and ask that Dr. how his/her results are, % wise. And then ask for their results for LB’s type of anatomy or breed. Is LB a cocker?

  117. 117.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: The bowls are raise. “Lar par is correctable with surgery as you’re well aware. It’s estimated that between 10 and 20% of dogs treated will develop aspiration pneumonia. These days the surgery is less likely to cause complications as the surgeons make a smaller opening in the larynx than in years past. Obviously the key is to have a surgeon with experience in correcting this. If it was me I would want a board-certified veterinary surgeon and anesthesiologist (because of the sick sinus syndrome) I would also not hesitate to have the surgery done if it was my dog. A final note is that the current thinking is that these dogs have more neurons involved that are degenerating then just those that affect the larynx. They can also develop weakness in their rear legs and sometimes other parts of their bodies. This generally progresses slowly so it may not turn out to be a problem. Hope this was helpful. “

  119. 119.

    opiejeanne

    @Kirk: We had a lovely sweet ex-tom who was very shy about killing things, afraid we’d yell at him I think, but he did catch a rat one time by knocking over a rake while he was chasing it when we weren’t in sight. We heard the clatter and came out to find him preening beside a very angry live rat with a rake handle across its neck.

    I mean, this cat caught a bird once. Just once. And promptly threw up.

  121. 121.

    geg6

    @debit:

    Agreed. I have found that spending more on good quality food saves me tons of money at the vet’s. My pups eat Taste of the Wild dry food, sometimes with a little of their wet food mixed in. Costs quite a bit more, but the vet says it’s an excellent brand and my pups are super healthy.

    And Cole, both Koda and Lovey eat cat poop with great relish. Every dog we’ve ever had did. John says cat poop must be the canine equivalent of Tootsie Rolls.

  123. 123.

    Aleta

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: After getting rid of worms, I found what everyone’s saying about allergy or intolerance to be true for my little cat. Wheat is used to make the ‘sauces’ some foods have. Canned food with added carrageenan (sp) (a thickener made of seaweed) can be an irritant.

    Limited ingredient diet w/ just 3 or so main ingredients worked for my cat. Also the grain free ones. Amazingly, her itchy skin and years of lashing out, which I thought was b/c of the anxiety from her bad past, cleared up too. And to my surprise she then became more of a friendly, almost lap cat.

    She does also get diarrhea when stressed. And like you said, when suddenly changing food. They say mix both old and new foods for a week or so, and that worked for her.

  125. 125.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: That was helpful! Glad you are going to the vet school. That’s what I would do, too.

    Although for Henry’s surgery on his torn ACL I’m going with my vet. He’s the one who was a practicing physical therapist before he became a vet and he’s a really good surgeon. Plus, he has the water treadmills, etc at his office for post-op treatments.

  126. 126.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: I think it’s the equivalent of crack. Some dogs have a taste for it. Happily, a raised litter box and a baby door makes it nearly impossible for Henry to get his fix.

    No kisses for dogs who like kitty crack!

  127. 127.

    Aleta

    @raven: That’s helpful for me. The pup is 11 (average expectancy is 12) and has some coughing and retching. But then today, a big honking retching, and tired. So I’m wondering about trachea. (He’s going in this evening to check for respiratory infection first). (Wish there was a university vet hospital in state. No vet school for several 100s of miles.)

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @Shell:
    Had a golden growing up and she’d retrieve skunks on to the back porch. Wouldn’t hurt them and she’d let them go right after she and the back porch got sprayed. She’d also retrieve our pet mallard.

  129. 129.

    MoxieM

    @LAO: Oooohh! One of my dogs–a puppy–got really sick from eating bunny poop. As in ER visit and couple thousand dollars in total sick. (Life threatening diarrhea in an 80 lb Newf puppy is … unpleasant.) And the damned hospital only taped up her tail, they didn’t bathe her. Grrr. Angell Memorial. I like raptors. A lot.

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    @MoxieM: My little dog is going to have surgery next week for his torn ACL. I was googling TPLO on balloon juice a couple of nights ago, and I think your nym came up as one of the comments.

    Do you have some experience with this surgery and the long weeks after?

  131. 131.

    TenguPhule

    @Tenar Arha: No, I’m talking about how the original stories were bullshit to begin with and pretty much vanished into thin air once he resigned.

    And never mind that all the women who worked with him and were willing to stand up for him.

  134. 134.

    MoxieM

    @WaterGirl: The TPLO went fine–was the same dog, in fact. Many (winter) weeks of careful outside visits, holding her ass-end up in a sling for the purpose (I think they have better ones now), and she mainly lived in a Newfie-sized crate. We put it in the middle of household life activities as best we could (not easy to find a corner for that giant crate), but prevention of re-injury is everything after the surgery. Also trying to prevent her from injuring the other side by over-use. She did not do that, but, alas that sweet sweet doglet only lived to 4, since her overall arthritis was unbearable. (She was the only dog I ever got from a breeder, not from rescue, either. sigh.)

    I think there is an alternate surgery nowadays–but am not an expert resource on that. How big is your dog? If a big one, I can check with the Newf rescue people about success raes, they will have lots of info about larger dogs of varying sizes.

    Also water therapy and PT has come a long way and is now terrific.

    best of luck!

  137. 137.

    Mohagan

    @chris: I’ve lived in the country for years now. Our best hunter brought in a flying squirrel (unharmed) once too. We had large tree trunk pillars separating the kitchen from the living room and it went straight up one of those. Hadn’t even known we had flying squirrels in the area. Damnest animal I ever saw. It was actually flattened. As I remember it was pretty easy to catch since it stayed on the pillar. When I put it on a tree trunk to release it, at first it didn’t move and I was worried it was injured; then when I went around the tree to see if there was a better place to put it, when I got back to where I had put it (elapsed time 3 seconds), it was gone and I saw it 10 feet up the tree. That cat had a soft mouth. Years before, our Siamese brought in a baby rabbit, a perfect miniature rabbit, also unharmed. My animal rescue book said if it looked like a miniature adult it could be released safely, so that’s what I did. I know it is traumatic for the prey animals, but it is fun for me to get to see these animals up close before releasing them.

  138. 138.

    Miss Bianca

    @Quinerly: Except horse shit, on the whole, smells a lot better than cat shit, and is usually not found about the house. I did say “usually”, didn’t I?

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    @MoxieM: Thank you! I got busy and only now just got back to this thread.

    My guy is little – 13 pounds. The vet said there were 3 surgeries – TPLO which he said is the gold standard, something else he didn’t recommend, and this thing where they essentially use fishing line. The third one is less invasive but more likely to fail. Factoring in the 6-12 weeks of recovery time, it seemed best to go with the TPLO. But I’m nervous about it.

    My little guy is an energizer bunny. I’m gonna put the mattress from the daybed on the floor and will sleep on that so he can be right by me in the crate. I’ll have that in the room with carpet (rest of house is hardwood floors) and that’s where I work and have the TV, so I will try to spend nearly all my time at home in that room.

    I thought maybe I’d get some soft dog carrier so I can put him in that and bring him to the other room when I am cooking or showering or whatever.

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