Now we can take comfort that at least one good thing has already happened this week! From wise commentor / gardener / rescue angel Satby:
You may have seen my comments last week about me spending Easter trying to trap a pregnant feral female cat that was part of a group I was feeding over winter. People have requested kitten pictures, so I thought I would share our little lady’s saga.
My cunningly hidden humane trap (under the rug) outside the garage I hoped I wouldn’t have to go into to trap her. I’m sure you can see why.
Five hours later, having completely ignored my trap, the cat practically walked into a carrier for me in the shed where I had set up a feral feeding station /shelter.
She wasn’t very happy when the door was shut. She cried the 40 minute drive to our board president, Becky’s house. Becky is the kitten whisperer, Animal Control in 2 counties calls her when they need tiny kittens removed before they catch something and die. Every spring for kitten season Becky converts a bedroom into a “maternity ward”. Here is our girl adjusting to her new surroundings.
And a couple of days later, it’s obvious that she isn’t a feral at all, just a very pregnant (probably abandoned) cat relieved to be safe inside again. She’s very sweet. And humongous.
Finally, a week to the day, the blessed event happened this afternoon. She went into labor about 1:30 and finished delivering her kittens about 2 hours later. Five kittens total.
Momma and kittens doing well, though momma is showing some very protective instincts right now. All will be available for adoption in about 8 weeks, including mom cat.
I know other jackals do TNR and rescue, maybe some of them can share some stories and we can have some distractions from the shit-show in DC.
Patricia Kayden
Awww. She’s a sweetie. Hope she and her kittens get adopted soon.
Major Major Major Major
Aw, so cute and such a nice story, thanks.
I’m in a coffee shop in Kobe right now, awaiting a dinner reservation and reading. Had a long day!
Sab
What a lovely face that cat has.
mainmata
I had a cat once that looked quite similar to this one (its name was “Cat”). Slogging through the process of writing a major study, here in Jakarta, that requires me to synthesize a lot of experience about environmental and political change in Indonesia over the last 30 years. Synthesizing is hard. Like report haiku!
VOR
My own cats are like this. Back in the day our local Police took stray animals to a local vet for assessment. Now they take them straight to the Humane Society. Mama Cat was pregnant when they brought her in and was assessed as very young, probably her first litter. She had three kittens but only one was left when we saw her. We adopted Mama and the remaining male kitten. She was clearly someone’s pet, not feral, as she had no trouble adapting to our house.
J R in WV
Satby, you de woman !! Save the kitties!! Whoot!
Congratulations, on the great save of this poor abandoned momma kitty. I hope you feel as successful as you are on this one. Keep up posted on the kittens. We only ever had one litter, of Maine Coon kitties. First one was born in the very cold kitchen floor, second on the steps up to the bedroom, 3, 4, 5 all on Wife’s pillow early in the morning.
Ellie’s work at finding a place in each closet went away instantly, as she didn’t know what was happening and ran to her momma. When I went downstairs and found the first two births, they were cold and still, I was so scared.
I filled a hot water bottle (big rubber flexi-sack) with duh, hot water, wrapped it with a hand-towel and laid the kittens on that very warm handful, then laid the whole handful by Ellie. In no time they started to wriggle around, and Ellie started washing them. They were fine.
So after successful birth of the 5 kittens, we had nine cats total, two old toms cats and the two young Maine Coons friends gave us. it was an avalanche of kitties for the next year.
Satby, do you plan to adopt any of these babbie kitties? Or hope to find someone who will take the whole fam damly? Pretty exciting weekend
Also, Good Morning, rickyrah! Everyone!
I have an Eye-Dr appointment later this morning, at 11ish. My current prescription for glasses is not good for my vision. And my diving mask was built like in 2011 or 2012, so way out of tune with my eyes. So please, Wish me luck!
Back in bed now, after small snack, 15 minute surf of news and B-J.
SectionH
OMGomgomg, YES!
eta @Sab: her face is so beautiful.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@mainmata:
What is your opinion, if I may and if you will, of “The Act of Killing”?
Me, for my part, I saw that film n it were like having the scales fall from my eyes all over again. Like when I, irreligious fop that I were and am, read the booksa Joshua, Judges and Kings for the first time and alla sudden realized how, in varying degrees, peeps justified (and sanctified) genocide.
It’s creepy as fuck to watch the wanton unapologetic murderers, in the moment, captured on film, realize what horrors they have committed.
That film kicked my ass.
No worries if you don’t feel the same, but if so obliged, be innerested to know your thoughts about it if you’s familiar?
satby
@J R in WV: Thanks J R! Good story of your own, as always!
Yes, all the kittens and momma cat will be adopted when everyone is weaned, have all the immunization they need, and have been spayed or neutered. So they’ll be a little older, but we got burned a couple of times adopting out younger kittens to people who promised to bring them back for a neuter or spay and then didn’t.
satby
And one correction, the real rescue angel is/are Becky and her husband Alex, who have made this their life mission. I just help out a bit.
satby
@Sab: @SectionH: yes, she has a very sweet and winsome face. I don’t know who daddy cat is, it doesn’t appear to be the tom that I was trying to help with the heated cat shelter and food station because he’s Siamese looking. The kittens are black and white mainly.
Mary G
Satby, great job, and glad you didn’t have to brave that garage. Mama cat does have a beautiful face and is sleeping the sleep of the just in that last picture. Bless you, Becky and all the animal rescuers in this world.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
rikyrah
Beautiful kittens??
rikyrah
Satby,
You are good people ??
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Thanks, I try. Some people would agree I’m very trying ?.
NotMax
Satby, made a metal note to recommend to you a (new to me) movie recently watched on Amazon Prime, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. Sweet little film.
Not a thing in it one cannot see coming from five miles away. That doesn’t much matter, as Gena Rowlands carries the story on her shoulders with such grace and sheer innate talent.
Link to the trailer, with the forewarning that it gives away some of the best lines.
satby
@NotMax: cool, thanks! I needed something new to watch. Have you seen the UK show Loch Ness? Was eyeballing that, but haven’t watched it yet.
Sab
@satby: We have four cats, three of them rescues.
My absolute favorite is Starscream (so-named because he shrieks for attention at 3 am), who is a tuxedo with significant siamese ancestry. Other than the black and white coat, he is completely siamese. Big, athletic, loud, curious, friendly, cross-eyed, and pear-shaped (tiny head, big backside).
He lived sort of wild for about a year. Somebody in the neighborhood fed feral cats. He was one of the kittens. Trusted people ( because he is just a trusting idiot). Turned up at our bird/squirrel feeder in a November sleet storm demanding to be rescued. We obliged. He has been with us for years. Going outside is his worst nightmare.
Keep us posted on how these kittens turn out.
NotMax
@satby
Nope, but will check it out.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@NotMax:
Realizes I talk wrong round here, but if I may, a coupla sweet lil films your post reminded me of:
Stand By Me
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
Beasts of the Southern Wild
(gotta former deckhand who worked inna small — carpentering — way on this’n; she’s now sailing her way — in Miches, Dom. Rep. now with the vessel owner gotta slashed foot n the engine fucked up, just gotta best Mona Passage — to Puerto Rico to do what she can)
Peoples, for all their fucked-upedness, is capable of the most marvelous acts.
Amir Khalid
Very sweet. Does the mother cat and her babies have provisional names?
Sab
@NotMax: Was your note metal or mental?
Typing sucks.
As does being up at 6 when the alarm is set for 7. So I am reading for typos.
NotMax
@Sab
Iron will.
:)
Sab
@NotMax: @NotMax: Is will a verb or a noun in your context?
NeenerNeener
What a face on that momma cat! This is one of those times when I wish I wasn’t extremely allergic to cats.
Sab
@mainmata: I never thought to name a cat “Cat”. Works for me.
JPL
What a sweet mama, and Satby you should be proud!
satby
@Amir Khalid: Turtle is what Becky was calling momma, because she was so slow to drop that litter. We need a better name. Mom was not, as of last night, letting Becky near enough to see what sexes the babies are. She’s become very protective, but then they were only a couple of hours old.
p.a.
Good morning.
Nice story to start a Monday!
satby
@NeenerNeener: allergic to both cats and dogs here. I develop a higher tolerance to my own, and since the doctor put me on Singulair for my asthma my allergic reactions dropped dramatically. I no longer take it outside of pollen season, and my allergies to cats mostly trigger in hives if I get scratched by one, though I still get sneezy if I’m around new or too many cats.
Not saying you should adopt, but if allergies make you uncomfortable, you should ask the dr. about anti-leukotrienes like Singulair. It changed my life.
Sab
@satby: Love Mama cats. Love their rescuers much more. Taking help from wherever, with no thought about where it comes from. Okay for cats. Completely irresponsible ( to put it mildly) for humans.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: My oldest Sis had a cat named Cat. It made a somewhat expensive phone call to Sydney Australia once. My sis had 2 roommates, one of whom was from Australia. Naturally enough they were certain sure Ronnie was lying when she said she hadn’t made the call, that she didn’t even know anybody in Sydney, she was from Melbourne. Then one day my sis caught Cat in the act of making a phone call (really just pawing at random buttons and the phone obligingly provided beeps Cat found entertaining).
Forever after, Cat was no longer Cat, He was Sydney.
Immanentize
So great. What a wonderful ending to that early cat hunting stress. Bravo!
WereBear
All my best to Turtle and the teeny ones. But that face on Momma is so sweet! I’m sure they will all have charm to burn in the coming weeks.
We fostered Tristan from the age of three weeks, and then he became a “failed foster.” Mithrandir, now four incredible years old, is about 85% recovered from his feral kitten past.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: What a great story.
HeleninEire
Satby is good people.
ETA: rikyrah beat me to it.
But there’s no harm in saying it twice!
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
Love that story!
WereBear
I’ve seen cats like Turtle go, “Okay, catch me, I can’t keep up this facade any longer.” But you have to put in sufficient effort to make it seem inevitable…
Thank you to Becky and Satby and all the folks who do it for love.
Schlemazel
Great story with a happy ending Satby, thanks for all of it.
Baud
Satby is good people, thrice over.
@rikyrah: Good morning.
debbie
@satby:
Lovely photos. You’ve built up quite a store of good karma!
Major Major Major Major
So this Kobe place has some pretty tasty beef.
satby
@debbie: hopefully it will balance off my combative behavior on FB to RWNJs.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Great story! Sydney may be related to Nora.
WereBear
@satby: Naw. Doing that IS good karma.
Baud
@WereBear: True dat. I’m up for redistributing a share of satby’s good karma to people more needy (i.e., me).
NeenerNeener
@satby: All my sisters and my brother also have cat allergies, so even if I had shots my family would never visit me again if I got a cat or 3. They have a tough enough time with my dogs. But every time I see a cat picture here I regret the family allergy to cats.
satby
@NeenerNeener: I don’t advise anyone who is allergic to adopt, really. I just share my allergy story for the stubborn morans like me who insist on doing what they’re allergic to.
satby
@Baud: your fan base here is sceptical that you need much in the way of good karma.
Kay
I think this was a bad answer:
satby
Speaking of, I wish commenter Skepticat would share some pictures and stories from their TNR efforts. 75 fixed cats is a big reduction in the problem.
I bet there’s enough of us to almost make a regular rescue blog feature.
Baud
@satby: People should know by now that they shouldn’t trust what they see online.
@Kay:
“I didn’t do the thing that I may or may not have done.”
debbie
@Kay:
Precautionary, my ass. Pass the popcorn!
OzarkHillbilly
Florida school shooting survivors release ‘cathartic’ memorial magazine
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Kay:
Imagining Martin Short defensive reactionary paranoid-lawyer mewling on this’n. Nothing becomes him quite so well as his outgoing speaker’s voice.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: With a face like that, he must be guilty of something.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Any word about what he’s involved in?
Amir Khalid
IThe Girl and I have pretty much figured out the intro and verse for Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl, and we hope to master the classic solo pretty soon. If Weird Al can play it, so can we.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On top of a drama-filled, often sucktastic birthday weekend with regard to my two youngest daughters and their partners, my Belgian Tervuren (going to be 5 yrs old this month) had two seizures last night, the first at 1:30 am, the next about 20 minutes later (not completely sure about the timeline).
That’s a first, and was scary for us. The first one was stronger, the second was a lot milder. There were no environmental factors that we could figure. I’ll call the vet this morning, but am not inclined to medicate him yet (Tervurens are sometimes genetically prone to epilepsy).
rikyrah
The Kushner’s bailout
https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/983071778204520448?s=19
Kay
@rikyrah:
No. It could literally be one of 5 or 10 different things. He’s horribly corrupt.
The 2006 Democratic wave in Ohio (state level) wasn’t about Bush or Iraq. It was about corruption in the state GOP. Nothing has changed since then except they all came back into power in 2010.
manyakitty
@poleaxedbyboatwork: I submit A Little Romance for that list. It’s one of Diane Lane’s first movies, with fun performances by Sally Kellerman, Sir Laurence Olivier, and even a splash of Broderick Crawford.
rikyrah
Medicaid expansion comes to Virginia?
https://twitter.com/NYTNational/status/982840480814845952?s=19
manyakitty
@NeenerNeener: I’m pretty allergic, too, but I give my cats baths and it makes a huge difference.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
Excellent story.
rikyrah
Concentration of wealth?
https://twitter.com/tomshipsey/status/982612187654049793?s=19
Steeplejack
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
My condolences on the daughter drama. I read the weekend threads, but too late to comment. Not to pile on, but one thing that struck me was that I initially wondered whether that drink might have been spiked—but also how idiotic do you have to be to accept any drink from a stranger, especially in a (presumably) hipster, hookup kind of place?!
Sab
@Kay: Have you had the horrible pleasure of reading Mary Taylor’s twitter? You say she is horrible, but had you any idea?
My worst nightmare is that deWines people dont take her seriously, jump over to our side to ratfuck us, and vote for Kucinich, and on our side the Bernibros also go for Kucinich, and in November we have a choice between Kucinich and Taylor.
satby
Oh man, Becky just texted me a picture of a tiny white kitten. A litter of four little white ones and one tabby sibling was brought in last night. I’m starting to want a couple of kittens.
Bad satby, bad!
NotMax
@Steeplejack
In vino stultitia.
:)
manyakitty
@Sab: , @Kay: Have either of you heard anything about State Sen. Joe Schiavoni? I follow him on Twitter and he’s saying the right things.
debit
Thanks so much for the momma cat update. What a face!!
I know the rescue/foster work has its own reward in animals being safe and secure, but thank you so much, satby.
ETA: I wake up every day and my first thought is always, “What kind of a shitshow am I going to find this morning?” It’s nice to have it be something truly positive instead.
rikyrah
Congratulations to Maddow
https://twitter.com/Variety/status/982290587184349184?s=19
satby
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: epilepsy can be scary, but it might be an isolated incident. My oldest dog has grand mal, now called tonic clonic, seizures intermittently, but stress around the house seems to trigger them sometimes. Medication helps only a bit to reduce them, but she can go quite a few months without any. She’s 13 this year and a lab, so it hasn’t shortened her lifespan.
rikyrah
@satby:
Don’t you have a full house??
Sab
@satby: So how many cats can a normal house handle? We have two girls and two boys and a couple of dogs to keep them in line.
Also, people who think cats and dogs cannot live together haven’t had cats and dogs. We have four cats and (currently) two dogs, and one cat and one dog have mild issues with each other. Everyone else is happy and fine with the arrangement.
rikyrah
2018 and Democratic candidates
https://twitter.com/SarahLerner/status/982726946017632256?s=19
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: She knows a sucker when she sees one.
debit
@Sab: Same. 4 cats, 2 dogs and two of the cats don’t like one another, but they just pretend the other doesn’t exist. As far as how many: my house is 2440 sq feet and I wouldn’t introduce another animal into it. Each cat has to have its own space and safe zone to retreat to when needed. Other people in smaller housing situations have made it work with as many or more cats, but they are magicians or wizards or something. CoughWereBearcough.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@manyakitty:
Tx. much for the recommendation, just putta online hold onnit at the library. Was innerested to see it’sa George Roy Hill joint (of Butch n Sundance and The Sting fame). Be very keen to see it.
Just watched Trumbo a coupla nights ago. Diane Lane was fab as Cleo and epitomized (in the role’s quiet indomitable steely-eyed way) the old saying: “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Not one a those tour-de-force roles, smaller, more spare, but in some ways more impressive cuz she’s gotta do more with less. And she do.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Steeplejack:
Exactly. And then daughter completely inflamed the situation. I’m still pissed off at her – it turned out to be not his fault at all, and the info I had going was what they supplied me. It was only later when it dawned on them that a drink from a stranger made it their way that they put two and two together.
satby
@rikyrah: @Sab: yes, I have a full house: 3 cats and four dogs. All of whom are middle-aged to old.
I can want kittens but I know better than to adopt more right now. The census has to be reduced a bit more around here.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yes, she does ?
manyakitty
@poleaxedbyboatwork: Yay! It’s a sweet, charming movie that’s been one of my favorites for 35+ years. Sometimes uncomplicated escapism is just what we need.
manyakitty
@satby: Our three cats will all be 10 this summer. I keep thinking about getting a kitten to keep them young, but we have a reasonably peaceful balance right now and I’d hate to disturb it.
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: you tuned both E strings down to D, right?
schrodingers_cat
Aaww, momma kitteh looks so sweet. Good job, satby.
Tenar Arha
@rikyrah: That is cool. If it that big a jump I wonder what’s going on in the various statehouse races? I should probably be reading the Massachusetts state politics website more often.
ETA Bravo @satby & mama cat ? ETA *That ?♀️?♂️
Dog Mom
Sweet Kitties – CAN NOT HAVE!! So I wrestled a large Turkey thigh bone out of the throat of a beagle intent on swallowing it whole after she saw me lunging for her – she had made her way into the garbage bin after I foolishly left the door open for just a second too long. Beagles are the Devil’s dogs – worst dogs in the world.
Skepticat
Kudos and purrs, Satby. Taking care of sixty free-range cats plus four of my own and fostering Royal Bahamian potcake puppies makes me especially appreciative of your kind and generous efforts.
Miss Bianca
@satby: oh, Satby, you’ve done such a good deed with this rescue, and of course the dear, wee KITTY photos have just made my morning! Thanks for that, and Good Morning, Balloon Juice!
chris
Can’t even find any outrage this morning.
danielx
@satby:
Most very well done. And new life instead of further news of this annus horribilis is most welcome. Having some difficulty typing because my man Boris has assumed the position, editing the boss’s work and keeping his (Boris’) back warm. It’s all good except that he still thinks he’s a kitten, so when he rakes me with his formerly tiny little claws in play, he’s now raking me with fishhooks.
‘Warm’ is kind of a big thing this morning, as we are receiving our third snow so far in April. Measurable snow, that is – couple of inches early in the month, four inches on Easter, and a couple so far this morning. Every time the forsythia starts to blossom it gets choked off.
This is getting old.
Miss Bianca
@Sab: @Sab: or they haven’t had a Siberian Husky. I love cats and dogs, and would gladly have both in my life, but as long as I have a Husky – truly the most cat-like of dogs, including the ridiculously strong prey drive which makes them see cats as “lunch!” – na gonna happen.
Mark you, i did manage to raise a Husky puppy with a cat in the house, but the cat was there first and i made it very clear to the pup that she was off-limits. Neighborhood strays that blundered into the yard, well…not so much. : (
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
I’m currently learning a standard-tuning version. I’ve bookmarked another YouTube video where the guy teaches a more authentic double drop-D tuning version. I’m thinking of buying me a Les Paul soon (maybe an Epi Studio) and I could use the Les Paul for a more Neil-like sound.
MomSense
Squeeeee! Sweet mama and kittens is a wonderful way to start the week.
I really wish I could have a cat or three.
Just One More Canuck
@Dog Mom: a friend of mine referred to his wife’s family dog as the ‘foul smelling cretin beagle’. She ate anything (and I mean anything), would find the most disgusting things to roll around in, and didn’t have the capacity to learn what skunks looked like – she was sprayed at least a dozen times in her life
Heidi Mom
@poleaxedbyboatwork: A recent movie that I loved was A United Kingdom with David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. It’s the story of Seretse Khama, of the royal line in what was then Bechuanaland, a British protectorate, and is now Botswana, and Ruth Williams, the white British woman he falls in love with and marries. Needless to say, the movie isn’t all sweetness and light — there’s racism, evil political machinations, and (mentioning this in case anyone might be bothered by it) a childbirth scene that looks awfully realistic, but there is great chemistry between the actors, it was filmed in Botswana, and the ending is not merely satisfying, but triumphant.
JPL
@Heidi Mom: That is a wonderful movie.
rikyrah
Mulvaney gave big pay bumps to his political hires at CFPB: 4 are making $259,500, and one is making $239,595; that’s more than salaries of members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, & nearly all federal judges apart from those on the Supreme Court https://t.co/R1klEAFsnS
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) April 9, 2018
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Heidi Mom:
Woo-hoo! My lucky day. Library had that’n, too. Tx. for the rec., much appreciated. Sounds great.
Listent to an audiobook last fishing season callt “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” which, if mem’ry serves, was set in Botswana at the end. Gotta dear friend who has fished here in Alaska for 35 years now — ‘cept the three she spent in stir — as Johnny Cash once sez about Merle Haggard sitting in the front row at San Quentin, “he wouldn’t mind me sayin’ that!” — n she’s gotta apartment in Durbin and loves her some Africa. Got all kinda excellent stories, specially the eerie, strange, wonderful sangoma tale. Me, I never been to Africa, but if I live long enough, I means to.
Ohio Mom
@Sab: To make matters worse, I heard a lot of grumbling at the local Dem party meeting about Cordray’s gun policy. My optimism about November is fading.
Heidi Mom
@poleaxedbyboatwork: It’s a great feeling when the local library has something you really want! And during National Library Week, no less.
Mel
Satby, thank you for the update on Ms.Kitty, and thank you for saving mama and babies!!
She has such a beautiful face and gentle expression.
When I was growing up on a farm, every spring we had to deal with the awfulness of people driving out into the country and dumping their pregnant or unwanted pets. My grandfather used to joke that there must have been hobo signs written in cat and dog that said, “good food, warm beds here!”, because we had at least two critters find their way to our door every year.
We would take care of the mama cats and dogs while they convalesced and took care of their babies, then spay, neuter and find good homes for the kids. A few of the moms who were older or had health issues ended up joining the family and staying.
One spring, we had an unprecedented flood of deserted critters, though: a three-legged collie with a fractured hip, four pregnant kitties, and three pregnant dogs.
One of the dogs gave birth to 9 puppies three hours after she arrived at our door, but was so malnourished that she had no milk. A gorgeous English Setter mix showed up one day later, and proceeded to give birth to 12 (!) puppies one week later. All told, we had 30 puppies and 17 kittens, plus moms, that spring. Add to that our pets (horses, goat, kitties, rescue skunk, Collie, and Beagle and Dachshund) and it was a circus. Our farm vet took pity on us and did the spays and neuters for free.
English Setter mama and young mama dog who had almost no milk both needed assistance feeding their pups, so we took turns on bottle duty every three hours, feeding the babies in shifts and changing kitty litter boxes and broodbox linens, and monitoring the injured Collie after his surgery.
The entire family was sleep deprived and slap-happy beyond belief for about four weeks. We were so tired we were walking into walls.
There is a photo of my mother and me at 3am, each with three pups on our lap and one pup drinking from a bottle. We look like extras from The Walking Dead.
Three-legged Collie, English Setter mix mama and the runt of her litter joined the family that year.
rikyrah
That Mama Kitty is so adorable!
Such sweetness in her face:)
germy
RIP Chuck McCann.
I used to watch his kids show in the early 1960s.
Miss Bianca
@Mel: right now I am reading a book called “Running With the Fox” by David MacDonald. A truly obsessive scholar who hand-raised any number of litters of fox kits, who all needed feeding and butt-grooming at regular two-hour intervals. Apparently that’s how he and his wife spent their honeymoon. She must be a saint!
germy
Ruckus
@Just One More Canuck:
Had a golden growing up and let’s just say she wasn’t the smartest cookie in the box. But her retrieving instincts were 100%. Which meant that she would retrieve our full grown mallard or any skunk that came in the back yard. Take her catch up on the back porch and wait for one of us to release. She was smart enough to release the skunks on her own, after being doused of course. And in case you are wondering she never physically even ruffled a feather on the mallard but his mental health did suffer just a bit.
Ruckus
@germy:
Just the person to run the agency. What a fine pick by the prick.
rikyrah
A sitting President can be indicted and prosecuted for any crime outside the scope of his official duties as POTUS just like anyone else. The legal burden is upon those who say he can’t. https://t.co/RwNYLzPXNp
— Andrew C Laufer, Esq (@lauferlaw) April 8, 2018
rikyrah
Bryan Stevenson: “…we believe in truth and reconciliation but we know that truth and reconciliation are sequential. We can’t get to where we’re trying to go if we don’t tell the truth first.” Full story: https://t.co/BTJj9YhTtj https://t.co/aUVu0y1hbA
— Steven Hale (@iamstevenhale) April 8, 2018
Mnemosyne
@Heidi Mom:
I just read about that in Wikipedia a few weeks ago. Great Britain never had anti-miscegenation laws, but South Africa did, so the marriage caused a major diplomatic crisis. And, of course, the British diplomats were more interested in placating South Africa than in what the couple wanted. ?
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Ruckus:
To say nothing of his dignity.
Hadda female black Lab/Plott hound mix (Humane Society refugee) with the softest flopsy-mopsy ears you could imagine; she made it 14 years and then tipped over in aught-eleven. Still get misty thinkin bout her. She was a two-time loser on skunks, and you prolly already know this, Ruckus, but I mention this little curio only case anyone is unaware (as was I the first time) and ever needs it. First time Pepper came back with that tongue-lolling “ain’t-it-great!” look of incandescent rapture on her face (cuz what Lab in her right mind would ever *dream* of questioning the justness of her quest maloderous), I used tomato juice. Which masks but does not remove skunk stank to be frank.
Second time did a little homework and discovered equal parts hydrogen peroxide and baking soda mixt with just enough dish soap (for lather) actually breaks down (oxydizes to sulfonic acid, apparently) the thiols, which is the rank stank parta skunk spray. Fun fact: thiols is also found in garlic n onions.
My old guy now is 16 (another Humane Soc. refugee), and he don’t have no truck with skunks. Porcupines is *his* racket. Also twice. Both times onna Saturday night round midnight w/a face bursting fulla quills. Only don’t recall him looking quite so proud of hisself as Pepper was. With gentle cooings and supplications and earnest entreaties, he finally lemme pull the first quill — after that all trust was betrayed. Fifty pounds a dynamite inna corded gunnysack lashed to the doorknob went off with each quill thereafter. He’s forgive me now (I think), but the look a unadulterated menace he give me at the time was a thing to turn a man to stone if I’da met his eyes square.
satby
@Mel: Wow Mel!
I pass the “Good people” crown ? to you and your family! You guys really deserve it!
Heidi Mom
@Mnemosyne: One might think that Great Britain could have called the shots re South Africa, but South Africa had minerals that Great Britain wanted. Botswana, thankfully, had diamonds, which, also thankfully, were not discovered until after Botswana became independent and — SPOILER ALERT — Seretse Khama became its first president.
Mel
@Ruckus: What is it with Goldens, Labs, and skunk adventures? Our yellow Lab would get skunked at least twice a year. Never learned her lesson. The only thing that lessened her skunky perfume afterwards was a vinegar bath, followed by a soak in tomato juice. Then she smelled vaguely like salsa with a twist of eau de skunk, and her fur was orangey-pink for a couple of weeks.
Yutsano
KITTEHS!!!
I meant to send this before I left for work.
but KITTEHS!!!
Consider Phlebitis
Over the weekend my wife helped trap more than 20 feral cats, one of which gave birth in our garage last night. The rest are being spayed/neutered today, then will be released after a day or two. Meanwhile, the garage smells terrible.
satby
@Consider Phlebitis: hey, how about some pictures? Well done to your wife!
Mohagan
@manyakitty: If your cats are all about ten years old, you probably have some time, but we just lost 3 cats in a year and are so glad now we had adopted a couple of younger cats in the past year. One was a young cat I was socializing at the animal shelter and fell in love with, and the other is a failed foster kitten my husband wanted to keep. Fostering kittens with a mother cat is the best – all fun and hardly any work compared to bottle babies. Even a true feral mother is mellowed out by birth hormones for a few weeks so you can pet her for a while. I used to think I was a cat whisperer for taming the feral moms and then realized the ferals went back to being feral after the kittens were a month or so old.
mainmata
@poleaxedbyboatwork: It’s no accident that the word “amok” is a Javanese word (as in running amok). It refers to a sudden contagious lunacy that can spread throughout an entire village in no time. I witnessed it only once in all the years I’ve lived here and was alternately fascinated and a little fearful (no one was seriously injured much less killed).
The killings of as many as 1 million people, mostly on Java and Bali in 1965-66 were horrifying and deeply cynical and had little to do with extirpating “communists” and more to do with settling personal scores or wiping out ethnic Chinese, always subject to periodic pogroms in SE Asia anyway.
Most people aren’t like the monsters who did all this killing but almost anyone has the potential, unfortunately as we know all too well from human history. It doesn’t take a whole lot for people to run amok.