Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

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

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

No Justins, No Peace

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

People are weird.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Purring Kitteh Respite Thread

Purring Kitteh Respite Thread

by | 75 Comments

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In honor of my local bobcat.

 

I’m still a bit freaked out from my close encounter. Exciting and amazing to be so close to a free animal like that, but scary too. The weather for tomorrow is predicted to be bad, so I think I will not take my guys for a walk. Ever since I first saw the bobcat the other day, I’ve been VERY watchful when I take the cats out. But today the cat wasn’t just going through – sat on a stone in my flowerbed like it was a lovely restful spot. Finally left, with unerring cat camera sense, when I got the camera out.

 

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    Jay Noble

    I have seen pictures and movies of these kitties all my life, but this is first time I’ve gotten a good perspective on their size! Wow. And what a motor boat!!!

  2. 2.

    mad citizen

    Now THIS I can happily spend 3 minutes on (unlike the Israeli election news). Thank you!

  3. 3.

    West of the Rockies

    That thing is beautiful and soft-looking and sweet… But I’d be afraid to have it in the house.

  4. 4.

    wvng

    It’s like when we discovered that Fishers moved into our part of WV. They are magnificent, like a cross between a mink and a wolverine. Cool. They also eat cats and chickens, which tempers my joy at their presence.

  7. 7.

    chris

    That is one prosperous looking bobcat. I see one every couple of years and none them are that well padded. Lucky cat!

  9. 9.

    SenyorDave

    There was a hearing today on white nationalism before House Judiciary Committee. The two republican “witnesses” were Candace Owens, best remembered for a recording that was released recently in which she appeared to express admiration for Adolf Hitler. Owens used her opening statement to declare that the Southern Strategy — Richard Nixon’s use of racial fears to win over Southern whites long loyal to Democrats — was a “myth” that “never happened.” That notion is popular among some conservatives, but it is not shared by mainstream historians.
    Sitting next to Owens was Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, the one other witness invited by Republicans. A close supporter of President Trump, Klein described the murderer of 50 people at a New Zealand mosque as a “a left-wing self-described ‘eco-fascist’ who also published a manifesto praising Communist China as ‘the nation with the closest political and social values to my own.’”

    The shooter was, in fact, a white nationalist who has sympathized with Trump’s restrictive views on immigration.

    I’d say that hell is waiting for people like this, but I like to think Satan has better taste. The hearing came just days after three historically black churches were burned in Louisiana.

  12. 12.

    Patricia Kayden

    Watching “Finding Your Roots” with Ty Burrell and Joe Madison. Great so far.

  14. 14.

    Kifaru1

    So way back in the 1980’s when I was a kid I lived in Kenya. One time on safari we (the kids) were sitting around the open roof having agrand old time looking for animals in tall grass. All of a sudden, we came upon an extremely upset female lion who would no doubt have taken us out if we had hit her cubs that were hiding in the grass…still the most terrifying moment of my life. I still love and respect wild animals…..

  15. 15.

    Jay

    @SenyorDave:

    And in the Christchurch mass murder’s manifesto, he credited Candace Owens for starting him down the path towards being a mass murdering Nazi.

    Candace Owens makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from her YouTube channel, and YouTube makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from giving her a platform to white wash Nazism and other vile politics.

  16. 16.

    lamh36

    @rikyrah: Watching the Finding Your Roots season finale now. May watch the Reconstruction doc, but I don’t know that I want to be angry or sad.

  19. 19.

    Emerald

    @Jay: Yes. It’s really really bad to keep exotic animals as pets, but this lady seems qualified to take care of him properly. Anyway, Max is just a big sweetie.

  20. 20.

    lamh36

    Wow Joe Madison’s biological grandfather was part of the Tuskegee syphilis study!!!!

    And they found his medical file…

    #findingyourroots

  25. 25.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: Makes me angry too. The injustice of it all, makes my blood boil. I don’t know whether I have the stomach to watch it.

    ETA: Western powers that benefited from slave trade and colonization have zero standing to give others a lecture on humanity of all things.

  26. 26.

    lamh36

    God…I don’t want to be mad…but I’m off tomorrow…so lets get into this #ReconstructionPBS doc

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    woof…starting off with Mother Emmanuel in SC

    #ReconstructionPBS

    I want to follow the hashtag on twitter…but I just know it’ll be full of jackasses.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Speaking of big soft puffies who will turn on you in a split-second, my mother used to entertain us with a dramatic rendition of this piece of silliness (I don’t know why the lisp, but it was an essential ingredient). No idea where it originated. Is it at all familiar to anyone else?

    Horath wath a mountain lion, and Horath wath the family pet.

    One day I came home from thchool, and my mother thaid “Thay,” she thaid, “you know what’th what?”

    “No,” I thaid, “what’th what?”

    “HORATH HATH EATEN YOUR FATHER,” she thaid.

    “HORATH HATH EATEN MY FATHER!?” I thaid.

    And I wath mad! Oooh, I wath mad! I was tho mad I could have KILLED Horath. But then I thaid, “No, I muthn’t kill Horath. Horath ith the family pet.”

    *

    The nektht day I came home from thchool, and my mother thaid “Thay,” she thaid, “you know what’th what?”

    “No,” I thaid, “what’th what?”

    “HORATH HATH EATEN YOUR BROTHER,” she thaid.

    “HORATH HATH EATEN MY BROTHER!?” I thaid.

    And I wath mad! Oooh, I wath mad! I was tho mad I could have KILLED Horath. But then I thaid, “No, I muthn’t kill Horath. Horath ith the family pet.”

    *

    The nektht day I came home from thchool, and my mother thaid “Thay,” she thaid, “you know what’th what?”

    “No,” I thaid, “what’th what?”

    “HORATH HATH EATEN YOUR THITHTER,” she thaid.

    “HORATH HATH EATEN MY THITHTER!?” I thaid.

    And I wath mad! Oooh, I wath mad! I was tho mad I could have KILLED Horath. But I thaid, “No, I muthn’t kill Horath. Horath ith the family pet.”

    *

    The nektht day I came home from thchool, and there wathn’t any mother.

    “Ooh,” I thaid. “I know what’th what. HORATH HATH EATEN MY MOTHER.”

    And I wath mad! Oooh, I wath mad! I was tho mad I could have KILLED Horath. But then I thaid, “No, I muthn’t kill Horath. Horath ith the family themetery.”

  29. 29.

    Dan B

    @lamh36: I know what you mean. Reconstruction sounds like an amazing time like the election(s) of Obama and Marriage Equality, heady times followed by the return of horribly cruel times. Do we have to settle for a white savior like Biden or can we elect a wonderful mixed race woman who will remind us how to lift up everyone? Is corporate America a determined foe of well regulated capitalism or determined to squash any strengthening of our social contracts?

    I hope Gates has more uplift than despair.

  30. 30.

    mvr

    Have a cabin in the mountains of Wyoming, very off grid. We saw a Cougar at 8 AM one day last summer from our porch. Jenny saw it jump and catch a fawn. I got out in time to see it try to dispatch the fawn without success. I went in to get the cellphone. My movements got it to see me and try to drag the fawn away. Fawn got lose and ran off. But I did get a picture before that.

    I saw the fawn a couple of weeks later; at least I think it was that fawn.

  31. 31.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @lamh36:
    I wanted to get your opinion on this from the Most People Aren’t on Twitter thread,

    Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia was pummeled on social media after [the yearbook pictures came out], and virtually every Democratic presidential candidate demanded his resignation.

    Yet the majority of ordinary Democrats in Virginia said Mr. Northam should remain in office, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll a week later. And black Democrats were likelier than white ones to say Mr. Northam should remain.

    I know you’re a Virginian and a POC, and I was curious about what’s been going on in Virgina recently, as well as your take on the above and if it’s changed at all

  33. 33.

    Major Major Major Major

    Ah, respite!

    I woke up this morning in a high-functioning cranky mood and kept that energy going all day. I was very productive and crotchety. My next short story is on hold pending a discussion with an arborist, so I worked on my comic instead.

    Then I finally remembered to stop working! Now I’m going to watch Sabrina, which I just started and which is kinda fun. Just gotta get this cat off me…

  34. 34.

    Another Scott

    @Jay Noble: My 5th (IIRC?) grade teacher in Georgia had a lynx pelt mounted on her wall in the back of the classroom. She said that her husband shot it on a hunting trip to Alaska.

    Beautiful animal. :-(

    She was a great teacher.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    @mvr:

    I’m reminded of what Farley Mowatt’s studies on Arctic wolves showed, while they would like to chow down on Caribou every day, they mostly ate mice.

  38. 38.

    Dan B

    @rikyrah: I’lk be happier when Maxine gets to help him with his perp walk. Well at least she let him show off his finest lying asshole performance. No wonder these guys (mostly – see Karen Pence scold Pete for attacking her religion) are upset at Dems. We roar when Maxines show them to be priviledged pricks.

  41. 41.

    Gin & Tonic

    Yeah, that last was intended as a general comment, not specifically to Goku, who probably couldn’t care less.

  45. 45.

    randy khan

    @SenyorDave:

    The Southern strategy was a total myth, definitely. I mean outside of the highly documented statements by the people involved in it, particularly Kevin Phillips.

  49. 49.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Major Major Major Major: I used to change it to wherever I was, but that got overly cumbersome.

    And my feelings are totally not hurt that Elizabelle knew I was coming to Richmond and fled the continent.

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    If you are not watching the Reconstruction doc on PBS…you should be.

    If the latest Ken Burns opus is must see tv…then this doc damn well should be as well!

  51. 51.

    rekoob

    @Steve in the ATL: Well, even if Elizabelle isn’t around, I am! I wrote postcards for Abigail Spanberger and others. We talked about getting together for a central Virginia meeting of Jackals, but in her absence, I’m happy to meet for a beer or two. Now, where’s my green balloon…

  52. 52.

    Steve in the ATL

    @rekoob: let’s plan something next time I’m here. Have to leave tomorrow for important business in Augusta, Georgia. Have enjoyed meals at Wong Gonzalez and Pasture this week. May or may not have visited some excellent craft breweries as well. #RVA

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Northam has been keeping a very low profile.

    Apparently his first campaign event since he almost did the moonwalk is this Sunday.

    As far as I’m aware, the following event with State Sen. Dave Marsden (D-SD37) this coming Sunday will be the first campaign event Gov. Northam will have attended since the “blackface” scandal broke on February 1. Seems noteworthy, and possibly connected to the fact that polling shows Northam to be popular among Virginia Democrats (62%-29% in the new Wason Center poll), while only 29% of Democrats say he should resign. Also note that Democrats really could use the governor to be out and about raising money, helping candidates, etc. as we head into crucial legislative elections this November. For Democrats to take back the House of Delegates and State Senate, it seems to me that we’re going to need to bring our “A game,” and that traditionally has included the governor — whether Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Terry McAuliffe or…possibly even scandal-tarnished Ralph Northam?

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    Aleta

    We had one in the neighborhood a few years ago. I had tracks in the backyard. But apparently she mostly hung out a block over, where she got some chickens and supposedly one cat, and a block up where there were chickens she didn’t get. The F & Wildlife service relocated her after finding her living under a shed near the chicken coop.

    They said she might have come over here because a nearby woods had been cleared for a development, and the deep snow at the time made the hunting hard. As long as the woods were there, the canopy prevented snow from accumulating too much underneath. That year as the snow got too deep for her to hunt, she had to head for plowed areas.

  56. 56.

    rekoob

    @Steve in the ATL: Happy Trails! Although I haven’t sampled the wares, Wong Gonzalez evokes the kind of fusion that an earlier restaurant here in Richmond obtained — an Irish pub/delicatessen called O’Brienstein’s. I’ll keep my eye peeled for a future visit.

  59. 59.

    jonas

    Check me if I’m wrong, but that has to be a lynx, not a bobcat. Bobcats are rather shorthair, with spots. But just goes to show, the purring little fluffballs a lot of us live with and scratch behind the ears each day are *that* close to being wild, and vice versa. It’s a fine line with these fe-lines (get it?), to be sure.

  60. 60.

    plato

    The Oregon state Senate has approved legislation to decide presidential elections by popular vote, not the Electoral College. https://t.co/MYmTsRS59k— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2019

    District of ColumbiaColorado ConnecticutDelawareHawaiiIllinoisMarylandMassachusettsNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkWashington Vermont CaliforniaOregonRhode Island— Aunt B. (@wagtailfarm) April 10, 2019

    Does that list give a majority of EV’s?

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    FWIW, the forest rangers in California are of the opinion that bobcats do not prey on house pets based on the available evidence. But it’s still probably a good idea to keep your kitties inside for now because you don’t want anyone getting territorial. That would end very badly.

    @Aleta:

    I don’t have the link, but here in CA the rangers say they don’t have any evidence that bobcats prey on house pets. Coyotes absolutely do (including dogs) and their territories tend to overlap, so it’s possible the bobcat was falsely accused of that part.

  65. 65.

    mvr

    @Jay: The evidence seems to be that cougars don’t like to chase prey. They bound and pounce, but after that it is too much work. Also their teeth are optimal for biting from behind and not so good for going for the jugular. So this fawn lucked out.

  67. 67.

    ArchTeryx

    Late to the party as usual, but…

    Beautiful illustration that cats can either roar or purr, but cannot do both. And purring is a classic kitten behavior – kittens purr to encourage their mothers to lactate and nurse them. They associate that with happy feelings, so adult kitties, when with a parental figure, will indeed purr. The happy-cat noise we all know and most of us love.

    Always remember, kiddies: Animals may not have our self-awareness or abstract thought abilities, but they can feel emotions every bit as intensely as we can, even if they can’t analyze them like we can. Animals can be happy, sad, pleasured, pained, stressed, relaxed, lustful, solipsistic.

    And all that aside, Max is one adorable lynx. I’m glad that he’s in good hands with a trained rehabber. He’ll happily be her throw-rug and run his motor so long as she gives him all the attention he wants – and he gets it. :-)

  68. 68.

    Dan B

    @randy khan: I heard Kevin Phillips at a book signing. Got to talk to him. He was smoking mad at the racism and division it had created. And he was the architect.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    Big Cat Rescue in Tampa responded to a farmer who had trapped a bobcat who turned out to be in labor. Momma cat Sky and her three bobcat kittens are safely denned with BCR and will be released back into the wild when the kittens are old enough:

    https://bigcatrescue.org/sky/?amp

  70. 70.

    Jay

    @mvr:

    We’ve come a long way from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom that shows every predator hunt as being sucessful, while Marlin sells you insurance and Jim has to wrestle a 3 ton hippo,

    To Planet Earth, where most of the prey get’s away.

  71. 71.

    StringOnAStick

    We have Bobcats in our backyard, usually walking through but I’ve seen one laying in the shade of the neighbor ‘s deck, looking content to hang out and relax.

    One of our young sister kitties was originally named Tiny Cat because she was smaller and rolly polly, then she got huge and is now Tiny Bobcat. She has that co!or pattern and the fur “wings” on the side of her face like this gorgeous lynx but her long mane thinned to normal now that it’s spring. I’m betting it’s back bigger and longer next fall.

    I sometimes wonder if cat people are the ones who dreamed of being friends with exotic wild animals as kids and cats are the closest most of us can get after we realized wild animals need to stay wild. Sounds like this beautiful lynx is with the right person since he can’t go back to the wikd.

  75. 75.

    Aleta

    @Mnemosyne: The burbank pd says they eat feral cats but very rarely a ‘free roaming’ house cat.

    We don’t have coyotes locally here, though I don’t know why not (they do have territories in nearby wilder areas). We have lots of fox.

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