Cartoonist: John Rassmussen (his dog Jack featured above). https://t.co/b5wvabiWpK
H/T @mitchellbyars for sharing this.
— Vic Vela (@VicVela1) January 7, 2022
I could not post anything about my pets this week without acknowledging what many Coloradoans are feeling this week. The presumed loss of two people in the fire and the loss of so many pets, folks who could not get home to rescue their furry and feathered loved ones. Someone I work with lost everything, but she, her partner, and their neighbor were able to get out with their pets, and kick in another neighbor’s door and rescue his dog along the way.
As many know, the last half of 2021 was really rough here – loss of family and pets in numbers that just seemed unbearable. But I was holding it together – mostly with tissue paper and spit – but holding it together, nonetheless. Until the fire and that story. I was out buying dog food, treats and supplies for them and suddenly between the farm store and the pet store, I completely broke down – total ugly cry. I finally had to use my phone-a-friend option so someone could talk me down enough to finish up my errands. Luckily I have a lot of friends who are nurses, LOL.
Grief is a weird thing. You cannot circumvent it, no matter how hard you might try. Something, somewhere, some time will trigger it and you just got to roll with it.
So on to happier things – the face that makes me smile every day, even when she’s chewed something she shouldn’t or is chasing a cat, along with her beautiful big sis.
And here is Emma explaining to her that this is HER crate and she’s just letting Trixie borrow it:
A full update on Trixie’s adventures if you’re interested is here: her first snow and all, she’s never going to grow into those ears.
And this, believe it or not, was Scout, four years ago this past week:
Still miss that big guy. Sigh.
Also, speaking of loss, the NYT has some really good tributes to Sidney Poitier. I watched In The Heat Of The Night last night – I own it because it is one of my favorite movies of his – and I was once again struck by how this one film defied so many film conventions of the time to make an Oscar-winning film.
This is an open thread….
jeffreyw
Here are two that we miss, taken, not by fire or flood, but by natural causes. Fuck Cancer
raven
We call Artemis Artie and have just discovered that Miss Artie is a palindrome!
raven
@jeffreyw: Ugh, such good pups.
Betty Cracker
Look at those two knuckleheads! :)
TaMara (HFG)
@jeffreyw: Fuck cancer, indeed. ??
Spanky
Another anniversary for January 6. We had to say goodbye to our tortie Max. Hard as it was, it wasn’t unexpected. She was 19 1/3 and failing on a couple of fronts. We finally knew the time had come.
Sadness, but relatively few tears for a wonderful life well lived. And she joins her best bud Archie under the trees in the back yard.
NotMax
1) Have not seen it.
2) Reviews are all over the map.
.
Be it noted however that My Dog Stupid is currently available on Prime.
;)
Scout211
TaMara, when you talk about your Scout, I always get a little misty. Our beloved black lab, our Scout, died in 2006 and we have yet to recover. We have only had cats in the house since losing her. (I chose my nym in her honor).
Thank you for posting all the pics of your assorted menagerie. It’s a bright spot in everyone’s day. :)
Layer8Problem
Continuing the festivities for Larry Storch’s 99th birthday from
below, one note demonstrating his impact on the teevee medium, from memory though.
Last episode of Boston Legal.
Four Crane, Poole & Schmidt lawyers in the elevator on their way up to
make a do-or-die case to the Japanese investors to keep the firm the way it is. Serious faces staring forward. Much stress, very tension.
SiubhanDuinne
Awww! Tiny wee Scout! So precious ?❤️
wmd
In the Lightning Complex fire I evacuated from in August 2020 I learned about an organization doing animal rescue in disaster areas – Assert – the second responders.
They work with to save any animals – pets, livestock, wildlife in consultation with the first responders to avoid impeding the first response efforts. They’ve recently been getting animals rehomed after the tornados in Kentucky; they certainly will be in Colorado if resources are available.
Belafon
I just saw this cute Pedigree ad about adopting dogs:
https://youtu.be/KDtaDcU4NAQ
Another Scott
Thank you TaMara for all that you have shared with us. Best wishes for 2022 and beyond. Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Starfish
The magnitude of the fire was hard to grapple with. I thought about the friend who was at the CostCo when the fire started to spread, but not all the people who had to deal with the toppled trees and fences.
Even though, I am not a pet person, I volunteered as a tech person for a non-profit that has a database of resources to help injured wild animals for a couple of years. The person who started that non-profit lost his home in the fire and got out with his cats. His family set up a GoFundMe for him
We donated to the YMCA and Sister Carmen. We also donated toys to a local group that runs summer camps out of CU. They are going to make boxes for the kids who lost their homes.
Avalune
Our Bella has had a bad few weeks. She’s lost a fair amount of weight, isn’t eating much. We had bloodwork, ultrasound, xrays done but they can’t really find anything that would be causing all the drama. Vet wanted us to swap to a renal diet but that’s upset her stomach so she spent a couple days vomiting everything she ate. She won’t take one of her pills no matter how sneaky we try to be about it. She’s still got a lot of spark in her but the aging seems to be hitting her pretty fast. She missed a step in her excitement that I was home on Monday and she smacked her face so hard she was swollen for a few days. Teeth seem intact and her swelling is gone now.
It was upsetting though because it reminded me so much of how our old lab Pepper looked right before we made the decision to ease her pain and I’m just not ready to let go of this pain in the ass sassy little dog.
In the hopes of trying to pick up her appetite a little, does anyone know of a good homemade renal diet recipe? She’s not having the canned or the dry foods. She’ll eat eggs if we scramble them for her, so that’s basically what we’ve been doing. I know there are a lot of recipes to be found online but I’m not sure how to vet them so to speak
BTW – before anyone says anything about peanut butter for pills, she HATES peanut butter. Like…I’ve never seen anything like it. Only dog I’ve ever owned that was like GET BACK SATAN when you have peanut butter.
NotMax
@Belafon
Doggy? Ad? Why, back in my day….
And a different flavor of marketing. Also too, vintage barker chow.
;)
dearmaizie
You’re a good person, TaMara. I hope you know that. Trixie and Scout and whoever your humans are are lucky to have you in their lives.
Layer8Problem
I, too late, realize that TaMara’s post is about loss of loved ones and I regret my comment’s off-note. Too many forget how disasters take the innocent as well as the jaded and cynical.
dearmaizie
Oh, forgot the duckteens.
TaMara (HFG)
@Layer8Problem: Hey, happy news is always welcome. And since Ken Berry was – I’m going to say friend here because he was just that kind of person – if you were in his life you were his friend – all F-Troop references are welcome!
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Wouldn’t fret about it. Says Open Thread right there in the title.
Plus it’s refreshing to read comments extolling someone that don’t appear as part of an R.I.P. thread.
TaMara (HFG)
@Avalune: I don’t know about renal diet, but I do know about dogs who don’t like peanut butter – we used cheap hot dogs and cut off a piece just large enough to hold the pill – worked sometimes, sometimes they spit it out.
J R in WV
A short update on my tiny kitty Spike, who was on last year’s calendar with claws embedded in a bush’s trunk out back. She is eating a little better, is a little more active, still has something going on nasally.
Vet gave me antibiotic eyedrops to use as nose drops. Have you ever tried to put nosedrops into a cat’s nose who really, really doesn’t want you to? Harder than you might th ink. So I gave her the oral meds on schedule, got some not thyroid diet cat food to spice up the kibble, and she is doing OK. Stands around on me in bed once the sun comes up. Still purring.
Still lots of snow on the ground here, we got nearly a foot here in out little Cove of a Mtn hollow. Supposed to be in the mid 40s today, is very sunny and bright, Tomorrow should be the same temperature, but rainy, which should do in the snow pretty fast, I hope. Don’t really want to be plowing snow off the farm roads.
Avalune
@TaMara (HFG): We can get her to take the thyroid pill that way but the other one must have a smell because she knows instantly that whatever we are trying to give her is tainted and she wants no part of it. :D
MomSense
Sending a big hug.
brendancalling
Yesterday my friend Cindy had to put down her wonderful but very old and sick cat Rosie.
i brought over a care package of hugs, my shoulder to cry on, my ears for listening, a 4 pack of her favorite beer, fancy chocolates (including some edibles from my weed guy), and a nice potted plant. Cats are awesome, and Rosie was a pip.
Today it is 13F outside (Monday the low is -8F) so with that in mind, I’m likely not going out much today. This weather is for the birds—specifically, penguins.
Betty
@Avalune: Our dogs seem to take any pill in a vienna sausage. Softer and smaller than a hotdog but similar.
Miss Bianca
That cartoon has me puddling up already.
My beautiful Luna would have been ten years old today. I lost her three years ago, and I’m still not over it. She wandered off, in her Siberian fashion, and I spent days – weeks, even, I think – combing the neighborhood, screaming her name until I was hoarse, following leads, doing everything I could think of and trying every One Weird Trick that animal rescue people recommended. And it still wasn’t enough.
It all ended when I got a call from a local vet saying her body had been dumped on their doorstep. I was too devastated to ask for an autopsy, so I don’t know whether she died from starvation or cold or being shot. Yeah, I was a chickenshit that way.
I have her ashes in an urn on my desk. In my moments of darkest humor, I tell her spirit, “That’s so I can keep my eye on you, you rascal you – you’ll never run off again!”
But bad as that was, I can’t even imagine what all those folks up in Superior and Louisville are going through.
Layer8Problem
@TaMara (HFG): Thank you for that, and thanks for caring and cherishing those in your care. They know you do!
Starfish
@Miss Bianca: On Twitter, people have been posting some photos of some of the cats that survived. My husband was telling me about one, and it was a different cat than the one I had seen earlier. I have not shared any of them because they are heartbreaking.
BoulderOEM had some funny photos of the animals they were evacuating.
NotMax
@brendancalling
Penguins, you say?
:)
sab
@Avalune: I hate peanut butter myself, so I won’t use it for dog pills because then I have to smell it on the dog’s breath. Cream cheese works well for us.
Avalune
@sab: Awe thanks for the suggestion. I’ve tried cream cheese already and she spat it out immediately. She likes that cheese but knew it had a pill in it. I’ve broken them up. Powdered them. Tried stuffing them down her throat and got bit pretty good for my trouble. :D
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: Fifty years on (I was watching reruns on WPIX) I still get a smile thinking about his performance on that show. Comedy is hard indeed and a lot of humor’s value is in helping us through the dark stuff.
TaMara (HFG)
@Starfish: The ducks…OMG. I saw one photo of an officer with three chickens in his front seat and all I could think, beyond thanks for rescuing, was, that front seat is gonna need some deep cleaning.
eclare
Sometimes you just need a good cry.
The Moar You Know
I lost one of my best friends from high school in 2020, guy I’d known well, lived with on occasion, and played music with for close to forty years, and… this is a terrible thing to admit but it’s true…although it was brutal, it did not hurt nearly as bad as losing our Hannah in 2013.
eclare
@Miss Bianca: I remember that, and I am still so sorry.
germy
https://twitter.com/hattBaked/status/1479070224288604162
trollhattan
@NotMax:
We watched it during the annual local French Film Festival. It’s very funny and yes, very French.
UncleEbeneezer
I hear ya on the grieving. Even though it’s been more than a year, something reminded me of our late doggy Juniper last night and reminded me how much I miss still her ?
trollhattan
@Layer8Problem:
Was in Scouts when F Troop was on the air and there was always some poor kid who would be pegged as Agarn due to serial screw-ups, especially on the camping trips.
Miss Bianca
@eclare: Aww, thanks. And just to make myself even more puddly I just revisited the thread where John found Walter starved and abandoned in his then-new house. Although the tale of Walter, sad as it was, still had a beautiful ending, with the old guy ending his days loved and spoiled and well-fed.
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Ah, WPIX. Originator of the Yule Log telecast.
trollhattan
Filmmaker, writer, critic Michael Dunaway reflects on his friendship with Peter Bogdanovitch. Worth a read for any film buff.
germy
@NotMax:
I remember an old “Cracked” magazine from the 1960s.
A joke about anthropologists discovering a remote tribe of people: “They know nothing of civilization, getting only channel 11!”
zhena gogolia
@Layer8Problem: It’s an open thread. I enjoyed your comment.
Jay
On the good news front, Jellyman, who spent more than the 12 days of Christmas, not eating and only drinking, has been eating again. Pumpkin and tuna cat fud, baby food, canned tuna,
and the past couple of days, been demanding to be fed.
He’s old, twentish, and the last of “our gang”.
He’s getting some energy back.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Trivia:
Original name proposed for the tribe on F Troop was Fugawe.
Network scotched that right quick. (“We’re the Fugawe!”)
germy
@NotMax:
Pugsley’s name on The Adams Family was originally supposed to be “Pubert” but the network said no.
germy
@Jay:
What happened? What was the problem?
WereBear
@Jay: so glad they rallied
WereBear
@NotMax: spoilsports
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: I know that “we’re the Fugawe!” is the punchline to a joke I heard years ago, but for the life of me I can’t remember the joke or why that punchline was supposed to be funny/scabrous.
@germy: I did not know that! However, I believe that in the movie “Addams Family Values” the baby gets named Pubert. So, someone got a long-delayed last laugh in there somewhere!
Yarrow
@Avalune: When I was a kid the vet told us to put the pills in vanilla ice cream. The dogs slurped the ice cream down right away and then had these glorious surprised looks because it was so cold and they didn’t know what had just happened. Might be worth a try if ice cream is an option for your pup.
Jay
@germy:
@WereBear:
Don’t know what the problem was, Vet’s were closed.
He used to be a tuna assassin, running everytime I opened a can to make a sandwich with, so we tried that, results were so-so, added in a selection of baby food and good wet cat food, and after a week of that, eating spotty, he’s now “come back” and is demanding to be fed (wet fud), every second time we open the fridge.
He’s always been a weird dude, our “shed roof” kitty.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: There is ( or was ) a motorcycle “club” originally out of Chicago, called “The Fugarwe Tribe.”
Additional trivia ?
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: And Captain Jack McCarthy doing Alistair Cooke’s job introducing the Popeye show.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Heh, opportunity squandered.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Your Twitter photos of Pete make him look all grown up until you post one of both Pete and Badger together, and Pete then shrinks to a tiny little peanut!
Layer8Problem
@zhena gogolia: Thanks. Open thread or not these are painful times for us.
germy
@Layer8Problem:
I had Officer Joe Bolton introducing the Three Stooges.
And the Merry Mailman, Ray Heatherton.
Miki
@Avalune: I was in an FB group for my Sully (he had Chronic Kidney Disease, aka kidney failure). One of the moderators has a website with renal diet info – https://www.tony-booth.com/ and a bunch of people also recommended this website – https://eatswritesshoots.com/2014/06/16/recipe-for-low-phosphorus-dog-food-caring-for-a-dog-with-chronic-renal-failure/.
Sully refused commercial and homemade renal diets out of the box. At different times he would only eat eggs or cheese on toast or steak or chicken breast or braunschweiger on toast. What turned him around last Summer was a combination of daily sub-q fluids (at the vet’s, done by 2 techs), an appetite stimulant, an acid reducer, and bottle feeding a gruel of water and pancreatitis food. Yeah – a ton of work for about 7 months, but it worked until his kidneys just quit one night.
Braunschweiger worked for Sully’s pills.
Sure Lurkalot
OT. Happy birthday, Mr. Bowie. So thankful our timelines crossed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
My dad passed away 40 years ago today.
I was getting ready for the beginning of Winter quarter of my Senior year at UCLA, my mom called at about 6am to tell me he’d had a heart attack and had been taken to the hospital, 2 hours later he was gone.
Layer8Problem
@trollhattan: “Who says I’m dumb?!”
brendancalling
@Miss Bianca: It’s a dumb joke about an indigenous tribe that was nomadic because they were always getting lost on hunts. Often while lost, they’d bump into other tribes or nations, and they would introduce themselves by saying “We’re the Fugawi.” I think there’s a video of Carson (when did I get old?) telling that joke.
Redshift
We had to say goodbye to our bunny Magellan a week and a half before Christmas. I never found a good time to post about it here. He was diagnosed with a thymoma (tumor of the thymus gland in the chest) back in June, and Prednisone have him another six months of mostly good life. (It treated his arthritis as a side effect!)
He was the last of a litter of babies we fostered in 2011 from the time they were two weeks old. He was named Magellan the Explorer because he was the first to escape from the baby cage.
None of the litter ever really liked being touched or petted, but they were still sociable with us. Magellan had a perpetual slightly confused expression, and was pretty adorable. He was a good bunny.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
A bit further back for my dad, but you never totally get over it, do you?
MagdaInBlack
@Miss Bianca: “where the fuk are we?” = “fugawe”
Avalune
@Miki: Thanks, I’ll check that out. Fortunately, she’s pretty far from failure. They just wanted to put her on the diet so her kidneys wouldn’t have to work as hard – they are showing some age but quite far from failure yet. I’m hoping to give her kidneys less work but mostly I just want her to eat. :( They did give me a stimulant if we get desperate – which we are pretty close atm. PS. Sorry about your pupper :(
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: As the President said, there will come a time when their memory brings a smile to your face than a tear to your eye.
Redshift
@Redshift: Bunny baby pictures.
rikyrah
You are good people, T.
I always appreciate your animal pics.
Every once in awhile, you need a good cry.
NotMax
@germy
Further down the dial, WOR had Claude Kirchner and also Zacherle. WABD (later WNEW) aired an astounding number of hours of live TV each week in all dayparts featuring Sandy Becker and/or Sonny Fox. Metromedia’s WNEW also eventually became home to Soupy Sales after his years bouncing around ABC’s stations.
Miss Bianca
@Redshift: Aww, BABEE BUNNIES!!
They look so cute, but I understand from rabbit fanciers that they can be ferocious little critters. True?
Condolences on your bunny’s passing.
zhena gogolia
@MagdaInBlack: I finally got it from Tony Soprano just now.
Cermet
@Avalune: When all else fails, I simply place the pill well back behind their tongue “ridge” and they shallow the pill regardless. Simple and fast but a bit messy for you. As for renal diet – hot dog’s are a definite out! Dairy needs to be limited – or just don’t. One wants little salt, and as little as possible phosphorous, or Potassium.
trollhattan
@Sure Lurkalot:
Letters of Note today posted this letter written by Bowie in response to his first American fan letter, Clearly typed by David himself, who makes fun of his own typo.
“The fan in question was 14-year-old Sandra Dodd, a New Mexico resident whose uncle, a manager of a local radio station, had recently given her a promotional copy of Bowie’s first album. Intrigued, she wrote him a letter, told him that his music was as good as that of The Beatles and offered to start a US fan club on his behalf.”
How fun is that?
Eunicecycle
@Redshift: awww cute
Also, I’m sorry to hear the last one has passed away.
JeanneT
@Avalune: I nursed my cat through 3 years of kidney disease. We fed her non-prescription canned foods with low phosphorus content and in the last year added a phosphate binder to her meals. Some of her daily meds were compounded in a gel that we could rub in her ears instead of trying to pill her. Pricey, but worth it not to fight with her daily.
FWIW, I did find one reasonable sounding web page talking about a few prescription AND nonprescription low phosphorus foods for dogs: https://dogfooddesire.com/best-low-phosphorus-dog-food/
Good luck with finding the best ways to help your pup!
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: Zacherle! He was doing FM radio on WPLJ!
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: ??
jnfr
That cartoon made me cry too.
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Had the pleasure of being seated with him at the same table during an afterparty for a movie premiere.
Curious (in a good way) and very erudite fellow. Still active in media into the 1990s (died at age 98 only a few years ago). Trivia: He was the uncle of the creator of My Little Pony.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Very sweet!
Yutsano
That cartoon is a definite punch in the gut.
OT: if we needed any more evidence Dave Ramsey is a fucking piece of trash this is direct evidence. His love for the God of Mammon just oozes out. Covid got work to do here.
NotMax
@NotMax
Probably ought to mention the party in question was in the early 70s. Also at the same table was Stanley Kramer.
Why li’l ol’ moi ended up seated there as well is anyone’s guess.
;)
Layer8Problem
I am completely gobsmacked as to his age. Older than my parents and he didn’t seem that way at all. This gives me hope.
Mike E
@trollhattan: Très cool! I knew a Diamond Dog in Philly who, along with her mom, took Bowie in when he first toured the states, he would often start his subsequent tours in Philly after that. They owned a bar with a jukebox that had a whole slew of his singles. You can see her in a prominent rock and roll documentary, glammed up outside a concert of his, declaring she’s David’s space cadet.
Layer8Problem
@Layer8Problem: Referring to @NotMax, by the way.
Redshift
@Miss Bianca:
They can be if they’re not properly socialized. Not a lot of them, in my experience, but some. Some are biters, and others are cage-aggressive (territorial, more common with girl bunnies) or food-aggressive. I’m on hiatus from fostering right now, but one of my roles when I was active was to be the “bunny whisperer” for “difficult” foster bunnies. If you’re patient, you can train almost any problem bunny (other than full ferals) not to bite or box. And many of them had probably just been with people who didn’t interact with them much, or got scared the first time they were aggressive and withdrew, so they just needed a little time to get used to humans doing nice things for them and then the aggression melted away.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Happy to say I have no idea who that douchenozzle is, but thank the Lord he has himself a talkshow for demonstrating how the poors are not like you and me (mostly me).
Speaking of hot trash, Saint Ashli Babbitt, everyone. Anger management issues.
NineJean
@Avalune: Yes, I’m *really* late to the thread…
But have you tried marshmallows as a way disguise a pill? My *best dog ever*, Bax, had so many allergies he couldn‘t eat much of anything, so the Very Expensive Doggie Allergy Specialist suggested marshmallows as a way to get meds from hand to gut. Heh.
I don’t how big/small your pup is; so depends if you want all/part of a big mallow, or maybe a mini one. Just cut one up partway through, stick the meds in, then squish it to seal the meds inside. Helps to have treat #2 ready once #1 gets swallowed…
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes, usually both.
Avalune
@NineJean: That’s an intriguing idea – she does like marshmallows.
Avalune
@JeanneT: thanks Jean! We tried to make her some food tonight and it was basically the first she’d eaten in two days. So glad she finally ate a bit – she looked miserable.
MissBarbie
@Avalune: Will she take her medicine in a small chunk of liverwurst?