Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger bed:
That bed was A.) made and B.) is queen size. I don’t think he mussed it all by himself, as that looks like Thurston’s handiwork because three pillows are on the damned floor.
by John Cole| 22 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging
Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger bed:
That bed was A.) made and B.) is queen size. I don’t think he mussed it all by himself, as that looks like Thurston’s handiwork because three pillows are on the damned floor.
by TaMara| 196 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Open Threads
Bixby and Bailey looking like they’ve stuffed one of the cats in the toy box and are trying to hide it. Bailey had her first nail trim and a weigh-in this week. She’s 109 lbs. That’s up 17 lbs since she arrived. She’s still skin and bones – just taller and broader. I had to loosen her collar last week and her head is beginning to broaden. There’s a full puppy update here.
We saw Sing yesterday and it was perfect escapism, which is how I’m coping these days. Complete denial.
Should I repost the Woman’s March meet-up thread, or has everyone already made their arrangements? I’m happy to do it if necessary.
There won’t be a recipe thread tonight (really was anyone expecting one, LOL) even though Adam taunted me with the this:
Time to put your body through Bell. Following two years of testing, Jan. 26 will see the nationwide release of the “naked chicken chalupa” — a new Taco Bell menu option that replaces the item’s traditional fried flatbread shell with fried chicken.
Just evil.
This is your mid-day open thread.
by John Cole| 83 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging
One week to Operation Move All the Shit You Own commences.
We’re relaxing until then.
by John Cole| 91 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging
This is what happens when you oversleep in the Cole household:
No two vocalizations are the same with this guy, and I bet he could go on like that for hours, but I’m afraid to test that theory.
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Domestic Politics, Sports
Alabama vs. Clemson — the rematch. Should be a good game. Roll Tide, I guess.
More importantly, our dear Patsy Marie is recovering from minor surgery:
She’s okay. She’s a lumpy dog, and when lumps pop up, we have them removed (at great expense). Luckily, they’ve all been benign.
Poor thing is whiny and clingy. We took the Cone of Shame off. Considering putting it on the other dog!
Open thread!
College Football National Championship (Open Thread)Post + Comments (52)
by Hillary Rettig| 21 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Faunasphere, Nature, Open Threads
Sorry for the lack of recent Faunaspheres. I’d have to say that most vegans and animal rights activists are as bummed by the recent election as everyone else, so not a lot of action recently. But I’ve written here before of the tragic life of Tilikum, the orca who endured a terrible decades-long captivity in cruel conditions at SeaWorld, and was responsible for three human deaths (at least one of which SeaWorld tried to cover up, and the last of which they tried to pin on the trainer).
His death was announced yesterday. Despite all the “care” he supposedly got at SeaWorld, he was 36, well on the short end of what would have been his natural lifespan.
A drooping dorsal fin, bite scars from hostile orcas he had been caged with when young, and ruined teeth from chewing on his enclosures testified to his decades of mental and physical misery.
His story was immortalized in Blackfish, which is streaming on Netflix and Amazon.
RIP poor Tilikum. I hope you’re finally swimming free with your pod.
Also, ICYMI, Rolling Stone just published an amazing expose of evil puppy mills. (Warning–the text and photos are both hard to take.) I won’t quote it because I know many of you are already familiar with (and properly enraged by) the issues. (But please read it!) But notice this: “We have millions of dogs on our streets, put down two million of them every year – and impose no limits on the number of dogs millers can breed. In England, by contrast, you need a license to breed even a single dog – and only 5,000 were euthanized in 2015.”
What do Tilikum’s story and the puppy mill story have in common? The degradation of animal “husbandry.” Tilikum was valuable as a breeding stud–the movie shows the trainers masturbating him and collecting the semen, which SeaWorld sold–and so are the puppy mill dogs. (Until they’re not, when they’re pretty much discarded.) He and the dogs suffered because their breeders treated them the way we treat most “useful” animals (cows, pigs, etc.)–stuck in tiny cages, given just enough care to serve our purposes but never enough for them to have decent lives.
Captivity sucks.
There has been good news:
Last year, SeaWorld bowed to decades of pressure and announced that it would no longer breed orcas and would phase out orca performances. (Virtual reality is cheaper / easier than maintaining live orcas, anyway!) In the meantime, many other orcas remained enslaved in the “entertainment industry.”
Also, this year Boston joined more than 120 other municipalities to ban pet stores from selling commercially-bred dogs.
Although many poor dogs remain stuck in mills.
(And, just to remind you: the good folks at TripAdvisor said they would remove many “animal attractions” from the site’s listings.)
Faunasphere: RIP Tilikum (and puppy mill dogs)Post + Comments (21)
This post is in: Cat Blogging, John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House", Open Threads
Finally got tired of the lazy bastards doing nothing all day so I rousted them, and it looks like when Steve does not get enough sleep he puts on his ears sideways:
He’s so beautiful I sometimes just sit and stare at him.
Also, we salvaged the front door and painted it:
Plumber comes to do final hookups next week.
Here’s Another Open Thread Because Politics SucksPost + Comments (127)