Remember little Ninnie, in Philadephia? Here’s an update from the lucky commentor who offered him a forever home, Shazza:
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to give you an update on that adorable black kitten that Anne posted last month. Well we met the lady who took care of the kitty at our vet where Smokey got checked out. He was too young (though the vet wasn’t sure his age) so we took him home, keeping him away from our other 3. We went back last Friday where he got his first vaccinations and tested negative for FLV-yay! We’re now trying to get the kitties used to him (cuz he has NO problem running up to them to play only to get hissed at). He is adorable, fearless and such a bundle of energy. In other words, typical kitten.His eyes are turning green now but his ears are still folded. He’s such a sweetie too. We met Carla at the vet that day and she was sad to see him go. But I had her friend me on Facebook where I’ve posted pics of him. I figure it’ll be around Christmas when we get him fixed. Hopefully by then, my other kitties will have accepted him as a little brother. :)
***********
Just after I got Shazza’s email, I heard from another commentor with an update on her rescue cat. It’s been some time since I ran any Early Morning Pet Posts, and I think we can all use some happy news right now. So… email me your best pet pics / brags (click on my name in the right-hand column, or use annelaurie (at) verizon (dot) net) and I’ll queue them up.
Starting on Monday, with Anna Maria’s charming Pita…
Botsplainer
Slipped into the back of the house with the wife after dinner last night. Unfortunately, we left the butter dish out on the dining table and there was at least half a stick left.
Leo the Tervuren made short work of that. Also unlatched the kitchen trash lid and scored a chicken carcass.
It was a red letter day for him.
OzarkHillbilly
Isis militants blow up Jonah’s tomb
I feel sick.
OzarkHillbilly
Really.
Following the attack a trail of bloody footprints could be seen crossing the deserted playground, which was littered with abandoned possessions. There were pools of blood both inside and outside the school building; more blood was splashed over wooden school desks.
OzarkHillbilly
Oh wait a minutes…. kittens…..
raven
Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news:
There’s a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose.
The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today.
And there’s bombs a’flying and people dying not so far away.
raven
You have a problem with pets?
Botsplainer
It’s good to be the Czar of Holy Mother Russia.
In a story about how Putin’s daughter had to flee her tony Dutch flat due to local anger, there was this surprising nugget:
Somehow, I have my doubts that a KGB pension and his official presidential pay allowed that sort of wealth to accumulate. I’m looking for a word to describe how such things could happen, but am struggling to come up with it….
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Ignorant absolutists, and the beat goes on.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Botsplainer: I guess the KGB paid better than we thought.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I love Iris. Always. Her voice pulls on the strings of my heart.
OzarkHillbilly
Nothing good ever lasts.
Tommy
My cat, well took her in as a kitten. Feral. There were these kids throwing her into a inflatable swimming pool. I feared she’d die. I took her home. It took me weeks to be able to touch her. I kept her in a room in my house and if I tried to touch her she ran into walls panicked. I’d sit in the room with her for hours just so she got used to me. Leave a shirt she could smell. Eventually she learned to like me. Now folks come to my house and are stunned my cat and I are so close. It is rare she is anymore then a few feet away from me. I literally don’t know what I’d do if my cat wasn’t around ……….
Baud
@Botsplainer:
To be fair, Putin doesn’t have to spend as much money on shirts as the rest of us.
BillinGlendaleCA
I got a film scanner, and have been scanning my slides/negatives.
California state capitol in Jerry Brown’s first year as Governor.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I love the sidebars of YouTube. Your link got me to Alison Krauss with a click or two. If you knew me you’d laugh if I listened to her. Think it not possible. You would be mistaken. I think she has a voice given from the gods.
Baud
Real WaPo story (via Reddit)
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: My father just got one and can’t stop scanning in pics. Also got a good printer. My family is clearly a bunch of photo bugs. My father was over earlier this week and he just dropped all these photos on my table. Didn’t say a word about them. One of them, him as a cadet at like 14 at his military high school with my great grandmother next to him. It went into a picture frame really quickly.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Too bad they lost control and don’t have video. Or maybe they do and that’s how Putin got his 40 billion.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy:
Walk without tripping?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I scanned everything on an epson scanner about 10 years ago. The resolution was pretty bad. I really needed better. Also, I was a photo bug as a teen so…
ETA: Jerry Brown’s first year as out Gov was 1975.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: If I pulled out my scanner it would be about a 10 year old Espon. My dad is just all on this scanning of photos.
My two favorites. My mom on her first date with my father:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/8114170277/b
My great, great grandfather tooling around NYC about 1916:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/7215324774/
WereBear
Sounds like the first line of a potentially great novel.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: first linky no worky
Suffern ACE
@Botsplainer: just shows you how poorly we treat our officials. I bet when Putin retires, he doesn’t have to give a single speech to the Aspen institute to get by.
Bart
Can’t one of the FP’ers please fix https://balloon-juice.com/2014/07/24/more-candy-2/ ? That way the homepage isn’t borked anymore. I’ve put a possible solution in my comment: https://balloon-juice.com/2014/07/24/more-candy-2/#comment-5065395
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I have one slide that I haven’t rescanned; with me, my dad, and my grandfather. We all shared the same name, so it’s senior, junior and the III.
Punchy
So we’ve lost DougJ and Cole. Have we lost Mistermix too?
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Try this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/5357113885/
That pic was taken in a ’57 Ford Thunderbird. He traced that car down in TX and bought it. Told my mom he loves her when he gave it to her!
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: I totally understand. There is a III at the end of my name. When my grandmother was still around she’d call us Tommy I, Tommy II, and Tommy III so we knew who she was talking to.It is less of a thing today.
OzarkHillbilly
@Punchy: We haven’t “lost” them, they’re just temporarily misplaced.
Betty Cracker
@Bart: Looks like AL is working on it. Thanks for offering a fix. The home page wasn’t messed up for me (Chrome on laptop,iPhone and iPad), though the font was smaller after the YouTube. Guess it depends on the browser / platform?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: from the Guardian, The Photon-M satellite and its reptile crew will probably be lost and fall from orbit in a few months unless specialists can re-establish communications with it,
Great, just great. Now I have to worry about falling geckos too?
Anne Laurie
@Betty Cracker: Well, I’m on Pale Moon (Firefox analog) and on the home page, the sidebars had disappeared. So I took the liberty of re-loading TomL’s YouTube embed, and it looks better for me, now…
Fixed for you, Bart?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I think my mom called my grandfather dad, my dad was Bill and I was Billy. Only my wife calls me that now.
Suffern ACE
@OzarkHillbilly: frankly, I hope they mutate after passing through some cosmic rays. I for one will welcome our new gecko overlords.
Betty Cracker
@Anne Laurie: The font looks normal in my browser now, so I bet that did the trick. Sheesh. No wonder web developers always look so harried!
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Are you saying that you weren’t worrying about falling geckos before now?
jayboat
@Suffern ACE:
Ain’t got no time for that. If my cat sees ’em he will bite dey heads right off.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Suffern ACE: They’d certainly be an improvement of the current House leadership.
Baud
Have we designated an alternative site to rally to in case Balloon Juice goes full on blue screen of death of on us?
jayboat
@Tommy:
Those youtube sidebars suck me in every time. More than once responsible for altering the direction of my entire day.
It has to be an insidious soshulist plot.
Nice shot of your mom, got any of the tbird? 8-]
Always enjoy looking through a BJer’s pix, now I can put a face with the nym.
raven
@Baud: When, not if.
Baud
This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
amk
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wasn’t wanna be prezinent mcangry palling around with these isis terrists?
OzarkHillbilly
@Suffern ACE: You think they will be better than the old gecko overlords?
WaterGirl
@raven: What a great photo! Love the head tilt. Also love the front of the house!
raven
I downloaded the beta of Yosemite, icons look like IOS now.
WaterGirl
@Bart: I really appreciate that you took the time to look into that and offer a solution.
raven
@WaterGirl: He’s a knucklehead!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
it’s the Taliban all over again.
OzarkHillbilly
@amk: No, dat was dose isil terrierists.
WaterGirl
@jayboat:
But will he nibble on they tiny feet?
WaterGirl
@raven: That comes across in the photo, that’s part of what’s great about it.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Whadya expect? He’s at least half lab. (I call em boneheads because of the know at the back of the head) They are lovable and as dumb as a box of rocks.
WaterGirl
Great idea to bring back the early morning pet posts!
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: We had a dna test done for him. He dominant siberian husky and samoyed and, as much as I tease him, he’s smart as a whip!
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Here he is the day we found him nearly 10 years ago. Raven was not happy/
Suffern ACE
@Baud: Booman’s joint would work.
Baud
@raven:
I saw that picture before. It’s really great. Especially when you compare the baby picture with the grown up doggie. And Raven’s face is perfect.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly:
because of the KNOT on the back of the head, the KNOT…
Sarah
I emailed Annie Laurie about this but if the kitten adopter is reading the comments, please don’t wait until Christmas to neuter your cat! Sooner is better!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: That made me laugh! Ravens face says “WHY do you hate me so???”
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yea, many people here have heard my long drawn out story but the short version is that Bohdi, in some important ways, was critical in us finding out Raven had cancer. Bohdi tormented him but he really helped keep his spirits up through an agonizing fight.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Except labs are in the top 10 smartest dogs!! I know I was shocked but I think the problem is that the stomach frequently overrules the brain.
OzarkHillbilly
The date of 23 July 2012 could have been the day the lights went out, along with suddenly not-so-smart phones, computers, satellite transmissions, GPS navigation systems, televisions, radio broadcasts, hospital equipment, electric pumps and water supplies.
And with that cheery thought, i bid you all, Adieu.
WaterGirl
@raven: I remembered that photo but I had to look at it again anyway. What a look! Raven is distinctly unhappy and has no idea of the happy days ahead with the clueless new pup, who won’t be little for long.
In my book, knucklehead is a term of endearment.
WaterGirl
@Baud: @Suffern ACE:
That’s an excellent idea! I remember when Al Giordano’s came down because of a dispute with the host and then moved elsewhere. Some people were lost in the wilderness for quite awhile.
Booman’s it is, unless someone comes up with something better.
raven
@WaterGirl: He knew the Bohdi was going to steal his ball!
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: They are… and they aren’t. Fast learners that continue to do the same dumb things time after time after time. My lab loves to chase the frisbee but he has never learned to look and see where I throw it. He always goes where he thinks I am going to throw it and waits. Sometimes just to mess with him I will throw it in a different direction. It can take him as much as 5 minutes to find it, but he always does.
One thing he has learned tho: Mama throws like a girl. If she goes out to throw it for him, after 2 or 3 tosses he just ignores her and brings it to me.
@raven: some dogs have that effect on everybody.
WaterGirl
@raven: My cockers have all been ball fiends!
raven
@WaterGirl: Lil Bit is the first dog I’ve had that is not interested at all. It may be her poor vision or the fact that the bohdi would kick her ass.
Karen in GA
@raven: Ha!
big ole hound
@OzarkHillbilly: Dogs are very strange. I’ve got a Setter/ Golden mix that is wonderful to be around except he won’t fetch or hunt. I guess the breeder was looking for the ultimate hunting dog but the wrong genes popped up on this pup and he got the ultimate “buddy”.
Karen in GA
@Suffern ACE: Just not that Geico spokeslizard. I hope he burns.
raven
@big ole hound: Irish or English?
MomSense
@big ole hound:
I’ve got one like that. We call him the Labrador Receiver. He’ll go get it but he won’t bring it back.
raven
@MomSense: see, knucklehead!
beth
@MomSense: That’s hysterical – we call ours the Labrador Deceiver because she’ll retrieve the ball, run back to you and just as you go to grab the ball she’ll take off and make you chase her to get it. She never ceases to amaze us with both how smart she is and how downright dumb she can be, sometimes within the same minute.
raven
@beth: What if you turn your back, will she drop it? I can lie on the couch and snap my fingers and Bohdi will bring it and put in right in front of my face.
Paul in KY
@Tommy: Got some real nice quilts!
beth
@raven: I’ve tried turning and walking away but she’s too smart to fall for that. I’ve gone and sat on a bench at the dog park and she’ll bring the ball and nudge me with it. She just likes running around with us and that’s kinda the point of playing with her so I don’t mind too much.
Karen in GA
They solved the porcelain doll mystery. Turns out they were left by a woman from the same church who thought she was doing something nice. Because nice = creepy as all fuck.
Gin & Tonic
@beth: I had a roommate a long time ago with a Lab who wasn’t, shall we say, Mensa material. I think her only (unrequited) goal in life was to figure out how to get the refrigerator door open. She could sit and stare at it for an hour.
Punchy
Is this about your dog, or my kid? Can’t tell.
danielx
@Gin & Tonic:
What higher goal could there be?
Violet
@Karen in GA: Wonder if it was an older woman who is into dolls, so that’s why no charges will be filed. She truly thought she was being nice. Ugh. Creepy as hell.
big ole hound
@raven: Irish, so he is an 80 lb very red blur who can run all day, with some smarts and a great attitude. Banjo thinks the world is just for his pleasure. Best dog I have had in my 70+ years.
James Hare
Reminds me of our newest kitten. She’s a tortie and exactly the same — fearless and full of energy. Darn cat already has more nicknames than the other cats but my wife and I have settled on “little shit” (but in an affectionate way). The teenager loves her little kitten and she’s actually kept at cleaning the litter box more than 2 months into having her kitten.
big ole hound
@Violet: Actually, the old gal had an extensive, very old doll collection that no one wanted so she was giving them to all the families with little girls. A panic by today’s helicopter parents turned a nice gesture into a media story. Sad.
GregB
Much of the media seems to still be pimping the theory that theRepublican’s are getting ready to kick Democratic ass in November, yet polls keep showing formerly reliably safe R seats, especially in the Governorships, in serious jeopardy.
Latest has Suzanna Martinez in New Mexico now tied in her re-election campaign.
Brownbag in Kansas is tanking and Nathan Deal in Georgia is recently under water.
Yep, R’s getting battered in poll after poll but in the words of Charlie Sheen, they are winning!
raven
@big ole hound: Cool, I knew one named Fuego way back in the day. Wonderful critter.
bemused
Rightwingers are outraged that there is controversy over Koch brothers’ scholarship grant to UNCF. Even the rightwing editor of a small local newspaper had a rant about that. Did you know those Koch brothers pay a heckova lot of taxes to support the public good, provide a lot of jobs, paychecks and give a lot back to charities and help others? But ridiculous liberals contend it is tainted money.
Paul in KY
@big ole hound: It is sad. Wish the lady had rung the doorbell & given them the dolls personally. Too many people think they are living in some kind of horror movie if something unusual/unexpected happens to them.
Cacti
Heh heh,
Another Native American casino has canceled a Ted Nugent show after numerous complaints.
When you’re getting too toxic even for the casino circuit, your performing career is truly in its death throes.
Baud
@GregB:
The media did the same thing in 2012, and the polls were far less close.
bemused
@big ole hound:
I would have thought it very peculiar to find a doll on my doorstep and even more so to learn that many other neighbors with girls the same age had too. My first instinct would have been to throw it away not knowing where it came from and if it was unsafe in some way.
The lady may have had good intentions but was naive. I think it’s generally not the best idea to leave anonymous gifts on people’s doorsteps.
Violet
@big ole hound: Maybe. But if she wanted to give them to the girls, whose families she apparently knew through church, why not give them to them directly. It’s creepy to leave them on the porch.
big ole hound
@bemused: Your world is very full of suspicious things so note would have been nice. In my neck of the woods kind people leave stuff ( fresh veggies, books etc) on the stoop all the time if you are not home. Yes, they usually chat too but this old gal was very shy so she did not understand the modern lack of being a neighbor.
catclub
@Suffern ACE: And they will want him all the more.
shelley
In that top photo, the little kittie looks like he’s relaxing on a barbecue grill!
MomSense
@beth:
Oh man, my childhood dog was like that only he was a giant St. Bernard German Shepherd mix. He once got out and ran to the soccer tournament across the street. It was all the teams v. my dog. Went on for a loooong time. I was mortified.
Miki
My poodles all had more ball sense than my lab mixes had – including the rescue mini that graciously allows me to share a home with him. I never taught them to retrieve – they all figured it out on their own.
My Big Guy Mike was a water retrieving fool – not the fastest in the pond but could mark better than pretty much every dog at the park.
Miss him, still ….
Joy in FL
@Tommy:
That is so sweet– your patience and your kitty’s willingness to change.
libarbarian
Nice try.
That’s Poroshenko’s cat and the whole “rescue” is a CIA run False Flag Operation.
You got to get up pretty early in the morning to fool ME.
Steeplejack
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Their military-industrial complex was an even bigger pork-barrel ripoff than ours. That’s why we won! Who knew?
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: @Anne Laurie: I always said if I went into IT, I’d end up bald and drunk from pulling my hair out and trying to JUST MAKE IT STOP.
Yeah, I’m not sure becoming a writer made that much of a difference.
dmsilev
@Miki: My parents have had a series of standard poodles over the years. The first one would retrieve a ball once. If you then threw it a second time, he’d give a look that said “I went to all this trouble to bring it back to you, and you just throw it away. Screw that.” and go lie down. One of the later dogs liked to play fetch and eventually worked out how to play solitaire fetch for when nobody wanted to play with him. He’d take a tennis ball, go to the top of a flight of stairs, and drop the ball down the stairs. He’d then wait a few seconds and then go bounding after the ball. Repeat.
Smart dogs.
kc
Ninnie is adorable! Commenter WereBear has tips for introducing a new kitty to a household of cats at her blog, Way of Cats ( linked in the blogroll on the side)
bemused
@big ole hound:
I live in the country & folks call or leave a note when they want to share things. They think it’s impolite to leave people wondering who left the gift.
Paul in KY
@bemused: Agree that that’s how it is generally done & should be done.
Corner Stone
@bemused: There’s also the aspect of negating the parents’ role. I don’t consider it being a helicopter parent to determine what’s an appropriate gift and also who is an appropriate giver.
In this case it was a pretty doll.
Amir Khalid
One of my YouTube addictions is this channel, run by a lady in Michigan who has three of the most adorable girl Siberian huskies I’ve ever seen.
Corner Stone
If someone left a pretty doll on my doorstep I’d be reminded of the Travis McGee novel “The Lonely Silver Rain” and start wondering what offspring I had running around that I didn’t know about.
catclub
I just read this: http://prospect.org/article/how-did-gop-turn-such-bunch-clowns
I think he omits to mention that winning in 2010 means winning redistricting.
The GOP has been winning in state houses and the courts. They have also been winning in the extent they are forcing the Democrats to fight over voting rights and abortion rights. Some folks thought those battles were mostly in the past. Are they now?
I would also say they have been winning to the extent they have been driving democratic parties in red states to near extinction. Texas and Florida are now known for Democratic Parties that cannot field candidates for all statewide offices, as well as other general incompetence. Don’t ask about Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma.
They have been winning in moving the field of battle, and changing the terms of engagement.
He needed to limit it to national campaigns. Better yet, Presidential and Senate campaigns. Everything else is very much up for grabs.
Cckids
@raven: I always love that picture. That look! “What fresh hell is THIS?”
bemused
@Corner Stone:
This too.
Dee Loralei
YAY for Ninny and Shazza! He’s still so adorable. Love the folded ears.
WereBear
@kc: Thanks!
I created a page:
Adding a New Cat
WereBear
Sir Tristan took a MONTH to understand what it meant to have a kitten, but now he’s enjoying it very much!
Mithrandir becomes a Minion
Paul in KY
@Corner Stone: That’s because you are a drama wisher. I’d just think I got a free doll :-)
SatanicPanic
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s fucking horrible.
Villago Delenda Est
@OzarkHillbilly: Religious zealots of this type are simply barbarians, and should be dealt with accordingly. Same for those Taliban asswipes who blew up some reclining Buddhas in Afghanistan.
Villago Delenda Est
@libarbarian: Channeling BiP is not advised as residual prions might be left behind in you, with deleterious results.
Corner Stone
@Paul in KY: That’s because you are dramatically uncurious.
The last thing I suffer from anymore is drama.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: Is that one of those things designed to get a “Norman, coordinate!” response out of certain parties?
JCJ
@OzarkHillbilly:
Temporarily misplaced? Is that what happened to the mustard?
catclub
@shelley: That was my thought – or a xylophone with a variable resistor heatsink. Could not quite tell.
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
“There’s a dog on the pitch!”
Paul in KY
@Corner Stone: You have me pegged!
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
Awesome!!
Bart
Yup, everything looks okay now. Thank you!
I’m on Firefox, by the way. Saw no sidebars on the front page, they returned when visiting individual posts except the one that introduced the problem.
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
Way back in the More Innocent Time of the mid-1970s, my Halloween-loving mother would make homebaked cookies to give out on Halloween … but she included a little slip of paper with our name and address on it in each baggie. Because even in the Good Old Days, she knew parents would want to know who had been giving out homemade cookies.
So, yes, she probably should have included a note and signed her name at a minimum.
Shazza
@Sarah: Oh don’t worry, as soon as he’s able to be fixed we will! I just figured he should be at least 7 months old by Christmas. Thank you for using my pics, Annie!
Shazza
@shelley: That’s the pet carrier. One day he just climbed on top of it and decided that was his chillout place.
Raymond
@MomSense: Labs are very much one of the smartest dogs, I’m not sure if its that they just hide it well or their smarts are directed in goals which may not matter to us so we miss the point a lot of the time! If the goal of life is to be happy, eat a lot, and just hang out being cheerful then Labs have got the secret to life.