The latest from commentor and kitten-wrangler Marc:
Eyes are open, but I don’t think they’re able to focus just yet. Miri is being a great mother to her kitts, but I must admit she seems to be eating more now than when she was pregnant. I chalk it up to feeding even bigger bodies than before – plus the energy needed to convert what she eats to something they can consume. She spends a little more time away from them, napping on top of the bed, but as I’ve said before, one peep from below, and she is back with them.
Today was moving day. My sources stated the kittens could be handled once their eyes were open, so I moved them into a temporary nest while I took care of the the original one. I had previously laid clean towels on top of the pink blanket Miri had birthed #2-5 on in the other box, and today I was able to retrieve the blanket and towels for a proper cleaning. The pink towel may not make it, but I’ll let the heavy duty detergent try to get it cat clean again. I had new bedding ready for the original nest, so they were only in the cardboard box for about five minutes – Miri supervised the operation, and once they were returned to their proper box, she began serving supper.
***********
Apart from appreciating life’s little miracles, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
SiubhanDuinne
Nothing sweeter than a big ole heap o’ kittens. They are going to start exploring and getting in all kind of mischief any day now, and I can’t wait for Marc’s photos and commentary when that happens.
Edit: but first, I’m going to try to get back to sleep for a few hours. This insomnia is ridiculous recently.
PurpleGirl
The kitts are adorable. Yes, Miri is eating more because it has to be turned into milk for them beside being food for her. Once they can eat solid food her needs will go down somewhat.
raven
The floor was installed yesterday. I felt badly that the dude worked from 10am to 8:30pm but I guess it had to be done because the tile work is to begin today. I can’t wait to see the floor in the daylight.
Oh, nice cats.
Major Major Major Major
Those cats are totes adorbs.
Other than planning brain surgery I figure I’ll let the manic part have one last hurrah.
karen marie
A vet told me once that cats tend to not drink enough water and recommended mixing some into canned food. My former Alice was very happy with soupy canned food. Perhaps you could slip some to mom as a little liquid booster. You are so lucky to have a litter to play with. It is a rare opportunity anymore to have such a thing in your life. I savor my memories of several litters borne by cats we had when I was much, much younger, when spaying and neutering wasn’t done with the diligence generally shown now.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
If you told us your diagnosis I missed it, sorry. Brain surgery?!? Whats up?
PurpleGirl
@karen marie: If you followed any of the kitten cams run by cat/kitten rescues you wouldn’t think that spay/neutering is done diligently. It’s the tail end of a kitten season right now and there are still a lot of cats/kittens not getting help. People are still not caring for their cats and still abandoning them when they get preggers.
Miri is lucky to have found Marc, who was willing to care for her and her babies.
Schlemazel
I’d love to have a litter to watch but the world does not need more cats than it already won’tcare for. OUrs have always been fixed & unless one plops itself on our door step already knocked up always will be. So cute & cuddly, thanks for sharing.
I have a fight with my boss coming up. I was promised a chance to try out for a better job (most of ‘better’ being not having to work for the dingbat I am going to have words with today) but Boss-boy didn’t bother to make it happen. It would have simply been filing a one page doc but he didn’t do it because he is so incompetent that he can’t afford to let the couple of people who do all the work go.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: I must have sounded very harsh with my comment. Several million dogs/puppies and cats/kittens are killed each year because of pet over-population. It’s an international problem. And a sad one because all these critters are cute and adorable and deserve to have loving homes.
ETA: Again, Marc is a great guy to take Miri in and provide a place to have her kittens and to care for them. I don’t want to take away from what he has done.
Schlemazel
@PurpleGirl:
No, you sounded about right. One interesting note here in Minneapolis though. The local shelter has to import dogs from around the country because they can’t meet the demand for adoptions. Cats . . . well I am glad I don’t volunteer there any more, I had an ugly scene with a guy that dumped a load of kittens on us & said he wanted his kids to see the miracle of birth, At the time I had just finished picking ‘the room’ and was not in the mood so I offered to take his kids back & show them the miracle of death that awaited his kittens.
Mustang Bobby
Adorable kitties!
Back to work this morning after a scare on Friday about Erika that ended up dissipating and becoming a really good lightning and thunder show early Sunday morning. When I went out to get the paper on Sunday I was greeted by this, so I decided to skip going sailing. Easy choice since I sold my sailboat in 1978.
Amir Khalid
The babies are adorable. Do they have names yet?
Another Holocene Human
I must said, I greatly admire the naming of this cat.
PurpleGirl
@Schlemazel: There is shelter volunteer outside of Vancouver (CA) who has a cam. Shelly shows the birth of kittens on the cam and tells people that if they want their children to “see the miracle of birth” they should tune into the cam. She’s had something like 4 or 5 births on cam now. The rescuer in CT who I know has taken kittens and a few older cats from a shelter in northern Alabama — she can find them homes in the greater CT area.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: Screw up and move up. Your mistake is being competent.
TriassicSands
Nothing cuter than a pile-o’-kittens.
However, shouldn’t there be a disclaimer that: “No kittens were injured in the making of these photographs.”
(Of course, if cats wrote the disclaimer it would read more like: “No felines of any size or age were inconvenienced to even the slightest degree in he making of these photographs. However, unless there are signed model release forms, legal action will be forthcoming.” (Thank goodness cats can’t write.)
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, I started sending out resumes this weekend. It was actually a good gig & I was getting stuff done, I am going to miss it. My boss has never wanted to be a boss and only took the job because ot title & money. He was on the verge of getting fired when we got hacked very publicly and his bosses all were moved on. The new management thinks they can now make this guy do his job (I expect they be stunned in 6 months when they learn he really can’t – he is a nice guy guy not a but not a boss, he is afraid of confrontation & all the other managers in departments we have to deal with bully and/or ignore him & he hides in his office rather than deal with it).
I have had this new job I was promised a ‘detail’ in on my radar for a year & would have gotten it but now that the boss is under the gun he is afraid to let anyone leave even for a couple of months. The problem for him is I am good at what I do and can easily find something outside this place so he loses me either way. Had I stayed inside he could have at least asked me to help my replacement, if I do go outside thats not an option anymore.
bystander
Looks as if Our Uppity President is changing the name of Mt. McKinley back to Denali, evidently to appease the original illegal immigrants. Dems, you can kiss Ohio goodbye.
JPL
The kittens are so big! Next week you’ll have to round them up, just to take a picture.
@Major Major Major Major: When’s your appt.?
BillinGlendaleCA
More fun with panoramas: Korean DMZ.
Another Holocene Human
OT: dunno if any front-pagers are paying attention, but “east is east”, a regular, infrequent handle I never took any notice of before, was shitting up the thread last night, sounding EXACTLY like Beetlejuicebeetlejuicebeetlejuice, if you know what I mean.
Redshirt attempted to bait him by asking him if he liked music, but he dodged.
Just right out of the gate with a personal attack, then followed by creepy comments, ohne majuscules.
OzarkHillbilly
So I went to the Festival of Nations yesterday. My favorite part of this festival is the food. Growing up, my mother tried making everything, and we kids had to try it, if we didn’t like it, that was OK. We could go to bed hungry. I learned earl on that there is a lot more to food than looks and my eating habits became adventurous, to say the least. Anyway, at the FoN you can travel the world just walking along food row. Yesterday I went to Eritrea, Senegal, Afghanistan, Greece, and of course Mexico. I almost went to Bosnia, but realized I can go there
any time I want in south STL.
So here is all this food from the Phlilpines to Nigeria to Nepal to Peru to Poland to Thailand to…. Guess which food booth had the longest lines. Go ahead, I’ll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don’t count.
Shakezula
Looks like one is already planning to make a break for it.
My only advice is to start kitten-proofing your home now and then review your safety measures on a regular basis. Even if you’re keeping them in one room, they’re escape artists and can get into spaces you wouldn’t think could hold a golf ball.
Good luck!
@Purplegirl – I understand where you’re coming from. I live in a college town and … GRRRRR. I’d like to take people who dump their cats and dump them in the middle of nowhere. That big brain and those opposable thumbs will allow them to survive, right?
This week features work, about which I’ve become alarmingly disinterested. It came on suddenly and really sucks. (I’ve lost that loooooving feeeeeling…)
BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Holocene Human: Are you thinking ‘east is east’ wears petite footware? No, that’s not him.
Iowa Old Lady
@raven: Sounds like the remodel is moving along.
Another Holocene Human
@bystander: I get the feeling the wingnuts crying on twitter last night had to google McKinley.
Or more like, they didn’t bother, they took their marching orders from Twitchy. And… done.
Another Holocene Human
@BillinGlendaleCA: Must be channeling his essence, like when Kirk channeled Sargon.
Kay
Here’s nationally-known political pundit Frank Bruni promoting John Kasich:
Wrong. Incorrect. He could not have done any research on John Kasich’s record in Ohio and written that.
If Kasich signs this latest abortion regulation, it will be the fourteenth new abortion regulation he has both promoted and signed. I know they’re just repeating a narrative, but they could find any of this out by searching any large Ohio newspaper online.
Joy
Thanks for the pics. Put a big smile on my face first thing in the morning. No better way to start the day but by gazing on sweet little kittens (or puppies)!
debbie
@Kay:
Kasich’s the sneaky kind of cultural warrior. All smiles while he’s wedging his foot in your front door. John Husted’s another one for that — al boyish smiles while manipulating the hell out of election laws.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Prefinished?
Kay
@debbie:
I knew the “socially liberal, economically conservative” crowd would need a hero. I guess Kasich is the only possible candidate who fits the bill, so they’re just going to jam him into that slot.
We’ll just add it to the long list of things Bruni knows nothing about yet announces as fact. His other theme is “excellence”, incidentally. He’s an “excellence!” scold. Apparently doesn’t apply to his own work.
SuperHrefna
@Joy: Me too, what a gorgeous little feline family.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Nope. We still have the trim, doors, painting, hcav duct hookup, exterior siding and some lighting. On the upside we’re entering the 6th week of the 3 week kitchen remodel and the bead board ceiling that we saved looks great!
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/678/21031628295_3d970abb4d_b.jpg
Baud
@Kay:
Abortion doesn’t count. Bruni is a dude.
Peale
@Kay: Kaisch-the guy who is so tolerant of other people’s music choices that he made a point in his bio to tell a story about listening to rap music ONE time and becoming do angry that he through the CD out his car window…yeah. Sounds like something a social liberal would do.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: I thought he was asking if the floor was pre-finished.
We put in maple, unfinished, when we did our kitchen. Very happy with it.
JPL
@raven: The ceiling looks great.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Bruni is a restaurant reviewer who got Peter Principled up into an op-ed page column.
debbie
@JPL:
I have no idea as to the original purpose of bead board, but I love its look.
raven
@JPL: Yea, the dude worked on it for 3 days and I think he’s still got some to go. Very meticulous.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I don’t know if it’s the same guy, but I think he’s the one that Rachel would invite on her show when they wanted to talk about how Obama wasn’t good enough about something.
If that’s his schtick, I can see why the NYT promoted him.
gvg
New look is interesting. Tiny font for me though. Looking on desktop.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I meant the floor, is it prefinished or do they have to sand and finish it in place? (love the look of the latter, but hate the inevitable dust of sanding- not as bad as one might expect, but still far worse than no sanding at all)
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Looking good on that ceiling.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Just looks and ease of install w/o nails showing.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ah, thanks.
Bobby Thomson
@Kay: Bruni’s just doing his assignment: To whitewash Kasich as he did for Junior Bush.
Bobby Thomson
@Kay: somewhere, Pataki weeps silent, manly tears.
Kristine
Morning coffee and kittens–great way to wake up!
Thanks.
Punchy
Is there any better confirmation of the existence of Cleek’s Law than this?
WereBear
Ooooooo KITTENS!
I want the marmalade tabby. I can already tell that one is headstrong.
rikyrah
they are ADORABLE!!
burnspbesq
Remember Klayman v. Obama, the case in which a nutbag wingnut “public interest lawyer” challenged the bulk collection of telephone metadata, and got a district judge to write a fire-breathing opinion that made him a hero to the usual suspects?
Yeah, well … vacated and remanded by the D.C. Circuit, primarily on standing, and preliminary injunction lifted. A dissenting judge said the case should have been dismissed outright. On one quick read, seems pretty obviously correct.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dc-circuit-overturns-ruling-against-nsa-bulk-collection-program/2015/08/28/d91c1876-4d92-11e5-84df-923b3ef1a64b_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_daily202
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I knew what you meant, the flooring is unfinished and after all the other stuff the sanding is just part of the deal. The sheet rocking was way less nasty than predicted.
rikyrah
I understand the premise….
………………….
Where Black Lives Matter Began
Hurricane Katrina exposed our nation’s amazing tolerance for black pain.
By Jamelle Bouie
On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, in 2010, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu preached unity. “With the rising water, differences and divisions were washed away,” he said, asking the audience to listen to each other, and embrace their common aspirations. “We will hear and we will learn the beautiful truth that Katrina taught us all,” he declared, “We are all the same.”
With this, Landrieu invoked our national memory of the hurricane—a catastrophe that devastated New Orleans for all of its residents. In his own address on the fifth anniversary, President Obama struck a similar tone, with a message of rebuilding and harmony. “Five years ago we saw men and women risking their own safety to save strangers. We saw nurses staying behind to care for the sick and the injured. We saw families coming home to clean up and rebuild—not just their own homes, but their neighbors’ homes, as well.”
………………………….
But there’s a problem with this capsule summary of Katrina and its place in national memory. It assumes a singular public of “Americans” who understand events in broadly similar ways. This public doesn’t exist. Instead, in the United States, we have multiple publics defined by a constellation of different boundaries: Geographic, religious, economic, ethnic, and racial. With regards to race, we have two dominant publics: A white one and a black one. Each of them saw Katrina in competing, mutually exclusive ways. And the disaster still haunts black political consciousness in ways that most white Americans have never been able to acknowledge.
White Americans saw the storm and its aftermath as a case of bad luck and unprecedented incompetence that spread its pain across the Gulf Coast regardless of race. This is the narrative you see in Landrieu’s words and, to some extent, Obama’s as well. To black Americans, however, this wasn’t an equal opportunity disaster. To them, it was confirmation of America’s indifference to black life. “We have an amazing tolerance for black pain,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson in an interview after the storm. Rev. Al Sharpton, also echoed the mood among many black Americans: “I feel that, if it was in another area, with another economic strata and racial makeup, that President Bush would have run out of Crawford a lot quicker and FEMA would have found its way in a lot sooner.” Even more blunt was rapper Kanye West, who famously told a live national television audience that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/08/hurricane_katrina_10th_anniversary_how_the_black_lives_matter_movement_was.html
Shana
My day: laundry, laundry, laundry. Followed by yelling at the hotel my daughter stayed in over the weekend in NYC for substandard issues; elevators, dirty room, bulbs out, TV didn’t work, etc. It was a graduation present to her which included tickets to Fun Home, which she loved. BF went with her and enjoyed NYC for his first visit ever. Now they’re off changing his address, getting a new drivers license so he can apply for a job here. She starts her paying job this week followed by her year-long internship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum next week. It’ll be lovely having her home again but will be an adjustment after 4 years at college with only summer visits (and holidays).
Kittens are adorable. When I was a kid we had one cat we let have a litter before spaying. We found good homes for all the kittens though. Ahh the days when you could put an ad in the paper offering free kittens and just wait for the hordes to descend.
Cluttered Mind
Haven’t seen this brought up yet, so…
Glenn Kessler really outdid himself this time. Either Kessler is much, much dumber than we ever thought possible, or someone in the Post leadership ordered him to do this to smear Bernie Sanders. I don’t see a third explanation for this.
Iowa Old Lady
I love Sanders, but on several sites, one of his ads drags me to watch it, no matter where I am on the page. It just happened on Raw Story.
gogol's wife
@Gin & Tonic:
No, before he was a restaurant reviewer he was having a beer with Dubya. We have him to thank for the “likability” of GWB.
Bobby Thomson
@Cluttered Mind: you’d be surprised how many people continue to argue the point. Hitler becoming Chancellor in a back room deal is like Al Gore inventing the Internet.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Another Holocene Human:
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m still convinced that commenter is our old troll pal Timmeh, but he had been behaving himself lately, so I left him alone. I guess trolls gotta troll, and the urge just became too hard to resist.
Cluttered Mind
@Bobby Thomson: As much as I wish you were right, I really don’t think I’d be surprised. There is no argument too dumb to be angrily and vehemently defended by large numbers of people.
rikyrah
Uh Huh
Uh Huh
You only need a HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA TO BECOME A JUDGE OF ANY KIND?
WHAT DA PHUQ!?!?!?!?
…………
Whites Quit Working With Black Mississippi Judge, Then He Got Sacked
Rickey Thompson started a drug court to start treating offenders and stop imprisoning them. Then he says officials quit sending him offenders altogether.
A black judge in Mississippi claims he was removed from office following years of resistance from a mostly white legal system to his push to treat drug offenders instead of imprisoning them.
Justice Court Judge Rickey Thompson of Lee County—named for Confederate general Robert E. Lee—is the first and only black judge in the county’s 149-year history. In May, the Mississippi Supreme Court removed him from the post that he’s held since 2004 over a slew of misconduct allegations.
“It came to the point where they couldn’t beat me at the ballot, so they had to find another direction,” he said.
Thompson said the sheriff quit sending him suspects and fellow judges quit sending the accused to his drug court. Warrants he signed for the sheriff’s department went unserved. A bailiff even once refused to open his court.
Officially, Thompson was found by Mississippi’s highest court to have violated several rules, including what amounts to making clerical errors like using the wrong form when filing paperwork. That should not be surprising given Mississippi requires only a high school diploma to be a justice court judge. (Thompson, a registered nurse with an associate degree, has more education than that of his fellow justice court magistrates.)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/30/whites-quit-working-with-black-mississippi-judge-then-he-got-sacked.html
Paul in KY
@Schlemazel: You work at Ashley Madison!?!?
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: Gonna have LouFest in a couple of weeks. Very nice 2 day festival. If you go to only 1 day, recommend Sunday. Great lineup on that day.
Amir Khalid
@bystander:
maybe President Obama should appease Ohioans by naming some other natural feature after McKinley Morganfield.
rikyrah
now, this is a quote
Jeb wouldn’t even stand up for his wife, when she was insulted.
He’s so used to everyone getting out of his way because his last name is Bush…he’s not used to dealing with someone who doesn’t give a phuck what his last name is.
Jeb believes he’s ENTITLED to be President.
And, if there had been just ONE of the Clown Car in 2012 that could match Willard’s resources, Willard never would have made it to the nomination.
My money’s still on the Establishment getting Jeb the nomination…but, I’m wondering how.
Trump better up his protection.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
He did, in the end; but it took him two weeks to work up the courage.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: You think the Deep South is bad, you should read about the kangaroo courts in Upstate New York.
Well, MS, go on being corrupt as hell. Compassion, can’t have that. Private prisons need a new pair of shoes.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
Nuff said.
Diana
oooo…KITTEHS…..
thank you so much for Miri and her kittens.
For the next few months they’re only going to get cuter, so please keep posting pics…
karen marie
@PurpleGirl: Agreed. In my personal circle, however, there have been no kittens in decades. I am of course aware of the wider world and the circs of this litter.
Citizen Scientist
@Schlemazel: You are awesome.
Great to see Miri and her kitties doing well.
Also, great to hear from Sooner Grunt. Take care brother
satby
@Schlemazel: just had to say been there and said that.I really am past caring what anyone thinks of how mean I am, I tell them it’s pretty mean to produce babies that are going to have to be killed.