Shower Curtain Insanity!

And it's ONLY $11.99! How purrrrrfect is that??

Hee hee..but you ken see yer nekkidness if you hang it in yer showr!

Okay, perhaps the idea of spaying your pet isn't particularly a cheerful notion, but in fact, it is the number one most important thing you can do to help, not only your cat or dag live a better, longer, life, but it will help reduce the number of animals who are needlessly KILLED every year due to overcrowding in shelters.

If you want your kids to know about the cycle of life by seeing your cat or dog have a litter, then become a FOSTER family to kittens or puppies who are already born! Most, if not, all rescue groups need volunteers to help socialize, feed and love young animals and their Mom's while they're still to young to be adopted. Some of the offspring will be only a mere few days old. Speaking from experience, it is an amazing journey to watch these creatures grow and thrive and an honor to be part of their lives until they go to their forever homes.

Please, for the sake of all those suffering animals on death row at shelters, get your cat or dog spayed. If you can't afford it, there are MANY programs available to help offset costs across the country. It shouldn't be a burden to your wallet and the money you'll save in excess vet bills from having intact animals will surely be worth it.

Happy Spay Day!

Socks Clinton

1989—2009

It's important to me to show both sides of this story.

Below, I posted a link to a website about No Kill Shelters and their shocking revelation that HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) and AHS (Animal Humane Society of Minnesota) had both recently euthanized a large number of animals, for basically, no good reason.

I was particularly distressed about AHS.

When I was a little girl, I lived in Minnesota and we adopted two cats from AHS. One of them went on to win a contest called: The All-American Glamour Kitty Contest, which was sponsored by a Glamour Kitty Cat Litter. I was just 10 years old, at the time.

Needless to say, from that time onward, I always had a warm place in my heart for AHS. It was the first charity I ever donated money to and I never stopped donating. Last year, when I had my Last Will & Testament prepared, I decided to donate a portion of my ESTATE to AHS.

Today, I read this article about AHS "humanely euthanizing" 120 cats from a hoarding situation because some of the cats had: URI's (a COLD), some had herpes virus (a COLD-ish), FIV (NOT CONTAGIOUS unless through a deep, penetrating bite wound to another cat) and RINGWORM (ok, contagious to everyone, not fun to deal with or treat and the tests take two weeks to get a positive or negative hit).

For this, ALL the cats were KILLED.

I have a cat with FIV. It's NOT a big deal and my SIX other cats are JUSt FINE, thank you.

We had to deal with Ringworm in our tiny rescue group and we survived it. On a big scale, such as AHS had to deal with, it's a different story, BUT it shouldn't be the reason to just KILL THE CATS.

Same thing for URI's and Herpes---I heard that other rescue groups offered to help and even with that AHS didn't want to risk putting those cats into the population, Yet, if they got ONE cat that was sick with any of the above and it was deemed "adoptable" from an age and personality standpoint, they'd save it.

They also have an "open door" policy to take every animal in to the shelter, regardless of health or age or behavior issues. Then, THEY KILL THE ONES that don't make the cut. I'd like to know what lengths they go to to help out the animals or do they just pick the nice cute ones that are easy to move out and KILL all the rest without giving them any chance at all, then blame it on overcrowding, not enough funding or staff?

I really have a problem with what they did to those cats. Many of them could be ALIVE today and staring a new life with either a new family or at least getting well enough for that second chance.

Yes, it would have COST MONEY and COST HOURS and been DIFFICULT to manage, but it could have been done, it would have taught them better ways to manage this in the future and those animals would be ALIVE.

I'm not rich, but with any luck, my Estate will be worth a few bucks when I die. I certainly don't want any of that money to go to a place that claims to be so good to animals but who seems to just pick out the nice ones and dump the tough cases out with the trash.

HSUS & AHS!!!!

More rant in a bit...

Ugh...

I FINALLY got something to back up my gillions of gigabytes of data and for some reason, instead of taking a few HOURS to back up, it's taking A WEEK. I kid you not. I started it on Sunday, it's still going now and it won't be done for another day or more!!!!! I am FED UP, CRANKY, PISSED!

Until I have the backup done, I'm not going to be posting since I don't want to interfere with the backup.

Talk about annoying!!!!!! I have sooooo much to complain about, too!

Until I get my computer back, pop over to Twitter and visit me! Let me know how you're doing. How are your cats? Gracie is going back to Dr. Larry tomorrow. The jury is still out on if we have her allergic issues under control or not.

As for me, I went to the dentist for a cleaning 12 hours ago and my gums still ache and I found out I might end up losing a tooth-one that was crowned last year and which has NEVER been right, since.

AND, I just watched the most DREADFUL movie!!!!! Why did I watch the entire thing (if you count fast forwarding through the last 30 minutes, watching the WHOLE thing)? Don't bother watching Snow Angels. Yes, there's snow. Yes, if you believe in Angels, then there are a few characters who most likely become Angels during the movie. Other than that, it was DEPRESSING, BORING, SLOW, BORING, DEPRESSING, and SLOW.

Thank Goodness my TIVO grabbed Ghost Hunters International while the movie was playing. At least I have some quality entertainment to look forward to now.

Over and HMPF!

Can't get enough of my witty witticisms and crabby comments? You can now find me on Twitter!

Just visit me HERE

Look forward to Twittering with you soon!

This is Kitlynn, a 9 year old black short-haired cat and HIS friend, a giant stuffed bear.

Apparently, Kitlynn has not been particularly fond of the giant bear, since he came to live with Mary and Ryan awhile back. Kitlynn fought the good fight. He hissed, growled and challenged the stuffed intruder time and time again. He would not go near, sniff or touch said beast, until some time late last night when things suddenly changed forever!

The real reason for the change of heart will always be a mystery, but whatever it was, Kitlynn gave up his angry ways and decided it was better to have a snuggle and a nap instead of growl and snap. Ryan found Kitlynn relaxed and happy as can be, all comfy and warm on his new best pal.

We can all learn a lesson from little Kitlynn. Maybe we should look at our enemies as someone to snuggle up with and be friends? Maybe, at first, the idea will seem absurd, but over time we might end up being surprised at the results...or maybe we'll just get arrested for trying to snuggle with the Boss?

I get a newsletter about cat wellness issues. I had some down time at work yesterday, so I had a chance to read it (instead of reading it in the bathroom, if you catch my drift, well don't do that..you know what I mean).

I read "Letters to the Vet" section and it PISSED me off. First, was a letter from a couple with a cat who has diabetes AND skin allergies. They gave the cat PRED...why give it a steroid if it has Diabetes???? There is evidence that steroid use can cause a cat to get diabetes in the first place!

Secondly, the VET says "well, it just may be a problem (skin allergies) you'll have to deal with for a long time and it's doubtful the cat is allergic to the insulin and basically leave the cat on steroids."

Wait a minute...once again...what about asking WHAT IS THE CAT BEING FED??????

WHY DON'T VETS START WTIH ASKING THE OWNERS WHAT DIET THE CAT IS CURRENTLY ON? I have lived it, been there, fed it. This sick cat could possibly be helped by a DIET change that would not only help it's skin allergy problems, but with the diabetes management, as well.

WHY DON'T VETS INCLUDE NUTRITION as part of their animal wellness routine??? This newsletter is put together by VETS!!!!!!! Who is getting paid off to NOT talk about this issue???!

SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!!!!!!!

GRAIN FREE, GRAIN FREE, GRAIN FREE!

I will never tire of saying this. CATS ARE CARNIVORES. WHY ARE THEY BEING FED GRAIN THEY CAN"T DIGEST PROPERLY? I switched my cats over to grain-free and their health has improved dramatically. I even got Bob off insulin and is in remission for Diabetes!

GRAIN FREE!!!!!!!!!

You've got cats. You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't, right?

And, most likely, you LOVE your cats, don't you?

You may even put up with certain, err, annoying, irritating, painful, itchy, smelly and/or costly "inconveniences" associated with the loving of said cats. Again, am I right about this?

I'm pretty sure we're on the same page here.

So let's travel back in time 24 hours-ish or so. I'm in my queen sized bed with my king sized load of cats and humans. We're all either sleeping, licking ourselves clean or switching our tail back and forth as we wait for the perfect moment to attack one of the other sleeping/grooming forms and scare them off the bed because we have a territorial aggression problem. I will leave it up to you to decide which one of us is doing what.

I will give you a hint that at least I am SLEEPING.

Other than the hum of the oscillating space heater and Sam's snoring (ah ha! I gave you another hint: Sam is also asleep, so who is licking themselves?) there is peace throughout the house.

I'm not sure if this is when I'm dreaming about the man in the tuxedo holding out a wedding gown, that has been removed from a happy Bride. He offers it as a blessing, a giant Buddhist Kata to another woman in the room, who gleefully bows under the shelter of the glowing white fabric. Then, the tuxedoed man walks over to me and holds out the Wedding Dress and I step back in fear. I do not want this dress. No, I do not. Please don't tell Sam about my dream. He proposed to me one year and seven months ago. I'm not sure he would be happy to hear this one.

...or it may have been the dream I had about the fire truck passing by the house. The ladder on the top of the truck hit the branches on a tree in my yard. Sparks flew and set the tree on fire. They kept on driving away, not seeing they had started a fire. I feared that my house would be fully engulfed in flames at any moment (and in real life, you should know that my neighbor's house burned so badly on Christmas Day that they have to tear the house down and build a new one!). Then, the firemen came back and had to LIFT my house UP to get under it to put the fire out! Everything in the house slid sideways. I could hear the pumping of the water through the hoses.

"Gulp, gulp, gulp."

Or was it???

I woke up too late. My house was not on fire. I wasn't sliding across the room because the house wasn't tipped on its' side. There were no hot firemen in my bedroom, ready to save me from harm. No.

It was Gracie.

She had just puked.

On my PILLOW.

NEXT TO MY FACE.

That "Gulping" sound was her stomach pumping up bodily fluids—which she decided needed to land by MY FACE. Did I mention it was NEAR MY FACE?

I knocked her off the bed, as I sat up in disgust, while she proceeded to do a traveling puke of inch long, matted hair ball bits, every few feet from the bedroom, down the hallway and onto the landing of the first floor.

So I woke Sam up and told him I had to turn on the light. He mumbled something about; "What now?!" and went back to sleep.

I looked down at my beloved pillow. The only pillow I can get a good night's sleep upon. The pillow that Sam accidently slept on and got all sweaty with man-smell, which I then had to air out for a week and boil in the washing machine before I could be reunited with it again. I honestly can't sleep on anything else. I've tried about 10 pillows, even one of those $150 Temperpadic things that made my neck muscles lock up and I woke up screaming my brains out from pain because I couldn't move my neck at ALL.

THAT Pillow.

That PILLOW with the long wet, creamy splash of Eau (err, EWWW) de Cat Blow on it. I dragged myself out of bed and got some paper towels and cleanser to take care of the multitude of messes. I blotted up the goop on my beloved pillow, but there was a stain. I faced the sad fact that I would have to really clean this pillow in the morning (it was already 3:15 AM, so technically it WAS morning, but I mean the REAL morning when it's after 8AM and normal people are awake) and, for now, my only option was to try to sleep on the back up pillow; the second string pillow that was okay to date once in awhile, but not one to make a lifetime commitment to.

I tried to sleep, but my neck was sore from the pillow being too mooshy and not supporting my fat head or weak neck, one of the two, or both. I finally got to sleep a few hours later, just before the alarm went off and I had to get up to go to work.

In the haze of the new dawn, I reluctantly and stiffly got out of bed, showered, slapped on makeup, dressed and went off to work. Sam, as usual, got up, showered and made the bed, not remembering what had happened a few hours before. He MADE THE BED. He MADE THE BED with my CAT-PUKED-ON-PILLOW, still damp and gooey. He just didn't notice, I guess and left it in its' proper place—stacked neatly and erectly right there in front of the two other pillows on my side of the bed.

When I got home that night, the gooey stain had dried into a slightly darkened swath. I was so tired, it didn't even dawn on me that anything was wrong; until I my head hit the pillow and it all came back to me in a flash—the dreams, the sounds, the PUKING.

So I just flipped the pillow over, puke side down and went to sleep.