Been a loooong time!

Hi, thanks for the birthday wishes everypurr!
Well, we haven't been here much, mommy is always on facebook. And she is fostering a kitty with 5 kittens. And our furamily has grown some, with 3 more cats than we have on Catster! Crazy, hu? Well, mommy has also been putting up peoplefood for winter. Canning and drying things. And we have a freezer full of chicken for us kitties! I wish I could say she felt ready for 9 months of cold and rain...but we will all be miserable.
I hope everyone else will stay snug and warm for fall and winter.
xxxooo-Ming

Happy Kittymas!

Mommy got a CD, book and 4 lady buttons from her brother and new sister in law, and $100 amazon credit from grandpa, and a neat pine cone bird feeder from the guy who owns the land her goats are on, and a few baby pictures of Lilly from the lady who rescued her. Don't worry, she hung the feeder outside a window that is not contained by the catio, and so we don't have access to it. She has seen a black capped chickadee and a little bush-tit on it.
She couldn't think of what to get us, we kinda had Christmas early, with the duck giblets and wings the other day. She couldn't think of anything we'd like more than that, try as she might. She may just bring in some snips from the catnip plant for us.
For many people and kitties we know, the banks done stole Christmas this year again. But, on the bright side, people have been getting creative. Mommy gave some of her friends a lot of used books, and hair do-dads she'd made, and kitty collars.Though she did get her brother a cool wind up flashlight radio. She broke her China boycott to buy it, 'cuz her brother lives in Southern California where there is an emergency every 20 seconds, and she worries about them down there.
I have a new cousin with them to, Zeppo. He is the one who got the collars. He is white with some brown tabby markings, and they found him in a storage room in a bar. He was allll dirty! Now he is fixed and spoiled. Mommy is so glad they have a kitty, because her brother lost his 2 kitties in his divorce.
Well, we have no other news. Mommy will see relatives and kitties she doesn't get to see too often today.
She had a couple small gifties for former daddy, to, but he has a staff infection, of all things. She'll have to give them to him later.
Better go. Have a good day, everyone.
-Ming

Oregon kitty rescuer needs helps! Got ideas?

Hi, all, boy, times like this I wish more kitties read my diary. Not sure I have a catster group appropriate for it, either, but if one of you all knows one, please let me know, okay?
A friend of mommy who does lots and lots of kitty trapping and fixing and re-homing all by herself has asked mommy for help with ideas for re-homing some of her rescues. This woman is the one who rescued Andre and Page and their siblings and also, Lilly and hers. She is not one to complain or ask for help, so mommy knows she really, really needs it. She will drive kitties to different parts of Oregon for potential adopters to look at, or if there are no-kill shelters with room anywhere, she'd probably do that, to. Her community is very economically depressed even in good times, so adopting them out locally is very difficult.
Anyhow, ideas much appreciated. Thanks!

http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/purr.html

Sinking Feeling

Well, mommy thought she broke the toilet by flushing our pine litter. She plunged it, snaked it, then started shoving all sorts of poking things in there. Nada. It just drains really slow, like over 8 hours. And the boys were staring at the water heater last night. Mommy looked to see what they were staring at, and a pipe coming from it was going "drip, drip." What next? I'll tell ya. Mommy went to lock Andre and Lilly in the bathroom for the night so they can wrestle without keeping her up, and the door wouldn't shut. What the meow? Mommy had to tie the doorknob to the attic ladder to keep it shut.
So, today she gets up and starts working on the toilet again. Snake doesn't seem to be stiff enough to punch through whatever the clog is, or it don't wanna go 'round the curve, impossible to tell which, and anything stiffer won't go around the bend far enough to get to the clog, if there even is a clog. So mommy started thinking, with all the rain and the fact that we have no foundation, just some concrete thingies, that side of the house may be sinking, and that's why the door won't close all of a sudden and there are plumbing problems. Oh no! There is nothing we can do about that.
Remember "The Secret of NIMH" when their house is sinkin' in the mud? We're doin' it! MOL.
On the brighter side, I got some cheese today, and we all had some raw lamb! Lilly took hers away, growling like we were going to steal it. That made mommy sad for a bit, she was worried Lilly remembers being a hungry stray, but then she started thinking it seemed more like play, 'cuz Lilly was batting the meat around.
And mommy tore out the ugly, ragged vinyl floor covering in the "Kitchenette" last night. Thank goodness, that's so dumb and ugly, trying to make it look like a separate space. "One room, one floor!" I felt I should chant. OMC, even the nasty, bare beaver board stuff looks better than that did! What them people thinking when they did that? Should have put the vinyl all over if they were married to using that at all. Stupid to have any carpet in a place this small, all surrounded by mud every winter. Due to the un-levelness of this place, we don't have any good re-flooring options.
Maybe if we haven't sunk to the core of the earth, we can get some paint in the spring and seal this sub-flooring up. Dem fumes is bad, though, even with low VOC paint, so we can only do that when we can have the doors and windows open all the time for a few days, and all critters restricted to the bedroom and catio. Painting a sinkin' ship, that's silly, eh? Well, we were going to use free paint. No sense spending $ on it, is there? And we will use any color or combo of colors, we aren't picky, so it will be a nice paint disposal opportunity for some folks. Mommy just wants to seal it so she can wipe it clean and not have this sawdust stuff coming off it. Gee, mommy will have to test a small spot, to make sure it won't just turn into a big sponge. That's the last thing we need!
Alright, better go. Hope all you kitties are doin' good out there. We know some of you are having health concerns and we are thinking of ya. Lots of things may suck for us, but mommy is always happy when we seem in good health, and devastated if we don't seem well. Stuff like the floor and the sinking bathroom don't matter to her as much as we do, and she worries about all her kitty friends out there when they are unwell to, 'cuz if she had to choose, she'd pick living in this crazy hovel with healthy cats than living someplace nice and having her kitties ill, so don't feel bad for her. She gets annoyed at all the petty inconveniences of her life sometimes, but she never forgets the kitties are what matter most, ALL the kitties.
-Ming

Updates!

Hi, all!
Well, my belly is growing some fur now that mommy expressed my anal glands, so maybe I was on steroids for nothing! Stupid vet.
Speck, the bunny, is in the house for winter. She has 2 litter boxes in her cage, but she just likes to sit in them. She pees and poos on the more difficult to clean, newspaper lined part of her cage, carefully avoiding the boxes. It is a real pain for mommy to deal with.
The foster kitten, Lilly, tried to teach Speck how to use her litter box by going into the bunny cage and pooping in the larger litter box. It was pretty funny. Speck went into the cage to confront her, but she didn't know what to do, so they just sat and looked at each other for a bit.
Lilly still likes to nurse on mom's robe, but only the light pink one, not the dark pink one.
I am still enjoying the heating pad on the cat tree very much. Mommy moved it the other day and it became unplugged, so I alerted her to the problem by pouncing very insistently on her lap. I'm super happy and loving when that heating pad is on. Mommy hopes it won't give me cancer or burn the house down. She thinks of terrible things, no?
I guess I have no other news right now. Take care, everyone.
-Ming

Purina Message

Mommy asked Purina if they had euthanized cats and dogs in their food the other day, and here is their response. We don't condone the use of their products, but figured we should share what they wrote.

Thank you for contacting Nestlé Purina PetCare Company.

We appreciate your response. With regards to the use of cats or dogs, road kill, or the use of euthanized animals in our food; we do not utilize cats, dogs, road kill or euthanized animals in our food.

Again, thank you for visiting our web site.

Rendering and other Pet Food News

Mommy hardly ever watches these shows, but tonight she is watching "Dirty Jobs" and they did a segment on guys who pick up animals to take them to the rendering plant. Some of the animals had been dead and rotting for days, all maggoty and gross. And they were using whole cows. Can anyone say,"transmissible spongiform encephalopathies?" It ain't easy to say, but there is a good chance it is in rendered products. The segment did mention the rendered material will be used in pet foods, among other things.
Mommy e-mailed Purina while she was kitty sitting and asked them if they used euthanized cats and dogs in their foods, because the canned food she was feeding was made by them. Guess what answer she got? None. Nope, nothing. 'Ain't that something? Cat's got their tongue, I guess.
-Ming

What Would YOU Say?

So, mommy has been applying for more cat-oriented jobs: shelters, spay and neuter clinics, cat boarding houses, and the like. And here are some questions one of those jobs, which will remain anonymous, sent her.

1. How do you feel about the termination of 3rd trimester pregnancies in cats and dogs?

2. How do you feel about euthanasia of feral cats who may suffer from an otherwise treatable illness in a tame cat?

Both disturbing questions, but I guess they gotta be asked. In her volunteer work, mommy has some vets that don't like doing late-term spays. She has heard the story that the unborn kittens die warm and peaceful in the womb from a drug overdose, and also heard they die...not so well, after being removed. Which is the truth? Or does it depend? To mommy, there is a difference.

And the second one, mommy thinks all kitties matter just as much, if they have a human or not, but she will allow that some ferals would prefer death to being handled and confined for a period of time to be treated for something, while others seek out humans and "ask" for help. She has seen that happen with a battered old feral tom. So again, it would be something where she'd want to know more about the case. Is the kitty miserable and terrified, or doing alright with confinement and handling?

Sigh, mommy just don't know about this world. You have to like kitties some to help them in such a job, but if you like them too much, it would be terrible to do such things.

What would your humans say to these tough questions? Is our mommy being an over-sensitive baby? Tons of us are being killed for nothing every year, should she even be bothered by such questions considering the "big picture?"
-Ming

Happy "Gotcha" Day, Indeed!

Only a few minutes into my gotcha day. Mommy says, "I don't care what the vet says I can SEE your anal glands are blocked from across the room!" You see where this is going, don't you? Yes, mommy squeezed my fanny hole, and I made an unhappy noise, and she got stinky goop out of both glands. Can you believe it? Who does that to a kitty on her "gotcha" day? She pinched my can, then she said "eeeeew!" when the goo came out. Well, what did you expect to have come out of there, mommy, hm? Sigh. Now she is wondering if she expressed ALL the fanny goo. You lay off of me, mommy, You ain't touching my button again today!
-Ming

It Wasn't Us!

Mommy found a dead bird in the yard, it was orange and black. Its neck was not broken, not a feather out of place, and no blood, drool, or marks of trauma were on it. She doesn't think a kitty killed it, nor did it run into a window.
Did it die of old age? Disease? Poison? We sure hope it wasn't poison, because if anyone is poisoning animals out there, they are in trouble if we find them.
In other news, we thought of Sugar earlier today, when she was scheduled to pass.
I have been on mamma's lap quite persistently lately, so she set up a heating pad on the cat tree thingie, just for me. Only Andre didn't get the memo on how it is just for me, and he was on it earlier, I had to go back to the lap.
Andre has a new picture with the foster kittens up on his page, and Nikolai has one of me, Andre and him close together on the bed. Mommy thinks we get closer every night as it gets colder, pretty soon we will be a tangled mass.
Have a good night, everyone.
-Ming