Comments on Stonekettle Station: Death from the sky!

I'm laughing my arse off here. My cats are all in...

2008-10-06T16:22:15.129-08:00

I'm laughing my arse off here. My cats are all indoor cats because I live near downtown and we have a bazillion cats, mostly owned because they're sleek and fed, roaming outdoors.

Friends of mine who transported their mid-town-raised cats to nearly-wilderness Colorado lost most of their city cats to wildlife quickly (unfortunately).

The most cunning one, Matthew, who was death to squirrels and birds, pretty much figured out the protocols and survived a long while. But.

He died by hit-by-car. After moving from a place where he raided restaurant dumpsters as a hobby and went back and forth across a Very Busy street for three quarters of his life. Hit by a car on a road that maybe has one car a day.

Their current flock (household = four adults, three children, seven cats and two large dogs) cats are all wildlife alert.

Marbles, thanks, thanks a whole lot - the term "li...

2008-10-06T09:19:27.761-08:00

Marbles, thanks, thanks a whole lot - the term "little cat johnson" is now lodged in my brain along with the visual, and this morning's coffee is mostly dripping from my nose.

Oh wow. What an awesome site. We just shelled out ...

2008-10-06T09:01:51.443-08:00

Oh wow. What an awesome site. We just shelled out $3k because the evil red monster got a urinary blockage and had to be hospitalized for several days. We think the bill was his way of saying thanks for the catheter the vets shoved up his little cat johnson. He paid *them* back, by taking a chomp out of one of the technicians. He's a 17 pound gato, too. Them's some long-ass fangs. Good times.

Happy to amuse, anon.

2008-10-05T15:14:38.313-08:00

Happy to amuse, anon.

Oh, god. I know I'm nine month late but this story...

2008-10-05T13:49:58.826-08:00

Oh, god. I know I'm nine month late but this story almost killed me, towards two thirds of it I was laughing so hard that I stopped breathing. My co-tenant came to see if I was having some sort of asthma attack or epileptic seizure.

Hee!

2008-01-16T19:31:07.716-09:00

Hee!

Anon, we don't 'have' cats. Cats choose to live h...

2008-01-11T13:22:12.884-09:00

Anon, we don't 'have' cats. Cats choose to live here in our houses for reason only they can explain - if they were so inclined, which they are not.

It's a mystery, though I suspect the real reason is that they could not abide people living free of cat enslavement. That's my theory anyway.

I find it insanely funny that a cat was nearly eat...

2008-01-10T19:36:10.271-09:00

I find it insanely funny that a cat was nearly eaten by a bird. Poetic justice, that would have been!

Why do people in Alaska have cats, anyway? Just as snacks for the local wildlife....?

Reminds me of the Farside cartoon:Two spiders stre...

2008-01-10T15:55:04.181-09:00

Reminds me of the Farside cartoon:

Two spiders stretching a web across the sidewalk in front of an approaching paperboy on a bicycle. One says to the other, "If we can pull this off, Murry, we'll eat like kings for a year!"

I'll have Nathan and Shawn know I just finally got...

2008-01-10T14:04:47.855-09:00

I'll have Nathan and Shawn know I just finally got here.

Yep, whenever I see a hawk circling outside my first thought is, "Where's the cat." I think in her hay-day she could have taken any such beastie, but now she's a very senior citizen cat. Although she still looks at the wild turkeys and gets the hunter tail twitch going. I can hear her thoughts, "Damn, if I could get *that* we'd eat all year!"

That's me, providing entertainment to the masses.....

2008-01-10T10:19:15.663-09:00

That's me, providing entertainment to the masses... :)

I told your story to my Smart Man, who's a cat tol...

2008-01-10T09:01:22.774-09:00

I told your story to my Smart Man, who's a cat toler-hayta last night, and he thought it was hoot, BTW. Gotta love the scare-eagle.

Nathan, that'll work, but there's just so many goo...

2008-01-09T18:41:10.551-09:00

Nathan, that'll work, but there's just so many good quotes from that movie.

Personally I like: Roger: if you feel compelled to contribute to the pathetic, heartbreaking predictability of it all, by all means...

OK, I hadn't been following the quotes, but that l...

2008-01-09T18:33:03.164-09:00

OK, I hadn't been following the quotes, but that locks it. I'm disqualified.

Tomorrow's Quote:

Roger: "That's just spastic enough to be charming."

Michelle, thanks for the suggestion, but I prefer ...

2008-01-09T18:22:31.684-09:00

Michelle, thanks for the suggestion, but I prefer to pick my quotes. I try to make them relevant to whatever I'm posting that day, or however I'm feeling, or for strange and arcane reasons that only I know :O

Speaking of which:

Yesterday's Jerky Boys Quote:
Johnny: Oh, God! My mother, she woke me up today. She poured a hot pan of grease all over my chest and my ass and genitals and I fell down the stairs and my shoes fell off.
(I love fact he equated having his shoes fall off with hot grease on the genitals)

The day before it was: There's nothing wrong with the food, it's the company. from Crocodile Dundee II.

There's more but I think that's enough to figure it out.

If you can use php, I have a nice quote randomizer...

2008-01-09T17:07:00.685-09:00

If you can use php, I have a nice quote randomizer I use on my site. (I use the same quotes on my front page and at the top of my blog.)

It's similar to the php that pulls up a random header image.

It's also a lot easier than having to remember to change the quotes and pictures. :)

Reason I mention it is that for the last several d...

2008-01-09T15:29:15.917-09:00

Reason I mention it is that for the last several days I've been putting up quotes that all have something in common.

O.K. I can think on one thing right off the top of my head the Stuart Little and The Jerky Boys have in common. If you re-post some of the earlier quotes, I can see if I'm right.

BTW, finding a worthwhile quote from The Jerky Boys is a really impressive feat.

Stoopid is in chargeNaw, we're fairly sure Tubby i...

2008-01-09T14:33:48.324-09:00

Stoopid is in charge

Naw, we're fairly sure Tubby is the brains of the outfit, Stupid is a thug. However, Tubby is clever and he makes it look like it's all Stupid's idea. At least that's the current theory around here.

But the telepathy bit - yeah, that's definite.

Ok I was not there for the Eagle incident but I kn...

2008-01-09T14:29:26.254-09:00

Ok I was not there for the Eagle incident but I know that cat. It may be evil and is definitely stupid. When first I met Stupid and the Fat One they were like every other cat. Jim told me they would not like me at first but hey since I am alergic to cats and especially Siamese they all flock to me to watch me twitch and sneeze. within the first hour of being there (following a 12 hour drive) the cats found me irresistible. And over the course of the next few weeks, whenever I sat down at the computer Stoopid was right behind me on a chair sniffing my head with both paws on either side of my head. I figured he was looking for some way to eat my brains. And everywhere Stoopid went the Fat One was sure to follow. So there I was with a cat in my lap and another on standing on it's hind legs sniffing my head. And for those who really know cats and have more than one you know they plot and scheme. These two actually stand nose to nose and communicate telepathically. I've seen it and as far as I can tell Stoopid is in charge.

Glad to add a little surrealism to your day, Natha...

2008-01-09T14:27:02.557-09:00

Glad to add a little surrealism to your day, Nathan. Just returning the favor, so to speak.

And speaking of movies: did any of you notice the quote at the top of the homepage? I like movie quotes, Beastly and I can go on for hours, holding entire conversations in only movie quotes - it drives my wife mad. Mad!. Reason I mention it is that for the last several days I've been putting up quotes that all have something in common. Yesterday's was from The Jerky Boys. Figure it out yet? Today's was fortuitous, because the list I'm working from just happens to have a movie containing cats.

1. I've seen both of those movies. Much fun was...

2008-01-09T13:21:47.095-09:00

1. I've seen both of those movies. Much fun was had.

2. I too have free cats, so I can't follow that rule. We draw the line at expensive tests to discover diseases that require expensive treatments that rarely have much success.

I mean, hey, we've been feeding the beast by hand six times a day for two months, so we obviously care about him, but spend a couple of thousand for the same result? Not so much.

Also, please go to my site and read Jim's entries in the contest. Then imagine coming home and going through your email. Blogger emailed me Jim's comments completely out of context. The first one I read was the burrito one. I had an extreme WTF moment before figuring out what it was all about.

I believe that once the vet bills surpass the tota...

2008-01-09T12:23:04.782-09:00

I believe that once the vet bills surpass the total purchase price of the animal, it's totaled.
I have a friend who says that about his Husky.

My cats were free (actually, there may have been a small donation to the shelter), so I feel like they've already got credits in their favor. I have been extraordinarily lucky on the health side of things (knock on wood). It does help that they are primarily indoor cats and there are few (if any) bald eagles in the area. There is a fox, however.

Yeah, purebreds are always at risk. Diabetes, epil...

2008-01-09T12:09:09.403-09:00

Yeah, purebreds are always at risk. Diabetes, epilepsy, and hip dysplasia.

Jumper is a mutt, typical sled dog type, half this and that (seven of the best dogs in the neighborhood as my Dad says), but as a result she's stronger, healthier, and smarter than most dogs. But she ain't going to win any AKC shows. Which is fine with me, because I intensively dislike the AKC.

Even though Boogie was an expensive animal, I thin...

2008-01-09T12:01:09.057-09:00

Even though Boogie was an expensive animal, I think he's passed Jeri's yardstick after all's said and done. And yet I keep shelling out...

We needed a pure-bred, though, to ensure we didn't get a dog that sheds. My Smart Boy's a bit allergic.

I believe that once the vet bills surpass the tota...

2008-01-09T09:23:33.360-09:00

I believe that once the vet bills surpass the total purchase price of the animal, it's totaled. Like a wrecked car.

Well, see the cats were given to us gratis, which means the cost of their very first meal exceeded their 'purchase price.' I'm not disagreeing with you, I think they should have been totaled then. But, as I mentioned in the post - Stonekettle Station is not a democracy and even if it was I'd be like a Florida democrat - my vote doesn't count.