Pictoral Timeline

Hope everybody had as wonderful a day as we did!

Second Chances

Merry Christmas to all...

...from the Caer's northern annex:

Another Day, Another...

... allahu akbar attack on US soil.  In a defence-free zone.  Anybody who didn't realize what was going on as soon as they heard that a vehical and large knife were used hasn't been paying attention.

But let's force more communities to accept "refugees" from muslim hot spots.

#LiberalsAreDeliberatelyDumb.

For the Protesters

h/t The Bruce Elliot Show at WCBM

Made Me Smile

It's Been Stuck In My Head For Hours

Something Tells Me...

...I'm Into Something Good...

Stopped at the local Irish pub, Paddy's, for lunch today.   They had 60s music streaming.  There were a few others sitting at the bar.  And at some point we all realized we were singing along with every song played.  And we started laughing and singing louder.  If people hadn't had to go back to work there might have been dancing.  There were 3 generations and everybody knew the lyrics, everybody was having a blast.  The 30ish bar tender said that she's been trying to talk the owner into bringing a 60s dj in on Friday nights.  I'd be there.

We Need To Stop...

... saying "pay to play."  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted bribes.  Period. And just accepting the bribe that sent our uranium to Russia fits the "high crimes" part of "high crimes and misdemeaners."  It might even rise to the definition of treason.

I Have A Dream...

H/T DHCP

Nails It

Somebody I know posted this link.  And it nails it.  Somebody else I know used the same words as I have used regarding liberals recently - "superiority."  I.e. it's an undisearved sense and they must get a crick in their necks from their noses being so high in the air when they have zero claim to do so.  And, of course, living within the DC bubble of influence makes it worse.  A whole bunch of people with good retirements and splendid government insurance feeling really superior to the ignorant peons who have the audacity to question them.

Anyway, this guy really speaks for me.  Yes, I'm a government retiree.  But I've completely lost respect for so many.  And I'm completely done with the arrogant bunch of elitist $%&/s known as liberals and the democrat party and their hatred for diversity of opinion and of freedom.  Once I might have voted for a democrat, depending.  But Truman is dead and so is anything resembling integrity among democrats.  And, worse, the same goes for the republican ruling class.  They are democrats without the courage to call themselves that.

I changed my registration to "Independant" years ago, and I periodically send the RNC an email telling them why and reminding them that they should remember the word "Whig."  They never respond.  And if a strong enough, truly conservative leader emerges from this battle, I will follow them into a third party.  I will curse the democrats first because they so despise freedom, but I will equally curse the "leaders" of the republican party for being fine with that.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-14/elite-have-no-idea-society-near-breaking-point

H/t Sean

Well. It's Been...

...exhausting.   I may never open my garage door again.

You may remember that a few months ago I left my garage door open only to find that two strays gave birth to their litters on the same day and in the same box in said garage.  Eleven kittens.  And I had to make a decision:  allow a feral cat colony to grow up, kill them all, or bring them in and foster and socialize them in hopes of finding good homes.  Plus getting the mothers spayed.

As soon as the first batch was able to eat cat food and only have one mother to suckle from I brought them in.  The one mother clearly was a house cat and is a darling who shows no sign of wanting to ever go out again.  She's my happy lap kitty now.

Flitter, on the other hand, is feral.  There was a second litter before I finally was able to trap and spay her.  And guess where they ended up?  My garage...

Four of the first litter went to new homes fairly early on.  But at one point I had 14 cats in my 1800 sq ft house.  I joked about being the crazy cat lady but the worry and work was exhausting and I started popping up cold sores and other indications that I was overwhelmed.  And maybe that's where the line between a true crazy cat lady and a foster parent is drawn - I dearly love each one of them but I realize that I absolutely can't properly take care of that many cats.

So, finally, all of the first batch went to the Animal Welfare Society shelter two weeks ago.  I cried all the way home.  But to my joy all but 2 have already been adopted.  They tell me that my babies are so well socialized that they basically come out and choose their new parents.

And so now there's just the last litter.  My absolute darlings.  They will be the hardest of all to let go, but at least I feel like I can breathe now.

He Did Build That

Healthy

Ht Ruth in CT

What Have You Been Telling Her?!

Granddaughter:  "Why aren't we seeing Grandma right now?"

Daughter:   "Because we're just not."

Granddaughter:  "Is she in jail?"

Such a Disappointment

Eventually...

...I'll catch up.  But there's long stories... Well, OK, cats. The core story is way too many cats.  Massive stress load of cats.  Which I guess is the difference between a foster and a true crazy cat lady.  I love them but they have to go - I'm very clear on that. Working on it with the local Animal Welfare Society.  Four have gone to new homes.  But I wasn't able to catch the feral mother.   So...

Three more in my garage.  Note to self - Find that daggone "Cat Maternity Ward" sign and take it down.  Realized they were in there with their trap-wary mother and real quick put the garage door down. And feral momma then abandoned kittens and refused to have anything to do with them.  So 4 week old kittens are in spare bedroom, pooping and peeing everywhere, walking through their food, and desperately needing cuddled. Their mother is still trapped in the garage.  This week's project is to try to get her into a cage and into a cleaner environment until her spay appointment in Sept. Seven of the original kittens are still awaiting homes.  They get their last distemper booster and chipped on Thursday.

Did I mention the infestation of chemical resistant fleas?

Did I mention Reunion time and my chief cook and bottle washer duties?  Did I mention that I'm having a steady stream of company?  Did I mention that even though I should know better after 35 years in the government that I touched some major things at church and now they're mine?

Did I mention that I'm contemplating a nice, quiet little breakdown...?

Correction

Is It Just Me?

Am I the only one who is bugged when "clip" is used instead of the proper "magazine" in an otherwise good novel?  It grates on me like the misuse of historical/historic and accurate/precise do.  Particularly the latter.  VERY different concepts.  You can be precise as all get out and be completely inaccurate at the same time.

Things That Make You Go "Hmmmm..." - Habakkuk

I've had a bee in my bonnet the last couple days about reading some of the shorter prophetic books of the Bible, and one that was niggling at me was Habakkuk.  Such a cool name.  And way shorter than Isaiah.

According to the various sources I looked at, Habakkuk dates from somewhere between 605 - 597 B.C., an era of Babylonian expansion that was capped by Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Judea and his capture of Jerusalem.  The city was pillaged and thousands were deported to Babylonia.  In 587 B.C. his forces destroyed the city completely.

Habakkuk is only 3 chapters long.  The first 2 chapters are in the form of a dialog with the Lord - Habakkuk's lament and questioning of the Lord's government of the world, his horror at God's use of evil and destructive men to bring His people back from their failings and sinful ways, and the Lord's answers.  The last chapter is a canticle, a hymn exulting the glory and power of God that ends with a statement of faith in the face of trouble:

For though the fig tree blossom not
   nor the fruit be on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive fail
  and the terraces produce no nourishment,
Though the flocks disappear from the fold
   and there be no herd in the stalls,
Yet will I rejoice in the Lord
  and exult in my saving God.
God, my Lord, is my strength;
  he makes my feet swift as those of of hinds
   and enables me to go upon the heights. (Habakkuk 3: 17- 19)

This shift from lament to rejoicing reminds me of Psalm 22, the beginning of which is familiar to every Christian:

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? (Psalm 22:1)

Unlike many Christians of today,  faithful Jews of Jesus' time would have known that Psalm 22 ends in victory and rejoicing:

All the ends of the earth
  will worship and turn to the Lord;
All the families of nations
  will bow low before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
  the ruler over the nations.
All who sleep in the earth
  will bow low before God;
All who have gone down into the dust
  will kneel in homage.
And I will live for the Lord;
  my descendants will serve you.
The generation to come will be
  told of the Lord,
  that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn
   the deliverance you have brought. (Psalm 22:28-32)

But I digress...

Back to the Prophet Habakkuk.

Chapter 1 really got my attention.  Basically, the format is:

Habakkuk:  Lament
God:  Reply
Habakkuk: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

How long, O Lord? I cry for help
  but you do not listen!
I cry out to you, "Violence!"
  but you do not intervene.
Why do you let me see ruin;
  why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
  there is strife, and clamorous discord.
This is why the law is benumbed,
  and judgment is never rendered:
Because the wicked circumvent the just;
  this is why judgment comes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1: 2-4)

I don't know about you, but this pretty well expresses how I feel day in and day out anymore.

The Lord answers:

Look over the nations and see,
  and be utterly amazed!
For a work is being done in your days
  that you would not have believed, were it told.
For see, I am raising up Chaldea,
  that bitter and unruly people,
That marches the breadth of the land
  to take dwellings not his own.
Terrible and dreadful is he,
  from himself derive his law and his majesty.  (Habakkuk 1: 5-7)

The prophet is horrified at the tool God chooses:

Are you not from eternity, O Lord,
  my holy God, immortal?
O Lord, you have marked him for judgement,
O Rock, you have readied him for punishment!
Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil,
  and the sight of misery you cannot endure.  (Habakkuk 1: 12-13)

You know how stuff just wanders around in the back of your mind before something makes you think about it?

Hm.  Where did Isis come out of?  Iraq and its neighbors...

Yeah, I'm not real happy with Habakkuk and his prophesy right now.

Passing The Torch

A friend sent me this, saying I had unseated her from the position.  The deal is that when I'm surpassed, I pass it on.

I'm afraid it will be a long time before I find someone to pass it to.

You guys haven't heard The Rest of the Story yet...

Just So Murphy's Law Doesn't Feel Alone

I don't always learn so fast, either.

Uh-Huh

Buuuut, the science is settled about global warming, and we have to eat organic and  non-gmo.

Ain't That The Truth

Weze Nappin With Mom

Who gave us fleas.  Nobody has been outside in the grass for 2 months except Mom doing yardwork.  Mom gave us fleas...

Well, The Suck Continues

Phone call from the friend who is cat sitting while I'm away.  My big boy Perry died completely unexpectedly sometime during the night and she found him this morning.  He was only about 5 years old.

Can I rewind this year back a few months and have some choices as to how it was going to go?

I Want This!

Doing THIS

Found this at a shop:

Yeah, that's my life these days.

Inspired

The Religion of Peace has a webzine, "Inspire". And its second issue contained an article titled "The Ultimate Mowing Machine.” Guess what it was about?  Well, if you said it was instructions for how to use a truck as a weapon to maximum effect, you'd be right.

Muslims have killed nearly 12,000 men, women, and children this year alone.  And it's just July.   Yet we are bringing 700 un-vetted muslims into this country every week.

When are people going to give up on the myths of islam?  When are they going to get that no, they do NOT worship the same God that Christians and Jews do, despite islam starting out as a Christian heresy. Islam has a very different concept of God.  When are they going to get that no, the koran isn't the same as the Bible? When are they going to get that the "jihad is an interior struggle" dance is just that - a dance?  When are they going to get that major portions of the so-called "good" muslims admit that they wouldn't report a family member who was planning an attack?  When are they going to get that islam has been spread by the sword from the beginning, and that's STILL its accepted way of furthering it?

When are people going to get that we are not far behind France and Belgium in these kinds of attacks thanks to a destructive, evil administration deliberately filling small cities with young muslims who hate the very countries they are settled in?  When are people going to get that we are not far behind countries like Sweden with its soaring (but largely hidden by the media) rape and assault rate, because our towns are being embedded with followers of a "religion" that fosters a twisted concept of sexuality and treats women with disdain?

When are people going to get that every one of these attacks come from FAITHFUL muslims? Muslims who are TRULY following the demands of their prophet?

We're just a few steps behind Europe.  Yet we spend more time worrying about Pokemon Go.

This is YOUR child, folks.   Coming soon to YOUR town.

There Are A Lot Of Things I Should Be Doing

This is not one of them

Oh, well.

Text From Daughter

"Amelia and I took some strudel to the police department on the way home. After we left she said "I wanted to give him a hug, he needed a hug.""

Yes, he probably did.

Yeah, Well, Until My Language Is Once Again FCC Compliant... Updated...

Read

Guffaw: armedlaughing.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/police-assassination/

and

Tam: http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2016/07/things-i-dont-get-what-hell-ever-number.html?m=1

And you guys be careful out there, hear?

Update: Add Humble Wife's commentary to this:

http://doublenickelfarm.blogspot.com/2016/07/i-stand-with-law-enforcement.html?m=1

Well That Just Sucks

I've spent a lot of time crying today.  And I'm not a crier.  But I'm heartbroken.  And the weird thing is, it's because of the unexpected death of someone I never met in person.  I feel funny about that, but don't seem to be able to do anything about it.

Years ago, when my daughter lived in Baltimore, I got attached to a small conservative Baltimore talk station, WCBM. While it offers syndicated shows like Limbaugh and Hannity, I much prefer the in-house crew, who are smart, witty, and well informed.  Sean and Frank come on too early for me to catch their whole show except through podcast, but every morning, Monday through Friday, Tom Marr came along with me from 9 until noon no matter what I was doing. Tom was passionate and knowledgable, always curteous (although if YOU weren't you'd walk the plank), a proud American, a former Marine, who started every show with John Wayne's version of the Pledge of Alligiance.  And he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy, a very, very good person.  He was the friend who came to chat each day on a variety of subjects both local and national.  I disagreed with him sometimes.  I yelled at the radio because of that sometimes.  And although I never called in, despite him saying on air that he wished I would, I e-mailed him regularly. I sometimes had to laugh when I'd fire off an e-mail when I was angry about something and he'd get through part of it on air, pause, say "...and I can't read this part on the air..." and then would read the less profane parts.  I respected him greatly and he made me proud when he would say "You've hit a home run with that one!"

And then there was his way of singing "Happy Birthday" to people.  I forgot to ask him to do that for me last year.

Folks who listen to Mark Levin have heard him sit in for Levin.  They were good friends despite some big political differences.

Tom went in for back surgery for a pinched nerve last week.  On Sunday he suffered a massive stroke.  And today, when I heard a bit of stumbling in the background as his fill-in was on the air, and I heard Frank break in for an announcement, my heart sank.  Tom died at 10:36 this morning.

I feel a bit odd grieving so much for someone I never really knew.  My comfort in that being that although WCBM is a small station the miracle of technology and streaming led to him having a fan base all over the world.  And it's a family station. Part of my grief is also for his WCBM family.

Rest in peace, Tom. And Semper Fi, Marine.

Mom's Home!

After several days traveling.  They drive me crazy and I'll cry as each one goes.

Day 25

Islamic Attacks: 189
Killed: 1339

Attacks by All Other Religions Combined: 0

Ramadan - A time of honing one's relationship with Allah.  And one's knife.

You Got a Nice New Bed, I Got a Nice New Bed

Note to self - Don't leave TP on roll in the bathroom the kittens can access.

Oh, Well, That's Spooky...

So I'm sitting on the back deck in the dark just watching the lightning bugs and I clearly hear my neighbor call my name. Except she's at work miles from here.  I texted her and she called me to confirm that.

Think I'll go pull my bed covers over my head now.

Sigh

So I go down to the laundry room today.  And there's water all over the floor.  My hot water heater has expired.  Just as I had to replace an expensive window sash, some electronics in the SUV have gone flooey (and it's not fuses - pulled a bunch of them today), the kittens are becoming hidiously expensive, and I'm still struggling with the tax debt that the retirement folks caused me when they stopped deducting for state taxes in February and I didn't catch the change in deductions.

I may just curl into a fetal position in the corner and cry.

Identify

So, it is currently popular to ignore little details such as x and y chromosomes, penises and vaginas in favor of what a person "identifies" as.

Well, OK then.  If all that matters is what one identifies as then I identify as an armed American.  I do NOT identify as a person banned from owning a gun because of a secret government list that involves no due process and requires that a person prove they are innocent rather than assuming citizens are innocent until proven guilty.

And if you say different you'll hurt my feelings and you know how important feelings are.  I might need a safe space.

What The...

BREXIT

Borders, language, culture.

But I can't stay awake for the final count.

Text From My Daughter

"Amelia's class transitioned up today. Her new class is "Gideon's army." That seems pretty intense for people that pick their noses and can't wipe their butts."

I Shouldn't Post This But...

The debbil made me do it...

Dangerously Dumb

There's a reason I rarely socialize with liberals.  It's not just that they have a severely misplaced sense of superiority that makes me wonder if they get cricks in their necks from having their noses in the air so much.  It's not just that they make it clear that they make their decisions based on how they feel and what sounds good.  It's not just that they jump up and down publicly demonstrating that they are dumb as posts about things.

It's that they are DANGEROUSLY dumb as posts.

I give the current b.s. concerning the Orlando massacre as a prime example.  Chicago, Baltimore, Aurora, San Bernadino, Paris, Utoya - all excellent examples of the success of gun control.  Ban ARs!  Even though Mateen didn't use one!  So then we can work on determining the make and caliber of pressure cookers in Boston, the make and caliber of jets in NYC?  And let's talk about the dear old United Kingdom.  Disarming their citizens has brought so much peace that the UK managed to become the most violent country in Europe.

But never let anything get in the way of FEELINGS! And never bother to enforce the laws already on the books.  Just make more laws to not enforce.  Because criminals will take one look at that law and say "Well, guess I can't have one of those."

How about we just make murder illegal?  That covers all bases and will stop it all without needing to go into detail of HOW a person is murdered.  Oh, wait.

Dumb as posts.

And this whole blame-it-on-anybody-but-Muslims thing.  Dumb as posts.  Every bit of information available to me concerning things like the history of Islam and things like the Crusades is also available to anyone not too lazy to get up off their parroting butts and really study.  But apparently Orlando happened because I do not believe that Christian churches or businesses should be forced by law to participate in something that doesn't actually exist, so-called "gay marriage."  I don't believe they should be forced by law to allow men into restrooms, changing rooms, or locker rooms with women and little girls.  THAT appears to be what caused Orlando.  That despite the fact that what we are seeing now is normal and to be expected from Islam.  IT'S WHAT IT'S ALWAYS BEEN! It's what has happened since the 7th century when cultures have weakened and been in turmoil - Islam exploits that and begins another cycle of invasions.  Just like it did when it first crushed the Christian lands of the Middle East, of Egypt, of North Africa - the lands now known as Islamic were Christian before Islamic invaders exploded into them.

Who truly speaks for a religion?  The founder.  A Christian's actions can be compared to the founder of Christianity, Jesus, to see how they compare.  If you compare Omar Mateen's actions in Orlando to the founder of Islam, Muhammad, Mateen died a faithful Muslim.  Milo Yiannopoulis is exactly right when he says "This is not radical Islam.  This is Islam."

Day 10 of Ramadan 2016:  79 attacks, 684 dead.  May 2016:   231 attacks, 1883 dead, and 2206 injured in 31 different countries.  And on and on and on.  Month after month, year after year.  "It's far easier to act as if critics of Islam have a problem with Muslims as people than it is to accept the uncomfortable truth that Islam is different."  Because of that, all the blood spilled as leaders like Charles Martel and Jan Sobiesky beat back repeated Islamic invasions of Europe will have been in vain, because Europe has been given over to the invader by feckless fools.  Orlando and San Bernadino and Boston and Chattanooga will happen again.  And again and again. Because WE are being given over to invaders by feckless fools.

Once I was told by a liberal that I had to respect everybody's opinion.  Why? Hitler had an opinion. Shall I respect it just because somebody had it?  An opinion has to be worthy of respect.  A whole lot of people have opinions that just prove that they are dumb as posts.  Worse, DANGEROUSLY dumb as posts.

The Saga Continues

Yes, I slept fine on the sofa.  New bed arrived the next day and is quite comfy.  

For a while now I've been aware that someone has been throwing rocks at my house. It seemed to start with using my laundry on the line for target practice.  And I started finding rocks on the side of the back deck that sticks out.  And on the front porch.  I commented to a neighbor that it is probably kids thinking it's funny, but it wouldn't be funny if they broke a window.

So sometime Friday before last they broke a front window. Which happens to be the kind that you can't take apart to replace the glass.  New sash plus labor - $250 plus tax. Still don't know who did it.

Then this Friday was check-up and vacination day for Perry and Mama. Five minutes after we left the house Mama explosively pooped.  I so hoped I wouldn't get pulled over for speeding because I was flying down the road, all windows open, AC on full.

And after we were done, we headed back with cleaned carrier and new towel.  Which she then annointed.  And Perry decided he'd get in the act, too.

So once again I'm flying down the road, all windows open and the AC blasting.   And about 15 minutes before we got home Mama informed me that she was car sick by projectile vomiting through the front of her carrier and into the SUV.

Great day.  Not.

Yesterday was spent with stuff like cleaning cat vomit out of the SUV.  I'd noticed that one of the kittens had been sneezing and was a bit snuffly.  When I came in at about 9:30 yesterday evening I realized that he was much worse so I stuffed him into a carrier and headed for the emergency vet office about 40 min away.  Pneumonia - he got to stay in the hospital for the night.  OK, the cost hurts but I'm not just going to let him die.  I head home.  As soon as I walk in the door I hear the same snuffling sound the first kitten was making.  You are kidding me... I shove that one in a carrier and start inspecting the kittens one by one.  I found one with a runny eye, stuffed her in, too, and headed back to Winchester.  These two are just at upper respiratory infection level, not pneumonia. But one has some signs that lead the vet to give her antibiotics.  And everybody in the house has to have antivirals.  The vet tells me it's highly contagious and that it may be a rough couple weeks.

So back home I go with those two.  An isolation room has to be set up to keep the most actively ill ones seperate from the others.  And one by one each kitten has to be chased down and medicated, followed by the adults, who weren't happy about it either.   We get to do that twice a day for the next couple weeks.

Then I finally got the sheets on my bed and got a shower and collapsed as the sun was coming up this morning.

And darned if I didn't wake up about 7:30 as usual.

They are only still alive because they are so cute...

Good News and Bad News

The good news - I'm capable of sleeping  on an inflatable mattress at our cold weather shelter.  The bad news - I'll be sleeping on the sofa tonight.  The good news - my new mattress will be delivered in the morning. The bad news - I had to buy a new mattress because Scooter startled Blackberry so bad today that she soaked the old mattress with pee.  The good news - I have 2 spare bedrooms.  The bad news - I cleared one out for the kittens and stacked the other room with what I cleared out so I can't sleep there.

I'm sorry, but where did I sign up for Bedlam?

Jail Break!

I thought this might be a good idea.  Let Mama in and out, give the kittens a view of the wider world.

OK, they didn't have a way of displaying their climbing skills before. What I got was JAIL BREAK!  Now I'm trying to stop laughing at a passel of kittens let out into a bigger world long enough to decide what to do.

Blackberry, my eldest, looked at them with a "Meh" expression and then returned to insisting that I pet her.  Perry and Scooter are playing with them.  Mama is watching,   I'm thinking that at 7 weeks they are ready to explore a bigger world, anyway.

Memorial Day

Remember and honor.

There's Nothing Like ...

...having family whose home is like a vacation place to the rest of us.  A perfect summer day on the back deck interupted by a t-storm?  No problem.  Inside ain't bad either.

Heh Heh

My daughter the conservative social worker may be having a bad day.  She sent me this:

None Shall Pass!

 "I wasn't sure what was going on in there..."

"But now that you've let me see I'm pretty sure it shouldn't get out."

A Reloading "Oops" Moment

Could have caused a rude surprise.

Have you ever been doing something automatically and then had something niggle at you that said you had done something off?  I was going merrily along, cranking out 9 mm, when I realized that the funny feeling I had was because at one point my right hand had reached to the wrong spot to pick up a case to seat a bullet in.  I had taken out of the bin of primed shells rather than the rack of shells that I had put powder in.  A few movements back.  And now somewhere in the jar was a cartridge with bullet and primer but no powder.

Oh, great.  I put a note to myself in the jar and set it aside.

Finally got around to thinking about it yesterday.  I really didn't want to just pull bullets until I found the bad load.  Got the scales out and started weighing and looking for patterns of weight within the different brass manufacturers.   Weighed every one. The bad one was the second one I pulled. The first one was a 9 mm Makarov that got by me when I was setting primers and shouldn't have been in there anyway.

I'd have been really annoyed if I'd had to knock every one of those apart.  And now I'll remember to do what I usually do but neglected to do that day - only keep one stage of loading components on the bench at a time.

Another Day In The Life... Update

...of the unexpected kitten mama.

Two black, two calicos, one grey and white, six black and whites.  So far, three have been named.  First name went to Snugs, short for snuggly. My lap is his happy place.

As soon as I sit down, he wants to play. Then he climbs into my lap when he wears out and passes out immediately.

They're like toddlers. They romp and then collapse and sleep. These two are sound asleep.

The second, one of the calicos, became Polly when I noticed that she is a polydactyl.  Six toes on each front paw.  Cali seems a logical name for her calico sister.

That's as far as I've gotten.  I'm just beginning to distinguish the black and whites by the patterns on their faces.  But no names have presented themselves for anybody else yet.

They mostly have the litter pan thing figured out but I'm still cleaning up some messes.  I don't know if someone doesn't like the pans or if they are like toddlers being potty trained - romping makes them forget until too late.  On the other hand, this project just started Friday night, so I may be wanting perfection too fast.

Mama goes to the vet for a check-up, blood work, and rabies shot on Thursday.  If I had known how easy she was to bring in she would have come in months ago.  I am so hoping her blood tests come back clean, because she's a darling.  And my other cats are not at all put out by her presense.  She has slipped out a couple times and gone off exploring, and the most that has happened was that Scooter sniffed her butt. Blackberry, who I thought would be the most put out, looked at her, then went back to sleep. Perry was equally indifferent.

Flitter has proved too wiley for the trap so far.  On the other hand, I've caught neighbor's cats Puddy once and Winston twice.  Winston just looks at me, gives a little meow, and goes up on the porch.   I'm still anticipating finding a racoon in there.

Update:

Yer Cuteness Quotient For The Day

Let me know if the video won't play.

It's Been An Exciting Week In Lake Wobegone...

But the flippin' computer won't let me do much so I'm doing a cell phone mini-post.

I'm trying to be sick again.  Something going on in my left eustachian tube.  A second doctor run today 'cause I felt like hell. But the GP can't see anything more than a bit of swelling so they are trying to get me into an ENT next week.

Just when a complicated problem is in need of my full attention.

11 of them.  Two litters born in the same box on the same day.  In my garage.  They are now in one of my spare bedrooms along with one of the mothers.  I'm still trying to trap the other mother but the vet said that since they are now old enough that they are eating solid food they would be OK with just one nursing mother.  And the problem is that not only do they need to be socialized to be adopted but their mothers could get pregnant again any time now - it's been 5 weeks.  At least I've got 12 of the 13 problems "off the street." The county Animal Welfare League will be by in a couple days to inspect the cattery arrangement.  I'll sign the kittens over to them and they'll put them into their adoption system while I foster them.  That gives me access to their vet services and list of folks who want kittens in about 6 weeks. We also have a really active trap, neuter, and spay group up here so photos and updates are going to them as well.

I love cats.  But I can tell already that it's going to be a long 6 weeks.  First realization -  I have no idea how to pan train 5 week old kittens.  Ick.  I'm hoping Mama, who IS pan trained and is happy as can be to be inside, will do that for me.  Right now I'm glad that room has no carpet and I'm doing a lot of cleaning up behind 11 furry behinds.

And although they sortof understand eating and drinking out of bowls, one of the calicos is a bit unclear on the water bowl concept.