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[John C]

Pff.  My bedroom has a waist-high "divider" down the middle of books I don't have space for.  My living room is packed with things that my sister (between places of her own) can't fit in her bedroom.  And I have the Frankenstein's lab of computers running this way and that throughout the house until I can consolidate data.  That's not to mention all the clothes and sundries that should be in closets, but aren't, since the entire house only has one tiny closet.

I'd love to have my house only be as messy as your "messy" attic...

(I'd also love it if my cat could make it to the litter box more regularly, but at nearly twenty years old, I guess I should just be happy that he makes any effort at all.)

[Yoc]

Whoa, now there's a picture!
Love your cat John, they sadly don't live forever.

-Yoc

[OtherEric]

I wonder how affordable fire insurance would be, in any case.  My local comic book shop wasn't able to afford anything other than liability, and they lost a hell of a lot last month when the apartment above the shop burnt out.  (Mostly water and smoke damage.)  Nobody was hurt, thank goodness.  And, amazingly, almost all their small collection of Gold and Silver survived unharmed thanks to lucky positioning and being bagged.

They lost a hell of a lot of books, but it was mostly from their bulk storage rooms.  And through a combination of luck, hard work, and help from the community they were back up and running across the street without missing a single Wednesday!  I don't know that I could do that.

I love how the community pitched it, a LOT of customers (including me) went down to spend a few hours stripping bags off books and sorting them undamaged, quarter bin, or trash.  How the water behaved was fascinating; you could get unharmed books back to back with destroyed sacks of pulp.

Slightly off topic, but the mention of fire insurance brought it to mind.

[John C]

Whoa, now there's a picture!
Love your cat John, they sadly don't live as forever.

As we drift off-topic (already!?), yeah, he's a great cat who I've had since he fit in the palm of my hand.  He's still running strong and affectionate, so I don't have a problem with an occasional mistake.  I assume there's probably some stain I haven't cleaned in the back corner.

What I DO mind is that it happens often and subtly enough that I'm becoming desensitized to the smell, which means avoiding having guests in the house who obviously have not, but that's hardly his fault.  (That "Nature's Miracle" line is amazing stuff...but only when you can find the right spot on the carpet to clean.)

[Yoc]

Funny thing - my Mom just called me and in our talk she mentioned catching the cat sitting on the toilet with that determined look they get when they are 'in a meeting'.  She said nothing was left behind but the surprise of catching it there was hysterical. 

Yeah, off topic pretty fast eh?

[narfstar]

My wife's dad was his best friend and frequent companion as he lived with us. He passed away 11 years ago when my son was 16. My son's cat Chance, who we rescued from a paper bag on the side of the road while riding bikes, was a very great comfort to him during that time. Chance would be sitting in his lap while he allowed himself boisterous laughter at the Golden Girls. So he is saddened when one of the GG pass away because they helped him through a very rough time for him. Further off topic but this group is easy to talk with.

[Yoc]

Pet visits at a senior's home are the highlight of any day my sister tells me.  She works in one.

-Yoc

[OtherEric]

This has drifted far off topic, but who cares?

When our family dog passed away in my late teens, my Mom refused to let us have another pet.  She simply could not stand the idea of losing another one.  Moms, of course, always win when they really put their foot down.  She died of cancer a couple years later.  The day after the funeral, my Dad, my Sister, and I went to the pound.  I didn't realize until quite a bit later that we never actually discussed the matter; we just knew that getting another dog was the small silver lining to a very, very dark cloud.  I think that Babe kept us alive and sane.  (That's not a name we ever would have picked, but a friend of the family used it while we were still discussing matters and it stuck.)  Then as time went on, my sister went to college, my dad remarried, and I went into the Air Force.  At that point, my Grandfather had just passed away and my Grandmother took Babe.  That little furball helped my family a lot through some very bad times; I still miss her.  She died about 4 years ago, my Grandmother passed away about a year later. 

[Yoc]

Great story Eric. 
Damn, got some dust in my eyes.  *cough*

[narfstar]

This has been a fun sharing thread
Not a living but a large stuffed bear was given by my wife to an elderly man who was homebound. Several thought it was silly. The old man named it PAL. When his wife would say she had to leave for awhile to go to the store or somewhere she asked if he would be OK. He would respond that Pal and I will be fine. When he passed away she had the bear until she passed away not long after then it was given to my son.

[narfstar]

Looks like I managed to split and move my first topic Yoc.

[Yoc]

Good stuff Narf.  And your story managed to blow dust into my eyes as well.
*cough*

[Astaldo711]

My first dog was a mutt named Baron. My older brother would tell a story of how a salesman came to the house and while he was shmoozing my parents, he bent over to pick me up (I was a baby at the time) to say how cute I was and Baron barked and growled until he left. He was a very sweet dog that I never saw growl. He died when I was about 10. Our next dog was Lady, a pure bred Golden Retriever. She was the biggest coward! She was afraid of a paper bag rustling, leaves blowing, etc. We'd take her for a walk and she'd get too scared.
The dog I have now is Cosmo, a Cocker Spaniel with a bit of bear mixed in. He will eat ANYTHING! His best trick is eating a bunch of my daughters crayons so his poo has such beautiful colors! He loves paper towels, markers, pencils, computer mice, it's great! I love him and he's very affectionate but sometimes, bang! Right to the moon!

[darkmark]

I might mention Spooky, the cat whom we had for a little over 10 years.  She was a stray loping into our yard and I just couldn't see letting her starve, so I set out a dish of milk.  The cat made a beeline for it, and thus began a relationship that ended with her moving into the house shortly thereafter.  Spooky, so called because she was a tortoiseshell cat colored orange and black (later orange and brown), turned out to be a boon companion to both myself and Mom, especially to Mom when I left to look for and find work in a larger city.  When that petered out and I came home, after about a year Mom developed pancreatic cancer and was bedridden for the last few months of her life.  Spooky, concerned, showed her love for Mom as best she could, and Mom remarked she had never been so loved by an animal.  After Mom's passing, I brought the cat with me to a larger city.  But Spooky, who'd been used to kicking around the neighborhood in a small town, couldn't understand why she was kept inside all the time.  Finally, she got out and got picked up by the animal control.  By the time I found out where she was, she'd been euthanized.  I couldn't make it in to work or do any transcription that day.  Both employers understood.  I'll probably never have another pet like her and I think a few issues of CAT-MAN I've uploaded here still have a pic of her at the end.

[Astaldo711]

Wow, so sorry to hear that Darkmark. 
Some people see them as just animals but anyone that's had a pet knows that they have their own personalities and how much we care for them. It's truly a loss.

[phabox]

I Must confess that DM's story brought a lump to my throat  , I think I prefer the company of my cats to people most of the time.

Not quite as much a dog person, but I have a soft spot for the one that I owe my life to.

-Nigel

[Captain Audio]

Funny thing - my Mom just called me and in our talk she mentioned catching the cat sitting on the toilet with that determined look they get when they are 'in a meeting'.  She said nothing was left behind but the surprise of catching it there was hysterical. 

Yeah, off topic pretty fast eh?

We had a cat that lived to be 24 yrs old, She often used the toliet and even flushed it most of the time, thats no bull either.

[Aussie500]

My Connie is at the moment imprisoned in the laundry. Being banned from any area with carpet due to her habit off making a mess to get attention she rarely gets in the house these days. She is terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks so is allowed in the laundry when they occur.  She practically broke the door down when the thunder started this evening. She did knock the internal sliding door of its rail very early yesterday morning, door was shut but she just went straight through it as soon as I opened the door to let her in. Some idiot let some rockets of over our house at 1am, it was not even new years eve yet. I had birds going in all directions, but had to round Connie up first. She is getting old now, would have loved to have had her as a puppy, she would have been cute.



The newest 4 footed pet is Jimmy a juvenile delinquent who was no longer wanted at his previous home. A friend thought I needed a cat to replace the one I lost a while back. No I did not, but he got to stay anyway.



Jimmy has this habit of getting rid of the bell on his collar, I ran out of bells and resorted to a ribboned bell from a choc rabbit when this photo was taken. He has since got rid of it and is in silent mode at the moment.

[darkmark]

It's great to see you back, Aussie.  Will you be back at the old...er..."pub" anytime soon?

[narfstar]

One of our dogs has dicovered that she can get out of the fence. We are going to have to put a stake in the ground and give her a cable and collar. She is not going to like it but have to keep her and others safe.

[Aussie500]

Connie likes to dig holes, fortunately not usually under the fence. The last time I fell in one of her 2 minute craters I had her fav digging area concreted, she does not dig where I walk now. Yard is pretty big, there are plenty of places she can dig and I would never notice, or fall in it. I tried to bribe her once to dig up the vegie patch, but she was too smart for that, preferred to dig where she was not meant to, and never when she knew she was being watched. I did have an escape artist stay with me years ago in between homes, a Jack Russell Foxy cross, it took extreme measures to convince him my fence was not something he should be eating. His previous owner had given up trying to keep him in her yard and was going to have him put down. I volunteered to be his warden while she found him a new home. Strangely enough his new home had no fences, it was up bush in a shack, he loved it up there.

It's great to see you back, Aussie.  Will you be back at the old...er..."pub" anytime soon?

I drop in now and then.

[Captain Audio]

Don't know if I mentioned it before but my older (12) dog had a stroke last year, he had made a good recovery but began losing weight. Weight loss was a good thing in his case, he'd weighed over 130 pounds and this was probably what brought on the stroke. He still weighed 115 last time he went to the Vet, but the weight seems to have been redistibuted somehow.

Anyway he'd begun to mope around and seemed to be a bit dulled in his senses.

The vet took some blood and found his blood sugar was less than one third normal. She then poured Karo Corn Syrup down his gullet and within minutes he perked up.
Now whenever he acts listless I soak a piece of cornbread in Karo syrup and feed it to him. He generally perks up instantly.

My Nephew's Yorky died recently at 16. My nephew has bought fine matched pure bred Yorky puppies for his mom and brother and they plan to start raising Yorkys.

[Yoc]

Interesting.
I know a guy that has to give insulin needles everyday to an older cat.  I bet that cat runs and hides everytime he sees him now.  hehe

-Yoc

[BobS]

We (wife, son, and I) share our home with 4 cats and a hound.
We've had as many as 8 cats but now figure 4 is about the limit to keep up with and give attention to.

I've had Tiny since he was 1 day old. We safe-housed his mother and littermates.
Tiny isn't tiny anymore. He's a large gray cat, extremely affectionate, loves to sit in my lap, and is currently our oldest cat.

Mitzi is 2nd oldest, a black & orange tabby, very petite, and somewhat timid.

Priss is approx. a year old, a fat Birman with somewhat snooty Persian personality.

Butterscotch is white and orange male, very sweet, less than a year old.

Beth is our no-good, food-stealing, bark-crazy hound -- but my wife really loves her. <grin>

Surprisingly all the cats love Beth too. Tiny even grooms Beth and 'makes biscuits' (kneads) on her -- probably because I don't like Tiny kneading me.

Pets are great companions.

We also feed the birds around our house. During the recent snows we've had cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, tufted titmice, blue jays, sparrows, juncos, flickers, and downy woodpeckers.

Best,
Bob S.

[Yoc]

I've had cats that 'make biscuits' (kneads) and wondered what their thinking was behind it.

Thanks for sharing Bob,
-Yoc