His full name is ‘Snowball’ – but he usually responds to the diminutive ‘Bo-Bo’.
This past weekend, my neighbours (and friends) went away for a 4-day trip. As I am the local animal-lover, they asked me to look after their cats (Snowball is one of 3 felines in that family). At the last moment, Snowball (he is a little dominant…) got into a fight with another cat in the neighbourhood and the vet said he must get 2 antibiotic pills a day… could I handle the challenge of giving Bo-Bo his medicine?
I agreed to give it a try – my friends deserved a break!
Snowball was happy to see me when I came in and fed him – the first time. Then he got annoyed that I would not let him out (he was to stay indoors while recuperating). When I gave him his medicine – he got really, really mad at me.
The next medicine time, he was ready!
There was no way he would allow me, an outsider, to come in, hold him down in a chair and shove a pill down his throat! His family may be away, and he may not be feeling his best and I may have taken him by surprise the first time… but – no more! He would fight against this indignity!
Bo-Bo put up a mighty battle…
I did learn some things:
Cats can – and do – growl.
If you do NOT allow the cat to ‘have the last word’, the ‘next time’ will much easier.
Yes, I am glad to report that now, Bo-Bo is all well and healthy – and he does NOT growl at me any more. Not even when I put him into the ‘medicine chair’, make him wait till I get the pill, sit beside him, open his mouth and pop the pill in!
Quite a change of attitudes!
And I did not do anything other than outlast his ‘bitching’ and ‘have the last word’.
One could say, I suppose, that I have learned how to ‘out-bitch a cat’!
… when an elderly couple inquired if I ‘needed help’!
I sat up, pulled my camera down and embarrassed the kind folks… I was just taking some pictures of my flowers!
Of course, lily of the valleys are pretty low – so, to get the best shots (the sun was just setting, and I ‘had to’ capture that ‘kiss’ of ‘setting sunlight’ on the delicate blossoms…), I had to be lying down in the grass, and angling myself for the ‘best shot’!
I suppose it is easy to mistake an amateur photographer’s attempts to get the ‘perfect shot’ with random writhing in pain…art hurts, and all that…
Enjoy!
(Updated to include the title…and fix some spelling….)
UPDATE: Having visited a friend who has a cat, I attempted to follow the above instructions to the best of my skills and abilities! Alas, I failed…
I cradled the cat, as shown. He looked very pleased, and not even a tiny bit ‘annoyed’.
I did the ‘sniffing’ – he closed his eyes, as if with pleasure.
I did the ‘serial kissing’ – after which the cat attempted to rub his cheek on me, as if asking me to show him more affection.
And, he appeared rather immune to the ‘little drop’…
After I let him down, he jumped onto my lap, asking for more – and not a peep out of him! (Unless purring counts.)
Therefore, I am obligated to report that I have been unable to replicate this procedure successfully…
UPDATE OF THE UPDATE: Having visited another friend, I tested the methodology on her cat. It worked PERFECTLY! Awesome cat-yodelling was enjoyed by all!
My personal observation: pick a slightly finicky cat!
If the cat is ‘too agreeable’ – no sound except for purring will be heard, therefore, no yodeling will result.
If the cat is ‘too finicky’ – you’ll be torn to shreds! Therefore, the key here is to find a cat with JUST the RIGHT amount of ‘finickiness’ to ‘tell you’ when you are being annoying, but not rip your face off!
Come to think of it, more people should have ‘just’ the ‘right’ amount of ‘finickiness’, too….
Now, some people think I am just a little bit opinionated. Hard to believe, I know, but, some people… I do, however, have some very strong opinions about ‘babies’, children and that whole parental responsibility to ensure the best possible chance of success for their kids.
And, I do – at times – get a little ‘worked up’ when I see people doing patently stupid stuff that will damage their kids for ever. Possessing an industrial dose of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I did what anyone who intended to reproduce does (or, perhaps I should say ‘ought to do’): I read anything and everything possible to make sure I did things ‘right’.
Perhaps that is why I now know that my opinions are right!!!
For example, I did not partake of alcohol (except once, with a non-drinker recording my reactions for my reference…it is important to know one’s own reaction to a potentially addictive substance) at all before I had my kids – and, of course, while pregnant and nursing. There were not too many studies on this, but – since alcohol decreases the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, this could potentially affect the development of my eggs long before I ever got pregnant. Therefore, I chose to avoid that risk.
I paid close attention to my choice of husband: he had to have complementary genetic traits to mine, high intelligence, good looks (the kids had to get THAT from ONE of us), and he had to come from an affectionate family so that his nurturing instincts would be properly developed for potential parenthood. Selecting the best potential father for one’s kids is not an easy task, but I got lucky – I found the perfect one!
I read research, read texts and articles, searched through statistics for such things as ‘age of mother vs. mean IQ’, nutrition (depriving an infant of breastmilk will reduce a person’s potential highest IQ by about 10 points – and LaLeche League volunteers will share their breastmilk with mothers who cannot breastfeed), early developmental needs, amount of skin-on-skin contact, stimulus levels… well, the list is rather long. Anything I could think of or that I learned could be a factor, I educated myself on. You get the picture…
And this is just simple ‘due diligence’! Something I thought every potential parent did – perhaps not as obsessively as I had, but, did none the less. Get educated, establish a stable social unit with sufficient economic security, get the nest ready – and only when things are ready, bring a child into this world!
Today, I went grocery-shopping with my older son. Yes, we both get a kick out of packing the groceries into the cart in the most space-efficient manner, then from organizing the groceries on the belt that leads to the cashier ‘just right’ – and today, we got told off for ‘overloading’ it… too much of a good thing, I guess. As we hung our heads in shame, we could not help seeing this Octomom’s picture all over the tabloids near the cash…
Just thinking about what this creature is doing to her children floods my blood with dangerously high levels of adrenaline!!!
OK, so she had 6 kids at once. There is no way these 6 babies got sufficient room/nutrition in the womb to reach their fullest developmental potential. It’s a simple matter of demand being greater than a single womb can supply! But, well, these things CAN happen… and, though I do not agree with artificially setting up a pregnancy like this, I also understand that IF this happens to someone – they simply cannot harm the fetuses, and so they carry through. I get it.
But, looking after 6 little ones is hard! It would be a full-time job for several adults!
Then, to go and do it AGAIN??? With 8 more babies???
Yet, this is not the worst of it. Not only did she do nothing to ‘prepare the nest’, this creature spent tens of thousands of dollars on breast implants (so much for nursing!) and plastic surgeries to make her face look more like Angelina Jolie’s! That has to be some unhealthy obsession this scary woman has…
My son watched my fury at her irresponsibility, then laughed and (mock seriously) said:
“I’m surprised she has not started to think that she should sue Angelina Jolie! Obviously, all this only happened because Angelina Jolie is so beautiful, successful – and an excellent mom. She’s too perfect! If she weren’t so awesome, this poor woman would not need to go to these lengths in order to stop feeling inferior! So, you see, in the end, this is all Angelina Jolie’s fault!”
This would be way more funny… if it was not actually likely to happen!
So many intelligent and constitutionally educated people are writing interesting things about the current situation in Canada. I’m afraid most clever things out there have already been said as everyone tries to find a solution to Canada’s constitutional puzzle.
Therefore, I thought I’d let everyone warm their cranium’s up with this fun and whimsical puzzle (along the lines of Einstein’s famous brain teaser). Before they tackle the REAL puzzle, that is. This one is just a fun, made up one.
My version involves 5 politicians (any resemblance to real-life politicians is purely co-incidental): Solid Steven, Fishy Gilles, Mindless May, Selfish Jack and Insecure Steph. Each one of them has their own highest priority, has or is in control ofdifferent things, the Media (MSM) have a variety of attitudes towards them, each one is doing something different right now and each one deserves something else. (I hope the colour coding helps – politics can be a confusing place!)
Solid Steven is not afraid of looking bad in history books, nor is he barely notedby the Media.
Fishy Gilles controls the balance of power.
The Media protectsInsecure Steph, but does not hateMindless May.
The person who is working hard to save our country is the same one whose hightest priority is the welfare of our country.
SelfishJack deserves contempt.
The Media barely notes two of these people. And, two of these people’s highest priority ispower. Yet only one of them falls into both these categories.
The politician whom the Media indulges deserves contempt.
The one who is in control of facts, knowledge and leadership skillsdeserves respect.
Unlike Insecure Steph, the person who controlsmore liberal votes than Insecure Steph is barely notedby the Media.
True to his name, Selfish Jack, along with Mindless May has power as his highest priority.
Solid Steven is the only one to have facts, knowledge and leadership skills.
The person who is laughing now actually deserves a grudging acknowledgement of a political game played to his best advantage.
The person most deserving of defenestration has not ooking bad in history books as his highest priority.
The person holding the balance of power is laughing all the way to his separatist-loving province.
The person who reminds us of Insecure Steph’spast sins deserves nothing.
The Media barely notes the person whose highest priority is the breakup of our countrywhile it hates the person who is working hard to save our country.
Despite the fact that the person who is trying really hard now not to look like a complete fool(the ‘not’ is debatable), deserves defenestration.
The person who controls dogmatic left-wingers– and not a leaderless, fragmented party frought with fraud – is just doning some shameless power grabbing.
So, WHO HAS THE WELFARE OF THIS COUNTRY AS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY?!?!?
(I’ll post the answer in a few days and link here to it – not that I’ll have to! This one should be easy to solve!)
For a little enjoyment, here is the laterst look at ‘the Squirrel Watchers’.
The loud sound as the clip opens is made by the Blue Jay: he yells like this if we are too slow to put out food for him. He’ll even sit on our window sill and make this sound…. and last Friday, I guess I was just not fast enough for his liking, so he flew just inside my back door, made this screeching sound, turned around in mid-air and flew out again!
The squirrels had learned that when the Blue Jay makes his little screech, my hubby will put out almonds – something the squirrels much prefer to peanuts or sunflower seeds. So, last summer, there was one squirrel which actually learned to immitate that sound!!! It was not as loud, and a little lower pitched, but unmistakeable! That same squirrel also learned to immitate our neighbour’s little yappy dog’s barking… Who would have thunk it that squirrels could be multilingual!
If you are wondering about the rabbit’s expression – he was getting jelaous that the I – and perhaps more importantly, the camera – was paying attention to things other than himself…. Typical: if you are paying attention to him, he gets suspicious. If you are not, he gets jelaous.
Anyhow, I hope that the little bit of backyard entertainment will be a pleasant interlude in your information-filled day.
A few days ago, I posted part 1 of this story, in order to demonstrate that we, Aspies, do indeed have a most excellent sense of humour. If you liked it (or the comment by EBD – which, by the way, is brilliant and which I intend to use as ‘my witty anecdote’ during this weekend’s Thanksgiving dinner – you might enjoy this one.
When the explorer landed on the island of Merzy, he was amazed by so many
things…one of them was just how healthy and youthfull looking all the natives were.
Once he was accepted, he learned the secret: they had a special tea that they
brewed in a particular way, according to ancient rituals….
What was neat about it was that the tea was made from some special buds that grew
very high up in these trees that grew only on the island of Merzy. There was no way
humans could collect them from the fragile tips of branches…. The Merzians had a unique solution: trained Koalas!!!
The Koalas collected the buds – we don’t want to know the detais – then return to the villabe. There they were (eventually) collected, and processed in a secret way – then, they were brewed into a tea.
When the explorer had to leave the island of Merzy, the chief’s daughter was very sad (the two had fallen in love). He promised to return to her as soon as his duties allowed – and she gave him (secretly) a sack of the Koala tea for his journey.
When our explorer returned to his Queen (who had funded the expedition), he wanted to repay her in the best way possible. Since his love had taught him to brew the Koala tea, he prepared it exactly right, to serve it to the queen.
During his audinece, a servant was bringing the tea in – and noticed there ‘bits’ floating in it – and, mindful of court etiquette, the servant strained the chunks out, returened the tea to the pot, and brougt it in.
The explorer served the tea to the queen and her court: they all drank of it – and mmediatelly died!
I wish I could take credit for this joke, but I heard it on the radio this morning. A caller to a show said it – so I don’t even know whom to attribute it to. But, it is excellent!
(For any non-Canadian readers: our current Prime Minister, Steven Harper, is a conservative – and it appears that 99% of the media people in Canada are fighting a valiant battle to ensure he is not re-elected…even though Canadian people like him. The media have systematically villified him, reported bad things – and blown them out of proportion – and failed to even mention positive things. It is several orders of magnitude more pronounced than what the liberal media in the US is doing, yet most of them are honestly blind to it and think themselves ‘objective’.)
So, without more ado, here is the joke:
Yesterday, Prime Minister Harper walked across the Ottawa River with bare feet.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
‘Media bias’ joke
October 9, 2008 — xanthippaI wish I could take credit for this joke, but I heard it on the radio this morning. A caller to a show said it – so I don’t even know whom to attribute it to. But, it is excellent!
(For any non-Canadian readers: our current Prime Minister, Steven Harper, is a conservative – and it appears that 99% of the media people in Canada are fighting a valiant battle to ensure he is not re-elected…even though Canadian people like him. The media have systematically villified him, reported bad things – and blown them out of proportion – and failed to even mention positive things. It is several orders of magnitude more pronounced than what the liberal media in the US is doing, yet most of them are honestly blind to it and think themselves ‘objective’.)
So, without more ado, here is the joke: