Recent Mars Images (Marvin the Martian throws down the kaboom in a guest zot)

[CatherineofAragon]

That’s one tree I’m not going to mess with, because those guys mean BUSINESS.

So adorable, LOL.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

[CatherineofAragon]

I am so sorry.

[Veto!]

Oh no, so very sorry that Roberta White has left the planet. What a terrible Christmas without your furgirl at your side.

[Veto!]

Oh no, so very sorry that Roberta White has left the planet. What a terrible Christmas without your furgirl at your side.

[Tax-chick]

I’m very sorry about your dear Furbeast, NC. She had the best family!

[Tax-chick]

Merry Christmas, Catherine!

It’s a fine sunbeam day for our catz, but they’re not enjoying it as much as they would without the dog.

[GeronL]

merry Christmas! everybody

[TheOldLady]

Thank you, and Happy New Year, too.

[boatbums]

My heart aches for you. We know ahead of time that we will in all probability outlive our furry friends, but that doesn’t make their passing any easier when it happens. I hope you find comfort in knowing that Bobbi had a great life with you and that she has prepared you to offer that same loving coexistence to another in her memory.

[Tax-chick]

Howya!

[TheOldLady]

She has gone to Jesus at the Rainbow Bridge, and you will meet
again, I wholeheartedly believe that.

There is no God so cruel that He would allow us to love our fur
babies so much and then never see them again in Heaven.

Doesn’t make a lick of sense.

I want to see my dog, Spottie, who got run over by a car when I
was four. And I’m very much missing my cats, Tiger, Muffin,
Little Bit, my Rocket, Slinker, Katy, Baby, Lucas Prince of
Darkness, and if I go before them, Bobbie and Shadow.

[GeronL]

I got a totally unexpected laptop for Christmas

[Tax-chick]

How nice! I got a pair of slippers just like the ones I had before, only a different color and without holes.

[GeronL]

I would have more likely expected your old slippers than a laptop.

On a good note, I can try that Kerbal Space Program demo now

[Tax-chick]

Watch out for viruses!

[NoCmpromiz]

So did you inherit WinAte with this new laptop, or something less annoying?

Merry Christmas. :-)

[Monkey Face]

The same wishes to you, Sir! I hope your day is blessed!

[NoCmpromiz]

Thank you all.

I wish I knew for sure how old she was, but I don't. We moved to this farm around Eastertime in 2008 and found that there were resident felines on the property. One of them was a White Furbeast With No Tail To Tell. We thought it unusual that a Manx would be loose in the wild and surmised that someone drove past, said 'Look, a farm' and tossed her out the window. We originally thought that Furbeast was a Tom so we named him Robert so that he would be Bob White, then we got a better view and changed her name to Roberta... The abandoned cat theory became stronger as time passed because while other female felines out in the fields became pregnant, White Furbeast never did indicating one of two possibilities, she was either sterile or spayed. Only problem with that last theory is who would pay to have a pet spayed and then abandon it...

Knowing that if you feed a cat they own you, I prevented Mrs. NoC from feeding any of the outdoor critters that wandered through the place (we do after all have an indoor herd of furbeasts of assorted colors and stripes, lately predominately black, that we support.) One evening after arriving home from work, I had a package of soda crackers in the car from a purchase of soup at lunch. There was snow on the ground, so on the way into the house I crumbled the crackers and sprinkled them on the snow for the birds. The next day while at work I get a phone call from Mrs. NoC telling me that the white tailless cat was in the back yard by the walk digging something out of the snow and eating it. I told her that I had sprinkled the crackers there, she said 'the poor thing must be hungry' and fed her.

Of course the effects of that were predictable and white furbeast started hanging around to get fed. We began by placing the food in front of the barn door, and thus I have the earliest photo (below) I can find of her dated Jan. 23, 2009 taken in front of the barn door. Camera is in one hand, food dish in other lest you think that she is posing for a selfie. Those of you owned by a feline will recognize the 'youse gotz foodz' look..

In time the food moved to the back porch because it was a trek in the wind and storm and cold to walk over to the barn, and we built a cathouse for her to escape the weather in beside the back door. (Cat house, unlike the ones in horribleHarry's state, consists of a $4 wallyworld storage tub inverted with a entrance cut out of the plastic, stuffed with straw and old blankets and covered with a tarp to keep the rainsnowglop out. It is still there on the back porch. Blankets have received washings and straw has been renewed. It has a new resident...)

Somewhere in that time frame, I'm thinking winter of 2010-2011 - first photo showing her indoors is dated Jan 2011, it was horrendously cold and windy due to glowbull warmthing, and White Furbeast was hanging by the back door begging to be let in. Mrs. NoC says, 'Ahh.. The poor thing is cold..." That was the last time that the White Furbeast was outdoors. She has had servants ever since. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. I'm thinking that since she was here when we moved in she belongs here and I should dig a hole and put her in the ground with the other residents here who have passed on either by crossing the road in front of the house at the wrong time or killed by stray dogs. Mrs. NoC wants to cremate her remains. The first option is of course the least expensive but must be done before the ground freezes solid due to glowbull warmthing...

Which ever is chosen, it will not be accomplished today.

I was holding her when she died. And I'm trying to pretend that I'm not emotional about it.

[Tax-chick]

Thanks for the story!

As for a spayed cat’s being abandoned, there could have been all kinds of reasons: people had to move, maybe couldn’t afford a new pet-bribe; couple broke up and he didn’t want her cat, or vice-versa ...

Anoreth got the Dog from someone who was leaving the post and couldn’t take her. I’m sure some pets are abandoned under those conditions, if nobody responds to the “Please take this cat!” notice.

[NicknamedBob]

"Funeral arrangements are incomplete. I'm thinking that since she was here when we moved in she belongs here and I should dig a hole and put her in the ground with the other residents here who have passed on either by crossing the road in front of the house at the wrong time or killed by stray dogs. Mrs. NoC wants to cremate her remains. The first option is of course the least expensive but must be done before the ground freezes solid due to glowbull warmthing...

Which ever is chosen, it will not be accomplished today.

I was holding her when she died. And I'm trying to pretend that I'm not emotional about it."

Down on the Road

My wife’s cat got killed down on the road the other day,
Expending all of its lives in a futile, final moment.
Probably, it’s better that it happened quickly,
We wouldn’t want the beast to live in torment.

We never got around to giving it a name,
Translating just as friendly sounds,
And we were just some folks it saw,
In making its appointed rounds.

The necessary burial detail fell to me,
I’ve had too much of practice in the task.
I’d just as soon it fall to someone else,
To let me shrug and wonder if she’d ask.

“So, have you seen the cat of late?
The poor thing must be ready to come round …”
“No, Dear. I haven’t seen it,
It’s probably in another part of town.”

The comfort of not knowing would be welcome.
Instead I have the dread of knowing truth;
That cats will go a-hurrying across a road,
As if the hounds of Hell pursueth.

Cats and highway vehicles don’t mix too well,
The feline wiring won’t admit,
That there are times and circumstances,
When cat-quick reflexes don’t fit.

And thus the grisly task inherits me.
Holding back my tears with stoic face,
I perform a silent duty to a former friend,
Caught between a wheel and a hard place.

Then walking back to put away the shovel,
I have a little time to give it thought.
Please let someone do the same for me,
When I have lost the final battle that I fought.

Just put me down where frost won’t make me shiver,
And cover with a blanket made of grass,
Amidst the roots which always smell so pleasant,
Of soda-scented sweetened sassafras.

NicknamedBob . . . March 19, 2008