Pet(s) of the Day - August 31st, 2018

@therealjrn I tried to get Freyja in a shark hat once, I’m not sure she’s forgiven me just yet.

@riskybryzness @therealjrn My pooch, Zorro, has a hoodie too.

@Cythwulf @riskybryzness Mr. W in a cat hat from Japan.

@Cythwulf @riskybryzness Is that a pair of underwear?

@riskybryzness @therealjrn No? I’m pretty sure it’s your cat in a “cat hat from Japan.”

@Cythwulf @riskybryzness I was asking about Zorro! Did you put underwear on that dog’s head?

@Cythwulf @riskybryzness NM…it would have to be some weirdly shaped underwear.

@Cythwulf @riskybryzness @therealjrn I first thought it was underwear too.

@therealjrn how did you steal my cat? None of the windows are broken…

@Cythwulf @riskybryzness @therealjrn He just came home from a wild party wearing Japanese cat underwear on his head.

@riskybryzness @therealjrn Nope. It’s a hoodie.

My pooch, Zorro, has a hoodie too.

@brandom Looks liked yours is home to a Puggle!! Ours is too!!

@therealjrn I love chickens. I have a few at my parents house!

@KittySprinkles Boogie is the CUTEST.

@KittySprinkles

@tinamarie1974 Dare you to lick it.

@therealjrn nnnnoooooooo. Poor little guy. What would the frog think! My front porch is like a frog/toad sanctuary at night. They just hang out up there. That would scare them away!

@therealjrn this guy is a regular

@rtjhnstn oh my gosh what a pretty black shiny dog. Doxidor?! I want to plant a kiss on that snout.

@moonhat Dachshund - Lab mix.
Warning, he kisses back.

@PurplePawprints Love the video!

@therealjrn Thank you!

@PurplePawprints A puppy and a kitten? You have your hands full!

@Fuzzalini Yeah, we’ve pretty much lost our minds at this point. They’re a lot of fun, but with 3 dogs and two cats we’ve pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we’ll never have nice things again.

@PurplePawprints I hope we can see more of badger in the future! He’s a cutie!!

Huh. Guess I fuxxored the code stuff. I’m not gonna mess with it, I’ll just make it worse. LOL

New to the family as of today: Ducks!

@Pony Quackers!

Aaaaand new as of yesterday, a dog! (8 months old, from a shelter) We haven’t figured his name out yet, though. We’re waiting for his personality to tell us what it should be.

@Pony He has a wonderful smile.

@therealjrn Doesn’t he? He’s a real sweetie, too.

We’ve named the doggo Domino. And today, we got three more ducks.

@Pony Domino is a GREAT name! It suits him perfectly! I suck at naming pets. Did you name the ducks?

@therealjrn Thanks! I just came up with that name today, and he seems to like it. As for the ducks, nah, they’re too hard to tell apart, except for the one with the little pouf on her head pictured above. My husband named her Geraldine. I just call them “Ladies” since I pretty much always address them as a group.

@PocketBrain By home making it you can be sure then the shelves are big enough. Shelves that are too small is my main complaint against many of the commercial ones.

@PocketBrain that is a beautiful cat tree! You sound like the best kitty-parent ever.

@LemonTheCat Lemon is stunning.

@riskybryzness thank you!!!
She’s also a weiner cat. She dumped a giant glass of milk into the carpet today. One second the glass of milk was there, with Lemon in the vicinity; I turned around for 5 seconds, heard some sort of ruckus, and looked back. Aaaaand milk is dumped all over. And there’s Lemon, just BOLTING at top speed across the room like a bat out of hell. I’m talking, full sprint.
I don’t know if it was deliberate or not. And no, she was not trying to drink it. Lemon despises people food. Won’t touch milk/cream, meat, any dairy… none of it. If I put some in her dish or anything she just looks at me like, ‘wtf do you want me to do with this?!’
She eats cat food, because she’s a cat (I tell her this several times a day).
TL;DR: LEMON IS A WEINER CAT.

@LemonTheCat @riskybryzness

@LemonTheCat Obviously it offended her and she needed to take care of the situation.

@LemonTheCat

@KittySprinkles I have a folding table just like that!

@KittySprinkles She’s beautiful!

@therealjrn it’s a TV tray, there’s a couple we just use as random tables throughout the house.

@KittySprinkles Mine didn’t come with a cat.

@KittySprinkles Her other problem is being black as they have the lowest adoption rate except right around halloween (and so the cat shelter I volunteer out won’t adopt out black ones for the month prior to halloween nor for several weeks afterwards). Hopefully someone will want a tiny cat rather than a huge one. There is something to be said for tiny when you have a huge (from nose to tail tip he was nearly as long as a twin bed is wide)19 pound ragdoll walk across your chest and plunk down (one of the cats my neighbor abandoned and I fostered for over a year until he found a home).

@Kidsandliz One of our other kitties is a 20lb Maine Coon so I hear that. And you’re right, we will be very careful coming in to the next few weeks about her. I am going to try to go through friends etc so we know who’s getting her. Our rescue won’t bring black cats in for their adoption days in October.

@craigthom Glad you are feeding and fixing them.

We’ve got 4 adults and 5 kittens in the feral colony around here (of which several are abandoned pets, including orange kitty, so has been semi adopted someone in the neighborhood and spends most of his time on that guy’s deck - is fed by him too but that cat also visits other food sources on occasion).

Last year all 5 kittens died in the end. This year so far one just of them. They are fed by me on the weekends and holidays (and I check the church supply and top it off if need be), my neighbor, and the church. Unfortunately the church member who has fed them for the last 4 years is moving at the end of the month and no one is taking that over, and I am moving too. The guy in the same complex as me only feeds them weekdays and doesn’t check the church food supply. He was gone all summer, is gone all the school holiday’s (actually lives 190 miles from here and just has this apt for work) so these cats are going to have a problem when he is not here as no one will be feeding them (well except orange kitty but that food supply is 2 blocks away).

Also none of these cats are old enough to have been alive prior to the church feeding them so they aren’t used to hunting to eat. I worry about them. I’m trying to locate anyone who feeds cat colonies (and has money to cat, fix and release them) to take over for the church feeding station. There is a dog charity here but no cat one.

@Kidsandliz There may be other people feeding them, or they may move on.

I didn’t have any kittens this year, which means I finally trapped all that are here. The females, anyway.

I’ve been doing this for four years, but most of the cats are gone. They just stop showing up, and I never know what happened. That’s the nature of this process.

@craigthom Makes me sad though.

I snatched one from campus in December and gave up trying to catch the three 6 or so month old ones dumped at the end of spring term. They were clearly not feral, just scared. They’d sleep in the middle of open areas in the sun with no protection nearby and all the truly feral ones would hang with bushes or ground drain tunnels nearby.

@sicc574 Virg is adorbs.

@sicc574 She’s a ham.

@riskybryzness you shoukd see our outdoor cat, “Princess” equally hammy…

@sicc574 AH. She’s so cute.

@troy OH MY GOSH those 2 goldens are so cute! Talk about sweet faces!!

@moondrake How freakin’ cool is THAT? Thanks for sharing!

@moondrake I hope that parrot did not puke on your head. Was that a sloth who was cuddling on you? My niece has a summer “camp” job at a zoo and she has a cool photo of her with a kangaroo. I am envious!! Looks like a lot of fun.

@Kidsandliz Yes, a “two toed sloth”. The macaws were entirely civilized, in exchange forcsunflower seeds. The capuchins were equally well behaved in exchange for apples. I always find visits to animal sanctuaries to be lots of fun.

@moondrake AH! Your kiddos are too cool for their own good. Sloths always look so smug, such cool animals. A monkey and two macaws as well, I’m pretty jealous!

@therealjrn They do it to keep their throats healthy so they can kill and eat you easier.

@medz @therealjrn Here I just thought cats were filled with bees.

@craigthom What’s its name?

@therealjrn Harriet.

I left the front porch light on all night to help her get dinner.

@craigthom You’re a good daddy huh.

@therealjrn I do what I can. Feeding orb weavers is tricky. The safest thing is to attract flying insects into the area where she builds the web.

I had a spined micrathena on the porch, but she kept building her web over the opening to the mailbox, and she didn’t take it down during the day the way Harriett does, so I had to relocate her. I didn’t want the mail lady to have to deal with spider webs.

I kept taking down her web and telling her to build it somewhere else, but she wouldn’t listen.

Harriet builds her web off the side of the porch, so she’s not in the path of any humans. And she takes them down every morning, which is considerate.

@craigthom I have quite a number of daddy long legs in my house which I welcome because they eat bugs and take up territory that might otherwise be used by brown recluses and scorpions. I can’t say that they’re pets although the two that are right by the handle of the bathroom sink get talked to a lot. I used to have a jumping spider that was really a pet. He lived in my bathroom window. When you were sitting on the throne doing your business he’d come and sit on the windowsill and if you would talk to him he raised up the front part of his body and tilted head for all the world like he was listening. When you stood up to leave he’d hop up and down on the windowsill until you left. My guests are well aware that they are not permitted to kill anything in my house without my permission. Flies, mosquitoes and roaches are open season, although you’re required to dispose of the bodies of your kills.

@craigthom @moondrake

Just keep your spiders away from my CPAP mask and we’re fine.

@craigthom @jst1ofknd @moondrake Eek!

@craigthom @jst1ofknd But he was a real cutie.

@craigthom That’s a lot of void cats! I’m glad they have you for occasional pets and snacks!

@riskybryzness Yeah, it’s weird that there are so many black ones. Mama Cat was white and tabby. She had kittens that were white and tabby, white and black, white and gray, and Willie B, solid black.

One of the solid gray ones, Smoke, had a little of three black cats. One died, and the other two are here.

Then two more black ones have appeared. I used to have a multicolored set. Now it’s almost all black.

@craigthom Black kitties are my favorites. I love your little colony!

@craigthom

Where I am currently living we have small feral colony.

Daddy of most of them is black with a bit of white tuxedo type cat. I am thinking a bit in incest going on as well here as I don’t see other (unfixed) cats wandering around.

3 year old mama #1 had 4 kittens the summer before last of which 2 lived (one of which a neighbor kept when it walked into her house when they were feeding it the other is discussed below).

Last summer the same mama #1 had 5 kittens, none survived. Both summers she had a three legged kitten.

This summer mama #1 had 3 kittens which no one has seen in a while - but this time instead of having them on this side of the street she had them under the church across the street so that may be why we haven’t seen them.

Mama #2 is 2 and the baby from the summer before last of mama #1. She is mama to the litter hanging around here right now. She is a good mamma with an orange and white baby and dark calico baby. She lets them eat first, stands watch over them… Her other baby got run over in the parking lot a month ago (and mama #2 does more supervision of her babies since then). Very sad. They hang out under my car and likely I killed her not seeing her when I looked under the car - she was probably up higher in engine or something. I felt really terrible about this (still do actually). She was a flame siamese looking baby and was always sleeping on and playing with the orange and white. I felt really bad for their mama as she spent 4 days looking for her baby and calling for it. The calico is the runt of the litter and didn’t take over sleeping with the orange and white. Those two aren’t bonded in the same way the orange and white and flame siamese were.

My neighbor in apt #2 feeds them dinner M-TH (he lives in another state and so is gone all school vacations and leaves after work Friday coming back very late Sunday night. The church right across the street puts out food and water every other day and so most of the time there is food (I have been adding to it if it is out). They have done that for 4 years. That person is leaving at the end of the month and I am trying to find someone to take over. So far no luck and I worry about about these kitties and what they are going to do when their reliable sources of food are gone F. S and S (and not out 24/7 either like the church food is). According to the neighbors they have never known life without food at the church and from my neighbor in #2.

I feed mama #2 and her babies breakfast and both breakfast and dinner F, S and S. I am leaving before/near the end of the month (got into hud back where I used to live before this 9 mo job). I worry about them as well since the babies have yet to cross the street (and mama #1’s babies stay on the church side of the street) although mama #2 goes there and black kitty hangs out there. Suddenly the only reliable source of food will be just dinner M-Th and then only when school is in session.

Adult orange kitty is around 10. He used to hang here and eat but also hangs 4 houses away. The person living there is retired, has started to feed him, and is going to take care of feeding him on his rear deck all the time (once I told him about no more food at the church) since orange kitty is often on his rear deck.

Orange kitty is likely an abandoned pet (years and years ago abandoned). You can pick him up, groom him, he presents his tummy to be petted, comes tearing over to you for attention when called… The rest are more feral than not.

Where I used to live my next door neighbor fed an orange feral for several years, a russian gray, and a tabby (well and a very fat possum). The two of us did a trap, fix and release of orange kitty. He vanished about 6 months later after another unfixed male showed up (we figure he lost his neighborhood dominance after we fixed him as he’d show up, prior to that, all rag tag with fighting injuries on occasion). My neighbor adopted the gray (he must have been an abandoned pet as once he trusted you then you could pet him, pick him up…, orange was definitely feral) who died about two years ago of lymphoma - but at least the last 6 years of his life was with a family, and the tabby vanished.

My neighbor left behind their three and one day I was on my porch with the door open getting the mail. Those three came tearing into my house with orange kitty in hot pursuit. When orange kitty realized where he was he did a wheel smoking U turn and ran back out the door. I shut the door to trap the other three inside. My cats were freaked so I shut them in a room. Those three were wonderful cats. They, and the stray that was hanging out by a restaurant who the restaurant owner was going to shoot since it wouldn’t stay out and was too friendly (so I took it home), were adopted via the no kill shelter (I fostered until they had homes). I really, really, really miss one of those cats and wish I had kept it.

All 4 of my kitties were very young strays and wandered up (or in the case of the one I bottle fed handed to me without asking me as a squalling week old thing; one I rescued off the highway median strip in the driving rain, the other two litter mates wandered up). Three are 17 and one is 7. My 5th cat is one that was dumped on campus who is waiting for a space to open up at the same no kill shelter or a home to be found via them before there is space). It was hard to rehome these cats as I get too attached and all of them have been loving, sweet, gentle things. On the other hand, since I rent, I can’t really keep 9 cats.

@craigthom Well yellow and white baby might be dead too. Haven’t seen it in 3 days not when I have put out food or otherwise. I just fed them this morning and yet again only mama and the little runt showed up. Sigh. If this is the case it makes me very sad.These little guys are maybe 2.5 to 3 mo old tops.

Last fish in a 20 gallon tank.

Maverick

Cupcake

LB

PJ

Otto

Petey

Molly

Peach

I’m done.

@jst1ofknd Do you have any human children too?

@therealjrn

I do. They are not pictured. There are three of them and usually lumped into the same group as the animals.

@jst1ofknd Ha Ha!

@jst1ofknd Aww, Peach looks soft and cuddly. And what does LB stand for?

@moonhat

Different things based on our mood. It should be Licking Boy because he can’t control his licker.

Other than that it is typically in reference to the library where my wife found him.

@medz My hummingbird feeders were so full of ants I tossed them out Thursday and the hummingbirds have been coming around looking for food. I went looking for new ones yesterday and it’s too late in the season, couldn’t find any. Feel very guilty.

@moondrake I had originally tried to make my own sugar water, but the ants LOVED it. I’ve found the store-bought “hummingbird juice” lasts longer and doesn’t attract the ants as much. I felt bad because the juice had been in there a long time…it was all separated and stuff… After we saw the bird, I refilled it with fresh juice.

@moondrake
here is a whole pile of different ones
https://www.perkypet.com/store/bird-feeders/hummingbird-feeders

And this is an interesting article rating them (best one is $9 at amazon) - don’t know if they are independent or not though.
https://www.thespruce.com/best-hummingbird-feeders-4159147

meh sold some in the dark ages…

@Kidsandliz Thanks. I have some fancy ones but the birds don’t come to them and they are hard to fill. The $1 ones from Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree attract them in droves and are easy to fill. I’m going to try a couple more Walmarts and Dollar Trees before resorting to looking online. I’m trying to think through the logistics of making some top-loading ceramic ones for next summer. I’ve looked at the ones commercially available and they depend on a wire framework which I’d have to figure out how to make or buy. I’d prefer to have them free hanging. Or maybe find small hemp plant hangers to put them in. That would be more organic looking and probably less expensive.

Something like this

@moondrake trouble with hemp, etc is that it will rot and/or lose strength and then break due to weathering, sun…

@medz @moondrake The hummzinger saucer-shaped ones seem to be the best, from what I hear and have experienced. My mother is a serious hummingbird lover and usually has 4 of them out and seems to feed hundreds of them all year round. Everytime her and my dad go to Europe for a few weeks, I have to go to their house every other day to clean and refill the feeders

@medz @moondrake I have these: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZY2S16M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1 and the hummingbirds love them. I like that they’re easy to clean.