South Park

nobody@vox.com(krazycatlady) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:50:26 -0700

It's not often that I can equate the show South Park with a touching moment in rescue, so bear with me. I don't suggest by any means that you should go subject yourself to the crude humor (unless you want to), but when I'm in the right mood, that show just hits the spot. I know that people with kids read this blog, so I've kept it family-friendly with the rating of an after-school-special.

The premise of this show was to show how stupid it is to ban something rather than exercising self control - in this case cats were outlawed in South Park (kids were sniffing male cat spray to get high, the show could've been about passing a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance and it would've solved the problem!) So the cute part was that Eric, the normally crude and obnoxious little boy couldn't give up his cat. So Mr. Kitty (I swear this cat was Ms. Kitty in previous episodes!) was being hid in the attic. Then Eric sees another cat and doesn't want to get in trouble for hiding that one, but feels bad and so he tells it to come along and two more pop out from behind the fence and he says, well, what's the difference between hiding two cats vs four cats so they all get to be safe! Before you know it, the now kind-hearted Eric has an attic full of cats while the rest of the town was willing to load their cats up in the animal control wagon and give them up. I KNOW JUST HOW HE FEELS! That's how fostering started, just a pair of kittens, then you can't say no to the next ones, then you can say no over the phone, but someone brings a pair of kittens to PetSmart and how do you say no to their little faces? Next thing you know, you're a crazy cat lady writing a blog about cats!

Another scene that was really funny was when Kyle's mom found a cat in his sock drawer, he swore he was just "holding" it for his friend Kenny. The writing in that scene was awesome, mirroring the stereotypical conversations from every sit-com or afterschool special about a certain subject.

And for those of you who are fans, I've already named a litter of kittens after Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny. I've also used the name Butters and Timmy! Most of the time the show is just pretty stupid, a lot of the time it's really disgusting, but when they get it right, the irony and sarcasm are just spot on. I'm always amazed at how often things in my normal life reflect what we do with rescue. Just never expected it in an episode of South Park!

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Paws Need Claws

nobody@vox.com(krazycatlady) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:30:21 -0700

Here's a good website if anyone is having trouble iwth their cat doing inappropriate scratching and you want to avoid declawing. I like this site because it doesn't just tell you that you're evil for declawing; it offers solutions to help you and your cat be happy with the claws. I included it in my list of links (off to the right under my name) so you can refer back to it when you need to.

Also remember to check in to my other blog www.hhstrivianight.blogspot.com to see the cool donations that you can bid on at our silent auction! It's also time to start reserving your tables for the big event so send in your money to save your spot! We're hoping to sell out this year!

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Mother's Day

nobody@vox.com(krazycatlady) — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:59:16 -0700

I try to keep this blog on topic about my life in rescue, but the rest of my life does play a part in all of this and there's no denying that my first responsibility is as a mother to things that walk on two feet. As any mother knows, there are times when things aren't going to go according to plan. As a kitty foster mom, I'm dealing with a couple of cats that have upper respiratory infections (bad colds) and trying to keep the rest of them healthy. With my human baby, she had a fever and some cold symptoms and had to stay home from school yesterday.

This did not please me. With only a month left of school, I'm trying to make the most of my child-free days. I had an appointment to pick up some donations and needed to check the Heartland mailbox. I always try to find the bright side, so I thought at least she's feeling well enough for me to take her along on my errands and let her stay in the car. I even got to do my weekly indulgent visit to McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin and got the girl some hotcakes.

The donations were awesome! A local retailer lets us come once a week and pick up broken bags of food and litter and whatever else they deem suitable for pets. There's a new woman in charge and she loves us! I told her that we'd take anything that could be used as a door prize or silent auction item. Well we hit the jackpot yesterday! We got a cd-boombox and a wine refrigerator - both had cracked boxes but both work just fine (yes, I tested them).

Things were looking up, I got home, unloaded the car, sorted everything and was ready to get back to cleaning the house. Since the girl was still outside with me, I had her gather up the garbage and put it out at the curb with the rest of the week's trash. The middle of the day was fairly uneventful, just trying to rediscover the kitchen counter tops in what seemed like an archeological dig! I also managed to get all the cats taken care of before my husband got home and that always makes him happy. So after bleaching out 5 litter boxes I was ready to make dinner.

Hubby wasn't eating dinner with us, so I indulged the kids in fish sticks and Ore-Ida french fries. We'd been having quite a bit of pizza lately and I was worried about the smell of the cheese that had hit the bottom of the oven, so even though it was raining, I had a couple of the safer windows open for ventilation. Little did I know we were about to open every window in the house - the good thing is that the rain stopped right before the oven caught on fire. Flame grilled french fries didn't quite do it for my kids. Luckily my brain was working quickly and I turned the oven off and shut the door and without their heat source or oxygen, the flames put themselves out.

On the bright side, the house didn't burn down, the rain had stopped so we could air it out, I got to talk to the kids about fire safety and it looks like the oven still works. See, I told you that I was good at this! We even tried to laugh about it. It was stressful, but not the end of the world. No, that came soon enough.

The youngest just got her braces off and has a retainer. The attitude at the Orthodontist was don't lose this, you don't want to know how much it costs to replace. It's been two months and she's been really good about putting it in a good place while she's eating and generally wears it for at least 3/4 of the day. She forgets to put it back in after eating sometimes. Remember that trip to McDonald's? Remember me being on top of the game and taking the trash to the curb on garbage day? Any guesses where that retainer was? It's certainly not in the car anymore, believe me, we looked.

I was having a hard time finding the bright side last night. We're looking at fencing the back yard (see previous posts about my dogs for that one), the wash machine is broken, so I'm probably getting a new one for Mother's Day, the dog had just cost us a bunch at the emergency clinic and I haven't blogged about my dear old cat Max who now has crystals in his urine, the oven had just been on fire, I need to sell 400 more tickets to the Rascal's Game before the end of the month (you do want to buy some, right? - visit our website www.heartlandhumanemo.homestead.com for more information) and I was facing an If-You-Have-To-Ask-You-Can't-Afford-It visit to the orthodontist. I tried my sunny outlook, but just couldn't get it going. I tried telling myself that we're all alive, healthy, it's only money, but I was stressed. I woke up this morning after having every stress and anxiety dream in my arsenal (yep, forgot there was the final exam and had to sit and take it without studying and then there was something about Harry Potter, dreams are so weird!)

And then I read this email. I laughed and found my happy place again. I called the orthodontist and it'll be $235. Not money I want to spend, but not the end of the world. It's all part of being a mother. I'll keep looking for the sunny side and stop letting the stress make me lose track of what's really important. So I'm off to the vet this morning to get 2 more kittens spayed/neutered and they'll be able to come to PetSmart tomorrow to get applications on them. And that's what it's really about. My life is arranged in such a way that I get to be a full-time mother and I get to play a part in saving these cats and those are my two dream jobs. Not every day is going to go smoothly, but that's ok, it's not supposed to.

I hope you get a kick out of this email and that it can brighten your day just like it did for me!

A Mother's Day Moment!

So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.
Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on
him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day
long on this mat in our bathroom.

Well we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years
old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really
loves chapstick. LOVES it. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then
losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my
chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he
needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around
and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My
two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to
nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up.
Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day
to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally have the older one and and the baby loaded in the car and
I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the
corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying
my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . . . rear end. Eli looked
right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know
that he is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly,
Jack didn't seem to mind.

And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was
the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds
us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little
creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've
been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.

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krazycatlady’s blog

South Park

Paws Need Claws

Mother's Day