Christmas Kitten!
I have often wondered if somewhere in the universe there is some sentient critter who would be recognizable to me as like me that has pets and cares for them like humans do, or that if aliens were to come down and see us spending time with lesser lifeforms, enjoying their company, feeding them, working a not insignificant portion of our lives to care for them, particularly ones that are carnivorous and large enough to deal us or our offspring grievous injury and death if they would think us foolish to have wasted our time and treasure on such frivolity. Dogs have been our hunting partners and camp guardians for at least 30,000 years, cats have helped keep our granaries and hovels vermin free for about a third as long, maybe longer. They have been tools and companions deep into human history. We became domesticated alongside each other.
I like cats. This is the story of a cat and the man that killed her. Me.
My emotional attachment to my pets has changed as I have aged, I imagine this is the same for everyone, our priorities change and we grow. We have gaps in pet ownership and gain a different perspective from that, we outlive a series of pets that we cared deeply for and see them hit by cars, lost, or to grow old and frail, the last being a window into our futures if we make it that long. We have children of our own and our lives become focused on keeping our genes alive longer, relegating our furry friends to guests in our homes and apartments rather than the emotional replacements for actual offspring that they become for so many people in the first world.
This also was me in part. I had my first child at forty. I had one cat for 16 years before my boy was born, I left her with my mother when I spent time enlisted and came back to find her old, nearly blind and diabetic with my sister taking ‘care’ of her while my mother was away travel nursing. I was irrational that she was in poor health and my sister casually giving her insulin shots in a ‘may get around to it today’ lackadaisical manner. I brought her home for the last week of her life knowing that her kidneys were failing and that only due to our first world lifestyle could I afford to have taken an elderly pet to the vet and give her insulin twice a day. I couldn’t do the deed myself and took her into town to be put to ‘sleep.’ I cried, a lot. I loved that cat.
Two more cats later, one alive at the time, one killed by an irresponsible neighbor and her outdoor poisoning of the vole population (which coincidentally also wiped out the neighborhood kestrel population for four years) and my wife found kittens on CraigsList. They were a 90 minute drive away but one of them looked a lot like a cat we had had years previously who was a ton of fun. Cats behavior and their coats seem to be tightly linked. She called the guy but kittens go fast in the post spay and neuter your pets days of the 2010s. He had made a promise to give the kitten to someone else earlier in the day but took my wife’s number in case that plan changed. It did, he called back and the next day my wife was off on a cat mission a couple days before Thanksgiving, leaving me with the boy who was not quite three and none too happy to not be put to bed by his mother.
Theys so cute when theys babies
She was so much like the cat we had previously, a tabby with a spotted belly and some serious spunk. I had heard of kittens in Christmas trees but had never experienced it in all the years having cats as pets. It’s funny as hell.
She was a blast, we named her Piper for the tabby stripes across her shoulders and hips that looked a bit like wings and tail feathers. The boy loved her even though she was a bit rough as kittens are and that’s OK, and he didn’t want her sleeping in his bed, that’s OK too, we felt that he was a bit too small for that anyway and she could be a bit jealous, the boy would be better off without a cat sleeping on his face. She grew up and then one day simply turned off. It was like a switch had flipped and her personality vanished overnight. She quit playing and sat all day, she would eat though, and eat, and eat some more, and go the the neighbors and eat again after she had finished with our house. Restricting her food didn’t help as she would go back to the neighbors place and fight their cat. Then one day she got bitten, there are no loose dogs in the neighborhood but coyotes and wolves do come through. If it was a coyote it was one hell of a big one. Whatever grabbed ahold of Piper got her on both sides with its jaw and penetrated her right flank with a row of punctures spanning six inches. She developed an abscess before we realized that she was injured so I took her in, it wasn’t cheep but she was my boy’s cat and we were worried. The surgery went fine but the infection came back, so again to the vet she went, this time to recover, with a limp and weight loss where she was once again normal cat sized. Sadly her weight loss didn’t last long. She became more of a piece of furniture than a pet, that switch that flipped not only had made her keep expanding but it made her dull, and mean. We had our second child.
Survived but probably shouldn’t have
Toddlers grab things. Cats have long handles on their hind end. Piper bit my baby. On the face. I should have done her that day but I love cats and no matter how bright they are only animals, Piper being on the low end of animal intelligence, so out she went. Only to get larger and even less of a pet and more of a part of the scenery. It finally came time, we had put it off too many years hoping we could get her to lose some weight to no avail. I waited until after Christmas and smuggled a cat carrier out of the house and loaded her up in my work truck and took her for the long drive.
She didn’t seem to care, she simply sat and watched as I set up for work and got running. Didn’t care that I had given her a treat of wet food and turned around to face the wall under the bench in my truck. The light had gone out years ago and was not going to come back on. I made a quick introduction between Piper and William Ruger and that was that. No crying, no emotion at all. It was simply a task that needed to be done. Will I feel the same when our Lola, a Siamese we got the day before we closed on our home all the way back in 2012 goes to her reward? I don’t know. But I do know that I will feel much less for her passing than I did for cats previous to Piper. I have grown.
Nearing the end of the long walk.
The kids have not noticed, Piper went to work with me on New Years 2025. I think they have mentioned her three or four times since then but have not gone to look for her, she was easy to find as she was pushing 30 pounds, if not more and would not stray far from her bed on the deck. Lola HAS noticed, the scenery has changed, there was some camaraderie between the two, some mutual defense, perhaps she feels its a bit more dangerous outside at night now, and she is elderly. After Piper was bitten we found that Lola had a bite on the tail as well. It’s likely that she came to Piper’s aid when she received her terrible injury and saved her life I’ll never know. Last week the old lady came in from a three year self imposed exile to the outside.
It’s nice to have an old friend warming my feet at night again.
Which as it turns out, two months later Lola got ejected from our bed and from the house for being far too disruptive too sleep.
Lola, 15
- Image
I like cats. I just don’t like living with cats.
Same.
I had two for 14 years until both passed in 2020. Probably never again – just more responsibility than I am looking for anymore.
My neighbors made that decision with their last dog.
She had some sort of esophagus issue where she had to eat special food at a certain head angle. Sweet lab but plenty of work, and they decided that they were done with pets.
Still have their grand daughters 4H chickens five years after she moved out though.
Yup. Ours all live outside. Two of the three sleep in the garage. The third got kicked out for peeing on everything.
Occasionally the girls lock one of the cats in their bedroom to sleep with them, but aside from that and the occasional 15 minutes inside, the cats stay outdoors.
I much prefer this arrangement to indoor cats, even if they’re less safe. The dog seems to knock some of that risk down, at least around the house. Keeping two of them in the garage seems to help, too.
We have a neighborhood male, Oslo. He sleeps in one of the neighbors garage and earns his keep by protecting the females on our street.
Last night he came in the house, layed on me and loved aggressively on me for about five minutes then went back outside. He’ll come in about once a year. It was odd.
My Siamese, Bean, was an immense help to me after my divorce.
She can be a shithead though. My favorite Lazy Boy chair has been clawed to bare wood.
Yet, she greets me at the door when I come home from work and meows until I pet her. She sleeps between my legs when I sleep.
Lola is like that. She will burrow up under the blankets between your legs when it’s cold.
Siamese are not cats.
They are Thai demons that breed with domestic shorthair cats and steal your soul.
And she will go all cross eyed and do bad things to our one rug if you don’t watch her like a hawk.
We’ve always adopted mix breeds and been unlucky on lifespan. I’ve had to euthanize four in the course of my marriage and it’s not been fun.
Our current one was dominated by her brother, but when we had to put the the brother down she became the queen of the house. The personality change is remarkable.
My wife wanted a cat, so we have a cat. It’s actually a decent pet, as far as cats go. Now 17 old but seems healthy.
17 years old
As a kid the longest lived cat we had was 12.
The cat I had in high school almost made it to 17. Full blown diabetes the last, probably 10 years of her life.
It was hard when she went. After the kids all that changed and my emotions were less hyjacked by pets.
My mom just put down my brother’s cat that he got when I was in college… I think it was 20 or 21.
They’ll live a while if you get the right genetics and give them to a crazy cat lady.
In the winter of ’65
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the 10th, Richmond had fell
It’s a time I remember, oh so well
https://www.wavy.com/news/virginia/gov-spanberger-signs-bill-to-end-the-renewal-of-robert-e-lee-license-plates-in-virginia/
Next time will be no quarter. That will all work out better.
Yes. No quarter is good. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_vG_mTt6hCs&ra=m
Idaho has “don’t tread on me plates” the fools pan the state a an extra $35 a year to have them.
Total facepalm from me.
It’s like having a thin blue line flag sticker.
NJ has specialty plates with additional annual fees as well.
No thanks!
But I support autism or parks or the capital restoration or THE THING!
I am a good person! I volunteer more taxes.
I’m a good person – so I oppose letting the government have any money.
*I’m doing my part by taking some away from them 😜
Never had a custom plate, but some of my relatives think up clever ones: e.g., 4GETITJK.
From ded thred- Oregon is about the same private/public land ownership. Step one would be to sell off the O&C Lands. Those were supposed to be private ownership all along but returned to federal control due to land fraud.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_and_California_Railroad_Revested_Lands
Unfortunately too many people consider those to be regular BLM land and scream if there was a whiff of selling.
Sixty years of land use regulation have completely fucked up property here. Way too much park land.
Any federal land that is not currently an active military installation which has been such since 1990, or was national park land in 1990, or is within the District of Columbia, should be sold in 640 acre parcels to individual citizens, with a bar on sale to forein nationals.
The revnue from these sales goes directly to paying down the national debt.
UCS
I would like to contribute to your senate campaign.
Huzzah!
Ports
DC
Border security
Bases
Land in U.S. territories
I see little to no other constitutional authority for the feds to own land.
States should own as little as possible for roads, courthouses and the like.
This is a country song! 😿
A different Joni
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=conway+twitty%2C+Joanie&atb=v198-1&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqSG3NwUkMXs
I had never heard that before.
A non-depressing C&W song involving a cat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZHSIhdYSZY
We have had a number of cats.
With the second cat we rescued, a very fluffy Maine coon, he came home and immediately did a right hand rule maze exploration of the house. Every room, both floors.. then sat down in my lap.
My wife wasn’t happy that the new cat seemed to be “mine”… and went to the rescue to save another cat… brought back a young kitten and her brother. They lasted about 15 years.
We haven’t had any new permanent guests, as we are traveling more often..
My wife is the Great Cat Mommy, they all go to her no matter what.
My wife wasn’t happy that the new cat seemed to be “mine”… and went to the rescue to save another cat
I see our wives play from the same playbook. Two of the three are our daughters’ cats we bought for them, but she rescued the third from church as a kitten and wanted it to be hers. It’s my cat now. That cat spent half its kitten hood perched on my shoulders or sitting on my lap and doesn’t even give my wife the time of day.
I miss my cats.
I’m sorry you were put in the position to have to put Piper down, and I’m sorry to hear that she had lost her personality.
I’ve never been in the position of having to make The Decision, and I dread the thought of having to make it for our current two toms. I have the means to do it your way, but I know I wouldn’t be able to carry it out myself.
I had to do it about ten years back. Feline leukemia. I personally had to go to the vet and stayed with her. Swore I would not get more animals after that. Now, I have two cats.
RJ that happened to one of our males, sweetest boy ever. It was hard.
I’m a different man now.
No cats, no dogs.
Wild critters eat and leave
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
Or maybe not.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/08/russia-warship-mocks-starmer-in-channel/
I look forward to the day Kier gets an infected paper cut and dies in his own public hospitals. Could I even say that in Britain? Probably not.
Localities are banning the English flag now.
Britons are already slaves.
Pay the jizya tax.
The British managed to defend themselves from Kanye West.
That one is hilarious. I think the real reason they banned him is he recanted his anti-semitism.
If he was still an antisemite, he’d fit right in.
The kids have not noticed, Piper went to work with me on New Years 2025. I think they have mentioned her three or four times since then but have not gone to look for her,
That surprised me.
They mentioned her a week ago.
Out of sight, out of mind.
She was such a non presence she has faded to nothingness.
Growing up we had a stumpy Manx (Cymric?) who would lie on a place, like atop the microwave, for days at a time. Sudden biter type.
Later had a ragdoll who’d follow me around the house, then one day lost all interest in me.
Putting Lemmy down three years ago was rough. We did it in the house and it was tough on us. I think he was ready, once he couldn’t walk. Our new guy is great as well, but they certainly have different personalities.
It’s amazing how different their personalities can be.
Often seems to align with coat color, at least amung the domestic shorthair mutts I’ve had.
I don’t think I would want to adopt a kitten. The personality change they go through at puberty is too great. Lily’s was more significant than I remember from previous pups, but that might have been that I was more involved in raising her.
Daisy is the first dog I’ve ever raised from a puppy and it was an eye opening experience. If anything, I think dogs go through more of a personality rollercoaster than cats. Cats mellow out and some get prissy, but they’re generally just a more chill version of what they once were.
Daisy went from a hyper, super attentive fuzzball to a shredder to a mostly chill, slightly-too-submissive-for-her-breed guardian dog in two years.
Oh, and after having a big dog for a couple years, I’ll never have an ankle biter again.
Lily is still hyper-vigilant. What changed with her is going from wanting to play with every dog encountered to being suspicious of new ones, while also going from ignoring humans to charming them.
I’m pretty sure the latter is she’s figured out that if she’s cute to people they’re more likely to give her treats. Extremely food motivated.
“She developed an abscess before we realized that she was injured so I took her in…”
Tough cat, to keep that hidden. (“Didn’t hurt.” <– Also me as a kid during spankings.)
It was big too.
It’s amazing how tough cats are.
Yeah, cats are wired to hide any injuries – from predators, I guess. Another difficulty in raising them.
They are pound per pound super strong and ferocious but they are only 5-20 pounds each.
Someone sent me a link to a Freddie de Boer “humor” piece about YA novels starring various pundits. I am really glad I’m not terminally online enough to find it funny (or even know who some of these people are).
I choose not to forward it onto you guys.
Thank you, the idea of it was making me 🤢
Have some overwrought dingbattery
The decision, which throws into question similar laws in 22 other states, relied on the First Amendment to hold that the law violates counselors’ free speech rights. But the decision also strikes a blow against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender dignity — a question the court’s opinion does not even address.
The eight-member majority justified its reasoning by suggesting that the law was one-sided, permitting treatment that affirms gender identity or sexuality but barring treatments that seek to change it.
But there is a reason the law is one-sided, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lone dissent pointed out: The medical evidence only supports one side. Reams of research show that “survivors of conversion therapy continue to suffer from [post-traumatic stress disorder], anxiety, and suicidal ideation.” And major medical associations all agree, no evidence demonstrates the efficacy of conversion efforts.
But particularly concerning is the vision of sexuality and gender identity that undergirds the majority opinion. Jackson’s dissent explains lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identity as simply “a part of the normal spectrum of human diversity” — not something to be “cured.” In contrast, for the majority, it is “a subject of fierce public debate” how best to help minors with their sexuality and identity. That can hardly be the case if gay or transgender identity stands on equal ground with straight or cisgender identity — nor is it consistent with them being equal in terms of safety, rights and dignity.
The logic is unassailable if you merely assume the conclusion.
And if you rely on “reams” of bullshit, biased “science”.
When even scienticians are conflating obviously unrelated phenomena like sexuality and “gender expression”, you know the game is rigged. And repeating them together in the same sentence over and over again isn’t going to change reality in your favor.
Speaking of conflating a bunch of unrelated horseshit.
Wow, I hadn’t thought of adding letters at the BEGINNING. Up to now they just tacked new letters at the end. You have to admire the creativity.
We have to rethink QUILTBAG now.
Paging UCS!
https://x.com/LakesFirearmsTr/status/2042024448845394403
😂
I got a captive buffer spring, so that didn’t try to leave. The retaining pin was nowhere near as much of a problem as those detent springs.
“Captive buffer spring”
Buffer spring: “Am I being detained?”
The other day I was disassembling and cleaning some bayonets I had accumulated.
I almost launched a button and spring across the room. Thankfully the spring was weak so it didn’t go that far.
This tortured quiltbag argument takes me back to the article about right wing oppression on campus. What the everloving fuck is “queer theory”?
Gay race communism.
Yes. Being a “persecuted minority” replaces class. Something had to be done, because damn near everyone was living comfortably. It was getting hard to throw down the class card.
It is leftist activism which pretends that everything is gay.
The nutters over at TOS are calling Trump “increasingly deranged” and talking about Article 25.
Now, I have openly admitted that I didnt understand Trump at all when he first came out. I didnt believe anyone would cast a real vote for him.
But that is because I had never seen him speak other than in his kindergarten teacher persona. “We are gonna have a wall. It will be a big wall. A beautiful wall. The best.”
I couldnt see how people missed that this guy was an idiot. But ai had never seen his rallies. Then I watched him speak to a large crowd. He did a 60 minute stand up set that was tight and hilarious and clearly largely improvised on the spot.
I finally understood Scott Adams talking about “persuasion “. I mean, I got that he was doing something… not that I really understood how it works, since my mind doesnt work that way.
But I came to learn that Trump is actually extremely calculated. He speaks with great intentionality, targeting a specific audience. He negotiates with extreme threats and quickly reverses course when he feels he has won all he can get.
So when he started talking about ending civilization in Iran, I was pretty sure I understood him. He was speaking their language.
Saddam Husein said “the sand will run red with the blood of the infidel”. He talked about his guests (hostages). He was negotiating in the language of his people. Hyperbolic threats and false bravado.
So Trump says he is going to destroy their civilization, he is saying “the sand will run red with your blood”. And what this means is not “i am about to genocide the Iranian people”, as the left (and reason magazine) are saying. It means “you better check yourself before you wreck yourself”.
And they responded in kind. They put out a press release claiming victory and that Trump caved on every point. But they also put out a much more conciliatory press release that largely said the opposite.
I struggled to understand Trump and his communication style. But even more than that, I struggle to understand what the press is doing. I struggle even more trying to figure out the libertarian media lobby over at Reason. Are they all just shilling? Do they truly fail to understand any of this stuff? Most of it seems so deranged that I have a hard time believing it is honest. But they seem so unhinged and passionate….
Or maybe I am missing something and Mr. “Rocket Man” has actually completely changed his tactics.
Off topic: Did you know you could get a reproduction of Oddjob’s hat from Goldfinger?
https://007store.com/en-us/collections/james-bond-goldfinger-collection/products/james-bond-oddjob-hat-prop-replica-goldfinger-numbered-edition-us?variant=43626231201947
Oh, that is kinda cooo…..
A thousand bucks?!?!?!?
(To be fair, that is my standard reaction to just about everything these days. “$15/lb for sirloin??” $8 for a 12 pack of soda???)