May be moving to Oregon

Yes, I think they are around. (I know they're not. The vamps, I mean.) ;-)

My babies don't even try to leave the yard anymore. It's been several years. They sit in front, too and watch the neighbors until they get too close then scamper to the door. All my kitties have been indoor kitties and rescued kitties.

It really could be possible for a deranged person to fixate on consuming human blood...but not likely you will ever meet such a mental case.

Katie59...you have a good point about dog maulings and the kids that may be seeing this sort of thing on the news and becoming fearful. I can understand that as a rational fear. I was more thinking about little kids too young to even watch the news being terrified of kitties just because they have never been near one before.

Beth: You wrote: "absence of evidence doesn't equate with evidence of absence". I love that!! I wish I had some bats around here to keep the mosquitos low. Although, with the colder temps, it's been better this year.

TootsiePop: Those raccoons are scary. My vet told me that the females can learn to co-exist with pets, but that the males hunt in pairs and are psycho-violent. You are smart to keep them away from the house. Their urine (if eaten on the grass by your pets) is toxic and they carry tons of bacteria. I'm sure you know that. Anyway, I find them awfully cute, but they scare me nonetheless.

Cinder is beatuful. What a dignified lady. My friend has a black with grey "Cinder" as well.

Yes, Beth, you're right. I have no idea what caused my great-nephew to have his fear. He's never seen or been subject to an aggressive dog. It just came out of the blue when he was about 2. Funny how we're all different, though. As long as I can remember, I have identified with the gal in the Disney Move "The Nine Lives of Thomasina" who lived in the woods and healed all the little animals. Can't imagine why that doesn't appeal to everybody else. LOL

Television could be to blame. I never gave a thought to what my daughter saw when she was just a wee thing. Parents are more aware of this so... being only two, maybe someone said something he didn't quite understand?

katie59: I love the Thomasina movie. The one that got me when I was little was Snow White. When she got lost in the woods and all the eyes were looking at her? Whew!

I'm so glad somebody else has seen Thomasina. There aren't many of us out there, I don't think.

I remember that scene from Snow White . . .

Wow - you've all been busy today!
Great movie Thomasina, as well as Old Yeller & a couple others from waaaayyyyyyyy back when tv was black & white, and your brain did all the colour editing.
But nothing could give me the willies like those flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz!
I was 3 when I saw it the first time, and had reoccuring nightmares about them.
The other was the apple trees. Made me think twice about the wanton pilfering of fruit from an orchard...

I thought the apple trees were cool! And Old Yeller just makes me cry. Who didn't think that the deer in The Yearling wasn't the cutest ever?

oooooh - forgot about that one!
O.Y. was sad - so sad. But it made a permanent impression on me - a very positive one. It also caused me to want to read about animals, and that was a very good thing in so many ways.
The apple trees were great & quite "in character". But I decided in my very young mind that it would be best to always treat the fruit trees with the utmost of respect. Just in case....

Anyone watch the Lord of the Rings? I think of the big fir, cedar, and hemlock trees surrounding my property as Ents. At night, I can almost see their eyes blinking. To some it might be creepy, but to me it's comforting.

Absolutely! I tried to find the faces in the trees when I was little.

Now I have to find my old copies of Big Red and Where the Red Fern Grows! Those two made a huge impression on me.

LotR always made me look around more. They did an excellent job with the movie.

Ohh. Where the Red Fern grows. I still can't get the image of the one dog on the grave of the other out of my head. Makes me cry every time.

Where the Red Fern Grows - oh what a tearjerker! I remember my 4th Grade teacher Mrs. Johnson read us that book - even she cried!.... then I read it for myself and cried. What a story

Where the Red Fern Grows is the book that finally turned my youngest into a 'reader". Dont' get me wrong, he could read before that but chose not to. When the teacher started reading that to her class in installments he couldn't wait and actually got the book and started READING for pleasure. Reading is one of lifes greatest pleasures! Portable, inexpensive (or free in most cases) and can be done almost anywhere with any amount of time available (as opposed to stuff that takes major put up and take down time).

Me too!

Now I've gone and done it! We're all going to be weepy on our keyboards!

Yes, it doesn't take much for me to get weepy when it comes to children, elderly and animals.

Year ago, my niece, who was 7 (and gifted at the piano), drew my name for giving a Christmas gift. My brother took her to the church to play a couple of songs so that they could videotape them for me. One of the songs, one she had written herself, was for her beloved cat, Fassa, who had been put down because of old age not long before.

At Christmas, Maggie gave me two gifts, one that said, "Open me first." It was a box of tissues. The other was the video.

Things really haven't changed much, except for the fact that Maggie is now 26 and works as a music therapist. LOL

Sounds like she started conducting her therapy sessions early!

Good point. I hadn't thought of that. ;-)

that is so sweet - and so much more memorable than a fruitcake!

Heehee. Most fruticake is memorably awful, IMHO. Yes, my brother thinks of everything. And my niece is pretty incredible.

lol, I'm not a fan of the fruitcake either - too much "stuff" stuffed in, that you would never eat on its own...... I'm sure there are exceptions.

Happy October !

RTP - looks like your PunkinMan has a hangover!

The only fruitcake i have ever liked is the type that has more fruit/nuts than "cake". So, I think - why bother with the darn stuff. Just get out the fruit & nuts: Real fast-food!

agreed, can't stand it all mixed together like that. We are off to an early soccer game !

I'm way behind on my threads, but sure enjoyed reading this one!

Redtootsiepop. I had a big yellow tabby who adopted us when he was about a year also - one of the nicest cats I ever had - he was literally starving and never quit eating once I took him in - eventually died of diabetes, probably due to his weight. My other "nicest ever" cat was the gray one I lost this summer (most likely to a coyote, like Katie59). I think the coyote may actually have come up on my deck to get him, as one of the females literally freaked as she sniffed around the corner of the deck about where the stairs are. I found four light tufts of fur on the lawn (in a row). Katie59 and I have been commiserating on our losses - such anguish to lose one.

The two girl kitties I have now are as different as night and day (not just because one is black and the other is almost all white!). The black one is a character - loves to play, sneak up on me, etc. The white one is very serious and definitely considers herself a queen.

oh funny murmur, so they are living up to their fur color - I always think the white cats look like they should be called "Princess" oh, and those black cats are always so mischevious !! My friend had an all black kitty, we ordered pizza one night, as soon as she opened the box, the kitty came charging into the room, landed on top of the pizza and skidded across the room on it !!! no kidding, we laughed our butts off!

*Sorry about your gray cat, my family had a big gray cat (Burford) who was sooo fantastic, best personality ever - he lived a very long time -19 years. It's so hard to lose them , especially those special ones !!

I'm literally laughing out loud at the mental picture of the kitty skidding across the room on the pizza - too funny!!!!

I couldn't stop laughing! That's just too funny! Cats are great.

A friend of mine sent me pictures of cats painted up for Halloween. This one is my favorite. I hink this is done digitally.

Happy Halloween everyone! Kwanjin

Maybe it's digital but I don't think so. I saw something on the internet on painting cats. The price was outrageous and of course "not permanent". I mean.. not anymore permanent than any cat's hair is! It grows, it sheds...

Even better. Some of these are amazing.

Wow, digital or not, that skeleton cat is very wild. Be kind of freaky at night in bed, though. My cats like to jump up on the bed and then walk up to my face -to see that leaning over me-especially if they're waking me up, would give me a start, at least the first time!

Murmur, I thought I'd posted that I was sorry to hear about your cat, but I don't see it anywhere. I must've forgotten to hit send. Anyway, I'm sorry you lost your special cat. Funny how some of them just hurt more than others.

The pizza-boarding is hysterical-did you order another pizza?

edited because of the new picture just above this post......(The clown is funny.)

This message was edited Oct 7, 2007 5:50 PM

This message was edited Oct 7, 2007 5:51 PM

Kwanjin: Guess I've seen these cat paintings before. Never could understand how they got the cat to sit still . . .

TootsiePop: Love the pizza-boarding and that you were all able to get a laugh out of it. Did the cat take off, or stick around to eat?

Colors of cats I have: grey, seal point, calico, black and white, black, cream, tortoiseshell, gray and white tabby. Many are from the same colony (I didn't set out to have 12 cats, believe me). I really thought it was the tuxedo cats who were the dog-lovers until I got my two young Cerebellar Hypoplasia kitties. The little girl, calico and polydactyl is a hoot. She loves my dog, Magic, and accosts him when he lays down. Fortunately he likes her, too. She's also a terror and her disability doesn't stop her a bit. I came home a couple of weeks ago to one of my parakeets mortally wounded and in her mouth. My other cats had resigned themselves to the fact that the cage was up high because it was off limits. But not Gemini. The birds are now at home in the guest room until I rig up something to hang their cage from the ceiling.

So now, she prances (sorta like a drunk person with snowshoes on) into the room with her toy in her mouth like it was prey . . .


So now I can't find the picture of her curled up with Magic, but here she is with Sahara.

Katie what a darling face! We have a calico also, Chimay and a black Manx Georgia and a grey and white tuxedo Cleo and Cinder (our 11 year old lab mix.) We also have two bunnies Stormy and Chai. They make the world a better place for sure. Georgia is curled up next to the fan on my laptop, she get's quite irritated if I bump her while I'm typing. She is the Queen!

That photo is calendar material - adorable!!! My kitty who disappeared this summer was polydactyl also, but got around like any other cat. I guess I need to share a photo of him for my own sake). Here he is sniffing the air last April. He was a big cat, too - weighed at least 15 pounds.

What a cutie!!

Black and white is the only way you can be sure to have hairs visible on anything you wear.

Isis is the black and Monty is the white. And yes, as different as...

I'm sure your Isis look like my Friday (DH named her that - said she reminded him of Friday the 13th). Here she is - her eyes are not that color, they are green - this was just some sort of reflection (or kitty red eye).

Sorry, that's the evil showing through. ;-) (I couldn't resist.) I know you cutie isn't evil.

This message was edited Oct 7, 2007 10:47 PM

LOL - believe me, she can be evil!!!! But she's my baby - and loves me so she can't be ALL bad!!!!

They can be sweeties!

Very BIG sweeties!!!