You make me laugh...SO ...HARD!!! We can talk about ANYTHING you want, like how good red wine MIGHT actually be during a crisis at 5 am....

My cat ate a fancy african frog one time--apparently it escaped from somewhere. It paralyzed his vocal cords for a while (something to do with the frog's secretions--I know, gross, right?!) but he lived.

I can tell you a poop story! My darling husband was at home on paternity leave with our then 3 mo. old daughter and he had her set up on her bouncy chair beside him at the computer. She produced a poop with such force that it not only exited her diaper, it flew 3 ft. across the desk onto his computer screen. ha ha. He called me at work totally grossed out.

Did that get your mind off the kitties?

Katia

LOVE the Soba pictures! It looks like she's doing a self-portrait -- and is quite talented too. Imagine drawing like that without opposable thumbs.

Glad Roy's fine. Did the yellow streaks come off his face or is he still sporting a punk look?

Awwww. The Soba kitten was so cute! Did she take over the house right away, or was it a gradual, well-paced evil plan?

You need to set up a kitty cam so you can watch them from work. :)

People don't give animals much credit. We used to live in a house that had a whole back yard full of very poisonous oleander. Did my dogs ever ingest any? Nope.

Eat 18 rimadyl at one time? Yep.

1/2 a pound of chocolate covered coffee beans? Yep.

All still alive? Yep.

Happy Friday, Laurie! When I read yesterday's post, I about died laughing. My kitties have been known to eat flowers, but I don't think we've ever had a pollen incident. I'm glad Roy's ok!

Helen

i have to admit that a large part of why i wanted a tortie was because of your Soba. i now have a torite baby and a black baby, and i have to say that the black is much more of a terror than the tortie. huh? so i'm interested in the above question as well. did Soba take over gradually, or was she working on her take over from the beginning? i'm technically fostering my babies right now, so i had to take them back to the coordinator yesterday for a vet check. it was so quiet in the house yesterday without those two being crazy. i have to download more pics of them for my blog!!

How about knitted poop?

How about knitted ovaries (and um other stuff)?

http://www.yarnivore.com/mt/archives/000839.html

Ok--so my mom was in the hospital a few years ago for a broken ankle. (from a golfing accident of all things, who hurts themself while golfing?) My aunt who felt guilty for not making it to the hospital--she was on her way to Europe-sends the most outrageously huge bouquet of lilies. Pollen a plenty. I felt like sending her a bill for the replacement of the white t-shirts it stained. People--DON'T GIVE LILLIES AS CUT FLOWERS!! It truly is the flower that keeps on giving.... Good humor.

We are about to adopt a dog that just ate its way through a door. Oh dear. We've already ordered the "calming pheromones." I have a suspicion that money could've just been thrown away in the trash, or hey - used for yarn! Glad Roy is okay. I for one had no idea they were poisonous, ahhh!

I think Soba was enjoying her little portrait. "Already the naked pig monkeys worship me!" (That's what my cat calls me and dh, by the way.)

My cats used to eat flowers ALL THE TIME, and the worst case scenario was just a bunch of cat barf I had to clean up. I have since instituted a "no flowers in the home" rule, because it's just easier that way. Roy will be A-OK, I promise.

Hey Laurie!
So glad to hear Roy is okay. When I had cats, they were partial to plastic bags. Always interesting to see what came out the poop chute.

I've gotta tell you, that even when my heart is low (like now), you keep me smiling. So do all the bloggers on your site. You've got lots of friends who care. Most of them you'll probably never meet. That's gotta feel good.

Keep up the fun!

Okay--so one more cat eating story. My mother's cat ate an entire spool of Christmas ribbon once. Happy New Year--$1,000 in surgery! Roy looks pretty good to me.

Note to Laurie - Call vet first, cry later if needed, thus ensuring no tears are wasted through the well-meaning if unfortunate and potentially terrifying "advice" given by people on the Internet.

I need to work on this in my own life, matter of fact. And if I lived near you I'd make you some biscuits with blackberry jam, and bring them over to take the edge off.

:)

I wonder what color the pollen-poop will be?

Roy probably got far more flower on his fur than in his mouth!

Okay, the previous commenter's poop story with the computer screen?!? Gross. And hilarious.

You actually fooled me into thinking that maybe you were knitting again. Oh well.

Ah, I remember the time, while living in a studio apartment, when my cat pulled the palm tree off the desk and onto my sofa bed. While I was still asleep in it.

Hmmm. Maybe I had better rethink this "I'm missing cats and must get some soon."

My bassett ate a 1# chocolate Kiss my evil MIL left sitting out. He did not die, but what his body produced as the by-product is the stuff of legends.

I'm sorry you got freaked out. I mean, he was still there when you woke up, why would people be all like crazy about it?

I would love to see what you're working on. Got any pics?

The cat will live. They always do. Except when they don't, but let's move on. Here's a joke for you: What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?....
DAMN!! (Ha ha! Get it! Damn, but like a dam!! Ha ha!) Ok, time to go home and find a beer. Sigh.

I just bought a pound of Greenie bits for my Maltese dog (he chews them up to clean his teeth) and while I was away, my Airedale got into the bag and ate the whole thing. I got home to an empty bag. The surprises continued when I went into my family room and found that he had thrown up the entire thing onto a red deep pile shag area rug. All red with green bits. Very Christmasy. It would have been funny at the time but they're really expensive.
Pets and children are never perfect and will always cause stress and humor (sometimes at the same time). I'm sure there are people who think a pound of Greenies will kill an Airedale. Advice is like an heirloom from your grandmother. Everyone has something they hold to their heart and sometimes, it's a bracelet with great value and sometimes it's a silly song on a 78rpm record that sounds good but has very little value in the real world.
I know nothing about cats and flowers but I did enjoy the laugh. :-)

I think this is a perfect time to bring up Jen's untangling a skein of yarn experience, personally... But I'm still laughing about it (with you Jen, I promise).

Just as a by-the-way, the danger of poinsettas is a myth - they aren't a problem, for animals or children. Once spent a whole Christmas terrified that I was going to come home to a dead kitten, so I know how you feel.

Lilies, unfortunately, can be toxic, but poor Roy probably didn't actually eat much. My cat shreds flowers, he doesn't ingest them.

And if you're worried about the future, you can buy wall vases. That's what I use. They're pretty, and keep the flowers out of cats' way. I need a bigger one, though. The ones I have won't hold glads.

Talk about ANYTHING? Tell Roynaldo that in World cup soccer, Mexico plays Angola today. We gotta support or southern neighbors. USA plays Italy tomorrow and what better than Italian men in shorts! Sorry I LOVE me some soccer!

Anything anything?

Cat gas?

Are younger men just a temptation or actually good for us girlies in our 30's.

Teaching mothers to dye yarn. o.0

Yes, it's been an interesting week in NorCal.

Ooh yeah, USA v. Italy...hard to decide who I should root for! Mmm, Francesco Totti's gorgeous though. Italia it is! :)

What I wanna know is how did Soba get her name???

I'm sorry that you got so scared yesterday. Bad commenters and emailers!!!! Don't you know just the MENTION of trouble to a neurotic cat person (myself included) begins a chain reaction of panic that knows no bounds????

A Friday Poop story: when my beagle was a puppy she ate my daughter's flourescent pink rabbit's foot. We didn't even know that she did this until a GIANT PINK POOP appeared in my yard a few hours later.

Imagine explaining that to a six year old who loved to eat crayons just to see the pretty colors....if you know what I mean.

Have a wonderful weekend, Laurie. I have some pictures of my family on my site if you're stalking today.

Someone's birthday is next week................!!

and there's the barf stories too... Riley Mae - our 1 year old English Springer Spaniel - ate about 4 pounds of chocolate that our 14-year old fool left on the kitchen floor. We had to take her to the vet to induce vomiting. So I made this analogy... A night with a 4 pound bag of chocolate is to a dog, what a bottle of tequila is to a human.
1. it's great going down
2. you fell naughty and you know you shouldn't be doing it
3. you feel really really great for just a little while
4. you feel like death-warmed-over shortly thereafter
5. vomitting is the best cure for the way you feel
6. laying your head on a tile floor after vomitting up more than you ingested (why is that?) Bless her fuzzy little heart, she was so pathetically cute lying on the vets' cold floor. If only there were a toilet bowl for her to hug. Alas.
7. after spending about $100 all you get is a headache and an empty tummy.

sadly, though, she will not remember not to do that again. I however, will not do tequila again. Well, not this week anyway.

Hey, that's good new about the kitties. And I like Soba's self-portrait? Do you draw? If so, post a few pics up!

Hey, that's good news about the kitties. And I like Soba's self-portrait! Do you draw? If so, post a few pics up!

Soba's quite the sketcher for someone without opposable thumbs. If she had 'em, watch out!

Which reminds me, you were going to get your paints out. . . have you been doing anything with the art lately?

My cats are partial to curling ribbon for packages....when they pop its like a little gift wrapped in ribbon!!

They also LOVE spider plants and plastic bags....

something else?! of course we can talk about something else!
friday. the weekend. knitting. wine. martinis. hanging with Puddy on the deck. music. cooking. eating. wine. not thinking about work and all the awful stuff in the world. martinis. sleeping late. happy cats who poop yellow. happy weekend. enjoy!

I've recently had a tortie adopt my front porch. She'll greet me when I pull up in my driveway and whenever I walk out my front door, will rub herself against my ankles, but won't let me pick her up without scratching the hell out of me yet. I recently told her "You're not my cat, I can't have another cat. I'm really close to naming you and like CAP says, once I've named you, I've bought you and I can't have that. Sophie." note, that "Sophie" is said in a whisper.

So, it appears as though I have a tortie.

Oh, baby kitty!
Gotta love the baby Soba -- sans attitude, too. (Doesn't have that wisened look in her eye yet.)

PLEASE POST MORE BABY KITTY PHOTOS!!!!!!!!

And these in particular lead me to realize that, for being an artist, we see NONE of your artwork.

What's up with that, Crazy Lady?

Sorry to hear about all the pet stress. It's never fun when furbabies are or can be sick.

no cats here, but a small dog (shi tzu) who can and will eat anything. Its caused sooo many trips to the vet. But he's always ok. It's my other dog that's the problem, he's only 7 pounds (I'm sure any of your cats would take him any day) and he does nothing by lay around a pillow all day. A couple of months ago he had what appeared to be serious bowel problems, all sorts of tests were done, it cost lots of money. Turns out it was just stress. Yep, he's too stressed out, maybe his pillow is too lumpy, or his water was too warm? LOL.

TGIF! you can have wine at 5 am on the weekend and no one has to know!

I can tell the difference between MEN and WOMEN...because (as a male) I would have never thought in a MILLION years ...oh...hot date flowers.
We really are a different species......
(I was going to be poster # 2,000 or something but some bloggy-babe cut off the comments...erhm.)
Current music: Der Kommisar ...how '80's!!!

Now back to irrelivancer....

Oh, baby kitty!
Gotta love the baby Soba -- sans attitude, too. (Doesn't have that wisened look in her eye yet.)

PLEASE POST MORE BABY KITTY PHOTOS!!!!!!!!

And these in particular lead me to realize that, for being an artist, we see NONE of your artwork.

What's up with that, Crazy Lady?

Maybe he ate that flower so he could puke up his hairball? My cat likes to eat grass after he throws up. So I grow cosmic kitty herbs for him. Hit the delete button on emails that stress you out, you obviously take GREAT care of your cats. Plus his picture with the pollen was hella CUTE.

It seems the cats' raison d'etre is to drive you crazy. So you can blog about it. And amuse us. That's YOUR raison d'etre.

Like my fancee use of francais? We can talk about fancee french. Or Dylan on Windfall.

>>I'm sure there are people who think a pound of Greenies will kill an Airedale.<<

I have an Airedale too, and I'm beginning to think nothing will kill him. It's amazing the amount of (bad) things he's eaten in his 13 year life so far. He got into a box of coffee beans and ate a half pound before I noticed (the house smelled like Starbucks). He left what looked like black beans in the yard for a week. Oh the stories.
(see how I worked in animals AND poop, much like some of your other posters?)

I say that we should talk about birthdays. I know there are at least two of us who have birthdays next week.

Oh, and Soba was adorable as a kitten.

OH! And, I have a poop story as well. I have a little corgi mixed dog named Madeleine, and when she was a puppy and I was still house training her, I caught her starting to poop in the living room. I firmly said "Maddie!" and it startled her so she jumped causing the poop to launch from her and shoot half way across the living room, which caused me to laugh and setting the house training lessons back a bit.

Honey, if all the alarmists ever get you freaked out again, just give me a call. There is not a single thing, man made or garden grown that my Willis has not eaten. God love him, he's just not that bright.

What an adorable little baby Soba was!

Let's talk about breakfast. Yummm....the best foods in the world are breakfast foods. Bacon, scrambly eggs, cripsy toast...COFFEE. I'm on my second cup this morning (venti sized!!). Now I'm staring out my office window at the SM DMV and wishing I could spend the morning lingering over breakfast at some cool cafe. With my new laptop. Reading all my favorite blogs (CAP and Ellen topping the charts).

*sigh*

I'm going to spend my lunch hour crocheting flowers. Ellen gave me a pattern yesterday to follow; I don't think they will be poisonous, so if you want, I can send some over for the cats to chew on. :)

Love you Laurie! XOXO

Hey - Long time lurker, first time poster.
Talking about anything...
When we first brought our little Sophia kitty home we fed her Kitten Chow. Caused terrible gas. It was so bad SHE couldn't even stand it. She'd jump up in your lap - FART - and then run away. It was like a little kitty bomb. Her gift to us for feeding her cheap cat food. She was always such a food snob.
Her other talent was always being really noisy. Quite honestly she's the noisiest cat that ever lived. We lived in a 3 story house at the time that had one stairwell (it was in Europe - very popular design) and the bedrooms were all on the top floor. When I'd go to bed at night she'd wake up on the very ground floor- her favorite place - and then MEOW in that stairwell, taking her own sweet time to get to me. Every. Step.
Anyway, hope sweet Roy kitty is doing better!!

Two quick comments: note that florists snip off the stamen tips when they include lilies in an arrangement. You lose the pollen, keep the pretty. (as well as the overpowering fragrance, but maybe that's just me)

And, picture if you will the decorator sparkle-poop at my parents' house once, when their dog got into a full bag of red and green holiday Kisses. (everyone survived) :)

That's hilarious!! Sometimes people can be so annoyingly helpful can't they??!!
Ah, just know that they love you and your furry buddies!

Baby Soba. So cute!

Here's a flower story, sort of, for you: my grandmother volunteered during WWII as an aide in a (stateside) hospital (my grandfather was eventually a patient there). One day she was working with another aide, a very young, naive and inexperienced woman, whom one of the patients asked for a vase. She asked him "what kind of a vase?" to which he replied, "you know, a VASE." ("Vase" is or was apparently slang for a bed urinal.) "Well," she said, puzzled, "how big is your bouquet?"

The poor dear. Grandma Ruth was still telling that story some 40 years later.

I like the tinsel poop, personally. Or - better yet! - the cat running around frantically with tinsel dangling out of his butt, looking behind him every few steps as if to say, "Why is it following me, Mommy?"

It's hard not to panic when it's your beloved pet!

My father passed away in Sep '97 and my dear, dear orange tabby, Tigger, managed to eat a *healthy* portion of all the "sorry you lost someone" plants that arrived. I must say it was a temporary diversion from the grief, as I took Tigger and EVERY SINGLE PLANT directly to the vet! The vet was amazing - concerned and sympathetic. He examined Tigger and EVERY SINGLE PLANT and then gave Tigger some type of charcoal treatment. He explained that would make him get sick, therby getting rid of anything that might have been bad. That charcoal puke stain never did come out of the carpet and Tigger lived another 9 healthy, happy years (he passed this past November from good ole old age).

Hope all the kitties are doing well today!

Okay, I can certainly think of something else to discuss. Two things, anyway. First, Do you like tea? Have you seen or tried the Flowering Teas that have been coming out lately? Whole Foods carries an assortment box, made by the Numi Tea Company. They are very delicate teas, that are absolutley beautiful to look at. I am drinking some right now. Second: Do you like surf music? there is a band called Los Straitjackets, and they are quite the hoot. They do all instrumentals, and they all wear black jeans, black turtlenecks and Mexican Wrestling Masks when they play. I know you like salsa, so this might not be up your alley, but I always have a lot of fun when they come to town. Great fun to dance to. Anyway, they are going to be in Palo Alto on Aug 8th. Maybe you could visit Empress Dagny and catch Los Straitjackets and Twist and Swim and Watusi the night away!

And I'm happy to hear everyone is okay.

*HUGS*

So what are you knitting on now anyway? I'm finishing up my first pair of socks, an Irish Hiking Scarf and a Lacey Scarf named Liesel. Well Liesel and I are still new with one another. I'm trying not to piss her off. A bit high maintenance she is. :P

I hope your day goes well and smooth and that this weekend has some yummy booze and good friends to fill your days with laughter and all that jazz. ;)

*OtterHuggles*

I love to see baby pictures! What a cutie pie! I am like you in that I do what I can to make sure all my critters and people are safe, and then maybe someone says I didn't do my homework and I get that horrible sinking feeling that I didn't do everything I could do and someone may die....and total panic sets in. I think this is the plight of the crab (astro?logic?ally speaking). Then I need comforting and who's gonna do it...eh?

Would be nice then, ever so, to have a trusty kind bf to call and rescue me. But no. Not right now.

Someday, Laurie. For sure.

I still look at roy's yellow streaks and laugh...because he did look so darn cute.

I have a sad kitty guy who leaves uncovered poop in his litter each day (stink-a-rubi). I am off this afternoon to look at kittens and bring him home a ball of fluff to love!

What's a Pennysaver? I hope it's not a type of lily.

Ah, cute. Soba used pencils to write the first drafts of her meownifesto. She now types it, yes?

Roy will be just fine. Your kitten Soba is pretty cute.

Those yellow streaks on Roy.. hmmm - maybe he was interested in painting his face a little. Could be Roy's fondest desire is to be a drag queen.

I'm sorry you have felt inundated. It looks like lots of "call the vet!" advice has come in on this post, too. (sigh)

My understanding is that the poisonous part of a lily is the bulb. But folks hear "poisonous" and "lily" and they get all excited.

My dog ate, yecch, string several times and no surgery. Just sometimes dragged yucky string out her butt for a bit (once I chased her around to cut it with my scissors, which I promptly threw away).

Animals! What are they thinking?

I'm just amazed by the quality pictures you are able to take of all of your cats. My cat will lay there all cute and still UNTIL I get the camera. Then she becomes a blur! Thank goodness for deletable (is that a word?)digital pictures!

Marcia, thanks for the info about the band. I think I will be doing my "Tour of the South" (aka visiting relatives) around that time.

I guess we all need to also stop reading scary veterinary websites about "lily toxicity". Yikes! Glad he's right as rain! :-)

Okay, how about baby socks and booties I'm making for Afghans for Afghans?

Here's the link for the booties:
http://nstynittinnymph.livejournal.com/151160.html

Here's the link for the socks:
http://www.catbordhi.com/documents/BabyLifeRing.pdf

L,

One of my cats ate about half his body weight--literally--in aloe vera a few weeks ago. I freaked out and called the vet... His tongue was pretty limp and his little belly spasmed for several hours, and the drool! OH, the slimy drool. He put St. Bernards to shame.

But he was fine. Not even a barf out of that particular incident!

So don't worry too much--they're tough little monsters. As you well know, from your Medication Joys. You did the right thing, by calling the vet. He's probably sleeping off his lily hangover right now...

I forgot all about the Pennysaver, we use to find the best stuff in there when I lived in CA. fourty-leven years ago!

Everyone's quick to advise the vet, even though they know you're a wonderful kitty mommy, and that you, of course, thought of the vet right away. I assumed you got the vet out of bed at 5 AM.

It could be worse you know...my Spike is epileptic. We didn't know that when he adopted us though. Cute little thing came and cried at our door until we took him in from the 70 degree November in Pennsylvania weather. He had been abandoned by someone moving out of our complex. Anyway...a couple of days after we adopted him, he let out this horrific sound, flopped over on his side, and started panting and drooling. When I picked him up he just flopped like a dead cat. Roomie and I had him at the emergency vet's office five minutes later (by which point he had come around and was acting like nothing had happened). Emergency vet looked him over, declared him healthy, and told us to take him home. A week later, same thing. Two weeks later, same thing, only this time I remembered the beagle we had when I was growing up who was epileptic so we took him to our regular vet. She examined him, took bloodwork, did a neural examination, and informed us that our new baby was epileptic. Fortunately, the older he gets, the less often he gets siezures. They're mainly stress induced (New home? seizure. Christmas decorations? seizure. Taking down Christmas decorations? seizure. Turning off the heat and opening windows? seizure.) Now the seizures seem to coincide mostly with trips to the vet. Once or twice a year I can deal with.

Hey, that bit o' distraction totally worked on me - love tiny fluffy Soba!! *sqeeze*

so funny, after reading your post I looked at my cat and lo and behold! Pollen all over his little schoz. I hadn't read the other comments, so I blissfully wiped him off and pushed him off my lap.

Four cat households are so intricate. Lucky you don't have the man at home right now to really complicate matters.

Picture this...

a parakeet stuck to a fly strip.

Yep. We've all had our pet disasters.

Heh- animals tend to be fairly indestructable, even if we end up freaking out.

My dog has eaten:
a whole tube of anti-itch steroid cream
A large box of immodium AD (had to induce vomiting or I would have had a very constipated dog)
a whole box of heartguard (box and foil wrappers included)
several see's candies she raided from a Valentine Box,
An eyeliner
and a container of week old arroz con pollo. Chicken with rice- and the chicken had bones. Yup, she ate the bones.... (I thought that that indicent was going to be it- and so did my vet as chicken bones are none for tearing up intestines- but everything passed okay)

She regularly partakes in "kitty crunchies"- that is cat poop raided from the litter box, seasoned with a bit of Tidy Cat.

And she remains well.... all that to say, most animals end up just fine even when they eat weird stuff.

My diva-girl cat likes to eat Duct-tape, which comes out the butt just as shiny as it goes in.

My good-host boy cat likes to eat tulle, fake flowers, plastic (as in all sorts of types - tape, packaging, bags, etc), and crunchy tissue paper. He woke me up recently hwokking his guts up and I couldn't find it because it was "puked up blue tissue paper" on the blue flowers on my dining room rug. Talk about camouflague (sp?).

My new kitten boy cat hasn't decided what inedible object he is going to fixate on. I'm thinking its going to be the sparkling strands from the balls he likes to play with. We'll see. He's already farting right and left, not to mention the inch and half worm he pooped out the 2nd day after his new kitten de-worming medication. Talk about major yuck factor! I almost yarfed myself.

glad roy's ok!

love the wee soba pics! what a cute little terror :)

my stimpy once found the catnip hiding place. i had a studio apartment and worked 2nd shift. i heard stuff, but was so tired that i slept through it. i awoke to find the plant and a chair overturned, other furniture rearranged, papers strewn everywhere, my 16 lb. boy passed out on his back, snoring, and my wee pat (oh, maybe 3 mos. old) cowering under the other chair, looking at me, saying, "mommy, it wasn't my fault!" the catnip bag was muslin...had several holes torn in it. and it got moved inside the cupboard where he couldn't reach it.

cats. hours of entertainment! oh wait! i hear one producing a hairball right now!

Risha, that is too funny... I'm sure it wasn't funny for poor Birdie, and I hope Birdie recovered well, but still - that did make me snort tea.

>>She regularly partakes in "kitty crunchies"- that is cat poop raided from the litter box, seasoned with a bit of Tidy Cat.<<

Ah, AKA Kitty Roca, yep, my dogs love those too.

(oh and the Airdale/coffee bean story was me, sorry I didn't completely log in)
This is a fun thread!

How about some knitting? One Skein (by Leigh Radord) has wonderful patterns, including one for felted bowls. Realistically, no one needs a pattern for a felted bowl but the book is really quite lovely. I highly recommend it! Anyhoo, I made 5 felted bowls last evening, out of Brown Sheep Bulky. It was fun and fast and I loves me some bowls! And in the SoCal heat today (98 in E. Orange County), they are going to be dry in no time!

On the cat poop front (or back, heh), I didn't want to be left out so here is my tale: Belle loves to get in my yarn. I have to be so vigilant to keep her from chewing it or taking the project and running. She loves Rowan Calmer, a yummy cotton/acrylic, which has no chance of being digestible what with the acrylic. She ate some, despite the care I was taking. I watched her closely, kept checking the box for evidence that the yarn had passed -- only to find, a few days later, a piece of poop at the end (or beginning?) of a piece of Rowan Calmer in the hallway, with another one of my cats staring at it. Glad I didn't step on that!

And my kitten woke me up this morning trying to strangle herself in a lamp cable - I swear they are just trying to reduce our life expectancy's!

My beloved late Airedale ate an entire bulletin board once. Well, almost entire. It was going well until he got to the industrial sized staples holding the burlap to the cork board.

Oh, P.S. That's not why he's "late." He survived. The bulletin board did not.

Baby Bob next! Did The Sobakowa's fur change color as she grew up? It looks almost all black (except for her nose) as a kitten. So cute!

I used to have a cat that ate tinsel. That, too, comes out as shiny as it goes in. And why do cats yak stuff up on the carpet and not the non-stainable flooring? My cat would just run out of the kitchen to find a nice place on the carpet to barf.

i am just loving this thread!!

My 3 yo golden retriever (who was 2 at the time) managed to chew up and eat the heel of not one but two pairs of very expensive shoes.

She lived.

As to why they puke on the carpet instead of a hard floor surface, it's the same reason as why they ignore the scratching post and shred the couch.

I also had a cat who industriously pried up and then chewed the keys on my laptop. My X, D, and O are all a little mangled, and to this day I am without left and right arrows.

Have you seen the book about the painted cats? I saw this at the bookstore recently:

Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics (Paperback)
by Burton Silver, Heather Busch

check it out on Amazon.com

I just thought of another topic. Did you watch BritBrit's interview last night? I totally forgot it was on.

Hi there! I've somehow stumbled across your blog a while back and your blog is the funniest :) I am a big fan, even though I don't knit and have only 1 cat! Anyway, don't know how your square watermelons are doing but today I read in the Japanese newspaper that we know have square melons too. I have a photo on my blog. Maybe you can make them too and apply for the US patent?

Oh for heaven's sake! Cats eat stuff they're not supposed to. Fact of life. I am sure Roy has eaten worse than that in his career and lived to tell! Our Lulu ate a spider once. It bit her on the way down, and she is still big and fat and shiny and healthy.

Soba - SO cute! Although, really, it looks like she's trying to work out a way of holding the pencils so she can begin the first draft of the Manifesto....

If eating a flower killed cats (or dogs) I'd be petless. My cats think a bouquet is a very special salad made just for them.

We got home once to find out that my brother's dog had eaten an entire pack of bubble gum. Not a poop story, but you should've seen it when she farted!

I was just going to ask about the square watermelon project - someone beat me to it.

OK, here's one of my (many) dog-poop stories. My parents were taking care of the dogs while we were off on a scuba trip. One day Goofy "passed" something bulky and pinkish. The parents, being ever-vigilant, scooped it up in a baggie and TOOK IT TO THE VET'S OFFICE, where they determined it to be a "well-used" kitchen sponge.

I could have DIED when the girls at the vet's office told me about that one, you can bet my parents didn't mention it....

Hey, its Friday afternoon and about quitting time - let's go drink some wine!

At least he didn't burn your house down.
My cat, Ganache (the fat one) knocked over a lamp the other day. Said lamp is on a timer. When it came on, it MELTED my cellphone recharger, which fell under the lamp, on the hardwood floor. I came home to the smell of melting plastic on the light bulb and imminent immolation.
To make matters worse, Verizon no longer sells the blasted charger. Would I like to upgrade my phone? No, I would not! It's only 2 years old! (I found another one at Battery World.)
Love your column!

Hope everybody has a good weekend and cheers for the USA because they are gonna need lots of cheering to defeat Italy.
Happy Fathers day dudes (who's your Daddy)!!!

And another thing.

I'm not really one for anthropomorphizing cats, but is appears this cat looked much less evil as a kitten. What happened? When did she become so cynical?

(So much for not anthropomorphizing.)

I have to say, it never ceases to amuse me how a cat with so few teeth can cause so much havoc

...it's nice to see that Roy has such refined tastes?

When I was a little kid - six or seven - my dad and I were watching the Westminster Dog Show, and my cat Chet jumped up in Dad's lap, farted, and walked away. I guess that was how strongly he felt about dog shows... :)

People eat flowers as salads. Garnishes! Just generally not to dye their face. Although I bet you could use it to make a nice sunshiny yarn...

Sobakawa was so little! And so artistic.

That was actually my first thought-- was the flower toxic? But I saw that you'd already checked (and I figured if you were going to blog about it and be frustrated at your cat, it'd be because you were certain he'd be alright)

I am a new cat owner (we adopted a former stray) and he drives me up the friggin wall. I can't wait til he isn't a kitten anymore. Much more of a dog-person myself, anyway...

I had to move all my plants outside because he'd eat them (and god forbid any of them are poisonous...) And just this week, he discovered that we have a betta that sits on one of our desks, and he's been trying to get at her. (oh my god)

Your Sobakowa was cute as a kitten! I'm not much for calicos, but she's beautiful.

Sobakowa is a very good artist, perhaps she would benefit with some new pastels to keep her busy.

SO CUTE. I'm sure that the kitties will be fine, even if they eat flowers. What are you knitting these days? (change of subject....)

Honestly, I think that if a cat were to die because they ate part of a flower, there'd be a lot more dead kitties out there. Its not like he ate the whole thing.

Oh, it's Friday night.

Thank you to everyone for your concern, Roy is still alive and managed to knock over a lamp and scratch up my Ikea rug. Healthy!

Maybe because he has no teeth? Can't eat a poisonous plant with no teeth!

Oh, ya'll. I do love you, to come home alone on a Friday night after a long day of work and traffic and ya;ll are twice as witty as I could ever be.

I'm thrilled to Roy will be okay. Hooray!

Sobakawa was quite the cute little one. Aw.

And, finally, it's Friday night and I have spent it updating my blog. I am now watching Nightline's feature of megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.

I live large - LARGE, I say!

That would be "thrilled to HEAR Roy," by the way.

Ahem.

Yes... the parakeet on a fly strip did survive. *chuckle* He was missing quite a few feathers for a while though and had to suffer the indignities of getting a bath to get off the sticky stuff. I've also had to pull out broken blood feathers on him a few times, he was not the healthiest when I got him, had weak feathers that broke easy. He's fine and dandy now!

My new (well, a year) apartment has the UG LI EST carpet ever. However, it does have one advantage. The ugly pattern in it looks very much as though someone *already* threw up, all over it. So when the cats actually do yark hairballs, it doesn't show anywhere near as much as it did in my old place (beige carpet).

Half the time now I don't even notice at first that there has been a barfing incident. Mandy is usually the one who does it, and she often does it shortly after eating. Result: food that looks just like it did before she ate it, except soggy and warmed up. (Apparently this cat does not like to chew food, though she chews lots of other stuff.) The other cat thinks soggy prewarmed food is a fine treat. Hearing the one cat hork it up and then realizing the other one is eating it almost makes me throw up too, but I've given up making her stop after realizing how many times it must have gone on when I wasn't home. At least I don't have to clean up as much.

The baby Sobakawa photos are just to squee over, and I'm not usually one for the !squee! More baby kitton pics, please? As for knitting, I'm currently loving Myrna Stahman's book on shawls and scarves -- the seamen's scarves are wild fun (lace! must knit lace!). The ribbing section is dull, but did I mention the lace?

Wow, I have never enjoyed reading 109 comments before so much!

Oh, Laurie! So sorry to hear about the latest CCL crisis. But I am glad to hear all is now OK at Chez Purl.

Why is it every time I see the word "hork" I think of Ren "Hoek" from 'Ren and Stimpy'?

I've shared some of the 'Magnificent Seven' ingestion stories here, so I'll now share one from the clinic I used to work at. Chocolate Lab/Golden Retriever mix (a garbage disposal on 4 legs if there ever was one) was in the clinic THREE TIMES over FIVE MONTHS for major abdominal surgery because he kept ingesting TENNIS BALLS. Ok. I can understand the first time, and perhaps a second (maybe you couldn't find all the balls he'd hidden). But THREE!?! Owner's excuse? "But he loves playing with them..." Some people are just stuck on the stupid.

Aww Soba was a very cute kitten - perhaps part of her world domination plans was to inveigle herself into your affections and now she is playing that to her advantage :)

Haha! Faith, I totally took a picture of my completed ball of yarn to email to you but forgot! But you will get to see it in person at SnB this week!!!

Oy, I had no idea this was dangerous...think of all that wasted time I could have been worrying about my cat. He does the same thing.

I am glad he's doing well.

One more poop story: I used to have waist length hair. Our Siamese somehow ate it. Yup! Pooplaces. Little beads of poop on a string. He survived for almost 21 years and I how have short hair!

My Grace eats dryer sheets. I throw them away as soon as they come out of the dryer, of course, but you know, sometimes you drop one. And then Grace eats it. She has been doing this for 12 years now. Cats are capable of surviving some weeeeeird shit, bless their hearts. :)

My Desdemona eats.. well.. everything.
Everything except dry cat food which she looks at as if I just fed her blue styrofoam.
Check that, she's eaten blue styrofoam (which led to her pooping blue styrofoam).

She's 16 years old, and has thrown up everything she's ever eaten - and still isn't skinny. (which is probably the reason I never became buliemic.

The Soba baby shots are adorable. I had a tortie for a long time that was pure beautiful evil, and I will always have a soft spot for them.

Just let me be the 10,000th commentor to say that Soba is so cute. This was before she became Mistress of the Universe, I take it? She still looks a little too innocent.

I just love that word "hork". It cracks me up. I woke up to a very loud meow that I thought was one of those "under the crack of the door - but yet amazingly amplified" meows. Turns out, she was in the room, because she suddenly appeared on my head to play with the blinds behind me. When I reached up under her tummy to move her, she barfed on me and the bed. Ahh, lovely.

Actually, in addition to a book deal, think of the sitcom the day-to-day life of Crazy Aunt Purl would make! The cast of characters: CAP herself, of course; the unsuspecting boss at White Men in Suits; normal neighbors; crazy neighbors such as Crack Addict Bob (or whatever his name was); SnB partners in knitting; the sympathetic landlord (commiserating wrt dwindling greenery); and of course, FRANCISCO! the MacGyver of lawn care. CAP at home! Nature trying to kill her! CAP at work! Evil psycho bitch from hell from temping days could make a cameo appearance! CAP clearing out the bus into work (which is on fire) with garlic fumes! Federal agents knocking on door with warrant for the Sobakowa (the Meownifesto caused great consternation in DC)! By day: Laurie, mild-mannered germaphobe (unless you threaten her friends, then you will be attacked with an umbrella). At night: Crazy Aunt Purl, cat ownee/knitter/salsa dancer/blogger extraordinaire! I'd watch a show like that in a heartbeat.

Poop? You wanna talk about poop? Come on over to my house baby. I've got boys. Two of them. Poop is their favorite topic of conversation - especially at the dinner table.

Seriously, though, I'm glad your cat is OK. I freaked out in a similar way when my dog ate my birthday box of Godiva chocolates (first I freaked out all over the dog and secondly I freaked out when everyone told me he was going to die). The dog was fine. I saved myself countless calories by not getting to eat the entire box of Godiva chocolates by myself. I guess that's a good ending.

Happy knitting.

My cat ate a rhodedendron once and died. Very sad. But I was six, so I'm over it now. It happens. Roy will be fine. Cute cat love!

BEST POSTING EVER!! Baby sobakowa! Awesome. My tortie was beautiful evil, as well. Koolaid. (We called her Devil.) And coincidentally, her computer record at the hospital was 666. No joke.

BTW, I'm a veterinary nurse with 17 years of experience, and my labrador ate glass, plastic forks, wooden skewers, you name it. He was fine. And my best hospital story is the doberman who ate wet asphalt. Repeatedly. We went in and out of the dobie's belly so many times we should have installed a zipper.

LOL'ing here at "installed a zipper". Damn skippy!

Now I have to rescue my cut-up cantaloupe from Bizzy Izzy, our mentally challenged calico with a penchant for juice-laden veggies and fruit.

I have to agree with Sue F. about the CAP sitcom. There has been a real void on the airwaves since the original sitcom about nothing, Seinfeld, went off the air. C'mon, it would be great. Of course, CAP, you would have to play yourself, a la Jerry Seinfeld. Anyone know any producers at the studios? I feel a pitch coming on.

BTW -- Soba babykitty is adorable. She reminds me of my Billy babykitty when he was that tiny. You know, he is hellbent on world domination as well. Perhaps they should meet. On second thought...

Cats VS dogs???? Remember this if nothing else..........when you have cats...YOU are the one who gets to pee first in the morning!!!! (No having to walk the dog in your pj's doing the potty dance!!!)

Our cats can't keep themselves away from flowers. They will find a way to eat them if they are in the house. And then they puke. And puke. And maybe puke again. That's the worst that has ever happened.

My dog, like many dogs it seems, has also eaten things that should kill it- or were just dumb to eat. Like eating an entire Easter basket filled with sugar-free candy.... It christened the term "Anal Waterfall" in our house. Nothing could describe it better. Kitties will be fine. Too bad for the flowers though...

Me and Boyf: Well, that's the carpet cleaned. Gosh, that's 2 days of hard work. Looks a lot better, doesn't it?
Cat: Hnk. Hnk. HNK. HYAAAAAAAARK!
Me and Boyf : AAAAAAAARGH!

My cat Jack likes to get up on the kitchen counter and knock fresh garden veggies to the floor for fun, and the dog likes to hang out and see what is coming, to snack.
Or, she used to do that until the day that Jack knocked down a jalepeno pepper. The dog picked it up, ran out into the living room to eat it, then had a rude awakening and left it there on the rug, all spitty and everything.

This same dog, that same summer, scooped up a C-Cell battery off the coffee table and chomped it hard enough to let liquid core out. That was a fun time--she was ok, but had a nasty and uber-stinky mouth injury that took a few weeks to heal. It hurt, and she needed us, but she smelled too bad for us to want to hang around with her much--"here is your pain reliever, now go away!"

That same dog (dumb as a case of tomatoes) licked an electrical outlet later that same year. DOH! Aaaaaaand, she lived through it. The good new is that she doesn't just arbitrarily pick stuff up in her mouth anymore! So it all worked out...

Those pictures are priceless! She almost looks -- dare I say it -- harmless.

While I did not contribute to Roy: The Yellowing Controversy, I laughed and laughed when I read that post just now. I knew what happened before I got to the end of the post... my mom's white kitty did the exact same thing. His face was yellow from pollen for days.

one of my kitties used to lick photographs until the photo was gone. given the chance, he then ate the remaining paper. didn't kill him.

I have a big white cat that likes to go outside and take dirt baths. So one day he was rolling around underneath the mulberry tree (most of the berries had already dropped to the ground) and came inside the house covered in red dirt with pinkish-purple spots all over his head!

Cat drool story - Frank had a mild reaction to a shot, and had stiffness in his hindquarter where shot was injected. Vet suggested children's Benadryl (meaning liquid med) to help with reaction. Popped some pink liquid in Frank's mouth and he spewed up ropes of thick cat drool like a poison victim. ROPES AND ROPES. I was terrified and I called the vet - "oh, that's what they do when they don't like the way something tastes". Good lord, can't he just spit it out? What a drama queen! Never seen another cat do this in my many, many cat-owning years.

Cutest Kitty EVER!

No Monday post? Sad. :-(

Oh my! Proof positive that Sobakowa is smarter than the average cat! You may very well find that manifesto in its rough draft form tucked into a kitty hiding place at anytime!

I am looking for katia book 46 to purchase i want to make pattern 52