A bit of Sunday Humor

[BarbaraRose]

Was so tired this morning from the long busy day yesterday, that I didn't even want to get up to go for the pancake & egg breakfast at the clubhouse, before work. Work was a little slower than yesterday so I had some downtime to sit for a bit here and there. My left knee is still bothering me. Been wearing a knee brace which does help some.

Sun has been mostly out the past few days but I have been working so I missed it. Now we have a new big storm system coming in for Tuesday with more rain and snow along the coast and mountains. Not much expected here tho, just clouds and a few light showers off and on. Another system on the way for next weekend. I read that Colorado has had a ton of snow already this season and they are saying their drought is pretty much over except for the eastern plains. Much of the snow runoff in the Rockies ends up in the Colorado River so that should at least help maintain Lake Mead for a bit.

Romeow is being so cute! His fur is getting longer now. Before it was short except for his tail which was very bushy. Now the rest of his fur is catching up which, of course, is making him look even bigger, er, "fluffier" than he already is!
I ordered him a stroller last week. Should arrive by my birthday (which I am also using as his 1st birthdate). Hopefully, he will be OK with riding around in that. I also just bought a bag of pine wood pellets to try as litter in his box and see how that goes. The dust and tracking of the clay litter is getting to me! Will be a real mess in a small RV. I have been reading about the pine pellets that have rave reviews on line. I picked up a bag of them at Tractor Supply Store since they are a lot cheaper there than the pet stores. Don't want to waste too much money if it doesn't work as well as hoped or he won't use it. There are special litter boxes to use those with but want to see if these work before I invest in one of those.

I have the next 4 days off so I really need to get busy now and get this place in "show" condition. Bedroom, bath and kitchen are good to go, so just the living room and porch to get cleaned up again. Kind of let it go during the holidays.

I need to find an alternative to my flavored water bottles I buy each week. They are expensive, take up a lot of space with several cases I get each week and even worse with the empty bottles I have to store before taking them to the recycle bin each week. Can't be messing with that in the RV. I don't like the powdered packets or squirt bottles of flavoring to add to water which are way too sweet, so I am going to try adding fresh lemon juice and see how that goes. I just can't drink plain water. It gives me a stomach ache, so I don't drink nearly as much as I do of the flavored water, because of that. I am still dehydrated as it is.

I didn't hear about all the trouble in Mexico. Scary!

OK, time to get ready for bed. Need to get a good night's sleep and be raring to go in the morning!

[JudyJB]

Iguanas DO fall from trees in southern Florida when it gets too cold. They are cold-blooded and go into a sort of suspended animation which causes them to fall from trees. The newspapers in December were full of warnings to leave the iguanas alone if they found one stiff on the ground because they were not really dead, just looked that way.

Now, a true story about something that happened to me when my kids were young. My then-husband was going down to Florida to work for an entire month, and since my kids were on a year-round school schedule, they were off for the month of December, so we all took off to spend the month with him. We closed the house down and lowered the thermostat to 50 something, and took off, but got stuck in a snow storm near the Michigan/Ohio border, so we spent the night in a hotel and returned home the next day to wait out the storm.

I turned the thermostat up, and proceeded to carry my kids suitcases up to their bedrooms on our second floor. When I went into the oldest kid's room, I noticed that the hamster was on its back in its cage with all four feet sticking up and its beady eyes wide open! I was concerned that I would have to tell the kids that their pet had died, so tried to keep them downstairs for a while by having them help their dad clean out the car. I'd handle disposing of the dead hamster later. I continued to carry things upstairs, but when I went into the bedroom again, I found the hamster running around the cage, just like normal. Whew! I never told anyone about the "dead" hamster I almost threw in the trash until very recently. Apparently, she was in hibernation and came to when the heat came on.

We continued our trip the next week, but this time, I did not turn the heat down quite so far!

[Pooker]

Judy - you reminded me of the time I tossed my son's dead turtle in the garbage. The turtle's flippers were stiff and just hanging out - eyes clouded over. I didn't want to have the kids see the poor thing, so not knowing the protocol for disposing of dead critters, I put it in the garbage container. While making dinner that evening I opened the plastic container and here was the turtle trying to get out! I actually did that twice more waiting longer and longer before disposing of him and finally realized the poor thing was just trying to hibernate!

[OregonLuvr]

Barbie when I got Emma my breeder said she was "litter box trained"......I thought uh oh I bought a cat. She used those pellets so I bought a bag for her arrival. She did indeed use it and when they pee it turns to like sawdust. Just took a large spoon scooped out the sawdust then stirred up the pellets and NO odor and no mess.. It was great. I transitioned her to the outdoor pottying quickly tho as that is where I wanted her to go LOL But she is a dog so different plan for cats. When I had my cats I sure wish I knew about these pellets. I hated the clay litter as it would get all over as it does stick to their paws some. You might have to put some of her poop or pee in there so she knows what it is for. Good luck, might take a bit for her to transition but you will figure it out.

[Cudedog]

Barbi, when I had my cat I started out with the clay litter, and hated it. The "scented" kind (which was supposed to block odors) had a very strong perfume-y smell that gave me a headache, so I couldn't use it. The unscented kind had a really heavy clay odor that I didn't like either, was messy as heck (I would find bits of cat litter all over my house) and not particularly absorbent.

I discovered the pine pellet litter quite by accident. It was more expensive than the clay litter, but I was about at my wit's end.

And I LOVED it! My cat liked it too - no disgusting smell (just a slight "piney" odor, which was pleasant), it was absorbent, and pretty much just stayed in the litter box. My kitty liked it too!! It was especially wonderful when I took trips in my van - a small, enclosed, space - and once I found the pine pellets, I never went back to clay litter again.

I bought mine on the cat food aisle at my local grocery store chain (Winco).

Please let us know how you like them!

Anne