I haven't read the Trump Bible

 

I've drifted away from reading.  Haven't read a book cover to cover in probably years.  I'm more into pipe smoking and pondering and a little yardwork from time to time.  Reading is mostly a sedentary activity.  You're not circulating the blood.  Helps your mind but maybe not your health.  If anything I'm a skimmer and a scanner.  I like the field guides and a few reference works.  Worked in a public library for a few years back in the day.  Books more important than food for some folk.  One guy checking out the latest spy novels said he doesn't care if Village Hall burns down but not the library.  Consider the tons of books in the library that just sit on the shelves gathering dust and never get read.  Do most authors need another source of income to get by?  Ever read a toothpaste tube?

A Room With A Liberal View

 Lots of people wondering how "The View" has been on the air for 30 years.  Basically a bunch of liberal chicks sitting around a table with one token conservative.   Sometimes they start yelling.  I thought "The View" was supposed to be a light and frothy show.  Instead you get Whoopi Goldberg's anti-Trump meltdowns.  The other one Sunny Hostin who I never heard of before says uneducated women voted for Trump meaning they never went to college.  So wait a minute your WHOLE education up to but not including college doesn't count?  Then she says racism and misogyny also were big factors that got Trump in.  The price of pet food had nothing to do with it?

Word on the street is "The View" might be on the chopping block along with Morning Joe.  Elon Musk might buy everything that's not nailed down.  Maybe buy Yonkers who knows?

Political junkies

 Perpetually pissed off about politics.  They may not be able to unclog a toilet but politics is the subject they know best.  Most people might know their local representatives but the political junkie knows every Congressman and Senator in all 50 states and their respective scandals.  It's hard to keep up to speed with them.  "What do you think of Mr. Pepperidge's nomination to be Assistant Secretary of the sub-Interior?"  Who?  My late aunt God rest her soul passed away a few years back from a cancer.  Politically conservative they say she argued politics with her liberal son-in-law right up 'til the end.  Dunno.  I'd be pondering my mortality.

When I came back from my 3 year blogging hiatus I had to google Tulsi Gabbard.  I'm always a little behind the curve and a day or two late on today's news.  Gotta take care of the feral cats.  Half of my YouTube search history is about health problems.  Rearranging my finances.  Puttering around the house.  I'm busy.

What's up with the political junkies?  Like a bunch of angry nerds.

When did loyalty become such a dirty word?

 Trump filling up his Cabinet posts quick.  The msm is spinning everything he does in a negative light saying he's packing his Cabinet with fierce loyalists.  When I was growing up the word "loyalty" had more positive connotations.  Loyalty used to be considered a virtue.  A dog is loyal to its owner.  A wife or husband is loyal to their spouse.  A worker is loyal to their company and doesn't sell trade secrets.  I could use a few fierce loyalists in my own life.

BTW where is the Bobby slot?

Back in the day we called them stray cats then the breed became romanticized

 

Sometimes alley cats.  Now they're referred to simply as ferals.  Stylistic changes in the language over the years.  I'm always a step or two behind.  Actually cat groups, cat people or the cat industry have come up with official more technical definitions for each.  I don't inquire I simply help when I can.

This is Charlie who I've blogged about before.  Neighborhood tom who now allows me to pet him.  Comes around fairly regular.  All my cats are fixed so there's no shenanigans going on.  Incidentally Google always corrects it to Tom like that's his name.  Clean cat for a feral.  I think the neighborhood people look after him.  Dead rats and mice fairly regular sight around here.  Cats doing their job.  Unfixed toms have a big face.  Mr, Galaxy calls it a face mask to help protect them during cat fights.  Stay out of trouble Charlie.

Tip:  Pulled chicken which you can get at many supermarkets these days share it with the cats.

Escape from politics

 

Where do I sleep?

I don't know if everybody's going mental or what's going on

 

Lost Sparky last night.  Had to be at least 16 years old.  Probably old kidneys.  Last couple days not really eating but drinking lots of water.  Mainly sleeping and using the litter box. He hung out on the patio last night.  Nice night.  Clear sky rather balmy with a good moon.  Took an old bath rug from the bathroom and sprinkled a good dose of catnip on it to relax him.  Woke up this morning and he hadn't moved from his sleeping position when I went to bed.  After a few minutes knew he was gone.  Sad but kind of expected it the last couple of weeks.  He didn't seem to suffer much.  Grateful for that.  Family as they say.  Always a part of me.

Called my sister early this morning to see if she had a box for me to put him in to bury him in the backyard by an old rose bush.  As luck would have it have today off.  While sitting in the lounge chair with my first cup of coffee waiting for her to get back to me the home health aide had GMA on.  The very FIRST story, the TOP story was Trump's former Chief of Staff John Kelly saying he thinks if Trump gets elected to a second term he'll become a Hitler.  First off we don't have the political system for aspiring dictators.  How in hell is that even supposed to happen?  So much for dialing down the political rhetoric in the wake of the two recent attempts on Trump's life.  Has Pfizer or somebody made a pill for TDS yet?

So now I'm down from six cats to five.  Unless Elon Musk gives me some grant money I'm gonna stick with the five for now.  Don't know about the media.  They wouldn't be trying to influence the election would they?

The ghost of Arnold Palmer was appalled by Trump's crude remarks

 It's hard to find decent coverage of the elections these days at least in my curated newsfeeds.  Heavily anti-Trump it's almost as if they're trying to influence the election.  Ya think?  Trump can't serve fries at McDonald's without a negative spin.  No longer objective news that pretense has been long abandoned with the rise of MAGA.  We're engaged in trivialities in these final days.  Kamala Harris has time for Stern but not the Al Smith dinner.  Did she have a souffle in the oven?  Bill Maher is gibbering about this and that.  He's kind of lost me.  The whole election thing is like a bad dream.  What does any of this have to do with the price of Fancy Feast?

The feral cat that liked people but hated his own kind

 

Many years back.  Would come around come in the house and sit on my father's lap while they were watching Judge Judy.  Loved people but hated other cats.  I don't recall him meeting another cat and liking him or at least tolerating him.  He felt the whole property belonged to him.  Did he pay the mortgage?  We named him Smokey.  He always had some sort of digestive problem and eventually passed away.  We never took him to the vet because of his anti-social attitude towards the other cats but took care of him as best we could.

A quick tip regarding cat rescues.  Another cat was trapped up a neighbor's tree once for a couple of days.  Maybe chased up there by a stray dog.  Called the Yonkers Fire Department and explained the situation to the lady.  She said just open up a can of cat food and leave it at the bottom of the tree and he'll eventually come down.   Nope.  I guess fire departments don't do cat rescues anymore.  At a loss I said to Dad I have an idea.  I got their big comforter from upstairs and we went next door into our neighbor's yard and we stretched out the blanket good and wide and held it right there underneath where the cat was sitting on a branch and we gradually coaxed him to fall into the blanket like a trampoline.  He was slightly bloodied from being scratched by some twigs on his way down but not the worse for wear.  We never officially adopted him but named him Lucky.  Would've been a nice YouTube video but nobody was around to record it.

From the Cat Diaries.

House ferals - Misty

 Went from squirrel meat to Fancy Feast.  We began putting collars on them.  Always preferred the breakaway kind in case the cat gets snagged on something.  They always lose them.  The engraving on the tag isn't cheap either.  Misty was a favorite of the toms in the neighborhood until my sister finally took her to the vet.  No trapping involved.  Misty would make herself right at home in a nook of the house and simply put the critter in the carrier is our strategy.  Some vets now offer 3 year rabies shots but you have to ask for them.  All vets are big on gums and teeth.  They ALWAYS check out the mouth and usually recommend dental work which can run well over $1,000 in some cases.  Not saying they're wrong but most folk probably can't afford it.  Don't have pet insurance but it's worth considering.  My folks were in a pet food store once.  Another older couple shopping for their cat.  The wife was very finicky about what to get.  The old guy grumbled you don't even care about my dinner like that.  It's a cat thing you wouldn't understand.

My ongoing feral cat series - Alfie

 

That's Alfie a male tuxedo.  Look at the long whiskers.  We adopted him from Misty's last litter.  He was definitely past the kitten stage when we took him in.  He once caught three squirrels in three days.  The last one he was eating in the backyard.  His hunting skills passed down from Misty.  Putting him in the cat carrier the first time proved to be a challenge.  I have bigger than normal carriers suitable for a small dog and the carrier also opens up from the top to make it easier.  I also wear thick winter gloves so I don't accidentally get scratched then it's off to the vet's.  Prior to putting a cat into the carrier I close off as many access to escape points as possible as things get more difficult when they go under a bed say.  Everyone else at the vet's have smaller regular carriers of different styles suitable for their Cuddles or Fluffy so I kind of stand out in the waiting room.

FLEAS imo are the #1 affliction or problem for cats although some of my cats never seem to get fleas at all while others are hard hit.  Can even lead to severe forms of dermatitis although other things like stress or ingredients in their diet can lead to severe skin allergies in some cats as well.  Many times at that point the vet will give a cortisone shot combined with an antibiotic shot.  I once spoke with a medical director of a vet clinic since retired and she said fleas can actually develop an immunity to some flea medications.  Ever notice how some flea meds don't help the situation?  I don't know if hers is a minority view but it's food for thought.  Revolution is the strongest flea med on the market but has to be prescribed first.  Pricey stuff.  Horticulturally speaking and far less expensive some plants like marigolds and catnip repel the little bloodsuckers.  I'm not lucky in the green thumb department but marigolds are the easiest plant to grow.

Coming at you from the feral wilds of Yonkers.

Everybody is good people

 So the authorities in Springfield Ohio have determined that it was apparently impossible for any illegal homeless Haitian immigrant to have eaten a feral cat or two.  My newsfeed says Dems are pushing back against Trump's racist fear mongering of Haitian immigrants.  This can actually work in reverse.  By giving so much attention to Trump's mindspace they're completely ignoring the fact that they're here illegally in the first place.  Least those are the ones we're talking about.  This is a good time to discuss the difference between rights and privileges.  If you're here illegally you technically have no right to be here.  Now some government policies might try to accommodate you and your family anyway but that's a privilege that you're still allowed to remain and work here but still not a right.  Kamala is trying to tow a tougher line on illegals and the border because it's obviously a winning issue for Ttump but her own party seems to be working against her.  According to a recent PBS Newshour report on the situation some of the illegal Haitians are terrors behind the wheel of a car and the subject has been brought up at Springfield City Council hearings.  The Dems always present a fairy tale version of reality though so I think the issue still sways strongly in Trump's favor.  Whither Ohio?

Neither candidate is talking about the price of Fancy Feast

 

Drove past a vacant lot today.  Used to be a gas station that they razed to the ground only they left part of the sign up.  Gas at 2.55 a gallon.  Had to be sometime before the Biden Administration era.  T. Swift can easily get a truckload of Fancy Feast delivered to her estate.  For the rest of us it's should I go debit or credit?  Cash on the barrelhead is usually out of the question for most folk.  It's jacking up my grocery bill and they're small cans too.  Talking about the cartons of course.  Seems to be a feline fave.  I always pay cash at the gas station btw.  If I'm gonna use the Visa I want it for something tangible like a garden power tool or clothes at Kohl's not for something as ephemeral as a few days worth of driving.  Don't understand the people who are always using credit for gas.  If I'm gonna go in debt I at least have a nice air fryer/toaster oven sitting on my kitchen counter.

As part of my ongoing aging blogger series my next field of inquiry is varicose veins.  That'd be Misty btw one of my former house ferals.

Conservatives are in a blue funk mood after the debate

 As I said I rewatched some of the clips from the debate on YouTube and thought Trump did well despite the pets.  It has been officially declareth however that he lost the debate.  Mine must be some weird minority opinion.  Welcome to Stranded the place of weird minority opinions.  You might find a few.

A commenter at a conservative blog opined that God intervened in the assassination attempt for a reason and so not to despair.  If you're a religiously-minded person that is not an invalid view imo.  To date not much has come from the FBI's investigation as to motivation.  Kind of odd.  Usually by now you'd hear from some neighbor that Crooks looked up at the nighttime constellations for political messages at 3 in the morning or something.  That he was able to put a ladder up against the side of the building to scale the roof is really something.   The Home Depot - how doers get more done.

For me one debate sufficeth.  If there's another one my biased newsfeeds will declare by sunrise the next morning that he lost that one too.  Regarding the cats and dogs one of my first reactions was there needs to be some serious research on this instead of the usual superficial snoping.  There's feral cats all over the place.  It's not out of the realm.  On the other hand Trump pronounces things in a Shakespearian manner like there's some pet apocalypse going on.  Maybe fodder for the next Stephen King novel.

Conservatives need to pop a Prozac.

We never went to a shelter to adopt cats

 

They always came to us.  It's fine whichever way you want to do it.  My sister goes to a pet store affiliated with a rescue group or lately the Yonkers Animal Shelter by Stew Leonard's to adopt.  This feral bunch was taught by the mother how to hunt and kill squirrels.  We adopted all but one.  The gray tabby male went his own way.  The mother since spayed as I mentioned in a previous post is probably living someplace else after having lived here awhile.  She's friendly enough to adapt.  Probably preferred peace and quiet rather than live with too many cats as we have a couple others unrelated.  Domestic or feral it's all good.  A Jackson Galaxy moment;)

How to lose voters and alienate people

Had to Google this one.  JD Vance Trump's running mate and Senator from Ohio said in some interview way back in 2021 "We are effectively run in this country, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too."  Now most people would probably chalk this up to too much Christian Brothers but Vance has recently reprised this calling Kamala Harris a cat lady.  A kind of hobby of mine I read conspiracy boards and never came across this one the cat ladies being in charge.  I thought it was the Freemasons.  You'd sooner find something about time-traveling mermaids and Zuckerberg really being an Android than a nefarious cabal of childless cat ladies being at the apex.  Jennifer Aniston has joined the fray saying "Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day."  Vance got his knickers in a twist because Aniston dragged his 2-year old daughter into this.  I'm not getting the Trump campaign and usually a running mate can act like a sensible check and balance on the main guy if need be.  Why do I feel like Shaw?  Like I'm doing her work for her?

Fwiw my sister told me the story of Oprah had prostitutes and porn stars on her show once.  The audience was predictably hostile and cold until a couple of them told Oprah they rescued cats and the audience's tone shifted.  It's not just childless cat ladies.  A trucker can adopt a cat or two.  Yeah alienate the cat people voting bloc.

Whassup with JD?

The feral mother that started it all

 

Or why we have so many cats.  She had a litter of four in the yard next door a few years back.  Time went by and we eventually decided to take in three, don't know where the last one went and took them all to the vet.  We finally with the help of my sister also took the mother cat to the vet to get spayed and get her shots and she lived with us for a while until she found greener pastures.  Named her Misty.  Just prior to that she got pregnant again, apparently a favorite of the toms in the neighborhood and we adopted one of her male tuxedos from that bunch and a cat rescue group took the other two.  She taught all her litters how to hunt and kill squirrels and to this day some of our cats will occasionally catch a stray squirrel or two.  Caught the tuxedo eating a fresh squirrel one day in the backyard and had to turn away.  Never went to a shelter to adopt any of our cats down through the years.  They still have a bit of the wild in them.  We prefer it that way.

Keeping the rodents at bay

 

Union job.

Cat rescue groups - a review

This may not be a fair analysis as I have not heavily researched the subject but is based on personal experience. Few years back I had two stray female cats temporarily living in the house and one was obviously quite pregnant so I contacted a cat rescue group. The end result was good she took the cats and they went to a foster home. Yes they have them for cats too. The methodology however. She came by late afternoon with two big cages in the back of her SUV and clearly wanted to follow the protocols of official cat rescue techniques which involves putting a bowl of food in the cages and as they say on detective stakeout shows we wait. Order Chinese? I was like how long is this gonna take I wanna watch Wheel of Fortune give me the cages. Somewhat hesitant she gave in and within ten minutes or less I handed her the cages with the cats inside and thank you and have a good night. FF to now and I have another situation with a tomcat that I've been feeding and has battle wounds on his face from territorial cat fights and so I texted the cat lady again who responded to my first text but hasn't replied to my followup texts. I realize these people are incredibly busy and serve large geographic areas but how hard is it to hit an emoji? Then I'm sitting on the porch with my fine cigar and observed a neighbor trying to get what looked like a female cat off the road and then feeding it and trying to get the cat out of harm's way so clearly our neighborhood has a cat problem as do many other neighborhoods so where are the cat people? Calling Jackson Galaxy!

Planned Parenthood, fetal harvesting and a roomful of beagles

Liberals have always acted like you're emotionally, morally and spiritually obligated to support Planned Parenthood. Actually that's not true, it's up to you. I'm not against birth control but I am personally against abortion so for me to support Planned Parenthood is a logical impossibility and the extended topic of fetal harvesting is definitely out of the question.  Doesn't make me a bad person. It's a larger issue for me than the latest undercover viral video made by the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress showing PP not in the best light. We can discuss that and folks are sure to bring up PP health clinics are big on breast cancer screenings, STD prevention and whatnot but now we got a little beagle problem on our hands. Let's say your local animal shelter does exemplary work for the most part, placing adoptions of pets, spaying and neutering and shots but in the room in the back they gas beagles maybe once a week. Some will support the shelter 100%, some will support part of the shelter and pretend the other room doesn't even exist and some may not go there at all because they're morally opposed to cat/dog euthanasia on principle. The grisly room in the back overrides everything else for some people. In my view that's perfectly valid and needs to be respected. Ditto those who withhold their moral support for PP because an integral part of their daily work is they do provide abortions. Again I'm not getting why I'm a bad person if I don't support the organization.