The great thing about being from a large family that’s filled with love and laughter is that even when you’re poor growing up, you never really realize it.  Mom and Dad did everything they could to make ends meet.  We had a huge garden wherever we lived, there was canning and freezing to be done, and at one point we even raised rabbits for food.

It never really bothered me to eat rabbit - my favorite was rabbit noodle soup.  However, our rabbit meals suddenly stopped one day when one of my brothers sat down at the table and innocently asked, “Mom! Which one is this?  The white one or the brown one?”

And thus ended our foray into barbecued bunny.  The Urban Chickens Network blog makes the point in a much less brutal way in Backyard Bunnies are NOT the Next Urban Chicken,

Urban chickens will provide a regular supply of protein-packed eggs for at least three years (sometimes much longer) and there’s no blood on your hands. Raising chickens means entering a nurturing relationship with an animal that rewards you sustainably and over time.

Bunnies, on the other hand, only give up their protein once: and that’s after the slaughter.

I think having a chicken would be pretty neat, but like my Mom I don’t think I could ever raise bunnies for meat again.

Photo by notsogoodphotography via flickr creative commons
(and your photo really was good!).
H/T Brittney’s Shared Items.

This won’t be a long post because I’m leaving for an appointment in five minutes, but I wanted to share my friend’s story.  She has two small dogs and a very loving, sweet cat and asked her family for help in taking one.  You see, she had to give up one pet because they are moving to an apartment where only two small pets are allowed.

I offered to let one of her dogs stay at my place until a new home can be found, but we both knew that it would be hard on my own two dogs and cat.  Luckily, the owner of her new rental finally agreed to allow all her pets to stay, as long as she could pay a bit more on the pet deposit.

We just found out this weekend that one of her aunts just adopted a cat from a stranger instead of helping family.  Sometimes I just don’t understand people.  Sigh.

Several years ago, my husband’s best friend found true love.  His cat Ollie meant the world to him and he doted on that silly orange boy… the kitty had a small head and a gigantic body so I always smiled when I saw him.  The roommate - the bad bad bad wolf in this true story - left the front door open one day and Ollie escaped.

Our friend was devastated and grieved for days, weeks, months.  He looked everywhere for Ollie, but never located his missing feline friend.  One day though, the same bad roommate knocked on the bedroom door and said, “There’s someone out here who needs to see you!”

The roommate had walked to the dumpster to dispose of some trash and heard a meow.  He looked behind the dumpster and sitting just on the inside of a big drainage pipe was Ollie.  I believe that was about the happiest I’d ever seen our friend when he and Ollie were reunited. 

This is why it made me happy to learn that Jesse James of West Coast Choppers has been reunited with his dog Cinnabun.

She’s in good shape…maybe a few pounds thinner than when she left. But super happy to be home. We’re taking her to the vet to get her all checked out and chipped, and GPS’d, and live-tracked by Google Earth…the works. We don’t want to lose this little gal again!!!

That’s awesome!

H/T to Aunt B… thanks for the heads up.

A new business is taking off these days.  With many people believing that the Christian occurrence called “Rapture” is imminent, they worry about what will happen to their pets after they themselves disappear in the second coming of Christ.

Enter Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, a company that specializes in caring for the animals people leave behind. The challenge is finding the right people to care for the pets, according to Business Week,

This paradox poses a challenge for Centre. He must reassure the Rapture crowd that his pet rescuers are wicked enough to be left behind but good enough to take proper care of the abandoned pets. Rescuers must sign an affidavit to affirm their disbelief in God—and they must also clear a criminal background check.

While I think it’s a nice gesture to protect the pooches, my guess is that in this event people will have far greater things to worry about than those poor animals that remain Earth bound.

TheoGeo published this video on her site.  Her advice was to turn up the volume because it would drive your cat crazy. My cat, Kitty?  She opened one eye, looked at me, then fell back asleep.  But if I got the laser pointer out, it would be an entirely different story.

The laser pointer.

I love my cat and would actually love to be the crazy cat lady (as if you don’t already know).  But if I had the opportunity to get this cat, I’d have to say absolutely not.  It seems more like a cheetah or jaguar than a domestic IMO.

MAGIC is the tallest domestic cat measured from toe to shoulder. She is an incredible 43.43 centimeters (17.1 inches) high – and is the world’s tallest domestic cat. Now that tells us quite a lot about the complexities of awarding that award. Is MAGIC the longest too? This is to come. And what is a domestic cat. Now that is a big question….

Here’s a video of the kitty from the web site Pictures of Cats.

There have been exactly two times in my life that I’ve seen - and subsequently rescued - a cat from a tree.  The second time was when our cat was attacked by a neighbor’s dog and violently shaken.  She got away because we never declawed her and she deeply scratched the dog’s face and nose.  Pootster then darted up a tree… it took about 20 minutes to coax her down.  It was like we saw her cash in one of her nine lives that day.

The first time I saw a cat in a tree was as a child living in Arkansas.  One of our outdoor cats found a bird nest, climbed up, and methodically bit the babies and dropped them to the ground. I scrambled up that tree with the speed only a 10-year old tomboy can muster - made it in about 10 seconds flat.  I got the cat out of the tree, but it was too late for every single one of those baby birds.  You’d think I’d become a cat hater after that, but I still love them.

This story about a cat stuck HIGH in a tree in Clarksville, Tennessee by my friend Christian reminded me of my two treed cat experiences,

By the time our evening producer got the details it was too dark to do anything with it.  I thought about that cat all night long. Kean told me when she got home Thursday night she heard its hoarse little kitty voice crying all night.

Poor kitty was stuck for five days.  It’s safe now and will be adopted after a three-day recovery with Animal Control.  Yes, the picture at the top is of the sweet thing. 

Wow.   It appears that the eco paw print of dogs is worse than that of an SUV.  Les Jones gives a link to Terra Daily which reveals the report findings,

The Vales, specialists in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington, analysed popular brands of pet food and calculated that a medium-sized dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal a year.

Combine the land required to generate its food and a “medium” sized dog has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares (2.07 acres) — around twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4×4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car.

Don’t get too comfortable, cat lovers.  They may be even worse for the environment according to the study,

With a total 7.7 million cats in Britain, more than 188 million wild animals are hunted, killed and eaten by feline predators per year, or an average 25 birds, mammals and frogs per cat, according to figures in the New Scientist.

So yes, my cat does catch and eat the occasional misguided mouse that ventures into my house.  But for me, it’s all the more reason to keep her.

PS - That’s my dog Libby in the photo.

Joe Powell annually posts a caption contest for a Christmas monkey.  This year is no exception…

Here’s mine:

“Oy vey… How inappropriate to dress me like Santa while I play with my dreidel.”

Although I’m linking to Newscoma two posts in a row, this is worth it!  Her view of shopping:

As she so aptly says, “In the world of retail, we are just food.”

Nevertheless, my daughter got our kitty a giant stocking filled with catnip treats. Nom nom nom…