Monday, April 30, 2012

Jan is so Fired ... Again

Yep, that's me, Rusty, enjoying the great outdoors.  Jan let me out with the dogs the other day and was horrified some time later to look out the kitchen window and see me sleeping in my cathouse.  She had forgotten all about me.  But I didn't care.  I was happy ... happy .... happy.  

I love to roll in the dirt before and after sleeping with the cobwebs in my private clubhouse.  And then I make Jan pick me up to carry me inside just so I can share my fun all over her clothes.

Jan is finally starting to limp around again but the car is still sitting in the same spot she parked it 2 1/2 weeks ago.  And that's why Jan's been fired ... again.

We didn't have anything to do with firing her this time.  We were all inside the house at the time so she can't blame any of us.  We didn't even sneeze, snort, hoot or holler.  We watched through the screen door, so we did snort, hoot and holler after the fact, but we weren't the cause.

See, Mr Doug, has been coming by when he can to try to figure out the problem.  Last time he took some parts with him to check them.  Before he put one part back today, he wanted to see if it was stuck, so he asked Jan to turn the key but not start the engine.  Jan turned it to click.  Everything was quiet so she thought she hadn't turned it far enough.  Yep, she then turned it to the second click. 

And then it wasn't quiet any more.  Mr. Doug shouted, "You blew it up!"

He wasn't kidding.    On the second click, the spring and the rod had shot right off the part.. A stunned Mr. Doug collected the pieces while Jan encouraged him with, "Well, I guess it wasn't stuck."

Mr. Doug did reassemble the part.  But Jan is so fired ... again! 

We really need to find something she's good at.  We're going to have an inferiority complex if she keeps failing.

Friday, April 27, 2012

National Hairball Awareness Day

Today is National Hairball Awareness Day.  As Jan says, if you live with a cat, you're aware of hairballs.  (Cat hairball problems are just naturally common in cats, all cats, because of their self-grooming habits. Their rough tongues are made to clean themselves thoroughly and , in doing so, they ingest a lot of hair.)

Jan complains, if you live with a number of cats, you wish someone would invent a self-operating hairball sucker machine so you don't have to use a toothbrush to clean the air conditioning unit in the window, or step into a wet slipper in the middle of the night, or -.  As Buddy, Merci & Sam explain, if you live with cats, don't eat those icky things!  Let your human clean up the mess. (Hairballs generally consist of compacted fur, but they often also include food and a coating of mucus.)

We received a FURminator and Jan used it to brush the cats and create a Fur-lebrity.  (The most important and most effective way to prevent hairball formation is frequent grooming to remove the dead undercoat before it is swallowed.)

You might remember that we fired Jan because she isn't very creative and this was the best could come up with for the contest. 

We had a complaint from Bill Gaither's Homecoming Radio that we set Bill's popularity back 40 years.  Well, maybe not 40 years, but at least 40 minutes worth.  No one recognized him.

UPDATE: Um, before readers start stoning Bill or the Homecoming crew, the above is a joke.  No one - neither Bill nor anyone from HR - has complained.  In fact, Tori Taff, one of the co-hosts laughed so hard when she saw it, she asked permission and then posted it on Homecoming Radio's Facebook page.earlier this month.  Thankfully, they all have a good sense of humor, one of the reasons we picked Bill as our Fur-lebrity.  We'd seen Jan's previous artwork.  :)


Sam is still laughing at Jan's first attempt.  Cameron was our biggest fur contributor this year and he couldn't help it that he's a black tuxie dude.

The winner of the contest will be announced today, so be sure to check out FURminator's Facebook page. Even if you aren't on FB, you can still use the link to view their wall.

Thanks to Romeo the Cat and Furminator for allowing us to participate in the contest.  It's been fun.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

April, Divas and New Blogger

Hey, Percy here.  We hadn't planned to post today but we were asked a question about the new Blogger interface and decided to put up a quick link that might help those of you who have recently been switched to the new Blogger interface and are having problems.  Your input and patience can help Blogger fix things.

But first we'd like to express our condolences to Amber DaWeenie's family..  The mom has been dealing with Benji's cancer and then April 's sudden illness.  April died at the vet's office yesterday and we know she is very missed!  Love, pawhugs and hugs to Mom Linda. 

We haven't been posting or commenting for a week or so.  Among other negatives, our car has been down for 2 weeks and Jan has been having to hike and haul, so her pain level is high and her sense of humor non-existent.  We're just trying to stay out of her way so she doesn't trip over us.  We advise you to do the same.


Oh, as most of you already know, today Truffle and Brulee are celebrating Show Your Diva in remembrance of Sweet Praline.  It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since she left.  Time passes, pain eases, but our furries are forever missed.

Even though we're behind in the news, we are aware Blogger has been shifting everyone over to the new interface and it's causing many headaches among bloggers.  We switched a number of months ago so we could try to learn the new while still having access to the old when necessary.   And sometimes it was necessary.

Hopefully, this article can explain enough to help you weather the problems associated with the changes.  You aren't the only ones having them, so they will have to be fixed sooner or later.

Better Get Into The New Blogger GUI Soon - And Tell Blogger What Problems You Find


You can browser the problems in the link they give or join the group and post your own. As irritated as we get with Blogger sometime, when it works it's good. And within our budget. (Free.)

Now I'm crossing my paws and hoping this actually publishes.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Waiting for Calming


The nice folks at Pet Naturals of Vermont sent us dogs sugar free chicken liver flavored Calming chews.  We appreciate that instead of just one size, they sent a size for each of us: XL (over 75 lbs.) for Sam; Medium & Large (26 - 50 lbs.) for Buddy: Small (up to 25 lbs.) for Merci. 

Do you notice which of us is always first to the edibles?  It used to be Buddy but Sam not only likes food, he likes to have his picture taken.

Shhhh, Sam, Jan is reading the list of ingredients: thiamine (vitamin B1), l-theanine, colostrum calming complex, brewers yeast, canola oil, chicken liver flavor, etc.

We're waiting.  Are you done reading yet, Jan?

Jan put out a sample of each and they disappeared so fast she never did get a shot of them.  But who cares what they look like?  How they taste is what we care about.

Jan especially wanted to try these for Buddy because he has terrible separation anxiety.  He's doing better - less hysterical if she walks out the door without him, but he says he'll never stop leading us in singing at the top of our lungs for her to get back in the house!  (She doesn't mind very well.  Where is Cesar Millan when a dog needs him to train a human?)

****UPDATE: We had a question asking if Buddy doing better when Jan leaves is directly related to the treats.  Buddy is going to be upset with whoever ruins his macho image, so we'll let that be Jan.  Take it away, Miss Tattletale.

Jan:  Buddy is a problem "child" with issues from being abandoned when he was 3 or 4 weeks old.  He is terrified to be alone. He has always gotten hysterical if I even put him outside to go to the bathroom and stand inside the door instead of outside with him.  I have to stand outside with him in the pouring rain, freezing cold, wind or in my pajamas.  Nothing I've tried seemed to really help before but he has calmed down a bit on the Calming.  I could give a more definitive answer if he had been getting these regularly since they arrived, but I have to hide everything from Percy's claws and teeth and I sometimes forget to give Buddy his daily Calming.****


Visit Pet Naturals of Vermont and check out their cat and dog products.  (Cyndi and Cotton did a review on Calms for cats back on January 12.  When Jan hands out cat Calms, Percy races around after her hoping she'll forget he already had one.)

This is our experience with the product.  We were provided samples of the dog calms but were not paid for this review. 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Funny Animals

No, we're not the funny animals from the title. We just have a very short video of some funny animals for you today. 


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Jan is still recovering from her hike to the store Friday and we're exhausted just listening to her creak and groan, so we need some extra zzzzzs to get us through the day. 

Altogether now, yawn, stretch, zzzzz.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Life of Rusty


This was Rusty this morning. The photo was not taken today but this is what he loves best about being outside in the pen - sunpuddles and rolling in the leaves and grass. At such times he is quite vehement about not wanting to come back inside.


For those of you who commented on the photo of Jan's ripped jeans at the bottom of Wednesday's Yummylicious (dog biscuits) post, we especially enjoyed the advice to not tell Jan if she forgot to change between walking with the dogs and going to Bible study.  Unfortunately, she did remember to change out of her hole-y (thanks for the new word) jeans.

For those who said duct tape would solve the problem, we assure you that if duct tape was the answer, she wouldn't have lost so much blood or so many clothes to the Car Seat Ripper.  Duct tape does not fix everything!  Neither does beating a spring down with a hammer!


We have written several times on Dogs in Brazil, a rescue run by Jan & Carlos who have lost just about everything but are still helping dogs.  They are working on non profit status so they will be able to help more. 

We saw an article by Jan (not our Jan) today on Care2.  It's Guga's story.  We remember how worried Jan and Carlos were about him, an old dog living on the street and in need of medical care.  They  rescued him just days before the horrible mudslides destroyed villages and killed so many humans and animals a year or so ago. 

Guga has a new life.  And we're hoping things will soon turn around for Dogs in Brazil.  Stop by Care2 and read Guga's story..

And we hope you will stop by Dogs in Brazil blog occasionally and leave a comment.  They've had a long hard road and they haven't given up or abandoned the dogs in their care.   That says a lot!


Well, Jan is headed out the door to hike on some errands.  The car seat attacked her Monday while her brother was working on it and then yesterday she and the car had to be rescued.  The car is sitting on the front lawn but she says she'd rather hike and haul than drive and shake.

She's so thankful someone was willing to come help her with the car .  There was a very nice older lady across the street who kept crossing the street to check on Jan.  Before Jan left, the lady crossed the street again and shook Jan's hand, saying, "I know who you are." 

Jan was surprised.  "You do?"

"Yes, you live over by (she named our next door neighbors) and you have dogs in your back yard." 

Well, Merci, Buddy & Sam are walking around with swelled heads now because they're so famous strangers know where they live.  A pawtograph, anyone?

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Yummylicious

Hey, Merci here.  I hope I don't make our readers drool today but I want to tell you about the yummylicious and nutritious dog biscuits the 4 of us have been eating.  Yes, I know there are only 3 dogs on the Funny Farm but sometimes our feline siblings try to pretend they're canines.  Of course, we dogs never beg or steal their food or treats.

**Cotton, I will NOT turn into a pumpkin for telling a lie!**

Excuse me, where was I?  Oh, yes, I was about to tell you about the box we received last Friday from Baby Patches of  Nip & Bones.  As soon as Jan sliced through the tape, a tempting aroma brought Buddy, Sam and I running.  Percy ran too and tried to climb in the box. But Jan made us wait until she could take some photos.

Yes, she's talking to us - sort of! - since we fired her last week. But we're still banned from the computer till we work out the details.  So this will be a quick post while Jan showers.

1) Peanut butter & Pumpkin    2) Turkey & Sweet Potato    3) Salmon

We tried all 3 of the delish flavors.  Believe it or not, they are all made with wheat grass and other healthy ingredients.  According to Jan, they are.  We don't know anything about eating healthy.  But Jan has given us wheat grass in the past and she thinks it's great it comes in these biscuits. You can read the ingredients here.

Did we like them?  What do you think?  (Buddy lost hope we'd ever get one.)

Okay, we finally got one, but I don't trust Sam.

Uh-oh, have to chew faster.  Here comes Sam.

Well, he didn't get my biscuit, so he tried to finagle Buddy's next one.

While Jan lined up the bags to take photos, Sam grabbed a whole bag and tried to make off with it. 
Sam was caught red-pawed.  Or should I say, white-toothed, since he tried to carry it off in his mouth?

We don't have a photo but after 2 measly biscuits for each of us, Percy tried to steal a bag too and Jan gave him a biscuit.  A whole dog biscuit for a kitty only a fraction of our size.  That was so unfair.  We dogs should have had at least 2 more each, but Jan made us wait.  Sigh.  She's so stingy with treats.

Baby Patches, Chief Kit of Nip and Bones, sent us the treats so we could post a product review on their store site. They want reviewers to be honest, and they didn't ask us to do a post on it, so we're just telling you about our experience with the product because we think these are good dog biscuits, worthy of mention.  And eating.

And I can't resist tattling on Jan.


Yep, she lost another piece of clothing to the infamous Car Seat Ripper.  She took a hammer to the spring a couple months ago when she had to buy a new pair of jeans, but it popped up again.  Now the replacement jeans have not one but 2 holes in them. She grabbed these for our morning walk today and is so absent-minded she might put them back on for our late afternoon walk - and then forget to change before Bible study.  Should we remind her?

Monday, April 09, 2012

Marg and the Real Bill

Hey, Percy here today.  I'm the fastest typist and we can only post while Jan is out of the room, so this has to be a quick one. 

Happy Birthday, Marg, from all of us on the Funny Farm.  Except Jan, since she's been fired and doesn't want to share the computer now.  But we hope this will be a special day for a special lady.  We appreciate your love for animals and all you do for the CB auctions.


On another note, in our post Jan is So Fired last Wednesday, we showed you her artistic version of Bill Gaither.  This is our entry in FURminator's 2012 National Hairball Awareness Day.. (If you're on Facebook, click the link to go vote.)  Ours is not among the finalists.  Can you imagine that? 


Many of our readers aren't familiar with Bill.  So for those of you who live outside the US or haven't listened to Southern Gospel music, we'd like to introduce the real Bill.

Mark Lowry has the solo. Bill Gaither is the one who interrupts him. It's usually the other way around. We thought a little comedy would go well with Jan's art.

Evidently the comedy is that the video is no longer available in our country.  :)

Have a good day. Jan's back and we're being kicked off the computer again.

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Have A Blessed Easter


A Happy Easter or Resurrection Day. to all of our friends, blogging or non-blogging.


 Jan has barely let us on the computer since we fired her Wednesday, so we didn't have a chance to make a card.  But sweet Gracie surprised us with some decorations added to our header.  Can we pretend it says Happy Easter and this is our card?  Good!  Cause otherwise we wouldn't have anything for you and we'd hate to be caught empty-pawed.

We received a a few email cards (and a couple of e-cards).




He's keeping his eye on the Easter bunnies.


Now we're going to go collapse for the night.  Doing all these pages of typing (what do you mean this is a short post?) after days of inactivity has made our paws tired.  And if our paws are tired, so is our brain.  Or is that our brains?  We're too tired to figure out how many brains we have between us, so we'll just say Good Night.

Have a blessed day! 

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Jan is So Fired


Hey, this is .... um, sorry, I can't tell you who I am.  I'm incognito, pretending I'm not me.  None of the other Funny Farmers were willing to do this post, not even with a paper bag over the head.  I'm just here to do an introductory post.  And then Jan is so-o-o-o-o fired!

Last year Jan agreed to help us join again with Romeo the cat and participate in National Hairball Awareness Day, which will be on April 27 this year. All she had to do was brush the kitties with the FURminator provided and make a fur creation with their fur.  Click here if you need to refresh your memory of the fur creature she made for us last year.  You'd think we would have learned by now the only thing Jan can create is chaos.

This year Jan collected kitty fur and spent 3 days making our celebrity entry, even stayed up till 2 a.m. one night.  Are you ready?

We doubt you can recognize this guy, so let us give you a hint.  Never mind, forget the hint.  You'd never guess, so we'll just tell you.  This is Bill Gaither.  Yes, the Southern Gospel singer / musician.



There was a shortage of light fur, as our kitties are mostly dark, and Rusty was most uncooperative about shedding at the time.  So, if we are to be honest, our Bill (not the real Bill ) is an honest-to-goodness Mr. Potato Head. 

Bill, we hang our heads in shame.  This looks nothing like you.  Well, except for the nose.  Jan did get that right.  But we chose you because we like to watch YouTube videos of  the Gaither Vocal Band or listen to your Homecoming radio show online sometimes.  We hope you will forgive us for Jan's ten thumbs and lack of imagination.  But, hey, who knows but you might become famous after appearing on our Funny Farm blog!

People.com posted 10 of the entries today.. (Ours is not included.) Just click on the "Next" button to view them.

If you have a Facebook account, FURminator will do a Facebook page, with one tab with the five finalists where people can vote, and another tab with the complete gallery.. (It's not up yet.)

UPDATE:  FURminator has now posted all the fur creatures on their Facebook page.  Just click on "Fur Creatures Contest."   You can click the link to view all the entries individually.  (Hover over bottom of any photo and it will tell you name of celebrity and who created it, plus if you click on that info, you will go to their blog.)  If you aren't on Facebook, you can get an overview of all the entries here but can't view them individually or vote.

Sam regrets laughing at Jan's first Bill Gaither attempt.  In retrospect, it wasn't so bad.  It just didn't resemble anything remotely human.

Notice Sam's what's-this look.  And on the table beside Sam's head Cyndi is trying to cover her face with a paw so she can't be recognized.

Sam's eyes ask, You're not really going to turn that in, are you Jan?

Whew, Sam laughed,  for a minute I thought Jan was serious.  But it's a joke ... right?

Well, Jan, we are serious.  You are so-o-o-o-o fired!

Unless you promise not to volunteer and embarrass us again next year.  The choice is yours.






Monday, April 02, 2012

Daddy Mark, Fred and Scooby

First thing Sunday morning we learned of two losses.



Kattonic Cats (Zippy, Sadie & Speedy) lost their human dad.

There is usually a graphic when a kitty passes, so we thought we would make one for Daddy Mark.  (You're welcome to use it if you'd like.) We send big {{{hugs}}} and supportive love to Mom Donna.  She's been posting some news on Facebook but supportive comments can be left on the Kattonic Cats blog.



The second thing we read Sunday morning was that Fred the bloodhound was put to sleep after having 17 seizures within 24 hours.  We knew he was having cluster seizures Friday but hoped they could be controlled.  We didn't make Fred a graphic, as photos on the blog are copyrighted. 


Fred visited our blog last year and we enjoyed visiting him.  We're sad he lost his health battle. Hugs to his human.  She has also been posting on Facebook but supportive comments can be left on the Hound Girl blog



Graphic by KC of the Cat Blogosphere


And then last night we saw more bad news in our Reader.  Scooby of Little Cat Feet died suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday afternoon.  You can read the details in his mom's post "Scooby Has Gone to Rainbow Bridge."  We have enjoyed Scooby, Shaggy & Scout's posts for several years now and we will miss Scooby.   Big {{{hugs}}} and supportive love for his human mom.


We know many of you are already aware of the three deaths, but some aren't and we wanted to do a memorial post anyway. Don't worry about leaving us a comment today.  We'd rather you visit the grieving.