FFF on Moosey and Sammy

Good morning. While Jan slips into a cup of coffee, we're grabbing the chance to let you know Moosey & Sammy's interview with our Funny Farmer Felines has posted on Mousebreath.

You know Moosey & Sammy of the Animal Shelter Volunteer Life blog.  Their dad is Meowmeowmans.  Well, today they tell their story, so be sure to go by and check it out.   

And stop by the auction for Ms. Stella's footie fix.  She has had a couple of surgeries on her foot, including a toe amputation and she can use some help with the vet bills.  Not that we think she wants to pay the vet bills.  We believe she'd rather sue because the vet keeps putting a PINK bandage on her paw.  Um ...  maybe we shouldn't have decorated her auction in pink to match her footie?  But she looks so pretty in pink.

Cameron is 8

Just yesterday we asked Jan about Cameron's birthday and she said - and we quote - "Don't worry, we have plenty of time."  Plenty of time?  Hello, Jan, today is Cameron's birthday and we found it announced first on the CB again.  How humiliating.  He's our brother and we're having to get a card slap-dashed together at the last minute.

Please, all of you who keep siding with Jan when we fire her, this is a good example of why she gets fired.  She's absent-minded, always late, doesn't remember which of us is which, and ... well, we could go on, but it's Cameron's purrday and we want to let you all know we're very thankful he and Merci became such good friends that he packed his bags and moved in from next door.

Oh, we want to add a prayer request for the human sister of Amber and Max daWeenie.  She has been ill for a while and is in the hospital again.  Please remember them and stop by their blog to leave a word of support.

Percy Paws Pawalla

Hey, Percy here. I got a package on my birthday. It had some of the nomiest things. Okay, nomiest isn't a word, but, hey, I'm a cat, I can make up any words I need and I need nomiest to describe my present.

Well, it really wasn't intended as a birthday present.  I was supposed to review the product.  But since it arrived on MY birthday, it was MY birthday present.  And I shared it with the other Funny Farmer Felines, so I'm not really selfish.  It was kitty stuff.  Sam could have inhaled it in one breath.  

I just posted the review on Mousebreath and there are some photos left over, so I thought I'd share them with you. I don't think you'll need any commentary, so just enjoy them.

&

I hope you'll go by and read the review that goes with the photos, Percy & Funny Farmer Felines Purr for Pawalla.  Yes, we liked the product and we weren't paid or bribed to say so.

Escaping Chihuahua and Shelter Pets

Oh, we just have to share this funny video with you.  We figure this is the dream of every shelter animals so in that regard it relates to today's post. But who cares if it doesn't relate?  It made us laugh so we'll post it.


If the video doesn't play, click here.


These are pictures of the dogs and one cat Jan posted to Petfinder and put on the rescue list for the shelter today.  This is an unusually short list.  You can find them on the Upson County, Georgia Petfinder site. They are all friendly, sweet and energetic.  There seems to be something about being released from a cage that energizes an animal.


Hart Brothers
Catahoula Leopard Dog/Labrador Retriever Mix:
Medium • Young • Male
1 tan & white male Lab mix puppy. 1 male Catahoula mix puppy. Very energetic and playful. Came in together. Owner turn in. Need home or rescue ASAP!
Pet ID: 12-1138, 1139

Ty
Pit Bull Terrier Mix:
Medium • Young • Male
Male brindle pit mix. Young, friendly, energetic. Available for adoption on 7/27.
Pet ID: 12-1140

Peaches
Wirehaired Terrier Mix:
Small • Young • Female
Brown & white female Wirehair Terrier mix. Loves attention. Lapdog. Needs a good home. Available for adoption on 7/26.
Pet ID: 12-1127

Sexy  (Actual dog's name.  We didn't name her)
Pit Bull Terrier:
Medium • Adult • Female
Female black & white Pit Bull Terrier. Loves to ride. Very sweet. Friendly. Available for adoption on 7/27
Pet ID: 12-1137

Wild Bill
Pit Bull Terrier:
Medium • Adult • Male
Black and brindle male Pit Bull Terrier. Loves to run. Energetic. Available for adoption on 7/27.
Pet ID: 12-1134

Chloe
American Shorthair:
Small • Baby • Female
Baby black & white tuxedo kitten. Purrs and kneads a lot. Very loving and sweet. Available for adoption on 7/27.
Pet ID: 12-1135

Bill, Tink, Poo and Little Girl

This is the first photo we have of our friend Bill Walker.  We met him on the internet a few years ago after he published a book of stories on his "angel" Pekes Tinker and Poo.  He sent us a copy, which we treasure.  We wrote a post for him, The Funny Farm Meets Tinker and Poo.

This is the photo we received before he entered Beatrice Manor.  His last Peke rescue, Little Girl, lived there with him. The Manor promised to take care of his old girl when he passed.

Bill was an interesting guy.  He loved God, country and animals, believed in honor and integrity and was a knowledgeable history buff.  His spelling and punctuation might have been lacking but his character and heart shone through in the stories he wrote.  Some of his most popular were his Rainbow Bridge stories.  Whenever someone he knew lost a pet, he wrote a special bridge story to comfort and encourage. 

We were honored to have two written for us.  The first was when Jan's brother lost his dog Fraggle, a dog Jan helped rescue - Rainbow Bridge Gang, Fraggle.

The second was when we lost our orange boy Crystal, Crystal Came Home. 

Well before our Cotton passed away this June, Bill's health and strength had gone downhill and he no longer spent time on the internet or wrote stories.  We were saddened at the knowledge Bill wouldn't be writing Cotton's bridge story. 

We were fortunate to have had the opportunity to know Bill, even if only via the internet and email.  He was a storyteller who ranged from true personal experiences to history  to his imaginative writings of life after death for pets.

Bill passed away last Friday, July20.  He will be buried with military graveside honors today. 

Farewell, Billy G. Walker. We have missed your emails and stories these last months, but there is one who is missing you more than anyone - your best furry friend Little Girl.  We will be sending her lots of purrs and pawhugs until you're reunited.

Merci is Not Telling

Merci has decided to not tell her age this year.  We love her anyway. 

FFF Interview Au, Target and Guido

The Funny Farmer Felines' interview, Katz Tales Starring Au, Target & Guido, is now posted on Mousebreath. We hope you will go by to read it and then drop by Katz Tales to congratulate the Golden Guys.

We weren't aware of this at the time we planned the interview, but their Mummy Cat has books available at Smashwords, so you might want to check out the new Katz Tales books Adventures of Scoop and Au and Au and Target: The Early Years: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ellenwhyte Each is available in formats for your Kindle, Apple iPad or iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions and more! Normal price is US $1.99 but please use the code SSW25 at checkout for 25% off! Offer good through July 31, 2012.

TBT - Ayla, Iza & Marley's human - has joined our campaign to guillotine Blogger word verification.   TBT was good at deciphering wv until he ran into this one.  Hope he doesn't mind our sharing it, but for you folks who can't live without wv on your blog, try this one.  We're sorry you were stumped, TBT, but we're really happy you've joined our protest.

Blogger word verification sucks.  There isn't anything nice to say about it.

We know the cat and dog Olympics are going on but we've just not had the time to participate this year.  It was kind of information overload when we tried to figure out the schedule.  We hope you are participating and having some fun.

Leash Training Your Human

Hey, Merci, Sam & Buddy here today to bring you Thankful Thursday.  What are we thankful for?  Well, we're thankful we're already skilled in walking a human.  Not that Jan pays any attention to where we try to direct her.  She's deaf to commands - tacit or verbal - and doesn't stop, start, turn or heel when directed.  But other than that, we think she's done a fairly good job of learning to walk on leashes (3 at a time).  At least she doesn't fall down as frequently as she used to.

We don't want her to watch this video and we suggest you don't let your humans watch it either. They might catch on to our plan for furry world dominance.  Remember, not to expect too much from them; they're only human.  We suspect the true reason this human was following directions was because the dog had done some preliminary training outdoors.

Yep, dogs and cats can work wonders with their humans when they work together to train them properly.  A properly trained human is a happy human! 

And a happy human means there are lots of treats forthcoming.

So here is how to train a human to walk on a leash.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

 We are joining Cokie the Cat's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

WV Support and Riding Thunder

Hey, Sam here.  It's just a tad "cooler" so far today, probably because it's more overcast.  We deserve a break after recent humidity and heat suffocation days.  But it's not noon yet, so the worst is yet to come.

Yesterday we posted on the evil Blogger word verification. We even had Jan make a badge you can use on your own blog to join the rebellion against its use Um, rebellion against the use of word verification, not our badge. The guillotine badge is in our sidebar if you want to grab it to tell your readers how you feel about wv.. 

Although we have posted on settings before, we received a request to post it again.

Blogger has a very good spam filter. We repeat, a very good one! Just because you receive spam doesn't mean it's being published. There is a huge difference. Spam is filed in the spam folder. Once a week or so, take a quick look through it to be sure none of your friends have accidentally been misfiled. Then delete all the spam. It takes a minute of your time. (We just checked our spam folder and there was no spam but one of our friends was trapped there, so we marked it as Not Spam so it could post.)

IF -- IF a spam comment should ever get published, do not delete it through comments. You want to tell Blogger it's spam so you go into the published comments in your interface and mark it as spam.

Most of the spam comes from Anonymous or name / url. Blogger can't detect name / url as spam.

The easiest way to stop both Anonymous and name / url is to not allow these types of comments.

If you want to allow them, then we suggest changing your settings to put comment moderation on posts over xxx (you choose - perhaps over 5) days old since spammers will target older posts, likely figuring they won't be noticed. (They would most likely end up in the spam folder anyway, but it pays to have Blogger send an email every time you get a comment. So be sure to keep your email address updated.)

If you want to stop Anonymous and name / url comments, we suggest you go into Settings / posts and comments and  change to -
Registered Users (includes Open ID)

And make sure the Show Word Verification answer is NO.

Don't forget to click Save Settings in upper right before you leave Settings.

We recently disallowed Anonymous because we were receiving so many spam messages we decided it was time.  They were not being published.  But that setting also allows name / url and those were being published.  We have been using Registered Users (includes Open ID) for several weeks again and haven't received any spam.  We were allowing Anonymous so a few of our non-blogging friends could comment, but they can still email us.  Many non-bloggers already have a Google profile because they're using gmail, Google+ or some other Google service, so this setting isn't really a hardship for most who will comment.  Open ID includes Wordpress,

We'd like to thank all of you who have expressed your support of our guillotine wv protest.  We hope many, many, many of you will take up the cause and whenever you manage to make it through the maze of one, to let the blogger know wv is on and suggest they turn it off.   If they aren't aware, they can't do anything.


Now for something more interesting.

Are you having a bad day? Then we'd like to share this video with you. It isn't cat or dog related, but you'll definitely feel a lot better about your own day after watching what happened to William Rankin, the man who rode Thunder.


If the video doesn't play, click here.

Compared to William Rankin, you're actually having a good day, aren't you!

Guillotine Blogger WV

Hey, Merci here with today's news from the Funny Farmers.  It's really too hot to type but I have a mission so I got stuck with the post. Well, actually it's a mission for all of us but those lazy bums um, hot and tired furries forgot we were supposed to meet at the typing chair at 12 noon and they're all sacked out.  So here goes, but this is from all of us.

This is what we think of Google / Blogger's illegible word verification.  Send it to the guillotine!  The mess across the center is an actual word verification.  Even borrowing Jan's reading glasses and magnifying glass didn't help us. So we made this graphic to help spread the word that readers are tired of dealing with it.

Please note that Eric and Flynn are correct in their comment that this wv is easier to read than most.  But that's because it's been blown up in this post.    

Blog owners can't see wv on their own blogs; they must be signed out, clean their cache and cookies, then go to their own blog and click on comments.  If they use the full page comments, wv will not show up until after they click to publish, so be sure to actually leave yourself a comment.

It doesn't matter whether you did not have wv on in the past.  Blogger turned a lot on by default when they made the big switch to the new interface about 3 (?) months ago.  We can not stress this enough: CHECK YOUR BLOG FOR WV!!!!!!  

Well, if you really don't want comments or visitors, don't check.  Leave wv on.

We continued to visit and read but Friday we visited yet another kazillion blogs with wv on, many of them with the big SURPRISE wv after we wrote a comment and clicked on "publish."  We reached the snapping point.  We are now in process of deleting blogs using wv from our Google Reader and moving their blog link to a WV folder in bookmarks so we don't bookmark them or visit again. Not even if there will be serious illness or a death because, frankly, they've put out the UNWELCOME mat and we can't leave a message anyway.

Kimo & Sabi, Bogden - old or new friends, they're removed from our reading list.  We're not being mean.  We have been blogging about this for months.  When we were still able to struggle through, we left hundreds of comments and wrote innumerable emails (if we could find an email address).  Now we're pulling the plug.

We've seen long discussions on facebook about hating wv and not leaving comments on those blogs that use it, so we know we're not alone.  But are you willing to do something about it besides complain?  We made the word verification guillotine graphic.  You are welcome to use it if you want to help stop the spreading use of this frustrating, time-wasting menace.  There is a smaller size in our sidebar.

Guillotine Blogger word verification!

UPDATE:  A suggestion for setting changes to stop the spam when word verification is off is in tomorrow's post, WV Support and Riding Thunder.  

Yesterday was Gracie's mom's birthday.  Percy and Rusty asked Jan to throw something together to post on the Tabby Cat Club since her mom has helped her set up and keep the TCC running.  This is on the TCC but we didn't do a post yesterday so we thought we'd share this today.  One can't ever have too many birthday cards and we do love Gracie and her mom. 

Florida Furkids Interview

Our Funny Farmer Felines' interview with the Florida Furkids has published today.  We know you will enjoy either meeting them for the first time or getting to know them better.  We did.  Their two woofies came along with them but declined to speak.  Something about the cats got their tongues.

Please stop by Mousebreath to read Florida Furkids with Sexy Lexi & Troop the Poop.

White we're on the subject of the Florida Furkids, their Auntie El (cousin Trooper's mom) had surgery yesterday.  The surgery went well but  please continue to pray for her.. 

Each Mousebreath interview has been fun and interesting to do. Any cat blogger who would like to volunteer to be interviewed can send us an email. Or you can let us know which cat blogger you'd like us to interview. Our address is in the left sidebar. Don't be shy.  But don't worry, if you don't volunteer, we'll still get around to you.

And so as not to discriminate, we're considering doing some woofie interviews and posting them to our own blog.  After the Olympics might be a good time to start, if any woofies are interested.

Oh, and be sure to check out the new Katz Tales books Adventures of Scoop and Au and Au and Target: The Early Years at Smashwords.  Each is available in formats for your Kindle, Apple iPad or iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions and more! Normal price is US $1.99 but please use the code SSW25 at checkout for 25% off!

Offer good through July 31, 2012. 

Thankful Percy

We joined Cokie the Cat's Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Percy is 8

Oh, no, Jan did it to us again.  She forgot to make us a birthday card for our Percy.  There it was announced on the CB again and we weren't prepared. 

How many times do we have to fire Jan?  She keeps coming back, so firing doesn't work.  We'd cut her salary but we don't have money to pay her anyway.  Maybe we can get her to pay us when she messes up?  Anyone know where we can find an absent minded human bank?  (You know, they used to call them piggy banks?)  

Well, Happy Birthday, Percy!  We're glad Merci rescued you and you're part of our family.  Love from all of us furries and the forgetful-est human of the blogosphere.


We are sorry Sasha from Dane's World had to leave for the rainbow bridge Saturday.  We really enjoyed her blog and will miss her.  Pawhugs and purrs to her human family.

This is a good example of why one should NEVER put an animal on Craig's List or any similar web page.  "Free to a good home" is not the proper way to find a safe, loving home. This warning is posted on Cat Eyes' blog. And never cross post a pet rescue list on such a site either. 

Incognito Buddy, GV and WV

Hey, Buddy here, incognito again because I figure some of you are going to want to throw rotten tomatoes at me before I finish this post.  But one of us had to volunteer and I drew the shortest whisker from the mug.  I'm speaking for all of us, including the other 6 cowards ... um, furries on the Funny Farm, hence the use of "we."


Today, we have a warning to share with all Google / Blogger bloggers.

We all like to add cute gadgets to our blogs, but we have to be very careful of what we post, not merely for our own safety but because we are responsible for the safety of our visitors.

For several years now, we have been coming across a number of blogs that have a popunder when we click to leave a comment.  Always before our anti virus has kept whatever site the popunder is to from loading.  The popunder will load but with a message from our antivirus the site is blocked because it's potentially dangerous.  

A couple of days ago, we came across the same problem but with a new twist.  What loaded was a popunder that was literally and visibly counting down the seconds to installing a downloading program that would not be flagged by our (or your) av because it is a legitimate program (although we'd never heard of it before) -- a downloading program that enables an easy, fast download of videos or multiple programs.  So why was it about to download and why was it "necessary" to download it at all, especially on the sly?  We can only think of one reason.

If you are wondering what's the problem if the program is harmless, remember this is done without visitors knowing it.  And just because the program itself is supposedly safe, doesn't mean anything downloaded with it would be. We have a good av, but not everyone does. And things can happen.

We try to remember to watch the bottom of our monitor screen to see what's loading and to count the new windows because of past experience, so we brought up the window, saw the counter and closed the window in time.  But most visitors would not notice the extra open window, especially since there might be a delay in opening..

We always notified the blog owner and when a particular globe widget (often two separate globes) were deleted from the sidebar, the popunders stopped.  The same thing happened last night.  The blog owner deleted the 2 globes from the blog and the problem was resolved  Any time the blog owner has refused to delete the globes, we have deleted their blog from our bookmarks.  Online safety is that important! 

Over the course of several years,  the comment popunders we've run into have all been associated with the same widget -  a spinning globe counter from Geovisite.  We hope this post will serve as a warning to those who are considering installing it or those who already have it posted on their site.  And also to remind you to be alert to what is happening as you surf the web. 


On another blog subject, as much as we'd like to do a tirade on the evil's of the Blogger word verification and why it is totally unnecessary to use it and chases off many visitors who would like to comment, we won't   But when Blogger made the mass switch to the new interface, word verification was turned on by default.  So we will admonish you to go to your own blog while NOT signed in to Google / Blogger and click on comments to check your own blog. You keep annoying your visitors and they will stop returning.

Go ahead, try to tell us you don't care your visitors are facing this kind of crap because you don't want to check out your spam options without it when they want to tell you they're sorry your Fluffercat or Roverdog died.  They not only have to love you, they have to have x-ray vision.

We just took the following off a blog comment form.  We didn't make them up. 


Or how about this one -


Okay, so we did a tirade anyway.  Sorry about that.  No, actually we're not. We're most annoyed with those who use full page comments because wv doesn't show up until after one has written a note of condolence or get well  or .... and clicked "publish comment."  And then we find we have just wasted our time.  

Oh, and Brandi reminded us of what we forgot to include.  We've checked this link several times already and our av sent a reminded this morning because if your computer is infected with the DNS Changer, your internet will be shut down on Monday..  You can find the link for various countries where you can check your computer, if you haven't already.   http://www.dcwg.org/detect/  Once you read the material, it only takes one click and a second to find out.

Just a reminder that the auction for Krasota Castle will be closing soon, so be sure to stop by Furriends of the CB and check out the items up for bids.

FFF Interviews Mags and Toofy

We love this little badge Zoolatry made for us Funny Farm Felines and will display it proudly in our sidebar.  Thank you, Zoolatry girls.

By now you probably know this badge is for us kitties because we write an interview column for Mousebreath.  No woofies allowed, unfortunately.  We have to get the woofies a job and a name of their own,. Any suggestions?  We've thought of the Funny Farmer Hounds but Buddy is actually the only hound here.Any suggestions?

Today is Friday and we have another interview already posted.  Our special guests today are .... broad hint with the above badge .... yes, the Zoolatry furries, Maggy and Zoey.  If you haven't already, stop by Mousebreath to read Zoolatry's Mary Maggy and Toofy Zoey. 

And just so you don't forget what we look like, here are Buddy and Percy sharing a nap on the same dog bed.  Hmmm, we're going to have to do something about Jan's photographs.  She's been taking them of the wrong end lately. 

Condolences to ML

Our heartfelt condolences to ML of the Cat Blogosphere and The Giggleman Gang's blog over the loss of her only living relative, Aunt Dorothy. 

ML was looking forward to living near her aunt and spending more time with her.  But when ML drove up to check on her last Tuesday, after a fall that left her aunt with fractures in her arms, her aunt had a stroke and no longer recognized her. 

ML, our hearts are breaking for the pain you are going through.  We know this is an especially hard time and we're glad your good friend Deb is able to be there with you. Take some time to heal and don't worry about returning to the CB and blogging until you're able.  Your friends will be here waiting for you.

We send lots of  love, {{{hugs}}}, purrs and pawhugs, ML. Jan & the Funny Farmers

PS - We're turning off comments for this post, preferring you leave a message for ML at either of the links above.

Happy 4th of July

Today, we are furries of few words.Percy and Buddy's graphic speaks for all of us.

Prezzies from GJ

Back in mid-May, at what we then thought was a low point (ouch, if only we'd known what else would be happening around here), we received a package from Ginger Jasper and his mum in the United Kingdom.  It cheered us to know someone was thinking of us, so we opened it and found -

Pictures of GJ.  The one on the left is a magnet and the other a card. They are both posted on our fridge. (You remember Mr. Nekkid Cold Box?  Well, he hasn't been nekkid since some of you helped dress him a while back.)

There were some edibles in the package for all of us.  A bag of salmon and a bag of chicken Dreamies for us kitties, plus a fun toy.  Mini Bones and cheese flavour treats for us woofies.  Oh, and on the upper right is a box of melt in the mouth chocolates.  Or so we were told.  Not even a teeny morsel had opportunity to melt in any mouth other than Jan's.

There was also a pop-up pet house which Cotton immediately claimed as her own.   (This is the last photo taken of Cotton.  She passed away 3 weeks later.)  She really loved the net pet house.

Thank you so much, Ginger Jasper and Mum Carol.  We have enjoyed what you sent.  And your timing was good too.

The last few months have been hard and we've barely posted, so today we had a complaint (their word, "complaint") from Au, Target & Guido: "We haven't seen pics of all of you in AGES! Pleeeeease."

Okay, for all 3 of our adoring fans, we'll post a couple of photos today and try to get Jan to take some new photos of us soon.  She takes them at the shelter but acts like her camera is broken around here.  We'd whine that she doesn't think we're photogenic but we know it's because the shelter animals have such a short time to be adopted or rescued, so they take precedence.  But, still, this is our blog and some photos of us would be nice.

 This is the lovely Miss Cyndi peeking out from a chair under the table.

Here we have Merci, Rusty (in basket bed) and Sam. The reason you're looking at their butts instead of their faces is because Jan was too lazy to walk around and photograph the correct end. But Au, Target & Guido merely asked for photos.  They didn't specify which end should be in them.  (Technicality.)

If you haven't stopped by to read the Funny Farmer Felines' Mousebreath interview with Nicki & Derry of Fuzzy Tales, we hope you will do so.  We will have a new interview posting Friday.